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Welcome to the Rays Tank, where it ain't over till it's over, and believe it or not, it still ain't over. Seriously, how are we not eliminated from the Wild Card yet? Whoever is figuring the standings must be using Common Core.
But enough about remote possibilities that we all know just aren't gonna happen. We're here to remember other things that just weren't gonna happen, but somehow they did. Ladies, gents, and rockyboys, I give you: September 25th.
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More specifically, I give you September 25, 2011. On this day four years ago, the Rays were locked in another must-win game against the Blue Jays. So it was nice to get things off on the right foot, when Upton did this with one out in the first.
That was followed not long after by Zobrist doing this.
Then, in the 3rd, after the Jays had pulled within one, Longo hit this massive shot.
And just to make sure you knew it was gonna be a good day, even Kelly Shoppach got in the action.
The win would temporarily pull the Rays within half a game of the Red Sox. Later in the day, Boston would beat the Yankees to reestablish their one game lead. But that win would take 14 innings, and may have caused Francona to leave Josh Beckett in a little longer than he wanted to the next day in a loss to the Orioles. Meanwhile, the Rays were handling the Yankees. And so it was that, on Game 160, the Rays tracked down the Red Sox. Both teams would win their respective Game 161s, setting the stage for the most exciting night of regular season baseball ever.
But we'll get to that on Monday. For now, here's Ian with your Link Dump.
- From Topkin, Matt Moore is on a 110 inning count, and Jake McGee will be available tonight.
- Evan Longoria became the fourth third baseman with seven 20+ homer seasons out of their first eight.
- Tony Blengino ranks the Rays farm system first, statistically.
- Is there a relationship between pace and power? Sam Fuld noticed something and Eno Sarris investigated it.
- John Choniere is here to help you scrape and parse the PITCHf/x data. Thanks, John!
- Fans Scouting Report. We're at 16. That means that I'm a full 6% of the results. Does that seem right? No. Go vote.
- Baseball America named Garret Whitley the seventh best prospect in the GCL ($ for scouting report).