Rays top Astros in Game 7, get to World Series

SAN DIEGO — By now, every baseball fan has heard of remarkable rookie Randy Arozarena. They’re fast becoming familiar with his World Series-bound Tampa Bay 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.

Arozarena homered again, 36-year-old Charlie Morton was brilliant against his former team and the Rays silenced the Houston Astros 4-2 to reach the World Series for just the second time.

The Rays will face either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves in the World Series in Arlington, Texas, starting Tuesday night. Game 7 of the NLCS was Sunday night.

Right fielder Manuel Margot squeezed Aledmys Diaz’s fly ball in his glove for the final out, and fireworks burst 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, 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, a relative unknown before postseason, has brought power and serious dance moves to the Rays.

“I wouldn’t say I was chasing MVP, but I was just trying to do everything for the team, anything to allow us to win,” the 25-year-old left fielder said through a translator.

Arozarena did Cristiano Ronaldo’s famous goal celebration after his homer and again after receiving the MVP. Eight nights earlier, he threw down a breakdancing move to win a dance-off with Brett Phillips while the Rays celebrated their AL Division Series win against the New York Yankees.

Tampa Bay’s only other World Series appearance was in 2008, when it lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.

The innovative Rays led the AL with a 40-20 record in the pandemic-shortened season. They snapped a three-game losing streak and prevented the Astros from matching the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the only major league team to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series.

The Rays also kept the Astros from becoming the first team to win a pennant with a losing regular-season record (29-31).

Mike Zunino homered and drove in two runs for the Rays, who avoided the ignominy of joining the 2004 New York Yankees, who took a 3-0 lead in the ALCS and lost four straight to the Red Sox. Boston went on to win its first World Series in 86 seasons.

Arozarena set a rookie record with his seventh homer of the postseason. His 21 hits are one shy Derek Jeter’s 1996 rookie postseason record.

Nicknamed “The Cuban Rocket,” Arozarena connected off Lance McCullers Jr. to right-center field at Petco Park with one out in the first.

Margot, who played with the San Diego Padres from late in the 2016 season until being traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason, was aboard after getting hit with a pitch.

Arozarena defected from Cuba to Mexico in 2015, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016 and made his big league debut last year. Traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason, he tested positive for COVID19 before summer camp and didn’t make his 2020 debut until Aug. 30.