BOSTON — The Rays have been here before. They just didn’t expect to be back so soon.
After losing a wild Game 3 of the American League Division Series to the Red Sox, 6-4, in 13 innings on Sunday night, Tampa Bay is one loss away from elimination. The defending AL champions will have to win Monday night at Fenway Park to force Game 5 at Tropicana Field, or else their 100-win club’s dreams of a return to the World Series will be dashed after just one postseason series.
In postseason history, the Game 3 winner in any best-of-five series that was tied 1-1 has gone on to win the series 39 of 54 times (72%).
And if the Rays don’t come back, they’ll have more than their fair share of “what ifs” — none more frustrating than wondering what might have changed with one better bounce of the ball in the top of the 13th.
With two outs and Yandy Díaz at first base, Kevin Kiermaier ripped a line drive to right-center field. Díaz would have scored easily as the ball bounced off the short outfield wall, ricocheted off right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s chest and skipped back into the Red Sox’s bullpen. But umpires called it a ground-rule double and, according to Rule 5.05(a)(8), placed Díaz at third base.
“By rule, it’s just a ground-rule double. The umpires met and got together, and said, you’re more than welcome to challenge it,” Cash said. “I saw the replay. Obviously there was nothing intentional by it. That’s just the rule. That’s the way it goes. It was very unfortunate for us. I think it was fairly obvious that KK or Yandy was going to come around to score, but it didn’t go our way.”
Rather than having a one-run lead and another runner in scoring position, Mike Zunino came to the plate with runners on second and third and struck out swinging against Nick Pivetta. Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez ripped a two-run, walk-off homer over the Green Monster off Luis Patiño.
Cash, his coaching staff and the players who’ve been around for three consecutive postseason appearances have plenty of experience with their backs up against the wall. They won the 2019 AL Wild Card Game in Oakland, lost the decisive ALDS Game 5 in Houston the same year, then emerged victorious in win-or-go-home contests in the 2020 ALDS (Game 5) against the Yankees and in the ALCS (Game 7) against the Astros.
Now, they’ll have to do it again against a tough Red Sox team playing in front of what’s sure to be a lively crowd on the day of the Boston Marathon. And it’ll come down to a bullpen game, a second straight whole-staff effort less than 24 hours after they used nine pitchers to get through 13 innings on Sunday.
“We’ve got to win tomorrow. We don’t really have many choices,” said Cash. “Today was a really big win for them and a really tough loss for us.
“We put ourselves in a little bit of a bind. We did a great job of having some big at-bats for a little bit there to get back in it. Look, we had opportunities. We just didn’t capitalize. Their pitching was tough but just a lot of swing and miss. When you’re swinging and missing, there’s not much you can do.”