3 Rangers to blame for heartbreaking Game 5 loss to Astros

1. Jose Leclerc

Yeah, there was no other option. The brunt of the blame for Friday night's debacle lays with the man who blew the save in the biggest game of the season so far.

Jose Leclerc took the mound in the top of the eight inning with a 4-2 lead and a four-out save opportunity. He got the first out he needed, but when he returned to the mound in the ninth, everything went wrong.

Leclerc melted down in the top of the ninth. He put the first two batters he faced on base then gave Jose Altuve the pitch he needed to hit the third ninth-inning-or-later home run in his legendary postseason career.

The closer was key in the Rangers getting to the ALCS and winning their first seven games of the postseason. He had the longest streak of closed out games to begin a postseason, per ESPN Stats & Info. Unfortunately, a blown save of this magnitude could undo all that hard work.

Leclerc and the Rangers will now head back to Houston to see if they can keep the streak of road winners in the series alive. They're playing elimination baseball from here on out.