ELEVEN-YEAR ITCH: Steven Matz Returns to World Series After Decade-Long Exile—While Boston Underdog Stuns Game 2!

October baseball has a twisted sense of humor, and this weekend proved that time in the big leagues is both an enemy and a miracle.

Ten years and 357 days after walking off the mound on Halloween night in 2015 as a wide-eyed 24-year-old rookie for the New York Mets, Steven Matz found himself standing back on the biggest stage on earth. This time, the jersey was Tampa Bay Rays navy, the role was mid-game firefighter, and the margin for error was razor-thin. When he trotted in from the bullpen to face the Milwaukee Brewers, he officially logged one of the longest gaps between World Series appearances in modern history.

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Back in 2015, Matz twirled five innings of two-run ball against the Kansas City Royals, exiting with a lead before the bullpen collapsed. Between that fateful night and last night, his entire postseason ledger consisted of two lonely innings in the 2025 Wild Card round. He took the mound, battled his command, surrendered one run, and walked three batters over 1.2 innings before the Brewers claimed a tight 3-2 victory.

The reactions from the diamond community ignited immediately. One commenter marveled that Matz somehow outlasted the rest of that hyped young New York rotation, pointing out that surviving over a decade through surgeries to pitch in another World Series is an incredible feat. Another argued that history puts this in perspective, comparing Matz's wait to Jim Kaat’s legendary 16-year, 363-day gap between 1965 and 1982, or Tony Gwynn waiting fourteen years between 1984 and 1998.

Yet the box score tells a much harsher story. Another commenter fired back that walking three batters in fewer than two frames is an absolute disaster in October, arguing that sentimentality has no place in a Fall Classic and questioning whether the Rays can afford to use him again.

And while Matz wrestled with ghosts and command issues, Game 2 belonged entirely to young thunder. Milwaukee’s five-foot-nine spark plug Sal Frelick blasted a majestic game-tying home run to center field, driving the home crowd into pandemonium during a wild 5-4 Brewers triumph. Watching from the stands were his college dorm mates from Boston College, who played youth hockey with Frelick at age ten and watched their childhood buddy become a postseason legend.

Two men, two entirely different generations of the October dream: one clawing through eleven years of scar tissue to survive, and the other arriving right on time to electrify a city.

The hosts of Bench Clearer dig into this wild clash of eras on the latest episode of the podcast.