The Hangover: 7+2 Equals Rare Road Win

Every once and a while the Devil Rays are capable of putting together a complete game. Last night’s 6-5 win over the Rangers was far from perfect, but we could see the signs. The offense is going to score runs. This will not be a problem on most nights for the 2007 Devil Rays. If the Rays are going to win games this season they will need to pitch. They don’t need to be perfect, but the pitching staff needs to do their jobs. While a lot of attention has been focused on the failures of the bullpen, the starting pitchers have failed at their jobs also. Last night, James Shields did his job. He did give up 5 runs, 4 runs when the flood gates opened a bit in the 6th inning, but he worked 7 innings and gave the Rays a chance to win. Too many times Rays starters pitch well but have to be removed after 5 innings. Shields pitched well enough to get the team a lead after seven innings when Joe Maddon could hand the ball over to the Brian Stokes and Al Reyes. The bullpen deserves their share of blame, but if they have to pitch 4 innings every night, they are going to lose some games. Last night’s win was the way it is supposed to be done.

• The Devil Rays lead the major leagues in home runs and stolen bases. They are 6th in runs scored and batting average.
• Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli swapped spots in the lineup with Rocco in center field. Elijah Dukes will be back in center field tonight. Crawford “felt like a new man” in the #3 spot where he is more comfortable.
• Delmon Young (.375) and Aki Iwamura (.444) both have hit in all 8 games this season.
• Jonny Gomes is not playing but he is not going to dwell on it. He is working harder than ever and vows to be prepared when his number is called.
• MLB Trade Rumors weighs in on the Brad Lidge rumors. They don’t see it as a real possibility. Too much salary and too many question marks. We agree. Much ado about nuthin’.
• ArmchairGM reports that the Red Sox may be trying to acquire Brad Lidge.
• Bill Chastain talks with Elijah Dukes about his first week in the majors and his first major league home runs.
• When Carl Crawford signed with the Devil Rays and spurned a football scholarship to Nebraska and a basketball scholarship to UCLA, a lot of people back in the Houston area were surprised. His closest friends were not. In retrospect, it looks like CC made the right decision as he is now one of the most exciting players in baseball.

Down On The Farm: Wade Townsend Is Still Human

Pawtucket 2, Durham 1. Jason Hammel finally allowed a few hits, but was still strong in his second outing of the season. Last night he worked 5 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and 1 run. Chris Richard hit his 2nd home run and Jorge Cantu went 0-3.

Greenville 3, Columbus 0. After an impressive 2007 debut, Wade Townsend came back to earth a bit. He pitched 3 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 4. Can we now calm down on the “Wade Townsend promoted to the Rays in September” talk? We have no reason to think that Townsend won’t be at Columbus all season. The first season after Tommy John surgery for a young pitcher is always about learning how to pitch all over again. The earliest we would see Townsend at the Trop is 2009.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Walks were the downfall for Wade Townsend in his start yesterday.
• JP Howell tries to rebound this afternoon from his first start of the season.
• Yesterday was the Biscuits first full off-day in over a month and they took advantage by goin’fishin’. Chris Seddon will get the start today.

AL East Roundup: Prelude To The Great A-Rod Escape

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	4	3	–	4-3	L1	—
Boston Red Sox	4	3	–	4-3	W2	—
New York Yankees	4	3	–	4-3	W2	—
Baltimore Orioles	3	5	1.5	3-5	W2	154
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	2	5	2.0	2-5	L4	154

Red Sox 14, Mariners 3. The Sox went all Tea Party on the Mariners in their home opener at Fenway. Boston scored 7 in the first two innings and were up 13-1 after 5. Josh Beckett may have had his best start as a Red Sox giving up just 2 hits and 1 run over 7 innings. He walked none and struck out 8. JD Drew managed to hit his first home run with Boston and he didn’t pull a hamstring rounding the bases.

Tigers 3, Orioles 1. The Orioles just can’t catch a break. Jaret Wright pitched better, but still lost his second straight with the O’s and then had to be removed with shoulder stiffness.

Royals 6, Blue Jays 3. Toronto committed 4 errors leading to 3 unearned runs. Josh Towers made his first start of the year and gave up all 6 runs.

Yankees 10, Twins 1. Andy Pettite pitched 6 scoreless innings and he was supported by Alex Rodiguez’s 6th home run of the season. An A-bomb by A-Rod! At this pace A-Rod may beat Barry Bonds to the home run record. He only needs 286 more home runs. The Yankees, Sox and Jays are all tied for first in the AL East. This race is going down to the wire!

