Disappoint is an understatement after watching the Rays fall to the Baltimore Orioles Monday night.  There was no facet of this game we looked good in.  The pitching was bad, the defense was bad and the hitting was average at best.

The first inning was indicative of how the game ended.  SP Scott Kazmir hurled the first pitch of the game behind Roberts and BJ Upton slipped and fell after his grounder to SS and just watched the play unfold rather than get up and run.  After seeing these 2 things I knew it was going to be a long night. 

Kaz did not pitch well.  First inning 2 walks and a blast later we’re already down 3-0.  In the end Kazmir went 6.1 innings and was tagged with 6 ER.  He had little to know control over the majority of his pitches even though he did strike out 7.  I was sitting just to the left of the Rays dugout and had a clear view of Navarro having to dive from side to side to grab his off location pitches.  Joe Nelson followed and had his worst outing to this point in the season giving up 2 ER in 1.1 innings. 

The defense has been a huge disappointment to say the least.  Carlos Pena has already committed 5 errors in the first month of the season more than doubling his total of 2 from his Golden Glove season of 2008.  Akinori Iwamura has already committed 4 errors quickly approaching his total of 7 from last year.  Dioner Navarro has not been the All Star performer of a year ago at either side of the dish.

The offense did manage to rally and tie the game in the bottom of the 6^th inning.  But the offense only managed 6 hits – half were XBH – Evan Longoria belted his 8^th HR while Pena and Ben Zobrist chipped in with 2B’s.  The guy who was most impressive offensively was Willy Aybar.  Willy steps off the bench to start at DH for the first time in over a week and goes 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.  Nice Job Willy!

BJ Upton looks silly at the plate, glaring at umpires for punching him out and falling down and lying there watching the play go on without any effort.  I know he had shoulder surgery but is it really a good idea to have him “find his swing” leading off for the Rays?   I’d argue NOT!  Sorry but BJ acts like baseball owes him something.  I know everyone talks about what a great kid he is and he may very well be but frankly I don’t care.  He’s a baseball player that is falling flat on his face during a time when he was supposed to shine.  He has not shown ANY improvement in his approach at the dish and we’re already 1 month into the season.  He needs to be sent to AAA to take care of business BUT since we know that isn’t going to happen he needs to get out of the #1 hole.  Love to see JB move to #1, BJ to #8 and Aki to #9.  Oh yeah, having Navarro hitting #9 is creating a road block for the top of the lineup since he runs like a wounded snail.  Navi to bench (until he gets his head out of his anal orifice) and Hernandez to #7 hole.    

Look gang here’s what we have:  The MLB Leaders in HR – Pena (11), RBIs – Longo – (31) and Stolen Bases – CC (18).  Now here’s what we don’t have – reliable pitching and defense.  The 2 things we relied upon last year are not there this year.  The things we thought would be improved from last year are not responding well either – mainly Upton and Burrell. 

Look gang, unless something happens drastically very soon this team will not be playing in October.  I know it’s only May but we’re giving away a head of steam to NYY and BRS.  They are beating up each other and we are not winning the games we should be winning to gain ground. 

No matter what I’ll still be here cheering until my eyes bug out!

Go Rays!!!!

I know it doesn’t seem like it was close due to the final score but the Rays had opportunities and had even brought the score as close as 6-5.  The BP couldn’t hold it there and the offense could not take advantage of the chances they had. So, let’s review…

Jeff Niemann had a tough outing and only lasted 3 innings giving up 5 ER (6 total runs).  Jeff never looked comfortable and his ability to hit his location was absent.  Jeff looked a bit tentative on the mound.  Look this guy is 6’9” and can bring it – so bring it, be aggressive! Knock these guys on their tails pitching in then finesse something.  You have got to use that fastball to setup your out pitch. 

Lance Cormier did a GREAT job following Niemann and shutting down the Red Sox.  Cormier went 2 innings giving up only 1 hit.  Grant Balfour followed running into some trouble in the 6^th inning.  Balfour allowed 1 hit and 2 free passes to load the bases with only 1 out bringing Youkilis to the dish and Joe Maddon from the dugout.  Brian Shouse was called on to clean up this mess and failed by allowing a 2 run 2B to Youkilis putting the Red Sox up 8-5.  Shouse continued a poor outing by giving up a “no doubter” to Lowell in the top of the 7^th.  Shouse has got to be one of the most unimpressive pitchers I have ever seen.  Not sure what the Rays saw in this guy or if they just grabbed him because he was a cheap lefty.  Sure has not shown that he deserves a spot in this BP!  Shouse walks in the 10^th run forcing Maddon to go to the BP again because he couldn’t get the job done.  Terrible!  Joe Nelson struts in to save the day and record the last out of the 7^th – thanks Joe!  Nelson pitched an amazing 8^th inning throwing only 14 pitches, 10 of them for strikes to record the 3 outs!  To this point in the season Nelson has been the best signing of this year by far!

