October 26:
A few notes about our World Series coverage. With the Rays involved, I will have a separate post for each "series" of games at each ballpark: Games 1-2, Games 3-5, Games 6-7. I'll also be providing the full box score for each game.
Game 1: Noah Syndergaard had been fair to good in his postseason starts, but he had yet to turn in a true #1 starter performance worthy of his reputation. Until tonight. Taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Syndergaard went 8 very strong innings as the Rays took Game 1 of the 2023 World Series 4-2 over the San Diego Padres at Tropicana Field. He was matched up with MacKenzie Gore and the two of them put on a show. While Gore was piling up the strikeouts against the team that didn't strike out once in Game 6 of the ALCS and was the toughest team to whiff in MLB, Syndergaard was matching him pitch-for-pitch. Unfortunately the defense didn't live up to his exploits on the mound and in the 4th inning a 2-base throwing error from Wander Franco allowed Taylor Trammell to eventually score on a Manny Machado ground ball after stealing third. But Keibert Ruiz hit his first postseason homer off Gore in the bottom of the 4th to equalize, and Syndergaard despite being tied at 1 took his no-hitter into the 7th. Unfortunately he lost the no-hitter and the lead when Machado homered off him leading off the inning but just like when the Padres scored in the 4th the Rays answered right back in the bottom of the inning, this time with two runs to put them in front. Gore started running out of gas, giving up singles to Yusniel Diaz and Rylan Bannon to lead off the inning. After striking out Brandon Marsh for his 10th whiff of the game, he gave up a single to Vidal Brujan to load the bases and then walked Wander Franco to force in the tying run. One-time Rays farmhand Resly Linares relieved him and proceeded to give up an RBI single to Austin Meadows before striking out Rafael Devers to end the inning. Syndergaard made it through the 8th, finishing the game with an outstanding 8 2 2 1 0 10 line, and who else but the blazing-hot Alec Bohm homered for the 6th time in 6 games to give the Rays a big insurance run. Will Smith fanned two Padres in the 9th for the save and the Rays grabbed the early lead in the series, a welcome reversal after losing Game 1 of both the ALDS and ALCS. Despite what the box score story says below, Tyler Glasnow will be going against Michel Baez in Game 2 tomorrow.
Game 2: Whoa, oh, we're halfway there.... The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 2023 World Series with an 8-4 win over the San Diego Padres behind the strong pitching of Tyler Glasnow, who had his best-ever postseason start. Glasnow was 6 5 0 0 2 10 with the only drawback being it took him 120 pitches to get through 6 as a lot of his strikeouts came on full counts. Still it was a dominant performance the likes of which he often provides in the regular season but has struggled to provide in October. The offense faced another tough customer in Michel Baez, who had won 23 games this year between the regular season and postseason. Baez didn't have any problem striking out the tough-to-whiff Rays with 8 in his 5 innings but between those strikeouts the Rays managed to get to him several times. Seth Beer kick-started the offense with a solo homer in the 2nd, Rafael Devers had RBI doubles in the 3rd and the 5th, a run scored on an error, and then Brandon Marsh delivered the dagger with a 3-run HR off him in the 6th before Baez could retire a batter in the inning. Beer delivered another run in the 7th when Alec Bohm and he each doubled as the team banged out 7 extra-base hits in the game. The bullpen was shaky with Ty Buttrey and Shane McClanahan each allowing a pair of runs but Jasseel De La Cruz closed things out in the 9th to send the series back to San Diego with the Rays looking to take a commanding 3-0 lead with Max Fried against Luis Patino (again, ignore the game story below, OOTP would have me start Chris Paddack all 7 games it seems).
