MVP Garcia Rangers smash Astros to win ALCS

HOUSTON -- Adolis Garcia neared home plate and cupped his right hand around his ear, taunting an opposing crowd that had grown increasingly more distraught with every swing of his bat. It was the eighth inning of a blowout, the aftermath of Garcia's third home run in a stretch of six at-bats to conclude this American League Championship Series.

The deafening jeers that had filled Minute Maid Park on Sunday and Monday had faded into a murmur, drowned out by "MVP" chants voiced by the hundreds of those who made the 250-mile drive south from the Texas Rangers' home turf.

The Rangers raced past the defending champion Houston Astros in their own building on Monday night, capturing an 11-4 Game 7 victory to punch their ticket into the World Series. And Garcia -- the man who triggered a benches-clearing incident during a controversial hit by pitch in Game 5 then provided the devastating blow with a prodigious grand slam in Game 6 -- had his fingerprints all over it, solidifying MVP honors after a stirring ALCS performance.

Read full article here