Brett Phillips squatted on the field crying, Randy Arozarena sprawled in the dirt pounding his hands on home plate.
Tears of joy, smacks of celebration — and a crucial, crazy win for the scrappy Tampa Bay Rays.
In one of the wildest World Series finishes ever, the light-hitting Phillips delivered a tying single off Kenley Jansen with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning that turned into the game-ending hit when the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped the ball twice, allowing Arozarena to scramble home and lifting the Rays to an 8-7 victory on Saturday that suddenly evened things at two games each.
Photo: Kevin Jairaj-USA Today
“Golly, what a special moment,” Phillips said.
The Dodgers led 7-6 when center fielder Chris Taylor misplayed Phillips’ ball in right-center for an error and chased it down while Kevin Kiermaier scored the tying run. Arozarena kept charging around third base, but stumbled and fell well before reaching home.
He was able to get up and score when catcher Will Smith looked up too early and missed the relay throw, letting it squirt toward the backstop while Arozarena dived on top of the plate.
Photo: AFP
“Once I saw Randy slip, I was like: ‘Aw, shoot, at least we tied it up,’ and then he missed the ball,” said Phillips, who had entered the game as a pinch runner in the eighth.
“I don’t know what happened, but then he scored. The next thing I know, I’m airplane-ing around the outfield and I get dogpiled and here I am,” Phillips said.
Jansen came on in the ninth for the Dodgers and struck out Yoshi Tsutsugo before a broken-bat single by Kiermaier, the longest-tenured Rays player. Arozarena, the rookie who earlier hit his postseason record ninth homer, drew a two-out, full-count walk to set up the improbable final play.
“You got to stay positive,” Jansen said. “I didn’t give up one hard hit. What can I do? Throw the pitches where I wanted to. Credit to the hitters.”
Corey Seager and Justin Turner both had four hits with a solo homer for the Dodgers, who nearly went into Game 5 last night with a 3-1 series lead.
Cody Bellinger, a Gold Glove finalist in center field, was switched to designated hitter just over an hour before the game because of back stiffness, trading places with A.J. Pollock in the lineup. Taylor, also a second baseman, started in left field and moved to center after Joc Pederson pinch-hit for Pollock in the seventh and then took over in left.
Only Taylor was charged with an error on the final play.
Turner said there was no way for Dodgers catcher Smith to have known Arozarena fell.
“He was trying to catch the ball and put a quick tag down. If he’d have known he fell, he probably would have taken his time and made sure he caught it,” Turner said. “Not sure what happened in center. That’s uncharacteristic for us.”
Hunter Renfroe, Brandon Lowe and Kiermaier also homered for the Rays, who had gotten all of their runs on long balls until that last play. Those homers came during a frantic stretch when the teams combined to score in eight consecutive half-innings, a first in World Series history.
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