Shock, agony and an actual racing heartbeat combined in a crazy ending to Game 4 that allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to tie up the series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas Saturday night as the Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays fighting to win the World Series and attempting to become World Champions.

After a back-and-forth eight innings, the Dodgers entered the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead. After getting a single and a walk, with two outs and two strikes the Rays managed a crazy walk-off that blew all fans’ minds.  

As Shabbat ended at 6:58, Dodgertober fans turned to see that the score was 3-1 with the Dodgers leading. The game had started off with another Justin Turner home run. This home run caused a new Dodgers record to be broken: with his 12th career postseason home run, Turner now has more home runs than Duke Snider in Dodgers history. In the postseason this year, Turner has once again become one of the team’s best hitters.

Julio Urias pitched for the Dodgers this game and has been very dominant throughout the team’s postseason run. He started off well right until Randy Arozarena walked to the plate. Over the next three innings, each team kept scoring runs and the lead went back and forth between the two teams. Whenever the Dodgers scored, the Rays would score in the bottom half of the same inning. 

Nearly every inning, both teams scored and after the end of the seventh when the Rays’ Kevin Keirmaier homered, the score was 6-6. 

The top of the 8th was where the Dodgers pulled ahead for the last time. After a leadoff double by Chris Taylor, Seager hit a single to score him. Seager has been the Dodgers’ best player this postseason and has a .500 batting average during the World Series. 

With the Dodgers up by one entering the bottom of the ninth, manager Dave Roberts brought in Kenley Jansen to pitch to the Rays. He has lost velocity and control over this past year, and that combination is not a recipe for success. 

Jansen got the first man out on a strikeout, then gave up a single to Keirmaier that missed the glove of Hernandez by two inches. He was able to get the next batter to pop up. This brought arguably the hottest player in baseball up to the plate. 

Arozarena had broken two records earlier this game. One was for the most playoff home runs ever. The other was for the most hits in a postseason by a rookie ever. He was ready to try to tie the game up. 

Jansen gave him a few pitches in the zone and a few right outside of it. In the end, Jansen walked Arozarena. With the tying runner in scoring position and the winning run at first, the Rays needed a single to stay in the series and attempt to win the game. 

The man at the plate hadn’t had an at-bat for 17 days prior to this one. He also hadn’t had a hit in over a month. His name: Brett Phillips. He will now be recognized as a game-saving hero for the Rays.
The play that happened to end this game was one of the greatest and most heart-breaking endings that has ever taken place in World Series history. 

Jansen was able to get two controversial strikes called the Dodgers’ way. Both of the two strikes to Phillips were right on the corner of the strike zone. 

The count was 1-2 and Jansen threw a cutter on the inner part of the strike zone to Phillips. Phillips hit the ball to the center fielder, Chris Taylor, for a single. Taylor mishandled the ball and it got away from him. This allowed one runner to officially score. Arozarena, the runner on second, rounded third right when Taylor fielded the ball. That would have tied the game and sent it into extra innings.

Most of the time, the runner would have been held there at third. But this time Arozarena was told to run home. Arozarena slipped and fell right when the throw from Taylor finally reached the first baseman, Muncy.

Muncy saw that Arozarena fell and slowed down his throw, causing him to miss the catcher. Jansen did not back up the catcher the way pitchers are supposed to and the ball rolled to the backstop. Arozarena saw this, and after turning back to get to third, he turned right back around and ran home.  He slid face forward and pounded home plate with his fists in glee and disbelief as the Rays won the craziest baseball game this postseason. 

Taylor was charged with an error, Phillips scored an RBI and the Dodgers lost an agonizing game. The Rays tied up the series with this crazy win. People may not realize it now, but that play will go down as one of the best and worst endings to a game ever. Plays like these are remembered forever. 

As Phillips celebrated, his heart rate went up too high and he lost his breath. According to media reports, he had to go to the trainer before being allowed to give interviews.

Having lost, the Dodgers will have a must-win game tomorrow with a repeat of the Game 1 pitching matchup. The winner of this game will have a huge advantage going forward, as it will be up in the best-of-series 3-2.