Rays power past Yankees to take lead in ALDS
Randy Arozarena homered for the third straight game and Kevin Kiermaier and Michael Perez also went deep for the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat the New York Yankees 8-4 Wednesday night to move within one victory of reaching the AL Championship Series for the first time in 12 years.
New York’s Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer off Shane McClanahan to centre field in the eighth inning to become the first player with a home run in each of his team’s first five games of a single post-season. Stanton has six homers and 13 RBIs in those five games. McClanahan made his major league debut in Game 1 on Monday night.
The Rays took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Division Series. Game 4 is tonight at Petco Park, which has yielded 16 home runs in three games.
The Rays are looking to advance out of the ALDS for just the second time. They reached the 2008 World Series before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Arozarena, a 25-year-old rookie from Havana who’s nicknamed “The Cuban
Rocket,” is having a breakout post-season. He homered off Gerrit Cole in the first inning of Game 1, a 9-3 Yankees win, and off rookie Deivi Garcia in the first inning of Game 2, a 7-5
Rays win.
He hit a shot deep to left leading off the fifth Wednesday night to chase Masahiro Tanaka and give the Rays a 5-1 lead.
Arozarena went 3 for 4 with a walk. He leads all players in the post-season with 12 hits in five games. He went hitless in five post-season plate appearances in 2019 for St. Louis, which traded him to Tampa Bay in January.
Athletics 9, Astros 7
LOS ANGELES - Chad Pinder tied the score with a three-run homer in the seventh inning, Sean Murphy hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth and the Oakland Athletics rallied past the Houston Astros to avoid elimination in their AL Division Series.
The Astros wasted leads of 2-1 and 7-4, and the Athletics bounced back after giving up advantages of 1-0 and 4-2.
Braves 2, Marlins 0
HOUSTON - Rookie Ian Anderson pitched like a poised veteran, right fielder Nick Markakis made a nifty defensive play late and the Atlanta Braves threw another playoff shutout, beating the Miami Marlins Wednesday for a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series.
The Braves have pitched three shutouts in four games this post-season. Travis d'Arnaud and Dansby Swanson each homered for the second straight day, putting Atlanta one win away from a sweep in the bestof-five matchup.