How the Texas Rangers swept the Tampa Bay Rays to win their Wild Card series
The Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 to sweep the Rays in the best-of-three American League Wild Card series at Tropicana Field on Tuesday.
What to know about the game and the series:
What it means: The Rangers won the series 2-0. The Rangers remain undefeated in seven games at Tropicana Field and will play the Baltimore Orioles at 12 p.m. on Saturday in the best-of-five American League Division Series.
The Last Time: This is the first time the Rangers have won a playoff series since 2011, when they defeated Tampa Bay in the ALDS and the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series before losing the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.
How the Rangers won/lost: The game was a short-lived pitchers’ duel until the Rangers opened up scoring with a four-run fourth inning. The Rangers scored in the fifth inning off a Nathaniel Lowe ground-out and two additional times in the sixth inning on back-to-back doubles from Marcus Semien and Corey Seager.
The Rangers had another excellent performance from their starting pitching with Nathan Eovaldi coming up huge in the biggest game of his Rangers tenure.
The Rangers bullpen kept the Astros off the scoreboard once again allowing zero runs in 2.8 innings of work.
Hero of the game: Nathan Eovaldi had struggled mightily after returning from a forearm injury near the end of the regular season. In the month of September, Eovaldi had a 9.30 ERA while never pitching more than five innings in an outing.
Those struggles were nowhere to be seen against the Rays. Eovaldi gave up one run on six hits in 6.2 innings of work with eight strikeouts and no walks. Eovaldi allowed zero Rays base runners to get into scoring position until the seventh inning.
The turning point: Heading into the fourth inning it was a pitching duel between Eovaldi and Rays’ starter Zach Eflin but the Rangers bats came alive in the fourth. The inning started with a leadoff home run from Adolis Garcia. Two outs later, after a Leody Taveras single and stolen base, Josh Jung tripled to score Taveras, and then Evan Carter hit a two-run blast to put the Rangers up 4-0.
MLB history: Evan Carter became the youngest player in MLB history, and the first in franchise history, to reach base safely four times in a postseason debut when he did so in Tuesday’s game. He extended that streak by getting on base his first two times on Wednesday.
Play of the game: Adolis Garcia sparked the Rangers’ four-run fourth inning with a solo home run to kick off the inning.
Rookie sensations: For much of the season Josh Jung was the top candidate for AL Rookie of the Year and he showed why on Wednesday. Jung went 3-for-4, including two doubles and a triple, with an RBI and two runs scored. Not to be outdone, Carter went 1-for-2 with a walk, and a massive two-run home run that capped off a four-run inning for the Rangers.
Did you know? The Rays had one of the smallest crowds at an MLB playoff game in over a century on Tuesday with only 19,704 fans in attendance. The Rays fared a little better on Wednesday with an attendance of 20,198.
What’s next: The Rangers will advance to the ALDS and will play the Baltimore Orioles at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
This story was originally published October 4, 2023 at 4:48 PM.
