October 29:
Game 3: Scott Barlow and Andy Ashby. Anyone following this team during the season will recognize those two as the big offseason bullpen acquisitions who turned out to be severe disappointments in the regular season. In fact I referred to them to at one point as "partners in arson" and Ashby was demoted to AAA Durham for about a month at mid-season. But the two of them were called on today in Game 3 of the World Series, and both responded effectively as part of 5 1/3 shutout innings from six different relievers in a 6-5 win over the San Diego Padres to put the Rays one win away from their first-ever World Championship.
The Rays twice took the lead off Luis Patino and starter Max Fried twice gave it back. Vidal Brujan kept up his postseason power surge by homering to give them a 1-0 lead in the third, but Fried allowed 2 runs in the bottom of the inning. Rafael Devers then hooked a 2-run homer around the RF foul pole in the 4th to make it 3-2 Rays, but Fried coughed up that lead too, allowing 3 runs and leaving with the bases loaded and 2 out. Enter Barlow to face Rhys Hoskins, and he got a lazy fly ball to get out of the inning and to keep the Padres from expanding their 5-3 lead. Ty Buttrey, who allowed a pair of runs in Game 2, got through the 5th without incident, and that set the stage for the Rays' comeback in the top of the 6th.
With one out, Keibert Ruiz singled, Alec Bohm walked, and then Brandon Marsh doubled to score Ruiz and send Bohm to 3rd. Nick Schnell's groundout brought Bohm home with the tying run, and pinch-hitter Seth Beer (on the pine with no DH in an NL park) greeted reliever Reggie Lawson with an opposite field single to left to score Marsh and make it 6-5. There were still 4 innings to piece together from the bullpen from there, and Jose Alvarado made an early appearance and got through the 6th with a couple of lefties due up. He hung around to get the leadoff lefty in the 7th, and Nick Anderson got a couple of strikeouts after walking Hoskins. The Rays mounted a rally in the 8th that brought the pitcher's spot to the plate, so Rylan Bannon pinch-hit for Anderson but flew out, meaning someone else would have to take over the 8th. With a couple of lefties due up, I could have gone to Will Smith for a 2-inning save but that might have been pushing it so I turned to Ashby, who had pitched much better toward the end of the season. Well he came through big-time getting a 1-2-3 8th inning and striking out Taylor Trammell to end it. Will Smith then pitched the 9th and he struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. and Trent Grisham before getting Manny Machado to ground out to nail down the save, his 3rd of the postseason as Buttrey picked up the win. Fried had his first poor start of the postseason, going 3.2 8 5 5 3 4 after 3 brilliant starts, but the bullpen and the offense picked him up and now the team is one win from destiny.
And the game story below is finally correct for once: Chris Paddack will actually start Game 4 against his old team. Also the headline is hilarious: "move to within 1 game of Round 5". There's a Round 5?????
October 30:
Game 4: THE RAYS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! Rafael Devers' 2-run homer in the 1st and Austin Meadows' 3-run shot in the 3rd paced the Rays to a 6-3 win and a World Series sweep of the San Diego Padres for their first-ever title. Chris Paddack got the win against his former teammates, going 5 5 3 3 0 7 and then the bullpen, which has been lights-out since early in the ALDS, saw four pitchers each throw a scoreless inning to preserve the 6-3 lead they held since the 5th. The Rays jumped all over Cal Quantrill, who had been excellent in each prior series for San Diego, when Meadows singled with two out and Devers homered for the second consecutive day. His 2 HR and 6 RBI in the 4 games earned him series MVP. In the 3rd it was Meadows' turn to drive in the runs with a 3-run blast after Brujan doubled and Wander walked to start the inning. Wander's RBI groundout in the 4th made it 6-0 after Nick Schnell had walked, was bunted over by Paddack and Brujan singled Schnell to 3rd. But San Diego wasn't going to go quietly as Paddack gave up his obligatory longball(s). Trent Grisham hit a 2-out, 2-run HR to make it 6-2, and the following batter Rhys Hoskins tripled, but Paddack whiffed Eric Hosmer to strand him on 3rd. Luis Campusano had a solo shot in the bottom of the 5th to make it 6-3, and when Paddack's turn at bat came up in to the top of the 6th he was pinch hit for, having thrown 97 pitches. Ty Buttrey got the 6th and hit a man but got the other three out, Jasseel De La Cruz whiffed a pair around a walk in the 7th (he had to leave the inning hurt after the last batter, we'll have to see how he is), Nick Anderson finished the season in his typical dominant form with a perfect inning with two strikeouts, and Will Smith nabbed the save in the 9th, giving up a one-out single but getting Campusano to hit into a 5-4-3 around-the-horn double play to start the celebrations and the dogpile.
