Dodgers vs Rays Game 8-9-13

Since I got off work early today I was able to attend the Dodgers vs Rays game. My personal goal today was to get Wil Myers and Matt Moore's autograph.  I met up with my friends Josh, Franz, and Tom at the stadium. When we arrived we found out that the Dodgers cancelled batting practice since they got back late from their recent roadtrip. Thus the entire stadium was empty with no action.

This reminded me of the days when Frank McCourt ran the team. Thus we were just chilling in the stands until a few pitchers came out to warm up in the outfield.

If you noticed in the photo above Chris Withrow was playing catch with Carlos Marmol. As soon as he finished he threw me a ROMLB.

There was no action in terms of any Dodgers signing autographs including the autograph corral. I decided to head out to the Rays dugout to see if we could get some autographs from the Rays. I noticed that both Evan Longoria and Wil Myers were both signing for fans who had dugout club seats. A fan with a Rays Wil Myers jersey happened to be in the area so I called him over to help me get Wil Myers' autograph. He agreed but also needed a sharpie to get his jersey signed. My buddy Josh ended up handing him another ROMLB along with a sharpie so that he can get Wil Myers' autograph for us. We specifically told the fan not to use the sharpie on the baseballs. I guess this guy was a fair weathered Rays fan as he ended up walking towards Evan Longoria to sign his Wil Myers jersey instead of going to Wil who was standing next to Evan. What's funny was that he got both players mixed up. How can you call yourself a fan when you can't differentiate between Longo and Wil. Longo ended up denying his autograph request so we ended up pointing to the Rays fan where Wil Myers was standing. The Rays fan ended up getting his jersey signed by Wil along with one of our two baseballs. Josh was nice enough to let me keep the baseball since I was the first to ask to get help from the Rays fan. Plus Josh wasn't too pleased with the overall autograph. I checked online and this is pretty much Wil Myers' autograph. I was happy to add his autograph to the collection.

Afterwards we noticed that Fernando Rodney was in the outfield tossing several baseballs to fans.

Fernando was cool as usual and signed a card for me.

Normally when a player signs autograph karma benefits the player since they normally have a great game. In Fernando's case his kindness didn't help him on the field as he ended up blowing the save opportunity as the Dodgers ended up rallying back from a three run deficit to beat the Rays in the bottom of the 9th inning.

My last autograph of the day pregame was from Paco Rodriguez who signed a photo for me in the bullpen before the game started.

Today was by far one of the most memorable games I personally witnessed in Dodger history. The Dodgers were down 6-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning and they rallied with four runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to cap off a memorable comeback victory over the Rays. Fernando Rodney was back the old version of himself as he played like the Angels version of Rodney when he was blowing saves on a regular basis. It sucked to see him struggle like that since he's been cool with the graphers and fans in general but it was a memorable win for the Dodgers.