Yankees 1 Rays O Oct. 3, 2021

 Not only does the New York Times not publish box scores but I can't find them anywhere else either.  Perhaps I'm being too cynical to suggest that one reason for this is that box scores traditionally include the time of the game and Major League Baseball perhaps doesn't care to reveal that all their dubious attempts to reduce the time of games (don't throw balls to give an intentional walk, force relief pitchers to pitch to three batters, etc.) have failed to speed up the game; it even appears that the ridiculous idea of starting every extra inning with a runner on second base will not be continued.  As I have said many times before:  just enforce the existing rules that limit the time of a pitcher to throw the next pitch to twelve seconds and don't allow the batter to step out of the batter's box except in an emergency.

Don't get me started on how badly baseball is televised (see earlier posts on this subject), causing me to usually listen to games on the radio.  Unfortunately Yankees radio announcer John Sterling is even worse than bombasic television announcer Michael Kay, who can't even keep track of the score,e.g., in a recent game with the Rays ahead 3-0 Anthony Rizzo hit a solo homerun and Kay bellows "tie game!"  Unfortunately mellow announcer Ken Singleton, who did very few games this year (he was usually replaced by the squeaky voices of Paul O'Neill and David Cone) has now "retired," though my guess is he was forced out because his low-key intelligence makes Kay look like the fool he is.

Oh yes, about the game.  It was a pitchers' (plural) duel, the Rays and the Yankees both using six pitchers and the hero was not Aaron Judge's ground ball in the bottom of the ninth but Tyler Wade's pinch running.  The wonderfully named Rougned Odor hit a bloop single in the ninth and was replaced by Tyler Wade, who tagged up at first on Gleyber Torres fly ball out and advanced to third on Anthony Rizzo's hit.  Aaron Judge hit a ground ball to second, slowed down somewhat by the pitcher, enabling Wade to beat second baseman Brandon Lowe's throw home with the winning run.