Price Struggles Again, Rays Fall 4-2
Tampa Bay Rays lefthander David price struggled once again this evening as he couldn’t seem to find the strikezone for his second outing. Price gave up 3 earned runs in 7 innings pitched, but his pitch count was high once again. Price threw 113 pitches in 7 innings and only 64 went for strikes. Last week, Price found himself in a hole but was able to escape with a win, tonight Price recorded his second loss of the season to run his record to 7-2. His record is deceiving because he’s struggling on the mound right now. He doesn’t appear to have his confidence he had early on in the season.
Evan Longoria was about 4 inches away from recording another home run this evening, as he went 2-3 with 1 RBI. BJ Upton returned to the lineup in the 7 spot and did get a triple early and a walk, but the Rays as a team continued to struggle offensively at home. During this home stand the Rays are batting .185 as a team. The strong starting pitching is keeping the Rays on top of the AL East currently, but they have to get these bats firing up again.
Saturday’s game will see Chicago’s John Danks (4-3 2.37) up against Tampa’s Wade Davis (4-4 4.01) Danks has a 5-1 overall record against the Tampa Bay Rays, so this will be another struggle Saturday night.
The bats have to come alive Rays fans. Too many runners left in scoring position and this has to improve or the Rays will find themselves looking up at the AL East leader.
RaysCentral looks Around the Internet
As the writer of RaysCentral.com, I take a spin around the internet and see what other bloggers are writing about from time to time. I thought I’d share a few of the sites I visit with my readers.
One site I really enjoy is the dockoftherays.com for the Fanball Network. The site belongs to Jason Collette, who is a stat magnet who I Twitter with from time to time during the Rays games. Jason crunches the numbers unlike most bloggers I’ve read. He penned this column prior to the start of the three game Rays homestand with the Red Sox. It’s very good work.
Another site I enjoy visiting, is the draysbay.com site. Drays is a part of the SBNation Network and they do some great work over there. They give some great insight and analysis.
Of course, there must be a link to the St Pete Times site, not always the latest news, but there is some interesting commentary regarding the Rays from time to time.
While I’m not encouraging you to abandon Rayscentral.com, I did want to share with you some of the sites I visit to read opinions about our favorite team, the Tampa Bay Rays. So, after you read my opinion here, go on over and give some of these sites a try.
And don’t forget, you can still vote for your favorite Rays on MLB.com for the All-Star game. Several Rays are in the running.
Burrell Talking to Giants?
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting the the Giants are speaking with former Tampa Bay Ray Designated Hitter, Player, 9 million dollar mistake, Pat Burrell.
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I was going to hold this until I gave a game re-cap this evening, but it couldn’t wait. The author of the Giants Splash blog on the Chronicle website reports the Giants are offering Burrell a no-risk contract that would bring the Bay area native back to his home region. That’s FANTASTIC! He gets to possibly play for the Giants this year while Tampa Bay absorbs what’s left of his bloated, stupid assed contract.
I just about fell out of my chair upon reading the bloggers comments, “Burrell is not considered a strong defensive player. I realize that Burrell falls into the “lightening in a bottle” category.” Are you kidding me? Lightening in a bottle? He’s more like a lit fart under the sheets at summer camp.
Burrell was brought in to Tampa because he averaged a home run nearly every 16 AB’s against left handed pitching and never hit 1 in over 600 bats in Tampa. If that qualifies as Lightening in a bottle, then the game really has passed me by.
Good luck San Fran. If you want a guy who can’t play in the outfield, doesn’t throw very well, won’t steal a base and is a solid .200 hitter, then Pat “The Bat” Burrell is your man. And don’t feel too bad about not having to pay him, he’s already collected over 60 million dollars in his past two contracts. Is the Giants farm system so depleted that they can’t find someone to bring up from AAA ball who is a more complete ballplayer?
Niemann Still Perfect 5-0
The Tampa Bay Rays put their three game losing streak behind them last night as the won the first game of a 4 game series against the Chicago White Sox 5-1. Jeff Niemann continued his strong pitching this year collecting his 5th win.
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The lanky right hander has been solid this year for the Rays. Last night’s game was a snapshot of how the season has gone so far for Jeff. 8 innings, 1 earned run, 5 strikeouts and he continued to lower his ERA to 2.37 which is second lowest in the AL. Niemann has not allowed more than 3 earned runs in any start this year and only took 94 pitches to record the win.
The Rays have a couple questions which they are in dire need of answers for.
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Have you seen me? should be B.J. Uptons’ nickname. In Upton’s last 6 games, he’s had 15 plate appearances which have resulted in 7 strike outs and a .067 batting average. Upton sat out Thursday night’s game with manager Joe Maddon hoping the time off will help Upton’s bat. While B.J.’s defensive skills won’t keep him out of the lineup for long, but his batting average is creating a giant hole in the middle of the batting order. Tampa will continue to hold out hope that Upton’s bat will get hot down the line, but he’s currently batting 50 points under his career average of .262.
The second problem facing the Rays will be what to do with C Kelly Shoppach when he comes off the DL. Shoppach was catching a few of the Rays starters at practice a few days ago and will begin his rehab assignment with the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs very soon. Shoppach went down very early on in the season with a knee injury and the Rays recalled John Jaso from Durham as a stop gap measure. The Rays management wasn’t prepared for the version the saw of Jaso in April. He’s been an offensive force with the bat. In 75 AB’s, he’s collected 24 hits, 4 doubles, 2 HR’s, driven in 18 runs and has drawn 16 walks while hitting for a .320 average.
I’ve thought all along that Jaso could possibly replace Navarro as the full-time catcher, and might possibly do that next year as Navy’s contract is up at the finish of this year. The club will most likely designate Shoppach for assignment and hope he clears waivers for a spot in AAA Durham as an emergency catcher for the Rays.
Upton remains the biggest mystery though. It is a long season and one would hope that he can pick up his batting average a bit though as the season continues because in order to make a serious run into the 2010 playoffs, they will need a consistent bat in the middle of the order.
A Sweep in the Wrong Direction
Coming into the three game home series with the Boston Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays held a sizable lead over their AL East opponents. Now after acting like a JV squad on the field, the Rays find themselves right back to a meager lead of three games over the Yankees and they just let the damned Red Sox right back into the mix at 5 1/2 games back.
Other than the complete collapse of starting pitching, leaving too many men on base in scoring position, 17 hits in 3 games, including a 1 hitter on Tuesday, the Rays can come away from this series with the Red Sox knowing they did not commit an error in three games. Brilliant!
Just as the Obama regime tells the media that “they have their boot on the throat of BP” in response to the oil spill in the Gulf, the Rays could have put their boot on the throat of the Red Sox and put them in a deep hole heading into June, and failed miserably. Instead the Yankees and Red Sox are right up there competing for the division lead, which has been held by the Rays for well over a month now. But it won’t be for long if this squad continues to play as they did the last three games. One Rays player who needs to get his head out of his ass is B.J. Upton. Upton sat out tonight’s match up, and there is good reason why. He’s batting .167 in the past 7 days. I am not an Upton fan. I don’t like his approach to the game, his off handed approach to playing the outfield at times, and he reads too many press releases about how great he’s going to be. B.J, you are batting .210. Slightly above your weight, so you’d be cool in little league, but what the hell are you doing?
So, just like every other Tampa Bay region sports team, the Rays have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and now have allowed the Yankees and Red Sox right back into the fold. They’ve proven that statistics mean nothing and Maddon better stick a propane torch up their asses before the 4 game series with the White Sox on Thursday or the Rays stellar start to the regular season could come crashing down by Monday.
