October 29:
Tonight the Rays continued their flair for the dramatic and their knack for losing opening games of playoff series in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Trop. Down 3-0 and being completely dominated by LA starter Mitchell White, the Rays got a one-out walk from Brandon Marsh in bottom of the 9th and White left in favor of Taylor Rogers despite allowing only two hits. Rogers got Vidal Brujan on a fly ball for the second out, but Wander Franco singled to left and then Austin Meadows singled to center to load the bases for Rafael Devers, who ripped a double into the gap clearing the bases and tying the game. Keibert Ruiz couldn't bring him home so to the 10th we went, and with 3 lefties due up Jose Alvarado got the call. After retiring Corey Seager on a fly ball, Alvarado lost the plate and walked two men and the righty Wilmer Flores stepped to the plate. I could have gone to Nick Anderson but lefty Mike Moustakas was on deck and there was only one out, so I stuck with Alvarado and it backfired as Flores delivered a single to score the go-ahead run. And Rogers recovered from his 9th inning calamity to get the Rays 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th and the Dodgers have a 1-0 series lead. Until the 6th it was a scoreless duel between White and Walker Buehler, but Buehler's old teammates treated him rudely in the 6th when Seager doubled, Cody Bellinger hit one into the RF stands to make it 2-0, and Gavin Lux went back-to-back with a HR down the LF line. Meanwhile all the Rays had to show against White until the 9th was a Keibert Ruiz single to left and an infield single from Marsh. They'll try to bounce back in Game 2 but it won't be an easy task as they'll have to face the red-hot Brusdar Graterol who's 4-0 with a sub-1 ERA in these playoffs. Shane McClanahan, making his first career postseason start, will oppose him.
October 30:
If you had told me before the game that the Rays would get 5 off Brusdar Graterol by the 3rd inning and chase him from the game, I'd be feeling pretty good about the series being even. But that was all the Rays could manage while the Dodgers teed off continuously against Rays pitching for 13 runs and 15 hits (including 11 extra-base hits) in a 13-5 blowout to put the Dodgers ahead 2-0 in the Series as we head to Los Angeles. Shane McClanahan got his first MLB playoff start and it was a rough beginning. After giving up an Orlando Mercado double to lead off the game it looked like he might get out of it, especially after striking out Cody Bellinger for the second out. But Gavin Lux tripled and Will Smith homered, and Mac was down 3-0. But the Rays got 5 on a Rafael Devers triple followed by a Keibert Ruiz RBI groundout, an RBI single from Spencer Torkelson, and a 2-run HR by Brandon Marsh in the 2nd and tacked on a Ruiz RBI single in the 3rd while McClanahan had appeared to settle down through the 3rd. But the wheels came off in the 4th and LA put 5 on the board off McClanahan and Daniel Lynch, who didn't make the decision to bypass him for the start look that bad. We stayed at 8-5 as Lynch settled down through the 7th, but the Rays couldn't get anything going against old friend Scott Barlow for a couple of innings and then rookie Jean Herrera, who shut them down over the last 4 2/3 innings. Then Ian Hamilton got hit for 3 in the 8th and in the 9th Sandy Gaston gave up a 2-run HR to Joc Pederson who had a monster day with 3 doubles to go with that dinger. It turned out to be a good, old-fashioned beatdown and the Rays will now have to pull out yet another improbable series comeback to win this thing. Tyler Glasnow will likely face another ex-Ray, Max Fried as Game 3 is a virtual must-win.
