Kansas City, Mo. — Did you take note of the fact that Austin Meadows, a left-handed hitter, delivered his clutch, two-out RBI knock in the seventh inning Thursday against Royals nasty lefty reliever Jake Brentz?
Not a small thing.
Meadows started to lose playing time in Tampa Bay the last couple of years because of the Rays’ affinity for playing matchups — right-handed hitters vs. left-handed pitchers and vice versa. Cause and effect, the less Meadows saw left-handed pitching, the less comfortable he got against them.