D-Rays @ New York Yankees Tidbits

• We love the quote on this page. “The reason the Yankees never lay an egg is because they don’t operate on chicken feed.” Yep. It must be rough when your $13 million right fielder (Gary Sheffield) gets hurt and all you have to do is go out and get another right fielder (Bobby Abreu) that they have to pay $4.4 million for 2 months of service and another $15 million next season. Oh have we mentioned that the Spankees third baseman makes more than the Devil Rays’ active roster? We aren’t bitter. Oh by the way…The Rays lay lots of eggs. Does that mean something?
• It pains us to say this but the Yankees all of the sudden enter this series with the best record in the AL (86-56) and second only to their cross-town rivals the Metropolitans. They own a 10.5 game lead over the scarlet socks and their magic number to clinch the division is now 10. And we hate the idea of this, but who is going to beat them in the playoffs? Oakland? No way. The Yanks always dismantle the A’s. If Moneyball has taught us anything, it is that you can put together a decent regular season team with a small payroll, but that all those numbers and percentages don’t mean squat in a short series. Minnesota? Yeah right. This is the team that everyone says will be dangerous, but doesn’t anybody remember the last time the almighty Johan Santana faced the Yankees in the playoffs? Game 4 of the 2004 playoffs. Santana takes himself out of the game after 5 innings and 87 pitches with the Twins winning 4-1. Yanks came back to win that game and the series. Detroit? Would anybody stake their life on the Kittens beating the Yankees in a playoff series? We didn’t think so. Then again some Red Sox fans still believe they have a shot to catch the Yanks…that made us giggle uncontrollably.
• Then again, if Mariano Rivera (Major League baseball’s MVP for the past 10 seasons) is not healthy for the playoffs, then everything we just said is out the window.
• There has been a recent upwelling of support for Derek Jeter to win the MVP in the AL this season. There seem to be at least a half-dozen worthy candidates this year with nobody surging ahead of the others. In the absence of a clear front runner, these situations are usually resolved by giving the award to the player that is most deserving from a career standpoint, and that player is clearly Derek Jeter. Outside of Mariano Rivera (any Yankees fan will tell you that they probably win one world series, at most, if not for the Sandman) Derek Jeter has been the Most Valuable Player on the team for the past decade. He has never won an MVP and is having his second best statistical season (1999). By the way he is also finishing the season strong.
• Hideki Matsui will probably DH tonight. It would be his first action in four months.
• Final score in tonight’s first game? Off The Facade predicts 7.1-3.9. Apparently Delmon Young will hit a 2.9-run home run in the third inning.

Probable Pitchers
Tuesday, 7:05 et<!–
Devil Rays Tim Corcoran, RHP (4-7, 3.96)
Yankees Mike Mussina, RHP (13-6, 3.72)

Wednesday, 7:05 et<!–
Devil Rays Jason Hammel, RHP (0-2, 5.61)
Yankees Cory Lidle, RHP (11-10, 4.75)

Thursday, 7:05 et<!–
Devil Rays James Shields, RHP (6-7, 4.71)
Yankees Chien-Ming Wang, RHP (17-5, 3.60)

