Why The Rays Should Thank Brandon Inge

David Price and the Rays are celebrating right now, and for good reason. But a lot of things have to go right for a team to ascend as quickly as Tampa Bay did, and some of them are inevitably beyond your control.

In this case, the uncontrollable event involved a Brandon Inge at bat in a Royals-Tigers game in 2006. Baseball Prospectus' Rany Jazayerli explains:

At the end of the 2006 season, the Kansas City Royals (you knew they'd be involved in this post somehow) were trying to complete an improbable sweep in Detroit, a sweep which would not only knock the Tigers out of first place, but just as importantly (since the Tigers and Twins were both going to the playoffs), would move the Royals a game ahead of the Devil Rays for the worst record in the majors.

The final game of the year went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th against Joe Nelson, with one out the Tigers got back to back singles from Ordonez and Guillen, with Guillen taking second base after an error. The Royals intentionally walked Ivan Rodriguez to pitch to Inge, who could have driven in the winning run without benefit of a hit. Instead, Inge struck out on a 2-2 count. Jimmy Gobble came in to retire Curtis Granderson, the Royals scored in the 12th, and held on to win.

Eight months later, the clear #1 player in the draft, David Price, was selected #1 overall - and because of the outcome of the game the previous October 1st, that #1 pick was the property of Tampa Bay.

Andrew Friedman and Co. did an incredible job of putting this team together, but sometimes you just have to get lucky. Price got two outs in the 11th inning of Game 2, and famously recorded the final four outs last night; without Brandon Inge's strikeout, the Rays don't have Price, and we might be looking at a Red Sox-Philles World Series right now.