Unlikely ace triggers Rays

ARLINGTON, Texas — Charlie Morton has slowly and quietly become one of the most dominant postseason pitchers ever.

He starts World Series Game 3 for the Tampa Bay Rays tonight with a chance to tie Orlando Hernandez’s record of eight consecutive winning postseason decisions, according to the Elias Sports Bur e a u . B y beating the Los Angeles Dodgers and winning his sixth consecutive postseason start, he would move within one of Bob Gibson’s record.

How unlikely for a pitcher traded by Pittsburgh for a minor leaguer five years ago, a right- hander who turns 37 in three weeks and didn’t make his first All-Star team until 2018,

“I do not wake up in the morning and say it’s my time to shine. I would say that I wake up in the morning and I question if I’ve done what I was supposed to do to get ready for what I’ve been asked to do,” Morton said. “I wake up with the humble recognition that what I’m about to do is an opportunity that not many

people get to experience, and I try to prepare for it just like that.”

Walker Buehler starts for the Dodgers, who won the opener 8-3 and were beaten 6-4 in Game 2. While there is no travel in the first neutralsite World Series, the teams had the day off, giving bullpens some recovery time.

Both teams decided against full workouts, though some players threw in Globe Life Field’s outfield under the closed roof and a few pitched off mounds in the bullpens.

Morton beat Houston on Saturday in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series at San Diego, allowing two hits in 52/ scoreless innings to become

3 the first pitcher with victories in four winnertake-all games. He pitched Houston over the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS and the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series, then signed a $30 million, two-year contract with the Rays after the 2018 season and defeated Oakland in the 2019 AL wild card game.

Morton