Devil Rays Blogtopia

• You may question some of his managerial decisions…you may hate his glasses…you may wish he would actually argue a call for once…you may just think he is a horrible field general…but you have to give credit to Joe Maddon for comparing David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to Ruth and Gehrig (little strong, but ok), Batman and Robin (which one is Robin?), Peanut Butter and Jelly (those are pretty good), and Chocolate and Red Wine (huh?). [Natural Blog]
• Thanks to the Bucs and Lightning’s recent championships seasons and all of the sudden the Tampa area is no longer suffering. We really don’t understand the math behind this but at least we aren’t Cleveland. Cleveland Rocks! [Urban Sports Suffering]
• What would you say if you ran into Jorge Cantu while grocery shopping? No offense. We have nothing against Jorge personally and we understand he has just had one of those seasons that chalk up to injuries and frustrations. We also understand that he has an urge to connect with his fans, but if MLB wants a Devil Ray to blog next season can they please gives us somebody that doesn’t just write three paragraphs about his family and grocery shopping? Of course the comments do provide minutes of Unintentional Comedy Factor. We particularly like the commenter that offered Jorge to come “ride his horses”. We’re sure he will be right over. [Jorge Cantu’s World]
• It might not be any surprise to you that the Fielding Bible scored all fielders and Manny Ramirez was the wost left fielder in baseball. But would it surprise you that Carl Crawford was rated the best? [Red Sox Talk]
• Did we really need a mathematical formula to tell us the Devil Rays have ZERO chance of making the playoffs? [Armchair GM]
• The ever-famous Baseball Crank sees positive signs for the future of the Rays. [Baseball Crank]
• This is a bit stale, but in hindsight, is it possible that the rest of baseball is rallying behind Delmon Young now because he is doing well AND because everyone’s favorite crazyman, Ozzie Guillen, ordered him to be hit in his first major league at bat? May have been the best thing that could have happened to Delmon. Thanks Ozzie. How are those Madonna Concerts? [Fynal Cut]
• But let’s face it, we are a forgiving society, especially if you can score touchdowns, or hit .400 in your first two weeks at the Major League level. [The New Bern Sun Journal]

A Minor Hangover

Visalia 10, San Jose 3. James Houser rebounded from his game one loss in the divisional mini-series to win the ever important game 3 and help the Oaks take a two games to one lead in the California League Divisional Series. Houser gave up 3 runs in the first three innings, but his offense bailed him out with nine runs of their own in the first three frames. John Jaso provided the big blow with a three run home run in the bottom of the first inning that gave Visalia a 3-0 lead that they would not relinquish. He then added a sacrifice fly in the 4-run second inning. Fernando Perez and David Cardona added back-to-back solo home runs in the 3rd inning and the rout was on. Game 4 is tonight in Visalia. Jonathon Barratt is the probable starter for the Oaks. He got the victory in Game 2 of the Divisional Mini-Series against Stockton, pitching 7 innings allowing 4 hits and 1 run.

A Minor Hangover

There has been a noticeable lack of minor league coverage on this site considering two of the Rays’ affiliates are in the playoffs. This obviously annoyed Mitch Talbot and Evan Longoria. On Saturday night, the two of them got together and realized that being up 2 games to none in a best-of-five series was not good enough and decided to take it up a level. So what did they do to get our attention? Talbot, the Rays minor league pitcher of the month for August, pitched a complete game 5-hit shutout. Not enough to impress us? Also consider he struck out 14 (!) and walked none (!!). Not bad for a playoff game. Then in the bottom of the ninth, Longoria came through with his half, hitting a 2-out, 2-run walk-off home run to complete the series sweep.

Still, it was Talbot’s performance that has us completely in awe. Remember, this is the “other” guy in the trade that sent Aubrey Huff to Houston. All of the sudden this trade is looking decidedly one-sided. Huff is a free agent to be and Houston is still on the outside of the playoff chase. Ben Zobrist has already been promoted to majors and is looking like he can be a very dependable major league player for years to come. Talbot came to the Rays with mixed reviews. He was decent with Corpus Christi the first half of the season, but there was no indication that he would be the pitcher that he has been in the second half for Montgomery. Including his playoff start, Tobot is now 5-3 with a 1.67 ERA in 11 starts since the trade. Baseball is a long season and the advancement to the majors is a long process so we find it hard to imagine that there will ever be very many games that could cause a player to jump significantly in our Trade Value Index. However, Mitch Talbot’s performance on Saturday is one of those rare games. To step up like that in a playoff game and so thoroughly dominate a good team is an amazing accomplishment.

Montgomery will now face Huntsville in the best-of-5 championship series starting Wednesday.

