AL East Roundup:The Devil Rays Bullpen…Not So Good

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Boston Red Sox	6	4	–	6-4	W2	—
Toronto Blue Jays	6	5	0.5	5-5	L1	152
Baltimore Orioles	6	6	1.0	6-4	W3	151
New York Yankees	5	5	1.0	5-5	W1	152
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	4	7	2.5	4-6	L1	150

Yankees 4, A’s 3. Jason Giambi won the game in the 13th inning with a home run against his former team. Here is a sentence we will never write about the Devil Rays…The Yankees bullpen pitched 7.2 shutout innings. That was more depressing to type than it should have been.

Red Sox 8, Angels 0. Curt Schilling pitched 8 shutout innings and now has pitched 14 consecutive scoreless innings. After struggling his first outing of the season against the Royals, Schilling looks to be on top of his game which will go a long ways to getting the Red Sox back to the playoffs. David Ortiz had 4 RBI on 2 hits including his 3rd home run. The win vaults the Sox past the Blue Jays and into first place of the AL East. The Red Sox bullpen pitched 1 shutout inning. *feeling sad*

Orioles 6, Royals 4. The Orioles are getting well at the expense of the Royals, as they have now won 3 straight and have evened their record on the season. A grand slam by Chris Gomez in the 6th gave the O’s the lead and they held on for the win. The O’s bullpen pitched 4 shutout innings. *crying hysterically*

Tigers 10, Blue Jays 7. The Jays bullpen gave up 6 runs in 3.2 innings. We feel better now.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST….

• Chien-Ming Wang pitched 5 hitless innings during an extended spring training game against Devil Rays minor leaguers. Wang is on the DL and is expected to make one more rehab start before returning to the Yankees.
• Carl Pavano is the latest Yankee to miss a start due to an injury.
• Kei Igawa and baseball fans in Japan are realizing that Yankees fans can be less than forgiving.
• The Blue Jays called up one of their top prospects, Adam Lind.
• JD Drew is off to a hot start in Boston. That should not be surprising as he has always put up strong numbers when he is healthy. Still, Red Sox fans must cringe every time he runs down a fly ball and every time he starts running out of the batters box.
• Cal Ripken would like to follow in his fathers footsteps and manage after his children have grown.
• The Red Sox had an opportunity to sign Jackie Robinson but racial attitudes in Boston and withing the organization at the time
  may have stopped them from doing so.

The Hangover: Edwin Jackson Reminds Us That He Is Still Edwin Jackson

Minnesota 12, D-Rays 5.
Edwin Jackson threw 66 pitches in 3+ innings and only 33 were for strikes. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. The defense did not help matters by throwing a few of their own wild pitches. After going the entire first week without an error, the team is starting to make them in droves, including 3 more last night. BJ Upton, who looked solid at second base in the spring committed his 5th error of the young season and was lucky that he was not credited with a second error later on. After forcing one runner at second, Upton threw wildly to first trying to turn the double play (an official scorer cannot give an error on a double play attempt). Ruddy Lugo continues to struggle mightily, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits in 1 inning of work. He has now allowed 15 base runners and 8 runs in 3 innings this season. Carlos Pena continues to hit the ball well, connecting on his 2nd home run as a pinch-hitter in the 9th. It will be interesting to see if it is already pre-determined to head to Durham when Greg Norton comes off the DL.

