Margot’s homer, catch lead Rays
Win give Tampa Bay 2-0 edge in series vs. Houston
Manuel Margot hit a three-run home run one batter after a crucial Houston error and made a spectacular catch in right field in his former home ballpark, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Astros 4-2 Monday to take a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.
Margot homered off Lance Mccullers Jr. with two outs in the first inning on an 87-degree afternoon. An inning later, he tracked George Springer’s long foul ball to right field while shielding his face from the sun and caught it as he tumbled over a padded railing atop a wall and landed on a walkway near the seats down the line at Petco Park.
Margot popped up and held up his glove with the ball in it after a 102-foot sprint. That ended the inning, stranding two runners.
“To have the ability to know where you’re at, and kind of be able to say, ‘Forget it, I know I’m going to hit something but I’m going in,’ and still hang on to the ball, was really, really impressive,” manager Kevin Cash said.
Margot was an outfielder with the San Diego Padres from late in the 2016 season until being traded to Tampa Bay on Feb. 8 for reliever Emilio Pagan.
“I think all the time I played here, I never played right field,” Margot said through a translator.
Margot homered to straightaway center field on an 0-1 pitch from Mccullers with two outs in the first. It fol
“All champions. This hurts the most,” Bench said.
Morgan was a two-time NL MVP, a 10-time AllStar and won five Gold Gloves. A dynamo known for flapping his left elbow at the plate, Little Joe could hit a home run, steal a base and disrupt any game with his daring.
Most of all, he completed Cincinnati’s two-time World Series championship team, boosting a club featuring Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Bench to back-to-back titles.
“Joe would always amaze me,” Rose said. “He was by far the most intelligent player I’ve ever been around. He rubbed off on all of us. A big part of the Big Red Machine.”
Morgan’s tiebreaking single with two outs in the ninth of Game 7 in 1975 gave the Reds the crown in a classic matchup with Boston, and he spurred a four-game sweep of the Yankees the next season.
Morgan was the league’s MVP both years.
Often regarded as the greatest second baseman in history, he was an easy first-ballot pick for Cooperstown in 1990.
In a 22-year career through 1984, Morgan scored 1,650 runs, stole 689 bases, hit 268 homers and batted .271. But those stats hardly reflected the force created on the field by the lefty-hitting No. 8.
Health issues had slowed down Morgan in recent years. He had knee surgery in 2015 and later needed a bone marrow transplant for an illness.
Morgan helped to revolutionize the game with his quickness and many talents, especially once he hit the turf at Riverfront Stadium. His statue outside Great American Ball Park portrays him in motion, naturally.
“Packed unusual power into his extraordinarily quick 150-lb. fireplug frame,” he was praised on his Hall of Fame plaque.
“He meant a lot to us, a lot to me, a lot to baseball, a lot to African Americans around the country. A lot to players that were considered undersized,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker, a longtime friend and National League rival. “He was the one of the first examples of speed and power for a guy they said was too small to play.”
Morgan got his start with Houston in 1963, when the team was called the .45s, then became the Astros in 1965.
Cincinnati made a shocking trade for Morgan after the 1971 season, giving up slugger Lee May and All- Star second baseman Tommy Helms in an eight-player swap.
“Joe made us better, and we made him better,” Rose said. “We put him in the spotlight. It was a perfect fit.”
Morgan led the NL in on-base percentage in four of his first five years with the Reds.
Morgan scored a major league-leading 122 runs in his first season with the Reds and they reached the 1972 World Series, where they lost in seven games to Oakland.
In his MVP seasons, Morgan hit .327 with 17 homers, 94 RBIS and 67 steals in 1975, then followed with a .320 average, 27 homers, 111 RBIS and 60 steals the next year. He led the league in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage in ’76.
He also played for the Giants, Phillies and A’s. After his playing days, he spent many years as a television announcer.