Rays Finally Back on the Road
The Tampa Bay Rays mercifully wrapped up a seven game homestand that saw the Rays go 2-5. A three game sweep by a team just starting to get hot and a series split with another who is 6 games under .500 at home. Cue the music.
[picappgallerysingle id="8483187"]James Shields was horrible on Sunday. He allowed 12 base runners in 5 1/3 innings and allowed 7 earned runs. Sunday wasn’t just Carlos Pena toothbrush holder giveaway day, it resembled more like turn back the clock day and the clock was set on 2005. BTW, did anyone get me a toothbrush holder? See what Shields had to say after the loss here.
Manager Joe Maddon was surprisingly upbeat after the loss yesterday, perhaps he couldn’t wait until the game was over and had indulged in his latest Cabernet early on in the 6th inning. The one good thing you could bring away from this 4 game series is that the bats have started to come around. Yesterday saw the top three spots in the lineup go 7-14 combined. And those 3 batters accounted for driving in 80% of the runs the Rays scored yesterday.
Jason Bartlett is still day to day with a tweaked hamstring injury, but the Rays incredible depth is making up for Bartlett’s loss so far. Reid Brignac is filling in for Bartlett and hit .429 in the last 4 games.
Sunday was a game of mind blowing plays. For instance in the 6th in Evan Longoria hit a ball up the 1st base line fielded by White Sox firstbaseman Paul Konerko. Longo decided to slide to first base under the tag. Konerko touched Longoria with his golve and was called out by the first base umpire. Problem was, the ball wasn’t in Konerko’s golve, it was in his other hand, therefore Evan should have been called safe.
Later on in the game, B.J. Upton hit one deep to right center. The ball was inches from going out of the park. A fan reached over to catch the ball, the ball went off the fans glove and right into White Sox left fielder Juan Pierre’s glove. Upton was called out. Uh, what happened to fan interference?
So now it’s off to Toronto for three. The BlueJays are a very dangerous offensive team and are leading the majors in homeruns currently. This is an especially meaningful three game series because Toronto of course is a division opponent trailing the Rays by just 4.5 games.
The Rays will send Matt Garza (5-3 2.97) to the bump tonight opposite Brandon Morrow (3-4 6.66) You’ve got to be weary of pitchers with the Antichrist ERA.
Rays manager Joe Maddon is always coming up with gimmicks for his players and always manages to come up with road trip travel themes, this week is no different. Click here to see what Maddon is up to this week.
Rays for Today Sunday 5/30
The lineup for the Rays final home game against the Chicago White Sox at 1pm today. Remember, if you are going to the game, snag me one of those Carlos Pena toothbrush holders. I want one BAD!
Zobrist rf
Crawford lf
Longoria 3b
Pena 1b
Jaso c
Aybar dh
Upton cf
Brignac ss
Rodriguez 2b
Here Wade Davis on last nights win over the White Sox.
Rays Win 8-5 but Questions Linger
The Tampa bay Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox tonight 8-5, and as the Rays scored some runs tonight, many questions remain as this team is leaving too many opportunities on the bases.
Tampa left 12 men on base tonight. They left the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, then again in the bottom of the 6th, eventually leaving 12 men on base this evening. It looked as if the Rays were going to leave a bases loaded situation again in the bottom of the 5th, until Sean Rodriquez laid down a bunt for another safety squeeze from third. Carlos Pena then had an opportunistic double to deep center and scored three.
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Jason Bartlett left the game with a tweaked right hamstring injury, Reid Brignac moved to short and Sean Rodriguez played 2B. Bartlett is day to day currently.If Bartlett needs to spend some time on the DL, Brignac will fill in nicely. He’s playing solid defense as well as handling the bat well, tonight going 2-4, scoring twice, drawing a walk and raising his BA to .301.
Evan Longoria had another huge night collecting 3 hits, two of which were doubles, scored and drove in a run. Upton also contributed to the hit parade tonight hitting his 6th homerun and drawing two walks.
