Arozarena shines, Rays blank Red Sox 5-0 in ALDS opener

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Randy Arozarena is off and running in October again.

The do-it-all outfielder became the first player to hit a home run and steal home in a postseason game, propelling the Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox in their AL Division Series opener Thursday night.

The breakout star of October last year, Arozarena made a breathtaking dash to the plate in the seventh inning for the first straight steal of home in the postseason since Jackie Robinson did it for the Brooklyn Dodgers against Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, according to the FS1 broadcast.

“I noticed the pitcher wasn’t really keeping his attention to me. So I was able to take a big enough lead and be able to take that base,” Arozarena said through a translator. “That’s the first time I’ve ever stolen home.”

Nelson Cruz also homered and rookie Shane McClanahan pitched five stellar innings for the AL East champion Rays.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Friday night, with Chris Sale scheduled to start for Boston against rookie Shane Baz.

Wander Franco also sparkled in his playoff debut, delivering an early RBI double that sent the speedy Arozarena home from first base to get the defending AL champions off to a quick start.

Arozarena, a 26-year-old Cuban who’s still a rookie despite setting postseason records with 10 homers and 29 hits in 20 games a year ago, capped another exhilarating performance by stealing home on lefty reliever Josh Taylor to make it 5-0 in the seventh.

“I think it just happens. You know, I just focus a little bit more,” Arozarena said about his postseason prowess. “Luckily, it’s happening in October. That means it’s closer to the World Series.”

It was the first steal of home of any kind in a playoff game since Javier Báez did it for the Chicago Cubs against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS.

Báez took a big lead off third base, drawing a pickoff throw to third from catcher Carlos Ruiz. As soon as Ruiz let go of the ball, Baez scampered home and beat an off-balance throw from third baseman Justin Turner to the plate.

If not for Arozarena’s flashy, crowd-pleasing play and the hitting of the 20-year-old Franco, who was promoted to the majors in June, then McClanahan’s pitching may well have been the story of the night.

The 24-year-old lefty, who made his big league debut during Tampa Bay’s run to last year’s World Series, scattered five hits and struck out three in his first career playoff start.

Cruz, acquired in July to add a potent bat to the middle of the lineup, hit his 18th career postseason homer for a 3-0 lead in the third. Arozarena also went deep against right-hander Nick Pivetta with the bases empty in the fifth for his 11th homer in 21 career postseason games.

With one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and a roster lacking household names, the Rays are in the playoffs for a third straight year after winning a franchise-record 100 games and their second straight AL East title.

Boston lefty Eduardo Rodriguez took the loss, allowing two runs, two hits and walking two in 1 2/3 innings. Pivetta spared manager Alex Cora from having to expend the bullpen by working 4 2/3 innings in relief.

Franco chased Pivetta with his second double of the night, an opposite-field hit to left that sent Arozarena scampering from first to third base in the seventh. Four pitches later, Arozarena took advantage of Taylor not paying attention to him and took off for the plate.

The victory extended Tampa Bay’s recent mastery of the Red Sox.

The Rays lost four straight to Boston before winning 11 of the final 15 meetings during the regular season. And they wasted no time jumping on Rodriguez this time, using their speed to turn a leadoff walk to Arozarena, Franco’s double to left-center and Yandy Diaz’s two-out infield single into a quick 2-0 lead.

Cruz homered off one of the catwalks that support the roof at Tropicana Field, setting off another thunderous ovation from a yellow towel-waving sellout crowd of 27,419 that included college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, a Rays season-ticket holder who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Franco and Cruz are the two biggest additions to this year’s Tampa Bay offense, which ranked second in the majors with 857 runs. With the 20-year-old shortstop and 41-year-old slugger in the lineup, the Rays scored 263 runs in 43 games.

The duo became the second set of teammates to each have a hit in a postseason game when one player was 20 or younger and the other was at least 40. They joined Manny Machado and Jim Thome, who did it in 2012 for the Baltimore Orioles, according to ESPN.

Cruz, meanwhile, became the second-oldest player to homer in the postseason after 43-year-old Julio Franco in 2001.

UP NEXT

Baz, an Olympic silver medalist who began the season in Double-A and made his major league debut in late September, will start Game 2 for the Rays.

The Red Sox, who beat the rival Yankees at home in the AL wild-card game to advance to the ALDS, will counter with Sale, who returned from Tommy John surgery in mid-August and went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA over nine starts down the stretch.

Astros star Altuve has surgery on broken thumb, a WBC injury

Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
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Houston Astros star Jose Altuve had surgery Wednesday on his broken right thumb, an injury that occurred in the World Baseball Classic and will significantly delay the second baseman’s 2023 debut.

The Astros announced that the 32-year-old Altuve had the procedure done in Houston and will stay there to begin his rehabilitation, with only one week left in spring training. The Astros will fly there on Sunday following their final Grapefruit League game in Florida, before playing a pair of exhibitions against their Triple-A team, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, in Texas.

Altuve was hit by a pitch on Saturday while playing for Venezuela in the WBC. He might not be ready to return to the lineup until at least late May. The eight-time All-Star and 2017 American League MVP batted .300 with 103 runs, 28 homers and 18 steals for the World Series champion Astros last season. Mauricio Dubón and David Hensley are the leading candidates to fill in for Altuve at second base.

Altuve isn’t the only Major League Baseball star who was hurt in WBC play, of course. Mets closer Edwin Díaz will miss the 2023 season because of a torn patellar tendon in his right knee as the freak result of an on-field celebration following a WBC win by the Puerto Rico national team.

BROWN DOWN

The Astros also scratched right-hander Hunter Brown from his scheduled start Wednesday against the Mets in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Manager Dusty Baker told reporters that Brown, who is ranked by MLB as the organization’s top prospect and competing for the last spot in the rotation, has discomfort in his lower back.

NOT QUITE READY

The New York Mets sent catcher Francisco Álvarez to Triple-A Syracuse, quashing for now the possibility of putting the prized 21-year-old on the opening day roster.

Álvarez, who made his major league debut with the Mets near the end of last season, had just three hits in 28 at-bats in Grapefruit League exhibition games. Ranked by MLB as the third-best prospect in baseball, Álvarez batted .260 with 27 homers and 78 RBIs in a combined 112 minor league games in 2022 at Double-A and Triple-A.

The Mets have newcomer Omar Narváez, a 2021 All-Star with the Milwaukee Brewers, as their primary catcher with Tomás Nido likely to play mostly against left-handed pitchers.

Speaking of the Mets, Díaz turned 29 on Wednesday – a rather subdued milestone for the right-hander considering his situation. Diaz nonetheless posted in Spanish an upbeat message on his Twitter account, thanking God for another year of life and describing his health as good and his outlook as positive in this initial stage of the roughly eight-month rehabilitation process.