There are not many kind things you can say about the Rays’ performance in Friday night’s game other than at least fans didn’t have to watch them get embarrassed for the full nine innings. This one was called an official game around midnight, with the Rays behind the Cleveland Indians 3-1 midway through the seventh inning during the second rain delay. Any game with a team in the lead through five innings can be called official and that’s exactly what happened at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Hopefully you weren’t up as late as me waiting for the inevitable official decision.
The Rays have lost 18 straight games at Progressive field. In recent memory, the Indians have sucked; let’s not waste words being polite about it. They've still managed to own us in their house since Lou Piniella’s final win as Rays manager on Sept. 28, 2005, and Friday night’s game was no different. Three-to-one may not seem like a wide margin, but if both teams continued playing they way they were, it would have grown by at least two runs.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.