How sweep it is...
The Tampa Bay Rays are heading back to the World Series to defend their 2032 title after making quick work of the White Sox, sweeping the 102-win club thanks to an 8-3 Game 4 win. But while the series was easy in the end, there was nothing easy tonight about the clincher as Chicago jumped to an early 3-1 off a shaky
Danny Fragoso. Fortunately
Jaden Stevenson stabilized things and the Rays chipped away with
Carson Williams' 2-run single in 4th tying it and
Jose Pino's RBI knock in the 6th putting them up to stay. Still at 4-3 it was far from done and dusted and in the 8th the Pale Hose put men on first and third with nobody out before
Gerald Ogando struck out the next three men to escape with the lead intact. That missed opportunity took the wind out of Chicago's sails as the Rays then put 4 on the board in the bottom of the inning with rookie
Jalen Lowe's 2-run single in his playoff debut the big hit to end things. As predicted yesterday, Lowe filled in just fine for the injured
Adley Rutschman, going 2-3 with a walk, run scored and the two ribbies. The bench played a big role in this series with Williams also filling in and going 5-13 with 5 RBI in the 4 games. So now it's on to the World Series against either the Mets or the Dodgers but either way things will open with Game 1 at the Trop.
And it's advantage Mets as the road team continues to win all the games in the NLCS, potentially good for the Dodgers as the series returns to New York although I'm sure they'd have rather won tonight:
