Image credit: IMAGE IMAGES via Reuters Connect
As the banner for the festivities preceding Game 6 of the ALCS came down, the cameras projected clouds of blue light against the testament of Tropicana Field’s white canvas overhead. For those who don’t spend much time in the race up, the image stands against the scene from two years ago, when Tornado Milton tore off the roof, and the blue sky could be seen between the torn frame. At the time, he wondered if Trop would ever see baseball again, so close to the predicted day. But ragging jobs has long been a recurring theme for Tampa Bay Radio, and as is so often the case with baseball radio, the rest of the league has learned to follow suit. Between them and their third American League pen was the last job of the patch: the eight-hundred-foot hydra that was Cleveland’s bullpen.
But that monster had already bled from a thousand wounds before the game began, and he did not wish to make his fatigue unmistakable. They began to lose their spots again and again, and they lost their voice with a bite. The Rays didn’t punt until midway through the ballgame, and they only whiffed eight times in 50 swings. Stephen Vogt managed the game that he was responsible for in October, configuring one link, but in the end it was not used: everyone was tired. The speed is down on the tick or rather across the board. Tampa Bay’s hitters refused to follow through, and Cleveland’s pitchers couldn’t get the counts that would force them. Everything ended in contact, and forever, is rewarded by some of that contact.