Far From The Ordinary

by Brandon Moor

July 28, 2010

Fate never fails to take the road less traveled….remember that.  Monday night, ESPN’s normal scheduled Monday Night Baseball game featured the Tampa Bay Rays hosting the Detroit Tigers.

Little did anybody know that fate reserved the rights to flip Monday night’s normal baseball schedule upside down.  So much for standard programming.

Tampa Bay’s haunting visions of Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle, Oakland Athletics’ young gun Dallas Braden and Arizona Diamondbacks’ effectively wild Edwin Jackson can be placed on temporary hiatus. 

Since 2009, the Rays’ have found themselves on the wrong side of brilliant no-hit decisions, two of which were perfect game no-hitters.

Monday July 26, 2009,   Tampa Bay starter Matt Garza (11-5) took the hill in front of a dissolved paid attendance of 17,009 to make what was supposed to be his normal turn in the rotation. 

History was about to be made.

Both starters, Matt Garza (Tampa) and Max Scherzer (Detroit) battled it out matching one another pitch for pitch….until the sixth inning.  Scherzer worked in and out of a couple of jams luckily staying within reach of a potential no-hitter himself. 

Detroit’s play dissipated prior to the sixth inning when skipper Jim Leyland was ejected for disputing a blown call that from every angle imaginable, showed BJ Upton was clearly gunned down attempting to steal second base.

No harm done, Scherzer would go on to avoid disaster.

With two down in the Rays’ half of the sixth, Scherzer’s luck ran out loading the bases thanks to a pair of two out walks and a base hit.  Matt Joyce obliterated a 3-2 offering from Scherzer well out into the right field bleachers for a grand slam.  Not to be outdone, Carl Crawford launched a bullet out over the centerfield wall comfortably putting Tampa Bay up 5-0. 

From that point forward, the spotlight belonged solely to Garza as he absolutely owned the strike zone along with all challengers stepping in the batters’ box.  Behind every good pitcher is a quality defense which bailed out Garza on three separate occasions.

You can’t have one without the other.

In the third inning, a pair of webgems saved two extra base hits.  A leadoff walk to Brennen Boesch set the stage for a jaw-dropping 5-4-3 double play (incited by Evan Longoria) off of a diving stab down the third base line eliminating Detroit’s one and only base runner of the evening.  One batter later, right fielder Ben Zobrist turned the Tigers away after an athletic over the shoulder snow-cone grab just shy of the right field warning track.

Still cruising along, Garza needed one last bit of help.

In the eighth inning, Miguel Cabrera laced a line shot straight in the direction of left-fielder Carl Crawford.  Under normal circumstances, the catch appeared to be just a routine fly ball out.

Not at Tropicana field.

Crawford ducked below the distracting occupational hazardous lighting to haul in the catch.

In the ninth, Matt Garza seized the moment as he jabbed straight for the Tigers’ jugular. Refusing to pitch too cautiously, in quick work, Garza induced a ground out, a backwards K and a fly out to Zobrist in right-field completing the no-no.

One-hundred and twenty pitches, 101 of which were fastballs, displayed how commanding Garza’s control was over the course of the game.  Add in the well earned inflated confidence and fatigue becomes a mere after-thought which was replaced by pure adrenaline. 

Witnessing a dugout full of grown men doing the dog-pile dance around their pitcher never gets old.  It shows the game still means more than a paycheck. 

Nothing quite beats the shaving cream pie surprise during the postgame interview in spite of some of the freak accidents that have been known to put a few players on the DL with another player shelved for the remainder of the season.

Oops!

Some kids can’t seem to handle the fun.

Upon reflecting on one hell of a pitched game courtesy of Matt Garza, one disappointing factor keeps resurfacing, and that is the lack of paid attendance at the Rays’ home games. 

In 2008, Tampa shocked the baseball world advancing to the World Series in convincing fashion after ripping the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox in the ALCS.

Narrowly missing the playoffs in 2009, Rays’ fans must’ve thought the previous season was a fluke.  Now, they’re back and nipping on the heels of the New York Yankees for the best record in the Majors and they still can’t draw a decent turnout.

It wasn’t just Monday night’s game, but it’s been every home game in their franchise’s existence.

More people attend Baltimore Orioles’ games, which is an insult seeing that the Orioles’ are 32.5 games out of first place.  How sad is that?

Nobody is demanding sellouts at every home outing, but seriously, where is the love?

Joe Maddon’s bunch deserve better.  Attending doesn’t mean a mandatory swim in the Ray Tank.  Just sit back and wait for Longoria and/or Pena to go yard or watch Carl Crawford swipe bases at will.

Congratulations are in order for Matt Garza’s outstanding no-hit performance and congrats to his supporting cast for standing firmly behind their leader.

Special congratulations go out to the 17,009 fortunate enough to catch sight of real baseball history in its purest state.

That’s not a joke.

Cherish the moment because it doesn’t happen often.