The Rays offense had responded nicely to Cormier’s 2 innings of work by scoring 1 in the 4^th, Carlos Pena’s MLB leading 11^th bomb, and 3 big runs in the 5^th.  The big blow once again came from Evan Longoria, otherwise known as Evan Almighty, a 2 run 2B with 2 outs. Pena followed with a free pass and Pat Burrell completed the scoring by lacing a 2B down the left field line scoring Longo.   

The Rays blew a big opportunity to add a run or two in the 6^th inning and creep closer.  With runners on 2^nd and 3^rd and 1 out the top of the order, BJ Upton and Carl Crawford, gave away 2 easy outs to the Sox. 

Dioner Navarro is struggling needless to say to this pointing the season.  Look as a catcher I can live with a lack of offense but I cannot live with the horrible defense.  Navi has absolutely been horrible blocking balls in the dirt and throwing out base stealers.  To this point in this game they have 4 swiped bags and a 5^th that would have been had the runner not tripped over his own feet.  Look something has to give with Navi one way or another and the coaching staff needs to make that happen.  He is currently a liability both offensively and defensively and it needs to get sorted sooner rather than later.

Speaking of defense, more errors tonight.  Getting tired of adding these things up!  Akinori Iwamura made his 4^th error of the season on a ground ball that should have been automatic. Gabe Kapler also chipped in with his first error of the season.  But, I’m going to tell you what I saw, Kapler made a throw to the plate that would have hit Navi in the chest on one bounce but Navi was standing behind the line rather than in front therefore the ball hit the runner and bounced away.  This error might have been charged to Kapler but it was not his fault.  There was also a ball that Ben Zobrist should have corralled for out at short but he bobbled it allowing the runner to reach base.  Not sure why but the official scorer was in a forgiving mood and scored it an infield hit.  NOT!  These guys need to be out drilling daily until they can clean this up.  You must have good pitching and good defense to win ala 2008.  Good defense can snatch a few victories for “ok” pitching which is what we’ve had so far this season (aside from Garza’s last start) so let’s get this cleaned up!

The Rays will go for only their 2^nd series victory tomorrow when they send James Shields to the mound.  Let’s pack The Trop and give the Rays the “Dome Field” advantage they deserve!  See you there!

Well Ray fans my prediction of a turnaround could not have been any further from the result.  The Rays have been playing some bad baseball as of late but in game 3 against the Twins they were unrecognizable as the reigning American League Champions.  I sat and watched in disbelief as the Rays handed game 3 to the Twins by failing to execute in all facets of the game.  To add insult to injury our hot bat, Jason Bartlett, may be out of the lineup due to a hammy injury.  Although JB says the hammy is fine and coming out of the game was precautionary, doesn’t take much to end up on the DL with a hamstring.

So, where to begin?  Let’s start at the beginning, inning #1.  SP Scott Kazmir strode to the mound with the hope of stopping this series losing skid.  Well, that thought went out the door quickly when it became evident he had little to no control over any pitch he threw.  Kaz loaded the bases with 0 outs and it just went downhill from there.  A couple of wild pitches, a couple of bloop hits and the Twins were up 4-0 at the end of the first.  They never looked back.  Kaz’s line was 4 innings, 9 hits, 6 ER (8 total), 4 BB and 2 wild pitches.  The only saving grace in this pitching performance was from Lance Cormier who pitched the final 4 innings giving up only 3 hits and 0 runs.  

The defense was pathetic at best.  Dioner Navarro allowed a passed ball that scored a run due to his lack of hustle to get it. Akinori Iwamura was charged with 2 errors in the same play.  One of the bloop hits charged to Kazmir in the first inning was a ball that should have been caught by Ben Zobrist charging in from right field.  Due to his lack of experience he did not take charge of the situation and the ball fell between him, Aki and Pena for a run scoring single. 

The offense actually produced hits (10) and walks (3) while cutting down the strike out total (4).  BUT they managed to go 1 for 12 with RISP stranding 10 runners total. 

