What a difference a week makes, baseball fans. They say time heals all wounds but the Tampa Bay Rays had a pretty speedy recovery from having their Manny-hood removed (too much?). It was more of an outpatient procedure; Band-aid on, you’re all set, go get ‘em team.
“A great player retired, but I believe it is a galvanizing moment for us,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said via Twitter the day Ramirez left the sport instead of facing drug-related disciplinary action.
Those words proved prophetic; that evening the team took its first win of the season, a 9-7 triumph over the Chicago White Sox. After the win-less opening week and Manny’s departure, the team is on a 7-2 tear, taking both games against the Boston Redsox and three of four at home against the visiting Minnesota Twins and the first of four against the Chicago White Sox and former Rays pitcher Edwin Jackson. Jackson had no-hit the Rays in his last appearance at Tropicana Field but this time got shelled for four runs on 11 hits in his first loss of the season.
This is not an exercise in finger-pointing, but the correlation is hard to ignore. Unless you’re Joe Maddon, that is.
