The Rangers slayed the dragon. Now it's time to end the drought

HOUSTON — The Texas Rangers have slayed the dragon 250 miles to the south, beating the Houston Astros in a thrilling American League Championship Series by putting on an offensive clinic en route to an 11-4 victory in Monday's Game 7.

Next up for the Rangers: a chance to win their first World Series since the franchise was established 62 years ago.

This fan base has been through a lot, but its loyalty has been inspiring to watch — and none more so than all those who made the trek to Minute Maid for the series finale and filled the lower bowl once the Rangers pulled away. 

That's why I'm really excited to experience Arlington and Globe Life Field with these fans at Game 1 of the World Series on Friday (8 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App), because they have a chance to see their team do something it has never done.

The Rangers have tasted this excitement before. As we all know, they came infamously close to winning their first World Series title just over a decade ago. First, they won the American League pennant in 2010, only to lose to the San Francisco Giants (then-managed by now-Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy). 

Texas then suffered a gut-wrenching seven-game defeat the following year to the St. Louis Cardinals, coming within one strike of clinching the World Series in back-to-back innings in Game 6 before David Freese and then Lance Berkman snatched it away.

This fan base is not only feeling the catharsis of Texas finally getting back to the World Series, but there's a lot of support, too. Let's face it: The Astros are still the villain to just about every baseball fan in America outside of Houston, and the Rangers slayed them. The tight series also solidifies a bona fide intra-state rivalry. Not only are both teams great, but the Rangers just eliminated the club that's had a death grip on the AL West and American League as a whole for the better part of a decade.

"We believe in ourselves," designated hitter Mitch Garver told me after the game. "You know what? They can have the West. We're going to the World Series. We got the American League. … This team's real. This team is good, and we're rolling."

The Rangers deserved every part of this win. Their identity all season has been that of a very talented team with one of the highest ceilings in baseball, although incredibly streaky. Texas was the only MLB team to go on an eight-game winning and an eight-game losing streak this season. The Rangers showed how much talent they have in that lineup Monday by tying the record for most runs in an ALCS Game 7 with 11. 

Yes, the Rangers have flaws, but they also have veteran stars everywhere you look, players who have been in the major leagues a long time with championship pedigree — Corey Seager, Nathan Eovaldi, Max Scherzer, Aroldis Chapman and Marcus Semien among them. 

Even Jacob deGrom, their big free-agent signing last offseason who has been sidelined since the summer due to Tommy John surgery, has played a role in this. His Opening Day win over the Phillies guarantees that Texas has home-field advantage in the World Series since it owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the potential NL champion.

And then there's Adolis García, who hit three homers and drove in nine runs in his final six at-bats of the series. Moreover, his 15 RBIs in the ALCS set a new MLB record. This entire team is on fire, but no one more so than García, the ALCS MVP. 

Seager, the Rangers' regular-season MVP — and likely the No. 2 finisher in AL MVP race behind Shohei Ohtani — also roared to life in Game 7. In the first inning, he stayed on top of Cristian Javier's rising fastball that had been so effective in the postseason, and mashed one into the second deck in right field to set the tone for this game. Seager's now locked in, which is a terrible development for either the Phillies or Diamondbacks.

"Leaving spring training, I had a great feeling about these guys," Bochy told my co-host Alex Curry after Game 7. "Such a close-knit group and even keeled. They didn't get too up or too down, and they kept getting up. That's what makes a good ballclub. They came in here against the odds, and to do this against a great ballclub, it's unbelievable. … What a job they did."

We also have to give credit to Bochy, who has once again done wonders with a limited pitching staff in the postseason. Jordan Montgomery has been clutch every time he has taken the ball, including in relief Monday — it was just the second time in his career that he has come out of the bullpen. Eovaldi is solidifying himself as a postseason pitching legend. 

But what really impresses me about Bochy is he has full buy-in to treat Max Scherzer not as the future Hall of Famer that he is, but as a 39-year-old who missed a month due to a muscle strain in his shoulder and is far from 100 percent. It's understood among everyone on the Rangers that whatever they get out of Scherzer right now is a bonus.

That is all a testament to Bochy's postseason prowess, making him the first manager in modern MLB history to take three different teams to the World Series.

The scariest part for whoever comes out of the National League is that the Rangers still have plenty of room for improvement. Semien can play far better than he did in this series. The bullpen really started to sputter toward the end, especially with Chapman and closer José Leclerc at the back end. If those guys get right, watch out. The Rangers can win it all.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @BenVerlander.