With one swing of the bat, Mike Brosseau put the Tampa Bay Rays into the AL Championship Sequence on Friday evening.
However he insisted afterward that the house run off Aroldis Chapman was particularly candy due to the place it put the Rays — and never what it did to the New York Yankees.
Brosseau and Chapman have a historical past: The Yankees nearer threw a 101 mph fastball close to Brosseau’s head Sept. 1 within the ninth inning of a 5-3 Rays victory. Chapman possible had nothing in opposition to Brosseau personally, however the pitch was an obvious escalation of a feud between the AL East rivals, and it prompted Tampa Bay supervisor Kevin Money’s notorious declaration that he has “an entire rattling secure full of men that throw 98 miles an hour.”
The storyline brewed once more when Brosseau stepped to the plate within the eighth inning Friday evening in San Diego.
The 26-year-old utilityman delivered, hitting a line-drive dwelling run to left discipline after a 10-pitch at-bat to place Tampa Bay forward for good, 2-1, within the finale of the best-of-five collection.
“No revenge, We put that previously,” Brosseau stated. “We got here right here to win the collection. We got here right here to maneuver on, to do what we do finest, that is play our sport.”
Brosseau turned the seventh participant to enter a winner-take-all sport as a sub and hit a house run. The final participant to do it was David Ross in Sport 7 of the 2016 World Sequence whereas with the Chicago Cubs.
Brosseau’s feat was not misplaced on Rays supervisor Kevin Money.
“Look, that was arms down the best second I have been part of in baseball,” he stated. “There’s been some nice ones; however for what that meant to this crew, how we received there, that matchup — fairly particular. So much went into that sport; however for Mikey to come back up there, in that state of affairs, and simply come up as huge as he probably may.”
The Rays transfer on to play the Houston Astros within the AL Championship Sequence.
Info from The Related Press was used on this report.