MARGOT SUPPLIES POWER, TOO
Manuel Margot was the Padres’ No. 1-ranked prospect five years ago, a player the organization envisioned making spectacular plays at Petco Park for years to come.
Margot did exactly that Monday afternoon, although it came in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform.
Margot’s three-run homer in the first inning and a spectacular catch in the second highlighted Tampa Bay’s second straight win over Houston, a 4-2 victory in Game 2 of the ALCS at Petco Park.
The Rays come into today’s Game 3 needing two victories to advance to the World Series for the first time in 12 years.
“You’ve got to stay positive, and you’ve got to find a way to move on,” Margot said through an interpreter.
Margot, traded from the Padres to the Rays before the season for reliever Emilio Pagan, was speaking both personally and professionally. He narrowly avoided a family tragedy before the season, then suffered a personal loss during it when his father died in August of the coronavirus.
“I had a family incident where our car got on fire,”
Rays 4, Astros 2
Margot said. “It exploded. Our entire family was in the car and, thankfully, bystanders were able to pull one of my kids out. Luckily, I’m able to be here to tell you guys about it. That was one of the first things.
“Obviously, my dad passing away during the season was very tough.”
Baseball has been a pleasant diversion, especially with the Rays on this run.
Margot has been right in the middle of it. He homered for the third time in the playoffs after hitting only one homer during 47 regular-season games.
His first-inning homer came after a two-out throwing error by Houston second baseman Jose Altuve kept the inning alive. Moments after the ball cleared the centerfield wall, Margot raised his right arm rounding the bases while Altuve hung his head.
In the top of the second inning, Margot made one of the most memorable catches in Petco’s 17-year history, racing from right field into foul territory to track down a ball hit by Houston’s George Springer.
With the 5-foot fence that runs parallel to the foul line
fast approaching, Margot never hesitated, gloving the ball and then tumbling over the fence onto the concrete walkway below.
“I wasn’t thinking about the wall, I was thinking about catching the ball,” Margot said. “Once I actually started to flip and realized it was a little bit further of a drop, that’s when I got a little scared.”
Asked if he enjoyed the homer or the catch more, Margot said: “Definitely the home run. The home run didn’t hurt.”
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash’s view from the dugout was obscured, so he didn’t see the play until it was replayed on the videoboard.
“To have the ability to know where you’re at and kind of the effort to say, ‘Forget it, I’m going to hit something, but I’m going in’ and still hang onto the ball was really, really impressive.”
Said Tampa Bay starting pitcher Charlie Morton:
“These guys are all in for each other and all put their bodies on the line. That play was unbelievable.”
Morton seemed to get plays like that throughout five shutout innings against the Astros.
If it was Margot going over a fence, it was shortstop Willy Adames and third baseman Joey Weddle making diving stops in the dirt.
Defense made a difference. Tampa Bay made the plays — for the second straight game — that Houston didn’t.
“We talked about it last night,” Cash said of Tampa Bay’s 2-1 victory over the Astros in Sunday’s Game 1. “How do you win close ballgames and be good at it over time? You’ve got to make plays.”
Altuve made two errors. Both after being perfectly positioned on the outfield grass in short right field.
He bounced both throws — a grounder in the first by JiMan Choi and a grounder in the third by Brandon Lowe — and first baseman Yuli Gurriel failed to glove them.
Altuve got away with the second one. The first — which directly preceded Margot’s homer — is going to sting for some time.
Take it away and who knows, this series might be tied.
That’s because Houston starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. was outstanding.
The right-hander allowed only one earned run over seven innings, giving up four hits with 11 strikeouts and no walks.
McCullers retired 15 of the last 16 hitters he faced, a stretch interrupted only by Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino’s two-out homer in the seventh inning.
“The Astros had some opportunities and they caught very few breaks,” Morton said. “Lance goes out there, he outpitches me by a mile.
“He threw one of the better games you could expect anyone to throw, and here I am sitting here with a win because my team picked me up.”
Morton continued the postseason brilliance that may have Houston wondering why it let him to leave as a free agent after the 2018 season.
He allowed five hits over five shutout innings with five strikeouts, winning his seventh straight postseason start.