The Hangover: Yesterday In The AL East

Toronto 6, D-Rays 4. OK…outside the obvious, something interesting happened in this game that we believe is worth noting. During our post covering Friday night’s dramatic come from behind victory over the Marlins, we mentioned how we were wondering why interim manager Bill Evers did not use a pinch runner for Aubrey Huff when he reached first base in the 8th inning down by one run. The thought being, Huff is a slow runner and the chance of him hitting again in the game is low. So the traditional move is to be a runner with better speed in as a pinch-runner. A runner who would have a better chance of scoring from first on a double, and from second on a single. In fact, Huff reached second in that inning. Well, on that night it turned out well for the Rays as Evers did not pull Huff from the game and he would later on win the game in the bottom of the 10th with a home run. Well, the almost identical situation occurred last night. With one out in the 8th and the Rays down one, Huff singled and Joe Maddon immediately pulled Huff for a pinch runner (Tomas Perez). Obviously the move had no impact on yesterday’s game, but we can’t help but wonder if the Rays would have won the game on Friday if Maddon was managing instead of Evers.

Boston 9, New York 5. Curt Schilling was dominant as he improved his record to 7-2. We are still amazed by the Yankee lineup the last few games. Here is a team with a $200 million payroll and they are starting Terrance Long and Melky Cabrera in the outfield. Now as Rays fans we know as well as anyone about injuries this season, but when the Spankees spent the $200 million, did they forget to sign any players for the bench? Truly amazing. And that folks is why the Red Sox are now up 2.5 games and will probably win the division. O, that and the fact that they invested $16 million in an over the hill pitcher (Randy Johnson). ouch

Seattle 8, Baltimore 6. The O’s kept pace with the Devil Rays for last place in the AL East. Baltimore could only manage two runs off of Jamie Moyer who is 74 years old. We are pretty sure that Moyer was 10-year veteran when Earl Weaver was managing the Orioles.

A Look At The Future: Yesterday On The Farm

San Jose 18, Visalia 1. ouch. I’m sure the Oaks would prefer that we just gloss over this game.

Dayton 3, SW Michigan 1, 11 innings. Strong outing by Greg Reinhard, but the Rays couldn’t take advantage and lost when Dayton scored twice in the top of the 11th. Reinhard pitched 6 strong innings, giving up only 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 run. He struck out 6. The D-Rays were held to 5 hits.

D-Rays @ Toronto Blue Jays Tidbits

• The Rays enter the series having won 4 in a row and 5 of 6. They are now tied with Baltimore for 4th place in the AL East. The Blue Jays were swept over the weekend by The Rockies. They are 3 games behind Boston.
• The Rays are 3-3 against Toronto this season. Tampa took two of three in Toronto and then lost two of three two weeks ago at the Trop.
• This marks the first stop on the longest road trip of the season for the Rays. 10 games in 1 days.
• Tonight’s starter Seth McClung is 1-1 in last 5 starts with a 2.51 ERA. In his last start, he gave up 2 runs in 7 innings while taking a no-decision against the White Sox.
• Thursday’s starter Casey Fossum is questionable with a strained hamstring.
• Toronto’s bullpen could be worn down, a common side-effect of playing in Colorado. Yesterday, Blue Jay relievers pitched 6.1 innings.
• The Jays lead the AL in hitting at .297.
• Gustavo Chacin, Greg Zaun and A. J. Burnett are currently on the DL for Toronto.

