Brett Phillips crouched in the field weeping, Randy Arozarena spread out in the dirt and slapped his hands on the plate.
Tears of joy, a touch of celebration – and a crucial, insane victory for the seedy Tampa Bay Rays.
In one of the wildest World Series finals of all time, the easy-hitting Phillips delivered a tie single against Kenley Jansen with two outs at the end of the ninth inning that became the end-of-game hit when the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped the ball twice . Arozarena was able to climb home and lift its rays to an 8: 7 win on Saturday evening, which suddenly balanced the situation in two games.
“Golly, what a special moment,” said Phillips of Arlington, Texas.
The Dodgers were leading 7-6 when midfielder Chris Taylor misplayed Phillips’ ball in the right center for a mistake and pursued it while Kevin Kiermaier tied. Arozarena kept charging around the third base, but tripped and fell well before she got home.
He managed to stand up and score a goal when catcher Will Smith looked up too early and missed the relay throw and splashed him towards the backstop while Arozarena dived on the plate.
“When I saw Randy slip, I was like, ‘Aw, shoot, at least we tied it up’ and then he missed the ball,” said Phillips, who came into the game as a prize runner in the eighth. “I don’t know what happened, but then he hit. The next thing I know is I’ll take the plane around the outfield and stack myself up and here I am.”
Arozarena said he tried to retreat to third place after falling over.
Randy Arozarena that # Postseason ::
– record for most HR (9)
– Rookie record for most hits (25)
– Binds AL record for most XBH (13) pic.twitter.com/BFDbla0eH5
– –@MLBStats
“We had already tied the game. I was trying to get an overview,” said Arozarena through a translator. “Then, obviously, as the ball passed him, I turned and hit.”
Jansen came into the game in ninth for the Dodgers, beating Yoshi Tsutsugo ahead of a broken bat single from Kiermaier, the longest-serving Rays player. Arozarena, the rookie who had previously made his ninth post-season homer, drew a two-point run to set up the unlikely final.
“You have to stay positive,” said Jansen. “I haven’t given up a hard hit. What can I do? Throw the pitches where I wanted. Credit to the thugs.”
Phillips was banned from the American League Championship Series list but shone as a cheerleader and posted false scouting reports on a clipboard announcing Arozarena before dancing against him in battles after the team locked the AL pennant.
“What a great team effort for this win. It cost almost 28 players,” said Phillips. “That’s what makes this team special. Everyone comes together, our only goal is to win. We don’t rely on one man. It takes everyone, and man, baseball is fun.”
Kershaw set for Game 5
Corey Seager and Justin Turner both had four hits with a solo homer for the Dodgers, who almost got into Game 5 by a 3-1 lead on Sunday night. They’ll send three-time National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw up the hill on a regular basis after winning Game 1 on Tuesday night.
Cody Bellinger, a gold glove finalist in midfield, was switched to a designated batsman just over an hour before the game due to back stiffness and swapped places with AJ Pollock in the line-up. Taylor, also a second baseman, started in left field and moved to the center after Joc Pederson pinched Pollock in the seventh, then took over on the left. Only Taylor was charged with a mistake in the last game.
Turner said Dodger’s catcher, Smith, had no way of knowing that Arozarena had fallen.
“He was trying to catch the ball and drop a quick label. If he had known it fell, he probably would have taken the time to make sure he caught it,” said Turner. “I’m not sure what happened in the middle. It’s not typical for us.”
Hunter Renfroe, Brandon Lowe and Kiermaier also faced the Rays, who had recorded their runs on long balls up to this last game. Those homers came during a hectic stretch as the teams scored eight consecutive half-innings, a first in World Series history.
A solo homer from Kiermaier, who has been with the Rays since 2013, linked the game 6-6 in the seventh game, right after the first two leadership changes in this entire World Series.
Lowe went in the opposite direction for the third time in the series, his three-time homer down left in the sixth put the Rays 5-4 ahead. Half an inning later, the second baseman was face down in right field after trying to catch Pederson’s liner, who flew over from the top of his glove for a two-part single that put LA back in the lead.
This marked the first World Series launch for LA since Kirk Gibson’s homer at the end of the game in Game 1 in 1988.
That finish had a completely different feel to the Dodgers.
“It’s tough and we have to digest it but we have to turn the page,” said manager Dave Roberts. “That is certainly a difficult question, but I know our boys. … We are very resilient.”
