What Is It About the Rays?

Dad --

Seriously. What is it about this little team that has barely any fan base and finally made it to the post season last year for the first time? Why is it that no matter whether the Red Sox play them at Fenway or the Trop the Rays seem to beat us - hard! What is it that makes them that much better than us?

And for that matter are they really any better? Sure all they're starting pitchers are under the age of 30. And they do have some pretty incredible players on their team. But is Evan Longoria really better than Mike Lowell? Is Carl Crawford really better at stealing bases than Jacoby Ellsbury? (Yesterday's 6 steals seem to answer "yes".)

Whatever the answer may be, facing the Rays is starting to feel like facing the Yankees. There used to be only one serious rival for our little team from the Fens. But now there seems to be two.

I don't know how the Rays have our number or why, but for some reason whenever the Sox face them our guys either can't get hits or if they do, they can't get the runners home. The Rays on the other hand not only get hits, they get timely hits that score runs. Because after all, it doesn't matter how many times you get on base. If you can't get home, there's no score and so no win.

It's too bad we'll be seeing them yet again at the end of the week. Sure, the Sox will be back on their home turf, but based on the last two series, I think it could be a very painful weekend.

But that's five days from now. Today, we're meeting our other rivals on their new turf; what I affectionately like to call the wind tunnel. I hope it helps us out the way it helped out the Indians a few weeks ago. Guess I'll have to wait til this afternoon to find out.

Jenn