Arozarena, Rays ready for Series
Keeping an eye on the world of sports during the pandemic:
By now, every baseball fan has heard of remarkable rookie Randy Arozarena. They’re fast becoming familiar with his World Series-bound Rays teammates, too.
“You sit here and look at this group of guys, and I always say we don’t have a lot of household names, but at the same time, people are making a name for themselves right now,” outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said.
They kept doing that in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night in San Diego.
Arozarena homered again, 36-year-old Charlie Morton was brilliant against his former team and the Rays silenced the Astros 4-2 to reach the World Series for just the second time.
The World Series starts Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Right fielder Manuel Margot squeezed Aledmys Diaz’s flyball in his glove for the final out and fireworks burst overhead as the Rays began to celebrate the AL pennant in an NL ballpark, a byproduct of the pandemic-shortened season.
“If you don’t know the name by now, they better learn them, because we’ve we got some boys who can play,” said Kiermaier, the Rays’ longest-tenured player.
That would start with Arozarena, above left, who set a rookie record with his seventh home run — a two-run shot in the first — and was chosen ALCS MVP.
“Randy Arozarena, I don’t have any words to describe what he’s done, what he’s meant to us this postseason,” manager Kevin Cash said. “For him to have a bat in his hand with an opportunity for a big home run, really, I think it settled a lot of people in the dugout. It certainly did me.”
Arozarena, 25, a relative unknown before the postseason, has brought power to the Rays.
The innovative Rays led the AL with a 40-20 record in the pandemic-shortened season.