Another great comeback pissed away...
When the obituary is written on the 2028 Rays season (likely to be very soon), terrible pitching is going to be listed as the cause of death as once again the offense valiantly came back in what looked like a sure loss only to have the bullpen (and especially
Jose Crespo) make that loss sure again. I expected
Jackson Baumeister to be horrible and he didn't disappoint, but the offense fought back from 6-2 down to eventually tie it in the 9th thanks to a Detroit error and then go ahead in the top of the 10th on a
JT Realmuto homer. But
Yasunari Uehara didn't have in the bottom of the frame after throwing 19 pitches in the 9th, putting the first two men on and Crespo once again came up small when needed the most as he loaded the bases and gave up a walk-off sac fly to that man Marcelo Mayer (who earlier homered off Baumeister) again. So now the Rays are down 3-1 and on life support.
James Hays gives them their best chance to win one tomorrow assuming he doesn't pitch like Game 1, but the offense is probably going to have score in double digits to overcome this staff. Part of it's a matchup problem as Detroit has a lefty-heavy lineup and we don't have any lefty starters, but that's only part of it as our lefty relievers (especially Crespo) haven't exactly shut them down.
Speaking of bad pitching it was another high-scoring affair in the NLCS as the Cubs got a big game from Yordan Alvarez and smoked the Mets to go up 2-1 over there. Michael Conforto followed up his 3-homer Game 2 with another shot today but it was a mere footnote:
