3 wins to go...
It wasn't pretty but the Rays overcame another blown lead by the bullpen in this postseason to take a 5-4 win as one of our key players finally joined the playoff party.
Kelly Crumpton, whose failure to get a hit his first four times up tonight made him 2-for-45 this postseason and on the verge of a benching, picked a great time to get a big hit as he hit a one-out triple in the 9th and scored on
Jeff McNeil's sac fly to provide the winning margin.
James Hays had pitched a great game and left with a 4-2 lead but it took him 106 pitches to get through 6. That put us in our 7th-inning danger zone and sure enough
Tommy Doyle and
Aaron Fletcher could not get it done as they combined to blow the lead. Enter rookie and brand new addition to the playoff roster
Kevin DiCostanzo, who got a whiff to end the 7th without further damage and then pitched a scoreless 8th against some tough hitters. That bought the offense time to regain the lead and
Yasunari Uehara breezed through 9th with a couple of Ks to save it.
Michael Prosecky will get the ball for Game 2 and we have to hope he'll be as brilliant as he's been in his previous 3 playoff starts (2-0, only 2 runs allowed in 20 IP).