The Devil Rays’ other minor league playoff team is the Visalia Oaks. After losing their opening game in convincing fashion, the Oaks came back and won the next two games to win the best-of-3 series against Stockton in the first round of the California League playoffs. The Oaks are now facing the San Jose Giants in the championship round. They lost the opener 3-2 on Friday, but rebounded on Saturday to even the series with a 4-2 win. The series now moves to Visalia tonight for game 3 and tomorrow for game 4.

The Weekend Hangover

We vaguely remember that there was an incident involving Delmon Young earlier this season when he was playing in Durham. It seems that with every at bat, our ability to recall that visual becomes harder and harder. Young has been as advertised…Even better than we thought he would be. We have to keep reminding ourselves that this kid is still only 20 years old. This past weekend, the Rays dropped two of three to the west-leading A’s, but with Delmon Young in the lineup, the losses are a bit more tolerable and the team is more fun to watch. Over the weekend, Mr. Young went 6-14 with a double, a triple, 2 RBI and scored 4 runs. For good measure, on Saturday, he even drew his first major league walk. In his first 12 games, Delmon is now hitting .408 (20-49) with 7 extra-base hits, 10 runs and 8 RBI. When Delmon was first brought up two weeks ago, the belief was that he was auditioning for a role as the starting right fielder for the Rays in 2007. As he is only 20, and because his minor league strike out to walk ratio was so terrible, there was a very real possibility that major league pitchers would find a whole in his swing early and that he would need to at least being next season in Durham. The team has been impressed by his play and now it is beginning to look as if Delmon Young has played his last game in a Durham Bulls uniform. Yes the pitching is still a big concern and the team needs to find a first baseman that can hit consistently in the off-season, but it can’t be a coincidence that the Rays offense has come alive in the past two weeks and with Delmon Young hitting in the 2-spot, the offense has been even better. If you take out the back-to-back games against the Orioles in which the Rays scored 27 runs and the one game against the Yankees when they scored 19, the Rays had played 39 games since the All-Star break before Delmon Young was promoted. In those 39 games, the team averaged just a little more than 3 runs per game (3.3). In the 12 games since his arrival, the team has averaged just under 5 runs per game (4.75) and it is even better (5.2) if you ignore the game last week against the Twins when Minnesota started Sandy Koufax Johan Santana. Nobody can score off of Santana right now. The Rays managed only two hits against the likely Cy Young award winner. Who had both of those hits? Delmon Young. Not even the best pitcher in the major leagues, who is in the middle of a ridiculous hot streak can get Delmon out consistently.

• The Devil Rays front office continues to say that Scott Kazmir could return this season, but after his latest incident, we just wish they pull the plug on 2006 and send him home to rest and prepare for ’07. There is no benefit to bringing Kid K back this season.
• Casey Fossum had his season-ending surgery and considering it cost him $800,000 in ’07 (less than 30 starts in ’06) he is feeling pretty good about it. Our favorite quote in this story? “You look at my record — 6-6, you know — I feel like I kept the team in all but four games that I went out there,” Fossum said. “Your job as a starting pitcher is to keep the team in the game. You could take away a couple of my starts when my arm didn’t feel good, and a couple of 1 2/3-innings starts; other than that, that puts me at a pretty good year.” In other words, if you ignore all of his shitty starts he had a good year. Can you believe this guy used to throw in the mid-90s?
• So then what will the 2007 starting rotation look like? Fossum should be healthy, but will need to show that he can still be effective. At this point, it looks like Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Jae Seo are the only pitchers that are guaranteed spots. Tim Corcoran continues to impress, but would he be more valuable as a long reliever and emergency starter?
• In fact, The Rays front office now says they are willing to add significantly to the payroll in ’07, but only if doing so will significantly improve the team. Andrew Friedman says that the areas they may address in the off-season are the infield and starting rotation. With the recent boom in salaries for starting pitchers, we find it hard to believe that the Rays are ready to enter that marketplace. However, they are some potential bargains.
• Want to know who some of the relief pitching options are? Look here for middle relievers that are due to be free agents.
• Now that the minor league seasons are (almost) over, the shake-ups at the lower levels has already begun. A number of scouts have been let go. And in a move that was not surprising (although the extent might be) the Rays have decided not to bring back anybody from the Durham Bulls’ coaching staff.
• Then again, the shake up has been going on all season at the major league level. The Rays end their relationship with the Travesty that was Travis Lee. Apparently he is puzzled by the release. Hey Travis, maybe it is because you are the worst hitting first baseman in baseball.
• We would be remiss if we didn’t at least mention the play of Rocco Baldelli. We would love to eat crow over our post from last week in which we questioned his place on the team. He has picked up his play in the last few weeks and has been a spark plug since be inserted at the top of the order. Still, until we see him play an entire season injury-free we will continue to be skeptical.

