The starting pitching was bad but the offense bailed the Rays out to notch the 70th victory – our franchise high – on Aug 9th. Matt Garza pitched in and out of trouble in all of his 5 2/3 innings pitched. Trouble began in the bottom of the first with the first batter as Ichiro quickly deposited a Garza pitch in to the right field seats. Garza allowed 10 hits, 5 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB while striking out 5. Joe Maddon had to burn 6 relievers in this game which always leaves everyone praying that the next day’s SP can go deep to allow the BP to rest. Sunday’s SP is Edwin Jackson. Problem is you never know what you’re getting from E-Jax from start to start so we’ll have to be positive and hope he can remain focused for an effective, deep start.
The offense for the Rays woke up in the 6th. To that point the score was 5-1 Mariners. Every position in the Rays batting order, except 1, had a hit in this game. All totaled the Rays offense knocked out 13 hits and collected 8 free passes. Gabe Gross blasted his 9th HR of the season. BJ Upton and Carl Crawford each collected 2 RBI’s.\
Something to keep an eye on is Dan Wheeler’s response to his last 2 outing. Wheels took the loss in game one of this series. Tonight he blew the save sending the game into extra innings. Chances are slim Wheels will pitch tonight as well but it’ll be nice to see him toe the rubber against Oakland and right his own personal ship.
This again was a nice overall team effort! Being down by up to 5 runs this team never gave up. Another great victory!
