On Thursday, August 18th, the Kansas City Royals (48-71) came to Tropicana Field to play the Tampa Bay Rays (62-54) who are in the race for a Wild Card berth in the playoffs.
In the third inning, Rays outfielder led off the inning by bunting for a single. An oddity in this day of home runs. Not to be outdone, Taylor Walls laid down a bunt and beat it out for another bunt single in the fourth inning. When was the last time you saw two bunts for base hits in the same game.? Guess what! In the fifth inning, Kansas City outfielder Michael Taylor bunted for a base hit. So I ask the question again!! When was the last time you saw three bunts for base hits?
In a night of oddities Rays starting pitcher Luis Patino wore uniform number one. It is unusual for a pitcher to have a single digit uniform number. Yes, I know former Rays pitcher Blake Snell wore number four. The last time a pitcher wore number one was Matt Young for the Seattle Mariners in 1990. Have any other pitchers worn number one? As best as I can determine in my research, the answer is no.
Royals reliever entered the game in the 7th inning, which would prove to be a rough night for him. After giving up six straight hits and five runs, he finally ended the inning, striking out two and getting a ground ball out.
More? In the 8th inning, the Rays had a double, triple and home run and scored one run. Strange but true. Rays Ji Man Choi doubled to left, and, after a minor misplay by outfielder Nate Eaton, tried to stretch it into a triple but was thrown out at third base. Christian Bethancourt followed with a solo home run and Roman Quinn tripled to right but was stranded as the next two batters ended the inning with outs.
Final score as Tampa Bay 7 Kansas City 1
William Coppola
August 24, 2022 at 10:42 am
That’s a lot of odd things in one game! At least you were there to see those things. Rays 3rd from bottom in attendance & fighting for a wild card spot is not odd in Tampa.