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Tampa plays Cleveland for the right to face Boston in the best-of-five division series. For the Rays, it's their third game in three different cities in four days: they started off by winning in Toronto on Sunday, then prevailed in Texas on Monday night. And if they were to win here, they'll be clocking up more airline miles, because the division series would begin at Fenway on Friday night.
It's an interesting contrast of starters, each of whom have certainly had seasons to remember. Cobb missed 50 games this year after being hit on the head by a line drive off the bat from the Royals' Eric Hosmer on June 15, but it hasn't apparently affected him, as he put up a 2.41 ERA after returning. Meanwhile, Salazar started the season at the Indians' Double-A affiliate, and didn't make his major-league debut until July 11, when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Blue Jays. Now, he finds himself pitching the biggest game for Cleveland since Jake Westbrook started (and lost) Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS against the Red Sox.
The Indians are almost getting up there in Cubs territory, not having won the World Series in 65 years, since 1948 - every other team apart from the Chicago Northsiders, who were around at that point, have triumphed since. Of course, the Rays have never won the World Series, so this contest could be described as a battle between the never haves and the haven't for a very long timers. Apart from Tampa, there are seven other teams who have never won the World Series. As a quick trivia question, can you name them?