![\"WHGB11\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/WHGB.png\" "\\"WHGB11\\"")
Beyond the usual pleasure of whiling away a few hours watching a ballgame, there didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be much particularly memorable about the Tampa Bay Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 game against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.<\/p>\nBeyond the usual pleasure of whiling away a few hours watching a ballgame, there didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be much particularly memorable about the Tampa Bay Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 game against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay had lost their first four games of the season heading into the contest and there was a decidedly downbeat mood at Tropicana Field.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trop is far from being the most atmospheric ballpark at the best of times.\u00c2\u00a0 The dome creates a sterile feeling, the artificial turf and blocking of the sun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rays being an affront to the natural environment that baseball should be played in.\u00c2\u00a0 There were less than 12,000 fans in attendance during the day-game on Wednesday and mercifully few had cowbells in their hands.\u00c2\u00a0 The gentle hum of idle chatter was broken occasionally with a cheer or groan, but full-blown excitement was scarce.<\/p>\n
This muted setting was understandable in light of the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 0-4 start and the run of bad luck that has plagued the home team in recent months.\u00c2\u00a0 Their penance for turning the world upside down and beating the free-spending Yankees and Red Sox to the AL East division last year was to lose a whole host of players, snapped up by rivals including New York (closer Rafael Soriano) and Boston (left-fielder Carl Crawford).<\/p>\n
On top of those losses, the Rays had barely started their season when their batting star Evan Longoria suffered an oblique injury \u00e2\u20ac\u201c seemingly the fashionable injury of choice for ballplayers, closely trailed by appendectomies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c landing him on the Disabled List, where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s likely to stay until the latter part of April.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of which meant that the crowd was waiting for something bad to happen, rather than holding onto the normal April optimism.\u00c2\u00a0 The Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 TV announcers even took time during the broadcast to provide a cookery lesson in the form of a military subsistence package that cooks when you add water to it.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely food\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the most enthusiastic thing commentator Brian Anderson could say about it and there was little enthusiasm elsewhere after the Angels took a first-inning lead.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The game had all the hallmarks of one that would be an easily forgotten part of a losing sequence quickly wiped from the memory when better days arrive.\u00c2\u00a0 But you never know with baseball; every game has the potential to produce a moment that will last and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened in this case. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, with one runner on base and two outs, Manny Ramirez was summoned from the bench to pinch-hit.<\/p>\n
Ramirez had been taken out of the lineup by manager Joe Maddon in response to the slugger going 1-for-16 to start the season.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really think he’s trying to carry too much of this load right now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, said Maddon<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want him to understand that I’m seeing that, that I think he’s trying way too hard\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 It had been announced that Ramirez would miss Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game due to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153personal matters\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but he was on the bench on Wednesday and Maddon decided to use him in this spot.<\/p>\n The Angels brought reliever Kevin Jepsen into the game and Ramirez sent his 2-1 pitch harmlessly into right field, where Torii Hunter made the catch to end the inning. What we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know at the time was that the play had also marked the end of Manny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career.<\/p>\n