October 14:
Giddyup:
The Rays jumped on Marco Gonzales early and never let up as they cruised to a 9-3 win over Seattle to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-5 ALDS. Unlike the first two games when the Rays had to wait a while to score, they got going in the 1st with a manufactured run when Vidal Brujan singled, stole second, went to third on a Wander groundout and scored on a Meadows groundout. No need for small ball in the 2nd inning, though, as Spencer Torkelson did it again taking Gonzales deep for a 2-run shot to make it 3-0. Right after that Keston Hiura doubled and scored on a Brujan single to up the lead to 4-0. That would be all Matt Manning would need. Although he's been more dominant he was more than good enough tonight going 7 7 3 3 0 5. The Mariners made it interesting with a pair of runs in the 3rd to make it 4-2, but Wander tripled to lead off the 5th and scored on a Meadows single and then in the 6th Brujan had a 2-run double and was singled home by Wander and it was 8-2. Seattle scored in the 7th off Manning but Keibert Ruiz got that run back with a solo homer in the 9th. Mitch Keller went 6 up, 6 down with a pair of whiffs to close the game out. Brujan, who had a massive postseason last year, was 3-6 with the 3 RBI and 2 stolen bases, while Keibert and Hiura joined the 3-hit club too as the team pounded out 17 for the game, happy I suppose to get away from the stifling offensive environment of the Trop. Daniel Lynch, who pitched a great game in this ballpark in Game 4 of last year's ALDS, will look to do the same again in this year's Game 4. I keep getting told Julio Urias will start the next game so maybe it will actually happen tomorrow.
Game 3 of the other ALDS:
Jonathan India had 3 hits, including a HR and 3 RBI, Gavin Sheets had 3 hits and 3 RBI, and AL wins leader (with 17) Eduardo Rodriguez went 7.1 5 2 2 1 7 to lead the Tigers to within 1 game of the ALCS.
October 15:
Woo hoo!
Austin Meadows was the man as the Rays defeated Seattle 7-4 to take their ALDS 3 games to 1. The Mariners finally did start Julio Urias after all, and after a first inning where the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out only not to score and then saw Julio Rodriguez take Daniel Lynch deep to make it 1-0 Seattle, Meadows drilled a 3-run shot off the former Dodger lefty in the 3rd to put the Rays in front to stay. Vidal Brujan continued to rake with an RBI single in the 4th, and after Seattle got one back to cut it to 4-2 Meadows ripped a 2-run double to cap a 3-run 6th inning and the Rays' scoring. Seattle wouldn't go quietly though, as they grabbed 2 more off Lynch in the 6th, chasing him and making it 7-4. Lynch picked up the win, but his 5.1 6 4 4 1 5 wasn't his greatest. Ian Hamilton got the final two outs of the 6th, and then the final 3 innings were turned over to the troika. Jose Alvarado had a perfect 7th, including getting Jarred Kelenic for the final out of the inning, giving him a 2-1 edge in their personal battle this series. Nick Anderson had his typical 1-2-3 2K inning in the 8th, but Jasseel De La Cruz made it interesting in the 9th. After getting two quick outs, he gave up a single to Game 1 hero Keegan McGovern and then walked JP Crawford to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Michael Siani with Kelenic lurking on deck. Fortunately De La Cruz got Siani to fly out to Meadows to end the game and end the series as the Rays righty found himself at the bottom of another dogpile. As you can see from the game story, Brujan was named MVP of the series and in addition to the stats cited above he had 4 steals including one tonight.
The rest of the DS games today:
We don't know yet who we'll be playing in the ALCS as the Astros forced a Game 5 with Detroit thanks to a 4-2 win. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the unlikely hero for Houston today with a 2-run double and an RBI single. Joey Gallo and Paul Goldschmidt drove in a pair of runs each to back 7 strong innings from Ryan Helsley to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead over Arizona, and Brusdar Graterol followed up his gem in the wild card game with an even better performance (8.2 2 0 0 0 11) against the Mets with Gavin Lux driving in the only run of the game as the Dodgers go up 2-1 on the Mets.
October 16:
It's the Cardinals and the Dodgers in the NLCS as Joey Gallo's 2-run HR in the 8th and 2 more runs in the 9th allowed St. Louis to come from behind and beat Arizona 6-5 to take the series. And Will Smith (the catcher) drove in all 5 Dodgers runs on a 3-run HR and a 2-run single to give them the game and series win over the Mets and Yonny Chirinos tonight. Those following along might be interested to know that Josh Lowe had an RBI triple off Clayton Kershaw for the Mets in that game. Lowe had become the 3rd-string CF behind Kevin Kiermaier after the Mets signed Lorenzo Cain this year but Cain was injured late in the season, bumping up the 2 former Rays in the Mets' pecking order.
October 17:
Well we now know the Rays' opponent in the ALCS: The Detroit Tigers. They rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to edge Houston 3-2. Kumar Rocker had pitched a great game but it looked like he'd be a hard-luck loser after David Bote booted a ground ball allowing the Astros to take the lead in the 5th. Rocker was 7 7 2 1 1 10 and former Ray Shane Baz, moved back to the bullpen after a rough second half in the rotation, picked up the win in relief. We'll be seeing Baz and Alex Kirilloff in this series and of course Matt Manning will be pitching at Comerica again in Game 3.