Recap

I had some short rant about Scott Kazmir’s different approach this season, but thankfully Tommy Rancel covered it far better than I had.

This game featured every emotion possible. Initial anger and distaste for Upton’s benching that was followed by a gut punch leadoff homerun. From there the Rays would storm back only to fall behind until the 9^th inning.

Jason Bartlett, the most unlikely of designated hitters we’ll ever see, began the rally with a double that is perhaps the hardest hit ball of his Rays career. Eric Hinske would follow him up with another double that was just fair down the first base line. Gabe Gross stepped up and unleashed, sending a ball crashing into the right field scoreboard and placing the score at 7-7.  Akinori Iwamura would reach on an infield single and Ben Zobrist would walk.  Up stepped Carlos Pena, the guy who made game tying homeruns cool last season. With a quick stroke the ball ascended in an arch that would’ve made Eero Saarinen proud.

I think it’s safe to say all those bad feelings that could’ve possibly existed at the beginning of the afternoon are gone, just like that baseball, and just like a series defeat.

On to the west coast we go with four versus Seattle and make no mistake, despite their less than pretty record we’re going to be facing Felix Hernandez, stellar, and R.A Dickey, knuckleballing madman. A split is a very acceptable outcome, and a series win would be excellent.