The Rays Tank: Extending Matt Joyce, Sausages, and Red Sox Shadenfreude

MLB Chatter

Things just got interesting in the NLCS. The Cardinals managed to put together four runs against Yovani Gallardo early in yesterday's game, and hung on to their lead to win 4-3 and take a 2-1 lead in the series. Meanwhile, the Rangers are making things look easy against the Tigers, winning 7-3 in 11 innings. The Tigers are now one game away from elimination.

Oh, and apparently Nelson Cruz has a cannon. I had no idea.

The big story around baseball yesterday was the Boston Globe piece about the inner workings of Boston's clubhouse at the end of the year. We can go back and forth arguing if any of the allegations are actually meaningful or impacted their play down the stretch, but I thought Jonah Keri and Chris Jones over at Grantland had one of the more thoughtful reactions to the piece. 

In more fun news, there were two goofy pieces yesterday that I thought deserved attention: the Rally Squirrel and Remembering Sausage-Gate. A squirrel has become a cult hero to Cards fans? Man, the postseason can screw with your mind. 

Rays Talk

A new site launched on Monday -- ESPN Florida -- and DRB alumni Tommy Rancel is heading up its Rays coverage. The site itself is affiliated with the local ESPN Radio shows in Florida, and the content is produced by all their Insiders. So no worries, these writers know what they're talking about and many of them are local fans. I'm really excited to see how it develops.

In one of his first articles, Tommy takes a look at Matt Joyce and asks if the Rays should consider giving him an extension. I won't give away his punchline, but in short, I hope the Rays are working with his agent on something similar.