RAYS WIN AND ADVANCE TO THE ALCS!

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-2 to wrap up the American League Divisional Series with a 3 games to 1 victory. The Rays now await to see if the Boston Red Sox can wrap up their ALDS victory over the LA Angels. If the Red Sox take care of business at home, the Rays will host Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. If the Angels rally to win the ALDS, the series will begin on the road in Los Angeles.

The Rays jumped to a 4-0 lead thanks to two home runs by BJ Upton, a double by Cliff Floyd, and a single by Dioner Navarro. In the bottom of the 4th, Paul Konerko homered to cut the lead to 4-1. The Rays would answer in the 5th, with Carols Pena singling home Aki Iwamura to put them up by 4. Jermaine Dye's home run in the sixth would cut the lead back down to 3, but again the Rays would answer with another scoring single by Pena in top of the 7th.

Grant Balfour would enter the game in the eight and get the final six outs, the last by striking out Ken Griffey, Jr. and with that, a raucous celebration began for the Rays.

On a personal note, I promised my wife that if the Rays made the ALCS, I would cut my hair into a "RayHawk" - and tonight I made good on my promise...it should be an interesting day at work tomorrow.

Congrats to the Rays on their first ever playoff series win!