Saturday, 4 a.m. It was cold. It was wet. Most of all, it was ugly. The Tampa Bay Rays spent another evening Friday embracing bad baseball. They were clobbered 10-4 by the Minnesota Twinw — who haven’t been very good, either. Along the way, they: — Blew a 3-0 lead. — The bullpen was rotten […]

Thursday, 4 a.m. No, that isn’t the Tampa Bay Rays’ bullpen. It’s the Towering Inferno. Once more, the relievers of the Rays were tossing batting practice Wednesday afternoon at American Family Life Field in an 8-2 loss to Milwaukee. Consider. In six games, Rays’ starters have given up 13 runs, an acceptable total. But the […]

Wednesday, 3 a.m. These days, the Lightning seem to be focused on Buffalo, the team in front of them in the standings. Perhaps they should pay a little more attention to Montreal, the just behind them. The Canadiens won their sixth straight game Tuesday night, beating the Lighning 4-1 at Benchmark International Arena. That allowed […]

Monday, 4 a.m. The Tampa Bay Lightning spend much of Sunday afternoon sleep-walking. They were dull and uninspired. They got off only one shot in the entire first period. They won only two face-offs. They were one tick above being comatose. And still, they won. Somehow, they won. Without Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, without Nikita […]