Final Series 8: Rays B. Lowe Lost for White Sox near do or die.

 The White Sox are 4 games out of a playoff spot heading into Tampa for their 8th series of the season.

Cease (CWS)	McClanahan (TBR)
Lynn (CWS)	Rasmussen (TBR)

After this series we will be down to our final 9th series, and then if needed teams have a 10th series against the Orioles.

DL

Before each series we check for any 60-day DLs and take those cards off the team. The White Sox lost two pitchers, but both had very week cards that would only have been used if they were being blown out. 

The big blow is to the Rays, who lose cleanup hitter Brandon Lowe

Game 1 - ChiSox 6-3 sweep, only 3.5 games out

Amazing set of rules came into play.

Tim Anderson made another error - he has the worst fielding rating at E6 CD1.

ChiSox fans will forgive him with one of the best batter cards in the game, which came into play to put the White Sox up 6-0 in the 4th.

Joe Kelly came into pitch the 7th, and while I usually only allow relievers to pitch one inning, my league rule is if they strikeout every batter then they get to pitch another inning. Kelly ended up striking out 6 of 7 batters,.walking the other. 

That left the White Sox up by at least 5 runs after 8 innings without losing their closer Liam Hendriks in those 8 innings - the rules in our league for getting credit for a sweep ...

As.long as the team holds onto win the game.

However Ruiz hit a batter, allowed 2 hits and walked a batter, while getting only one out.

That meant Hendriks had to be brought in with the score 6-1 and bases loaded. A team does not need to maintain a 5-run margin, but if they lose the game it switches from a 3 games.to 0 series win to a 1 game to 2 games loss. Hendriks did walk 2 batters to make it 6-3 and with bases loaded the winning run for the Rays was at the plate. 

Hendriks (a pb 2-9) kept the action on his card with a PB 5, and the drew a 51, barely within his 23-51 strikeout to end the game.

The only downside is he now cannot pitch in the nightcap, but they are now only 3.5 games out of the playoffs.

Game 2 - Tampa 6, Chicago 3

A typical Rays series - used 6 pitchers in both games :-).