Now that the Rays have exorcised the demons from their name, suddenly they are the envy of every team and the model for a successful franchise. Only took them 10 years of losing baseball and they still have an abbreviation for a fatal disease as the emblem on their cap.
The Rays tried to hand the Astros an early lead in the 1st but they wouldn’t take the offer. Matsui popped a one out fly to short right, the Rays 2b ran out and tried an over the shoulder play on the ball that might better have been left to the RF. The pop tipped off his glove and Matsui made it to 2nd. A botched pickoff play sent him to 3d, where it could be argued he should have been in the first place. The Rays pulled the infield in. But Tejada weakly cued a pop to 1st and Berkman K’d swinging at a high fastball.
Backe breezed through the 1st, but after walking the 1st batter in the 2nd on 4 pitches, and going 3-1 to the second batter, Quintero went out to the mound to confer. The result of their brainstorm was a fastball right down the middle which landed way out in dead center. 2-0.
Backe again dug a hole in the 3rd, but with 2 outs and runners 2nd and 3rd, he got a K on a good change.
The defense helped him in the 4th. With 2 outs, The Rays catcher tried to score from 2nd on a single to right. Pence threw him out by 30 feet. The throw was up the 3b line and Q still had to take a few steps left to tag the runner.
Pence followed this routine, but effective defensive play, with an equally important offensive play. Kazmir’s slider zigged over the plate when it should have zagged away. Pence was swinging as a matter of course and knocked the errant pitch into the left field seats. 2-1.
Again, in the bottom of the 5th the defense saved Backe. Runners 1st and 2nd, 2 outs Quintero gunned down Crawford trying to steal 3rd.
Kazmir weakened significantly in the 6th. Since the errant slider to Pence he seemed to have lost his control. Matsui grounded out for the 2nd out of the inning. He strained his right hamstring trying to beat it and as he slowly limped off the field a visitor to the Tampa ballpark loudly booed. Karma was about to bite that douche in the ass.
Kazmir walked Tejada. Rays pitching coach Jim “The Kiss of Death” Hickey went to the mound to remind Kazmir that he had just thrown his 100th pitch, and something else but it slipped his mind to tell him. Carlos Lee objected to a strike one call but seemed to figure something out about Kazmir. On the next strike, he put an easy swing on a low fastball that cleared the bases. 3-2. Lee quickly rounded the bases and went over to Berkman and had a wide eyed conversation, I’m guessing to explain what it was he discovered about Kazmir. Hickey meanwhile remembered what he had meant to tell Kazmir, watch out for Carlos Lee.
The Astros still had 4 more innings to get through. Backe had thrown very few pitches but was getting by with the help from this defense. Finally, with runners 1st and 2nd and 2 outs in the 6th, Wesley Wright relieved him to face Carl Crawford. Wright forgot to look back at the runner on 2nd and the Rays executed a double steal. Now he had runners 2nd and 3rd. The Rays lead the majors with 85 steals. It doesn’t seem to have affected their ability to win. Wright got to 1-2, then tried a slider away that scooted a little far off the plate but Quintero was able to save it. Then Crawford swung through a high fastball to end the threat.
Wright walked the first batter in the 8th. Sampson came on and got a grounder right to 2nd base for the dp. Brocail ended the inning getting a pop up.
The score 3-2 in the 9th, the scenery looked eerily familiar. But this time the Big Guy, Ponche Grande was on the mound. Three up three down, the game ended on a K swinging. The only danger in the inning was a high pop to center. Michael Bourn battled to find it, but made the catch happy that he’ll likely never have to look up into that roof again. .