ALCS Playoffs; Third Edition

As the ALDS heats up in route to the ALCS finals, both the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Boston Red Sox are doing everything possible to make sure that the World series will not be play between 2 teams from the same city. The Rays have pulled out to a 2-0 lead with a victory last night against the Chicago White Sox in St. Petersburg, Florida at Tropicana Field. The Red Sox also took a 2-0 lead on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Anaheim at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

The first game of the day saw the Rays play host to the White Sox. The crowd of 35,257 was not please with the start of the game. It seemed that starting pitcher Scott Kazmir could not find the strike zone. He would load the bases in the first inning. He hit the first batter, walked the second guy, then gave up a single to Jermaine Dye to load them up. Kazmir would then get Paul Konerko to pop out to the second baseman for the first out. Jim Thome would then come up and lace an RBI single into right field scoring Orlando Cabrera who had been hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Alexei Ramirez would then come up and drill a sacrifice fly to left field to score Nick Swisher who originally walked. A.J. Pierzynski, the 7th man to bat in the inning would hit a squibber down the third base line that Evan Longoria could only pocket. This would reload the bases with 2 outs. The 39th pitch of the inning would prove to be the Sox killer as Juan Uribe would strike out and bring a close to the first half of the first inning. This would also prove to be the only substanial offense that the White Sox could muster for the game.

As Kazmir would only last into the 6th inning, we would still settle down to do his job. On the other side of the coin, the Rays offense would prove to be too much for starting pitcher Mark Buehrle. Maybe it was the fact that he say so long at the beginning of the game or something else, but the Rays got to him to give Kazmir th win prior to exiting the game in the 6th. They pounded out 10 hits and crossed home plate 5 times on Buehrle. The majority of the Rays runs came off of base hitting the ball as they only tagged one dinger against Buehrle. That came off the bat of Akinori Iwamura and was a 2 run shot. The Rays would get their first run in the second inning as they manufactured it. Willy Aybar lead off the inning with a grounder through the hole into left field. He would then be awarded third as Rocco Baldelli would line out to second baseman Ramirez. Ramirez attempted to pick orr Aybar and threw it into the dugout. The next batter, Dioner Navarro, would single in Aybar from third to get the Rays on the board.

The Rays would score 3 more runs in the 8th inning to lock it down for the second win.

The Reds and Angels would seem more like a slugfest as the 2 teams combined for 25 hits. Boston would take an early lead getting to starting pitcher Ervin Santana for 4 runs in the top of the first. The Angels would slowly but surely pull themselves right back into this game and actually tie the game in the bottom of the eight. The real story came in the top up the ninth whem superstar closer Francisco Rodriguez, better know as saves master K-Rod. He got bested by J.D. Drew as he launched the 5th pitch he saw over the right center field fence for a 2 run tater. This was all set up by David Ortiz who bounced a pitch off the right field wall for a double earlier that inning. Drew’s home run would prove to be the winning blow.