• The Rays still have not won back-to-back road games since June 30 of last season.
• Edwin Jackson says that he “pitched like a ——“. Actually, the Tampa Tribune used the word “wimp” in place of the actually word used by Jackson. Hmmm? What could it have been? Jackson has a potty-mouth.
• This just in…The Rays bullpen is not so good.
• Joe Maddon wants to treat the 2007 season like an instructional season in the hopes that all the athletes on the team become better fundamental baseball players. One of the glaring problems early in the season has been the Rays inability to lay down a successful sacrifice bunt.
• The Rays now a team era of 6.41, almost a run and a half more than any other team. The preseason projections that had the Rays pitching staff giving up more runs in 2007 may have been right. Simply put, the Rays have the offense of a .500 team, but the pitching of a team that could lose 100 again.
• Today Carl Crawford will wear #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. CC admits that before he was drafted by the Rays he knew nothing about Jackie Robinson. Let’s hope that today’s tribute will help inform many others about Mr. Robinson and his legacy.
• Joe Maddon hopes that more players on the team will follow Akinori Iwamura’s lead and start working counts.
• Another baseball power ranking. Devil Rays #25. That’s about right.
• Was Friday’s win over the Twins and Johan Santana the greatest win in the history of the franchise?
• Maintaining a trend started last season, the Rays have held the lead in 8 of their first 11 games.
• The Brad Lidge to Tampa Bay rumors just won’t die.
• The Reds Ryan Freel may start playing infield for the Reds. This would help Josh Hamilton to become an everyday player.

The Hangover: The Rays Finally Get To The Twins And Johan Santana

Thursday night’s game will now be known as “The Game We Do Not Speak Of.” Carl Crawford made up for it when left fielder Josh Rabe played CC’s single into an inside-the-park home run in the Rays 4-2 win over the Twins. Scott Kazmir did his part and out-dueled the two-time Cy Young winner Johan Santana. Kazmir was efficient working into the 8th inning and handing over the win to Al Reyes. Reyes worked a scoreless 9th inning for his 3rd save in 3 opportunities. A big win indeed, but can somebody please tell us why Carlos Pena was in the lineup last night. We understand he has been hitting well recently both in games (and batting practice apparently). But Pena is a left-handed hitter facing the best left-hander in the game. He is not the regular first baseman. We dopn’t second-guess Joe Maddon very often, but why on earth was Carlos Pena in the lineup?

• Akinori Iwamura’s hitting streak was snapped last night. Delmon Young extended his streak to all 10 games.
• Last night was the first loss at home for Johan Santana since August of 2005. He was 17-0 during the streak.
• It was the Rays first win in Minneapolis since June, 2004.
• Scott Kazmir was throwing harder in the 7th inning than he was in the 1st.
• Joe Maddon says the Rays are now at the point where they can score runs at any point in the lineup. Josh Paul’s rbi last night may have proved his point, although we are not overcome by confidence when Carlos Pena and Paul are in the lineup against Johan Santana.
• Was Carl Crawford’s base running error the worst ever? One Braves fan tries to compare it to Lonnie Smith’s gaff in the 1991 World Series. Thursday night was bad, but we are not sure how it is worse than costing your team a run late in game 7 with the score tied 0-0. A game and series that the Braves would go on to lose. That is a Braves fan in denial.

AL East Roundup: The Royals Are The Feast Of The East

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	5	4	–	5-4	L1	—
Boston Red Sox	4	4	0.5	4-4	L1	154
New York Yankees	4	4	0.5	4-4	L1	154
Baltimore Orioles	4	6	1.5	4-6	W1	152
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	3	6	2.0	3-6	L1	152

Orioles 2, Royals 1. If there is any consolation to the 3-6 start for the Rays it is that just about everybody else in the AL East has had a shot at the Royals except for the Rays. The O’s are the latest with a chance to feast on Kansas City, scoring the winning run on a Jay Gibbons single in the bottom of the 10th. The human rain delay, Steve Trachsel worked 7 innings and only gave up 3 hits.

Tigers 5, Blue Jays 4. Tomo Ohka worked 6 innings but gave up 5 runs on 8 hits and a walk.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Sounds like the Yankees have finally restocked their minor league system after years of trading away all prospects. In particular, the AAA team is loaded with good arms.
• The Yankees are stealing more bases this season. Four of the top 16 thieves are Yankees.
• Darrell Rasner will take Mike Mussina’s spot in the rotation on Tuesday. No word yet if Moose is going on the DL.
• With the Red Sox rainout yesterday, Terry Francona adjusted the rotation and now Diasuke Matsuzaka will get two cracks at the Yankees.
• So far, the 2007 version of the Orioles is bizarro-Baltimore. The pitching has been good, but the hitting is slow to get started.
• Jaret Wright was placed on the DL by the Orioles.