Probable Pitchers
Monday, 4:07 et
Devil Rays Seth McClung, RHP (2-4, 5.44)
Toronto Casey Janssen, RHP (2-3, 3.06)

Tuesday, 7:07 et
Devil Rays Mark Hendrickson, LHP (3-3, 3.57)
Toronto Roy Halladay, RHP (5-1, 3.04)

Thursday, 7:07 et
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (1-2, 5.19)
Toronto Josh Towers, RHP (1-8, 8.52)

A Look At The Future: This Past Weekend On The Farm

Durham Bulls. On Friday the Bulls got shut out by the Louisville Bats 5-0. Brian Stokes got knocked out in the 4th and the only good thing we can say about this game was that B. J. Upton did not commit an error. On Saturday, they dropped the series opener to Charlotte 7-3. Sean Burroughs went 2-3 and is hitting .273 since be sent down to Durham. He has one home run. Upton went 1-4 but unfortunately he committed two throwing errors. Darnell McDonald went 0-5. The biggest news in this game was the rough outing by Edwin Jackson. Jackson had his worst outing of the year going 1.1 innings and giving up 7 hits, 3 walks and 7 runs (6 earned). Durham rebounded on Sunday, but they needed 10 innings to finally put away Charlotte 1-0, behind a strong outing by Jamie Shields. With the team showing that they are not afraid to let their pitchers throw, Shields went 9 innings, giving up only 5 hits and no walks. He needed only 92 pitches, which is amazing considering he struck out 10. Kevin Witt won the game with a solo home run in the 10th.

Montgomery Biscuits. Earlier this season we mentioned the peculiar mascot for Montgomery. Well, we are not alone, the Biscuits were recently recognized as having one of the “wimpiest” nicknames in all of sports. Way to go Montgomery! Well, apparently the mascot was intimidating enough as they took 4 of 5 from the Birmingham Barons (yes, they play 5 game series in AA…cuts down on travel expenses). On Friday, Montgomery lost 5-1 with Jim Magrane giving up 4 runs in 6 innings. C. Ryan Christiansen drove in the only run with a solo home run in the 9th, his 10th of the year. He then promptly hit his 11th in Saturday night’s 5-2 victory. Juan Salas picked up his 11th save and still hasn’t allowed an earned run in 16 appearances. He has also struck out 33 while only allowing 4 hits and 9 walks in 21.2 innings. On Sunday the Biscuits won 5-0 behind the pitching of Mike Prochaska who went 6 innings.

Visalia Oaks. The Oaks pounded out 20 hits in a 14-8 victory over Bakersfield.
Every player had a hit and seven of them had more than one. Reid Brignac went 3-4 hitting his 8th home run and driving in 4. On Saturday, the Oaks mimicked their major league counterparts by blowing a 7-4 lead before losing 8-7. Shaun Cumberland went 3-5 and hit his league leading 10th home run. On Sunday, Visalia had another big offensive outburst as they beat the Blaze 13-2. Brignac went 1-5 and committed another error. He is now hitting .341 and has committed 341 errors.

Southwest Michigan Devil Rays. The Rays took 2 of 3 over the weekend. On Friday they rode the strong pitching performance of Mike Wlodarczyk (from now on he will be referred to as Vloda). Vloda pitched 7 shutout innings giving up only 3 hits and 1 walk. He is now 5-1 with a 0.82 ERA on the season. Jake McGee won his 4th game on Saturday as the Rays won 5-3. McGee (4-5), struck out 10 in 5.1 innings. He took a no-hitter into the 6th but was pulled after giving up 6 walks. On Sunday, SW Michigan were shutout 3-0. Wade Davis lost his first game of the year. In his longest outing of the season, Davis worked into the 7th, giving up 4 hits 2 walks and 1 unearned run. He struck out 9.

Hey Mets Fans…Thanks For Taking Us To Pleasure Town!

D-Rays 3, Florida 0. One night after winning their second straight game with a walk-off homer, the Rays welcomed back manager Joe Maddon by sweeping the Marlins on Sunday afternoon. This one was a little easier for the Rays as Scott Kazmir continues to dominate all comers. In this latest start, Kazmir pitched 8 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits and just 1 walk. He tied his career high of 11 strikeouts. Since Kazmir’s opening day loss, he is now 7-1 with a 1.65 ERA. Tyler Walker came on and pitched a 1-2-3 9th to pick up his 8th save in 9 opportunities. The Marlins never really threatened. Only two runners reached second base, and the first one was promptly picked off by Kazmir. Tampa has now won 4 straight and 5 of 6 to raise their record to 20-24 and pull into a tie with the Orioles for 4th in the AL East.

