The Tampa Bay Rays set a franchise record with 11 extra base hits in game one of the 3 game set with the Colorado Rockies. The Rays took full advantage of the thin air and belted 5 HRs, 2 3Bs and 5 2Bs in a rout of the Rockies at Coors Field. Gabe Kapler hit his 4th home run in as many games and was a single away from the cycle. Kapler went 3 for 4 with a HR, a 2B, a 3B, 4 RBI’s and 2 runs scored. He has been on a tear lately and it’s great to see! BJ Upton has been swinging a much better bat these days and had a nice day at the dish as well. BJ was 3 for 5 with a HR, 2B, 3 RBI’s and 1 run scored. BJ has shown a bit of the power we expected out of him lately; even a lot of his outs are hard hit line drives. Welcome back BJ! Ben Zobrist continues his hot hitting going 3 for 5 with a HR, a 3B, 3 runs scored and 1 RBI. The home run barrage also included Carlos Pena’s AL leading 21st bomb and Evan Longoria’s LF blast.
The Rays welcomed back Jason Barlett as well in this game. JB did not seem to miss a beat either on the field or at the dish. JB’s defense was flawless as expected. At the dish JB belted out 2 hits in 4 attempts including a 2B opposite field shot, scored 2 runs and knocked in 1 run. Nice to have JB back on that field!
SP Jeff Niemann earned his 6th victory of the season to lead all rays pitchers in that department. Jeff had a solid outing but ran into a bit of a high pitch count (96) at the close of the 5th inning ending his night. One thing I have noticed about all of the Ray pitchers lately is that they seem to get ahead in the count a lot of times but have no “put away” pitch. They end up 0-2 then they take the count full or allow a hit. This needs to be resolved as one area to improve the length of time these guys can stay in a game. The bullpen did an adequate job but gave up 1 ER, 3 free passes, 3 hits while striking out 4 in 4 innings. The large lead made this performance good enough but still like to see less walks.
Great performance Rays! Keep the train rolling!
