The Tampa Bay Rays have won 18 of their last 21 games, and their incredible streak of play has allowed them to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the AL East from the Boston Red Sox. On Monday night, the Rays won a makeup game at Fenway Park behind tremendous pitching from David Price and a lot of help from home plate umpire Jerry Meals.
Meals blew a call on a tag play at home plate when he called Daniel Nava out on what would have been the tying run in the eighth inning. He even admitted after the game that he missed the call, but that didn’t stop the Rays’ official Twitter account from bragging about the win.
Dear @RedSox scoreboard operator – your standings are wrong. Yours truly, @RaysBaseball.
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 30, 2013
Whoever was operating Boston’s Twitter account was not about to sit back and let their division rivals get the best of them.
Don't worry @raysbaseball we look forward to seeing you in Tampa in September for our home games at the Trop.
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) July 30, 2013
You could make the argument that the Rays-Red Sox rivalry has become more intense than Red Sox-Yankees in recent years, and these are the reasons why. The AL East is the best division in baseball, and the consistent play of the Rays despite their lack of financial resources has allowed that to happen.
