When the Rays won with B.J. Upton benched sports talk radio callers and newspaper blog commentators said things like:
"See, B.J. doesn't matter that much."
"I hope Upton realized he doesn't mean anything to this team."
"They can win without Upton."
Tonight we scored five runs and beat Seattle without Evan Longoria. I am not naive enough to state something like the idea that Longoria is an unimportant piece to this team, but I do like calling out the double standard.
Upton reached base four of the five times he came up to the plate tonight including two walks off of a pitcher who simply doesn't walk batters. You won't hear that Monday.
Early in the game Upton drove Ben Zobrist in with a single, as Ichiro threw home Upton trailed into second, putting both baserunners in scoring position. It was a heady move from someone whose critics call him a mental error machine. You won't hear that Monday.
Upton was his usual defensive self making a few catches on and near the warning track. You won't hear that Monday.
Upton stole another base tonight after picking his spot. You won't hear that Monday.
There are a lot of good things that Upton did tonight (and every night) that you simply won't hear about, but don't fear; that's by design.