Friday, September 19, 2008

Rays Playoff Bubbly In Bubble Wrap One More Night

PTownJr's Back To School Night topped the priority list last night. However, I managed to follow the ebb and flow of the Rays/Twins game on my most awesome and completely indispensable iPhone. Lot's of flow early. Followed by an ugly ebb. Really, it was more of a victory sucking vortex that swallowed the Rays 8-6 lead in the 9th.

Blowing a late lead has been a mighty rare occurrence this season so let's break it down with the return of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
You owe it to yourself to cue the music for this one. Just click that play button on the right:

THE GOOD:
  • A five run first!
  • Three long balls for Long-o.
  • Pena and Navi went yard.
  • Pena and Longo went yard back to back, the 8th B2B set for the Rays this year.
  • Some fine defensive plays... or so I hear. The iPhone MLB dudes were pre-occupied with the highly offensive top of the 9th.
  • The home debut of David Price, the 1st overall draft pick of the 2007 draft. King David went 2/3 of an inning in relief of a somewhat shaky Shields. Coming in with one out and two on, he K'd two tough lefties after giving up a 2 run single.
  • Percy pitched a scoreless 8th! !!!!! !!!!! !
  • The Rays could clinch a wildcard spot tonight with a win. But only if the White Sox, Jays and Yankees all lose. I hope all 18 eyeballs are on the game and not the scoreboard tonight.
THE BAD:

  • A crowd of only 17,298. People! What gives out there? Are all the Back To School Nights in Florida on September 17th? I don't think so!
  • Those three long balls of Longo's tied Jonny's Team Record for most home runs in a game vs. KC in July, 2005. C'mon Evan. You're a stud, but is nothing sacred? You already have my vote for Rookie of the Year without raiding the trophy case.
  • The dart board Joe is using to pick the Closer Du Jour needs some grease. Or fairy dust. Or something.
THE UGLY:

  • The Twins scored 5 in the top of the 9th sparked by some local kid named Span playing in front of the hometown crowd for the first time.
  • Delmon Young was among those that piled on. (Remember him? The Skipper got on him for not running out an infield hit last year so he declared a sick day and got himself traded... for Bartlett and Garza. Neener neener.)
  • The Twins used a slug bunt to inflict more damange. Gardenshire credited head coach Paul Maytorena of the Casa Grande High School Gauchos for that move. Thanks Paul. You got some 'splainin to do. From now on, you're limited to one copy of the playbook.
Last But Not Least:

The Pearls have become pretty Rays centric of late, but we need to send some love to Brandon Morrow. His latest outing wasn't so pretty so we won't dwell on it, but just want to send the good vibes to a good kid who has pledged more memorabilia for the silent auction at our 2008 Camp For A Cure. More news on Camp coming soon.

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