It took the late-game loss of a lead and twelve innings, but the Rays won again.
Five wins in six games? And the All Star break and second half of the season to go?
I won't count 'em out just yet. I'll feed a little bit of hope their way if the mojo keeps on comin'...
Last night's W certainly wasn't guaranteed, with a blown victory in the ninth, but a win is a win:
"It was a great game then a strange game and then it becomes wonderful because you win,'' manager Joe Maddon said. "I've talked about winning games like this in extra innings on the road and what it means about a team, and to be constantly dejected a bit based on what happened and to still hang in there.
And with win #36, the Rays actually made some history:
Their pitchers combined to strike out nine to give them 287 for June, breaking the major-league record for any month of 286 by the Kerry Wood/Mark Prior Cubs in August 2002. Boxberger got Ichiro Suzuki swinging in the 12th for the record. On the way Monday, they surpassed the American League record of 280 set by the Indians and Tigers in May 2013.
Disappointing season, but still setting records and going down in the stats books? Of course.
For the full game recape, scope this.
Links:
- Prior to this series against the Yankees, Danny Russell spoke with Keefe to the City about the season thus far, David Price's impending trade and the possibilty of a new manager (?!?!?!) for the 2015 season.
- ICYMI: the ESPN feature on Toe Nash aired earlier this week:
- The Hardball Times ran their first of two pieces on Tommy John Surgery yesterday, compiling the most knowledge they could on the surgeries in hopes of building the knowledge base. Still can't get over the amount of quality stuff being produced over there, bravo guys.
- "The Tigers hit a walk-off grand slam vs. the A's, leading to the saddest two tweets in sports team history."
This is absolutely phenomenal pic.twitter.com/OJbiRqUlO5
— Grape (@spacemnkymafia) July 1, 2014- Vin Scully wins again, per usual, at the expense of Scott Van Slyke and his hotfoot:
- Entirely non-baseball related, but in the WTF column this lovely Tuesday:
@CutlerRidgeLAZ Check out this huge whoops from the UF marketing department: pic.twitter.com/iveDlTT3ud
— Jimi Kunkel (@JimiKunkel) June 30, 2014