October 24:
It was tight, it was tense, but in the end the Rays hung on to win 2-1 and advance to their fourth straight World Series, the first team since the 1998-2001 Yankees to do so. They'll be hoping WS #4 goes better for them than it did the 2001 Yankees but for now they're celebrating their Game 6 win over the Angels. Shane McClanahan started and bent early but didn't break, loading the bases in the 1st and getting out of it, putting 2 men on in the 2nd and doing likewise, and throwing 68 pitches over the first 3 innings. He calmed down and finished with a flourish, striking out the side in his final inning in the 6th. He ended 6 4 0 0 3 9 on 108 pitches. Meanwhile the offense, which had all kinds of trouble with Ryan Helsley in Game 2, managed to eke out a couple of runs. In the 2nd Spencer Torkelson walked for the first of three times today, went to third on a Keston Hiura double and scored on Triston Casas's groundout. And in the 6th Vidal Brujan doubled, went to third on a Wander Franco grounder, and scored on a Keibert Ruiz sac fly. The Hiura and Brujan doubles were the only hits the Rays managed off Helsley but as you can see they made them count. Wander's single off the bullpen in the 8th was the only other hit the team had. After McClanahan left it was up to the bullpen and Ben Bowden pitched a fine 7th, getting around a Ji-Man Choi HBP. But in the 8th Liam Hendriks was greeted with a Kyren Paris homer to cut the lead to 2-1; however, he got the next 2 batters and Jose Alvarado got Shohei Ohtani to ground to 1st. Jasseel De La Cruz came in for the 9th and as he often does he made it interesting. He retired Anthony Rendon on a fly ball but walked Alex Verdugo, struck out Yasmani Grandal but then gave up a single to Choi, sending Verdugo to 3rd with the tying run. But he got pinch-hitter Nick Solak on strikes to end the game and start the celebrations, which once again I've captured here:
Now we wait to see if the Cardinals or the Dodgers are coming to town in 4 days' time.
October 25:
Bring on the Cardinals! St. Louis jumped on LA's 20-game winner Jack Little for 5 runs in the first on their way to a 7-1 rout of the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. They rapped out 5 hits for the 5 runs and Davis Sharpe was just that, going 6.2 3 0 0 1 9 against a Dodger lineup that's as fearsome as about any in baseball. Like their rivals to the north in San Francisco during the 2010s, the Dodgers' run of championships in consecutive even-numbered years stopped at 3. This will also mark the 4th straight different opponent for the Rays in the Fall Classic, after defeating the Padres in 2023, losing to the Dodgers in 2024 and besting the Braves in 2025.