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!

The Tampa Bay Rays opened a 4 game set with the Chicago White Sox Thursday night losing 3-2.  The games SP Jeff Niemann pitched well and had it not been for1 pitch that he missed his location may have been a winner.  Niemann left a pitch over the heart of the plate to Dye who promptly deposited into the seats for a 2-0 lead.  The White Sox never looked back.  The Rays BP had a much better outing although they did give up an insurance run in the 9^th.  Lance Cormier pitched 2.1 innings and Grant Balfour came in to strike out a few Sox to end a threat in the 9^th.  Balfour looked a bit more like his old self pacing around the mound yelling at him self.  That’s been missing in his game to this point so it was great to see it! 

The offense struggled against a decent outing for John Danks.  The Rays were 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.  Here‘s the thing, Danks pitched well but the Rays gave up some easy outs.  They were swinging at pitches that were not close to the zone and first pitch swinging in some key situations.  They really need to find their plate discipline and work the pitch count to find a pitch they can do something with. The Rays went through similar times last year and they’ve managed to work them out.  I expect to see that happen again this year.  On a good note, Carlos Pena blasted his 5^th long ball.  Pena is seeing the ball well and selecting good pitches to hit. 

The Rays need to start putting all the facets of their game together now.  Time to start working out the bugs, so to speak.  Getting on into week 2 of this young season you don’t want to fall too far behind the leader, especially in the tough AL East.

James Shields takes to the bump Friday and will be looking to right this ship!  I expect to see the stands packed with Rays fans cheering and yelling and silencing any White Sox supporters that may be in attendance!

See you at The Trop!