TEX 11, HOU 4; Rangers advance

...Wow. Where to begin? Maybe with the 10 (!) TB from Garcia that nobody gets? Alvarez, departing the pool with 42 points? Aroldis Chapman somehow making it feel like the Rangers could still lose with him in the game?

They didn't. This was out of reach almost immediately, and I don't know if it was the one-man artillery barrage of Garcia, Senator Ted Cruz cursing the proceedings by showing up to pretend to give a crap, or what, but the Rangers have returned to the Classic.

Who will they meet there? We'll find out tomorrow night. Until then, the points:

Altuve 6
Alvarez 5
Diaz 0
Tucker 1

Seager 7
Semien 1

And you know what the italics mean. 

A couple of these picks didn't do what you'd assume they would; Altuve is the MVP, by a nose. LVP is Diaz, I guess, although of guys getting regular at-bats I think you have to gig Tucker for that. Garcia in prime position to take home the Victorino, of course.

And for the first time in many days, a new leader!

102 Wonsetler
98 Crase
96 YOLO Joe

But we've lost quite a few slates, too; everyone else, and some housekeeping, after the jump.

78 SDB 2 and Fell
72 Dunn
70 SDB 1

67 Yuhan

58 Bauer Spoon
53 Bingham 1
50 Stempel

45 Quinn
44 MArbour 1
42 Bingham 2

39 Cayenne 2
37 LyonCorn
36 Richardson
32 MArbour 2

29 Tormey
23 O'Reilly
22 Cayenne 1

15 Cameron

That's a large chunk of the remaining slates knocked out, so if your slate is in italics here, you have no picks remaining, and will not be included in future updates. So sorry to see you go, folks; thanks so much for playing, and I hope to see you back next year (or in the comments; I'm also grumbling about all this and more on Bluesky, @sarahdbunting over there). 

And if you think that's bad, a Phillies loss tomorrow is going to bury this pool in tumbleweeds ;) but that's kind of what happened last year and we all survived, soooo on we go: Pfaadt v. Suarez at 8:07 PM, and it's our last game with the superior booth, so let's try to enjoy it, eh what?

Check my arithmetic, vent in the comments, #waittilnextyear, etc.!