Mike Brosseau said he wasn’t seeking revenge against hard-throwing Aroldis Chapman, just the chance to keep playing.
He ended up getting both.
Brosseau hit a dramatic home run off Chapman with one out in the eighth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 2-1 Friday night to reach the AL Championship Series for the first time in 12 seasons.
The first career post-season homer for the 26-year-old utilityman came after a 10-pitch at-bat against the Yankees’ vaunted, hard-throwing closer, who entered in the seventh inning. Brosseau drove a 100 mph fastball into the left field seats at Petco Park for the Rays’ third hit.
Brosseau and Chapman have a history: Chapman threw a 101 mph fastball near Brosseau’s head Sept. 1 in the ninth inning of a Rays’ 5-3 victory. Chapman likely had nothing against Brosseau personally, but the pitch was an apparent escalation of a feud between the AL East rivals, and it prompted Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash’s infamous declaration that he has “a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 miles an hour.”
Brosseau pumped his fists and hollered “Yes!” as he began his trot. When he returned to the dugout, there were celebratory body slams and high fives with his teammates.
“No revenge, We put that in the past,” said Brosseau, who pinch-hit for Ji-Man Choi in the in the sixth and and then stayed in at first base. “We came here to win the series. We came here to move on, to do what we do best, that’s play our game.”
BOOM ???? <a href=”https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@RaysBaseball</a> TAKES THE LEAD IN THE 8TH‼️ <a href=”https://t.co/L4cs06aEuv”>pic.twitter.com/L4cs06aEuv</a>
Tampa Bay had a $29 million US payroll, 28th out of the 30 major league teams, this coronavirus-shortened season, while the Yankees had the third-largest, $84 million. The Rays dominated the regular-season series with the Yankees 8-2 and were the AL’s top-seed.
About an hour after the game ended, a number of Rays came back out to the field and dugout with beverages and cigars and are trolled the Yankees by playing Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York,” played at Yankee Stadium after victories, and Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” featuring Alicia Keys.
After winning the AL Division Series 3-2, Tampa Bay will stay in San Diego to face the Houston Astros in the AL Championship Series starting Sunday night. The Rays are in the ALCS for the first time since they beat the Boston Red Sox in seven games in 2008 before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
Tampa Bay was eliminated by the Astros in the ALDS last year.
“They’ve been the team to beat the last few years,” Brosseau said. “They knocked us out last year so it will be fun to face them again.”
Brosseau was an unlikely hero in a season that has had many twists and turns due to the coronavirus pandemic. After he went undrafted, the Rays signed him in June 2016 for $1,000.
“That was very, like, storybook,” Tyler Glasnow said. “That was crazy. Just to go out there and have that long of an at-bat, battle that long with all the history we’ve had, that’s just nuts. I still can’t even comprehend it.”
Brosseau’s drive went 375 feet and just cleared the wall.
“Brosseau is such a good dude,” Glasnow added. “It’s just so awesome that it was him. He’s grinded all year long, kind of had sparing playing time; such a big moment like that was just phenomenal. It’s crazy. I blacked out. I was like, `No. No way.’ … With the crack off the bat, there was kind of a delay and everyone didn’t even know how to comprehend it. It was pretty unbelievable. That was probably the most memorable baseball moment I’ve ever been a part of.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Brosseau “just pulled off a great at-bat, and that’s the beauty sometimes of sport. You get in these situations with two great teams and two great competitors going at it. He got him on a great at-bat. Chappie continued to make pitches, and Brosseau put a great at-bat on him and snuck it out of here.”
Chapman is the only pitcher in post-season history to allow a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later with his team facing elimination multiple times. He gave up Jose Altuve’s game-ending drive in Game 6 of last year’s ALCS.
“I thought I made some good pitches in that moment,” Chapman said through a translator. “I think it was a fastball to the middle in. He put good contact on it.”
All-star Austin Meadows also homered for the Rays, connecting off ace Gerrit Cole in the fifth. Aaron Judge tried to make a leaping catch but jammed his head into a padded overhang.
“I got to get up there and rob that one,” the 6-foot-7 right fielder said.
The Rays had 11 homers in the series and the Yankees 10.
Judged homered in the fourth. The Yankees also had only three hits.
Cole, starting on short rest for the first time in his major league career, struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings.
Winner Diego Castillo followed a hitless eighth with a 1-2-3 ninth, and the celebration was on for the Rays, who dominated the regular-season series against the Yankees 8-2. They took a 2-1 lead in the ALDS before the Yankees forced the deciding fifth game.
Cole, pitching about 100 miles south of where he grew up a Yankees fan in Newport Beach, held Tampa Bay to one hit and one run in 5 1/3 innings while striking out nine and walking two. After winning Game 1 on Monday night, he pitched on short rest for the first time in his major league career.
“It’s big disappointment,” said Cole, who signed a $324 million, nine-year free agent deal in the off-season. “Not the way we drew it up. Really hard-fought series that sometimes can make it tougher to swallow, too.”
Cole had pitched 4 2/3 hitless, scoreless innings before Meadows homered to right field to tie the game at 1, and Cole reacted like he knew it was gone. It was Meadows’ second homer this series.
Cole left after 37-year-old left fielder Brett Gardner leaped to rob Randy Arozarena of a home run leading off the sixth. Arozarena, who homered in each of the first three games of the series, watched the ball while taking a few steps before Gardner made his sixth career homer-robbing catch. Cole pointed at Gardner in appreciation.
Cole showed emotion throughout his outing, including hollering and glaring at the Rays’ dugout after striking out Joey Wendle to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the first.
Judge homered into the right-field porch off Nick Anderson leading off the fourth. It was his second of the series and 10th for the Yankees. It was Judge’s third in a winner-take-all game, tying Bill Skowron, Didi Gregorius and Yogi Berra for the most in Yankees post-season history.
Glasnow, who grew up just north of Los Angeles, started and went 2 1/3 hitless, scoreless innings, with two strikeouts and two walks. He struck out 10 in Game 2, a 7-4 Rays win.
New York seemed stunned,
“I hate this feeling,” said Yankees first baseman Luke Voit, who led the majors in homers but hit .111 in the series (2 for18). “It’s the third year in a row going through it.”
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
