Matt Had Us All Re-Joycing Last Night

You’ve been waiting for this day for a
while Tampa Bay. The perfect time to board the bus and support Tampa
Bay Rays RF Matt Joyce. Sure he is a local guy, graduated from
Armwood High School just a stone throw away from the State
Fairgrounds. But you had doubts.

Hopefully a few of those “doubting
Thomas’s” got some sense of religion last night after Joyce produce a beautiful
2-run single to tie the game against the Twins at 2-all setting the
plate for more hi-jinxs in the later innings. Still some of you
pointed to Joyce getting nailed on a steal in the fifth inning.

Then again some of you are finally
seeing that this Rays team needs someone like Joyce who seems to pick
his moments and then seals the deal with a key hit, a sensational
catch, or maybe even something as simple as a single into the CF-RF
gap that sent Denard Span into hyper gear, but to no avail.

The mantra of these feisty Rays is
“Find Another Way”. Last night that simple but multi-layered
mantra ended up dancing in the late night streets, celebrated by
howling at a sliver of the moon, and brought the Rays their first
victory at home this season.

The victory also snapped a 2011 5-game
losing streak at Tropicana Field that used to play into the Rays
hands, but has been an albatross for them this season. Furthermore,
the Rays snapped a 9-game consecutive losing streak (including post
season) since September 29, 2010.

Suddenly a team mired in the cellar has
found ” another way” to win, via a new hero every night. A the
Rays Republic are the ones re-Joycing.