Tampa Bay Rays’ Brandon Lowe celebrates a two-run home run with Willy Adames during the fifth inning in Game 2 of the baseball World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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ARLINGTON, Texas — In case you had forgotten, it’s Brandon Lowe, as in wow.
The Rays’ struggling team MVP snapped out of his postseason slump in a major way Wednesday, hitting two home runs to lead the Rays to a 6-4 win over the Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series.
Lowe had help, as the Rays played much more like the team that earned its way into the Series than the one that had a disappointing showing in losing the opener 8-3. Game 3 is Friday.
Blake Snell gave the Rays a dazzling start, holding the Dodgers without a hit two outs in the fifth before allowing a walk and a home run.
Joey Wendle had the next biggest hit after Lowe, a two-run double in the fourth that expanded a 1-0 lead to 3-0.
And, somewhat stressfully, relievers Nick Anderson, Pete Fairbanks, Aaron Loup and Diego Castillo teamed for the final 13 outs.
Lowe was 6-for-52 through the first three rounds of the playoffs with one homer and two RBIs, and 0-for-4 in Tuesday’s opener.
Rays manager Kevin Cash was asked before Wednesday’s game if his insistence of keeping struggling hitters such as Lowe in their lineup, and in key spots, was a matter of faith, of hope or of stubbornness.
“It’s a matter of how we view our players,” Cash said. “They’re really good, I know that they’re scuffling. We recognize that they’re scuffling, it hasn’t come easy for ‘em. But for better or worse, we’re going to stick with the guys that we’ve got a lot of faith in.
“With Brandon in particular, we’re not here if it wasn’t for him. We all wanted to see him get hot. And it’s getting magnified simply because it is Brandon Lowe, and what he did throughout the season. But we’ve got a number of guys throughout this lineup that we would like to see get hot and continue to have confidence that they will.”
Lowe, in his usual No. 2 spot in the order, got the Rays off to the good start they needed, homering with one out in the first off Tony Gonsolin, the first of seven Dodger pitchers.
After a Randy Arozarena walk, a Ji-Man Choi fielder’s choice grounder and a Manuel Margot single, Wendle’s double made it 3-0.
The Rays built the lead to 5-0 in the fifth when Austin Meadows, another struggling hitter Cash showed faith in, singled with two outs and Lowe hit his second homer.
Then the Dodgers started to come back. Snell had allowed only two walks in a dominant first four innings, and got two quick outs in the fifth. But he walked Kike Hernandez on five pitches and gave up a homer to No. 9 hitter Chris Taylor.
The Rays made it 6-2 in the sixth when Choi and Margot singled, and Wendle delivered a sac fly.
Anderson, who got the Rays out of the fifth, gave up a solo homer to Will Smith in the sixth. Fairbanks gave up another to Corey Seager in the eighth, and Aaron Loup got them out of further trouble by striking out Cody Bellinger.
It was the third career multi-homer game for Lowe, his first since June 9, 2019. And it was the seventh multi-homer game in the postseason by a Ray, first since Manuel Margot in Game 6 of the 2020 ALCS, and the first in the World Series.
Lowe became the sixth second baseman (seventh time) to hit multiple home runs in a World Series game, first since Philadelphia’s Chase Utley did it twice in 2009.