The Rays Tank: Giants, A's stave off elimination

It has been a tough post-season for aging third-basemen.

Cincinnati Reds 3B Scott Rolen joined Chipper Jones, who made a crucial throwing error in the wild card play-in game, by making a costly error at the hot corner at a big moment of a playoff game. Jones' miscue may be largely forgotten thanks to the umpire drama later in the game, but Rolen's fielding error allowed Busty Posey to score the go ahead run in the 10th inning and force a game 4 tomorrow night. The Reds now lead the series 2-1 but will have two more chances to close out the Giants at home.

The Amazin' A's also rallied back in the series, defeating the Tigers 2-0, behind a strong outing from Brett Anderson and a home run from Seth Smith. Also, Coco Crisp robbed Prince Fielder of a home run with a this fantastic catch:

Today we have a full slate of baseball all day, with four games on the schedule starting with St. Louis and Washington at 1 p.m, and followed by the Giants at Reds (1-2), Orioles at Yankees (1-1), and Tigers at Athletics (2-1).

Later today, we will have a post from Steve Slowinski kicking off our off-season player grade series, which is going to be fun, informative and full of Vogt jokes. Also, at noon, Preet Patel will share some of our favorite BJ Upton memories.

• Over at Fangraphs, Bradley Woodroom took a look at the career of Kyuji Fujikawa, the Japenese version of Mariano Rivera.
• The Giants-Reds game was delayed by some moron running onto the field with a Mitt Romney sign. What do we always say about the grown man that brings a Mitt to the ballpark? (I'll see myself out)
• The Monster of Penn State will be spending the rest of his life in state pen. Justice!
• The Miami Marlins will wear this 20th anniversary patch on their uniforms next season.
• Finally, yesterday we kicked off the first round of answers to the DRaysBay Mailbag. If you would like to have a question answered, submit the question to draysbaymailbag@gmail.com, and we will try our best to provide an informative answer either through email or on the site.