|
🎙️ Bob Costas Recaps ALCS Game 3
Anaheim Angels 15
Tampa Bay Rays 10
Angels lead ALCS 3–0 — Now 8–0 this postseason
Ballpark: Tropicana Field
There are postseason victories… and then there are proclamations.
What unfolded this afternoon in St. Petersburg was less a baseball game and more a relentless exhibition of offensive will.
Fifteen runs. Sixteen hits. Ten home runs.
And an unblemished October record that now stands at eight wins without defeat.
The Angels did not merely win Game Three — they overwhelmed it.
Ricky Abrego began the barrage in the second inning with a two-run home run, offering an early signal of what was to come. In the third, David Antillon launched a solo shot. In the fourth, the game tipped irreversibly: Corey Wright homered, Juan Garcia followed with a three-run drive, and Anaheim surged ahead 7–1.
But if that seemed decisive, it was only a prelude.
Antillon would homer again in the eighth. Garcia would do the same. Carlos Guzman added one of his own. And then there was Akiyuki Amano — three home runs, tying an Angels postseason record — each swing echoing through the dome like a metronome marking inevitability.
By the end of the eighth inning, Anaheim had built a 15–4 advantage. The Rays, to their credit, did not retreat quietly. Five runs in the ninth — including home runs from Francisco Hernandez and Santos Garcia — added drama to the box score, if not suspense to the outcome.
What distinguishes this Angels club is not merely its power, though the power is undeniable. It is the distribution of it.
Antillon: 3-for-4, two home runs, four runs scored.
Garcia: three hits, four runs batted in.
Amano: three homers, three driven in.
Guzman: five total bases.
Eight different players reached base. Six drove in runs. No errors were committed. And even when Tampa Bay mounted its late rally, Anaheim absorbed it without panic.
Wayne Dirlam was not dominant — he did not need to be. The Angels’ offense created such margin that steadiness sufficed.
There is something quietly historic about beginning a postseason 8–0. It speaks not only to talent, but to preparation, to focus, to an understanding of the moment.
Anaheim now stands one victory away from a pennant.
And as this series continues beneath the artificial light of Tropicana Field, the Rays are left confronting a simple truth:
To defeat the Angels, one must first slow them.
Thus far, no one has.
|