From Worst to World Series - Download Free Phim, Nhac, Phan Mem, Karaoke

conmeo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-20-2008, 01:03 AM

The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate after defeating the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The doubts have smothered the Tampa Bay Rays all season. Through arduous games and demanding tests, the Rays were expected to fade away. Sooner or later, the inspirational Rays would go home. But the Rays are not going home after all. They are going to the World Series for the first time.

Matt Garza would not let the Rays fizzle against Boston and would not let their special season evaporate as he powered them to a 3-1 victory in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Sunday night. Garza pitched superbly into the eighth inning and outperformed Jon Lester for the second time in a week.

The Red Sox, the resilient defending champions, were unable to complete the type of stylish comeback that has symbolized them. After rallying from a three-games-to-one deficit to even the series, the Red Sox were hoping that Lester could guide them. But Garza and the Rays were better.

“You know, we’ve proved doubters wrong this entire time and we just told each other, ‘Keep believing, keep fighting,’ ” Garza said. “Keep playing the way we played all year, and good things are going to happen.”

The Rays navigated through a tense eighth to assure themselves of playing host to the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of the World Series on Wednesday night. David Price, the Rays’ fifth pitcher in the inning, struck out J. D. Drew with a 97-mile-per-hour fastball to leave the bases loaded. Price screamed into his glove after notching the biggest out of the season.

Manager Joe Maddon kept Price, a 23-year-old rookie left-hander, on the mound in the ninth. Price had pitched in only five career games before the postseason, but he barreled past the Red Sox, retiring Jed Lowrie for the final out. Price slammed his glove in the grass and waited for catcher Dioner Navarro to leap into his arms.

“It’s a tremendous benchmark for us to compete against them and actually win,” Maddon said.

The Rays’ family members wore blue sweatshirts with the word “PREVAIL” in silver across the front. Prevail is what the Rays did in engineering one of baseball’s best worst-to-first stories. Only the 1991 Atlanta Braves lost more games in the season before they shockingly rushed into the World Series. The Braves lost 97 games in 1990, one more than the Rays lost a year ago.

Garza, who was named the most valuable player of the series, was the one of the primary reasons the Rays silenced the Red Sox. Lester said Garza was a dangerous pitcher because he has such a terrific repertory that he can make hitters look helpless. That is how the Red Sox looked. After Dustin Pedroia homered in the first, Garza held Boston without a run for the next six innings. He gave up one run and two hits, struck out nine, and threw 118 pitches.

“I didn’t know if it was my last start of the year or what,” Garza said. “So I just went out there and emptied my tank and said, hey, here goes, we’ll see what happens.”

What happened is the Rays won Game 7, meaning they would not be haunted by the number seven. The Rays had a 7-0 cushion in Game 5 and were seven outs away from clinching the A.L.C.S. But the Red Sox scored eight runs to win that game, then won Game 6, too. Because the Rays avoided a collapse and prevailed in Game 7, it is a lucky number for them now.

The Red Sox did not come back from a 3-1 deficit in the A.L.C.S., as they did against the Cleveland Indians last season, but Manager Terry Francona still said, “This is probably the funnest couple of months maybe I’ve ever had.”

Willie Aybar nearly homered off Lester to start the fifth, belting a shot off the left-field fence for a double. Navarro followed with an infield single to shortstop, which Lester called “a 17,000 hopper.”

With runners on first and second and no outs, Rocco Baldelli was in a likely bunting situation. But Baldelli has 13 sacrifice bunts in his career, including only one in the last three seasons. He was not at the plate to bunt. He was there to hit. He was there to possibly be a hero.

Baldelli swung and missed, then hit a long foul ball to left to fall behind, 0-2, in the count. At that point, it seemed as if the Rays should have asked Baldelli to bunt. But Baldelli coolly smacked Lester’s next pitch past the shortstop to put the Rays in front, 2-1. For Baldelli, who missed more than four months of the season because of a mitochondrial disorder, it was one of the sweetest hits of his career.

In the seventh, Aybar homered on a 3-2 cut fastball from Lester. It was so pretty to Aybar that he stopped for a second and admired it. Yes, the Rays were feeling good about themselves. The ball rocketed deep into the left-field seats and gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead.

After Garza stopped the Red Sox on one run in six innings in Game 3, it took them until the second batter of the game to score off him. Garza pumped a 95-m.p.h. fastball past Pedroia to start the at-bat, but he did not fool Pedroia with a 1-1 slider that hung in the strike zone.

Evan Longoria had a run-scoring double to tie the game in the fourth.

Garza jumps over the foul line on his way to the mound and walks with a swagger when he leaves the mound. The Rays needed that swagger on a night when they beat the defending champions. Garza let the Red Sox snatch a 1-0 lead, but he did not let them do anything else. Instead, Garza made sure the Rays, those inspirational Rays, would go to the World Series.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)