Down On The Farm: Jeff Niemann Is Closer To The Majors

Durham 3, Pawtucket 2. Jeff Niemann was strong in his second outing of the year but he had a case of Kazmir-itus. Niemann worked 5 scoreless innings, giving up 3 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 6, but it took 96 pitches. Jeff Ridgway and Chad Orvella combine to throw 3 shutout innings. Scott Dohmann was brought in to close out the 2-0 game in the 9th, but gave up two run scoring hits. In the bottom of the 9th, Justin Ruggiano walked to lead off the frame, then stole second, moving to third on a throwing error. After a walk to Jorge Velandia, Elliot Johnson drove in the winning run with a single through the drawn-in infield. Chris Richard hit his 3rd home run of the season.

Chatanooga 5, Montgomery 1. Derek Feldkamp gave up all 5 runs (3 earned) in 5+ innings.Nick DeBarr pitched 2.1 perfect innings. Evan Longoria was 1-3 with a double. Reid Brignac was 0-3.

Vero Beach 4, Daytona 3. Wade Davis gave up 7 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings. He only struck out 2. Erold Andrus was 3-4 with a home run and a double.

Columbus 6, Greenville 0. Ryan Morse pitched 6 scoreless innings, striking out 4. Ryan Royster hit his first home run of the year. Columbus hitters struck out 16 times.

The Hangover: A Stomach-Punch Loss For The Rays

“stomach-punch” game. Carl Crawford hit a double in the 9It’s funny but sad. Losing a lead in the 8th or 9th inning should be the worst way to lose a game. The Devil Rays bullpen blows so many leads late in games, that when they do, it is never very painful. It is almost expected. Last night, however, was painful. A classicth inning with the score tied 2-2 that would have given the Rays men on second and third with no outs. Instead CC, who is pre-programmed to hit triples, kept on running, and ran the Rays right out of the inning. The Rays would lose in the bottom of the 9th on a Justin Mourneau walk-off home run 3-2. That was a painful way to lose. However, Crawford’s base running blunder in the 9th was only part of it. The Rays wasted a solid performance by Casey Fossum. Those don’t come all very often. It is is sad to see one slip away.

• Joe Maddon now has Rocco Baldelli leading off and Carl Crawford hitting third. OK, no big deal. So why are we mentioning it again? Because of this quote that made us chuckle..

I don’t want to try to over-think it at all — Joe Maddon

Papa Joe? Overthink? Never!

• Before the game Joe Maddon said that he was very interested to see how well Casey Fossum would pitch. That sounds as if Papa Joe is contemplating Fossum’s position in the rotation.
• Tonight Scott Kazmir will take the mound for the second straight appearance and go head-to-head with a Cy Young winner. Last time out it was Roy Halladay. This time it is Johan Santana.
• BJ Upton and his brother Justin got their love of baseball from their father. This piece also touches on potential reasons why BJ is one of so few African-Americans in the game today. In fact the Devil Rays have more African-Americans on their roster (6) than any other big league club.
• In their first 81 plate appearances, Delmon Young, Rocco Baldelli and BJ Upton have combined for 4 walks. Jayson Stark notes that this came after Joe Maddon instituted mandatory pitch counts for batters in the spring.
• A Twins fan has put together a collection of Devil Rays mugshots. We are not quite sure why we find the collection so interesting, although in a few instances the writer has included images from multiple seasons and the changes seem fascinating to us. For example, you can really see how Dioner Navarro has slimmed down in 2007.
• A lot has been made of the two caught steeling attempts by Carl Crawford. It appears as though the Rangers may have watered the area around first base a little too much.

