The Hangover: This Past Weekend In The AL East

We apologize for the delay in posts. Today’s “Hangover” is both literally and well, ok it is literally. A member of the Rays Index family got married this past weekend in sunny southern California. We originally proposed to have a drink for every run the Rays scored while we were in San Diego, but then we realized we would be sober the entire trip. Needless to say, we came up with some other Devil Ray drinking rules…look for the D-Rays drinking game in the near future…we are back so, ON TO THE POSTS!

Boston Red Sox (22-14). The Idiots took 2 of 3 from the Evil Empire, and then played a total of 6 innings and lost all 3 games over the weekend, 1 to the Rangers and 2 to the gods who were angry for letting Jimmy Fallon from New York play a diehard member of Red Sox nation. Rumor has it Theo Epstein sacrificed a virgin to appease the gods. He must have gotten to the girl before her prom as the Sox rebounded to win their 12th straight against Baltimore despite threats of rain during the game.

New York Yankees (21-15). “Richard, who’s your favorite little rascal? Alfalfa? Or is it The Spankees?” The Bronx Roiders lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox (again) but rebounded to take 2 of 3 from the A’s, who they always beat. Last night, the surprising Rangers took the opener of the 4 game set 4-2. The Yanks have been beset by injuries and age. This just in…Randy Johnson is 42 years old and is pitching like it. Jason Giambi left last night’s game with a needle stuck in his ass, Gary Sheffield has missed several games with a bruised ego, and Hideki Matsui will miss several months after losing his battle with Rodan. We feel awful.

Toronto Blue Jays (21-16). The Jays continue to hang in there, thanks in large part to the Rays. They took 2 of 3 from both the A’s and Tampa and are 1.5 games behind Boston. The team continues to score in bunches as they have scored at least 7 runs, 7 times in the past 2 weeks.

Baltimore Orioles (18-21). Kansas City can make a bad team look good and that was this case this past weekend as the O’s swept the lowly Royals. The joy was short-lived as the Red Sox brought them back down to earth with an 11-1 drubbing last night nd O’s fans are not the least bit happy about it. Maybe they should just forfeit all games against Boston.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays (15-23). You wanna see what it is like to have the Rays in first place? Turn your monitor upside down. Alas, it is not worth breaking a perfectly nice monitor over this team. Things were bad…they have gotten worse. The Rays now have the worst batting average in the majors (.230), last in the AL in OBP (.302), next to last in the AL in slugging (.384) and have only scored more runs than one AL team (Kansas City). What the heck is going on around here! The offense was supposed to be the lone bright spot for this team.

It Smells Like A Used Diaper, Filled With Indian Food

Seattle 8, D-Rays 1. 2-7 in May…nough said.

The Hangover: Last Night In The AL East

Boston 14, New York 3. Randy Johnson: 3.2 innings, 5 hits, 5 walks, 7 runs…ouch.

Baltimore 7, Detroit 6. boring

Oakland 6, Toronto 5. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A Look At The Future: Yesterday On The Farm

Durham 6, Louisville 2. SP Brian Stokes was impressive, working into the 7th inning, allowing 7 hits, no walks and 2 runs (1 earned) while striking out 7. He improved to 2-0 and his ERA went up to 1.83. CF Darnell McDonald continues to push his way into the crowded group of D-Ray outfield prospects. He went 1-4 with his 6th home run. SS B. J. Upton went 3-4 with an RBI and a run. He also stole his league leading 16th base and is now hitting .296. LF Elijah Dukes went 2-4 with 2 doubles, 2 runs and 2 RBI. He is now hitting .318.

Montgomery 3, Huntsville 0. 2B Eliot Johnson went 1-4 with a double and a run scored. He is hitting .326. Jason Pridie went 1-4 with his 8th stolen base. Another big start for Jim Magrane. He worked 6 shutout innings, giving up 3 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 5.

Visalia 8, Rancho Cucamonga 5. Reid Brignac went 2-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI and is now hitting .362. John Jaso went 2-5 and is now hitting .353. Shaun Cumberland went 2-4 and hit his 8th and 9th home runs of the season.

SW Michigan 11, Clinton 3. Did we mention that neither Upton nor Brignac committed an error?

