Rays roll, 24 games over .500
The Tampa Bay Rays took advantage of Detroit Tigers spot starter, Eddie Bonine early on Wednesday night. Bonine on lasted 3.1 innings and gave up 8 hits and 5 earned runs. Jeff Niemann rebounded off his rain delayed last start in Cleveland and recorded his 9th win of the season. Grant Balfour pitched the 7th and Joaquin Benoit the 8th. Rafael Soriano came on in the 9th to record his 28th save of the season.Tampa won 7-4 and now have moved to 24 games above .500.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better set up man and closer than Benoit and Soriano right now in baseball.
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Tampa Bay posted 14 hits on Wednesday night, and everyone who started collected a hit. No one had a better night at the plate than 3B Evan Longoria who was 3-4 scored twice and drove in two. Those two RBI’s coming off a homerun in the bottom of the 8th which basically sealed the game for the Rays. The blast ends a 0-19 skid Longoria had been in.
The Rays lost super utility man Ben Zobrist, who left the game before the start of the 4th inning. Zobrist is listed as day to day with some stiffness in his back. Zobrist had been playing center field, replacing the injured BJ Upton who is nursing a sprained ankle.Upton might not return to the lineup until after this weekend’s series with the New York Yankees.
Thursday’s game is a rare 12:10pm start time and features David Price (13-5 2.90) squaring off against Rick Porcello (4-8 5.55)
Rays can take series tonight
The Tampa Bay Rays can take the series from the Detroit Tigers with a win tonight which would be their 5th consecutive victory. The Rays are sending Jeff Niemann (8-3 2.95) to the mound this evening. Niemann’s last start resulted in a loss against Cleveland on Friday night. Detroit is sending out a pitcher to start the game tonight who usually doesn’t see the mound until later innings. Eddie Bonine (4-0 2.72) is making a start tonight because of some scheduling issues surrounding the Tiger’s double header last Sunday which caused a log jam in the Tigers rotation. Detroit is on it’s longest road losing streak since 2005 and have lost 11 of their last 14 games. Detroit is 16-31 on the road overall in 2010.
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Injured in last night’s game, B.J. Upton is officially listed as day to day. We needed an official designation to tell us that? Upton is always day to day. Sometimes he’s inning to inning.
According to the St. Pete Times, Matt Garza wanted to buy Ben Zobrist a thank you gift for recording the final out of his no hitter on Monday night. Zobrist went all out with his request, a smoothie. He wanted a Tropical Smoothie Cafe, strawberry kiwi smoothie. Now that’s something you don’t hear every day.
Also from the Times, the Rays are currently in the midst of a streak of 21 consecutive scoreless innings, one shy of the all-time record which the club set in 2002.
Tampa needs to remain focused on the Tigers and not overlook these last two games. Tomorrow’s game is an afternoon game, with first pitch shortly after 12pm. It would be easy to overlook the Tigers with an all important three game series with the New York Yankees taking place this weekend.
Rays continue the ride, beat the Tigers 3-2
The Tampa Bay Rays faced one of the best pitchers in the American League tonight in Justin Verlander. Verlander only surrendered 5 hits but he also gave up 3 walks. Tampa is playing some lights out baseball right now, this reminds fans of how they were playing in April and May of this season. LF Carl Crawford stole 3 bases tonight to get to 37 on the year and Pena, who is still batting .205 hit his 22nd homerun.
James Shields, who has had his problems all season long, although giving up 9 hits, did strike out 7 and limited Detroit to 2 earned runs. The Rays managed to keep the Tigers in the game into the top of the 9th, while Rafael Soriano managed to throw over 30 pitches in the 9th, but got out of a bases loaded jam by getting Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera to hit into a double play to finish out the game.
Tampa now has a 61-38 record, and with the Yankees losing tonight, the Rays are only two games behind the Yankees , setting up a monster weekend series between the clubs. It’s been an electric couple of nights at the Trop! This weekend will be even better.
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Rays finally on right side of no-hitter
Tampa Bay Rays fans have seen their share of no-hitters recently with the Rays being on the receiving end of all of them. Finally on Monday night, the Rays recorded their first ever no hitter with Matt Garza tossing his first. Garza improved his record to 11-5. Maybe Matt was visiting RaysCentral this week and read my article on the Garza-Bartlett/Delmon Young trade and decided to leave his own comment on the piece. Garza needed 120 pitches for the complete game, with 80 pitches going for strikes.
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Tampa is now the 3rd time in major league history to be involved in 3 no hitters in the same season. The other two no hitters were tossed against the Rays by former Tampa pitcher Edwin Jackson and Oakland’s Dallas Braden. Last night’s no hitter was the first time in 37 years that two no hitters were pitched in the same ballpark as well.
Offensively, the Rays only managed three hits themselves but made the most of them. Matt Joyce smacked a homerun, his third of the year. Not just a home run, but a grand slam, Joyce’s second of the year. Then in the 8th, Carl Crawford launched a bomb 423 feet to center field.
So kudos to you Mr. Garza, way to go and you now will forever have your name in the Tampa Bay Rays record book. In case you missed it, here are the highlights-
