The Phillies were the better team. I’m not going to qualify that statement in any way. At best, the Rays starting pitching was equal to the Phillies (but I don’t think they were), and the Phillies bullpen was much better.
Folks talk about the Rays having the potential to be good for a long time, but it’s hard to buy now. Not because they’re suddenly a bad team, but because no matter how…
Maybe that was true months ago, but tonight added the exclamation point.
I wasn’t really confident going into tonight. No Rays fan should have been. I spent four hours of my life repeating to myself: “it’s just a game… it’s just a game,” but if you put a finger on my wrist you wouldn’t need a stopwatch to know I was having trouble convincing myself.
Listening to Andrew Friedman…
An Australian relief pitcher who doesn’t just talk to himself on the mound, he yells… after every pitch? My favorite moment after seeing the Rays first two playoff games was Grant Balfour inviting Orlando Cabrera to sit his ass down (after a Cabrera tried to egg him on).
Yeah, Longoria’s home runs in his first two at bats in the playoffs – as a 22 year-old rookie (the first coming on…
I never make predictions. I’m well known in the office as a sports pessimist. I always think my teams are going to lose. It’s easier that way. But I got a little ornery this spring when a couple of my coworkers started the annual bit of Rays bashing (sure to be followed by a large dose of indifference). I did that thing I never do. I made a prediction. (Not that I want to rub it in or…
It’s a good thing I’m not superstitious, otherwise I could never write this post. The Rays… yes, I’m talking about the baseball team, not the UV index… are one quarter of the way through a remarkable turnaround. They’re one game short of thirty wins, and we’re nowhere near August. They drew more than 30k people to the Trop last night, and neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox were in…
If you don’t know who Al Lang is, that’s o.k. For most of my life I didn’t know who he was either. It turns out he was a mayor of St Petersburg, FL about 90 years ago. As it turns out there are a lot of people who know Al’s name, and have no idea who he was.
The reason? His name was loaned to a little baseball field that was home to more spring training games than any other… to teams…
The Rays won their opener this afternoon. I didn’t see much of the game due to the early start, but what I saw looked pretty good. Shields picked up right where he left off last season, the bullpen didn’t collapse (even after a terrible error by Wheeler), Aki turned a couple double plays at his new position, and Dioner Navarro went three for four and was complimented on his base…