*Photo from CBS Sports*
Red Sox win series 3-1
The underdog story of the Boston Red Sox is continuing for another playoff series. Rafael Devers homered, Kike Hernandez delivered the heroics, and the Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5 on Monday night, winning in walk off fashion.
The win gives the Red Sox a spot in the ALCS, which is slated to begin on October 15. For a Red Sox team that wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this position, they will gladly take on the challenge. For now though, they wait and see if they will be playing either the Houston Astros or Chicago White Sox, with Houston currently leading the ALDS series 2-1.
After winning game 3 in walk off fashion on Sunday night, the Red Sox did the same thing on Monday night, capping off a morning of the Boston Marathon, and a night of exciting playoff baseball, a perfect night for the city of Boston. It's the first time a team has won back to back postseason games with a walk off since the 2004 Red Sox did it in games 4 and 5 of the ALCS that year.
Hernandez said of his walk off hit that "You're going to have a chance to win the game, and you can't let this situation get too big. You're about to win this game, so you need to work on slowing everything down and slowing your breathing down and slowing the game down and starting early and making sure that you see the pitch, and you're not just swinging at your shoes for no reason for trying to be a hero."
Rafael Devers got the crowd fired up early, blasting a 3 run home run to center field in the 3rd inning, giving the Red Sox a 3-0 lead to start. An RBI double from Alex Verdugo and an RBI single from JD Martinez in the same inning kept the crowd and the Red Sox fired up, making it a 5-0 game. It was at that point that the Rays started their way back into the game, starting when Jordan Luplow scored on a groundout to make it a 5-1 game in the 5th.
One inning later, in the 6th, Wander Franco knocked a two run home run to center field, cutting the deficit to 5-3 two thirds of the way through the game. In the 8th, the Rays roared back to tie it on an RBI double from Kevin Kiermaier and an RBI single from Randy Arozarena. All that did was set the stage for Danny Santana, in as a pinch runner, to score on a sac fly from Hernandez, sending Boston to the ALCS, and the Rays home.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of clinching an ALCS spot that "Not too many people gave us a chance from the get-go, but we believed. We always said we had a good baseball team that had some holes, and we still have some holes, but at the end, for how bad it looked sometimes, we're still here. We're still in the dance. We're still in the tournament, and we're moving on to the ALCS."
Garrett Whitlock got his first career postseason win, delivering two shutout innings of relief after Ryan Brasier allowed two runs in the 8th. Eduardo Rodriguez started on short rest and excelled, allowing two runs on 3 hits and zero walks, striking out 6 hitters, being pulled after allowing a hit to the first batter in the 6th inning. Tanner Houck and Josh Taylor also pitched an inning of relief each.
JP Feyereisen was on the mound for the walk off sac fly, so he gets the season ending loss for the Rays, going 2/3 of an inning. Collin McHugh was the opener and did his job, throwing two shutout innings while allowing just one hit. Shane McClanahan then came in and got hit hard, being responsible for all 5 runs scored in the 3rd inning. JT Chargois, Andrew Kittredge, Luis Patino, Josh Fleming, and Pete Fairbanks also pitched.
Rays catcher Mike Zunino said of being eliminated that "It’s baseball. It's who's hot at the right time. It's a very good team over there. Boston's played us extremely well all year. There's games that we've edged them out in certain circumstances, and they happened to get the edge on the couple games that matter the most. It's tough."
The Rays head home for the winter, waiting until pitchers and catchers report to spring training in early February. The Red Sox wait for their ALCS opponent, with no game one starter announced.
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