Tampa Bay Rays, 28th in MLB payroll, beat No. 1 (Yanks) and now No. 3 (Astros) in payroll to reach World Series. If they should meet & beat Dodgers in WS, they'd knock off No. 1-2-3 in salary. Just sayin', not predicting. Remarkable and worth all the praise they can be given!
— Thomas Boswell (@ThomasBoswellWP) October 18, 2020
Speaking as a long-time Texan who used to root for the Astros, I’m glad they lost. My emotional attachment to the ‘Stros was overridden by my desire to avoid having a pennant winner with a losing record during the regular season.
Good for the Rays. They have made the WS only once before, in 2008, but lost to the Phillies.
There was no doubt that lanky old geezer Charlie Morton was the star of the series against the ‘Stros (his previous team). Two starts, no runs allowed, two wins. He is now 3-0 in the post-season this year. That dude is the ultimate late developer. His record was 46-71 (.393) with a 4.54 ERA through age 32. Since then he has been 47-18 (.723) with a 3.34 ERA. He somehow turned from Sy Sperling into Cy Young. (Although that may have hurt his hairline.)
Tom Boswell, longtime great writer for the WAPO. The sick joke for years was that Washington had the best baseball writer but no baseball team (he used to cover the O’s).