ALDS Game 5 Rays vs Rangers: An Open Letter To David Price

Dear David Price:

This is the ultimate challenge. This is it. Game 5 of the Division Series.

You are either going to take the Rays to the American League Championship Series or you are going to send them home.

This is where heroes or goats are made. You will be either a hero or a goat.

Yes, you need run support for your great performance to be validated, but you should trust your hitters to come through for you late in the game. It’s going to happen, but you have to make it happen.

This is all on you. If you pitch well, the Rays are going to win. The Rays are capable of scoring a run or two off Cliff Lee, and he is going to blink late. You can’t blink early period like you did last time.

In your last start, it was a mediocre performance to say the least. You know it. You threw eight strikeouts, but you also give up many hits per inning, including couple of home runs. You did not retire the side in any part of the game

This is a chance now for you to redeem yourself. You can make Game 1 a distant memory by putting zeroes on the scoreboard every inning. You just have to match Lee whenever Lee pitches well.

It would be nice if Lee stinks it up tonight, but that’s not happening. When a starter has success in October on a consistent basis, it means he expects to get it done. That’s what Lee did last year in October and in Game 1.

Don’t worry about Lee though. Just approach like you did against CC Sabathia at Tropicana Field last month. You and CC matched zeroes and made quick work of the opposition. It was beautiful to watch, and it was fitting the both of you received no-decisions. The Rays eventually won in extra innings on a home run by Reid Brignac.

You must come through for so many reasons.

For one thing, a loss and this team is going to break up. Your owner has zero interest in keeping this team together because he can’t afford to keep everyone. He is not making money while the team is drawing to empty seats during the regular season.

It would be a shame to see this go away so soon. This team has a chance to win a championship, and it would be disheartening to see them go one and out. There is nothing worse than high expectations go awry. You and your teammates know it.

With the season your team had, they should be extending their season to the end of October. Your team provided excitement all year with game-winning home runs and coming back to tie it and win it. This writer had an opportunity to write about the Rays for Baseball Digest this summer, and he loved what he saw out of them.

It would be such a shame if this is all over after tonight. This team is good enough to win a championship. They have the pitching, and they have the hitting. They also have the character to win games, and you saw it in the two games at Arlington this weekend.

Second of all, Yankees haters are relying on you to take the Rays to the American League Championship Series. They feel your team is the only team that can beat the Yankees. They have no faith in the Rangers or the Phillies, who are not in the same sentence as the Yankees.

Outside of the Yankee Universe, it would be a day of mourning if the Yankees brought another championship. If the Rays win it, it would be a good day in America because it showed you can win a championship even with a modest budget. It shows if you develop players and find the right guys, it’s possible to beat the Yankees.

Even with your team losing many players next year, no one can take away this year’s success if the Rays win a championship. Fans in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area will always have fond memories of your team. America will too.

It’s unfair to put all of this on you, but the truth of the matters it comes down to pitcher. Aces have the stuff to dictate the game. You showed that in your showdown with Sabathia. It’s all about battle of wills.

You proved this year that you can do well against elite pitchers. You also showed you can bounce back after a bad outing.

This writer likes to think you will come through, but then again, he thought the Rays would win Game 1 and end this in 4 at Arlington.

It didn’t happen. This writer likes to think you will bounce back, but who knows. He is such a cynic that he expects bad things to happen.

The beauty of playing sports is predictions mean nothing. If a guy does what it takes to win a game, his team will succeed. A player controls the outcome of the game, and he influences one’s opinion.

Hopefully, you took notes of what Matt Garza and Wade Davis did. Both of them threw curveballs along with fastballs to get the Rangers out. They both threw strikes.

You can’t be predictable. Throw different sorts of pitches to get out of the inning as quickly as possible. You know that.

You are fortunate to get this opportunity. It’s rare athletes get do-overs in bad game.

Your teammates and your fans trust you. Now, it’s your turn to reward everyone’s faith.

Go get em!