Just like a drippy St. Petersburg, Florida and a driving New York, New York, this AL East contest saunters but can get hectic. Sometimes, marvelous. For example, the early April skies matchup on Opening Day 2017 in which Masahiro Tanaka of the Yankees recorded the L and Chris Archer got the W in a 7-3 victory for The Rays.
Advance a month plus to May 21st. Baseball is, yet again, a daily flowing waterfall of vitality and the now stuttering Yankees (24-16) take on the consistently inconsistent Rays (23-22).
On the mound for New York is the 36-year-old moving cabbage of a man, master of low-impact-power pitching, an aging, bulging strikeout machine named CC Sabathia. When CC is succinctly propelling pitches just under 90 MPH, he probably won't smile or even acknowledge an emotion. In this contest, Sabathia went a solid five innings yielding 4 hits and only allowing 1 ER. Through the outing his neutral demeanor oscillated from fierce neutrality to neutral apathy and with 6 K's and 1 BB, proved efficiency.
In contrast, the pitcher in baby blue, Chris Archer is 8 years Sabathia's junior and although only 2 inches shorter, weighs 100 pounds less. The sprightly, agile and zealous Archer would pitch for 6.1 innings, record 12 strikeouts and allow 3 runs (all in the 1st inning). Be it his sheer enthusiasm, eagerness, and energy, Archer is my favorite pitcher this season, ousting the likes of Dylan Bundy, Jon Gray and Kenta Maeda.
Chris Archer is truly the bowman; a Robin Hood -- for he robs batters of their hits and gives the outs back to his team, an Apollo -- for he is a beardless, athletic youth who shoots fast pitches with a sliding ball and a cool cat at that bouts with the battleship missile tank that is the hammer throwing arm of CC Sabathia.
Such a stark contrast in pitching style made a real appealing matchup. Immediately after Sabathia struck out the red-hot, Corey Dickerson, keeping The Rays behind 3-1, blithe Archer sprinted on to the field, picked up the ball and was ready to go before commercials even began.
Sabathia was clinical, seamless. Often times popping out players on the first three swings of an at-bat. Archer was fidgety and erratic yet focused. Despite the dreadful 1st inning he generated 20 swinging strikes on the day and was hot on his Apollonian arrow until the top of the 7th when Didi Gregorius singled to left and Chris Carter walked. Only then was Rays skipper, Kevin Cash, forced to make the change.
It looked he didn’t want to go. After the game Archer lamented, "I learned, right after the first inning was over, actually while the first inning was going on, it's already behind me. I threw four strong innings after the first bad one. I wish I could have given our team more."
You gave them your all, Mr. Archer.
It looked he didn’t want to go. After the game Archer lamented, "I learned, right after the first inning was over, actually while the first inning was going on, it's already behind me. I threw four strong innings after the first bad one. I wish I could have given our team more."
You gave them your all, Mr. Archer.
Although the final result will obviously be a disappointment to Archer, who drops to 3-3 on the budding season, the Rays can be content they only allowed 3 runs against the heavy-hitting baby-bombers.
Both starters were credited all the runs in the game and when they took to the bench, Yankee relievers Chad Green, Tyler Clippard, and Dellin Betances were virtually lights out. These guys are serious AL relievers. Fortunetly for the Rays, Danny Farquhar, Ryne Stanek and Diego Moreno kept Tampa Bay's hopes alive but hitters like Evan Longoria just couldn't deliver.
As usual, The Yankees will probably finish higher in the AL than The Rays this season but we're starting to see more than a flicker of the flash of lightning on the Rays' logo both near their hearts and on the field.
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