ASTROS-RANGERS SEASONS COME TO HEARTBREAKING END

Just two days ago, the Astros and the Rangers were on the verge of squaring off for the American League Championship...just 48 hours later, the season is over for both teams.

Both held a 2-games-to-1 lead over their ALDS opponents and had a chance to close the deal at home.

Neither team could end their series, and both fell on the road in the fifth and deciding games.

The Astros held a 2-0 lead over Kansas City, Wednesday night in K.C., only to see the Royals take the lead with three runs in the fifth—then put the game away with a three-run homer by Kendrys Morales off Dallas Kuechel (in a relief role) in the eighth to seal the deals, 7-2.

The Astros managed just two hits off Royals’ starter Johnny Cueto: a single by Evan Gattis followed by Luis Valbuena’s two-run home in the second inning.  Cueto then retired the next 19 Astros he faced.

Collin McHugh (1-1), who won the divisional series opener for Houston, allowed three runs in four-plus innings. His bullpen fared little better just two days after it blew a four-run, eighth-inning lead to send the series back to Kauffman Stadium for Game 5.

The loss ended the Cinderella run by the 2015 Astros, who’d fashioned a Major League-worst 232-416 record over the previous four seasons.

Earlier in the day, the Rangers and Blue Jays tangled in a game for the ages, as Toronto came from behind for the 6-3 win.

The Rangers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh inning on one of the most bizarre plays in recent memory.  Toronto catcher Russel Martin’s throw back to the pitcher hit Shin Soo Choo, who was in the batter’s box.  Roughned Odor then came racing home with the go-ahead run, but the home umpire had incorrectly called time out.

After a lengthy delay and several calls to the MLB offices in New York, the run was allowed to stand, infuriating the Toronto crowd which peppered the field with anything they could throw, further delaying the game.

Once the game resumed it got more bizarre, when the Rangers committed three consecutive errors on three consecutive plays, tying the game at 3-3.

Toronto’s Jose Batista then launched a second-deck three-run blast, glaring at Ranger reliever Andrew Dyson and firing his bat at the Rangers’ dugout.

The loss ended a Rangers season that saw the team go 34-16 over the last month-and-a-half to win the AL West by one game over the Astros and two games over the Loa Angeles Angels.