Talk about some serious gamesmanship: according to Marc Topkin from the St. Petersburg Times, Kyle Farnsworth wasn’t available in Game 2 of the ALDS. His elbow was bothering him again — he’d missed time in September with elbow inflammation — so Maddon had him sitting out in the bullpen, but didn’t announce to anyone that he was hurt or unavailable.
These sort of moves are pretty commonplace in the postseason, when you want every possible advantage you can get, and it didn’t come into play anyway as the Rays were trailing from the fourth inning on and lost to the Ranger 8-6. And thankfully, it appears as though Farnsworth has improved enough that he’ll be available for Game 3 tonight.
In other news, Joe Maddon had a press conference yesterday in preparation for today’s game. When Maddon talks, you’d better listen. This nugget is also from Marc Topkin, and he captured Maddon talking about David Price’s big game “issues” and game-planning: