- Kevin Tall
- Stock photo
The Tampa Bay Rays took a trip to the past Monday night, becoming once more the Comeback Kids of 2008.
OK, so maybe they didn’t actually go back in time.
Monday’s first half of two against the New York Yankees did see the return of timely hitting and the never-say-die attitude from the American League champs of three years past.
As is requisite for a comeback win, the game had a rough start.
Namely for lefty David Price.
The Rays’ resident southpaw ace got trounced, relatively speaking. To be fair, even three runs against is a moral victory for any team and no doubt considered a loss by the lefty. Price yielded five runs on six hits over five frames. He struck out five hitters.
The major damage came on a three-run long ball courtesy of Curtis Granderson, only the second home run of Price’s career given up to a left-handed hitter.
This one was earmarked as a bounce-back game for the struggling Yanks but the Rays—in need of their own rebound—decided that wasn’t going to happen.
“Our guys never quit," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "I’ve talked about our players all season long. The thing I love about our group is that you can expect them to play hard every night. That’s a ‘for sure.’”
It started as the type of game that makes a home team fan sigh and think, “It’s going to be a long night, for sure.”
Figuratively, that is. Nonexistent hitting by the Rays looked to make it a relatively short outing.
Whether it was the deafening carpetbagger cheers for the visiting Yankees—especially the rocket Granderson launched off Price—or the woeful showing early on, it did not look like a good night to be a Rays fan.
Until Super Sam Fuld made his triumphant return.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.