C’mon MLB. It’s moving day at the Masters. Can’t you play these games at night? After I complained yesterday, Tampa Bay returned with the old Devil Rays uniforms.

As promised, this is not going to be much of a recap, because I’m giving over the bulk of today’s efforts to entries from the Braves Journal Mad Libs contest. I got slightly fewer entries than ESPN gets for March Madness brackets, but I will say that the entries I did get showed more research than the average March Madness entry. Congrats to all. If you think your entry should have won, make your complaint here. I am particularly interested in the complaints of those whose entries were in their heads.

As it turns out, the winner is tomorrow’s recapper: Rusty S.

Today the Braves played the Tampa Bay Rays. Given the start of the season, the basic Braves fan’s emotional state was gleeful. The Braves started Andrew Smith-Shawver, thought of as the doom of the pitching staff. He was opposed by Drew Rasmussen, the right-handed pollster and pitcher…but mostly pollster. As an opening joke, that one was dang ol’. The game was played at Steinbrenner Field, the sort of venue that gives Alpharetta a good name. The key for a Braves victory was whether or not the Braves would continue to throw and whether or not they’d do so repeatedly. The Rays scored a run in the first, and AJSS walked home a run in the third. The Braves then continued their practice of not scoring any runs for him, waiting until the 7th to bring the game to 2-1, and then giving up a run the bottom to ensure that it wasn’t close. The Rays then put in a pitcher from Harvard whereupon Albies and Murphy back-to-back homers in the 8th (just after a double play) tied it up. Another two run homer in the 9th by Harris in the 9th gave us a 5-3 lead. Boom! Braves fans were ominous. Iggy gave up yet another homer in bottom of the 9th, but the Braves won 5-4. They play again tomorrow. The weather should be satisfactory.

Several other entries had absolutely first rate parts, but Rusty’s entry was the most consistent.

Obviously, everyone is going to focus on the two run homer by Michael Harris II that won the game. But I’m going to focus on the two home runs Bigge gave up, because he went to friggin’ Harvard. Craig Breslow was a much better pitcher. So was Ron Darling.

One more note. The Braves won this game even though they hit into four double plays. Last year, the Rays beat the Braves in a game in which the Braves turned 4 double plays. Odd.