The Debut Of The Tampa Bay Rays Cork-Board

Today we are debuting a new feature here at RI. We are calling it the “Tampa Bay Rays Cork-Board” (A few of you may pick up on the cheesy double-meaning behind the name. sorry, it had to be done). The Cork-Board, which will be found permanently located in the side-panel, is a real-time (sorta) picture of the entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization from the Parent club all the way down to rookie ball. The Cork-Board will include up-to-date rosters, starting lineups, current pitching rotations and links to current stats for all players. The Cork-board will also keep track of players on the 40-man roster and disabled lists in the majors and minors.

The purpose of the Cork-Board is to bring access to all the information in one central location. That being said, while we will try to keep the information updated on a daily basis, it will be inevitable that some moves in the minors will slip through the cracks. If you know of a transaction that has not been reflected in the Cork-Board, please drop us a line and let us know. Even if it just happened an hour ago.

We would love to take full credit for the idea and design of the Cork-Board. In reality, we modeled the Cork-Board off of the U.S.S. Mariner “The Big Board.” Even though the Seattle Mariners are as far away from the Devil Rays as one can get, U.S.S. Mariner is one of our favorite team blogs. The writing is top-notch and well worth the visit.

A COUPLE OF NOTES ON THE CORK-BOARD…

We understand that a lot of the “starters” are not everyday starters and we realize that a number of players listed on the “bench” do start on a regular basis. In addition, a number of players make regular appearances in the lineup at more than one position. We are only trying to convey a typical most-days lineup.

There are a handful of players that are still at extended spring training in Tampa and may be members of the lineups/rotations once they report to their ball clubs. The most prominent name is Jeremy Hellickson, who is to report to Columbus in two weeks.

The Tampa Bay Rays Cork-Board [Rays Index]
The Big Board [U.S.S. Mariner]

Tidbits: Devil Rays @ Minnesota Twins

• The Twins enter the series with the Rays at 5-3, tied with Detroit for first place of the AL Central. The just concluded a 3-game set with the Evil empire, dropping the first two, but took the final game last night 5-1 behind Russ Ortiz.
• The Rays were 1-6 against the Twins last season.
• The Twinkies shortstop has more errors (4) than hits (1).
• Minnesota has struggled offensively, with only 3 home runs as a team through the first 8 games. Justin Morneau has hit 2 and Torii Hunter has 1.
• The Rays will miss Russ Ramon Ortiz this time through who is 2-0 with a 2.80 era, but Friday night marks a stellar match up of two of the best young pitchers in baseball with Johan Santana and Scott Kazmir.
• The Twins are set to unveil their plans for a new stadium to be in use by 2010. The new stadium is not likely to have a roof. That will make for some pleasant games if and when the Twinkies play October baseball.

PROBABLE STARTERS
Thursday, 8:10 et
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (0-1, 17.18)
Minnesota Carlos Silva, RHP (0-1, 1.80)

Friday, 8:10 et
Devil Rays Scott Kazmir, LHP (0-1, 6.75)
Minnesota Johan Santana, LHP (2-0, 2.77)

Saturday, 7:10 et
Devil Rays Edwin Jackson, RHP (0-1, 6.35)
Minnesota Sidney Ponson, RHP (0-1, 12.71)

Sunday, 2:10 et
Devil Rays Jae Seo, RHP (0-1, 9.64)
Minnesota Boof Bonser, RHP (0-1, 6.97)

Down On The Farm: Woods Fines Starting To Leave His Mark

Pawtucket 5, Durham 3. JP Howell was better his second trip to the mound for Durham but still not doing anything to make Joe Maddon regret his decision to pick Edwin Jackson for the 5th spot of the Rays rotation. In 5.2 innings, he struck out 3 with no walks but gave up 8 hits and 2 runs. Seth McClung came on in the 8th with a 3-2 lead and left the game with the Bulls losing 5-3. In one inning McClung gave up 4 hits and a walk that led to 3 runs. The big blow was a bases loaded double. McClung claims that he was just working on things in the spring and that was why his numbers were less than stellar. Must still be working on things.

