SAN DIEGO — After Tuesday’s win, Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow said something about a teammate that might have sounded a wee bit hyperbolic.“(Randy) Arozarena has to be the best baseball player on earth right now,” he said.On Wednesday, after the rookie outfielder continued his torrid tear with three more hits, including another home run in an 8-4 win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, it became somewhat unanimous among the Rays:Kevin Kiermaier: “He is the best player on the planet. It’s incredible.”Charlie Morton: “I’ve never seen anything like it.”Catcher Michael Perez (via translator Manny Navarro): “I can’t even describe how he’s playing. I feel like even with eyes closed he can hit. He’s from another planet.”Manager Kevin Cash: “When you’re sitting there watching it first-hand, it’s pretty remarkable what’s taken place.”Consider:• Arozarena’s three three-hit games in the Rays' first five are one shy of the most for a single full postseason. Four players have had four: Jose Altuve, 2017 Astros; Albert Pujols, 2004 Cardinals; Edgar Martinez; and Jay Buhner, 1995 Mariners.• His 12 hits through the Rays' five games match the second most in major-league postseason history, behind Will Clark, who had 13 for the Giants in 1989.• The 25-year-old native of Cuba is the first rookie to homer in three straight postseason games since Kyle Schwarber for the 2015 Cubs, and the first American Leaguer since a guy named Evan Longoria did it in four for the Rays in 2008.• His 25 total bases are the most by any player (rookie or veteran) in his first five games of a single postseason.• He is the first American League rookie to have four straight multihit games in the postseason. Two National League rookies did: Pepper Martin, five, for the 1931 Cardinals; Miguel Cabrera, four, 2003 Marlins.• He joined Nelson Cruz (2010 Rangers), Paul O’Neill (1998 Yankees), Giancarlo Stanton (2020 Yankees) and Martin as the only players with an extra-base hit in each of his team’s first five games of a postseason.Rays lefty Ryan Yarbrough is used to being in flux. He was available but not used in the first five playoff games. Having gone 11 days since his last outing, he is slated to pitch tonight’s Game 4.But he didn’t know until after Wednesday’s game that he would be following opener Ryan Thompson or that he would be pitching to possibly help the Rays clinch the series, not that it mattered much to him.“We’re taking it day by day and just trying to win ballgames and kind of figuring it out as we go,” Yarbrough said before Game 3. “This time of the year it’s all guys on deck, so we’re just trying to all have a team effort and win ballgames. There’s no ego or anything involved.”Another interesting element: The Yankees didn’t see Yarbrough at all this season, and they only saw him once, for three innings, last year.Given the way reliever Pete Fairbanks started Tuesday’s ninth inning, walking the first two Yankees to endanger the Rays' 7-4 lead, there was immense relief and immediate gratification that he regained control of his pitches and, while allowing a run, got the final three outs.And also some rewarding perspective for the 26-year-old rookie.“I got back to the hotel room (Tuesday) night and my wife (Lydia) said, ‘You know, if this had been you a few years ago, everything would have gone really poorly after that,’” Fairbanks said. “So I think there’s definitely been a continued growth and maturity over the past five years and counting, six years, seven years. It’s been a long time coming to get where I’m at now in terms of like a mental state.”Fairbanks, acquired in July 2019 after rising from Class A to the majors with Texas, said he “definitely” would have been pulled if that same situation arose last year, and it helps to know that manager Kevin Cash and coaches have faith in him.“I think it’s great,” he said. “He still might have threatened bodily harm to me if I did it again, but for now, I think I still hopefully have Cash’s vote of confidence in those situations”Cash said Fairbanks was right on both points, and "I asked him not to do it again.''“We were all very happy for Pete,” Cash said. “You go from what he was going through on the mound — we all saw the same thing; it was a challenge for him. But give him a ton of credit for figuring it out, and how you can really shift your confidence a full 180 (degrees) right there with getting through that. Because he got through it with some really great hitters at the plate.” 101 Miles per hour of Rays rookie lefty Shane McClanahan’s eighth-inning 2-2 pitch to Brett Gardner.Though the Yankees said they plan to start lefty Jordan Montgomery in Game 4, Cash said he’s not “fully convinced” that ace Gerrit Cole won’t pitch. … Yankees DH Giancarlo Stanton became the first player to homer in each of his team’s first five postseason games thanks to his two-run blast in the eighth off McClanahan. … Yoshi Tsutsugo flied out and popped out in his two at-bats against Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka, making him 0-for-8 against his fellow Japanese native. … Cash started seven left-handers against righty Tanaka, giving Perez and Tsutsugo their first starts of the series.
![Marc Topkin - Rays Reporter](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 50 50"/%3E "Marc Topkin - Rays Reporter")