Holy crap, they did it!
The 2026 Tampa Bay Rays join the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams in MLB history to come back from an 0-3 deficit in a best-of-7 series and win it as they downed Detroit 5-2 tonight to win the ALCS and advance to the World Series where they'll look to defend their title.
Andrew Greckel's homer against his old organization got them going,
Wander Franco doubled the lead with one of his own, and in the game's biggest hit
Heston Kjerstad launched a 3-run job to dead center in the 5th to break it open.
Tyler Glasnow wasn't as overpowering as he's been in these playoffs, but he was extremely efficient pitching into the 8th before leaving with a sore back which won't keep him from making his next start. A homer and a single for Detroit in the 9th finally broke
Tylor Megill's retired batters postseason streak but he struck out Daz Cameron to punctuate the end of the game. Meanwhile Detroit fans will spend the winter telling each other "It was 5-0", referring to their first-inning lead in Game 4 when the Tigers had a chance to sweep.
The scene late last night at Comerica:
And yes they'll be playing the Dodgers, who won even though Randy Arozarena didn't homer:
While there was no Arozarena homer, several other former Rays factored into the game above with Justin Dunn getting the win, Pete Fairbanks taking the loss for Atlanta, and Kevin Padlo homering off the bench for the Dodgers.
It should be a good series and after the Rays went the distance in both of their previous series, a 7-gamer wouldn't shock me here either. In case you haven't noticed their absence from these linescores, the Dodgers are without star pitchers Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw with the former out until mid-2027 with Tommy John surgery.