After beating Yanks for Wild Card, Red Sox get burned by the Rays
Updated Friday, October 8, 2021
In Fenway Park for the opener of baseball’s 2021 postseason was the notorious nemesis of the Boston Red Sox, forever to be known as Bucky Bleeping Dent. He was the light-hitting New York Yankees shortstop who in 1978 hit an unlikely home run in a one-game playoff that determined the American League pennant winner.
“To be back here 43 years later for a one-game playoff, you couldn’t ask for anything better,” Dent said to ESPN’s Buster Olney, who wondered, “How often do you get asked about that home run?”
“Probably two or three times a day.”
Bob Costas from the ESPN announcers’ booth said, “That 1978 tiebreaker might be the most talked-about game in the history of our sport. George Steinbrenner was very upset about losing the coin flip that caused the game to be played in Boston. If it had been in Yankee Stadium, the ball that Bucky Dent lifted over the Green Monster probably isn’t a homer, and maybe there’s a different outcome in 1978.”
After 43 years, the Sawks in their wild-card playoff finally had an answer to Bleeping Bucky.
Two of them, actually, as Zander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber – legitimate power threats in any park – homered on Yankee ace, Gerrit Cole, who’s been repeatedly drubbed since straining a hamstring on Sept. 7: 21 runs allowed in 28 innings. He couldn’t get through the third on Tuesday night, and the Red Sox won 6-2 to set up a best-of-5 Division Series with the forever-underpaid Tampa Bay Rays.
In Wednesday’s National League Wild-Card Playoff, the mid-market St. Louis Cardinals battled evenly with the defending World Series champions, the very rich Los Angeles Dodgers. Chris Taylor won it for the Dodgers with a 2-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th. Taylor, in an 8-for-72 slump, was in the game on a double-switch.
So now we get a Division Series, beginning Friday night (8:30 CST, TBS), between the two best teams in baseball, the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.
The Giants set a franchise record this year by winning 107 games. Their century-long rival, the Dodgers, playing in the same division, tied their franchise best with 106 victories in the regular season.
The Giants have the major leagues’ deepest roster and deepest coaching staff – NFL-sized – that keeps their players finely tuned and avoiding slumps.
The National League’s other Division Series is not considered worthy of prime time but launches on Friday afternoon (3:30, TBS).
The Milwaukee Brewers finished the season on a 4-10 slide, while the Atlanta Braves rode a roller coaster: 18-8 in August, 6-9 for the first half of September, but 11-2 since then.
The American League lacks a complete team. The Rays have the league’s best record, but with the 27th biggest payroll they can’t afford a legitimate starting rotation. So they get by with converted relievers and recent minor leaguers. The Rays, who extended the Dodgers to six games in the last World Series, have more clout this year, but less pitching.
A Rays insider observed: “Last year we had Tyler Glasnow, Charlie Morton and Blake Snell who could get us six strong innings. We don’t have anyone like that anymore.”
But they do have starters who throw hard. Rookie Shane McClanahan, 24, touched 100 mph in Thursday’s ALDS opener with Boston, played before only 27,000 spectators in quirky Tropicana Field. McClanahan pitched five innings of shutout ball, and the Rays won 5-0. Their batting hero was Randy Arozarena, who starred as a rookie in last year’s postseason.
On Thursday night he became the first player in big-league history to steal home and hit a home run in the same postseason game. And for even more uniqueness, his launch angle sent the baseball bouncing off the too-low ceiling of the obsolete dome.
The Rays on Friday (6 p.m. Fox Sports1) will send another rookie, another Shane — Baz – who’s 22. He started three games this season, going 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA.
Tampa’s No. 3 starter, Drew Rasmussen, 26, has twice had Tommy John surgery and is on a strict pitch count: he hasn’t thrown more than 75 in any game this season, but he’s 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA.
Fourth starter could be Collin McHugh, who this season has finished more games than he’s started. The Rays always do things differently, because they can’t afford a conventional approach. But they add to the flavor of the postseason with their unique, economic and surprisingly successful style. They have baseball’s best bullpen: earned-run average 2.98.
The American League seems headed for the same Championship Series matchup of last year: Tampa vs. Houston.
The Astros, who are the opposite of the Rays, with durable starters and not enough relief, beat the Chicago White Sox in their playoff opener 6-1 Thursday, as Lance McCullers threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings. The Sox have not won a postseason series since the 2005 World Series, when they swept the Astros. They’re probably not ready for this moment. But of course, people thought that about Bucky Dent 43 years ago.
