Halfway there...
It was billed as an epic pitchers' duel in the making with Garrett Crochet and his 1.88 ERA going up against
Shane McClanahan and his 8-0, 2.06 record. Spoiler: it was not. As they did in September when they got to him for 5 runs the Rays got the better of Crochet once again, this time when it really mattered. Things looked bleak when Mac gave up his second homer of the game, a 2-run Wilyer Abreu shot and the second he allowed to a lefty, but Crochet - who had already run up quite a pitch count - put two more men on in the 5th and had to come out on 99 pitches, and two batters later
Brandon Lowe took Hector Neris deep for a grand slam and a 6-5 Tampa Bay lead. Mac and the pen took it from there with only a scare in the 9th when Kristian Campbell doubled off
Pete Fairbanks to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the 9th but the Rays closer got Abreu to ground to 1st with the runners holding and then induced a game-ending pop-up from Alex Bregman. So the Rays were winners in the first-ever playoff game at George M. Steinbrenner Field and the first one at a minor-league park.
Drew Rasmussen will go tomorrow for the clincher.
In the other AL WC game:
Tarik Skubal (who went 7 2 0 0 1 11) and Tigers led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th before Detroit blew the lead, sending to the teams into an extra-inning marathon which the Tigers ended up winning anyway.
In the NL Wild Card, both series will need a deciding Game 3 tomorrow:
