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The Rays’ path to a championship is through their starting rotation. Drew Rasmussen, Freddy Peralta, and Nick Martinez, in some order, pound the strike zone, deny free passes and make opponents try to win on batted balls. Those guys turn things over to the Rays’ bullpen, and you’ve heard me on those stats: third-best record when leading after six, best when leading after seven, 85-0 when leading after eight. Even with Cash throwing Seymour to the wolves, the Rays’ pen has coughed up just one lead in these playoffs, and none after the sixth inning.
The Brewers, the better team during the season by a significant amount, the more impressive team in these playoffs while playing a more difficult slate, just have more ways to win. They can draw walks or generate offense on contact and one-run strategies. They can hit singles or homers. They can strike batters out and make plays on defense. They have more lineup depth and bullpen depth. As we saw against the Dodgers and Padres, they can win from behind.
As I write this, there’s some doubt about how the Rays will lay out their starting rotation. I don’t think it will matter to anything but the series length. Brewers in six, maybe five if Martinez starts Game One.
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