The Rays crushed Chicago’s starter John Danks. Danks came into the game with a 2.37 ERA and had only given up 6 earned runs in 33 1/3 innings. Tonight, Danks was rocked for 8 earned runs in 4 innings and raised his ERA to 3.34. Danks is a quality pitcher who works quickly when he gets in a zone and tonight, Tampa kept him off base and sent him off to the showers early on.Wade Davis picked up his 5th win of the season.
Sunday, the White Sox put up Jake Peavy (3-4 6.05) up against James “Big Game” Shields (5-2 2.99)
If you are going to the game tomorrow and you have a child under the age of 14, could you please get me a Carlos Pena toothbrush holder? Tampa Bay has been awarded the best giveaways in 2010 by the website bizofbaseball.com. I’d love to have one of those toothbrush things.
A Ballsy Accusation Made about Longoria
Tampa Bay Rays 3B Evan Longoria has been accused of sending a picture of his penis via Facebook to a New England woman while he played in the Cape Cod League, Longoria played for the Chatham A’s in the summer of 2005. Longoria was named the league’s MVP and to the College Summer All-America Team.
News about the photo emerged this week when the woman in question made a blogpost on barstool sports about the photo and how it came to be in her possession. The long and short of it is, a woman named Jenna, claims that Longoria stalked her on Facebook and eventually sent a photo of his penis with the caption “Like that Babe” attached.
So for those of you not familiar with barstoolsports, it’s an all-Boston all the time sports site where the comments to stories are just a friendly and good natured as the Red Sox fans are when the visit the Trop. I wonder if my buddy Rob Duca is a visitor to the site?
Interesting that this story would come out as the Red Sox were playing the Rays. Jenna claims in her blog entry that she “must have a hundred dick photos in my email.” Atta girl, I’ll bet your parents are proud. And if that fact didn’t make her parents all warm and fuzzy, her use of the English language when describing anatomical positions just had to have them glowing.
So what was the motivation here? Did she walk by the television set while the Red Sox and Rays were playing, see Longoria and say, “I’ve got a picture of his penis, let’s post it online.” No there most likely is another motive involved.
One person commenting on barstoolsports under the blog post, allegedly claims that this is the Jenna who wrote the article. If it is, she certainly thinks she’s all that and entered a bikini contest. So whats next for the girl? Is she going to try to sue for damages? Is she hoping for some publicity because she’s applied to 12 different reality television shows? There has got to be a motive, there always is, you just don’t slap phallic photos on the internet for no reason. And if it’s not Longoria in the photo, I smell lawsuit sister.
I wonder if she knows Chris Cooley too?
Rays: No Place Worse Than Home
After having the best home record in 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays suddenly find their success reversed. The Rays still possess the best record in baseball at 33-16, they still lead the majors in run differential at +89 and are third in MLB in run scoring with 251 but they are not finding success at home.
Tampa’s success this season has been found on the road, where they are winning nearly 80% of their games with a 19-5 record. But for the Rays, the dome hasn’t felt like home this season, recording victories barely half the time with a 14-11 record. Tampa is coming off a home sweep by the Boston Red Sox where the bats fell silent and they only managed to score 4 runs in three games, one of those game a 1 hit shutout by Boston.And now, they find them selves 1-1 with the Chicago White Sox in the middle of a 4 game series. Tampa Bay needs these final two games against a weak Sox team who is 21-27 and 7 games out of first.
Good news for the Rays though, Chicago is trotting out lefthander John Danks against Wade Davis for the good guys tonight. The Rays have hit lefthanded pitching good so far this season, recording a 15-5 record against leftys. Then again, the game is at the Trop so all bets are off at this point.
Come on Maddon, swirl that batting order like it was a fine Merlot and work some magic, the home fans want to see some wins.
Watch David Price comment on last nights tough loss to the White Sox.
