Brandon Inge has never been that great of a player. You have to go way back to 2005 for the last time Inge managed an OPS+ that was above the league average adjusted to ballpark, and overall in his career, Inge has managed an OPS+ above 100 just twice. But that doesn’t mean that Inge hasn’t been a productive player. He’s had a couple of great years, slamming 27 homers in 2006 and 2009, the second of which earned him an All-Star appearance. He has always played great defense at third base and played fine wherever else his teams have put him, most impressively including catcher. And the third thing that has made Inge stand out has been his ability to hit left-handed pitching. For his career, Inge has managed just a .223/.290/.362 line in 3970 PA’s versus right-handed pitching but a nice .261/.337/.455 line against lefties. Even as he struggled mightily the last two years (66 OPS+), Inge managed OPS’s of .717 and .692 versus lefties, and as recently as 2010 he managed a .254/.331/.486 line (118 sOPS+) against left-handers. Considering he will turn 36 in May, Inge is not the player he used to be and was not that amazing to begin with. But he can still hit lefties and he deserves a shot on a minor league contract to see whether he can continue to do that.

He may sound unimpressive and the Rays signing him might some elicit laughs, but Brandon Inge has the ability to be the platoon first baseman the Rays continue to look for. Inge has never played first base as a professional, but with work he could be a perfectly capable defender there and if not the Rays could slide Ben Zobrist or Kelly Johnson to the position. What Inge could give the Rays would be a platoon partner for Loney and also a player who could serve as a backup third baseman for Evan Longoria and maybe even a catcher for a handful of games. Does Inge have anything left? Already in decline and now coming off shoulder surgery, maybe not. But on a no-risk minor league deal, Inge deserves a chance to come into a major league camp and show what he can do. The worst-case scenario is that the Rays will have wasted their time- but if Inge still has something left in the tank, he still has the ability to be that platoon player the Rays are missing from their roster.

With the play fresh in our minds, let’s break down the various parts of the play that resulted in it looking like it did. (We’ll utilize screenshots of the play from the MLB.com video.)

1. Positioning

If the Rays with their crazy shifts based on spray charts aren’t playing Rodriguez more towards third than usual, Rodriguez wouldn’t have even come close to making that play. Look how far over he is by the time the ball arrives.

Keep in the mind that Inge hit a legitimate line drive on this play. The Rays just knew that Inge tended to hit line drive and groundballs right to that area of the field. Looking at Inge’s spray chart from the last five seasons, it’s pretty clear that the Rays knew what they were talking about.

Look at the huge mass of outs (red) in between second and third base, including a bunch to the spot on the field where Rodriguez made his play. It was up to Rodriguez to make this play happen. But Joe Maddon and the Rays have to get credit for knowing Inge’s spray chart and identifying correctly where Rodriguez should be positioned.

2. The Hop/Lateral Movement

Right off the bat, Rodriguez has to make a decision. Inge hits a sinker liner and Rodriguez has to decide quickly whether to charge the play and dive or move laterally, let the ball bounce, and then field the ball already in the outfield.Rodriguez chose the latter, knowing that it was going to be tough for him to get there in time to make the catch, and if he missed it, the ball would go into the outfield and possibly for an extra-base hit.

3. Pre-Dive

Rodriguez was able to track the trajectory of the ball and anticipate (to some extent) the way the ball would hop. He stops at a certain point because he knows that even if he gloves the ball, if his momentum is going away from first base and he’ll have no chance of getting Inge at first base. He waits until the ball is about to hop before getting leverage in his lower body and preparing to dive.

4. Dive

Rodriguez did all the preparation correctly. But then he had to actually make the dive and glove the ball. He extended fully and made that happen.

5. Sticking the Landing

Following his dive, Rodriguez lands on his hands and knees, which definitely hurt but also gave him the opportunity to get up quickly.

6. Getting Up

Rodriguez manages to get up lightning-fast thanks to the way he landed and then immediately gathers himself and gets leverage in his lower body to prepare for the throw.

7. The Throw

Rodriguez knows he has to hurry so he releases quickly with a downward motion, bouncing the ball off the grass because he knows that with a good runner in Inge running down the line his only chance is to make the throw on a bounce.

8. The Catch, The Call, and The Reactions

The play at first base was too close to call. I saw one angle that seemingly showed that Inge was “conclusively” safe and another one that he was “lucidly” out. The one below looks like he’s out by a solid thousandth of a second.

