Sorry for the lapse in coverage, sports fans; I had a bamboo oar stuck up my Ganges (name that sophomoric comedy!).
Since last I told you fine folks about the State of the Rays – almost a week ago, damn me – the Bay Area boys won one against the Lost Angels of Anaheim, lost one to those same Halos, and dropped a deuce to the Yankees before grabbing game three from New York Wednesday night.
In Wednesday’s outing, fans were treated to a 2-hours plus rain delay – during which I finished season two of Torchwood – interrupting a great start by Rays starting pitcher Wade Davis. Fortunately, Jeremy Hellickson took over after the deluge and picked up the W in the eventual 7-2 Rays win.
Tampa Bay went into Thursday’s game looking for a split and to move to within half a game of the Yankees for American League East supremacy. It was a rematch of the Clash of the Titans, last Monday’s epic left-handed showdown between the Cy Young Award front-runners David Price and CC Sabathia. This week’s battle saw neither man as sharp as he was the last time they faced each other, but still pitching pretty damn well (until the sixth inning).
The Yankees got on the scoreboard first with two runs in the second inning. Robinson Cano led off with a base hit and was driven home by a home run by Marcus Thames.
The Rays cut the lead in half in the top of the third with a little old-fashioned small ball. Jason Bartlett got on base with a one-out single; he moved to second on Carl Crawford’s subsequent base hit. Ben Zobrist drove a two-out single to right field, scoring JB. Big Ben got caught in a rundown on the play and CC was unable to cross the plate; Tampa Bay settled for a run.
New York added on another in the home half of the fifth inning. Greg Golson led off with a double, followed by a base hit from Derek Cheater Jeter. Golson scored on Nick Swisher’s single, the third straight hit surrendered by Price. After striking out Mar Texeira, Price loaded the bases with a walk to Alex Rodriguez and found himself in quite the jam. No problem, said the Rays ace. He put out the flames by getting Robinson Cano to pop out and followed that up by striking out Thames.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.