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Jaret Wright was upset after the game and indicated that the injury to his shoulder is reminiscent of his previous shoulder injuries that led to two surgeries.
• The Yankees starters have struggled, but the bullpen has been strong.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka will face Ichiro tonight to lead off the Red Sox game against the Mariners. The two have faced each other before in Japan. Here is video of their encounters in Japan.
• The Red Sox honored the 1967 AL Championship team before their home opener.
• Frank Thomas has 488 career home runs, but his sights are set on 600.
• Alex Rodriguez is just the 4th player in the last 50 years with an extra-base hit in each of his team’s first seven games, and one of seven players with 6 home runs in his teams first 7 games.
• It is only seven games, but some are already talking MVP for Alex Rodriguez. The funny thing about all this is…Let’s say A-Rod hits .330 with 60 home runs, 150 RBI and wins the MVP. The he has a big October but the Yankees fall short in the playoffs. Because of all the crap he has received from the fans, he will opt-out of his contract and Yankees fans will find a way to blame A-Rod. He will be a coward, even though it was the fans that wanted him gone as recently as the second game of the season when he popped up in the 8th inning with the bases loaded against the Rays.
• Alex Rios is a better player when he is leading off.

The Hangover: The Rays Being The Rays

Jae Seo was awful last night. Yes, the defense was atrocious with 3 errors in the Rays 12-9 loss to the Rangers, their 4th straight. Still, Seo gave up 8 hits, 3 walks, 1 hit batter, 1 wild pitch and 10 runs (5 earned) in 3 innings. The Rangers have now scored more runs in their two games against the Rays (20) than they did in their first six games combined (19). And the “Shake your head” stat of the night…Carl Crawford was caught stealing twice last night by the Rangers Gerald Laird. We think that qualifies as an anomaly.

• Elijah Dukes is now the most-days DH. In the spring we predicted that Jonny Gomes would only receive 300 at bats in 2007. Now it looks like he will struggle to get 200.
• Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman aren’t ready to shake up the roster, but they will look at different pitchers in more crucial bullpen roles late in games.
• Andrew Friedman made it clear that the team is not happy with the performance of the bullpen and they will continue to talk trades with other teams in search of relief relief.
• Another look at the Rays bullpen struggles, via The Rays Review.
• The Rays could be interested in the Astros’ former All-Star closer Brad Lidge. Lidge hasn’t been the same pitcher since he surrendered a game-winning home run to Albert Pujols in the 2005 NLCS. Whether it is confidence or mechanics or health, we don’t know. But in the past year, he hasn’t looked much better than Shawn Camp.
• Baseball Analysts take an in depth look at Elijah Dukes minor league career and the first 5 games of his major league career. Two aspects stick out. First is that Dukes has actually improved at every level. The second is his patience at the plate, which is very uncharacteristic for such a young player. A point that hopefully will rub off on some of his teammates.
• Jorge Cantu will see time at third base and first base with Durham.Whether he will see time at those positions in Tampa or it is just an audition for other teams is left to be seen.
• After last night, the Rays have been outscored 22-9 in the 8th and 9th innings.
• The most wins ever by a pitcher drafted by the Devil Rays is 8. In 2002, Joe Kennedy went 8-11 for the Rays.
• Who’s got Aki-Fever!?!

Josh Hamilton Hits Home Run For His First Major League Hit

Cincinnati Red manager Jerry Narron gave Josh Hamilton his first Major League start last night in center field against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Josh didn’t disappoint, hitting a 2-run home run in the third inning for his first hit as a Major Leaguer. He entered the game 0-2 with a strikeout and a line drive to left field in which he was robbed of a base hit on opening day.

In the first inning last night, Hamilton grounded out to second base. Then in the third inning, Josh came to the plate with a runner on first and 1 out. He homered on the first pitch he saw over the right field fence off of Adrian Gonzalez. It was a line drive shot that was hit almost as hard as the shot Elijah Dukes had in New York last week. Hamilton finished the game 1-3 with 2 walks.

Time To Get The Durham Shuttle Warmed Up

Let’s face it, Shawn Camp and Ruddy Lugo are not major league pitchers right now. In spring training Joe Maddon made it clear that there were no more free lunches. No more “scholarships”. This is why we were puzzled when Papa Joe appeared to guarantee Camp and Lugo spots in the bullpen at the beginning of the spring, despite being two members of the worst bullpen in baseball in 2006. Camp said during the spring that he was working on being more consistent. Mission accomplished. He has been consistently bad in 2007. In four appearances, he has recorded only 7 outs, yet he has surrendered 6 hits, a walk, and a hit batter, to go with 4 runs.

