October 23, 2023:
Game 6: Hmm...the board won't let me go all caps in the post title. So let me yell it in the text: THE RAYS WIN THE PENNANT! THE RAYS WIN THE PENNANT! And they won in the most dramatic fashion possible: A 3-run walk-off HR in the bottom of the 9th trailing 3-1 to give them their second AL crown in club history and first trip to the World Series since 2008. Alec Bohm had a monster series and he became the monster of Angels fans' nightmares by taking Eric Marinez deep the opposite way to the RF stands to give the Rays a 4-3 win and a 4-2 series win, sending sold-out Tropicana Field into a delirious frenzy. The Rays had been frustrated by Angel starter Edwar Colina, who had a 1915-like pitching line of 7 7 1 1 0 0; in fact, the Rays neither walked nor struck out in the entire game. But in-play outs they made a lot of, and it wasn't until the 7th that they broke through against Colina when Seth Beer doubled in Keibert Ruiz with 2 out but couldn't get home himself. That cut the lead to 2-1, and when Nick Anderson surrendered a longball to Luis Renfigo in the top of the 8th to restore the LA lead to 3-1, it looked like we were headed to a Game 7. But after Ty Buttrey retired his former team in order in the top of the 9th, Rafael Devers reached on an infield single, and then rookie Kyren Paris and his 70 glove booted Ruiz's ground ball to bring up Bohm who launched his bomb and joined the pantheon of LCS walk-off series-winning heroes such as Chris Chambliss, David Ortiz, Aaron Boone and Jose Altuve. Lost in the Rays' early offensive woes was another great outing from Max Fried, who went 7 4 2 1 3 4, making it his third postseason start in three outings in which he pitched at least 7 innings and gave up no more than one earned run, including a season-saving Game 3 win in Seattle after the Rays started that best-of-5 series down 0-2. It's been quite a turnaround from his dismal second half of the regular season and quite the turnaround from being last year's playoff goat by imploding in the pivotal Game 4 against Toronto in the ALDS. Bohm's homer was his fifth of the series, with all coming in the last five games and he was deservedly named Series MVP, but Fried would rank a close second.
So it's now on to face the San Diego Padres, a team the Rays swept in their visit to San Diego in September. The sweep sent the Padres into a bit of a tailspin down the stretch, costing them the division title, but it mattered not as they beat the same Dodgers who finished ahead of them and in 5 games no less. They boast a great 1-2 punch of MacKenzie Gore and Michel Baez with the lefty Gore shaping up in particular as a potential problem given how they struggled with the Angels' lefties. They also missed Gore in the regular season series. Cal Quantrill, their third starter, ain't too shabby either. The rotation will go Noah Syndergaard, Tyler Glasnow, Fried and Chris Paddack, with Paddack scheduled against his old mates in Game 4 at Petco. In case you're wondering about Brendan McKay, whom the Rays traded (along with JJ Bleday) to acquire Paddack, he's not on the big league roster and it appears the Padres are now grooming him more as a hitter than pitcher, a not-shocking move considering how his pitching skills have deteriorated over the last couple of years.