Now we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but if the All-Star game was next week, we have to think that Kazmir would get a lot of consideration from Ozzie Guillen to start the mid-summer classic for the American League. He is tied for the major league lead in wins (7), and he is second in the AL in ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (67). In reality, the only other serious candidate would be the Yankee’s Mike Mussina, who is 6-1 with a 2.57 ERA in the same number of starts (10).

So as we approach the second anniversary of the trade that landed Kazmir, let’s all take a moment and say thank you to the New York Mets. And if you know a Mets fan, this has been very hard for them so we suggest a gift. We think the gift for 2nd anniversaries is actually a Scott Kazmir jersey or a Jeff Wilpon voodoo doll. Ken Davidoff of Newsday is already calling it the second worst trade in team history after sending Nolan Ryan to the Angels. For those that haven’t noticed…Victor Zambrano just had surgery to reconstruct his elbow and is done for the season and now the fear is that his career might be in jeopardy. And if Kazmir starts the All-Star game their pain will only get worse. They get furious everytime Scott does well, and that is just reading a boxscore. We can’t even imagine what might happen if they have to actually watch him start the All-Star game and strikeout David Wright and Carlos Delgado. Ouch. We don’t think that even a first place Mets team will help their fettucini alfredo stay down any better.

Mets pitching in flux [Baseball For Thought]
Kazmir deal getting worse [newsday]
Victor’s elbow reconstructed [newsday]

The Hangover: This Past Weekend In The AL East

Boston Red Sox (25-16). If there was one series we followed almost as closely as the Rays-Marlins series, it was the Sox and the Phillies. We despise anything Philadelphia and it is the only time we would openly root for another AL East team. The Sox took the first two and we rooted hard for the sweep, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. The only thing that would be better than a Phillies team finishing in last place would be a Phillies team that got eliminated from the playoffs in game 162. That would be sweet.

New York Yankees (24-18, 1.5gb) . With an injury situation that is beginning to rival the luck of the Devil Rays, the Spankees and their $200 million dollar payroll lost 2 of 3 to the their crosstown rival Mets. It must really make a Yankee’s fan sick to their stomach to hear Enter Sandman at Shea Stadium when they are losing, which just makes Billy Wagner our new favorite NLer.

Toronto Blue Jays (23-20, 3gb). The Rays are heading to Toronto at the perfect time. The Rays are red-hot and the Jays just got swept by the Colorado Rockies. How did that happen? Toronto’s offense which had been carrying them all season suddenly disappeared in the thin air of the Rocky Mountains. In three games the Jays scored a total of 7 runs. Suddenly the Rays are only 3.5 games behind Toronto for 3rd place in the division.

Baltimore Orioles (20-24, 6.5gb). The O’s lost 2 of 3 to the Nationals over the weekend. We are no experts, but we can’t help but feel like things are dangerously close to spinning out of control for Baltimore. A 4-20 stretch is not out of the realm of possibility.

"C’mon 5 More Minutes…Yes!"

D-Rays 5, Florida 4, 10 innings. We passed on dinner and ordered pizza so that we could watch the first game of the Rays-Marlins series. Then we said we would meet them by 10:00. We were nervous in the 6th inning with the score tied 2-2 and then something strange happened. at 8:50, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th and Jonny Gomes on third, Travis Lee came to the plate. We wondered aloud how many times Lee had failed to come through in this type of situation. Sure he is a great defensive first baseman, and he has saved as many as 15 errors from his fellow infielders, but he is a liability with the bat. So we looked it up. Entering the game, Lee was 0-27 with runners in scoring position. 0-27. This just in, that’s not good. But at 8:51 something strange happened. With an 0-1 count, Lee drove a basehit straight back up the middle scoring the go-ahead run. We are feeling a little better. But we weren’t too comfortable. We still had to survive our own bullpen. Travis Harper came on in the 7th and worked through it unscathed. He stayed on the 8th, giving up a leadoff single to Miguel Cabrera. That was followed by a walk to Josh Willingham. Shawn Camp relieved Harper. Next thing we know the Marlins lead 4-3. Just like that, our bullpen ripped our heart out again. It is now 9:20. How are we supposed to have fun tonight if the Rays lose this game?


