Projo Sox Blog

Courtesy Major League Baseball

THE TAMPA BAY RAYS WIN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE PENNANT
-- The Tampa Bay Rays have captured their first American League pennant to advance to the World Series in the franchise's first ever postseason appearance...The Rays are the 11th expansion team in history (18th time) to participate in the Fall Classic. The last expansion team to appear in the World Series was the Colorado Rockies in 2007 and the last expansion team to win a World Championship was the Florida Marlins in 2003. Expansion teams have now advanced to the World Series in seven of the last nine seasons, with the exceptions coming in 2004 (Red Sox vs. Cardinals) and 2006 (Tigers vs. Cardinals). All four of the expansion clubs since 1993 will now have made the World Series.

-- The Rays have become just the third team to advance to the World Series immediately after 10-or-more consecutive losing seasons. The 1914 Boston Braves (11 straight losing seasons) defeated the Philadelphia A's 4-0 in the series. The 2006 Detroit Tigers (12 straight losing seasons) won the A.L. Wild Card and advanced to the series where they fell to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1.

RAYS REVERSE COURSE
In postseason history, teams that had held 3-1 advantages and then lost Games 5 and 6 have now gone 5-11 in the Game 7 of the series. The Rays are the first ALCS club ever to lose Games 5 and 6 and then win Game 7.

RAYS WERE EMPTY EARLY TONIGHT
After hitting five first inning home runs in the first six games of the ALCS, the Rays were held in check by JON LESTER early on tonight. Lester retired the first nine batters he faced tonight. No starter in the 2008 ALCS had retired as many as six batters in a row to start the game before Lester recorded the first nine outs in succession tonight.

RIBBIES FROM THE ROOK
EVAN LONGORIA's RBI double in the fourth inning was his eighth RBI of the 2008 ALCS. The eight RBI tie Longoria with Cincinnati's Pat Duncan in 1919 for most RBI by a rookie in a single postseason series.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT
The 23-year-old David Price was the top overall pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft out of Vanderbilt University. Price went 1-0 with one save and 2.1 scoreless IP in the 2008 ALCS...The left-hander made his Major League debut on September 14th at Yankee Stadium...Price appeared in five regular season games, including one start...overall, he posted 14.0 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 12 SO in the regular season.

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