AL East getting fun

[Frayed Knot]

Boston is in Tampa this week for what is probably the first important series in TB history. Brings me back to a mid-June '69 series vs the Cubs.
Rays have their top 3 hurlers lined up and took game 1 behind Shields Monday night. Kazmir & Garza to come - TB now leads by 1.5 games

Yanx meanwhile, are hosting Texas (lost first game last night) before getting visits from Boston (4 games) and Tampa (2) starting Thursday.


Nothing will get decided this week obviously. But the young Rays get to see if they can swim with the big boys and a tough week could puncture a big hole in the Yanx fan's sense of inevitability.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I bet the Rays fans feel like I did in 1984.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

AL East is pretty good: Tampa and Boston are playing near 600, and the worst 2 clubs (Baltimore and Toronto) are only a game or three under 500

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I bet the Rays fans feel like I did in 1984.

'84 will work if that was your first 'out of nowhere' team. But the more exact comparison is 1969.
Both teams had/have been total doormats for their entire existence (Mets for 7 years, Rays for 11) never having won more than 68/70 games.

And then, right about at mid-season (July 8-10) with the Mets in 2nd place 5.5 GB, the 1st place Cubs come into town for the first meaningful series in franchise history:

Game 1 (with Moi in attendance) sees Kooz out-duel Fergie Jenkins as Eddie Krane HRs in the 5th and knocks in the walk-off winner w/a 9th inning single

Game 2 becomes a legend even as it falls just short of perfection

and while they lost Game 3 notice had been served that there was a new kid in town



btw, check out those game times: 2:09; 2:02; and 2:23

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, in 1969 I was six years old and not paying attention.

I do remember 1973, which was great, but I wasn't feeling a sense of disbelief that the Mets were in a pennant race.

But that is how I felt in 1984.

[Guest AG/DC]

Tonight: Tampa Bay 3, Boston 1.

Way to wake the sleeping giant, Shelly Duncan.

[Frayed Knot]

Rangers 3 - Yanx 2
Mariano entered a tie game in top-9 and gave up the winner

That's 3, 1, 1, & 2 runs scored for them over the last 4 games

7.5 out of 1st; 5.0 behind Boston

[Frayed Knot]

Rays throw up a 4-spot in the 7th (and still batting w/sacks loaded and 1 out) to take a 5-4 lead.


Yanx and stRangers traded leads for a while before the Yanx stuck up a tenner in their half of the 7th and are up like 15-7

[Frayed Knot]

Tampa holds off a Boston 9th inning threat and gets the sweep (in a tidy 4 hour game)


TB --
BOS -- -3.5
NYY -- -7.5

[Frayed Knot]

Tonight is the first NYY/Bos game in nearly 11 years (Sept '97) where one or the other was not in first place.