Continue reading…

Bottom of the 8th. It is 9:25. We should be there in plenty of time. The game is in St. Pete. Which means designated hitter and fewer pitching changes, and hence shorter games. 10:00 looks feasible. The Rays get two on in the bottom of the 8th. First of all, Aubrey Huff is the lead runner. We wondered aloud why Bill Evers wouldn’t use a pitch runner. When Huff got to second, we are really wondering why there isn’t more speed so the runner on second can score on a basehit. So we checked to see who was still on the Rays’ bench. Greg Norton, Josh Paul, Tomas Perez and Russell Branyan. Not exactly the ’85 Cardinals. The Rays have a lot of team speed. That’s not it. (Of course this would turn out to be a good thing later on. Maybe Evers knew what he was doing, or maybe he just got lucky. If Gathright hadn’t started, he would have been in the game as a pinchrunner) Who comes up? Travis Lee of course, who earlier had broken his 0-27 streak. We knew what was going to happen next, we just didn’t realize exactly how bad it would be. Lee went down swinging on three straight pitches. And by “swinging” we really mean “waving the bat in the general direction of where he thought the ball might be”. Quite frankly, he had a better chance of hitting manager Joe Maddon in the ass, and he was in California last night. Well, it’s 9:33. It’s starting to get close. One inning to go.

Top of the 9th. Something strange happened again. Shawn Camp looked impressive. He retired the side on 9 pitches including 2 strikeouts. Only one pitch was a ball and that one just missed on 0-2. Even better, he kept the Marlins off the board and the Rays with one and most importantly it is only 9:38. We just might make it…

Bottom of the 9th. It is 9:40. Toby Hall is up. Former Ray Joe Borowski comes on to close the game for the Marlins. This is a good situation. Hall knows Borowski. Caught him for half a season last year. Maybe he can get a basehit and start a rally. At 9:41, Hall took the first pitch over the left field wall. We are jumping. We are screaming. We are spilling beer everywhere. We are going to be late and we couldn’t be happier. Its 9:50. Borowski gives up a double to Julio Lugo. That is followed by the inexplicable unintentional intentional walk to Carl Crawford. To face Jonny Gomes? Whoever took over for the ejected Joe Girardi (good call by the ump. He missed the tag) must have a date tonight. But he must have known something as Gomes grounded out to third, and we let out a sigh of frustration. But then we are back up. We remember what Hall did. The Rays are still alive. Of course this means another inning with Tampa’s bullpen. The nail-biting gets worse.

Top of the 10th. 9:54. Yep its official. We are going to be late. OK, the phones are ringing. We explain and we promise to leave at 10:00. We have to watch the top of the 10th. We will feel better if the Rays can get through it. Bring on Tyler Walker. Quite frankly we never like a closer in a non-save situation, but in extra innings at home there won’t be a save situation, so this is as close as it gets. It just seems, that a lot of times, closers let up a little bit and thats when they get rocked pretty good. First up, Miguel Cabrera. And he almost destroyed us. He takes a ball to deep center field that Hollins pulls in at the wall. Collective sigh of relief. Walker works through the next two batters easily and its on to the bottom of the 10th. And even thanks to Walker it is only 9:59! We can watch the bottom of the 10th.

