Cole, Astros end Rays’ season
HOUSTON — The Rays spent much of the last two weeks celebrating.
They sprayed champagne in Toronto when they clinched their first playoff berth in six years, then again in Oakland when the won the AL wild-card game. After losing the first two games of the AL division series to Astros, they won Games 3 and 4 at home, reviving their hopes and potentially their fractured fanbase, by forcing a fifth and deciding game. They talked of how much they loved playing together and each other, and were determined to keep going.
But Thursday, it all came to a quiet end in a 6-1 loss to an Astros team that looked very much like the majors’ best.
A terrible start by Tyler Glasnow put the Rays in a 4-0 hold in the first inning, Gerrit Cole shut them down and nearly out for the second time in the series and they added on with two homers off Emilio Pagan in the eighth.
Rather than go on to New York to face the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, they are headed home Friday morning, and when the disappointment fades they are likely to appreciate what they accomplished in what will go down as one of their best seasons.
They melded a young core, a few key veterans and some helpful in-season additions to win 99 games, with 96 in the regular season, one shy of the franchise record.
The Rays went into Thursday’s game with something of an edge, feeling they’d been slighted by media and fans anticipating and
expecting an Astros-Yankees heavyweight battle for the American League pennant, and how correspondingly that flipped the pressure on to an Astros team that won an MLBmost
107 games and is considered the favorite to win the World Series championship.
“For us to be here today, you know, it means the world. Nobody thought we were coming back to be Houston,” shortstop Willy Adames said before the game. “I’d say that, yeah, everybody is counting us out already. They’re making the schedule the Yankees and the Astros. So I would say the pressure is
on them. Obviously because they went to Tropicana up 2-0. So like I said, nobody thought that we’d come back to Houston, and we’re here. I’d say the pressure is on them, for sure.”
All the confidence and al the momentum the Rays brought back to Houston from their thrilling Games 3 and 4 wins at home disappeared quickly on Thursday.