Rays 7, Twins 11: The Thrilla in Vanilla

This was a nice, boring win that got out of hand in a hurry. The good news is, the Rays and Twins gave us some free baseball to tide us over until after the All-Star break. The bad news is, the Twins walked it off in slamtastic fashion, dropping the Rays to 49-47 at the break. On the other bright side, the Rays won 49 games before the break. If you had that in the office pool, you’re a gotdang liar.

First, the (good) boring parts. The Rays greeted 23 year old starter Felipe Rivers like they were in a hurry to get the game over with, swinging aggressively early. Both Kiermaier and Robertson going after the first two pitches of the game (both outs). In fact, the young righty had throw only…