Small-market Rays ‘dangerous’ in Series
SAN DIEGO – The folks on Madison Avenue have no interest in lining them up for endorsements. The national TV networks have snubbed them all year.
The Tampa Bay Rays could care less what anyone thinks of them.
All they know is that you’re about to see a whole lot more of them in October, on baseball’s biggest stage.
The Rays are moving on to the World Series for only the second time in franchise history, knocking off the defending American League champion Houston Astros, 4-2, Saturday night in Game 7 of the ALCS.
“We’re a small-market team,” said Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, their longest-tenured player. “We’re not the most popular team out there. We don’t have too many household names that a ton of people are going to know.
“But at the same time, we have some very well above-average players. We have a lot of depth. We know how dangerous we are.
“If you do things right, great things can happen.”
So, go ahead and criticize their style of play, but the Rays are going to keep winning the only way they know how, playing spectacular fundamental baseball.
They were up 3 games to 0 in the series, but recovered just in time to make sure they didn’t join the 2004 New York Yankees as the only teams to blow the lead in a best-of-seven series.
“There was a lot of anxiety,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I don’t know if I went to bed. Believe me, we’ve all watched the ESPN documentary Four Days in October. I didn’t want to see it again. … If you watch us play day in and day out, we’ve got a special group of players and personalities who really enjoy playing the game, and playing the game with each other.”
The Rays don’t have any marquee stars, although Randy Arozarena is quickly becoming one, hitting his seventh postseason homer in the first inning, and becoming the first rookie position player to win the ALCS MVP.
“He is the best player on the planet,” said outfielder Kevin Kiermaier, who played in his first game since being hit in the wrist in Game 4. “It’s incredible.”
And their payroll is the third-lowest lowest in all of baseball at $27.4 million, with the smallest fanbase, playing in an antiquated stadium.
No one will ever confuse them with the ’27 Yankees, the Big Red Machine, or the Atlanta Braves of the 90’s, but, man, can they play baseball.
“The Rays are a damn good team,” Astros pitcher Lance McCullers said. “They’ve been the best team in the American League all season. They went through the Yankees. They went through us.”
The Rays may be baseball’s poster boys for the analytic world, with their openers, four-man outfields, no traditional closer, and platoon at nearly every position, but they win the oldschool way.
Their starters can shut down anyone, as veteran Charlie Morton proved again, winning his major-league record fourth consecutive winner-take-all-game. He shut them out for 5 2/3 innings, giving up just two hits. He is now 4-0 with a 0.47 ERA in elimination games.
He was only the second pitcher in history to win Game 7 for one team -the Astros in the 2017 World Series -and then facing the same team in another Game 7, joining Roger Clemens who did it with the Boston Red Sox and Yankees.
Morton, 37, cruised in this game. He gave up a two-out single to Michael Brantley in the first inning, and retired 14 consecutive batters. Yet, after a walk and an infield single, Cash turned to his vaunted bullpen.
Their bullpen, with a record13 relievers producing saves, is deep and talented. Nick Anderson, who gave up only five hits the entire season, picked up where Morton left off, pitching two shutout innings. Pete Fairbanks came in with two outs and two runners on in the eighth, and finished them off.