How do you hit 5 HR, score 8 runs and lose a game in MLB? I’ll tell you how – bad pitching! The Tampa Bay Rays gave the Twins the first game of this 4 game set by letting them off the hook in the 9th inning. But, we really should start at the beginning with our SP James Shields. Shieldsy was not sharp and pitched into and out of trouble through 6 1/3 innings. He gave up 8 hits, one of which was a first inning 3-run bomb, and 2 free passes that equated 6 ER. David Price made his second appearance of the season giving up a 2 run single to Joe Mauer before striking out the final 2 batters to complete the 7th inning. Troy Percival looked good in his return to the bump by pitching a solid 8th inning.

The big hurt came in the 9th inning when Dan Wheeler gave up a 2 run blast to tie the game at 8. Wheels then allowed the next 2 runners on base while garnering no outs. Those runs eventually came around to score giving the Twins a total of 5 runs scored in the 9th inning for a well earned victory. This is what the Rays usually do – it has not been done to us!

Evan Longoria lit up the Twins pitching staff blasting 3, that’s right 3, home runs! He clearly has recovered the eye he had before his stint on the DL and that was GREAT to see! Dioner Navarro and Carlos Pena chipped in with taters of their own giving the Rays a total of 5 for the game. As a matter of fact, the Rays were swinging the bats really well! They added doubles by Ben Zobrist and Gabe Gross to give them a total of 7 extra base hits out of their 9 hit total!

Great offense was derailed by poor pitching in this game. It is a bit of a concern that bad pitching has found its way to The Trop for the 2nd time this week. The first game of the Boston series being the other bad pitching performance this week. I have to also question the Price move. Here are the facts. Price is LHP, Mauer hits better off LHP and the pitch called was thrown right into an optimal location for Mauer to take full advantage, which he did by hitting a 2 run single and breaking the tie in the 9th. It is clear this was a questionable decision to bring Price into the game. Even if Price had elicited an out from Mauer the move must be questioned. Wonder who was reading what charts? Why would Navi call for a pitch right in his wheel house?

Oh well, a loss, no matter how painful to watch, is still a mere loss to this team. They will come out firing on all cylinders tonight. Edwin Jackson is due for an outstanding performance and tonight is the night!

See you at The Trop!

Wahoo, what an awesome come from behind win for the Tampa Bay Rays as they scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4. After giving up two runs in the bottom of the eighth, the Rays came back with a solo home run from Dan Johnson to tie the game, and then Dioner Navarro doubled in the go ahead and winning run. The Rays are now up 1.5 games on the Red Sox in the division.

Starting pitcher Scott Kazmir didn’t last very long as he pitched six innings and gave up five hits and two runs. Kazmir ended up with the no decision while Dan Wheeler grabbed the win to improve his record to 4-5. Wheeler did blow the save but was lucky enough to get the win. Troy Percival pitched the ninth inning to record his 28th save of the season as he shut down the Red Sox in the ninth inning.

The Rays and Red Sox will play once again on Wednesday night as the Rays look to take two out of three on the road against the Sox. They will then be off on Thursday before heading to New York for a weekend series with the Yankees. Let’s go get em Rays!

Edwin Jackson pitched a strong 7 innings giving up 6 hits and 1 ER to earn his 11^th victory for the Rays this season.  The Rays did what they have done all season long and took another series!   Dan Wheeler notched his 10^th save of the season as well.

The story of this game was the long ball and awesome defense.  The Rays collected 10 hits in total, half of which were for extra bases.  Akinori Iwamura smacked 2 doubles, Gabe Gross chipped in with a stand up triple, while Cliff Floyd and Willy Aybar blasted solo bombs!    

Eric Hinske laid out for an extra base saving catch in the top of the first inning!  Hinske still has some giddy up in those legs.  And for the second night in a row a Ray defender made Sportscenter’s 10 Top Plays.  Great job!

Today I purchased my postseason tickets!  I’m so excited!  This is going to be awesome!  The Rays are hosting the Baltimore Orioles this Labor Day weekend while the Red Sox will be hosting the Chicago White Sox.  We may look to pick up and additional game or 2 in the standings!   