Last night Camp relieved Edwin Jackson with 2 outs in the 6th with runners at first and third and the score tied. Two batters later the Rangers were leading 4-2. Papa Joe had seen enough. Now it was Lugo’s turn to stop the bleeding. Four batters and zero outs later, the game was 8-2 and out of reach. Lugo has actually been worse than Camp so far in 2007. He has recorded 6 outs, and he has given up 7 hits and 4 walks which have led to 5 runs. That equates to an era of 22.50 and a 5.500 whip. That’s not an easy thing to do.

So now we will see if Maddon and Andrew Friedman are true to their word. Are Camp and Lugo on “scholarship”? If not, they need to be in Durham. We have no idea what the problem is, but it is clear that neither is capable of getting major league hitters out at this point. If this continues, it will be damaging to this young team. This team started the season with a lot of confidence. To compete with the monsters of the AL East, this team needs confidence and there is no way they can be confident in the bullpen right now. The idea of Camp or Lugo even warming up in the bullpen during a game in which the lead is less 10 gives us the hibidy-jibidies.

We don’t know who should be in their place, but right now a Fungo could get more hitters out. At Durham, Steve Andrade has 7 strike outs in 4.1 innings, but gave up 2 runs in his first appearance. Tim Corcoran and Scott Dohmann both have major league experience and have been solid so far. Chad Orvella has struggled a bit early on, but was strong this spring with the Rays. Hell, we would rather have Seth McCl…ummm, nevermind. We aren’t that desperate yet.

Is it any coincidence that these are the two pitchers that were used during the now famous “Cat in the Hat” reading? Durham parents are checking the transaction page daily. Soon they will have to lock their children in the basement.

The good and, well, just the ugly [St. Pete Times]

Down On The Farm: Casey Fossum Can Feel Mitch Talbot’s Heater

Durham 5, Pawtucket 0. It was the Mitch Talbot show in Durham last night. Talbot made his first AAA start and still hasn’t allowed a hit. He worked 6 innings, walked 2 and struck out 4. The PawSox broke up the no-hitter with a 2-out single in the 8th off of Steve Andrade. Andrade did strike out 5 over two innings. Chad Orvella pitched a scoreless 9th with 2 strikeouts. Hopefully he never unpacked his bags from spring training, because the Rays are going to be calling him soon.

West Tenn 9, Montgomery 2. The Biscuits hopes of going 140-0 were spoiled last night by West Tenn. Reid Brignac and Evan Longoria went a combined 1-8.

St. Lucie 5, Vero Beach 3. Matt Walker struck out 5 in 5 innings. He gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks.

Greenville 6, Columbus 5.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Jeff Niemann and Jason Hammel set the bar high with their impressive debuts. Mitch Talbot was not about to fall behind. After pitching 6 hitless innings, he did admit that he was a little disappointed at being pulled after only 80 pitches (48 for strikes). Edwin Jackson’s spot in the rotation is secure for now after his impressive first start on Monday night (1 walk, consistently hitting 96-97 despite not pitching in 10 days). If Joe Maddon is true to his word, Casey Fossum is going to have to be much better in his next couple of starts if he wants to retain his spot in the rotation. Niemann is not likely to be promoted before he has had 10-12 AAA starts, due to his previous injury, but Hammel and Talbot, along with JP Howell, who struggled in his first start, are competing to be receive the first shot if the Rays decide to make a change.

AL East Roundup: Kevin Millar Is A Dancing Machine

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	4	2	–	4-2	W3	—
Boston Red Sox	3	3	0.5	3-3	W1	156
New York Yankees	3	3	1.0	3-3	W1	156
Baltimore Orioles	3	4	1.5	3-4	W2	155
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	2	4	2.0	2-4	L3	155

Yankees 8, Twinkies 2. What the heck is going on with the Bombers? Alex Rodriguez hit his 5th home run and is all of the sudden the Prince of New York and Carl Pavano pitched seven strong innings for the win, and probably won’t get booed in his next home start.

Blue Jays 9, Royals 1. The Jays won their home opener behind the pitching of AJ Burnett and their high powered offense. Burnett worked inot the 7th for the win and Vernon Wells hit his second home run.