Bottom of the 10th. 10:01. Aubrey Huff leads off. The guy we wanted pulled for a pinch runner in the 8th, but then realized there were no candid
ates with speed. The guy who is a notoriously slow starter. The guy who hasn’t hit a home run yet and is well below the Mendoza Line. Maybe this is the break out at bat. Come on Huff. Hit a tweener. Split the outfielders and get to second. Wait for it…Wait for it…WAIT FOR IT…HUFF GOES BOOM! The Rays Index palace goes crazy! Screaming. Yelling. Hugging. Kissing. And much more spilling of beer. We are still not sure if that ball ever came down. We think Aubrey Huff will be the answer to the trivia question: Who is the only player ever to hit a ball out of the Trop? And the best thing? Rays win, they beat those damn east coast Marlins, and it is 10:02. Let’s party.

D-Rays vs Florida Marlins Tidbits

• Manager Joe Maddon will miss the first two games of this series to attend his girlfriend’s graduation from law school. Former longtime Durham Bulls manager and current Rays bench coach, Bill Evers will take over in Maddon’s absence. [St. Pete Times]
• In the last 20 games. D-Ray starters have the second best ERA in the AL (3.43).
• Last season, Tampa was 3-15 in interleague play and 0-6 against the Marlins. They were 15-3 in 2004.
• Florida is 11-28, 0.5 game ahead of Kansas City for the worst record in baseball. They have lost 4 in a row and 10 of 13.
• The Marlins have the major’s youngest team with an average age of 26.5. The Rays are the 6th youngest at 28.8.

Probable Pitchers
Friday, 7:15 et
Florida Brian Moehler, RHP (1-4, 8.23)
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (1-2, 5.24)

Saturday, 7:15 et
Florida Josh Johnson, RHP (3-2, 2.93)
Devil Rays Doug Waechter, RHP (0-2, 7.04)

Sunday, 1:15 et
Florida Dontrelle Willis, LHP (1-4, 6.22)
Devil Rays Scott Kazmir, LHP (5-2, 2.94)

We Are Confused…The Bullpen Didn’t Blow The Lead?

D-Rays 5, Chicago 4. The Rays rallied late and the bullpen held on to the lead (barely), and take the rubber match against the defending world champion Chicago White Sox 5-4. Down 3-2 in the 7th, Damon Hollins hit a 2-run home run and Carl Crawford did what he does best hitting a triple to center field scoring Julio Lugo. Russell Branyan also added a home run in the game for the D-Rays. Mark Hendrickson did not have his best stuff but was able to work through it to improve his record to 3-3. In the top of the 8th, Hendrickson gave up a lead off home run to Jermaine Dye to make it 5-4. Shawn Camp came in and Devil Rays fans everywhere held there breath. He retired two, but gave a basehit. Chad Orvella then came in and walked the only batter he faced. With 2 on and 2 out, Joe Maddon brought in Tyler Walker to attempt a 4-out save. He was able to put out the fire in the 8th by getting Scott Podsednik to pop up. Still, we could sense danger. We looked ahead…We saw that Jim Thome and Paul Konerko would bat in the bottom of the 9th. This had disaster written all over it…Walker got Tadahito Iguchi to fly out, but the ball was hit to deep center field. Not a good sign with the meat of the order coming up…but then something happened! On the second pitch, Thome popped up to Lugo…that was followed by Konerko lining out weakly to Ty Wiggington at second base. Ball game over. whew! This bullpen will give us a heart attack before this season is over.

The Hangover: Yesterday In The AL East

Texas 6, New York 2. $200 Million payroll and here was the bottom half of the Yankees lineup…Robinson Cano batted fifth…Bernie Williams, who is 67 years old batted 6th…followed by Melky Cabrera, Bubba “don’t call me Bubba” Crosby, and Kelly Stinnett. We are in awe at what $200 Million will buy these days. Must be inflation. “What about the pitchers?” you ask…Well, Jaret Wright started, and was relieved by Scott Erickson (yes, that Scott Erickson) and Ron Villone. Sad really.

Toronto 8, Los Angeles Angels of Ana*deep breath*heim near Disney Land 4, 10 innings. four in the 10th, yada, yada, yada.

On a side note, the world apparently did end after the Orioles best the Red Sox for the first time since the Nixon administration as neither team could be found yesterday.