In their first game away from home and first after the retirement of Manny Ramirez, the Tampa Bay Rays looked like a team with something to prove. With the departure of the would-be Hall of Famer in the wake of alleged drug problems, the Bay-area boys came out and bested their scoring output over the span of all of the previous six games. Win or lose – they frickin’ won 9-7, by the way – the Rays looked like an entirely different team, one with either a weight lifted or knuckles white with renewed vigor. Perhaps both.
The day that Manny put it away, Johnny Damon made sure to bring his bat, cracking a solo homer in the sixth inning that may have been a signal of things to come. In addition to the long ball, Damon picked up an RBI on a bases-loaded force out grounder. B.J. Upton had a hit and scored three runs by picking up timely walks. Sean Rodriguez scored him twice, first on a triple in the fourth inning and next on a gorgeous safety squeeze in the sixth inning; Rodriguez went 2-for-3 on the evening with 2 RBI.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.