SP James Shields gave the best Ray pitching performance of the year so far and the Ray offense could not support it. Shieldsy went 8 1/3 innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 free passes while striking out 5. Shields was outstanding and the offense left him hanging with a “no decision”.
Now, a lot of people on the Rays’ message board are blaming one or two people for this loss. As usual it’s the typical few that don’t look at the whole game but rather a brief moment within the game. So, let me clear this up for them.
The offense as a whole failed. The Rays were 0 for 11 with RISP. The 3-4-5 hitters were 1 for 13 with 6 K’s and 0 runs scored and 0 RBI’s. As a whole the team collected 8 hits but gave away 13 easy outs via the K and only accepted 3 free passes from Oakland pitchers.
RP Joe Nelson came in to pitch behind JP Howell and guess what – he did his job. Yes, that’s right. He induced an easy ground ball right into the shift that would have been the 3rd out but was missed for an error by one of our most reliable players, Jason Bartlett. All of the runs Rays pitching gave up in this game were unearned because of this.
So, gang the moral to this story is this – player accountability. This game was not about Nelson giving up a home run in the 11th, not about JB booting a ball, not about the Rays offense being 0 for 11 RISP – it was about ALL of these things. If one thing changes in any of that this game could have ended differently. Don’t blame 1 person in a team sport – there is always something someone could have done differently to change the outcome.
Willy Aybar was the guy who came through to prevent the Rays from leaving a doughnut on the board blasting a HR in the bottom of the 11th. That’s unfortunately the only good offense I can mention….
So, look – these games are going to happen. I’d like to see the Rays tonight pick up the situational hitting rather than swinging for the fences. We have a few guys in a funk right now, Longo, Pena and Upton still, so love to see some of that small ball re emerge like those safety squeeze bunts and the such. Let’s work the magic!