Orioles 6, Tigers 2. The Orioles (and the Rays bullpen) helped return the Rays to their rightful place in the standings

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• For those of you that ever read the Devil Rays mailbag on the team’s website, THIS is the way it is supposed to be done. Give us the facts…And tell us what you think and say it with confidence.
• Melky Cabrera is now hitting .095. Somewhere Bernie Williams is smiling.
  
• The are some bizarre urban legends about the Blue Jays. Apparently they are true.
• The Blue Jays and their fans are thinking world series this year.
• The Blue Jays offense is good enough to get to the playoffs, but the pitching is not good enough to win in October.
• We have to remember that the first week can be hard on team’s that open on the road. None of the coaches and players have been home in almost two months. The Orioles were glad to finally get some home cookin’.
• It amazes us how many people predict the Orioles to do well this season.
• Even Camden Yards has trouble drawing fans when the team is not good. It has never been about the Trop or the location of the field. WIN, and they will come.
• During pre-game introductions at the Oriole’s home opener, Kevin Millar did the Ray Lewis-dance. Oh no. You can find the clip HERE.

The Hangover: The Bullpen Couldn’t Hit Water

The Rays dropped their third straight, 8-4 to the Rangers in Arlington. Edwin Jackson made hist first start of the season. He had pop on his fastball, hitting 96-97 regularly. He also had control, with only 1 walk. But he did not have command. He gave up 8 hits and did not make it out of the 6th. Still, he left with 2 outs in the 6th with two runners on and the scored 2-2. It took three pitchers to record the final out of the 6th inning, and by the time Gary Glover got the third out, the Rays bullpen had allowed 6 runs to cross the plate. Carl Crawford who we think will hit 30 home runs this season, hit his second on the young season.

• Joe Maddon will consider production at DH to help decide who plays center field on a regular basis. That sounds like a great idea! So if Elijah Dukes wants to play center instead of DH (and why wouldn’t he?) his 0-4 last night as DH actually helps him.
• Tonight’s starter for the Rangers, Jamey Wright, is not on the active roster. To make room, Texas may have to release Bruce Chen unless they can trade him today.
• Usually we find player diaries boring, but in this case we were actually captivated. Akinori Iwamura recounts his first week in the major leagues, which includes receiving a shaving cream pie to the face from James Shields.
• Baseball Musings wonders allowed if the Rays picked up the steal of the off-season in Akinori Iwamura.
• Ben Zobrist led the Rays in hitting this spring. Unfortunately it looks as though he used up all his hits in March.
• Minor League Ball wants to know who you think Jeff Niemann will compare most favorably to. We say he already compares to this guy!
• SportsIllustrated.com has released their first power rankings for 2007. The Devil Rays debut with a respectable #21, one spot ahead of the 2005 World Series champions.
• Diasuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox may not throw the Gyroball, but Akinori Iwamura sure does. Or at least he likes to throw it during practice.
• The Indians, who have already had 46 games snowed out, are moving their upcoming series with the Angels to Miller Park in Milwaukee. Before they did, they called to see see if the Trop was available.

Tidbits: Devil Rays @ Texas Rangers

• The Rays are set to begin another road trip. The Ray have lost 32 of their last 36 on the road since the 2006 all-star break. In fact, last year they recorded the third fewest wins on the road since the inception of the 162-game schedule. If the Rays have any hope of being a competitive team in 2007, they need to learn how to compete in other ballparks.
• The Rangers are 2-4 and 2.5 games back of the first place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim near Disney Land.
• Edwin Jackson will be making his first start of the season. It will be his first start in almost two weeks. However, he did work a simulated game last Thursday to get some work in.
• Jamey Wright made the rotation for the Rangers as a non-roster invitee in Spring Training and will make his first start tomorrow night.
• Robinson Tejeda is coming off a great start in which he tossed 7 shutout innings against the Red Sox in their home opener on Friday.

PROBABLE STARTERS
(* stats are from 2006)
Monday, 8:05 et
Devil Rays Edwin Jackson, RHP (*0-0, 5.45)
Texas Brandon McCarthy, RHP (0-1, 4.50)

Wednesday, 8:05 et
Devil Rays Jae Seo, RHP (0-0, 7.11)
Texas Jamey Wright, RHP (*6-10, 5.19)

Thursday, 8:05 et
Devil Rays James Shields, RHP (0-0, 4.05)
Texas Robinson Tejeda, RHP (1-0, 0.00)