November 1:
It's often said that catchers have great success at the plate against pitchers they caught for a long time, and Keibert Ruiz was out to prove that adage true in Game 3 of the 2024 World Series. Facing Max Fried, whom he caught for the last 2+ seasons, Ruiz took the lefty deep in his first at-bat against him for a 2-run HR to cap a 3-run 1st inning which along with the fine pitching of Tyler Glasnow propelled the Rays to their first win in the series 5-2 and kept them from falling into a nearly-insurmountable 0-3 hole. Vidal Brujan led off the game with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a Wander Franco single. Austin Meadows' groundout scored Brujan and Franco came home on the Ruiz homer. This turned out to be enough for Tyler Glasnow, who was excellent in going 7.1 4 2 2 3 9 as he goes to 4-0, 2.15 in the postseason, a 180-degree turnaround from his past postseason struggles. The Rays did continue their unfortunate habit of scoring early runs only to sit back and watch the other team creep back into the game, and that's what the Dodgers did into the 7th as it was 3-2. But some sloppy play from LA gave the Rays two big insurance runs in the 8th. Wander hit a squibber in front of home plate but Will Smith (the catcher) threw wildly allowing Franco to reach second. Rafael Devers then doubled him home and scored a batter later when Mike Moustakas threw one away from third. This allowed Glasnow to start the 8th, and after getting an out he yielded a single to Corey Seager. Jose Alvarado came on and did his job against a couple of tough hitters, getting Cody Bellinger to ground to 1st and striking out Gavin Lux. Jasseel De La Cruz eschewed the drama that's accompanied his recent outings and got the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the 9th to close it out and make it a new series. Matt Manning will man the mound for Game 4 and will face Alex Wood.
November 2:
Apparently this team isn't happy unless their backs are against the wall, and against the wall they are after the Dodgers beat the Rays 3-1 to take an equivalent series lead. Matt Manning and Alex Wood were hooked up in a scoreless duel until the 6th, when Austin Meadows hit a 442-foot shot to dead center to put the Rays on top 1-0. But LA struck back immediately in the bottom of the inning when Will Smith (the catcher) led off with a homer, and then after Joc Pederson singled, Oscar Mercado homered as well to make it 3-1, and that was it for the scoring. Manning, who wasn't very homer-prone during the regular season, has been so in the playoffs and ended today 6 4 3 3 0 5. Will Smith (the pitcher) and Mitch Keller each threw a scoreless inning to keep it close, but outside of Meadows and Spencer Torkelson (with two more hits today including a double) the offense just hasn't been producing. Vidal Brujan did walk to lead off the game today but is only at .254 - and that's after being the MVP of the ALDS. Wander has been very quiet this postseason as well, hitting .226 and since the ALDS it seems like the only time these two have done anything was in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS. Without these two getting aboard, it's usually 1 run and done at best. As a result they've wasted some pretty good pitching performances in Game 1 and this one and will need to do a lot better against Mitchell White tomorrow than they did in Game 1 or their season will be over. It was one thing to come back from 3-1 down against a young Detroit team which hadn't been in the playoffs; it's another to do it against a perennial playoff team that's won two of the previous four World Series.