The next shot is priceless. You have the umpire emphatically making the out call contrasted with Inge raising his arms up in disbelief- 1/3 at the umpire, 1/3 at Rodriguez for making that play and 1/3 at bad luck doing him in again.

And then, after the crowd cheered, Rodriguez first had a kind of indifferent look on his face, not really comprehending exactly what he did and what had just happened, but after applause from the crowd, he finally smiled.

Overall, it was an outstanding play for Rodriguez and a play we’ll remember for a while. I’ve always questioned Rodriguez defensively at shortstop, but if this play and his body of work at short in 2012 is any indication, he’s finally found his way. Nice job, Sean, and we’re looking forward to what you’ll give us next.

The afternoon could not have started much better for the Rays. Matt Moore struck out two in a perfect first inning and the Rays went to work against A’s starter Tommy Milone in the bottom of the first. Milone struggles with control from the beginning of the game, and the Rays managed three consecutive walks against him to begin the game. Jeff Keppinger contributed a sac fly to give the Rays a 1-0 lead before Luke Scott was hit by a pitch to reload the bases. And the Rays would get them all in. Sean Rodriguez grounded an RBI single to extend the lead to 2-0 before Matthew Joyce did some damage lefty-versus-lefty as he laced a bullet 2-run single to right field to hand the Rays a 4-0 lead. Chris Gimenez grounded into a double play ball to prevent further damage, but the Rays had to be feeling awfully good about their chances.

With his fastball command off and his pitches getting hammered, Moore wanted to be anywhere but on the mound. (Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE)

Moore walked a batter and hit another in the second inning, but he was doing fine. There was no giveaway about what was about to ensue. Cliff Pennington singled for Oakland with 1 away in the third and two batters later, Moore walked Josh Reddick to give the A’s 2 on and 2 out. Yoennis Cespedes came up to the plate and took advantage of a Moore fastball up to hit an RBI single to get the A’s on the board. Then Jonny Gomes blooped a single, pulling the A’s within 4-2. And then Moore left another fastball up and moving towards the middle of the plate to Brandon Inge, and no major league hitter would miss that. Inge, not exactly the paradigm of a power-hitting third baseman, slammed a no-doubter shot into the left field seats, and suddenly the A’s had the lead. Moore seemingly got back on track with a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th. But with 2 outs and a man on second in the 5th, Moore allowed an RBI double to Gomes, and after an intentional walk to Inge, a 2-run double to Daric Barton on another fastball up to ballon the A’s lead to 8-4. Burke Badenhop had to come in to get out of the inning.

Moore went just 4.2 innings, allowing 8 runs on 7 hits, striking out 4 while walking 3. He threw 105 pitches, 62 strikes, but he just could not command his fastball. Moore’s stuff still looked electric on Sunday afternoon. His fastball was a consistent 95 MPH with movement and his secondary pitches looked great. But his lack of fastball command was an insidious issue. Hitters were fooled by his pitches’ great movement for a while, but when he started consistently missing they took advantage and bombarded Moore for the worst start of his young career. We knew that there would be growing pains for Moore- but this is getting crazy. However, his stuff is still there. He’s just run into a rut where his fastball command has been off too often. If Moore get simply get his command right, he will dominate like we know he can. But it is extremely disheartening watching him struggle like this.

B.J. Upton made it an 8-5 game with a solo shot off of Milone in the bottom of the 5th. Milone went 5 innings, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, striking out just 1 while walking 4. But he settled down after the rough first inning and after the Athletics’ offensive explosion against Moore, he was in line for the win.

Burke Badenhop, Wade Davis, and newly called-up Cesar Ramos combined for 4.1 one-run relief innings, with the run charged to Davis, but Jerry Blevins, Ryan Cook, Brian Fuentes, and Jordan Noberto pitched shutout ball for Oakland as they won the game 9-5 and the series two games to 1. Milone improved to 4-2 on the season while Moore dropped to 1-2, but with a scary 5.71 ERA (and 5.05 FIP). It was frustrating for the Rays, who fell to 19-10, to lose the game and the series, but that can’t be their only concern: Desmond Jennings exited the game in the third inning with a left knee injury. The Rays need to hope that he won’t miss much time. The Rays have an off-day to gather themselves before they begin a 3-game with the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.