Anatomy of a Perfect Relay, Brought to You by the Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays have to play flawless or near flawless baseball to beat the Houston Astros.

Fortunately, they pretty much did on Tuesday night, winning 4-1 to even the ALDS at two games apiece.

While winning Game 5 in Houston will be challenging, we should stop and appreciate just how great these dudes actually were.

To do it, we're going to focus on one of the sexier defensive plays you're going to encounter during this post-season.

 

Now please bear in mind, this won't do it for everyone.

But if you appreciate fundamentally sound team defense on a baseball diamond, this will most certainly make you tingle with delight.

 

Down 3-0 in the fourth inning, the 'Stros had a runner on first with one out when this happened:

 

Rays manager Kevin Cash is correct.

That was perfect.

And we've never been more turned on.

 

Special thanks to Tampa centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier, shortstop Willy Adames and catcher Travis d'Arnaud for making all of this possible while forcing José Altuve to question the existence of a higher power.

Or maybe that play actually confirmed it.

Let's have one more look from another angle:

 

We sure hope you're not viewing this at the local public library, because that play might be legally considered pornography.