Devil Ray Blogtopia

• Who is Ty Wiggington? One blogger wonders who that is wearing Ty Wiggington’s uniform [Rays Talk]
• And another blogger seems to think the Ray’s pitchers walk too many batters…Um, Ya Think? They even wrote a song about it. We thought we had too much free time. [Boys of Summer]
• Ray’s VP of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman likes Coldplay. Personally, we had him pegged more as a Yanni guy [My Coldplay.com]
• Attending Devil Ray’s games is masochistic. [Tangent Universe]
• The Devil Rays are the best pro sports deal in town. Of course the Lightning and the Bucs aren’t playing right now. [Sticks of Fire]
• One way to punish Delmon Young…promote him to the majors [Mets guy in Michigan]
• Apparently the removal of Vince Naimoli is the baseball equivalent of the liberation of East Germany. [Boston Herald Blog]
• One writer thinks the Devil Rays will lose between 122-132 games this season. Of course only one team in the HISTORY of baseball has lost more than 120 in a season. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134. You can look it up. Vince Naimoli’s grandfather owned that team (we made that up) [Siberian Baseball]

We’re In A Glass Case Of Emotion!

Seattle 6, D-Rays 3. Jonny Gomes is good (12th home run)…The Bullpen is bad (another blown lead). It has now been almost a month since the Rays won back-to-back games. We are too frustrated to talk about it. Wait…yep, the Bullpen just blew another lead back at the team hotel.

The Hangover: Yesterday In The AL East

Toronto 5, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim near Disney Land 1. Toronto pulled within 2 games of division leaders Boston and New York. Alex Rios and Benji Molina hit home runs in the 5-run 5th. Rios is now hitting .384, Canadian, which is about .270 American.

Boston, New York and Baltimore had the night off so they could polish the gold cleats on their spikes.

A Look At The Future: Yesterday On The Farm

Durham 8, Louisville 1. SP Jason Hammel had a strong outing to improve to 3-2. He went 6 innings, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks and 1 run. At the plate CF Darnell McDonald hit his 5th home run and had 2 RBI. B. J. Upton went 1-4 with an RBI and a walk. He also stole his league leading 15th base.

Montgomery 3, Huntsville 1. SP Tony Paguero threw 6 strong innings to improve to 4-2. He gave up 4 hits, no walks and 1 run. His ERA is now 1.83.

SW Michigan 6, Clinton 1. C Matt Spring went 2-3 with 1 RBI and a walk. No truth to the rumor that all Devil Ray minor league catchers have to have tiny bleach blonde goatees like Toby Hall. SP Michael Wlodarczyk (3-1), was the third D-Ray minor league pitcher to have a strong outing last night. He went 6.2 innings allowing 3 hits and 3 walks, while lowering his ERA to 1.07.

D-Rays @ Seattle Mariners Tidbits

• After pitching three straight games, Tyler Walker will not be available to pitch in tonight’s game according to manager Joe Maddon.
• The Rays have not won 2 straight since sweeping the lowly Kansas City Royals on April 16.
• Tampa’s bullpen has allowed the second highest batting average in the majors (.302). That is not good…but it is especially not good when the bullpen has pitched the most innings in the AL.
• On the flip side, the starting pitchers have an ERA of 3.05 in their last 11 games.
• Tonight’s starter Casey Fossum has 2.21 ERA at home (3 starts) and a 9.60 ERA on the road (3 starts).
• Fossum has hit more batters than anyone in baseball since the start of the 2004 season (34). Luckily for him, his pitches couldn’t possibly hurt anybody.
• Interestingly, LH batters are hitting .358 against Fossum while righties are .226 on the season.
• The Mariners are 13-20, last in the AL West.
• Seattle just lost 2 of 3 at home to the Cleveland Indians.
• Seattle pitchers are 4th in the AL with a 4.11 ERA.
• The M’s lead the AL in stolen bases (28).

Probable Pitchers
Monday, 10:05 et
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (1-1, 5.50)
Seattle Gil Meche, RHP (1-2, 4.73)

Tuesday, 10:05 et
Devil Rays Doug Waechter, RHP (0-1, 6.46)
Seattle Felix Hernandez, RHP (1-4, 5.40)

Wednesday, 4:35 et
Devil Rays Scott Kazmir, LHP (4-2, 3.43)
Seattle Jamie Moyer, LHP (1-2, 3.68)

D-Rays Take Two Of Three From Oakland.

Shhhhhh….let’s try not to get too excited, and don’t tell anyone, but the Ray’s bullpen is starting to look decent. We can’t help but notice that the strong outings by the bullpen over the last 4 days began the day after Dan Miceli went on the DL…So THAT is what a major league bullpen looks like…From the offensive bullpen to the offense…maybe it is a coincidence…maybe Jason Kendall is a terrible defensive catcher…maybe it is because of the return of Julio Lugo to the top of the order or maybe it is due to a more agressive approach by manager Joe Maddon, but the team is starting to be much more aggressive on the basepaths. The team had 5 stolen bases on Sunday, including 2 each from the team’s first two batters. Even Ty Wiggington got in on the fun with his 1st of the season…SP Mark Hendrickson had trouble with his control, but pitched well enough to pick up his 2nd win.