SP Jeff Niemann earned his 3rd victory of the season. Niemann lasted 5 innings giving up 8 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB while striking out 2. In my humble opinion Niemann was less than stellar in this outing and has been all season long. He was in trouble in most of the 5 innings and a few outstanding defensive plays helped him survive. I don’t know about you guys but I’m wondering what the hype about Niemann was. I haven’t seen anything impressive from the guy. He doesn’t throw hard, he doesn’t have great command, he gives up a multitude of this in every start and he always looks like he’s scared to death standing on the mound. The guy is 6’9” and should be intimidating his opposition by pitching inside occasionally brushing people off the plate. He does not show any look of confidence what so ever on the mound.
The bull pen did an outstanding job EXCEPT for Troy Percival. This guy cannot just come in and have a 1-2-3 inning EVER! Look I know this guy, in his prime, was an excellent closer – his time has passed! Percival entered the game in the ninth after shutdown innings from Lance Cormier, Dan Wheeler and Brian Shouse and an 8-2 Ray’s lead. Percival lasted 1/3 of an inning, gave up 4 ER, 2 HR on 4 hits. Really?! JP Howell followed the tragedy that was Percy and put a stop to the madness ending the game with a save and a Ray’s victory.
The offense tallied up 15 hits including Jason Bartlett’s 5th HR of the season. Man this guy is on fire! He is the top hitting shortstop in the league and is beating his next closest competitor, Jeter, by about .90 in BA! JB finished the day 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI and a beautiful bunt for a single in the 8th. This guy is the complete package as a player. He plays an outstanding ‘D’, has all the tools at the plate and makes great decisions on when to swipe a bag or 2. Nice trade RFO!!!! Replacements Willy Aybar, 1 for 3, 2 BB, 1 run and 1 RBI, and Ben Zobrist, 2 for 2, 2B, 1 BB, 1 RBI, did outstanding jobs off the bench!
Aybar was replacing Pat Burrell who earlier in the day flew to Tampa to see the team doctor’s regarding his neck issues. There is concern this may land him on the DL for an extended period of time. Zobrist was called upon in the 6th inning to take the place of Carl Crawford. CC made an outstanding diving catch in LF and left with a sore shoulder. This did not look serious and he will probably be listed as day to day. It’s nice to know that we have such outstanding professionals on our bench. These guys are always ready to go, they keep themselves mentally in to the game just in case.
The Rays completed this road trip with a winning record of 4-3. Nice job guys! They now head back to The Trop for a 4 game series against Cleveland then with Oakland. This is the light part of the schedule and time to make up ground!
See you at The Pit!!!!!!!!!
