Oct 17 2008
All 7 Rays Fans Say “Uh-Oh” As Tampa Blows Late Lead In Spectacular Fashion
Thursday night’s game 5 of the ALCS had followed the script from games 3 and 4. The Rays had jumped all over Daisuke Matsuzaka from the opening bell, as BJ Upton gave Tampa Bay a 2 run lead in the 1st inning with his 6th home run of the postseason. By the time the bottom of the 7th rolled around, the Rays had built a 7-0 lead, and had outscored Boston by the unseemly sum of 29-5 across 25 innings of baseball at Fenway Park.
And following a Jed Lowrie double to lead off the bottom half of the inning, Jason Varitek and Mark Kotsay both flied out. The Rays were a mere 7 outs from quenching the dry mouths of their fans, who had thirsted for a championship through 9 joyless years of heartache.
Actually, I’m still not convinced that there ARE any Rays fans out there. Or if there are, they didn’t start attending baseball games or wearing team paraphenalia until about two weeks ago. I think most of the nervous looking people in Rays jerseys that were shown on TV on Thursday night are just Yankee fans with enough disposable income to both attend a playoff game at Fenway just to try to thumb the eye of Boston fans AND to shell out $150 on sports apparel that means nothing to them. Just last year, ESPN’s Bill Simmons posted a photo diary of his trip to Tropicana Field, for a game in which the Boston fans outnumbered the supporters of the home team by at least a 4-1 ratio.
Anyways, with 7 outs to go, the Red Sox finally sprang to life. Coco Crisp hit a single to put runners on the corners, and Dustin Pedroia followed with an RBI single. David Ortiz would follow with a 3 run home run, trimming the lead to 7-4. In the bottom of the 8th, Dan Wheeler walked the leadoff batter, Jason Bay, and JD Drew promptly followed with a homer, cutting the deficit to 1 and sending the Fenway faithful into a frenzy. Then, with 2 outs, Mark Kotsay doubled, and Coco Crisp followed with a single to tie the game, though he was thrown out at 2nd base when he tried to advance on the play.
In the bottom of the 9th, with the score still tied, the bases empty and 2 outs, Kevin Youklis hit a grounder to 3rd that should’ve sent the game to extra innings, but Evan Longoria’s throw bounced in front of and then away from Carlos Pena, and Youklis wound up on 2nd. After an intentional walk to Jason Bay, JD Drew promptly singled to finish off the comeback.
I didn’t get a chance to see Joe Maddon’s post-game press conference, but if you substituted the words “Red Sox” for “Bears”, something like this might have been appropriate…
When all was said and done, the Rays vaunted bullpen had allowed 6 runs with 2 outs in the final 3 innings, and head back to Tampa Bay with a sudden and huge question mark hanging over their heads. How could a World Series contender allow a game that was in the bankto slip away in such spectacular fashion?
I enjoyed the trip down memory lane with Denny Green, so let’s take a few more. You have to go all the way back to 1929 to find the last time a team allowed a postseason lead of at least 7 runs to evaporate. Fittingly, the Cubs were involved, as they allowed an 8-0 lead to turn into a 10-8 loss to the then Philadelphia Athletics. (If you still think it’s tougher now than ever being a Cubs fan, just consider that from 1910 to 1945 the team played in 7 World Series and lost every single one.)
More worrisome for Tampa Bay is recent history, namely that just last year the Red Sox also rallied from a 3-1 series deficit in the ALCS, against Cleveland. There was no point at which the Indians were just 7 outs away from spraying champaigne, however, so this game has to rank as a considerably larger gut-punch for the team than anything we’ve seen in the MLB playoffs in recent memory, aside from of course, the 2003 Cubs.
Joe Maddon is an excellent and capable manager, and its possible that he and his team will not allow this game to corrupt their confidence. That’s not even taking into consideration that the next two games are in Tampa Bay, where the Rays have been one of the major league’s best home teams this season. They will get to see Josh Beckett in game 6 on Saturday, who has looked anything but right this postseason.
But when your team is suddenly drawing unfavorable comparisons with the 2007 Indians, and the 2003 and 1929 Cubs, suffice to say, it’s a VERY bad sign. Afterall, none of those teams went on to win the title.
2 Responses to “All 7 Rays Fans Say “Uh-Oh” As Tampa Blows Late Lead In Spectacular Fashion”
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It will be interesting to see if the Rays don’t let this bother them. I think what happened is they got a little to happy with their lead and got careless with some pitches and the next thing you know the game was out of hand and they lost. The same way when they were won 14-3. At the end of that game you could see the Red Sox bats heating up. I think for the Rays to win this next game they have to do what they’ve done the past three games and that is jump on Beckett early put runs up and play the whole game until the 9th inning is over. You can’t give anything to the Red Sox team or they’re going to take advantage of it and make you pay.
im still convinced that the Rays are going to pull this out. I will say they win it in Game Seven with the National Media going crazy over the Red Sox on the brink of another “historic comeback.”
I also enjoyed the Dennis Green stroll down memory lane… thanks for that.
As far as Rays fans, there is a girl I work with who grew up in Tampa and attended Rays games ever since they started. She said that she is really excited about the Rays and that it’s been a very rewarding season. She also mentioned that she is somewhat annoyed with the bandwagoners, but she knows that it’s inevitable. She mentioned that her high school graduation was held in Tropicana Field, which I found to be an odd place for something like that.
Anyhow, the point of that story is to show that I guess there are some true, die-hard Rays fans that do exist. I am sure there are lots of people who have attended Rays games throughout the years and can call themselves “die-hards,” but it’s going to become more difficult for them to make it out there with the recent success.
If only the Cubs can win it all… then our bandwagon would empty out as I feel a lot of people are only in it to see the Cubs win just once. Once they win, the mystique is gone and that will mean a different vibe at Wrigley Field; thus, leaving the die-hards and weeding out the people who are only there for the party.