Saturday, 3 a.m.
He can take your breath away. And he can make you use it to swear in his direction.
He can be wonderful, and he can be woeful. He can wreck an opponent, and he can be reckless. Such is the case of Randy Arizarena, the good-guy, bad-guy of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Ah, just another night of Randy being Randy.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Arozarena showed both sides of his game in Friday night's 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. His two-run homer in the first helped the Rays take a 4-0 lead. But in the eighth, as an insurance run, Arizarena went to steal, then slowed up and was tagged out without sliding, as if he thought a ball four had been called to Francisco Mejia.
"Randy always has to do something good or bad," Arozarena said, referring to himself in the third person. That time I did something bad."
The Rays were that way, too. What they did good was more than what they did bad in their victory. Starter Shane McClanahan won his sixth game, Ji-Man Choi drove in three runs and Colin Poche struck out Luis Robert with the bases loaded to end the game.
But the Rays also had some ragged moments. Until Choi hit a two-run double in the seventh, the Rays took their early lead and didn't add on.
"It definitely got interesting, but I'm glad that Ji-Man picked us up in a big way with those add on runs," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "Mac was really good again. He was awesome."
Arozarena and Harold Ramirez each had two hits.
"Randy’s a guy we need to lean on and, today, he was big," Cash said. "The home run was oppo (opposite field). He’s not getting too out in front of himself."
The Rays play the White Sox today at 4:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Dylan Cease.
.