Why The Hate For Rocco? Here Is Why

First of all, let us say that we have nothing against DRays Bay. We are always eager to support other Rays fans, and we read their site regularly. However, we need to take them to task for their most recent post, “Why the Hate for Rocco?”. In the article, they wonder aloud why fans are giving Rocco Baldelli a hard time this season. They then proceed to give us numerous reasons why we should be happy that he is patrolling center field for the Devil Rays.

• The first piece of evidence that they lay down is that Rocco was the best option in the 2000 draft. We have commented on this before at RI, and MaverickBall did a thorough analysis of the 2000 draft. It can be argued that Rocco was the best player taken in the first round of that draft. Still, that doesn’t mean that fans have no right to be frustrated by a player that missed more than a season, and now looks like a shell of his former self. On top of that, with talented players in the system, like Elijah Dukes and B. J. Upton who continues to struggle at his new position, there appear to be other options in center field now, regardless of his draft status. In actuality, the team is now stuck with Rocco because he is signed long-term and has lost trade value due to his fragile nature.

• They then mention that Rocco has been cursed by the label that apparently one scout gave him by labeling him the “next Joe DiMaggio”. In fact, nobody ever called Rocco the “Next Joe DiMaggio”. Rather, scouts likened his play to Joe D. and mentioned on numerous occasions that he looks like the The Yankee Clipper. He is a center fielder, tall, lanky, Italian and runs with a very long stride. Many consider DiMaggio one of the top 5 baseball players of all time and a scout knows it would be foolish to think that a minor leaguer that had only a partial season above A ball would be the “next Joe DiMaggio”. For DRays Bay to call DiMaggio “a darn fine ballplayer” is a bit of an understatement. Joe D. hit .346-46-167 with only 37 strikeouts in just his second major league season. Nobody ever thought Rocco could do that…In defense of DRays Bay it is easy to think that some fans misinterpreted those scouts analyses, but there is no reason to perpetuate them.

• They next mention that fans expect Baldelli to be a Hall of Famer. Hall of Fame? Who ever thought Rocco was heading to the Hall of Fame? As fans we would just be happy if he were named to an All-Star team. Heck, we would be happy if he played in 150 games.

• If the Joe DiMaggio comparison wasn’t silly enough, DRays Bay then tries to argue that Rocco is NOT injury-prone. Since he has been in the Major Leagues he has torn an ACL in his knee playing whiffle ball (not football as mentioned in DRays Bay), had Tommy John surgery on his elbow and missed the beginning of this season with a bad hamstring. Football players don’t have that many serious injuries in a 10-year career. Rocco managed to do all that in the span of two years. The author tries to justify the elbow injury as being caused by Rocco “overcompensating for the knee injury.” Rocco is not the first player to tear his ACL. But he is the first one we remember ever needing Tommy John surgery because of it. That is the sort of thing that happens to injury-prone players. What’s next? He gets a concussion watching a bad movie and then six months later he needs shoulder surgery because he overcompensated for his head injury?…They even mention that his off days are becoming fewer. However, Joe Maddon still feels the need to give Rocco off-days on day games following night games. That is a move usually reserved for aging veterans.

