Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 20, 2008
Rays Day

The Twins and Rays go to the top of the ninth with Tampa Bay leading 7-0. They are three outs away from clinching their first playoff berth.

Update: Percival is on to close out the game.

Update: Brendan Harris reaches on a ball in the shortstop hole. Bartlett throws wide for an error.

Update: Punto pops out to second. One down.

Update: Harris steals second on a 1-2 pitch in the dirt.

Update: Carlos Gomez takes three straight balls for a walk. Men on first and second, one out.

Update: Denard Span singles to drive in a run and takes second on a bad throw. It's 7-1 and Percival is coming out of the game.

Update: Trever Miller comes in and gets Casilla to ground out (allowing a run) and then Mauer pops out in foul territory to Evan Longoria, and the Rays are going to the playoffs. The final score, 7-2. The Rays extend their lead over the Red Sox to 2 1/2 games and with a week to go their magic number for the division stands at six. They just need a tie with Boston to win the AL East.

I have to say, there was plenty of cowbell today.

Update: One thing I like about the Rays this season was that they never panicked. They suffered through a long losing streak mid season, they struggled on the road at times, but they always came back. Even when Longoria and Crawford went down and thing looked bad, this group kept playing well.

Scott Kazmir pitched six shutout innings, but more importantly he walked just one. Whatever adjustment he made after his last start worked, as he seemed to regain his early season form. That turnaround raises the probability of the Rays going deep into the post season.

Congratulations to Tampa Bay on a great season. This wasn't a bad team getting lucky. This was a good team playing up to their potential.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:04 PM | Division Races | TrackBack (0)
Comments

And they've won the season series against Boston, LAnaheim, ChiSox, and tied their season series against Minnesota... which are all the playoff contending teams in the AL right now. So they probably won't go down easy in October, if they go down. I can't believe we could end up with a Rays vs Cubs world series. That would amazing

Posted by: Devon Young at September 20, 2008 08:24 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?