Tampa Bay leads the series 1-0
Astros drop ALCS Game 1 to Rays after wasted chances at the plate
Oct 11, 2020, 10:29 pm
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Astros Jose Altuve
With four teams left in the MLB postseason, Sunday night began the best-of-seven ALCS between the Astros and Rays who would battle for the right to represent the American League in the 2020 World Series. It set up to be an intriguing pitching battle, with Houston's best arm, Framber Valdez, going against 2018 Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Blake Snell, despite having his pitch count elevated early, would edge out Valdez by going five innings during which his team provided him a 2-1 lead, which they would hold on to through the end. The loss puts Houston down 1-0 in the ALCS with Game 2 tomorrow afternoon. Here is a rundown of Game 1:
Final Score: Rays 2, Astros 1.
Series: TB leads 1-0.
Winning Pitcher: Blake Snell.
Losing Pitcher: Framber Valdez.
Teams trade early runs
As the visiting team in the first two games, the Astros at the plate first to start Game 1. Jose Altuve took advantage, grabbing the early momentum for Houston with a one-out solo home run to take a 1-0 lead. They continued to put pressure on Blake Snell, including loading the bases with two outs in the top of the fourth but would strand all three runners.
That was fast. 😳#ALCS pic.twitter.com/JV8opM4NVA
— MLB (@MLB) October 11, 2020
Framber Valdez looked like his usual, sharp self in the game's early goings, allowing just one hit and one walk through the first three innings. Tampa Bay would get on the board in the bottom of the fourth, though, with Randy Arozarena banging a hanging fastball to center-field on a solo homer to tie the game 1-1.
Valdez goes six, but leaves down a run
While Snell would finish the fifth at 105 pitches and go no further, Valdez was having an efficient start to his night despite the earlier homer. A leadoff walk in the bottom of the fifth would bite him, though, as back-to-back groundouts would move the runner to third to set up a two-out RBI-single by Mike Zunino to give Tampa Bay their first lead at 2-1. Valdez would make it through the sixth before Dusty Baker would move to the bullpen in the one-run game. His final line: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8K, 1 HR, 95 P.
Tampa Bay takes Game 1
Blake Taylor was the first reliever for Houston, taking over for Valdez in the bottom of the seventh. He would only get one out, a strikeout between a leadoff double and hit-by-pitch to put two runners on with one out, prompting another pitching change to bring in Enoli Paredes. Paredes would strand the runners, keeping it a one-run game heading to the eighth.
Houston would load the bases in the top of the eighth after a hit-by-pitch for Michael Brantley, walk by Carlos Correa, and a single by Kyle Tucker. That brought Yuli Gurriel to the plate, who would ground the first pitch he saw into a double play as the Astros would once again leave runs on the bases. Brooks Raley pitched the bottom of the eighth, working around a leadoff infield-single to get through the frame scoreless. Houston would come up empty in the top of the ninth, falling 2-1 in Game 1 to put the Rays a leg up heading into Monday's Game 2.
Up Next: ALCS Game 2 between the Astros and Rays will be Monday with a 3:07 PM Central start time to accommodate NLCS Game 1 on Monday evening. Lance McCullers Jr. will take the mound for Houston, who will stay as the visiting team, going opposite of former-Astro Charlie Morton for the Tampa Bay, who remains the home team.
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A lockout appears unavoidable! Photo via: Wiki Commons.
Looming over baseball is a likely lockout in December 2026, a possible management push for a salary cap and perhaps lost regular-season games for the first time since 1995.
“No one’s talking about it, but we all know that they’re going to lock us out for it, and then we’re going to miss time,” New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso said Monday at the All-Star Game. “We’re definitely going to fight to not have a salary cap and the league’s obviously not going to like that.”
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners have cited payroll disparity as a problem, while at the same time MLB is working to address a revenue decline from regional sports networks. Unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball has never had a salary cap because its players staunchly oppose one.
Despite higher levels of luxury tax that started in 2022, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets have pushed payrolls to record levels. The last small-market MLB club to win a World Series was the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
After signing outfielder Juan Soto to a record $765 million contract, New York opened this season with an industry-high $326 million payroll, nearly five times Miami’s $69 million, according to Major League Baseball’s figures. Using luxury tax payrolls, based on average annual values that account for future commitments and include benefits, the Dodgers were first at $400 million and on track to owe a record luxury tax of about $151 million — shattering the previous tax record of $103 million set by Los Angeles last year.
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026, and management lockouts have become the norm, which shifts the start of a stoppage to the offseason. During the last negotiations, the sides reached a five-year deal on March 10 after a 99-day lockout, salvaging a 162-game 2022 season.
“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap isn’t about growing the game,” union head Tony Clark said Tuesday. “A cap is about franchise values and profits. ... A salary cap historically has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about a fair versus not. This is institutionalized collusion.”
The union’s opposition to a cap has paved the way for record-breaking salaries for star players. Soto’s deal is believed to be the richest in pro sports history, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal with the Dodgers signed a year earlier. By comparison, the biggest guaranteed contract in the NFL is $250 million for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Manfred cites that 10% of players earn 72% of salaries.
“I never use the word `salary’ within one of `cap,’” he said. “What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that’s real we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a players’ perspective.”
A management salary cap proposal could contain a salary floor and a guaranteed percentage of revenue to players. Baseball players have endured nine work stoppages, including a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that fought off a cap proposal.
Agent Scott Boras likens a cap plan to attracting kids to a “gingerbread house.”
“We’ve heard it for 20 years. It’s almost like the childhood fable,” he said. “This very traditional, same approach is not something that would lead the younger players to the gingerbread house.”