• The author then picks one game out as the “defining moment” of this season for Rocco Baldelli. First of all, Rocco has only managed to be healthy enough to play in 72 games, so it couldn’t have been to hard to find his best game. But lets look at that July 9th game against the Yankees. Rocco went 1-3 with a walk, 2 runs and no RBI. Yep. sounds like his best game of the year. Seriously. Still, it is sad that only one game in the entire 2006 season can be used to sum up the “greatness” of Rocco Baldelli. Can we get a few more of those, please? Better yet…how about an occasional 4-4 with 5 RBI. Before the injuries we expected games like that. Now we are apparently happy when he goes 1-3.
  

• Finally they admit that Rocco has not lived up to his expectations, but that they will be happy when Rocco returns to form and “is hitting over .300, hits 15-20 homers, and drives in his fair share of runs while maintaining good defense.” Are those numbers good enough for Rocco? Are those numbers good enough for a center fielder that will never steal a lot of bases (too many leg injuries) and only plays above-average defense? Let’s face it. At this point, Rocco is a below-average major league center fielder, and the injuries suggest he will never be much better.

Don’t get us wrong. We love Rocco. We wear our #5 jersey proudly. But even as big fans of Rocco, we expect much more from him and until he gives the Rays a solid, injury-free year, we are going to have our doubts and wonder aloud if Elijah Dukes or B. J. Upton should be in center field for the foreseeable future.

The Hangover

• The Rays finally beat the Twinkies last night 4-2. Geez, it seems like it has been over two years since we took a game from Minnesota. Oh wait.
  
• Carlos Silva was cruising with 6 shutout innings, but had to be removed before the 7th due to stomach cramps. He had allowed only 1 hit and a walk. The Rays best weapon has always been having the opposing team’s pitcher go to Ybor City the night before a game. It helped last night as the Rays tied the game and took the lead in the 7th on back-to-back home runs by Ty Wiggington and Greg Norton. 14 of Wiggy’s 20 home runs have either tied the game or given the Rays the lead. It was only the 4th time in team history that back-to-back home runs had tied the game and given the Rays the lead, but the second this season.
• B. J. Upton did something amazing last night. He did NOT commit an error. First time in a week, actually first time in his last 7 starts. Yikes.
• Shawn Camp picked up the win, his 7th. He is now second on the team in wins, behind only Scott Kazmir. Did we mention he is a relief pitcher?
• Shinji Mori was in the dugout last night and will be for the remaining home games this season. That is really not the interesting part. The interesting thing is the caption at the bottom of this story is “Familiar Face Returns”. Familiar Face? He was injured in Spring Training and has never played a regular season game for the Rays. On top of that 19 of the 30 players currently on the roster were not with the team on opening day. We are thinking that Mori was not too familiar to anybody.
• The Baltimore Orioles magic number for clinching 4th place in the AL East is 18. OK, OK…That is a pipe dream. But has anybody noticed that the Rays are now tied with the Pirates for the second worst record and only 4.5 games ahead of Kansas City for the worst record in baseball? Oh dear lord.
• First the Rays Turn Back the Clock and wore the former Minor League Tampa Tarpons uniforms (queue the Minor League team jokes), then they have a fashion show, and now this? What’s next? A Dr. Phil bobblehead promotion?
  

The Hangover

• First of all, let us take a moment to apologize. Normally we would run a picture of a Devil Ray to lead this post. However, it is not all too often when we get to witness God himself greatness, so we decided to go with Johan Santana. We did try to find a picture of Delmon Young taking a dump in right field, but were unsuccessful…Back to the post.
  
