New York Post, Sunday, October 25, 2020nypost.comRLOS ANGELES
DODGERS
TAMPA BAY
H H H H H RAYS H H H H HA
RLING
TON,
Texas
— These Rays
are baseball’s
cockroaches. Just
when you think
you’ve exterminated
them, they pop up again.
And for crying out loud,
you can’t offer them any as-
sistance in their pest-y plans.
By popping up Saturday
night, baseball’s little engine
that could propped up this
World Series. Suddenly, we’ve
got a bona fide Fall Classic
here at Globe Life Field.
An absolutely insane final
play, featuring a comedy of
Dodgers errors, propelled the
Rays to a legendary, walk-off
8-7 victory in World Series
Game 4, knotting things up at
2-2 and therefore ensuring
we’ll hang around for at least a
Game 6. The pressure now
turns toward the favored
Dodgers, who will send their
icon and future Hall of Famer
Clayton Kershaw, his October
inconsistency part of his nar-
rative, to the mound for Sun-
day night’s Game 5.
“They were the best team all
year in the American League.
Those guys fight. They play
the game the right way,” Dodg-ers manager Dave Roberts
said. “We’ve got to give credit
to those guys. We’ve got to re-
group and be ready for them
[Sunday].”
The Rays fought like crazy
in a ballgame that started off
as another display of Dodgers
money well spent. The Tampa
Bay bunch erased three defi-
cits, the last one in the bottom
of the ninth
against Dodg-
ers closer
Kenley Jan-
sen, who has
experienced
more than his
share of Octo-
ber turbu-
lence over the years. Conse-
quently, they now have erased
a pair of deficits in games as
well.
The Yankees couldn’t shake
the Rays in 2020 no matter
what they tried. They lost the
regular-season series by a
one-sided 8-2 count, the big-
gest reason why the Rays cap-
tured the AL East. Then the
Yankees fell short to the Rays
in a five-game AL Division Se-
ries in five games. However, of
the 11 losses the Yankees re-
corded to the Rays this year,
none could match what tran-
spired on this night.With Rays on first and sec-
ond and two outs, down by
one, Jansen got two strikes on
the little-used Brett Phillips,
who was at the plate only be-
cause his manager Kevin Cash
had essentially run out of ma-
neuvers after a busy night.
Phillips sent a soft single into
right-center field that easily
scored tying run Kevin Kier-
maier from
second base.
Then, how-
ever, Dodgers
center fielder
Chris Taylor
couldn’t pick
up the ball.
Absolute
chaos ensued.
The Rays sent their playoff
stud Randy Arozarena, who
had drawn a walk, home —
only to see Arozarena fall
down between third base and
the plate, a sitting duck, extra
innings ready to go. Except
that Dodgers first baseman
Max Muncy, having received
the relay from the outfield,
pivoted and fired home, where
catcher Will Smith somehow
let the ball get behind him.
Which, as Jansen didn’t back
up home plate, gave Arozarena
the time he needed to come
home with the game-winner.“That’s uncharacteristic for
us,” Dodgers third baseman
Justin Turner said.
Roberts, who has taken more
than his share of flack for Oc-
tober tactics during his five
years at the Dodgers’ helm,
said he erred by bringing re-
liever Pedro Baez back in the
game for the seventh inning
after telling him he was done
upon completing the sixth.
Baez wound up surrendering a
three-run homer in the sixth
to Brandon Lowe that put the
Rays ahead and then, after the
Dodgers re-grabbed the lead
in the top of the seventh
(which prompted Roberts’
change of mind), served up a
game-tying blast to Kiermaier.
“I take blame for having him
go back out,” Roberts said.
“We know we’re good,” Jan-
sen said, “and we know we’re
going to come and win that
game [Sunday].”
Easier said than done. This
is the Dodgers’ 14th postsea-
son since last winning it all in- To be victimized by
these Rays, especially after
this game, would represent a
different sort of pain. They
need two more wins to avoid
that. To finally off these cock-
roaches.
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No getting rid of these Rays
Ken DavidoffKen DavidoffKen Davidoff