Holy comebacks, Batman!
The Rays were dead and buried and Game 1, and rose from the grave in what for the Texas Rangers was a familiar horror movie after losing the ALCS to them the previous two seasons. In a battle of aces, Victor Presas had outdueled Christian Little and the Rangers had a comfortable 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the 9th before it all went wrong for them. It started off with Adley Rustchman of all people. The trade deadline flop had already drawn the ire of the Rays faithful at Publix Park for failing to come through twice earlier in the game, once in the first with two on and two out and again in the third with the bases loaded and two out. So there were a few boos mixed in when he led off the 9th, but with the Rangers in the lefty shift, he beat out a grounder hit into shallow right and knocked down by Rangers 2B Nico Hoerner. Victor deJesus doubled to send Rustchman to 3rd and Isaac DeLeon made it 4-2 with a sac fly. Playoff Picciotti beat out an infield single to put men on 1st and 2nd, and Dane Ayers (who drove in their first run in the 4th with a single) singled to score de Jesus and make it 4-3 as Picciotti took third. Dayle Jenkins' sac fly scored Picciotti to tie it, and after Connor Kirkley worked a walk to send Ayers to second, Nate Clark singled to left to score Ayers and the walk-off win was complete. This all came against Texas closer Jim Connors in his second inning of work as the OOTP AI likes to bring in closers in the 8th during the postseason (as many real-life managers do) but it backfired today. This wasted a fine 6 4 1 1 2 8 effort from Presas while Little was hit for 2 runs in the 4th with the key hit being a Carlos Perez (naturally) double. Keston Hiura took him deep in the 6th when I left Little in one batter too long, and after Andy Aparicio whisked through the 7th and 8th with 5 Ks, it looked really bad when Wander Franco doubled in a run off Corbin Martin with two out in the 9th to make it 4-1 Texas, but all it did was make the comeback even more dramatic. Alec Sachais will look to put them up 2-0 tomorrow.