Go Rays!
Posted 10-17-2008 at 03:07 PM by mquintana
Rays Team Report
Yahoo! Sports 10 hours, 9 minutes ago
Inside Pitch
The Rays say they won’t have any trouble forgetting what happened Thursday night and looking forward to Game 6 on Saturday.
They’d better.
Because what happened Thursday was historic and horrible. They were seven runs up with seven outs to go to clinching their first World Series berth.
Now they hold just a 3-2 series lead and face a Sox team that has the momentum going into Game 6.
“We have two games to see what we’re made of,” veteran Cliff Floyd said.
The Rays have the benefit of having James Shields on the mound; he was 9-2 at home and has pitched well in two postseason starts there. But they also have to combat the doubts that could be creeping into their heads as the Sox try to come back from the brink for the third time in five years, having overcome a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in 2004 and 3-1 to the Indians last year.
“I think we’ll be OK,” third baseman Evan Longoria said. “We’ve been in this situation before. Never this big, but I think we’ll bounce back fine.”
Red Sox 8, Rays 7: J.D. Drew singled over the head of RF Gabe Gross to score Kevin Youkilis with two outs in the ninth, capping a Boston comeback from a 7-0 seventh-inning deficit that is the second greatest in postseason history.
Notes, Quotes
• 3B Evan Longoria and CF B.J. Upton each hit his sixth homer of the postseason. For Longoria, it was his fourth in as many games, breaking the ALCS record (shared by Bernie Williams, 2001 Yankees, and Rays teammate Carlos Pena, set moments earlier) and tying the LCS mark.
• 3B Evan Longoria extended his record for a rookie with his sixth homer of the postseason. Florida’s Miguel Cabrera hit four in 2003.
• 2B Akinori Iwamura extended his streak of reaching base to all nine of the Rays’ postseason games.
—3B Evan Longoria and CF B.J. Upton have combined to hit 12 homers in the postseason, matching Albert Pujols and Larry Walker of the 2004 Cardinals for the second most all time. Barry Bonds and Rich Aurilia of the 2002 Giants hit 14.
—LHP Scott Kazmir responded tremendously to the much publicized and criticized decision to have him start Game 5 by working six scoreless innings and leaving with a 7-0 lead.
By The Numbers: 1—Comebacks in postseason history that were bigger than the Red Sox’s rally Thursday. The Philadelphia A’s rallied from an 8-0 deficit to beat the Cubs in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series.
Quote To Note: “It stings and burns as bad as it could sting and burn.”—Cliff Floyd, on the Rays’ loss Thursday.
Yahoo! Sports 10 hours, 9 minutes ago
Inside Pitch
The Rays say they won’t have any trouble forgetting what happened Thursday night and looking forward to Game 6 on Saturday.
They’d better.
Because what happened Thursday was historic and horrible. They were seven runs up with seven outs to go to clinching their first World Series berth.
Now they hold just a 3-2 series lead and face a Sox team that has the momentum going into Game 6.
“We have two games to see what we’re made of,” veteran Cliff Floyd said.
The Rays have the benefit of having James Shields on the mound; he was 9-2 at home and has pitched well in two postseason starts there. But they also have to combat the doubts that could be creeping into their heads as the Sox try to come back from the brink for the third time in five years, having overcome a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in 2004 and 3-1 to the Indians last year.
“I think we’ll be OK,” third baseman Evan Longoria said. “We’ve been in this situation before. Never this big, but I think we’ll bounce back fine.”
Red Sox 8, Rays 7: J.D. Drew singled over the head of RF Gabe Gross to score Kevin Youkilis with two outs in the ninth, capping a Boston comeback from a 7-0 seventh-inning deficit that is the second greatest in postseason history.
Notes, Quotes
• 3B Evan Longoria and CF B.J. Upton each hit his sixth homer of the postseason. For Longoria, it was his fourth in as many games, breaking the ALCS record (shared by Bernie Williams, 2001 Yankees, and Rays teammate Carlos Pena, set moments earlier) and tying the LCS mark.
• 3B Evan Longoria extended his record for a rookie with his sixth homer of the postseason. Florida’s Miguel Cabrera hit four in 2003.
• 2B Akinori Iwamura extended his streak of reaching base to all nine of the Rays’ postseason games.
—3B Evan Longoria and CF B.J. Upton have combined to hit 12 homers in the postseason, matching Albert Pujols and Larry Walker of the 2004 Cardinals for the second most all time. Barry Bonds and Rich Aurilia of the 2002 Giants hit 14.
—LHP Scott Kazmir responded tremendously to the much publicized and criticized decision to have him start Game 5 by working six scoreless innings and leaving with a 7-0 lead.
By The Numbers: 1—Comebacks in postseason history that were bigger than the Red Sox’s rally Thursday. The Philadelphia A’s rallied from an 8-0 deficit to beat the Cubs in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series.
Quote To Note: “It stings and burns as bad as it could sting and burn.”—Cliff Floyd, on the Rays’ loss Thursday.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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I found myself wondering why there were so many defensive mistakes all of a sudden. Upton horribly misplayed the fly in center field that started the Sox rally. Longoria made a beautiful play on the line drive to third, threw in time to first for the out on what would turn out to be the winning run, and Pena just slapped the ball with his glove as it passed. Then the bouncer over the outfielders head to win...It looked... uhhhh... fishy to me. There was little urgency to win that game and wrap up the series.Posted 10-18-2008 at 07:20 AM by On-da-Beach
