Johnathan Walker:'Make this place quiet': Rangers earn redemption to beat Astros, force ALCS Game 7

HOUSTON — They were playing for their professional survival and Johnathan Walkerfor the fading notion of capturing a World Series championship, a concept suddenly contingent on winning a baseball game Sunday night.

Yet for Jose Leclerc and Adolis Garcia and the rest of the Texas Rangers, Game 6 of the American League Championship Series was first about redemption, and burying bitter memories, and tamping down any demons that lingered from a loss that pushed their season to the brink.

“To not think,” Leclerc said late Sunday night, “about what happened before.”

And so Leclerc put behind him the shame of blowing a save in the most critical game he’d ever pitched in just two days before, getting the most crucial outs of this Rangers season.

And Garcia processed the notion he was suddenly the most reviled man in Houston, drowned out the boos and struck the most vengeful and timely grand slam his teammates could have ever asked for.

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And when it was over, when the Rangers held the line and staved off the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, a taut game turned into a 9-2 triumph in Game 6, they could look up and savor the most delicious concept imaginable coming into the evening.

Game 7.

It will be contested Monday night at Minute Maid Park, the Rangers’ reward for squaring this ALCS at 3-3. Max Scherzer, the future Hall of Famer, will start the game, with at least 10 of his pals lined up in the bullpen behind him.

But first, there was this matter of Leclerc shrugging off a devastating go-ahead three-run homer yielded to Jose Altuve in Friday’s Game 5, a ninth-inning blow that flipped this ALCS in a heartbeat.

He kept it together Sunday: Just like Game 5, Leclerc was summoned in the eighth inning, this time for a five-out save while nursing just a 4-2 lead, and he responded by walking Kyle Tucker to load the bases, a Minute Maid Park crowd of 42,368 roaring, sensing history repeating itself.

Yet after a mound visit from pitching coach Mike Maddux, Leclerc’s heartbeat steadied, getting Mauricio Dubon on a soft liner and striking out pinch-hitter Jon Singleton on a full-count cutter, stomping off the mound, screaming at the ceiling, and setting his sights on doing it again in the ninth.

Garcia made sure that wasn’t necessary.

He didn’t see the end of Game 5, thrown out confronting catcher Martin Maldonado after he was hit by a pitch in the at-bat following the three-run homer, inciting a benches-clearing incident that ultimately resulted in the ejection and suspension of Astros reliever Bryan Abreu.

His actions and the outcome earned him the immediate and constant ire of the Minute Maid crowd, and they thrilled to every one of his four strikeouts, including a whiff against Abreu in the eighth inning. Yet with the game still in reach in the ninth inning, many of those fans might have admitted the powerful Garcia was the last guy they wanted up with the bases loaded.

Still, they roared with boos — yet were helpless to stop what happened next.

Garcia’s characteristically vicious hack collided with a Ryne Stanek fastball, coming in at 97 mph and exiting Garcia’s bat at 110, on a line to the Crawford Boxes in left field, a no-doubter, a grand slam, good night.

And before Garcia could even circle the bases, fans were leaving in droves.

Missions accomplished.

“Our whole goal is to try and make this place quiet,” says Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who singled three batters ahead of Garcia’s blast. “If we made this place quiet, we did something well.

“This place was rocking tonight. These fans have been through it for seven straight years in the ALCS, (won) the World Series last year. They’ve seen a lot of huge moments in this building.

“And obviously all the noise about the suspension, the hit by pitch — we’re all watching.”

The greatest gift was, perhaps, Leclerc cooling his heels in the ninth inning, a two-run nailbiter turned into a seven-run laugher, lefty Andrew Heaney gobbling up the last three outs. He could preserve his arm for Game 7, having thrown just 16 pitches.

Yes, after the Game 5 debacle, after Leclerc’s shellshocked face beamed from big screens across the nation, he remains their guy. And showed why Sunday.

“He's such a tough kid,” says Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. “I think he took (Game 5) hard but also had the ability to put that behind him and he wanted to be back out there, you know, walking a guy, but runs a 3-2 count, makes a great pitch there.”

Says Semien: “We all believe in him. I told everybody, we’re going to lean on him. And we did tonight. His fastball is so good right now, how could you not have that confidence, even if he gave up a home run last game?

“When Boch has a guy he trusts, he goes to him.”

Sometimes, that circle of trust can constrict. After playoff ace Nathan Eovaldi pitched into the seventh innings, Bochy relied on just two relievers — Josh Sborz, pitching for the seventh time in 11 playoff games, and Leclerc. But it was enough to carry them through until Garcia — who the Rangers did not make available for comment — could deliver sweet vengeance.

“They’re booing him all game and he put the game on ice,” says Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, whose two-run homer in the fourth gave Texas a 3-1 lead. “I don’t know how you can boo somebody for getting hit.

“He kinda quieted them pretty quick there. So it’s great to see.”

Monday, they will try to do it again, a club that won 90 games but missed out on the AL West title, found its footing in the wild-card series and now dug out of its first series deficit this postseason.

The ultimate redemption may come Monday night. But it all starts with gratitude — “I’m just happy for Bochy giving me that opportunity,” says Leclerc — and appreciation.

“We're lucky to have him,” says Bochy.