ALDS Record: 1-2 in best of five series
Attendance: 32,251. Tropicana Field. It was a loud and rowdy, all-Rays full- house cheering on the team that has given them so much all through this long season. These are the same fans who never show up in force during the season, but for Monday night's playoff game, they were in the mood to say thanks to the Rays as they faced elimination in this best of five series against the Astros. The game promised to be just as difficult as the first two had been, as they faced off against the third of the Astro's super-starters, Zack Greinke. But the fans were oblivious to the uphill battle looming. They were a towel-waving, bell-ringing human wave of excitement.
Fans at the Trop. Photo courtesy of Ben Wiley.
Charlie Morton was on the mound for the Rays, and after the first inning, it looked like it might be a long night. He got lead-off hitter George Springer, but Jose Altuve worked an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with a home run. It took the man the players call "Charlie Freakin' Morton" (tee shirts available) 31 pitches to get out of the first, but he only gave up that one run. It took him 21 more pitches to finish up the second, but there would be no more run scoring under Morton's five-inning, 93-pitch watch. Chaz Roe got two outs in the sixth, but gave up three hits and two runs. He was followed by Brendan McKay, Oliver Drake, and Colin Poche, who combined for three scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, picking up Morton who was already at 52 pitches, was Kevin Kiermaier in the home second. Avisail Garcia singled and Travis d'Arnaud was hit by a pitch before Kiermaier stepped to the plate and hit a ball over the center field wall and almost into the large devil ray tank. Suddenly the Rays had taken the lead and the crowed erupted. Fan favorite Ji-Man Choi hit another home run in the third making it 4-1. And then in the bottom of the fourth, they added four more runs, capped by Brandon Lowe's home run, and the lead grew to 8-1. Willy Adames' homer in the sixth made in 9-3, which grew again to 10-3 with an add-on run in the seventh.
It was an offensive explosion that made an emphatic statement in front of a super-excited crowd. Pitch for pitch, this may well have been the most dramatic and pure fun of all the games in Rays' history.
After the final out. Photo courtesy of Ben Wiley.
With the series now 2-1 in favor of Houston, the Rays bought themselves one more game Tuesday night. Astro's manager A.J. Hinch has already named Justin Verlander as his starter, and the Rays will probably have a full-fledged bullpen day. It sounds like a mismatch on the surface, but the Rays' bullpen has come together after a long and sometimes inconsistent summer to be an exciting unit eager to take the mound, eager to answer Kevin Cash's call to arms.
Verlander will be making a start on short rest, something he has never done in his career. It is impossible to know how he will react, which has got to give the Rays some hope. And it is unreasonable to think that under even the best of circumstances he could match his game one heroics, an eight-inning one-hitter. What's more, the Rays hitters may well be better able to hit Verlander having faced him a mere four days ago.
In short, there's hope in the Tampa-St. Pete area. This team doesn't panic, doesn't give up, and doesn't fear any team in either league. It might be Houston who should be feeling the pressure.
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