Rangers History: 3 iconic Lone Star Series moments between in-state rivals

The Lone Star Series arrives in Arlington for the first time this season as the Texas Rangers hosts the Houston Astros for a four-game set starting Thursday.

Dating back to when the Rangers first moved to Texas in 1972, the Astros and Rangers have been going head-to-head since their first meeting at the start of the 1992 season, although it was an exhibiton game. The first regular season meeting didn't occur until the 2001 season with Houston winning

Since then, the two Texas teams have regularly met in the regular season and has only intensified the last few years since their first postseason meeting in the 2023 American League Championship Series.

3 iconic Rangers-Astros moments in the history of the Lone Star Series

Rangers defeating Astros in 2023 ALCS

We can't talk about the Lone Star Series without mentioning the first and only postseason meeting (thus far) between the two Texas teams. And of course, as Rangers fans we rub that series victory in as much as we can.

But even taking an unbiased look at that series, it was the peak of the in-state rivarly. For the time in its history, both teams were great teams and it showed. The series went seven games, had big time clutch moments, blow out victories and added drama.

Game One of the series drew 7.26 million viewers across all Fox platforms, which was the most-watched LCS Game One on any network since the 2016 Cubs-Mets. The series as a whole was part of a powerful LCS round that year, averaging 5.2 million viewers.

So much happened in that series it's difficult to point out everything but for Texas it stood out as a return to the World Series and the emergence of Adolis Garcia, who won ALCS MVP.

Josh Smith's walk-off home run in August 2024

The 2024 season did not go well for the Texas Rangers but it did have a handful of moments that made it worth sticking around for. One was indeed Josh Smith's walk-off homer and legendary bat flip against Houston.

Down to their last out, trailing 3-2, with the tying run on second base, Josh Smith took a 3-1 fastball high-and-in and smashed it into the right field seats for the walk-off homer. It immediately was followed with one of the smoothest bat flips you'll ever see.

Smith had a breakout year in 2024, setting career highs in practically every offensive category and won the American League's Utility Silver Slugger Award.

The 27-year-old is off to another scorching start this year with a .317 batting average and he hopes to continue his dominance over Houston this weekend. In 25 career games against the Astros, Smith has five home runs, 12 RBIs and 14 runs scored.

Benches clearing incident in 2015

There's a handful of bench clearing moments we could put on this, two of which happened in the 2023 season but this one was too good to not include.

On June 8, 2015, in a game that would end with a 7-6 Rangers victory, Rangers' infielder Rougned Odor and Astros' catcher Hank Condor exchanged words prior to Odor's ninth inning at-bat. It led to an entertaining benches clearing incident where both managers Jeff Bannister and A.J. Hinch had a heated back-and-forth in each other's faces.

No one was ejected and Odor would lead the inning off with a triple and eventually scored in the team's 2-run frame to give them much needed insurace runs. However what made this doubly fun was both teams were wearing throwback jerseys.

For Rangers' fans it doesn't surprise us one bit that Odor got invovled in a bench-clearing altercation. He was known to have sort of a fiery personality, just ask Jose Bautista.