The Rays beat the Rangers 5-2 with David Price going the entire nine innings. Here is the final out that propelled the Rays into the playoffs. You can see how we got here with the images and GIFs below…
Tonight is literally win or go home for the Rays. If they win, they will stay in Arlington and then fly to Cleveland tomorrow morning. If they lose, it is home to Tampa-St.Pate after the game and the season is over.
Follow along here as we will post all the important updates and highlights in this post. Think of it like the morning Screencaps post, but in real-time…
FIRST INNING
Right off the bat (literally), Desmond Jennings is back, but his legs are not as he is thrown out stretching a single into a double. And while the throw was in time, the play was a lot closer than most people thought…
RAYS 1, Rangers 0: Even with the close play at second base, the Rays loaded the bases with one out and Delmon Young drives in the first run with a sac fly.
In the bottom of the first, David Price made some adjustments before getting started…
SECOND INNING
The Rays went quietly in the second inning, 1-2-3, ending with a groundout by Jose Molina in which Adrian Beltre stopped to flirt with a girl in the stands before throwing to first base.
Home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg has a pretty wide strikezone tonight. This was a called third strike that angered AJ Pierzynski and many Rangers fans. It was almost identical to a called strike against DElmon Young earlier…
Price gave up a leadoff double but got out of it without allowing a run. End of two, still 1-0 Rays.
THIRD INNING
Jennings walks, which is best considering he can barely run right now.
Evan Longoria follows with a 2-run home runs! Rays now up 3-0…
And Price gets out of the third inning with another pick-off…
FOURTH INNING
Rays go down 1-2-3 in the fourth inning, still lead 3-1.
Price had his own 1-2-3 inning in the fourth and appears to be settling in…
Another 1-2-3 inning as Wil Myers lines out hard to Adrian Beltre at third base to end the inning.
Price, who has been 92-94 with the fastball in recent starts is dialing it up to 95-96 tonight and has that little swagger that he gets when he is on.
SIXTH INNING
A double by Longoria and he now has 3 hits, a single, a double, and a home run.
A 2-out double by David DeJesus puts the Rays up 4-1 and they are threatening for more!
The Rangers escape the inning down just 4-1 and this kid is PUMPED UP about being down 3 runs…
SEVENTH INNING
Wil Myers walks but we get our first glimpse into TBS baseball, you know, the network that just shows up in the postseason. Where is Jake Odorizzi?
With runners on first and second and two outs in the seventh inning, Delmon Young lined out to center field. Only it wasn’t out. But it was called an out. How do six umpires miss this?!?
EIGHTH INNING
Escobar worked a nice 2-out walk after being down 0-2 in the count. But a hard grounder by Molina was snagged by the pitcher and the inning was over.
In the bottom half of the inning, Peralta is ready, but Price will start the inning with 96 pitches thrown.
Maddon took a chance and struck with Price for the eighth inning and the Rays got out of it thanks in large part to this nifty play by Price…
NINTH INNING
Sam Fuld literally stole a run from the Rangers when he took from second base with the pitcher napping. When he did finally wake up, the throw to third was wild, Fuld raced home, and the score is now 5-2…
The Rays win, and Chewbacca made an appearance!
And the starting pitchers did the complete game jump-and-bump, of course…
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18 Comments
The two guys in the lineup tonight with question marks have already cost us runs in the first.
The zone is wide to the right of the pitcher but tight to the left.
Cork - any thoughts about adding a live game chat feature to the site for big games like this?
He used to do that randomly...
Big inning for Price here. Needs to put up zeros facing the bottom of the order.
Dam, I'm in Jax, and I'm trying to find a way to listen online to Dave & Andy on Rays Radio??? DO you know a way Cork?
MLB At Bat
I mentioned in an earlier post that SRod starting means DeJesus could come off the bench to face a righty and he came through in the sixth.
What in the ever loving hell was that call...
That's ridiculous! How did they miss that call?
All 6 umpires better be banned from the playoffs for that bs call
YEAH!!
Price was a stud, as was Longo!!!
Nelson Cruz had the game he deserved.
Nice job all around. Fuld's steal was awesome.
Congrats Rays, congrats Longo & Price! Extremely pleased, yes indeed.
Price stood tall and strong. Nod to JoMa for sticking with him. A very satisfying win. Go Rays.
Can someone explain to me the Texas mentality with regard to Nelson Cruz?
Every baseball fan seems to loathe steroid abusers, but Texas in particular seems to love poor Nelson Cruz who was treated as some conquering hero upon his return.
What is it about Texas? They pride themselves on being the law and order capital of the universe yet Cruz was treated as a victim in this whole PED episode ad was forgiven seemingly seconds after being caught and they counted the days to his triumphant return.
I am so thankful the Rays never had anyone on the MLB roster implicated in this latest episode and was forced to go through this self serving hypocritical thought processes like Rangers fans to rationalize why a Cruz is such a hero when he is really nothing more than a cheater who got caught.
His reception by Rangers fans was a disgrace.
Sorry to sully this great win with these thoughts but I have never seen anyone in baseball address this issue and it really puzzles me.
My sentiments exactly!
Andy P. is still loved by Yankee fans, as is Ortiz in Boston. It is not new for certain players fans forgive and forget.
Nelson Cruz a few years ago hit three homeruns in one game against us in the ALDS while on steroids. This year with no steroids he goes 0-4. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM