Off to a good start...
In the end the Rays had a comfortable 8-2 win over the Yankees in Game 1 of the 2032 ALDS, but it started off nightmarishly for Christian Little. The Rays ace gave up 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk and had to throw 39 pitches in a first inning which saw him put his team in a 2-0 hole. But the offensive juggernaut that is this year's Rays immediately responded with 2 in the bottom of the inning on a Rodolfo Rivas sac fly and a Jasson Dominguez RBI double, and in the third they took the lead to stay on a Rivas homer, his first career postseason jack. Then they broke it open in the 4th and chased Yankee ace Eric Peterson with a 4-run rally highlighted by another postseason debutante, Bo Angeac, who drilled a 2-run homer. Luis Corpus, who had earlier knocked in a run in that 4th, homered later as well. Meanwhile Little did a 180 from the first inning, allowing the Yankees only one hit through the next 5 to finish a very good 6 5 2 2 1 8 for his 10th career postseason win. Chris Hicks and Jose Alvarado combined effectively to pitch the final 3 innings. Still too early to get excited as we remember last year they opened with a convincing win over Detroit behind a gem from Andy Aparicio and four games later AA was getting pounded in a Game 5 loss. One side note: Victor de Jesus has the flu and it was described as "moderate" so he sat in favor of Connor Kirkley. de Jesus will probably be back for Game 3 in New York.
In the other ALDS:
The Rangers and Tigers commenced their annual playoff battle and Texas got the better of Kumar Rocker to take Game 1.