We did it!
Joe Ryan did not want this to be the last game he pitched as a Ray and the impending free agent reached back for his best performance of the postseason leading the Rays to a tense 3-2 win over the Tigers in Game 7 and a date with the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Thanks to Ryan it turned out that the Rays wouldn't have to win a slugfest and that was a good thing as despite early homers from
Alex Kirilloff and
Andrew Greckel off Tiger ace Francis Martes (and
JT Realmuto's RBI single, which proved to be the difference in the end), the bats only squeaked out 4 hits. As a result Detroit crept back in the game and we had to sweat out an incredibly nail-biting 9th when the Tigers led off the inning with a double off closer
Yasunari Uehara. The runner went to third on a fly ball, but Uehara got a grounder at the drawn-in infield for out #2 and then retired pinch-hitter (and former Rays property) Orlando Martinez on a grounder to
Ed Howard to set off the celebrations. It marked the second time in three seasons the Rays came back from a huge deficit to beat Detroit in the ALCS as in 2026 they pulled off the historic feat of coming back from 0-3 down (and 5-0 after the first inning in Game 4). Coming back from 1-3 down isn't as incredible but a difficult feat nonetheless.