Get to The Trop and enjoy a GREAT family experience together!  If you haven’t been top The Trop lately the new Rays front office has improved the family friendly atmosphere tremendously since they have taken over. 

Cheer on your Rays! 

Wow! What a game it was! Matt Garza pitched another GREAT game holding the, as of late, potent Blue Jay lineup to 0 run in 7 2/3 innings pitched. He surrendered 6 hits and 3 free passes but earned 5 K’s en route to his 11th victory. Blue Jay SP Purcey was equally impressive. He gave up only 5 hits in a CG but one of those hits was a towering blast by Carlos Pena (27) to put the only score of the night on the board. It was an impressive game by both SP.

Dan Wheeler earned his 9th save of the season with the help of LF Justin Ruggiano. Ruggiano tracked a blast to the LF wall in the top of the 9th. He leapt high and snatched the ball off the top of the wall preserving the save. It was awesome! With 2 out Barajas stepped to the plate and the Ray fans stood to cheer on the final out. When he hit that ball The Trop went silent. You could hear a pin drop! It seemed like the ball was in slow motion to the wall as we all gasped. It took Ruggiano rolling off the wall and holding up his glove indicating the catch for The Trop to explode! It was an awesome play.

This was the type of win that championship teams have! The only disappointment this entire night was the crowd — a measly 12,600. Are you kidding me! To see the first place Rays only 12,600 people could find their way to The Trop??!! The players are now calling our fans an embarrassment (Kaz on Rome is Burning). He is absolutely right! For years everyone yelled about having a winning team. Guess what – YOU HAVE ONE! So what is the excuse now……..gas is too expensive (it just went down), too expensive to go (you can get an $11 ticket – eat before you go), don’t want to drive over the bridge (there are cabs now offering FREE rides back and forth to the game from Tampa), go to the Rays message board (raysbaseball.com > fans message boards) and hook up with other fans in your area to share rides, on and on. There is no good excuse! This “fan base” is a disgrace to this team! Get over yourselves and get to The Trop – this is what you have been waiting for!

Yes, you read correct!  With bases loaded in the bottom of the 9^th and MLB RBI king Josh Hamilton stepping to the plate Joe Maddon signaled for 4, 4 pitches outside to intentionally walk in run #3.  The move paid big dividends as Dan Wheeler recorded a K on Marlon Byrd for the save right after the walk.  Nice move Joe!!

Scott Kazmir recorded his 9^th victory this season.  He pitched a solid 6 innings holding the potent Ranger offense virtually silent.  Although he again had a high pitch count, 114, he only allowed 2 ER on 4 hits while giving up 4 free passes.  Kaz also racked u p 7 strike outs.  He said he felt much better after this start so hopefully this means he’ll pull it altogether just in time for the stretch run and on into the playoffs.

The offensive burst came in the form of extra base hits.  Out of 10 total hits for the Rays 6 were for extra bases.  Carlos Pena belted a 3-run shot and BJ Upton knocked a 2-run shot.  Adding to the extra base parade were 2Bs by Upton, Eric Hinske, Gabe Gross and Willy Aybar. 

The bullpen was a bit of a concern.  Juan Salas appeared for the first time and promptly gave up 2 ER on 1 hit and 1 BB.  Grant Balfour followed him and gave up 3 BB in just a third of an inning.   Balfour really needs to find a second pitch.  His fastball is lights out but when that’s all he’s throwing these professional hitters are going to catch up to it.  Last night his control was clearly not good with the fastball.  It would be nice to see him add something else to his arsenal.  

The Rays finally go home with a very successful 7-3 road trip.  Yes, these weren’t the best teams in the league they faced but isn’t that the point, beat the teams you should?  Well, they did.  They also improved their road record to 30-31, best in the Al East at this point.   The Rays are home for a possible 3 (depends upon TS Fay) game set against LAA.  Then back to the road for 3 against the CWS.  These 6 games will say a lot about the current state of this team.  Now they are playing the best the league has to offer.  This is where the affect of injuries will show themselves or not…..up to the guys playing between the lines.

