Still alive, if just barely...
I'm not sure how they did it but the Rays prevailed 9-5 over Detroit in 15 innings to stave off elimination and bring the series back to St. Pete for a Game 6.
Victor Robles, having a great series and with 8 hits in his last 3 games, delivered a 2-out RBI single in the top of the 15th to break the tie and
Ed Howard made sure the Rays' lead would hold up by blasting a 3-run homer.
James Hays started and was down 2-0 after the first two batters but the Rays rallied to take a 4-2 lead. Hays gave up a run in the 7th and then ill-advisedly was brought out for the 8th only to give up a leadoff homer. Tampa Bay regained the lead in the top of the 10th, but with a man on 3rd, 2 out and Rays owner Marcelo Mayer at the plate, I thumbed my nose at the baseball gods and brought in
Jose Crespo, and sure enough Mayer singled in the tying run. Crespo actually then pitched a couple of scoreless innings to prolong the game but Mayer was due up in the 14th with men on 1st and 3rd and 1 out (notice that spike in the win probability chart) but
Landon Knack got him to foul out to shallow left and struck out the next man, setting the stage for the 4-run 15th.
Pablo Lopez, who won Game 2 for us (albeit not impressively), will try to get us to a Game 7 in two nights' time.
The Cubs have taken a 3-1 lead in the NLCS with another win in New York, coming back on a tying homer in the 9th from rookie slugger Jace LaViolette and winning it in the 10th:
Gonna take a break from this intense ALCS and play some low-stakes 2020-save games before coming back to it, for those refreshing the forum.