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Brett Phillips’ single scored two runs and the Tampa Bay Rays retired with an impressive 8-7 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday that annulled the World Series by two games apiece.
The Rays became the first team in postseason history to hit home runs in four straight innings, but trailed 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth.
With two outs and two on play, Phillips was nearing his last strike in the ninth when he singled to right center field off Dodgers closing pitcher Kenley Jansen and Kevin Kiermaier scored from second base.
Randy Arozarena ran from first, but stumbled between third and home plate and appeared to be finished. However, when Dodgers catcher Will Smith threw the shot at the plate, Arozarena was able to get up and go to the plate in time.
“Gee, what a special moment,” Phillips said. “I am having a hard time expressing my emotions in words. Baseball is fun. Wow.”
Kiermaier called the finale, which sent the Rays into a frenzy at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, “truly incredible.”
“We cannot resign,” Kiermaier added. “We have been doing that all year. We have been the children of the return. Doing it on the big stage makes it so much sweeter. “
Arozarena hit a postseason-record ninth home run. Kiermaier, Hunter Renfroe and Brandon Lowe also homered for the Rays, who are seeking the first World Series title in franchise history.
The Dodgers, who returned to the World Series for the third time in four years after disappointments in 2017 and 2018, are seeking their seventh title, but their first since 1988.
The spectacular finale capped a tense back-and-forth battle with a World Series record of eight consecutive half innings with one run scored.
Justin Turner and Corey Seager homered for the Dodgers. Seager’s was his eighth of the playoffs, temporarily tying the postseason record until Arozarena scored his ninth in the fourth frame.
For the second game in a row, Turner got things going with a solo home run in the first inning.
Seager added a solo shot in the top of the third that put the Dodgers up 2-0, but Arozarena retired a run in the bottom of the fourth with an opening blast to right center field from a 95 mph fastball of Julio Urias.
Los Angeles stretched the lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Seager singled off Rays relief pitcher Pete Fairbanks and reached second on a wild pitch. With two outs in the inning, Max Muncy came first on a tight line to right field that scored Seager.
The Rays responded with a Renfroe home run to cut the margin to one run in the bottom of the fifth.
Two run double
The Dodgers pushed the lead to two in the top of the sixth when Enrique Hernandez hit a double down the left field line that scored two.
But Lowe, the two-homer hero of the Rays’ game two victory, put the Rays in front for the first time with a three-run blast off Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez in the bottom of the sixth.
In the seventh, the Dodgers’ pinch-hitter Joc Pederson came in with the bases loaded and two outs and pitched a two-run single that put Los Angeles in front.
All seven of the Dodgers’ runs came with two outs, continuing a trend for them in this series.
However, the Rays did not refuse, Kiermaier’s home run against Baez tied the score at 6-6.
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