Red Sox - Rays, new rivalry at the MLB
Everyone is aware of the old classic rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees, but it seems like Boston has a new direct rival: The Tampa Bay Rays.
Well, Boston and New York have being far superior than Tampa Bay since the inclusion of the team back in 1998, and in recent years, the production of the Rays – former Devil Rays – has being awful, let’s put a few examples in order to compare these 3 teams of the AL league:
2005: Red Sox and Yanks both finished 95-67, while the Rays ended 67-95.
2006: Yankees 97-65, Red Sox 86-76, and the Rays with one of their worst seasons finished with 101 losses.
2007: Red Sox 96-66, while the Rays ended with the same numbers just backwards and the Yankees 94-68.
But the story this present season is a different one, as of now, the young Rays are 37-26, just one game behind the current world series champions, and the Yankees are going through one of their worst seasons in recent years, and so Boston and Tampa Bay are struggling to become the best, and in the middle of that race for the number one position at the American League, it came the June 5th brawl between the two teams.
Everything started with Rays pitcher James Shields hitting Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp in the leg and so Crisp came and try to hit Shields in the face, but Shields hit Cris first and suddenly a few other Rays players came along and started hitting Crisp, then everything got out of control and and Red Sox players intervene too, and everything ended with several suspensions on both sides of the fence.
I guess is too early in the season to make the Rays a clear contender, but they are playing at their best and good baseball is all we can expect from them.
