Apr 26
D-Rays 4, New York 2, 10 innings. Carl Crawford returned to the team in a big way last night. Crawford drove in the go-ahead run off of Mariano Rivera with a double in the tenth inning. The win ended the Rays 4 game winning streak. Tampa did everything they could to give the game away as Devil Rays pitchers walked 14. The Yankees weren’t very appreciative as they mangaed to strand 16 baserunners. In fact New York had the leadoff batter reach base each of the first five innings, but only managed to bring one of those home off of Gary Sheffield’s two-run home run in the 5th. The two teams will battle in the rubber match as Mark Hendrickson returns to the rotation for the first time since his 3-hit shutout the first week of the season.
Cleveland 7, Boston 1. Tim Wakefield got shelled as he gave up 5 runs in 5.2 innings dropping his record to 1-4. Boston’s only offense came from Willy Mo Pena’s solo home run.
Toronto 8, Baltimore 2. Toronto continues to hit the bejeezus out of the ball as they pull within one game of division-leading Boston. The Jays got 3 hits from 3 different players, including Vernon Wells who hit 2 home runs and drove in 3. The Orioles have lost 4 straight.
Apr 26
Durham 6, Pawtucket 2. Hidden by the comotion surrounding the Delmon Young “incident“, was a strong performance by Elijah Dukes. Dukes was 2-3 and hit 2 home runs, his 3rd and 4th of the season. He now has 5 hits in his last two games and appears to have emerged from his early season slump. B. J. Upton was also 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI.
Montgomery 8, Birmingham 3. A big game from 2B Elliot Johnson. He was 3-5 with 2 doubles, his 4th home run of the season and 6 RBI. CF Jason Pridie was 1-3 and is hitting .262.
Lancaster 10, Visalia 6. SS Reid Brignac was 0-4 with a walk and run scored. More importantly, he did not commit an error. He is now hitting .368.
Burlington 8, SW Michigan 1. Nothing good to report here. We just can;t get into this today. Can’t get over the Galactically Stupid Delmon Young.
Apr 26
During tonight’s Durham Bull’s game, Devil Rays top prospect Delmon Young threw his bat which subsequently hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young had just been ejected after arguing with the umpire about a called-third strike. There is no word yet if Young intentionally threw the bat at the umpire. Either way, he is facing a suspension. If the action was intentional, the suspension will be lengthy.
This is bound to be a very public story for two reasons. First, Young is considered the top prospect in all baseball. Second, the umpire that Young hit was a replacement umpire as the minor league umpires are currently on strike.
Highly-touted prospect throws bat at umpire [Yahoo! Sports]
Apr 26
The D-Rays placed 2B Jorge Cantu on the 15-day DL today. For those of you that have been following Jorge’s blog on mlb.com this is not a surprise as Cantu mentioned in his most recent post that the foot was not getting any better. Now comes news that he has a broken bone on the top of his foot. Once again, we must state very emphatically to the Devil Rays front office…DO NOT, under any circumstances call up Delmon Young or B. J. Upton until this curse is lifted. In the meantime maybe the team should try cutting off the head of a live chicken or even an injured chicken to remove the curse. Quite frankly we are getting tired of reporting all the bad news and injuries. One way or another, we promise to have so good news tomorrow, even if it means we have to sucker punch Julian Tavarez.
Cantu placed on disabled list with broken bone in foot [Yahoo! Sports]
An injury update [Jorge Cantu's World]
Apr 26
During tonight’s Durham Bull’s game, Devil Rays top prospect Delmon Young threw his bat which subsequently hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young had just been ejected after arguing with the umpire about a called-third strike. There is no word yet if Young intentionally threw the bat at the umpire. Either way, he is facing a suspension. If the action was intentional, the suspension will be lengthy.
This is bound to be a very public story for two reasons. First, Young is considered the top prospect in all baseball. Second, the umpire that Young hit was a replacement umpire as the minor league umpires are currently on strike.