This effort from the Rays was amateur at best.  They looked sluggish and unfocused.  They lacked any resemblance to the team of 2008 – you know, they team that was supposed to be the worst team we’d see for the next 5 years.  Here’s the problem as I see it – there are no leaders in the clubhouse.  This is the time we are dearly missing guys like Hinske and Floyd.  They need someone to take charge of this turnaround and make it happen.  There is no BIG personality on the coaching staff or within the ranks to light this team up.  They have no fire and appear to have no desire to this point in the season.  Personally, as a fan, this is a HUGE disappointment to me.  To see them open the 2009 season taking the series from Boston in Fenway pumped me up for an exciting 2009.  Now, to see them drop 6 straight series since and in the fashion they have makes me wonder “what the HE!!”…….

It’s easy to be a fan, be a player, be a manager, be a coach when all is going well as it did in 2008.  Now is the time when we’ll get a true gauge of how committed any of us are to this team.  The tough times will bring out the true fans, team leaders and ask that laid back coaches step up and do what is necessary to win.  I for one will not give up on the talent that exists on this team.  It’s time now for the cream to rise.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed the trend the Rays have established so far — win the first game of the series in convincing fashion then put the bats away for games 2 & 3.  Although the Rays did manage to bang out 9 hits in Tuesday’s loss we went 2 for 11 with RISP.  So a bunch of singles scattered through out 9 innings really doesn’t mean all that much if you cannot get the hits when you have the opportunities to score the runs. 

James Shields pitched effectively for 6.2 innings giving up 3 ER, 7 hits, 4 BB and 4 K’s.  Shieldsy was not on top of his game by any means but he managed to wriggle out of a few tight spots.  To be honest I think that’s a true measure of a pitcher, the ability to work out of a tight spot.  JP Howell ended up getting tagged for the loss after pitching 2/3 of an inning and allowing the winning run to score. 

As stated earlier in this blog the Rays banged out 9 hits 4 of which were for extra bases.  The big fly came off the PH HR of Ben Zobrist’s bat in the top of the 9^th to tie the score.  Zobi has been showing a lot of the bench and making the most of his opportunities, like to see the guy get more reps as the RF.   

The Rays were aggressive on the base paths stealing 3 bags (Upton 2 & CC 1) but Carlos Pena was picked off first base for the 2^nd time this season.  What is going on with this getting picked off bags???  These little things will come back to haunt a team if we don’t clean this up. 

The Rays close the series with the Twinkies on Tuesday and head back to The Trop.  I’m sure we’ll see a much better offensive effort tonight and a series victory!

Now that’s more like it!  The Rays offense exploded behind an outstanding SP performance from Jeff Niemann and an equally impressive showing from the BP!

Jeff Niemann earned his first ‘W’ of the young season with an outstanding performance.  Niemann went 5.1 innings allowing 3 hits 2 ER, 2 BB and 3 K’s.  Jeff had a no-no through 4 innings.  I think Jeff really showed his promise today on that mound.  The bullpen followed with 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball allowing only 1 hit, 1 BB and 4 K’s.  JP Howell, Dan Wheeler and Lance Cormier capped an outstanding overall showing on the bump! 

The offense busted out of its’ 3 game slump by knocking out 15 hits, 4 for extra bases.  Pena, Longoria, Upton and Iwamura all banged out doubles.  The big bat of the day came from Carl Crawford who went 4-5 scoring 3 runs and knocking in 1.  Evan Longoria continued to knock in the runs accumulating 3 RBIs and scoring once.  When the Rays were on they applied the pressure of the running game by swiping 3 free bags and only being caught once!  The Rays also showed their improved decision making at the dish by graciously accepting 8 free passes and only giving away 5 outs via the K. 

The defensive alignment was, in my humble opinion, the best we can put out there.  Ben Zobrist is our best RF option, especially on the offensive side of the ball.  He needs to stay there and as a switch hitter there is no reason he cannot.  With the recent offensive burst shown by Kapler I think Gross is the odd man out in this scenario.  Leave Ben out there, bring up a AAA utility player to backup Bartlett and release Gross to make the room. 

Nice recovery Rays!  James Shields returns to the mound to attempt to improve on his first 3 performances…..Here’s a shout out to Shieldsy!

Ben Zobrist came off the bench in the 6^th inning to hit a bases loaded bomb into the LF seats at The Trop Friday night to put the Rays ahead once and for all.  This could not have come at a better time.  This game was all about the White Sox until this point.  The Rays had initially taken the lead on Carlos Pena’s 2^nd inning solo blast.  The White Sox then answered back with 2 runs.  All the action seemed to take place in the 5^th and 6^th innings of this game.  In the 5^th Dioner Navarro led off with a 2B and came around to tie the score on Jason Bartlett’s 2B.  The top of the 6^th proved to be trouble for Rays SP James Shields as he gave up 2 HR (3 hits total) and 3 ER with only 4 pitches to put the Sox up 5-2 just as the Rays had managed to tie this game.  The bottom of the 6^th contained all the dramatics for Ray’s fans.  Bases loaded with 2 outs Joe Maddon calls back scheduled hitter Gabe Gross and inserts Ben Zobrist who promptly deposits the baseball in the LF seats.  The Trop went crazy! 

