Cliff Lee took the hump last night in the ALDS playoff game between the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays and before the night was over fanned 11 in an impressive outing that punched his team’s ticket to a series against the New York Yankees.

Regardless of which team won this playoff, the series was going to be historic. The Rays were fighting to be just the eighth team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the Division Series after winning a pair of games on the road in Arlington.

Instead, it was the Rangers making history with their first ever series win in the postseason. Additionally, this was the first time in MLB history that the road team won every game of a playoff series.

Lee made the most of his start for Texas and shut down the Rays. He pitched a complete game, allowing just a single run and six hits to the solid Rays’ lineup. On the night, in addition to the 11 strikeouts, Lee showed great control walking zero.

Offensively, Texas scored early with aggressive base running. After getting on base to lead off the game, Elvis Andrus was on second base with Josh Hamilton up. As David Price delivered, Andrus broke for third. Hamilton hit a slow ground ball to Carlos Pena, who tossed to Price to record the out. Andrus never stopped running, hesitating just for a second at third base before taking off toward the plate. He scored without a throw, giving the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead.

After the Rays tied it up in the third, Nelson Cruz led off the fourth inning with a double. Cruz should have been on third had he not watched the flight of what he thought was a homerun. Cruz attempted to steal third with Vladimir Guerrero up, and Rays’ catcher John Jaso threw the ball into left field, giving the Rangers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Vladimir Guerrero had some fine base running of his own; scoring from second after the Rays failed to turn a double play in the sixth.

Ian Kinsler added a two run homerun off Rafael Soriano in the ninth, but Cliff Lee retired the Rays in order to send the Rangers to their first ever ALCS.

The Rangers will now face the New York Yankees in a best of seven series starting Thursday in Texas. While the pitching matchup hasn’t been officially set, it will likely be CC Sabathia vs. C.J. Wilson because Cliff Lee will be unavailable.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The year of the pitcher continued and Matt Garza became the fifth pitcher to throw a no-hitter this year in the Tampa

Matt Garza no-no

Bay Rays 5-0 win over the Detroit Tigers. It was actually the sixth no-no if you count the Jim Joyce debacle.

Although the final score was 5-0, the majority of the game was a pitchers’ duel. Garza’s opponent, Max Scherzer threw 5-plus innings of no-hit ball before the wheels came off in the sixth.

After Kelly Shoppach struck out to begin the 6^th inning, the Rays loaded the bases on two walks and a catcher’s interference call. Scherzer then struck out Carlos Pena, and looked like he might be able to escape the jam and continue to pursue his no-hitter.

That vision was erased when ex-Tiger Matt Joyce drilled a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall to give the Rays a 4-0 lead. One hit and four runs. After Joyce emptied the bases and broke up Scherzer’s no-no, all the attention turned to Garza, who had allowed just one base runner, a walk to Boesch in the second inning.

After retiring the side in both the seventh and eighth innings, Garza returned for the ninth already having thrown 107 pitches. It took Garza six pitches to retire Don Kelly for the first out of the inning. He then struck out Gerald Laird on four pitches, putting him in position to make history and pitch the first no-hitter in Tampa Rays history.

Pinch hitter Ramon Santiago made contact on a 1-1 pitch from Garza, but it was a harmless fly ball to right field, which Ben Zobrist put away to seal the game.

Garza was mobbed by teammates on the mound, and now will have his name forever etched in baseball history. His final pitching line was 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 120 pitches.

The no-hitter comes at a great time for Garza and the Rays, who had both cooled after a tremendous start to the year.

The Rays were in first place early in the year, and looked like the best team in baseball for a while. They currently trail the Yankees by three games, and could use this to build momentum in the near future.

Garza also started off the year well, holding down a 3.08 ERA through the month of May. Since the start of June however, Garza had a 5-1 record which hid his terrible 6.60 ERA.

Here are some interesting tidbits on Garza’s no-hitter:

 This was the first no-hitter in Rays history, leaving the San Diego Padres and New York Mets as the only teams left without a no-hitter . . .

The five no-hitters thrown so far this year are the most since 1991 . . .

Garza previously threw a one-hitter in 2008 . . . 

The Rays have been involved in three of the no-hitters this year, as they were previously no-hit by Dallas Braden (OAK) and Edwin Jackson (ARZ) . . .

Garza faced the minimum 27 batters . . .

Used with permission of the author.

 Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

BEANTOWN – Some Red Sox fans miss history

The Tampa Bay Rays blew a 7-0 lead and allowed the Red Sox to score 8 runs in the last three innings for a record-setting, 8-7 dramatic comeback.

And how pissed off are the fans we saw heading to their cars during the seventh inning stretch and their team down 7-0?

Fans in every city criticize the fans in their rival cities for not being loyal enough and jumping on the bandwagon, but when it comes down to it, we all have a game we regret leaving early.

Mine is last week’s Atlanta Falcon game against the Bears when the game was “certainly over” with only 11 seconds left. The Bears had just put together the best drive of their year and went ahead 20-19.

With a rookie QB Matt Ryan in the driver’s seat and only 11 seconds left, you may as well put this one in the books . . . unless of course Lovie Smith calls for a squib kick, the rookie QB throws a perfect 30-yard sideline strike to a WR who makes a tip-toe reception with just 1 second left on the clock then a kicker splits the uprights with a 48 yarder to win the game 22-20 with no time on the clock.

Two sayings fit this scenario, “It isn’t over ’til the Fat Lady sings” and “Misery loves company?” Well my company was all those dumb-ass Red Sox fans who will regret throwing in the towel too early and missing the greatest comeback in MLB history.

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Bob Uecker Seats in Tampa

The Tampa Bay Rays announced they will remove the tarp covering their “Bob Uecker” seats in the highest point of the upper deck of Tropicana Field. This opens the area for an additional 5,762 “jump-on-the-bandwagon” Rays fans for Game 6 of the AL Championship or Game.

According to a team’s spokesman, some of the seats are obstructed-view and some don’t have seatbacks.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax