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September 24 in Rays history: The Overlooked

In which we highlight players we've missed this year

David McNew/Getty Images

Welcome to the Rays Tank, where the morning comes too early and the winning streaks come too late. You may not have noticed, but we have our favorites as far as guys we like to highlight here in the Stank. But sometimes, those favorites...well, they don't have too many video worth highlighting. Today, we get to rectify some of that. Today, we feature the overlooked and the unsung. Ladies, gents, and daevs, I give you: September 24th.

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You know what has been missing from the Stank clips this year? Aki knocks. Here's a two-run triple from 2008 against the O's.

Such a fun player.

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An unsung hero of 2011 was Alex Torres, who came on when Jeff Niemann was pulled after one inning due to ineffectiveness and a sore back. He would work five shutout innings and grab his first big league win.

This was the first of the five game win streak to end the season, which the Rays used to finally run down the flailing Red Sox.

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From 2013, Matt Joyce leads off the game by going deep in a big win over the Yankees.

Jake Odorizzi also notched his first save with three scoreless innings of work.

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And dusting off the old guy files, we find Tiger legend Al Kaline collecting his 3000th hit this day in 1974 against the Orioles' Dave McNally.

Kaline led the league in hitting just once, when he hit hit .340 and collected his only 200 hit season in 1955. He never led the league in homers or runs scored or runs batted in or pretty much anything. He was just really good for a really long time.

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Link Dump!

  • Topkin has a good piece on Steven Souza Jr., with quotes from Souza on how he did a poor job handling the pressure that came with the high expectations people had for him. I feel like this is something you can see all over Souza's at bats. At some point he's going to relax for a full season and start taking those breaking balls below the zone, and then watch out league. At least that's what I hope happens. I'm rooting for the guy.
  • Also, Romano wrote about the Braves proposal and the stadium situation.
  • Beyond the Box Score interviewed Tom Tango, one of the top sabermetrics guys who shows his head in the public domain, and who consistently provides the closest thing we've got to peer review. He talks about where he thinks the frontiers are (starter and bullpen management) and also about his . . .
  • Fans scouting report! Twelve responses. Nice. Tango says that's enough for him to use, but keep it going, guys.
  • And finally, Jeff Sullivan has one of my favorite tributes to the late Yogi Berra. He points out that he was definitely, certifiably clutch.