Rookie tore up postseason
ARLINGTON, Texas – Randy Arozarena, who is so inexperienced that he won’t qualify for rookie status until next season, turned the postseason into a one-man show with a record 10 home runs for the Rays.
The first-inning shot Tuesday gave Arozarena the most homers in a single postseason and tied him with David Freese of the 2011 Cardinals for the most extra-base hits, 14, in the postseason.
Arozarena’s 10 homers in his first 25 career playoff games trails only Carlos Beltran and Nelson Cruz at the start of their postseason careers.
He was the first rookie to drive in a run in four consecutive World Series games and also joined Charlie Keller of the 1939 Yankees as the only rookies to hit three homers in a World Series.
Arozarena, who was the unanimous MVP of the American League Championship Series, hit Tony Gonsolin’s 84mph slider into the right-field seats at Globe Life Field. It was his seventh opposite-field homer of the postseason.
It was also his 28th hit of the postseason, another record, to go along with five three-hit games.