In the streets around the venue before the start, an early-morning drum troupe battered out some jarring samba rhythms through the rain.
The manner in which deals were done, compromises battered out, backs scratched, was as absorbing as any episode of The West Wing or Veep.
But instead of milking the melody, it's battered out in a three-minute burst, the quicker to get to current single Arcane Effigies, a song far more upbeat than that title suggests.
Russ Ortiz lasted only an inning and two-thirds in Game 2, and Liván Hernández, previously unbeaten in the postseason, was battered out in the fourth inning last night.
"Depression is anger," Kane maintains, frequently reserving her scorn for unsympathetic medics who dole out "chemical cures for congenital anguish", and the rhythms of her words are battered out by drums, hammers, whips, even a saw cutting through wood.
It was then that Pelé, the greatest player of them all, was battered out of the World Cup in England.
And I think it is because I had my self-esteem battered out of me at such a young age.
Final thoughts: So the Lions battered out the park any hopes of South Africa recording a whitewash.
