October 20:
The Rays took a 2-1 lead in the ALCS with a convincing 8-2 win over the Angels in Anaheim. Brandon Marsh's 3-run HR in the 2nd inning off Garrett Williams and against his old organization proved to be all the runs they'd need, and Matt Manning continued to shake off his subpar regular season with another outstanding postseason effort. Manning retired the first 11 Angels before Mike Trout singled off him in the 4th, and took a shutout into the 6th until Luis Renfigo homered off him. For the night he was a very good 7 3 2 2 2 7 and Mitchell White and Aaron Ashby each pitched a scoreless inning to give the main bullpen a night off. Of course the offense didn't stop with the Marsh homer as they added a run in the 3rd on Keston Hiura's RBI single and 3 more in the 5th on a Hunter Bishop RBI single and a 2-run HR from Nick Gonzales, getting his first start of the postseason with the lefty Williams on the mound. Judson Fabian, hitting a cool .522 so far this postseason, drove in a run in the 8th to cap the scoring. The Rays will try to take a 3-1 lead tomorrow night with rookie Mack Anglin getting the start.
October 21:
The Rays are one win away from becoming the first team since the 1998-2001 Yankees to go to their 4th straight World Series after a 10-4 drubbing of the Angels in Game 4 of the ALCS. They wasted no time jumping on LA as Vidal Brujan doubled to lead off the game, Wander Franco reached on a 2-base error scoring Brujan, Keibert Ruiz singled in Wander, and after Judson Fabian hit into a double play, Spencer Torkelson hit his 4th HR of the playoffs to make it 3-0. After the Angels got back to 3-2 after a 2-run Yasmani Grandal homer off Mack Anglin, Hunter Bishop went to work. In the 4th he doubled and scored on Keston Hiura's double (Hiura then scored on a Brujan single), he led off the 6th with a homer (Brujan's sac fly got them another run in that inning) and then hit a 2-run HR in the 7th, giving him a 4-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI day. Brandon Marsh hit a solo HR in the 8th to cap the scoring. Meanwhile Anglin had an impressive postseason debut as a rookie. He did run into trouble in the 2nd as after he gave up that Grandal homer he put two more men on, but got a double play to get out of it and settled down from there, going 7 5 2 2 2 6 making Rays starters 7 for 7 in quality starts this postseason. Steven Casey gave up a couple of late runs, including a Mike Trout homer, but it didn't matter. They'll now look to close it out tomorrow with Tyler Glasnow on the mound.
In the NLCS:
The Cards took the series lead courtesy of a 3-2 thriller over the Dodgers. Their ace Jack Flaherty staked them to a 2-1 lead through 7 on a typically great 7 5 1 1 0 8 outing, but closer Seranthony Dominguez, who's had a rough postseason, gave up a Cody Bellinger RBI single to tie it in the 8th. But Josh Stowers homered off Dodger closer Joe Jimenez in the 8th and Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the 9th to preserve a 3-2 win.
October 22:
Well we're going to back to St. Pete, but to play Game 6 instead of getting ready for Game 1 of the World Series. The Angels came out swinging and kept coming back on the Rays until they finally overtook them in the 6th to go on to a 7-6 win. Early it looked like it would be another Rays romp, especially after they went up 3-0 and 5-2 with Tyler Glasnow on the mound. But Glasnow didn't quite have it tonight, giving up 3 homers and then in the 6th after giving up an Alex Verdugo homer to lead off the inning he walked the next two men. Christian Little came in and although he whiffed Luis Gonzalez, he surrendered a 3-run HR to light-hitting Marco Negron (.203/.245/.318 for the season) and the Angels were up 7-6 and they made that lead stand up the rest of the way. Glasnow turned in the first poor start of the postseason for the Rays, going 5 5 6 6 4 4 with the high # of walks and the low # of whiffs notable. The Rays hit 3 homers of their own, including back-to-back shots from Keston Hiura and Triston Casas in the 4th to almost the same LCF spot on the rock sculpture, and Spencer Torkelson went deep once again. Shane McClanahan will be on the mound at the Trop with the team's 2nd chance to close it out.
In the NLCS:
It was a good day for the LA teams as the Dodgers broke open another nail-biter with 5 runs in the 10th inning to win 7-2 and even the NLCS at 2 games each. Kevin Smith's 3-run HR off Jose Quijada broke the deadlock as the pivotal Game 5 in St. Louis will take place tomorrow.
October 23:
The Cardinals scored 4 times in the first off Dodger ace Kyle Whitten and held on behind their bullpen for a 5-4 win to put them one win away from their first World Series in 10 years as the teams head back to Dodger Stadium. Jurickson Profar's 2-run single and Anderson Tejada's 2-run double were the key blows for the Cards, and after starter Noah Syndergaard left allowing 4 runs in 5 innings they got 4 shutout innings from their pen including 2 from former Ray Diego Castillo.