On an unusually inclement Southern California night the Tampa Bay Rays advanced to their second World Series in three years and third in six with a 6-2 win over the Angels to take the ALCS in 6 after dropping the first two games. For the longest time it was looking like a repeat of Game 2 with
Dustin May and Jack Leiter trading zeroes until Jared Walsh homered off May in the 5th to put the Angels up 1-0. But for a change the bats gave May some support as they exploded for 6 in the 6th off Leiter and Raisel Iglesias. They loaded the bases with nobody out and once again
Angelo DiSpigna, who does have one of the game's better batting eyes, drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. And then up stepped
Matt Chapman. The All-Star third sacker was brought in this year as a defensive upgrade and was expected to contribute more with the bat, but struggled big-time at the plate since being acquired (223/278/369 in the regular season and 214/371/393 in the playoffs coming into tonight). But he made the acquisition worth it with one swing of the bat, a grand slam off Leiter which broke open the game and put Tampa Bay in the World Series.
JT Ginn contributed two scoreless innings in relief of May and with
Tyler Rogers fatigued,
Osvanni Gutierrez got the surprise call to close out the 9th but the rookie showed his nerves by loading the bases with one out and bringing the tying run to the plate. LA sent up a lefty to pinch-hit, and veteran
Aaron Fletcher came in, whiffed him and fanned former Ray Willy Adames to end the game and end up at the bottom of the dogpile. So it's on to the Series against the upstart Cardinals and it will be up to the Rays to stop their Cinderella run. This will likely be the World Series with the fewest combined regular-season wins between the participants, with the Rays' 92 and the Cards' 80 adding to 172, 5 fewer than the 2014 World Series which pitted the 88-win Giants against the 89-win Royals.