Cliff Lee thumps the Rays out of the arena (Pt. 2)
The Tampa Bay Rays had done enough for the team to be back in the forefront of running into the American League Championship for the World Series Title ambition. All that was needed for the team was to beat the Texas Rangers
at home, in front of a 41,845 strong crowd in the Tropicana Field. Manager Joe Maddon had longed for the moment and at the end of the 4th game, he mentioned a setting, similar to the one they were going into when they pushed the series
into Game 5. “I still want to believe there is a home-field advantage and hopefully that's going to show up,” Maddon said. “The extra game at home, I have been talking about it all along.”
However, the one thing the Texas Rangers were happy about was that this fixture would at least feature Cliff Lee on the mound. The fact that Master Lee was instrumental in taking the poison out of Tampa Bays’ offensive initiative
was gladly appreciated by the Rangers’ batting line up and the fans alike. In other words, the morale was up and there was a lot of encouragement from the management. "It's down to one game, we've got Cliff going and certainly feel good about that,” Ron Washington
said. “We have proved that we can win there."
The Rays on the other hand, brought back David Price into the attack. The fact that the star pitcher had lost the first bout in the same stadium and against the same maestro was a dark fact that the fans had to revere themselves
with. Price was ranked the second best ball thrower in the league of 2010 and his 19 wins on the sheet made him a formidable adversary to lock horns with. The New York Yankees were one of the teams to understand. Carsten Charles Sabathia may have been the
league’s 1st ranking pitcher but even he was not effective against Tampa Bay when David was pitching for the side. Maybe one of the reasons why Price was not a bigger threat in the playoffs first fixture was the simple fact that the
post season, itself, presents a different game on the cards.
The match began with the Rangers taking the bat to the strike zone and with David Price starting the pitching role, there was expectation of a message sending role as the top first went underway. Elvis Andrus was the first
Texas man to take the delivery and for a player who has been average, to say the least, was observing the movement around the field like he was meaning to impose some serious damage on the team. He started off with a single to the right and he later stole
second when the 11 year veteran, Michael Young swung out the pitcher. Josh Hamilton moved in to the batting position next and made a simple move towards the first base with a grounder shot. However, he was caught out and it was Elvis who ran on the other side
to score.
Carlos Pena made an error of judgement when the run was in the process of being scored. He collected the ball from Josh’s grounder and made his way slowly to the first base, waiting for Price to pace up to base for the tag
out. All the while this transpired, Andrus made his intent known by running for the last base. Pena was aware of the situation but his delayed reaction and Price’s inability to read the game got Andrus through for the first run.
The Rangers were now leading the game with a run and the Rays were heart broken by their ill understanding of the play in the game. Joe Maddon was feeling weary and when the pressure piled up on David, things looked to go
bad in the later innings of the game. The match was still in the top 1st and it looked like the Rays were losing hope.
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