Astros vs. Rangers live updates: Time, TV channel, lineups, pitchers ...

HOUSTON - Game 7s are relatively rare in Major League Baseball. But it shouldn't be hard to savor this American League Championship Series winner-take-all affair between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers at Minute Maid Park. 

With both starters expected to be on a tight leash, a bevy of high-leverage relievers relatively rested and nearly a full rotation of starting pitchers with spikes on in the bullpen, managers Dusty Baker of the Astros and Bruce Bochy of Texas will have no shortage of maneuvers up their sleeve. 

Grab some snacks.

Max Scherzer will start Game 7 for Texas, repeating his role, and in the same venue, in the 2019 World Series for the Washington Nationals. But Scherzer lasted just four innings, giving up five runs, in a Game 3 loss in Arlington.

"When he's pitching like he can, then he's going to give us a chance to win," Bochy said Monday afternoon. "That's all you can ask. Our bullpen is set to go. We have help for him.

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"But just go out there and be yourself. He's been through this; so there's no concern there."

There's just one significant personnel change, with the Astros starting Chas McCormick and Michael Brantley together and sitting Mauricio Dubon; McCormick will start in center field. Meanwhile, slugger Yordan Alvarez moves up to the No. 3 hole - surely so the Astros don't leave an at-bat on the table for their most feared hitter. 

How to watch Astros vs. Rangers: Time, TV channel for ALCS Game 7

Monday's game Minute Maid Park is scheduled to begin at 8:07 p.m. ET, airing on FOX.

Astros, Rangers' starting lineups, probable pitchers for ALCS Game 7

Texas Rangers

Starting pitcher: RHP Max Scherzer

1. Marcus Semien (R) 2B
2. Corey Seager (L) SS
3. Evan Carter (L) LF
4. Adolis Garcia (R) RF
5. Mitch Garver (R) DH
6. Jonah Heim (S) C
7. Nathaniel Lowe (L) 1B
8. Josh Jung (R) 3B
9. Leody Taveras (S) CF

Houston Astros

Starting pitcher: RHP Cristian Javier

1. Jose Altuve (R) 2B
2. Alex Bregman (R) 3B
3. Yordan Alvarez (L) DH
4. Jose Abreu (R) 1B
5. Michael Brantley (L) LF
6. Kyle Tucker (L) RF
7. Chas McCormick (R) CF
8. Jeremy Pena (R) SS
9. Martin Maldonado (R) C

Rangers flipped the script to force Game 7

HOUSTON — They were playing for their professional survival and for 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.

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.

– Gabe Lacques