Oh what a GREAT time to be a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays!  Carl Crawford’s 7^th inning grand slam was a large part of a 7 run, 7^th inning for the Rays!  The Trop was electric!  Every Ray fan in the place was caught up in the emotion of this inning and this sweep.  My hands hurt driving home after all the high fives that were passed from person to person, old and young alike.  It was amazing! 

Starting pitchers James Shields and Sean Gallagher did not figure in the decisions.  Sweet Lou (who’s probably a bitter Lou after his return to The Trop) brought their bullpen ace, Carlos Marmol, in to try to preserve their lead in the 7^th.  It didn’t work – Marmol imploded.  He walked Willy Aybar and Cliff Floyd then proceeded to hit Gabe Gross loading the bases.  Akinori Iwamura stepped up to the plate with bases loaded and no outs.  On a 2-2 pitch Marmol HIT HIM sending home a run.  Still with no outs and bases loaded Carl Crawford stepped to the plate.  We were all praying for a drive to the outfield to at least tie the game.  No one could have predicted what was to come. LHP pitcher Scott Eyre was brought in to face CC – and BAM!  It was all over from there!  CC planted a fastball in the right field seats.  The fans almost blew the lid off The Trop!  BJ Upton followed that with a triple and Eric Hinske doubled him in.  Hinske then swiped 3^rd and was knocked in by Evan Longoria to complete the scoring.

This win, actually this series sweep, was about a complete team effort.  The bullpen was flawless, the starting pitching was amazing and the offense came through in a big way.  The Rays showed this week what a complete team they are.  They will go through their individual slumps, bad pitching moments and defensive blunders but in the end there is a new hero every night for this team.  This team plays hard together all the time.  I have to say that the feeling in The Trop last night was not a feeling of despair even when down 3-1 in the 7^th inning….it was a positive feeling; we knew the Rays could come back.  In years past that game would have been over. 

With this victory the Rays move to with 1 1/5 games of the idle Red Sox.  This weekend we face a weak and battered Houston team who was just swept by Baltimore.  Get to The Trop and support your Rays!  They are playing hard for you every day!   

If you are not a Rays fan yet, you may want to jump on the bandwagon fast – it’s filling up quickly!

Scott Kazmir was amped the first inning on the mound!  He had some issues finding the strike zone and only lasted 4 2/3 innings leaving with a 1-1 tie.  His line wasn’t Kazmir-ish allowing 3 walks and scattering 3 hits with 1 ER and striking out 7.  The bullpen did an excellent job until the 9^th.  Troy Percival went into the 9^th with a 3-1 lead gave up a run, allowed 2 hits, walked 1 and finished the game with the tying run standing 90 feet away. 

The offense did hit well against Ryan Dempster knocking him out in the 5^th inning.  Cliff Floyd and Evan Longoria hit solo bombs with Eric Hinske driving in the final run.  The problem the Rays suffered was a lack of timely hitting once again.  We had multiple opportunities to score once again and failed to get the hit leaving 12 on base.

A win is a win and this was a quality win against a quality opponent.  Tonight has Andy Sonnanstine (7-3) going against Carlos Zambrano (8-2). 

See you at The Trop!

The Rays returned home to victory Friday night with a 7-3 win over in state rivals the Florida Marlins.  Andy Sonnanstine had a shaky first inning allowing 2 runs then settled in to scatter 6 hits over 5 1/3 innings to earn his 7^th victory of this season.  Andy completed his line by racking up 5 strike outs and 0 walks.  The bullpen did an outstanding job supporting Andy’s start by pitching a combined 3 2/3 innings giving up only 1 hit and adding 4 more Ks to the night’s pitching line.  Troy Percival was activated from the DL prior to the start of the game and pitched a 1-2-3 9^th.

Eric Hinske jump started the offense with a 2 run double in the bottom of the first and the offense never looked back from there.  The RBI producing 2B machine included Gabe Gross and Akinori Iwamura.  Jason Bartlett had a nice night at the dish also going 3 for 3 with 2 runs scored, RBI and 2 stolen bases.  Along with Bartlett’s stolen base, Cliff Floyd swiped 2^nd and ended up on 3^rd on the throwing error by catcher Matt Treaner. 

The key to this victory was multi layered.  First the pitching staff allowed 0 walks.  The Fish hit the ball well as evidenced by the 3 2B and 1 3B they bagged off Sonnanstine.  Not allowing free passes prevented scoring opportunities.  Nice job pitching staff! 

Second, the Rays were aggressive on the base paths.  Several of those stolen bases led to Rays runs on the next pitch or 2.  They have the speed, and even those that don’t have the speed can properly pick the time.  This places this team in a great situation to win!

Third, great defense once again.  A few outstanding plays and the routine plays were made to look routine.  Keep it up guys!

See you at The Trop!
 

The tide is turning in the AL East!  The Tampa Bay Rays are setting all sorts of team records this season and don’t show any signs of letting up.  Scott Kazmir (5-1) won his 5^th game in the month of May to set a new mark for the Rays.  Kazmir’s line for the game included 7 innings pitched, 6 strike outs while only allowing 3 hits.  Kazmir also picked Joe Crede off 2^nd base to aid his own cause.  Kazmir lowered his ERA to a mere 1.22 in front of a packed house (36,048). 

