As we all know, “Any team can beat any other team on any given day,” something that we have seen happen to our beloved Dodgers far too many times to count. But it’s probably safe to say that no one really expected to see the Tampa Bay Rays, who finished the COVID-19-shortened 2020 regular season with a division-winning 40-20 record, knock off the ‘Evil Empire’ AL East second-place New York Yankees (33-27) in Friday night’s fifth and final game of the 2020 AL Division Series at Petco Park in San Diego.

Granted, the top team in the division won, but they did so by beating the team with likely 2020 AL Cy Young Award-winner in Gerrit Cole (7-3 / 2.84), who allowed only one run and one hit in his 5.1 innings of work on Friday, and with likely future Hall of Fame closer Aroldis Chapman (1-1 / 3.09 / 3 saves) on their roster.

But it’s how the Rays won on Friday evening that sent Twitter into an absolute frenzy.

With the score tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, the home-team Rays sent utility infielder Mike Brosseau to the plate to pinch-hit for Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi against Chapman. On the 10th pitch of the at-bat (that’s not a typo), Brosseau deposited Chapman’s 100.2-mph fastball over the wall in left-center field for the (eventual) game-winning solo home run.

As fans may recall, there is a bit of history between Chapman and Brosseau.

Back on September 1, Chapman threw a 100-mph fastball behind Brosseau’s head, thankfully missing, apparently in retaliation to an earlier comment made by Rays manager Kevin Cash that his team “…has a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 miles an hour.” The comment was clearly made in reference to the endless chatter that Chapman often tops the century mark with his fastball.

You know what they say about paybacks.

“No revenge, we put that in the past,” Brosseau told reporters after the Rays exciting 2-1 win. “We came here to win the series. We came here to move on, to do what we do best – that’s play our game.”

“That was very, like, storybook,” said Rays right-hander and Santa Clarita, CA native Tyler Glasnow. “That was crazy. Just to go out there and have that long of an at-bat, battle that long with all the history we’ve had, that’s just nuts. I still can’t even comprehend it.”

Tagged with loss, Chapman, as expected, pretty much blew off his (and his team’s) season-ending fail.

“I thought I made some good pitches in that moment,” Chapman said through an interpreter. “I think it was a fastball to the middle in. He put good contact on it.”

Good contact indeed.

Per Stats By STATS, Chapman is the first pitcher in MLB history to allow a series-winning home run in the eighth inning or later twice in his career: in Game-6 of the 2019 ALCS to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, and now in Game-5 of the 2020 ALDS to Brosseau.

As every Dodger fan should, and as every Dodger player will, TV sets across America (especially in Arlington, TX) will be tuned to TBS on Sunday, October 11, at 4:30 p.m. PT for Game-1 of the 2020 ALCS, as one of these two teams will (hopefully) be their opponent in the 2020 World Series. And though it would be great for the Dodgers to (hopefully) face the cheating Astros in the 2020 World Series for some sweet revenge of their own, chances are most Dodger fans – and most Dodger players – would prefer to (hopefully) face Tampa Bay, whose only previous World Series appearance was in 2008 when they lost to the Chase Utley-led Philadelphia Phillies.

Play Ball!

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