![]() 108 hitter Dan Johnson came up as the last hope for the Rays-and gave new hope by homering to send the game into extra innings. An inning later, with Yankee reliever Cory Wade trying to earn the save because Mariano Rivera was given the night off, benchwarmer and. With two runs in, two runners on and two outs, Evan Longoria came up and hit a three-run shot that, suddenly, brought the Rays to within a run. In the eighth, the Rays showed signs of life, thanks in part to Yankee pitching-which hit two batters and walked another as the first five Tampa hitters reached base. One Yankee reliever after another-Dellin Betances, making only his second major league appearance, started and lasted two innings-kept the Rays’ bats silent through seven innings, and defeat looked inevitable for Tampa Bay, as a steady stream of fans amid the 29,000 in attendance gradually began leaving the park, with some shouting out in disgust, “Rays suck!” That decision was made easier when they tore out to a 7-0 lead off Tampa Bay starter David Price and company through five innings. The Yankees, with the AL East title already clinched, started many of their regular players but planned to pull most of them midway through. But when Boston proceeded to lose 15 of its next 20 games-including five of six to the Rays-it suddenly became a race to the wire, with both teams tied for the wild card going into the season’s final day. Few thought much of a comeback by a Tampa Bay team who’d admirably made it this far on a skimpy budget and rebuilt bullpen. Less than four weeks before finishing their regular season at home against divisional rival New York, the Rays were nine full games back of the Red Sox, who looked to be sitting pretty for the AL wild card spot. September 28, 2011: David Slays Goliath, Again When Iwamura took Jed Lowrie’s grounder unassisted to second to force Bay for the final out, the Rays completed one of baseball’s most improbable worst-to-first success stories. Drew to finish the eighth he took care of Job Two when he clamped down on the Red Sox in the ninth, surviving a leadoff walk to Jason Bay. In came David Price, the highly prized rookie who began the year in Class A ball and, now, was in the center of the Rays’ fight to win a major league pennant. Garza’s exemplary evening ended when Alex Cora reached on an error two Tampa Bay relievers then allowed the Red Sox to load the bases with two outs. In the Boston eighth, the Red Sox finally threatened. In the seventh, Aybar added insurance with a leadoff homer that made the score 3-1. Boston starting pitcher Jon Lester retired the Tampa Bay lineup the first time through the order, but wasn’t so lucky the second time around the Rays tied it in the fourth on an Evan Longoria double that brought home Akinori Iwamura, then took the lead an inning later when Rocco Baldelli-once a rising star before being struck by a rare condition that crippled his stamina-singled in Willie Aybar. Matt Garza got the start for Tampa Bay but the Red Sox immediately hit him up for a run in the first when AL MVP Dustin Pedroia hit a solo shot, sending the typically healthy throng of Red Sox fans in St. But the doubters were out after the Rays, up three games to one against Boston in the ALCS, lost the next two-including a Game Five defeat in which they once led by seven runs-to set up the decisive Game Seven at Tropicana Field. ![]() Six months later, the stunningly surprising Rays were on the precipice of achieving the impossible and making a few certifiable folks in Vegas certifiably rich. Before the 2008 season, the Rays were a 10-year-old major league joke who never won more than 70 games and were as much as 150-1 longshots to win an American League pennant.
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