Rays Draw Even With Rangers, Force Game 5

The Texas Rangers have awoken a sleeping giant or in this case — sleeping giants.

In the first two games of this series, Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena were held in check. As a matter of fact, after striking out three times in Game 1, Pena didn’t even play in Game 2 of this series.

It must be the air in Arlington, TX because Pena came alive in Game 3 and he continued his hot hitting today and Longoria gave Pena some support as the Rays beat the Rangers 5-2 to even their best-of-five ALDS at two games a piece.

Longoria and Pena combined to go five-for-eight with three doubles, a triple, a HR, and three RBI. Ben Zobrist and B.J. Upton added two hits a piece and now the Rays are back in business.

I thought Pena was awesome in this game. He had four solid AB’s and his double in the fourth was a thing of beauty. He fought off a tough, low and outside pitch from Tommy Hunter and just served it to left field. Pena of Game 1 rolls over that pitch and grounds it weakly to first or second.

Pena is really locked in now and the Rays’ offense seems to be rolling.It’s rolling because Longoria is getting going too. His two-run HR in the top of the fifth really sealed the deal for the Rays. He also started a rally with a double in the top of the fourth.

Here are some other observations from this game…

What on earth was Ian Kinsler doing on that pop up by Matt Joyce in the second? A. Not only did he take a terrible route to the ball, but B. Nelson Cruz was right behind him and if catches that ball, Pena doesn’t score.

Hunter was relatively okay. He struck out seven, but left a lot of balls over the plate. I will also say he might be the most deliberate pitcher in the game. Man does he slow the pace down with runners on base. Mark Buehrle he is not.

That right centerfield jet stream in Arlington is amazing. I thought Cruz’s HR was a routine flyball, but it kept carrying and carrying and carrying. Whereas David Murphy hit a bomb off of Joaquin Benoit to right that didn’t even make it to the warning track.

Longoria is playing at about 75 percent right now. He can barely run.

How about that Rays’ bullpen? Great job by them today. Four innings of one hit baseball.

Josh Hamilton looks to be really hurting at the plate. He is batting .143 this series and doesn’t seem to have much drive through the strike zone.

Very odd pitch sequence to me to Upton in the fourth. Hunter seemed to be pitching around Upton and fell behind in the count 3-0. It seemed logical with two outs and Reid Brignac, who struck out earlier against Hunter on deck.

Then Hunter throws a get me fastball for strike one. Okay, I can buy that. But then he throws another get me over fastball to Upton and he ripped it down the leftfield line for a double. I didn’t understand that pitch sequence at all.

Now we have a Game 5. Cliff Lee versus David Price Part Deux. The Rays are coming home with all the confidence in the world and I have to wonder if the Rangers are thinking here we go again.

Game 5 will be Tuesday night at 8:07 PM est.

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