It’s supposed to be harder than this. It’s certainly supposed to look harder than this. There were 40,542 people inside Tropicana Field on Saturday night — first home playoff sellout in 15 years — and though there were plenty of New York snowbirds in there, this was a Rays crowd all the way.
“I haven’t seen a lot of nights like this here,” Drew Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen was why they were like this. This was just his third start in a postseason game. The first one didn’t go well: two innings, six runs against the Red Sox in 2021. The second was a five-out cameo against Cleveland a year later. If you are so inclined, this is the kind of game, the kind of stakes, that ought to rattle you to your core.
Rasmussen, he looked like he had a beer and a hot dog on the mound with him, looked like he was retreating to a chaise lounge while his teammates were whipping the ball around the infield, out after out, inning after inning, for 7 ²/₃ innings, all while clinging to the skinniest lead that the law allows: 1-0.