• With last night’s loss 8-0 to the Twinkies, the Devil Rays were officially eliminated from playoff contention…Damn it! Why did we get our hopes up…Of course, it is now official, Aaron Goldstein, the columnist for the Intellectual Conservative and The American Daily, who predicted the Devil Rays would win the World Series this season, is completely mad. (And he writes for a publication with the word Intelligent in the title?). In April we questioned his sanity. Well, this week he was at least man enough to admit he might have been a wee bit off on his prediction. Needless to say, we are marking our calendars in anticipation of next year’s prediction. Next year is our year!
• The September call-ups have been completed. Edwin Jackson and Brian Stokes were called up on September 1st, and on Monday Juan Salas and catcher Shawn Riggans were called up. None of these were a surprise, although we might have expected one or two more pitchers. Both Salas and Riggans made their debuts last night. Salas relieved Jae Seo in the seventh and got off to a good start by retiring the first two batters he faced. Then the floodgates opened, and he ended up allowing 3 runs, although Delmon Young’s brain fart in right field didn’t help. So now Young not only looks like an Albert Belle-clone, but now he has brain spasms like him also. Maybe Delmon thought the umpire earlier this year threw eggs at him?? Riggans made his debut in the ninth as a pinch hitter. It was awfully nice of Joe Maddon to wait until the Twins took Sandy Koufax Johan Santana out of the game, lest he be made to look like he was from the Fort Dodge School For The Blind like the rest of the starting lineup.
• A couple of injury notes...Jonny Gomes had successful surgery “to clean out” his shoulder, and now it appears that not only is Casey Fossum is done for the season, but he also needs surgery on his shoulder. We are not really sure how he injured his shoulder. He doesn’t throw hard enough to put any stress on the joint. Still, this should be interesting. After the surgery, Fossum could potentially set the record for slowest pitcher ever. Somebody should contact Guiness…The good news for the Rays is by missing the last month, Fossum will not make 30 starts this season and his 2007 salary will only be $2.2 million instead of $3 million.
  

A Minor Hangover

Durham Bulls

• The Durham Bulls wrapped up their season on Sunday with a game that summed up their entire season…Nothing good happened. The Bulls were shutout by Norfolk 3-0 and managed only 6 hits. In fact, the Bulls failed to score in their last 24 innings of play this season. Darnell McDonald collected 3 of those hits on Sunday and finished the season at .292 with a league leading 157 hits and one of the lone bright spots in a season filled with suspensions, ejections and Doug Waechter. The other bright spot was Kevin Witt, who added the The Joe Baumann trophy to his mantle to go along with his International League MVP award. The Joe Baumann Trophy is awarded the the player that leads all of the minor leagues in home runs. Witt hit 36. B. J. Upton led the IL in stolen bases with 46. Waechter finished tied for third in losses, despite only spending half the season in AAA. Durham finished the season at 64-78 in second place of the IL South Division. Second place doesn’t sound so bad til you realize that the South Division is the IL equivalent of the NL Central. Well, at least Ozzie Guillen’s idea of the NL Central. The Bulls finished second, but were 15.5 games behind division leading Charlotte.

Montgomery Biscuits

• The Biscuits won the second half of the Southern League’s regular season with a 41-29 record, 3 games ahead of Jacksonville in the South Division. Does anybody find it strange that the Southern League has a South Division? Neither do we. Montgomery had finished the first half of the season at 36-33, 11.5 games behind Jacksonville. They will begin a 5-game playoff series on Thursday against Jacksonville, with the winner playing a championship series against the winner of the North Division. Does anybody find it strange the Southern League…ahh…nevermind. The Biscuits finished strong, winning 13 of their final 16. The great second half was driven by pitching with this past weekend a great example. On Thursday, Jeff Niemann was wild but survived to pitch 5.1 scoreless innings. He allowed 4 hits and 4 walks. On Friday, Andy Sonnanstine was the tough luck loser, giving up 3 hits and 1 unearned run in 7 innings. He still finished the season tied for first in wins with 15 and 3rd in ERA at 2.67. He also led in innings pitched, complete games and shutouts, and was second in strikeouts. Saturday was Mitch Talbot’s turn, going 6 innings with 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 run. Finally, on Sunday Jason Cromer pitched 5 scoreless innings.