Highly-touted prospect throws bat at umpire [Yahoo! Sports]
Apr 26
The D-Rays placed 2B Jorge Cantu on the 15-day DL today. For those of you that have been following Jorge’s blog on mlb.com this is not a surprise as Cantu mentioned in his most recent post that the foot was not getting any better. Now comes news that he has a broken bone on the top of his foot. Once again, we must state very emphatically to the Devil Rays front office…DO NOT, under any circumstances call up Delmon Young or B. J. Upton until this curse is lifted. In the meantime maybe the team should try cutting off the head of a live chicken or even an injured chicken to remove the curse. Quite frankly we are getting tired of reporting all the bad news and injuries. One way or another, we promise to have so good news tomorrow, even if it means we have to sucker punch Julian Tavarez.
Cantu placed on disabled list with broken bone in foot [Yahoo! Sports]
An injury update [Jorge Cantu's World]
Apr 26
Durham 4, Pawtucket 0. Another strong start for Chris Seddon. Seddon went 6 giving up 4 hits, 1 walk and allowing no runs and striking out 3. He improves to 3-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.17. Elijah Dukes had his best day of the young season going 3-4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. He is now batting .288. Delmon Young had a double and went 1-5. B. J. Upton was 0-3 with 2 walks and had his 9th error of the season. The throwing error, ended his streak of 4 straight errorless games. Upton’s streak was just 106 games short of the Major League record of 110 consecutive errorless games by a shortstop, set by Mike Bordick in 2002.
Mississippi 9, Montgomery 6. C Ryan Christianson hit a pair of home runs and drove in 4 for the Biscuits who dropped the final game of this 5-game series. Marcos Carvajal, who came over in a trade earlier this season from Seattle pitched a scoreless 9th. Carvajal, a former rule-5 pick of the Rockies is a typical strong -armed minor league pitcher. In 9.2 innings this season he has surrendered only 1 earned run, but has control problems. Despite being able to hit the upper 90s with his fastball, he has surrendered 8 hits and 8 walks to go along with his 8 strikeouts.
Visalia 12, Lancaster 11. SS Reid Brignac, The Cajun God of Baseball (we aren’t making this up), picked up the winning RBI single in the 9th. Brignac went 3-6 with 3 RBI to raise his average to .389. He was one of 6 players with at least 2 hits, including LF Patrick Breen who picked up his 5th home run. Brignac did commit his 8th error of the season. The error ended his 4-day errorless streak. Of course, one of those days Brignac only pinch-hit and the other was an off-day for the team. Our research staff is still trying to confirm reports that Brignac let a quarter pounder go through his legs at McDonalds on their off-day.
Burlington 2, SW Michigan 0, 10 innings. Fitting in with the rest of the shortstops in the organization, Neil Walton committed 2 errors including one that led to two unearned runs in the top of the 10th. The loss wasted a strong outing by Gregory Reinhard, who went 5 and gave up no runs on 2 hits and 1 walk.
Apr 26
Mark Hendrickson, may finally be ready to return. Hendrickson pitched a bullpen session on Monday in Tampa and did not feel and lingering soreness. He is scheduled to pitch Thursday in the series finale in New York. To make room, Edwin Jackson was sent back to Durham. This a bit disappointing as Seth McClung and Doug Waechter remain in the D-Rays rotation…or as we like to call it, “Kazmir, Hendrickson and pray for a power outage at the Trop.” Hopefully Jackson will use this as a bit of fuel to his fire and be back in the rotation sooner, rather than later.
In other injury-related news, Rocco Baldelli played in his first extended spring training game. He is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with AA Montgomery next week and could return May 5 when the Rays begin a road trip in Oakland.
Also, Lugo?…Lugo?…..Lugo?…..Julio Lugo is not even on the radar as far as returning from his injury.