The starting pitching was bad but the offense bailed the Rays out to notch the 70^th victory – our franchise high – on Aug 9^th.  Matt Garza pitched in and out of trouble in all of his 5 2/3 innings pitched.  Trouble began in the bottom of the first with the first batter as Ichiro quickly deposited a Garza pitch in to the right field seats.  Garza allowed 10 hits, 5 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB while striking out 5.  Joe Maddon had to burn 6 relievers in this game which always leaves everyone praying that the next day’s SP can go deep to allow the BP to rest.  Sunday’s SP is Edwin Jackson. Problem is you never know what you’re getting from E-Jax from start to start so we’ll have to be positive and hope he can remain focused for an effective, deep start.

The offense for the Rays woke up in the 6^th.  To that point the score was 5-1 Mariners.  Every position in the Rays batting order, except 1, had a hit in this game.  All totaled the Rays offense knocked out 13 hits and collected 8 free passes.  Gabe Gross blasted his 9^th HR of the season.  BJ Upton and Carl Crawford each collected 2 RBI’s.\ 

Something to keep an eye on is Dan Wheeler’s response to his last 2 outing.  Wheels took the loss in game one of this series.  Tonight he blew the save sending the game into extra innings.  Chances are slim Wheels will pitch tonight as well but it’ll be nice to see him toe the rubber against Oakland and right his own personal ship. 

This again was a nice overall team effort!  Being down by up to 5 runs this team never gave up.  Another great victory!

The Rays opened their 4 game series with the Seattle Mariners riding the high of the walk off HR by Carlos Pena the night before.  Well, the tables were turned when Raul Ibanez smacked a HR in the bottom of the 9^th off Dan Wheeler to earn the walk off victory for the Mariners.

This game was about the art of pitching!  Both Andy Sonnanstine and Felix Hernandez had their best pitches working tonight.  Sonny scattered 5 hits over 7.1 innings of awesome work giving up only 1 ER, 4 K’s and 0 BB.  At one point in the game Sonny had retired 17 straight Mariners.  Unfortunately for Sonny Hernandez was just as impressive holding the Ray’s bats at bay for 8 complete innings.   

The Rays offense managed only 5 hits and 1 run scored on a wild pitch.  Sonny got himself in a little trouble in the 7^th allowing a lead off double eventually to score the tying run.  Dan Wheeler hung a split finger to Ibanez on a 1-2 count and he promptly deposited it in the right field seats for the walk off victory. 

It’s too bad for Sonny that Hernandez was just as effective.  This was Sonny’s best game in a while by far and he deserved to win it.  But, we all know that’s not the way it always works.  James Shields will toe the rubber tonight for the Rays and set his sights on earning a W!

The Tampa Bay Rays banged out 10 hits, including 2 HRs, and scored 6 runs Saturday night en route to a series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays!  The Rays sleeping beast – their offense – appears to have come out of hibernation.  Evan Longoria led the charge blasting his first career GRAND SLAM in the 6th inning.  Cliff Floyd added another HR to dead centerfield on the first pitch he saw in the 8^th.      

Until the 6^th inning the game was locked in a pitchers duel between Matt Garza and Roy Halladay.  Garza pitched an almost flawless game.  The only marks against him were 2 hits in 7.2 innings which included 6 K’s!  He was outstanding against a tough hitting Toronto team.   

The ineffective bullpen made the game interesting allowing the Jays 4 runs on 5 hits in the 9^th inning!  The Rays ended up using 3 pitchers in the 9^th inning alone.  Trever Miller, Al Reyes and Dan Wheeler were off the hook when Wheeler eventually managed to shut the door.

Great to see the bats come alive!  The Rays also put a lot of pressure on the defense by lying down several bunts. Akinori Iwamura and Dioner Navarro took the defense by surprise and beat out bunts for base hits. Adding the bunt to the Rays offense is going to put a ton of pressure on opposing defenses and they need to KEEP DOING IT!   

Great game and looking forward to another today!  Get out to The Trop!  See you there!