Chatanooga 6, Montgomery 3. Reid Brignac was 1-4 with a double and Evan Longoria was 0-3 with a walk. Gabriel Martinez hit his first home run of the year, a 3-run shot to supply all the offense. Chris Seddon struck out 7 with no walks in 5 innings, but gave up 7 hits and 5 runs.

Daytona 5, Vero Beach 1, gm 1. Jackson Brennan went 3-6 in the double header with 2 doubles a home run and 6 rbi.

Vero Beach 8, Daytona 1, gm 2. Jake McGee struck out 6 in 6 innings with no walks to pick up his first win. He surrendered 4 hits, all singles. Center fielder Jackson Brennan hit a grand slam in the 7-run 5th inning.

Columbus 5, Greenfield 2. The “experts” may soon have to add another name to the Rays growing list of pitching prospects. Woods Fines, with one of the great names in baseball, had his second straight outing in which he pitched 5 scoreless innings. He gave up 5 hits, all singles. Woods a 6’5″ righty and 14th round pick out of high school in 2004 had a solid outing last year in Hudson Valley going 7-3 with a 2.47 era in 14 starts. Josh Papelbon, the younger brother of Red Sox closer Jonathon Papelbon pitched a scoreless 9th.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• The Bulls are hitting .212 in the first seven games.
• Jeff Niemann will go to the mound in the series finale tonight.
• The second game of the double-header was the first win of the season for Vero Beach.

AL East Roundup: King Felix Sashimis All Over The Red Sox

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	5	3	–	5-3	W1	—
Boston Red Sox	4	4	1.0	4-4	L1	154
New York Yankees	4	4	1.0	4-4	L1	154
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	3	5	2.0	3-5	W1	153
Baltimore Orioles	3	6	2.5	3-6	L1	152

Mariners 3, Red Sox 0. Felix Hernandez says “where’s my $100 million?” All the talk last night was on Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Fenway debut and his matchup with Ichiro. However King Felix had other ideas as he took a no-hitter into the eighth and pitched a complete game 1-hitter, screaming “sashimi!” after each of his 6 strikeouts. We might have made that last part up. Dice-K gave up 8 hits and 3 runs as the Mariners looked decidedly less Royals-ish.

Tigers 4, Orioles 1. You can always tell major leaguers don’t get paid overtime. Once two teams hit the 9th inning of a tied game, everybody starts swinging for the fence. After all, how many opportunities will the Tigers players have to hit the nightlife in Baltimore? The O’s and the Tiggers were scoreless through 11 last night before Craig Monroe hit a 2 out grand slam.

Blue Jays 7, Royals 4. In danger of losing a 3-game set to Kansas City at home. Gustavo Chacin and his cologne pitched just well enough to hold off those scrappy Royals. Scrappy is code in sports for “not very good”. Troy Glaus hit a home run.

Twins 5, Yankees 1. There is a reason why Kyle Farnsworth never became the great closer that many had predicted. Sure he throws hard, but he throws straight. A 95-mph fastball isn’t a great weapon in the major leagues if it doesn’t move and you don’t have an off-speed pitch to compliment it. Last night, the twins scored 4 runs in the 8th of of Farnsworth, to break a 1-1 tie.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Mike Mussina became the latest Yankees pitcher to be injured. He injured his left hamstring in the third inning and had to leave the game versus the Twins.
• Jose Guillen invited Red Sox reliever Brendan Donnelly to throw down after the game. Jose Guillen has never been the most mature of major leaguers.
• Four Yankees will wear #42 on Monday including Mo Rivera who wears the number normally.
• Jay Payton was signed as a free agent this off-season by the Orioles. He is yet to play with Baltimore, having started the year on the DL. Now his return has been delayed at least another week.
• The Orioles have a pretty decent prospect, in Hayden Penn, if Jaret Wright must go on DL.
• The Red Sox made several roster moves yesterday.
• Fans in Toronto had other things on their mind last night (playoff hockey, snow) an
  d the crowd showed.