James Shields struggled in this game.  Shieldsy went 7.1 innings allowing 7 hits (2 HR), 5 ER and 2 BB while netting only 4 K’s.  But something good did come out of this.  After all the dramatics in the 6^th inning Maddon sent Shields to the mound in the 7^th and let me tell you what a difference.   He was fired up and throwing with a vengeance.  He sat the White Sox down 1-2-3 and did not allow them to gain any momentum.  This was a good call on Maddon’s part, to allow Shields to go grab some confidence and he did just that.  This will pay dividends down the road.

The bullpen did a nice job with Wheeler, Shouse and Percival combing for 1.2 innings and giving up 0 ER.  However, it was not without incident.  Percival managed to allow runners on 1^st and 3^rd but get out of that 9^th inning mess to earn the save. 

The one down spot in this game was the umpiring behind the plate.  CB Bucknor has got to be one of the worst ball/strike callers I’ve ever seen.  AJ Pierzynski was blatantly moving his glove, pulling balls back into the strike zone and Bucknor was giving those to him.  Shields and Colon had a nice pitchers duel going on for the first 4 innings or so but Bucknor would not give them anything.  These guys were making some unbelievable pitches at the knees and e would not budge.  It was absurd and I hope he gets called on his performance.  It was poor at best.

Saturday night Scott Kazmir will take to the mound to keep this train rolling!

See you at The Trop! 

OK it may have only been game 6 of this young season but it as a big game.  No one wants to be swept at anytime during the course of a season.  The beginning of the season can set the tone for the duration.  That being said, “Big Game James” came through.  James Shields took to the mound for the Rays in an effort to stop an early season skid.  He did that and earned himself his first ‘W’ of 2009.  Shieldsy went 7 VERY strong complete innings scattering only 3 hits and 1 free pass while striking out 3.  He was the Shields we remember from 2008 plus some! 

The offense erupted as well with 17 hits, 9 for extra bases!   There were doubles (4), triples (1) and home runs (4).  Home runs are always awesome but the home run of note is Evan Longoria as this is his 5^th HR in 6 games!  Jason Bartlett, Carols Pena and Ben Zobrist are the other Rays who went yard.  The Rays were active on the base path as well swiping 3 bags.  Love to see these guys moving and taking what’s theirs! 

No need to even state the obvious and say that this game’s performance was clearly 100 times better by all involved than the previous 2 nights but, now that I have, the Rays seem to still be having an issue with strike outs.  They gave up 11 easy outs via the K in today’s game and only accepted 3 free passes.  They really need to clean this part of the game up as this AL East is looking even tougher in 2009 with the ever present Yankees and Red Sox and the obvious improvements to both Toronto and Baltimore. 

The bullpen pitched the last 2 innings of the game and all looked good except Grant Balfour.  Grant had all sorts of location issues and allowed the 3 runs in the 9^th.  He was taken out in the 9^th after loading the bases and not recording an out.  JP Howell came in and stopped the bleeding to end the game. 

The Rays will now head back to The Trop for their home opener and the raising of the AL Pennant!  How exciting is that!  I may leave now to get there!!

See you in The Pit!

Andy Sonnanstine took to the mound Friday evening in hopes of continuing the Rays winning ways.   It just wasn’t meant to be.  Although Sonny pitched as I pretty much expected, he ran into some control issue in the 5ht which cost 3 runs.  Sonny didn’t make it out of the 5^th inning after allowing 8 hits, 5 ER, 4 BB and 2 K’s.  Honestly, I love to watch this guy pitch.  He is an intense competitor with the smarts to succeed as a major league starting pitcher considering his fast ball registers only about 86 or so.  The only stat that was a bit concerning for me was the 4 free passes because if you throw 86 mph and cannot control the location you’re going to get into trouble fast.  That’s what happened to Andy in the 5^th.  Other than that when he pitches I expect him to get hit but controlling the damage is his game.

Our offense was very interesting in this game.  When we hit we hit long and far!  Evan Longoria teed off with 2 HR giving him 4 for the year so far – no sophomore slump for him!  Dioner Navarro knocked out his first hit of this young season – also a HR.  So all 4 runs scored on the long fly, not too bad!

