Rays’ remarkable season comes to sudden end at Fenway Park
BOSTON (AP) — Put the popcorn away for the winter at Tropicana Field.
The AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays saw their record-setting season come to a sudden end Monday night when they lost to the Boston Red Sox 6-5 in Game 4 of their Division Series and were eliminated in the best-of-five playoff.
The Rays set a franchise best with 100 wins this season and shut out wild-card Boston at home in their postseason opener. Players sat comfortably in the dugout, several of them munching on popcorn during the game.
After a blowout loss in Game 2, they came to Fenway Park.
Two days in Boston became their own personal horror movie, ending their bid to reach a second straight World Series.
Boston ended the series with consecutive walk-off wins and Red Sox players threw gum in the air when they celebrated near the mound after Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly scored pinch-runner Danny Santana from third base with the decisive run in the bottom of the ninth.
Christian Vázquez opened the inning with a single off J.P. Feyereisen and advanced on a sacrifice. Pinch-hitter Travis Shaw then hit a slow roller to third and reached on an infield single when Yandy Diaz’s off-balance throw bounced and first baseman Ji-Man Choi couldn’t corral it cleanly into his chest.
Hernández followed with his game-winning fly to left field.
Two bad bounces for the Rays and their season was over.
Facing elimination in a scoreless game in the third inning, manager Kevin Cash went to 24-year-old rookie Shane McClanahan to enter in relief on three-days’ rest.
Eight batters later, the Rays found themselves down 5-0 and McClanahan was pulled with two outs.
The lefty allowed all five runs with two outs, giving up Rafael Devers’ three-run homer to straightaway center field on a first-pitch fastball.
Xander Bogaerts followed with a single before scoring on Alex Verdugo’s double high off the Green Monster. J.D. Martinez then hit an RBI single high off the Monster and Cash yanked his highly touted prospect down 5-0.
McClanahan, the Game 1 winner, pitched five innings in the Rays’ 5-0 victory last Thursday night.
On Monday night, Collin McHugh, the opener, worked two innings, allowing just one hit. He breezed through the first two innings, throwing just 18 pitches.
Before the game, Cash said McClanahan and 22-year-old Shane Baz would be in the bullpen.
Cash also said he’d have to be careful using them.
“If we see a need arise, we’ll use them,” he said. “We’re going to be very mindful. We’re talking about players that are so important to us now and moving forward.”
The Rays rallied, cutting it to 5-3 in the sixth on prized rookie Wander Franco’s two-run homer. They scored two more in the eighth, tying it in on Randy Arozarena’s RBI single.
But on this night, the Rays’ versatile bullpen faltered.
A night earlier, they lost 6-4 on Vázquez’s two-run over the Green Monster in the 13th inning after an obscure rule and an untimely bounce took away a likely go-ahead run in the top of the inning.
Kevin Kiermaier’s deep drive sailed over right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s head, bounced off the short wall in front of the Boston bullpen and back onto the warning track.
It ricocheted off Renfroe and into the bullpen for a ground-rule double. That sent Diaz, who almost certainly would have scored easily from first base, back to third.
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