Rays’ bats come alive to even series
DALLAS: Brandon Lowe homered twice as the Tampa Bay Rays offence came to life to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 64 and even the World Series at one game apiece in Arlington, Texas, yesterday.
Lowe, the team’s best hitter during the regular season, has struggled during the postseason, but broke out of his slump with a solo shot in the first inning before adding a tworun blast in the fifth to extend the Rays lead to 50.
Starting pitcher Blake Snell neutralised the Dodgers’ lineup, not giving up a hit until Chris Taylor smashed a tworun homer in the bottom of the fifth that trimmed the Rays lead to 52.
Each team added a run in the sixth and the Dodgers closed the gap to 64 on Corey Seager’s home run in the next inning but the Rays’ bullpen closed out the game to even up the bestofseven series before game three tomorrow.
The Dodgers, who won Wednesday’s opener 83, struck out 15 times and recorded just five hits against Snell and the Rays relievers.
‘‘I attacked the zone really well, mixed it up, and did a good job keeping them off balance,’’ Snell, the American League Cy Young Award winner in 2018, said.
‘‘They are a very selective team with a few guys who are aggressive, so I had a pretty good game plan for what I needed to do to have success against them.
The World Series comes at the end of a truncated, 60game regular season due to the Covid19 pandemic and is being played entirely at Globe Life Field in Texas with a limited number of fans in attendance. — Reuters