In the quiet before Game 1 of the ALDS, Erik Neander and Chaim Bloom sat together for a moment in the upper deck of Tropicana Field. This was, in a sense, entirely ordinary: The two had watched hundreds of games alongside each other in this building. But they’d never done it quite like this.
For more than a decade, Neander and Bloom were partners in Tampa Bay’s front office, coming up through the game together. Now, they were preparing to watch a playoff series from opposite sides for the first time: Neander as the leader of baseball operations for the Rays, and Bloom in the equivalent role for the Red Sox.