Whew...
It wasn't easy, but thanks to three big hits with two out in the 7th the Rays took a 7-3 win over the Yankees and the decisive Game 5 of the ALDS to advance and face the mighty Houston Astros and all those familiar faces. The Rays built a 3-0 lead and Brad Jackson was in good form, but was over 100 pitches up 3-1 in the 7th with a man on and gave way to Dan Anderson. And just as he did in Game 1, Anderson surrendered a critical homer to the first man he faced and just like that the game was tied (yours truly could be heard to yell "Mother****er" when it happened again). But this time the Rays bounced back, almost immediately. But it wasn't until there were two on and two out the hit parade began with Mike McKee singling in the go-ahead run, Jeff Baez singling in another and then Eric Phillips coming through with a 2-run hit to make it 7-3. Anderson vultured the win and pitched the 8th while Kikuo Kawase had a perfect 9th to close it out. Now the test will be much harder against those Astros, and although over the last 13-14 years or so getting over the ALDS hurdle has meant they'd go all the way, Houston is going to be the ultimate challenge to keep that boom-or-bust playoff outcome going.