The Rangers led the series 2-1 heading into the ALCS series.

Can anyone make sense of this sentence from "Front burner" in 24 hours Vancouver on October 20, 2010: "The Rangers led the series 2-1 heading into the ALCS series."? Also, by writing ALCS series, the writer is essentially writing American League Championship Series series. It's a redundancy similar to PIN number and ATM machine.