Probably gonna be a long series...
Before I get into the recap, we made two moves which will be a sort of a 2025 preview. To replace Alex Bregman at 3B we called up his heir apparent, Casey Schmitt, to take over the position. Schmitt's hit 53 HR and accumulated 9.8 WAR the last two seasons at Durham and is more than qualified for the call. The other move to replace Colby White was to activate veteran starter Carlos Rodon, whom you may recall we signed to a 2-year deal early this season as he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Rodon came back sooner than expected and pitched for Durham late in the season and in their playoffs, and will give us a long relief arm in advance of a likely spot in our 2025 rotation.
Well as you saw from the box above the Phillies have evened the series with a 7-2 win behind a former Ray in Jake Odorizzi. Drew Rasmussen, after a quick first, just didn't have it tonight and although they got within 4-2 on Casey Schmitt's first MLB hit as he became the rare player to make his big-league debut in the postseason (like his teammate Shane McClanahan in 2020), that would be as close as they'd get. Carlos Rodon also made his Rays debut and looked pretty good outside of a solo homer he allowed. So now McClanahan will try to get the Rays back in front at Citizens Bank Park in two days.