Whew! What looked to be a comfortable Rays win in the middle innings was anything but comfortable at the end as Texas chipped away at the lead and had the tying run in scoring position in the 9th inning before Jose Alvarado struck out Dylan Carlson to finally put an end to the game. It was a matchup of last year's Cy Young winner against the likely Cy Young winner this year, and that matchup was advantage Rays as they jumped all over Wil Diaz with Ricky Widmar leading off the game with a homer against his former organization, and then Dayle Jenkins taking him deep for a 2-run shot which put the Rays ahead for good in his first MLB playoff game. Connor Kirkley went back-to-back with Jenkins in that 4th inning and who had Kirkley leading the team with 3 HRs this postseason on their bingo card? Little, meanwhile, finally ready to go after his back spasms caused him to miss the ALDS, was his usual self although he ran out of gas in the 6th loading the bases with 2 out. Jordan Diaz got a fly ball to get him out of it but Texas wouldn't quit, getting 2 runs off Diaz in the 7th and a Heston Kjerstad homer off Daniel Espino in the 8th. This led to Alvarado coming in for the 9th and he gave up a one-out double to Wander Franco, who went to 3rd on a fly ball for the second out before Alvarado whiffed Carlson. Jenkins was aboard 3 times in 4 trips as the big stage didn't faze him. He's on the short end of a platoon with Jhon Diaz so he may not play that much going forward, but he'll be back in there against Diaz if there is a Game 5.
Rays past and present continue to dominate the postseason and tonight was no exception in Game 2 of the NLCS as the Dodgers evened up the series behind two homers from Nick Gonzales, one of our unlikely postseason heroes in 2026 when Wander Franco was out injured.