San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RAYS TOP ASTROS, ARE SERIES-BOUND
Early HRS, Morton’s solid start enough for victory in ALCS finale
Haters gonna hate. But wait.
Just when it appeared the Houston Astros were going to go and complete the most historic comeback in baseball history this side of the 2004 Boston Red Sox — to the boos and hisses of most of America — the Tampa Bay Rays went about rewriting the ending. Trashed the script.
Maybe the baseball gods were watching after all when the Astros’ signing-stealing scandal was exposed.
Maybe the baseball gods wanted to put a third World Series berth in four years within the Astros’ grasp, only to snatch it away in the most improbable way.
How else to explain Houston losing three straight games in the ALCS, then winning three straight games to force a Game 7.
Only to watch the man who pitched them to that
tainted 2017 title, eliminate them on a Saturday evening in San Diego?
Tampa Bay right-hander Charlie Morton limited Houston to two hits over 52⁄3 scoreless innings and was backed by two home runs at Petco Park, leading the Rays to a 4-2 win that delivered the second World Series berth in franchise history.
“It’s a really special feeling,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “The last three days were pretty agonizing, no doubt . ... All good teams show the ability to rebound, and we did.”
The Rays reached the Series in 2008, losing in five games to Philadelphia.
The 2020 World Series begins Tuesday in Texas. The American League champion meets the NLCS winner that will be determined today in a Game 7 matchup between the Dodgers and Braves.
“It’s frustrating, but these guys fought,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “I mean, they fought to the very end. People didn’t have us making the playoffs. Most people didn’t have us beating Minnesota. Nobody had us beating Oakland . ... One thing for sure, we’ll be back in this position next year.”
Tampa Bay, perhaps pressing when the Astros joined the ’04 Red Sox as only the second of 39 teams to force a Game 7 after digging themselves an 0-3 hole, shouldn’t have sweated it.
Not with Morton on the mound.
After pitching five shutout innings to win Game 2, Morton’s encore was strikingly similar. He breezed through an Astros lineup that had Cash pulling out his hair since Wednesday.
Morton allowed only Michael Brantley’s two-out single in the first inning until issuing a one-out walk to Martin Maldonado in the sixth.
When Jose Altuve’s twoout single put runners at the corners, Cash went to the bullpen. Morton’s day was done after allowing two hits with six strikeouts and one walk. Rays reliever Nick Anderson induced a ground ball from Brantley to end the inning.
Baker had hoped removing Morton could change the Astros’ fortunes.
“He was carving us up,” Baker said.
Morton signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent before the 2019 season after spending two years with the Astros.
He was the winning pitcher when Houston beat the Dodgers 5-1 to win Game 7 of the 2017 World Series, pitching five scoreless innings.
Interestingly enough, it was Lance Mccullers Jr. — the opposing starter in this game — who relieved Morton and finished that game.
Morton extended a postseason brilliance in which he already held a major league record with three wins (in three starts) in winner-takeall games, compiling a 0.64 ERA along the way.
He won Game 7 in last year’s ALDS against Oakland. In 2017, Morton beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS before beating the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.
In this Game 7, Morton was bidding for his seventh straight postseason victory.
He benefited in that endeavor because the Tampa Bay offense that had gone dormant the past three days suddenly sprung to life.
Mccullers was borderline brilliant in Game 2, allowing one earned run with 11 strikeouts in seven innings.
But that was the game in which second baseman Altuve gave the Rays a couple of extra outs with bounced throws.
Tampa Bay’s Manuel Margot turned the first opportunity into a three-run, first-inning homer, which is how Mccullers got pinned with the 4-2 loss.
Altuve bounced another throw to first base in Game 7 — on a ground ball hit by Tampa Bay’s Joey Wendle — although teammate Yuli Gurriel dug it out at first base for the out.
So this one stood squarely on the shoulders of Mccullers, who once again did not benefit from the Astros offense that led the revival in Games 4-6.
Mccullers again found himself in a hole before Houston could get out of the first inning.
Tampa Bay rookie left fielder Randy Arozarena continued a torrid postseason by lining a 97 mph fastball from Mccullers over the center-field wall for a tworun homer.
“It was huge to get runs early,” Cash said. “It settled a lot of people in the dugout. It certainly did me.”
For Arozarena, batting .382 over 14 playoff games, it was his seventh home run of the postseason, a rookie record. He was named ALCS MVP after batting .321 (9-for-28) with four homers in the series, becoming the first rookie position player to win MVP of a championship series or World Series.
Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino tacked on a run with a solo homer in the second and added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 4-0.
Houston rallied in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs. Carlos Correa singled home two runs off reliever Pete Fairbanks, with the ball rolling through the hole left at second base on the shift to make it 4-2. Fairbanks struck out Alex Bregman to end the threat.
“I’m just proud of this team, man,” Correa said. “It’s been an unbelievable ride. I’ve never had more fun playing baseball than I did this year with this group of guys.”
Said Mccullers: “We weren’t on a revenge tour. That’s not what this was. This was a bunch of guys that came together, wanted to play damn good baseball and win a World Series. And we fell short of our goal.”