Friday, October 4. GAME ONE, ALDS. Astros manage a win over Rays, 6-2

Rays 2, Astros 6

ALDS Record:  0-1 in best of five series

Attendance:  43,360.  Minute Maid Park.

In what may be the most important Rays story of the day, the city of St. Petersburg has given permission to Tampa to resume a search for a new ballpark.  For months St. Pete has refused to budge on this issue, insisting that the Rays honor their contract to remain at Tropicana Field until the expiration of their lease in 2027.  Now, suddenly, perhaps in the wake of the Rays first playoff team in six years, keeping the team in the region seems to have become a priority.  Or perhaps the reason is that the Rays front office has been flirting with the possibility of splitting each season between Tampa-St. Pete and Montreal, Canada.  Either way there is a new glimmer of hope that we will get to keep the team here, where it began and belongs.

As to the division championship game between the Rays and the Astros, it was a close game with Houston's Justin Verlander and Tampa Bay's Tyler Glasnow matching scoreboard zeroes for four innings.  In the bottom of the fifth with one on, Glasnow threw a good pitch, a 97 mph fastball up in the strike zone, to Houston's always underestimated Jose Altuve, who turned it around and deposited it in the left field stands.  Glasnow deserved better, especially against Verlander, who didn't give up a hit until the fifth, a harmless single.

Brendan McKay replaced Glasnow and allowed a single and double, putting runners on first and third.  Then with two out Chaz Roe came in and got a playable popup into shallow right field.  With three players converging on the ball, second baseman Brandon Lowe thought he was in position to make an over the shoulder catch, but the ball hit his glove and fell to the ground.  The Rays could easily have escaped the inning without giving up a single run, but suddenly it was 4-0 and the game was out of hand with Verlander dominating Rays' hitters until he left in the eighth, when the Rays put up a pair of runs.  Too little too late.

The stakes are higher in the playoffs, but this type of game, with a great pitcher overwhelming the opposition and a popup that falls between fielders is what baseball is all about.  The Rays know that and will not go into game two on Saturday night feeling demoralized.

The trouble is they face Gerrit Cole whose record for 2019 is 20-5 with a 2.50 ERA and a major's leading 326 strikeouts.  Once again they have their work cut out for them, but they will take heart from the additional statistic that the Rays have beaten him twice in four games (with no-decisions in the others) and that his ERA against them in that stretch is a more encouraging 3.51.

Taking the mound for the Rays will be Blake Snell, whose road back from arm trouble and the IL has been alternately sharp and shaky.  The Rays will need a strong performance that lasts four or five innings, and hope they can score against Cole, before giving the ball to the bullpen, which will need to be on point the rest of the way.

Again it's an uphill battle, but just as the first game turned against them on a couple of plays, the Rays will play hard and perhaps get the breaks this time.  It's never a good idea to count this team out.