SAN DIEGO — For weeks, Rays players and staff members have been searching for words to describe the amazing accomplishments of rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena.Here are a few: American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player.Arozarena became the first rookie position player to be so honored in a League Championship or World Series on Saturday as he continued his torrid postseason run in the Rays' 4-2 win over the Astros in Game 7 to advance to the World Series.“I wouldn’t say I was chasing MVP. I just try to do anything for the team,” he said via translator Manny Navarro. “Anything to allow us to win.”On Saturday, that included a two-run homer in the first inning for a 2-0 lead. It was his fourth home run in the series and his rookie-record seventh of the postseason, breaking the record he shared with ex-Ray Evan Longoria.For the ALCS, Arozarena hit .321 (9-for-28) with the four homers and six RBIs.“Randy Arozarena, I don’t have any words that can describe what he’s done,” manager Kevin Cash said. "He’s meant so much to us this postseason. For him to have a bat in his hands with an opportunity for a big home run, I think it settled a lot of people in the dugout. It certainly did me.''Arozarena also tied B.J. Upton’s team record of seven homers for a postseason, and he is one shy of the major-league mark shared by Nelson Cruz (Texas in 2011), Carlos Beltran (Houston in 2004) and Barry Bonds (San Francisco in 2002).His 21 hits are second most to Derek Jeter’s rookie record of 22 set in 1996.
![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")