HOUSTON — Jose Leclerc got back on the horse.
Two days after Jose Altuve's devastating three-run homer in the ninth beat Leclerc and the Texas Rangers in Game 5 in Arlington, Leclerc was back in a hair-raising moment in a do-or-die Game 6 against the Houston Astros Sunday night at a raucous Minute Maid Park.
Leclerc rose to the occasion and helped the Rangers ride off with a 9-2 win to force a decisive American League Championship Series Game 7 at 7:03 p.m. Monday.
Leclerc took over for Josh Sborz with two on and one out in the eighth and the Rangers leading 4-2. Leclerc looked shaky at first, badly missing the plate with his first three pitches, barely catching the inside corner edge for a strike call before walking Tucker on a changeup way outside. Bases loaded.
Leclerc regrouped and quickly got ahead of Mauricio Dubon with consecutive cutters down and away before Dubon weakly lined out to short for the second out.
The Astros brought in veteran pinch-hitter Jon Singleton off the bench. Leclerc was ahead 1-2 before missing low with a sinker and way outside with a slider to run the count full. Singleton fouled off consecutive 97-mph fastballs before Leclerc got him swinging on a 92-mph cutter just out of the top of the zone.
"For me, whatever happened Friday, just forget about it," Leclerc told himself. "Today is a new day. I was just trying to prepare and be 100% for any situation that could come up and not think about what happened before."
For Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, there was no second-guessing calling on Leclerc again.
"It's a tough game, and it's a tough role as a closer," Bochy said. "They always say a good closer has a short memory. And he does. He's such a tough kid. I think he took [Friday's game] hard but also had the ability to put that behind him and he wanted to be back out there. We're lucky to have him."
Rangers starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, who earned the Game 6 win to improve to 4-0 in the postseason, said turning the page a bad outing is crucial in the playoffs.
"He's been huge for us the entire season, especially towards the end of it. We've been relying on him in a lot of big situations," he said. "And we talked about being able to turn the page, especially in one of these moments."
In a postseason series, there's no time to sulk.
"In the regular season, you've got a month or so before you face these guys again. But when you have to roll out the next day after a tough loss like that, you really have to turn the page and learn from it as fast as possible," Eovaldi said. "And he was able to do that tonight. Singleton came up there with the bases loaded and worked another full count. And tonight Pico was able to come out on top of it. It was a big momentum change and boost for us and we were able to answer back with some more runs in the ninth."
Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux made two trips to the mound in the eighth to remind Leclerc of a few things.
"He simply just told me to trust my stuff, make sure I didn't make a mistake against [Kyle] Tucker, a lefty up there," Leclerc said. "and also that my focus should be to try to get the righties out and with the righty [Dubon] in the next at-bat I could get a double-play or grounder and that's what happened."
And then he struck out Singleton to preserve the Rangers' lead. The Rangers' five-run ninth, including Adolis García's grand slam, allowed Leclerc to remain on the bench with only 16 pitches thrown for the final three outs. That could prove vital late in Game 7.
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