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!!

Wow – nice turn around from the previous evening!  Rays SP Scott Kazmir was awesome on the mound!  Kaz had a shaky first inning but came out firing in the 2^nd inning and through the rest of his 6 complete innings of work.  In the first he got ahead of a few batters then looked like he was pecking away at the corners rather than going after them.  He lost them and issued free passes.  He recovered to end the first inning unscathed.  He come out in the 2^nd inning and looking much more aggressive and confident.  In his 6 innings he only allowed 5 hits, 1 ER and 4 K’s while allowing 3 free passes (2 in the first inning).  Kaz had a lot of late movement on his pitches and was using his breaking ball to off set his fast ball!  His pitch speed was varying from 92 down to 78.  He locked the knees of many Red Sox hitters.  Kaz was the difference in this game – period!

The offense had a nice day at the dish as well.  Nice to see the first home runs of the season by Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria!  Carlos went dead center with his monster blast and Evan went down to drive his shot over the Green Monster.  

Here is the play of the game, a patent Maddon safety squeeze!  This took a few guys executing perfectly for this exciting play to work.  Gabe Kapler led off with a walk.  Next to the dish, Akinori Iwamura.  With Kapler running Aki slapped a single into the vacated #6 hole allowing Kapler to head to 3^rd.  That was a nice piece of opposite field hitting!  Jason Bartlett, probably the best bat handler on the team, then laid down a beautiful bunt to the first base side allowing Kapler to score form 3^rd.  These 3 guys executed everything perfectly in this entire sequence – it was beautiful!

I love this “NL” style of play – love to see the Rays burning up the base paths and laying down the safety squeeze – outstanding!

Aside from Kaz being the star of the game let me mention someone else who was quietly impressive in my mind, Gabe Kapler.  Gabe didn’t tear the cover off the ball, hit a HR, steal a base but he had a very nice game both offensively and defensively.  At the dish he was 1 for 3 with a run scored and a free pass.  He was the lead cog in the wheel that manufactured the run on the safety squeeze.  Defensively he played CF.  He made a few nice running catches on balls that were hit well over his head and to me that was most impressive.  I watched him just turn around and sprint for the fence then make a difficult play look easy.  He also had an assist by throwing out Youkilis at 2^nd base.  Nice job Gabe!

The Ray bullpen was outstanding expect for a little hiccup from JP Howell.  Grant Balfour earned the save by being an intense beast on the mound.  In the 9^th inning he threw 10 pitches -9 were fast balls.  He was pacing all around talking to himself – it was awesome!

Good to see the Rays play with some intensity and desire.  They wanted this game and it was obvious.  Today the Rays send the always hyper, intense Matt Garza to toe the rubber.  Matt will probably be hurdling the ball at about 200mph the first inning he’ll be so pumped!  Cannot wait until game time!