Well it sure wasn't pretty, but they got it done Rays-style. After being shutout twice by the Kansas City Royals, the Tampa Bay Rays came back to win the final two games of the regular season with a 4-0 shutout of their own Saturday night and a gutsy 3-2 win in the twelfth inning in Sunday's matinee finale. Entering the series with a magic number of 3, Tampa Bay took advantage of a New York Yankees loss at the hands of the Boston Red Sox Saturday to capture the American League East division for the second time in three years.
Yeah, they would have captured it anyway, thanks to another Yankees loss Sunday, but it's nice to see them decide their own destiny with a big fat W. Thanks to a combination of USF Bulls football, work, and DISH Network sucking at life, I was unable to watch the last three outings but caught the end of Sunday's matchup on the god ol' fashioned radio. There's a certain air of drama listening to a ball game on the radio, due of course to the fact that you can't see for yourself what the hell is happening. It's great and horrible at the same time but as long as the end result is a win, I'd be excited hearing about it by carrier pigeon or Morse code.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2010.