The bullpen did their job as well in the 8^th and 9^th with JP Howell striking out Jim Thome and Carlos Quentin with a runner on to end the Sox threat in the 8^th.  With this shutout the Tampa Bay Rays also find themselves tied (Cleveland) for the league lead in shutouts with 7 – how sweet it is!

Carl Crawford was the lone Ray with multiple hits going 2 for 3, 2B, BB and another stolen base.  Cliff Floyd smashed another bomb for 1 RBI and BJ Upton had the other RBI. 

My Strikeout of the game goes to:   Carlos Pena — 1 for 4 with 3 Ks.  His lone hit was a 2B to lead off the inning and he promptly made a base running blunder to get thrown out at 3^rd base.  Even when he hits well he still manages to muck it up. 

My Home Run of the game goes to:  Scott Kazmir – the guy is a stud!  Look at his line – that says it all.  Nice job!

Congrats to the fans in the Tampa Bay area for getting off their couch and getting to The Trop!  Keep it going!

See you at the ball park!

In an evening that was clearly a pitchers duel it was the long ball that was the deciding factor.  Cliff Floyd hit a bomb of Sox reliever Scott Linebrink in the bottom of the 9^th for the walk-off victory.  James Shields threw a strong 6 innings giving up 7 hits, 1 earned run, 6 strike outs and only 1 base on balls.  The bullpen closed it out with a strong performance of 3 innings and only 1 hit. The Sox had their chances to score stranding 8 runners on base.

Great to see the Rays get aggressive on the base paths with stolen bases from Akinori Iwamura and BJ Upton.  BJ Upton had a good night at the plate going 1 for 2 with 2 bases on balls and knocking in the other run.  Akinori Iwamura was the only Ray to have a multi-hit game going 2 for 4 at the dish and scoring the other run.   Upton also turned a defensive blunder into an outfield assist by throwing out AJ Pierzynski on a ball that fell in short center field between 3 Ray defenders.

Nice to see the Rays rebound from a lackluster performance Thursday evening with a strong pitching and defensive showing.  Rays still sit atop the AL East alone with the Red Sox 1 game back.  Tonight’s game features another great pitching match up — Kazmir (4-1, 1.50) going against Vazquez (5-3, 3.52).  First pitch at 6:10pm with no TV today so GET TO THE TROP!

See you there!!!

Starting pitcher Matt Garza was on the top of his game on Wednesday as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Texas Rangers 5-3.  Garza improved his record to 4-1 on the season after tossing eight strong innings.  He only allowed four hits and two runs while striking out 10 Rangers batters.

Things got a little shaky in the ninth inning for the Rays however as Troy Percival gave up a hit and one run while recording two outs before leaving the game with some sort of foot/leg injury.  Dan Wheeler then came in to record the final out and pick up his first save of the season.

The fifth inning was the big inning for the Rays at the plate as the scored four runs.  Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, and Cliff Floyd all had rbi in the fifth inning. B.J. Upton also had one rbi in the game which came in the first inning.  Upton had a stolen base to go along with his rbi as well.

The Rays are now a half game up on the Boston Red Sox for first place pending the Red Sox game tonight.  Rays Blog

The Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics played thirteen innings on Monday night and it was the Rays who came out on top with a 7-6 victory.  Evan Longoria hit a two run home run in the top of the 13th inning to provide the game winning runs for the Rays.

Longoria finished the game with the rbi as he also had a rbi double in the sixth inning.  Eric Hinske had a two run home run in the fifth inning to finish with two rbi.  Akinori Iwamura and Cliff Floyd both had a rbi in the game as well.

Jason Hammel pitched three innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.  Hammel is now 3-2 on the season.  It was the first time in the last 11 games that Hammel got to see action in a game and he responded very well.  Troy Percival recorded his 12th save of the season as he gave up one run before recording all three outs in the 13th inning.

Starting pitcher James Shields pitched 7 2/3 innings as he gave up eight hits and five runs.  Shields ended up getting a no decision in the game.

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Wow, what a win for the Tampa Bay Rays!  They defeated the New York Yankees 13-4 at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.  It took a big seven run 8th inning to put the nail in the coffin but the Rays came away with the big victory!

The Rays got off to a great start as they got out to a 5-0 lead after the top of the third inning but then the Yankees came back and scored four runs in the bottom half to make the score 5-4.  There was no more scoring for either team until the 8th inning and that is when the Rays put up seven more runs to extend their lead and never look back.

Pretty much every batter for the Rays had atleast two hits so it was a combined effort that got the win.  Carlos Pena did have three RBI while Cliff Floyd and Jason Bartlett both had two RBI.  Other players contributing with an RBI each were Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, and Eric Hinske.

Andy Sonnanstine picked up the win after pitching six innings.  He did give up four earned runs so he will need to control that during his next start.  Usually if a Rays pitcher gives up four earned runs they are going to lose, but tonight they had enough offense to get by the mighty Yankees.

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