Jackson sent back to Durham [Tampa Tribune]
Apr 26
New York 9, D-Rays 1. It is beginning to sound like a broken record. Starting pitcher can’t hold an early lead and regulars missing from the starting lineup. Scott Kazmir followed up two strong starts with a stinker. In 5 innings, he gave up 7 hits and 5 walks. Kazmir will only be as good as his control. He once again topped 100 pitches (101) without entering the 6th inning. In his defense, the weather in New York was downright awful, as it was raining most of the game. However, the weather did not seem to bother the veteran Mike Mussina as he shut down the Rays on 4 hits and no walks in 6 innings striking out 7. His only blemish in 6 innings was a solo home run to Jonny Gomes in the first. It was Gomes league-leading 10th home run and 21st RBI. Jorge Cantu was out of the line-up to rest his sore foot. Nick Green took his place and went 0-3. Carl Crawford missed the game to attend the funeral of his grandmother. Joey Gathright played center field and batted lead off, going 0-4 with 3 K’s. Toby Hall was the only D-Ray with more than one hit as hit went 2-3, to raise his average to .345. Tampa is now 1-6 on their 9-game road trip.
Boston 8, Cleveland 6. We hope Cleveland manager Eric Wedge learned his lesson. If not, he will soon be Colorado roving instructor. With one out in the 8th innings with the score tied 5-5 and a runner on 2nd, Wedge for some inexplicable reason intentionally walked David Ortiz to face Manny Ramirez. Now we aren’t saying that Ortiz isn’t a scary hitter. He most certainly is. In fact, Ortiz has proven to be one of the most clutch hitters in baseball. Still, Manny is Manny and he can hit. ManRam made Wedgy pay for his carelessness and hit a 3-run home run to give the Red Sox an 8-6 win and maintain a 2-game lead over New York and Toronto.
Toronto 7, Baltimore 3. The Jays broke open a 3-3 ball game in the 7th with 4 runs. Toronto is now hitting .310 as a team. Baltimore is starting to real a bit after some early season success and have now lost 3 in a row to fall 2.5 games behind Boston
Apr 26
Durham 4, Pawtucket 0. Another strong start for Chris Seddon. Seddon went 6 giving up 4 hits, 1 walk and allowing no runs and striking out 3. He improves to 3-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.17. Elijah Dukes had his best day of the young season going 3-4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. He is now batting .288. Delmon Young had a double and went 1-5. B. J. Upton was 0-3 with 2 walks and had his 9th error of the season. The throwing error, ended his streak of 4 straight errorless games. Upton’s streak was just 106 games short of the Major League record of 110 consecutive errorless games by a shortstop, set by Mike Bordick in 2002.
Mississippi 9, Montgomery 6. C Ryan Christianson hit a pair of home runs and drove in 4 for the Biscuits who dropped the final game of this 5-game series. Marcos Carvajal, who came over in a trade earlier this season from Seattle pitched a scoreless 9th. Carvajal, a former rule-5 pick of the Rockies is a typical strong -armed minor league pitcher. In 9.2 innings this season he has surrendered only 1 earned run, but has control problems. Despite being able to hit the upper 90s with his fastball, he has surrendered 8 hits and 8 walks to go along with his 8 strikeouts.
Visalia 12, Lancaster 11. SS Reid Brignac, The Cajun God of Baseball (we aren’t making this up), picked up the winning RBI single in the 9th. Brignac went 3-6 with 3 RBI to raise his average to .389. He was one of 6 players with at least 2 hits, including LF Patrick Breen who picked up his 5th home run. Brignac did commit his 8th error of the season. The error ended his 4-day errorless streak. Of course, one of those days Brignac only pinch-hit and the other was an off-day for the team. Our research staff is still trying to confirm reports that Brignac let a quarter pounder go through his legs at McDonalds on their off-day.
Burlington 2, SW Michigan 0, 10 innings. Fitting in with the rest of the shortstops in the organization, Neil Walton committed 2 errors including one that led to two unearned runs in the top of the 10th. The loss wasted a strong outing by Gregory Reinhard, who went 5 and gave up no runs on 2 hits and 1 walk.
