“While Game 162 will go down as part of one of the great nights in MLB history, the reason that you play the game is to win a World Series and to be able to do that you must first get there. Even the last out, when the ground ball was hit, it was a really bad hop and Aki stuck with it and made the play.”īrian Anderson, 2008 coach/TV broadcaster It was just tension packed, every out, every pitch all the way through the game. The 162 game we were basically grinding away, trying to get there, just seeing what happens, and we had to rely on another club. One little thing could happen and change it. Here we are with a Game 7 with Boston with a chance to go to the World Series. “There was so much buildup going into Game 7. But forced to choose, it’s got to be Game 7 in 2008.”Īkinori Iwamura celebrates with fans after Game 7. ![]() Both moments are forever etched in fans’ memories in part because they were the only game going on and all eyes were on it. By 2011, the Rays were already an established threat to everyone with two AL East titles under their belts. Without that AL pennant, there would still be a feeling of less legitimacy for the Rays. The fact that it actually got the team into the World Series on a storyline parallel with the ’69 Mets and finally toppled the rival Red Sox took the team to another stratosphere. “As historic as both were, the 2008 pennant clincher holds such significance in the franchise’s history that it has to be number one. We had squandered Game 5 and the series lead. We were a year removed from the Devil Rays. Going to the World Series was always a dream of mine as a little kid so winning Game 7 made my dreams of competing on the biggest stage in the world come true.” Winning that close game during our dream season was a welcoming party for a team that needed to prove itself in the toughest division of all of sports. “Although Game 162 was extremely exciting and brought a few teams’ hopes of going to the postseason down to a short window of just a few minutes, I think that ALCS Game 7 was the best baseball game I have ever been a part of. But that’s the play right there that for me resonates more than any one.” ![]() But for us, for a franchise, ‘ground ball to Aki,’ that gave us a chance to go finish it off (against the Phillies). “I’ve got ‘ground ball to Aki.’ I love what Longo did, and from a pure dramatic perspective that night, it is probably very difficult to exceed the drama because so many cities and teams and players and fans were impacted.
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