Game 1: Dan Gregory's 2-run double in the 11th capped a 4-hit day for him and got the Rays a 9-7 come-from-behind win over Houston to open their penultimate series of the regular season. Josh Beckett's 15th HR with a man on in the 8th capped a 3-run inning which brought them level, and earlier they got two more homers from Luis Barela (#s 41 & 42) and a 2-run shot by Jon Callahan (#1). Gordie Ager wasn't great at 5 5 3 3 3 5 with 2 homers allowed and eventually the win went to Freddy Zamora (6-2), who went 2 2/3 but had to leave with back spasms so Sean Forbes got the final out for save #3.
Game 2: Just what we wanted while we wrap up the regular season - another extra-inning game. This one went 15 and Jaiden Hardaway's 2-run homer off Sean Forbes won it for Houston 7-5. The Rays thought they had the game won twice, first on Jimmy Leonard's 38th HR in the top of the 9th which made it 3-2, but Mike Barkley blew the save. Then in the 13th they scored three times, the first two on a dropped fly ball with two out, but Doug Combs and Jose Morales combined to allow 3 in the bottom of the inning. Greg Bookhart started and pitched well (5 7 1 1 0 6).
October 1: Optioned P Doug Combs and P Jose Morales to AAA Durham, recalled P Ismael Vargas and P Aidan Williams from AAA Durham.
With 26 innings played the last two nights fresh arms were needed for the pen.
Game 3: The Rays scored 9 times in the first 3 innings and held on for a 10-7 win over Houston to take the series. Josh Beckett was 3-4 with a bases-clearing double and set a personal high in RBI (91), Tony Cordova had a 2-run double and Jeff Googins a 2-run HR (#1) to build the early lead, but Jon Harbour gave a lot of it back although he still got his 4th win after going 5 9 6 4 1 5. Aidan Williams, just called up, picked up his 1st MLB save with a 1-2-3 9th. 2 of the runs Harbour allowed came on Jaiden Hardaway's 300th career homer.
Team record: 111-48. We've clinched the best record in the AL so we'll face the winner of the Yankees-Royals Wild Card Game in the ALDS and we close out the season with 3 at Yankee Stadium in a possible preview.
MLB races update: Most everything's clinched in MLB with the Rays, White Sox and Mariners division winners in the AL and the Reds and Giants division winners. But the NL East remains interesting with Atlanta and the Mets tied for the division lead and the Phillies 2 games back, with the division loser taking the second wild card after Arizona. The Mets and Atlanta are going head-to-head so we'll have a clear division winner but if one of them sweeps, Philly could swoop in and steal the loser's playoff spot.
Also we had this oddity in MLB:
This happened once before in this save, a game with only one hit between the teams, but this is the first the no-hit team won.