*Photo from USA Today*
Tampa Bay leads series 2-0
Maybe, some day in the future, game two of the 2020 ALCS between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros will be looked at as the Manuel Margot game. Margot homered, made a spectacular catch, and the Rays beat the Houston Astros 4-2 to take a 2-0 series lead. When Margot was asked if he liked the homer or the catch better, he said the homer, because "The home run didn't hurt."
The Rays got the scoring started in the first inning, when Margot hit a 3 run homer to center field, making it 3-0 Rays early on. It stayed 3-0 all the way to the 6th inning, when Carlos Correa got the Astros on the board with a solo homer to center field, making it a 3-1 game. In the 7th inning, the Rays got that run right back on a long solo homer by Mike Zunino, making it 4-1 Rays. In the 9th, Yuli Gurriel scored on a George Springer groundout, but that was all the Astros could muster.
With two outs in the second inning and two runners on base, Springer hit a high fly ball to right field, which Margot started chasing. The ball continued to slice towards foul ground, with Margot continuing to chase, while trying to see the ball through the sun. Margot got all the way to the railing in right field, caught the ball, tumbled over the railing, and held on, getting the final out of the inning.
Margot said of his big catch that "Approaching it you don’t really realize how high it is but it gets a little lower once you go over the wall, so once I actually started to flip and realized it was a little bit further of a drop, that’s when I got a little scared."
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Margot's catch that "To have the ability to know where you’re at, and kind of be able to say, ‘Forget it, I know I’m going to hit something but I’m going in,’ and still hang on to the ball, was really, really impressive."
Charlie Morton got the win for the Rays, throwing 5 great innings in another solid playoff start for Morton. He allowed no runs on 5 hits and one walk, striking out 5 Astros. Pete Fairbanks came in after Morton, throwing two innings of relief, allowing the solo homer to Correa. After Fairbanks, Aaron Loup and Ryan Thompson combined to throw a scoreless 8th inning, and Nick Anderson shut the Astros down in the 9th for the save.
Lance McCullers Jr got the start for the Astros, but he was also tagged with the loss. Despite the loss, McCullers had a very good outing for the Astros. McCullers allowed 4 runs on 4 hits, striking out 11 Rays hitters. Ultimately, it was a few mistakes that cost McCullers and the Astros. Andre Scrubb was used in relief, pitching a scoreless 8th inning.
Correa addressed the 2-0 deficit for the Astros, saying that "It’s not business as usual. Tomorrow is a must-win situation for us, you don’t want to be down 0-3 in a series with a great team like the Rays. I feel like we’ve been playing good baseball. We just haven’t got those hits. There were a lot of hard-hit balls today right at people, their defense is winning ballgames for them right now."
The series continues on Tuesday, with the Astros in need of a win, as they send Jose Urquidy to the mound. Ryan Yarbrough gets the start for the Rays.
Comments
Post a Comment