The Tampa Bay Rays failed to get the sweep of the Kansas City Royals when they lost the last game of the series 7-4 in 10 innings.  Matt Garza pitched 6 2/3 but was in and out of trouble all day.  He gave up 9 hits, 2BB, 3 ER and had 5 K’s.  He did manage to wriggle out of trouble a few times to keep the Rays close.  Dan Wheeler gave up 4 runs (3 earned, E5) on 2 HR and 1 IBB in the top of the 10^th to seal the victory for the Royals.                                                       

The pitching was good enough to win this game.  It was the offense that struggled mightily.  The Rays banged out 11 hits and 4 BB and failed to get the timely hit when needed.  Several times they had multiple runners in scoring position and failed to advance the runners.  Overall as a team they stranded 12 runners.  They also managed to strike out 12 times.  Carlos Pena tied the game in the bottom of the 9^th with a blast to right field to give the Rays hope.  But their hopes were quickly dashed when the top of the 10^th began with an unlikely Evan Longoria throwing error allowing the runner to advance to 2^nd.  The Royals never looked back….

The Rays now take their show to NY to face the Yankees in a short 2 game series.  Here are your pitching matchups: 

July 8 – Scott Kazmir (7-3, 2.63) vs. Sidney Ponson (5-1, 4.19)

July 9 – Edwin Jackson (5-6, 4.08) vs.  TBA

The lack of situational hitting MUST improve for the Rays to continue to lead the AL East.  The lack of production will “sting” them at some point and could prove to be the hurdle they must jump to get to the next level.  This game is the perfect example of what can potentially happen, we lost to a bad team in the Royals – what do you think would happen if we were playing a good team say in October…… 

Now, go turn on ESPN and route for the Twins!

Going into the series finally the big story was ace vs. ace…Kazmir vs. Matsuzaka. Funny thing is neither figured in the decision. The story turned from pitching to offense with a few incredible plays mixed in.

The story was the 7th inning….period. The game until that point was all about Dustin Pedroia. He had a HR, 2B and multiple RBIs. The Rays offense stole the headline from him beginning with one swing of Jason Bartlett’s bat. Bartlett led off the bottom of the 7th with a 2B down the right field line. He then promptly stole 3rd, and that wasn’t even close. Akinori Iwamura then hit a little squibber to 1st base but the BoSox pitcher failed to get off the mound and Aki beat him to 1st. Bartlett scored to cut the lead to 4-2. The flood gates then opened as the BoSox bullpen imploded. The BoSox bullpen allowed 6 ER in the bottom of the 7th. Dan Wheeler made sure that was all the Rays needed.

Evan Longoria was 3 for 4 with a huge 2B in that amazing 7th inning, 1 run scored and 3 RBI’s. Jason Bartlett was equally impressive at the dish going 2 for 4 with two huge 2 RBI’s, a run scored and a stolen base in that 7th inning. Carl Crawford added 3 hits and a run scored to the hit parade.

Two GREAT plays in the top of the 9th helped seal the victory. With runners on 1st and 3rd and the Sox down by 2 Kevin Youkilis drilled a pitch to dead center field. It clearly looked like the Sox were about to tie the game with a shot to the wall. BJ Upton made a Willie Mays type over the shoulder catch to secure the first out of the inning! It was amazing! Mike Lowell remained at first as the score was now 7-6 with 1 out. For some reason the BoSox thought a hit and run would be a good idea at this point. Let me set the stage properly – on 1st base is the less than speedy Lowell and at the dish is the .216 batting Varitek. Dioner Navarro threw a STRIKE to 2nd base to nail Lowell – I mean he was out before he even reached the bag! Wheeler then threw a beautiful pitch that Varitek watched for the 3rd strike! The Trop erupted!

What an amazing series! I’m exhausted for cheering so hard – good thing today is an off day! The Rays are now 20 GAMES ABOVE .500! They are 3.5 GAMES ABOVE THE RED SOX IN FIRST PLACE IN THE AL EAST! Good things come to those who wait and this is GREAT!

The Rays will welcome the KC Royals to the The Trop for a 4 game series beginning Friday evening (5:10 start). Go Rays!!!