The Tampa Bay Rays now just need one more victory to win the ALCS, and they’ll have four opportunities to do so. Tampa Bay beat the Houston Astros 5-2 on Tuesday night in San Diego to take a 3-0 series lead.
The Rays’ defense was the story of this game, making diving and leaping plays all over the place.
That’s still platinum @KKiermaier39 x @nikediamond pic.twitter.com/4FQoASWdKS
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 14, 2020
brb, going for a dive pic.twitter.com/XLiy9eB8he
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 14, 2020
A T H L E T E pic.twitter.com/q0Nr3U24gl
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 14, 2020
It’s not Hunter Renfrow, it’s Hunter Renfroe pic.twitter.com/wK2uPsDgTj
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 14, 2020
HUNTER. RENFROE. AGAIN. 😮
Game 3 of the ALCS on SN + SN NOW. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/Z1ouZrC3AQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 14, 2020
The Astros’ offense has been struggling, with a grand total of five runs in this series, but Tuesday night was more just about the Rays’ defense preventing runs.
So, the Rays are in pretty great shape here. Five Thirty Eight gives them a 95% chance to win the series.
Are the Astros capable of winning four games in a row? Absolutely! But it’s very difficult against this Rays team, who does so many things well and finds so many ways to beat you. One game it’s the offense scoring a bunch of runs, another game it’s the pitching dominating, and another game it’s the defense making great plays like we saw on Tuesday.
The Rays’ Game 4 starter will be Tyler Glasnow, whose stuff is as filthy as anybody’s in the league, and he’s downright unhittable when on his game. Crafty veteran Zack Greinke gets the start for the Astros, and gave up four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last start vs the Oakland A’s.
Tampa Bay has the opportunity to secure a World Series berth on Wednesday night at Petco Park.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.