One of the ideas going back to last year's playoffs when we were knocked out of the ALCS was that we needed a big-game starter or two. Jack Flaherty didn't work out (although the guy we acquired for him, Tarik Skubal, did) but our free-agent signing of Chris Sale has paid some dividends, at least when he's stayed healthy. And he came through on the biggest stage of all hurling 6 1/3 shutout innings to get the Rays right back into the series at 2 games apiece. Hunter Bishop had a huge night with a 3-run homer to put the Rays ahead to stay and a later RBI single, and Brandon Lowe's 2-run homer salted the game away. Things did get a bit dicey in the 9th when Colin Poche put two men on and had to come out with an injury, and then Luis Patino couldn't get anyone out (although one of his batters reached on an Austin Meadows error), making it 7-2 with the bases loaded and only one out. So Devin Williams finally appeared to face none other than Fernando Tatis Jr. and struck him out, making me really feel bad about last night, and then he got Manny Machado on a fly ball to preserve the win. Poche meanwhile was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff and is not only done for the playoffs but will miss all of 2024 as well (this after missing all of 2021). Matt Peacock will get the ball tomorrow in place of the injured Skubal to try to give the Rays an advantage before heading back to San Diego.