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There’s no place like home for the Tampa Bay Rays. Tropicana Field has been especially kind to them, as they posted the best home record in the major leagues this season at 57-24.
They continued their dominant play at home with a 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox, a team that won its previous three games in must-win situations. James Shields pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed three earned runs to pick up the Rays’ first postseason win ever.
Javier Vazquez, who White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen outed as not being a big-game pitcher before his last start, picked up the loss, allowing six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Longoria provided the difference with two solo home runs. He became the first player to homer in his first two postseason at-bats since Gary Gaetti with the Minnesota Twins in 1987.
“I was nervous,” Longoria said to MLB.com’s Bill Chastain. “I think if you're not nervous in this situation, you're really not soaking in the moment. ... I knew [Vazquez] was going to try and get ahead early in the first at-bat, so I was planning on swinging first pitch, no matter what.”
Friday’s matchup features two lefties, Mark Buehrle for the White Sox and Scott Kazmir for the Rays. If the Rays can win, they’ll go up 2-0 in the series. A team has come back from that deficit only five times out of 32 opportunities. The game will be aired at 6:00 EST on TBS.
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