And friends, things don't get much smaller in baseball than outs. So let's review how the Rays scored the four runs in Game 2 that changed this World Series:
• Ground ball to the shortstop.
• Another ground ball to the shortstop.
• A safety squeeze bunt built around a man who might have a tough time outrunning John Daly.
• And a hit that scored one run but got a second runner thrown out at the plate.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was the winning team's entire attack in a World Series game -- one it actually won.
It was all so thrilling, so electrifying, so downright inspirational that Rays manager Joe Maddon admitted he turned to his bench coach, Dave Martinez, and gushed:
"This is what we have to emphasize next year in spring training -- scoring runs with outs."
Yep, he really said that. And well he should, because it was that kind of night.
On one hand, that team the Rays were playing, the Phillies, continued to work harder to avoid scoring runs than any team in modern World Series history. The Phillies are now 1-for-28 with runners in scoring position after the first two games -- the worst two-game RISP batting average (.036) by any World Series team in history.
The Rays used a strange -- but effective -- formula to score runs in Game 2 of the World Series. They drove home runs by making outs.
But on the other hand, while all that clutch ineptitude was going on, the youngest juggernaut in baseball went out and demonstrated that putting those runs on the board doesn't have to be as tough as the Phillies have made it look.
"We have to play small ball," said the Game 2 winning pitcher, James Shields. "It's the World Series. That's the way you play the game. That's the way you win championships."
To be honest, other ways exist, as the Rays proved in the ALCS. But doing whatever it takes -- that's what wins championships.
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