Visalia Oaks

• Visalia won 5 of their last 6 games to take the California Leagues North Division title for the second half. They finished the second half at 42-28, 1 game ahead of first half winners San Jose. Not bad considering they lost three of their best players down the stretch to midseason promotions, including league MVP Reid Brignac. Brignac finished 3rd in batting average and 4th in home runs, despite playing the last month of the season in AA. Chris Nowak finished with a league-leading 103. RBI. James Houser and Christopher Mason finished toed for the league lead with 12 wins. The Oaks will play a 3-game series against San Jose this week.

Southwest Michigan Devil Rays

• The D-Rays ended their last season in Battle Creek by finishing 30-40, 18 games back. The bright spot all season long was the performance of the starting pitchers. Jacob McGee and Wade Davis finished 1-2 in the league for strikeouts. Greg Dupas was second in saves.

The Hangover

• On Friday night, the Rays opened the series with the Mariners in dramatic fashion with a 2-1 win. Ty Wiggington, was activated from the DL, butarrived late to the park because of flight issues and was not in the starting lineup. However, Wiggy was inserted into the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs and promptly drove his the third pitch he faced into left field to drive in pinch runner Josh Paul for the winning run. James Shields was once again strong but did not receive enough support for the win, giving up only 5 hits and 1 walk in 7 innings. His only mistake was a 2nd inning solo home run by Kenji Johjima. The bullpen was strangely effective as Dan Miceli and Seth McClung innings. The biggest play of the game may have occurred during just the second at bat of the game. With combined for 2 hitlessIchiro on first, he tried to go from first to third on a ground ball single to right field. Instead of accepting the play as routine with the speedy Ichiro, Delmon Young charged hard and came up firing, nailing Ichiro at third and thwarting an early rally.

• On Saturday, the Mariners held off a late rally and evened the series handing the Rays a 4-3 loss. J. P. Howell showed better stuff than he had shown in his first callup earlier this season. However, he still gave up 8 hits and 3 walks in 6.2 innings and 3 early runs that the team could not overcome. The Rays scored all of their runs on solo home runs by Rocco Baldelli, Delmon Young and Ben Zobrist. The Rays also turned the rarest of feats, with a first of its kind triple play in which, on a strikeout Dioner Navarro threw a runner stealing second, and Zobrist then proceeded to throw back to Navarro to nail the runner coming from third, for the 2-6-2 triple.

• Kevin Witt broke out of his mini slump in huge fashion on Sunday afternoon with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 8th to give the Rays a 7-6 win and a rare series win. Witt thinks he has been pressing a bit since being called up and this home run may lift some of that pressure off of his shoulders. Brian Stokes was called up from Durham to replace Casey Fossum, who is out for the season, and made his major league debut. Stokes, who had been moved to the bullpen recently in Durham, was on a strict pitch count and was pulled after 4 innings and 72 pitches. He gave up 7 hits, 3 walks but only 2 runs and left tied 2-2, despite some obvious first day jitters. However, the bullpen blew the lead as Chad Orvella and faced 5 batters and failed to record an out in the 5th inning. The more pitchers came on and managed to pitch 5 scoreless innings and keep the Rays in the game long enough for Witt to provide his dramatic moment. Despite the recent promotion of Edwin Jackson, who Joe Maddon says will compete for the closer’s job, Seth McClung once again came on in the 9th a shut down the Mariners for the save. Despite the win, the Rays were eliminated from the division race as the Yankees won. Rocco Baldelli was given the day off and Delmon Young made his first start in center field.

• Yesterday afternoon, the Rays dropped the opener to the Mariners 2-1 spoiling a strong performance by Tim Corcoran who was out-dueled by local boy Boof B
  onser. The Rays took the lead in the bottom of the 5th on a long home run by Dioner Navarro. White. Unfortunately, However that was all the offense the team could muster and after pitching shutout ball for the first 6 innings, Corcoran was finally touched for a 2-run home run with 2 outs in the top of the 7th by RondellCorky made a good pitch that actually seemed to fool White who managed to somehow golf the pitch over the left field wall despite swinging with his back knee nearly on the ground. #$!@#$!$@#$. The loss drops the Rays tragic number in the wildcard race to 1.