Four games in and I have to tell you my biggest concern is the amount of K’s we are giving away.  Rays hitters struck out 9 times last night against a pitcher who really isn’t that good.  I watched, as I’m sure you did, a good number of Rays swinging at pitches not even close to the zone.  In 4 games we have accumulated 32 K’s (8 average per game) to only 15 free passes (3.75 average per game).  Love to see that start to turn around a bit moving forward.  If this stays at a 2 to1 average per game we will accumulate some “L’s”.

We made 2 big base running blunders that cost us.  Carl Crawford knocked out a nice double to RF but got thrown out at 3^rd by a mile trying to stretch it.  Longo came up next and belted his first bomb of the game – 1 run lost.   Gabe Kapler hung himself out to dry between 3^rd and home and made the 3^rd out of the inning killing a rally.  This was a perplexing move and I put it all on Gabe.  Replays show he never even looked at 3^rd base coach Tom Foley so Foley had no way to stop him.  Then when he rounded 3^rd he just stopped halfway to home.  Not sure what was going on there but that’s the 2^nd big base running mistake Gabe has made so far.  I’d like to see that come to a screeching halt!

The play of the game was made by Ben Zobrist who started in RF!  He made a diving catch on a line drive to RC gap then got up and showed off his gun by throwing a strike to double Greg Zaun off 2^nd base.  This was an awesome play!  Congrats to Ben for being selected #3 top play by ESPN!

Game 2 of this series is the season debut for SP Jeff Niemann as the #5 in the rotation.  I’m anxious to see Jeff and what he brings to the table.  We’ve heard about him for a few years now it’s time to see what he’s got and how he’ll use it.

Go Rays!!

The Tampa Bay Rays had to get more ice to keep the champagne cold after losing the opening game to the Detroit Tigers 7-5 Thursday afternoon.  Scott Kazmir was looking to be the winning pitcher as he was when the Rays clinched their first ever playoff birth over the past weekend.  But, the Tiger bats laid that thought to rest quickly in this game.  Kaz gave up 4 home runs in the first 5 innings allowing the Tigers to pounce on their prey and keep it down. Kaz once again lasted only 5 innings and throwing 102 pitches.  He missed his locations often and by a large margin on most occasions. The Rays pitching staff allowed 5 HR altogether as Chad Bradford gave up a solo blast in the 7^th inning.

The big bat from the Rays came from Ben Zobrist.  Zobi had 2 HR with 4 RBIs and 2 runs scored.  Evan Longoria chipped in with a solo blast as well.  The Rays had a few other opportunities to score runs but failed to get the big hit when needed.   

A few items of note in this game, other than the obvious loss, first, Joe Maddon is in the process of deciding who his rotation will be going into the playoffs.  This outing was just another inconsistent, high pitch, short day for Kaz.  That cannot figure well for him heading into the playoffs.  Kaz has been having this same issue all season long and he has not been able to resolve it.  The other issue is an issue with MLB.  How the heck can MLB schedule an early day game after a night game when a team has to travel?!  What kind of hooey is that?!  These guys were only able to get 3-5 hours sleep between games.  How can any athlete go out and perform optimally on that kind of sleep? 

Anyway, tomorrow is another day.  The Rays don’t play until tomorrow night so they’ll be good and rested.  Sonny will take the hill and close out the AL East.  BTW – Sonny is my choice for the #3 SP in the playoff rotation.   

Go Rays!!    

The Tampa Bay Rays have had a magical year of firsts for this long suffering organization.  The 2^nd game of the double header was no different.  For the first time in the franchise’s history the Rays swept a double header!  Yuppers, never has happened before for the Rays!  Congrats guys!

This could not have happened with out a huge 8^th inning, 6 run rally!  The rally included a lot of hustle, runners running out infield hits, and a big blast by Evan Longoria.  It was amazing to watch!  The Rays totaled 11 hits BUT the 11 hits were collected by 10 different players.  Ben Zobrist was the only Ray to have a multiple hit game including a lead off triple in the big 8^th inning.  The players off the bench played a huge role in this rally as well.  This had been the key to this team all season long!  Weather due to injury or just rest players have entered games and produced.   

The Rays have decreased their magic number to 2 games.  That means that the division title could be ours as of today.  The Rays would need a victory and a Boston loss for that to happen.  So, any of 2 victories by the Rays over the next 5 games would give the AL East title to someone other than the NYY or Boston in over 10 years! 

WOW!   Keep it going Rays!