Oct 20 2008
Rays upset Red Sox Nation, go to the World Series thanks to Garza’s gem
Matt Garza went 2-0 with a 1.38 E.R.A in the ALCS.
The Tampa Bay Rays in front of 40,000 plus fans beat the Red Sox 3-1 and paved their way to the franchise’s first World Series Appearance. Now this franchise is 4 wins away from their first World Series. There were so many players who could have got MVP this series, from Evan Longoria with his clutch RBI and longballs throughout the series, to B.J. Upton to Carl Crawford, to David Price, and to even Willy Aybar. But one guy stoodout in this series and pitched the biggest game of his career. That guy was Matt Garza who went seven plus dominating innings of one-run ball and added nine strikeouts and only gave up two hits. Garza was fantastic tonight and left everything out there like he was pitching his last start of the season. For the series, Garza went 2-0 with a 1.38 E.R.A and gave up only 2 earned runs in his two starts. He garnered the ALCS MVP award and sent the crowd at Tropicana Field into a frenzy.
And who would have thought unheralded rookie David Price would get the opportunity to close the game out. Indeed, Maddon went with his young lefty, who recorded the final 4 outs for the save and helped the Rays clinch a berth to the World Series and won them an AL Pennant. Price could’ve won MVP too in his clutch relief pitching, picking up a victory and a save in the series. But Garza was the story and showed poise for a young 24 year old righty and threw a gem for the victory and 4-3 series win for the Rays.
This year has been an incredible year for this young franchise full of youth and energy up and down the organization. But this year isn’t over yet as they still have one more piece of unfinished business to do and that is win their town and franchise a World Series Trophy, but they have to go through the NL Pennant winners’ Philadelphia Phillies. This should be an exciting series and I expect it to go at least 7 this World Series unlike the last four World Series which all have resulted in sweeps by the winning team.
It is the Tampa Bay Rays (9=2), a Cinderella Story, to be continued for one last hurrah…
