Tuesday night, former Twins Francisco Liriano and Justin Morneau were huge in getting the Pittsburgh Pirates to the next round of the playoffs.
Wednesday night, it was Delmon Young’s turn to influence the course of the postseason.
Young opened the scoring in the Tampa Bay Rays-Cleveland Indians wild card playoff game tonight in Cleveland with a solo home run to left, which helped make Cleveland starter Danny Salazar’s night a short one.
It would prove to be all the Rays needed, as Tampa starter Alex Cobb pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, combining on a shutout with Joel Peralta, Jake Mcgee, and Fernando Rodney.
Young was 1-3 at the plate, also reaching on a walk and an error on a sharply hit grounder to third.
Boston is next on the docket after the Rays 4-0 winner-take-all victory tonight, a team that bested the Rays 12 of the 19 times they met this year.
But all those games were in the regular season, and Young put the majors on notice tonight, that the postseason beast is back.
Delmon Young now has the game-winning RBI in each of his team's last 5 postseason wins.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 3, 2013
