2020 American League Championship Series
The 2020 American League Championship Series was the best-of-seven series between the two American League Division Series winners, the defending American League Champion Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays, for the American League (AL) pennant and the right to play in the 2020 World Series. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all games for the series were held at a neutral site at Petco Park in San Diego. The games were televised nationally by TBS.
| 2020 American League Championship Series | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 11–17 | ||||||||||||
| MVP | Randy Arozarena (Tampa Bay) | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Lance Barksdale, Ted Barrett, Chris Conroy, Manny Gonzalez, Jeff Nelson (crew chief), Tim Timmons, and John Tumpane | ||||||||||||
| Broadcast | |||||||||||||
| Television | TBS | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Brian Anderson, Ron Darling, Jeff Francoeur and Lauren Shehadi | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Chris Singleton | ||||||||||||
| ALDS |
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The Rays won the series and their second American League pennant after defeating the Astros, 4–3. In this series, the Astros became just the second team to force a Game 7 in MLB postseason history after trailing a best-of-seven series 3–0, after the 2004 Red Sox.[1]
The Rays would go on to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series in six games.
Background
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLB season was reduced to 60 games. As part of a special postseason format, playoff berths were made available for eight teams in each league: three division winners, three division runners-up, and two wild card teams. With no first-round byes for division winners, all teams were required to play in a Wild Card series.
The Rays made their first ALCS appearance since 2008, where they defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games. On September 23, the Rays clinched their third AL East division title and their first since 2010. They swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2020 American League Wild Card Series and beat the New York Yankees in the 2020 American League Division Series.
On September 25, by virtue of a Dodgers win over the Angels, the Astros clinched a playoff berth, making it their fourth consecutive postseason appearance, as well as their fifth in six years. The Astros finished the regular season at 29–31 (.483), becoming the second American League team to reach the playoffs with a losing record, the first being the 1981 Kansas City Royals. On September 30, the Astros became the first sub-.500 team to win a playoff series, eliminating the Minnesota Twins in a two-game sweep in the 2020 American League Wild Card Series after holding the typically potent Twins bats to zero home runs across the entire series. The Astros' win in Game 2 handed the Twins their 18th consecutive postseason loss, a drought dating back to 2004, and the longest such streak in all of North America's major professional sports. The Astros advanced to the ALDS where they defeated the Oakland Athletics in a four-game upset, scoring a historic 33 runs (and 12 home runs) across 35 innings, and advancing to their fourth straight ALCS. The Astros became the first team to participate in an LCS with a losing record. This was the Astros' eighth overall LCS appearance (four each in the NL and AL).
This was the second postseason meeting between the Rays and Astros, a rematch of the 2019 ALDS, which Houston won, 3–2. As part of the terms set for the postseason, all games of the series were played at Petco Park in San Diego, California, a neutral site. This was the first ALCS to take place exclusively at a neutral site. Tampa Bay as the higher seed served as the home team (batting last each inning) for Games 1, 2, 6, and 7, while Houston as the lower seed was the home team for Games 3, 4, and 5, mirroring the 2–3–2 format typically used in the LCS.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rays and Astros had not played each other during the regular season. Also due to the pandemic, the ALCS was played without fans in attendance. Both teams stayed at the Park Hyatt Resort Aviara as the designated bubble hotel. [2]
Summary
Tampa Bay won the series, 4–3.
| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 11 | Houston Astros – 1, Tampa Bay Rays – 2 | Petco Park | 3:50 | N/A[3] |
| 2 | October 12 | Houston Astros – 2, Tampa Bay Rays – 4 | Petco Park | 3:01 | N/A[4] |
| 3 | October 13 | Tampa Bay Rays – 5, Houston Astros – 2 | Petco Park | 3:59 | N/A[5] |
| 4 | October 14 | Tampa Bay Rays – 3, Houston Astros – 4 | Petco Park | 3:08 | N/A[6] |
| 5 | October 15 | Tampa Bay Rays – 3, Houston Astros – 4 | Petco Park | 3:36 | N/A[7] |
| 6 | October 16 | Houston Astros – 7, Tampa Bay Rays – 4 | Petco Park | 4:01 | N/A[8] |
| 7 | October 17 | Houston Astros – 2, Tampa Bay Rays – 4 | Petco Park | 3:14 | N/A[9] |
Game summaries
Game 1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 2 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Blake Snell (1–0) LP: Framber Valdez (0–1) Sv: Diego Castillo (1) Home runs: HOU: José Altuve (1) TB: Randy Arozarena (1) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 2
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Tampa Bay | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 4 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Charlie Morton (1–0) LP: Lance McCullers Jr. (0–1) Sv: Nick Anderson (1) Home runs: HOU: Carlos Correa (1) TB: Manuel Margot (1), Mike Zunino (1) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 3
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Houston | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |||||||||||
| WP: Ryan Yarbrough (1–0) LP: José Urquidy (0–1) Sv: Diego Castillo (2) Home runs: TB: None HOU: José Altuve (2), Michael Brantley (1) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 4
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Houston | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Zack Greinke (1–0) LP: Tyler Glasnow (0–1) Sv: Ryan Pressly (1) Home runs: TB: Randy Arozarena (2) HOU: José Altuve (3), George Springer (1) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 5
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Houston | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Ryan Pressly (1–0) LP: Nick Anderson (0–1) Home runs: TB: Brandon Lowe (1), Randy Arozarena (3), Ji-man Choi (1) HOU: George Springer (2), Carlos Correa (2) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning off reliever Nick Anderson. The Astros became just the fourth team in MLB history to force a Game 6 after trailing a best-of-seven series 3–0 (after the 1998 Braves, 1999 Mets and 2004 Red Sox).
Game 6
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 11 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Tampa Bay | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Framber Valdez (1–1) LP: Blake Snell (1–1) Sv: Ryan Pressly (2) Home runs: HOU: Kyle Tucker (1) TB: Manuel Margot 2 (3) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The Astros became just the second team to force a Game 7 in MLB postseason history after trailing a best-of-seven series 3–0 (after the 2004 Red Sox).[10]
Game 7
This was the first League Championship Series to reach a Game 7 since the 2017 ALCS, won by Houston over the New York Yankees.[11]
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Tampa Bay | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Charlie Morton (2–0) LP: Lance McCullers Jr. (0–2) Sv: Pete Fairbanks (1) Home runs: HOU: None TB: Randy Arozarena (4), Mike Zunino (2) Attendance: N/A Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The starting pitchers, Lance McCullers Jr. for Houston and Charlie Morton for Tampa Bay, had both pitched for Houston in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS and Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.[12] Tampa Bay became the first MLB team to advance after taking a 3–0 series lead and then be forced to play a Game 7.[13] Concluding matters was Pete Fairbanks, who got Aledmys Díaz to fly out to Manuel Margot, to end the Astros' season and win the second AL pennant for Tampa Bay, the first in 12 seasons. Fairbanks earned his second save this postseason. The Rays became just the second team to win both a division series winner-take-all Game 5 and a League Championship Series winner-take-all Game 7 in the same year (after the 2012 San Francisco Giants).
Composite line score
2020 ALCS (4–3): Tampa Bay Rays defeated Houston Astros
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston Astros | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 59 | 4 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 44 | 1 |
References
- Schoenfield, David (October 17, 2020). "2020 MLB playoffs: Could the 2020 Astros join the 2004 Red Sox on Saturday? The anatomy of a 3-0 comeback". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
- "Relieved Rays enjoy earning AL pennant in MLB's strange, tough 2020 season". ESPN.com. 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
- "Game 1 boxscore - Houston vs. Tampa Bay". MLB.com.
- "Game 2 boxscore - Houston vs. Tampa Bay". MLB.com.
- "Game 3 boxscore - Tampa Bay vs. Houston". MLB.com.
- "Game 4 boxscore - Tampa Bay vs. Houston". MLB.com.
- "Game 5 boxscore - Tampa Bay vs. Houston". MLB.com.
- "Game 6 boxscore - Houston vs. Tampa Bay". MLB.com.
- "Game 7 boxscore - Houston vs. Tampa Bay". MLB.com.
- Schoenfield, David (October 17, 2020). "2020 MLB playoffs: Could the 2020 Astros join the 2004 Red Sox on Saturday? The anatomy of a 3-0 comeback". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
- "World Series and MLB Playoffs". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- "Houston Astros (4-3) 5, Los Angeles Dodgers (3-4) 1". MLB.com. November 1, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
- Barron, David (October 17, 2020). "Astros can't complete comeback in Game 7". houstonchronicle.com. Retrieved October 18, 2020.