A tough, tough loss...
It was all there for the taking. Joel Bland hit a dramatic 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th to give the Rays a 3-2 lead and they were three outs away from heading to California needing to only win of two games with all-star closer Mario Berumen on the mound. Berumen gave up a leadoff triple but the man was cut down at the plate on a ground ball and he seemed to be off the hook, only to give up two more hits and the tying run anyway. That sent us to a long slog in extras where the Rays bats couldn't get anything going and finally in the 14th we were down to lefty Warren Dalton, who gave up a homer to a fellow lefty and then another run and now the Rays' backs are to the wall. And although Berumen wears the goat's horns tonight the real blame is the lack of offense as only 3 runs and 7 hits through 14 innings is sub-optimal with Max Meyer shutting them down again. Now they're in an extremely tough situation; had they won tonight the fact that Melvin Lopez is filling in for the injured Randy Mastropietro would have been tolerable since they'd have Dave Rose to fall back on in Game 7. But now Lopez has to get the job done or the season is over.