Paper tigers...
At least they didn't prolong the agony. It looked like they might as they held a 4-1 lead in the 5th inning but that disappeared in a disastrous 6th inning and the Astros completed the sweep of the Rays in the ALCS for the second straight season, despite Tampa Bay being 15 games their better during the regular season. This time the offense scored some runs, and it looked like they might even pull off a comeback when
Danny Arroyave, in likely his final game as a Ray after seven seasons wearing the colors, hit a bases-clearing double to get them back within 8-7. But
Eric Lewis, who looked like he had turned things around, reverted back to his early season form by giving up a 2-run homer to put it out of reach, as if things were really at any point within reach. They award a series MVP and Houston's Josh Manuel earned it, but if there was an LVP it would go to big trade deadline acquisition
Salvatore Garza. The veteran slugging 1B continued to hit after coming over as a rental from Detroit, but in this series he was a brutal 2 for 15 with 0 HR, 0 RBI and 5 men LOB today and 5-31 with 1 RBI over the entire postseason. He won't be missed and we have multiple replacements lined up. What to do in the offseason? Who knows? Two winters ago we got the best player in baseball (Begley) trying to put us over the top after losing the World Series, and while he'll be this year's AL MVP and did alright in the playoffs, we're no closer to winning it all than we were then. Stay tuned for the post-mortem.
Over in the NLCS:
More walk-off magic for the Phillies as for the second straight game they won it with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th, and today's came off former Ray Stan LeVea.