Halfway to an unlikely championship...
Oops, they did it again. On a slightly "balmier" night in Chicago (35 degrees as opposed to yesterday's 30) the Rays shocked the Cubs again and will head back to the climate-controlled Trop with a 2-0 World Series lead. This time they didn't wait until the 9th to win it - they took advantage of a 2-out Luis Porras error in the 6th when
Rodolfo Solano followed with a 3-run homer into the LF bleachers at Wrigley to make it 4-2 Tampa Bay and held from there.
Aldry Acosta was downright dominant for 4 innings but ran into trouble in the 5th, giving up a couple of runs and leaving with men on 2nd and 3rd with only one out. That was the point at which the critical decision to bring in early our sole bullpen lefty
Erubiel Armenta with two slugging lefties due was made, and it turned out to be a great call when Armenta retired the two men without any further scoring. Later things got a bit shaky in the 9th when new closer
Gerald Ogando gave up a leadoff homer to make it 5-3 and put two men on with two out, so old closer
Randy Rodriguez came in and while he walked a man to load the bases he then struck out the next one for the final out.
Ryan Okuda (this time, really) will start Game 3 in two days in St. Pete.