Off on the right foot...
Veteran Tony Vasquez was brought into the club in May to be a middle-of-the-order force, replacing the declining and inconsistent Jon Morales, and while he had a fine year he never seemed to carry the team. That changed tonight in his first playoff appearance with the Rays as the veteran clubbed a pair of homers to make the difference in a 3-1 win over Toronto in the ALDS opener. His first one was a laser into the RF bullpen which had a 20-degree launch angle and it answered a run the Jays scored in the top of the 1st, and his second gave the club some much-needed breathing room in the 8th after Toronto was constantly threatening against the pen. And there was no bigger threat than in the top of that inning when the Jays loaded the bases with one out against Willie Navarro and closer Steve Talbott was summoned early. Talbott got a shallow fly ball and a strikeout to escape and then pitched around a 1-out single in the 9th to close it out and make a winner of Dave Rose, who turned in an ace-like start. The rookie Randy Mastropietro will get the call tomorrow in Game 2 as he seeks to win his 20th game of the season even if it won't officially make him a 20-game winner.
Elsewhere:
A fairly unremarkable-looking array of games here except for something that I've never heard of happening and may have never happened in MLB postseason history: The same player hitting walk-off homers in consecutive games. Last night the Dodgers' Andy Randall hit a 2-run shot to walk off Game 1 of their NLDS with Colorado, and tonight he did it again as LA is the first team to be only one win away from the CS round.