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Barebones recap tonight ladies and gentlemen. You wanna read a more in-depth recap after tonight’s performance? I would be very surprised.
The offense started out so promising. In the first, the Rays took a 2-0 lead. Grady Sizemore ended the no-hitter early with a double. After Joey Butler walked, Evan Longoria doubled home Sizemore, and Butler reached home on a sac fly. In the fifth inning, the Rays tacked on another when Kiermaier tripled to lead off the inning. Rene Rivera, he of the flailing swing and framing king, managed to make a productive out with a sac fly to deep right. With a three-run lead, we were all feeling pretty good, I bet.
Archer pitched so well! Way more deserving of the win than anyone else. In an interesting move, Kevin Cash left him out for the seventh inning despite the fact that he was over 100 pitches after the sixth. It seems like there’s no middle ground when it comes to Kevin Cash’s bullpen management. Either he’ll pull a cruising pitcher, or he’ll leave him in for way, WAY too long. Tonight, he probably left in Archer for longer than he needed to, especially since Archie hit the final batter he faced, bringing his pitch count to 122.
Jake McGee entered in relief to finish the seventh. And of course he stayed out there for the eighth inning.
Oh.
Oh wait a second.
Oh no that’s not what happened.
Instead, after facing a single batter, the Rays went to Kevin Jepsen, the resident tightrope walker.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Teixeira's 3-R homer off Jepsen ties it in the 8th. Entering, Jep's 136 of 144 BF were in "Late & Close" Situations—highest rate in <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB">@MLB</a>.</p>— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/status/617151208256589824">July 4, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Considering the reputation that Kevin Jepsen is starting to get around my apartment, that’s an interesting stat. Well anyway the bad thing happened.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeeYa?src=hash">#SeeYa</a>! That's a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TexMessage?src=hash">#TexMessage</a> to tie the ballgame at 3 in the 8th! <a href="http://t.co/Dmxsp1rNbr">pic.twitter.com/Dmxsp1rNbr</a></p>— New York Yankees (@Yankees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/617149224602374144">July 4, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Barf
Jepsen struggled with his command, even walking the next two batters before being pulled for Brandom Gomes. On his first pitch, Gomes coaxed a double play, ending any further Yankee threat.
Later in the game, Gomes walked the leadoff man, who reached second on a sac bunt. After intentionally walking Brett Gardner, Xavier Cedeno entered to turn the switch-hitting Chase Headley around. He, too, bounced into a double play. So that was pretty neat: two double plays to end legitimate Yankee threats.
Unfortunately, for much of the end of the game, the once potent offense was shut down. Twice, Rays batters were thrown out trying to stretch singles into doubles. Both plays were challenged by both teams, and in both cases the Rays found themselves on the wrong side of the decision.
Hey I went to bed before the twelfth inning did anything big happen?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tack on another! <a href="https://twitter.com/ReneRivera13">@ReneRivera13</a> singles home Cabby to put <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RaysUp?src=hash">#RaysUp</a>, 5-3! </p>— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/status/617171869704298497">July 4, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Slam your helmet and send 'em home: <a href="http://t.co/IXhYeTkpNz">http://t.co/IXhYeTkpNz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThrillOfTheGame?src=hash">#ThrillOfTheGame</a> <a href="http://t.co/Hu45esNZjA">pic.twitter.com/Hu45esNZjA</a></p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/617183607421931520">July 4, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-07-03&team=Yankees&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-07-03&team=Yankees&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>
oh my god
Everything you need to know lies between those two tweets. You don't need me to spell it out for you; the feeling you get when you glance between those two should be all the recap you need. This is the second straight time I've recapped a bummer of a game and I hate it. Hatfield, can I sacrifice something to that God of Beer and Baseball you pray to so much to keep me recapping wins? I'm dying here, man.