It's a delightful surprise to even have the opportunity to talk about an American League Division Series Game 5, after the Tampa Bay Rays dropped the first two games at home to the Texas Rangers. With a non-existent offense in the first two outings, Tampa Bay took to the road and took it to Texas, winning 6-3 Saturday night in Game 3 and 5-2 Sunday afternoon in Game 4. Joaquin Benoit picked up the win Saturday after a great two-run, five-hit start by Matt Garza, and Rays rookie Wade Davis notched a W in his first ever postseason appearance Sunday with a two-run, seven-hit showing in which he fanned seven men at the plate.

By virtue of these wins, there will be a decisive Game 5, 8 p.m. Tuesday at Tropicana Field. Once more fans will see Rays ace David Price (0-1, 5.40 ERA) face off against another fearsome lefty, Cliff Lee (1-0, 1.29). The Rangers got the better of Price in the first match and the Rays failed to do much against Lee except let him off the hook with the bases loaded; Ben Zobrist cranked a home run in the seventh inning as Tampa Bay's sole offensive tally in the first two games of the series. Lee struck out 10 Rays hitters — six looking — in that fiasco, yielding only five hits and the one earned run. Price, in contrast, fanned eight men but gave up five runs on nine hits; neither pitcher walked a man.

Game 5 — and this series — will come down to two things: hitting and heart.

This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.