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[THE HANGOVER] Sox Dared Garza To Throw Strike-One; Garza Doesn’t Deliver
Buster Posey, Carl Crawford, David Ortiz, Joe Maddon, Matt Garza, Tim Beckham June 4th. 2008, 10:49am
THE GOOD: Say what you will about Aki Iwamura, but this guy was born to hit in Fenway Park. His first at bat of the game was a typical Aki flyball to left field, only in Fenway that is a leadoff home run. Aki would hit 50 doubles if he played for the Sox. Let’s hope he doesn’t figure that out after his playing days with the Rays ends…Carlos Pena had 10 home runs at the end of May in ’07. He had 10 home runs after May in ’08. He got his first of June last night on a ball that looked like it was off the end of the bat and yet kept going for a 2-run shot that gave the Rays a 4-3 lead in the 6th…Grant Balfour and Gary Glover who may be battling for a roster spot over the next week-plus, both pitched and pitched well. They combined for 2.2 scoreless innings of relief with 1 hit and 1 walk. Balfour did allow one inherited runner to score on a sac fly.
THE BAD: Matt Garza. It is all about command in the strike zone for Garza and last night he did not have it. Of his 96 pitches, only 55 were strikes. And amazingly he only threw 8 first-pitch strikes to the 26 batters he faced (31%). In his last start in which he struck out 10, he was strike-one to 23 of 30 batters (77%). This is especially important against a patient veteran team like the Sox. They are just going to sit back and wait for Garza to throw a strike, knowing there is a good chance he won’t. Of the 26 batters that Garza faced, only 3 swung at the first pitch, and one of those was JD Drew’s 4th inning home run. They were just begging The Garza Complex to get ahead 0-1 and he couldn’t do it.
THE TELLING: With Carl Crawford on the bench, Papa Joe Maddon had Dioner Navarro batting in the 2-hole, and Eric Hinske in left field.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- This weeks Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo will indeed be held tomorrow (Thursday) night. And don’t forget that it is an early 6:05 start time, so be sure to make your beer run early.
- Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
- Carl Crawford was not in the starting lineup as he flew to Birmingham, AL to visit Dr. James Andrews to have an MRI on his sore hamstring. There was no structural damage, and CC flew back and was used as a pinch-hitter later in the game. [MLB]
- With no David Ortiz in the lineup it would be tempting to just walk Manny Ramirez every at bat. But Joe Maddon says he will wait and see how the rest of the Sox lineup is hitting before making any decisions. [Boston Herald]
- Another power ranking has the Rays rated #1. This one is a bit different in that it is statistically driven, which seems like a good way of revealing the teams that have been lucky or unlucky so far this season. [WhatIfSports]
- Some blogger apparently stopped playing World of Warcraft long enough to comment on the Rays having better odds to win the AL East than the Yankees. [Sports Crackle Pop]
- The Rays just started a rather tough stretch of games. [St. Pete Times]
- Saber Scouting is split on whether the Rays will take Buster Posey or Tim Beckham with the first pick tomorrow. [Saber Scouting]
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Garza… yikes! I swore I saw Edwin Jackson out there last night. Now, if the real Jackson pitches poorly tonight, then look-out this could get ugly!
I know I’ve been quite critical of Mr. Bartlett all season, but this game was the Rays to lose with a 4-3 lead, and Bartlett took ‘em up on the offer when he errored on a routine play that should’ve at least gotten one out… instead: bobble, bobble, oops, bases loaded, and the complexion of the game was instantly changed!
And our friends here at Rays Index don’t even list it in “The Bad”…
And to be fair, although I’m always defending Gabe Gross I have to admit he looked ridiculous at the plate last night. Way to take advantage of a rare start in RF, Gabe.
They looked like an over-paid version of the ’07 Rays last night….
The Bartlett error should have been included in the “Bad” you are absolutely correct. i think the Rays lose either way, but that might have been a difference maker.
I just started a new blog at: http://raysthestakes.blogspot.com/
I posted a link to Rays Index at the bottom of my post, which I plan to do daily as a thank you for the in-depth analysis that you offer day-in and day-out.
May I humbly propose that we pass the Nuke nickname from Edwin Jackson on to Garza? Because he’s looked way more like EJ07 than Jackson has so far this year. I think this game could’ve been had, and I primarily blame Garza for not delivering when he clearly could have.
I was at the game last night. Sox fans I was near didn’t really care one iota about the game – biggest chant of the night was “Beat LA!” They were mostly there for the beer and the Neil Diamond singalong. There were a few Rays fans aside from me there, and I have to give props to the Sox fans in our section for treating us well. The one guy that talked to me admitted it was refreshing to have the Rays in it and the Yanks looking way up from the bottom. Nobody was really an ass.
I dropped some ballots for Crawford and Navi in the voting box at Fenway, and that felt damn good.
I just want to say as a Sox fan that I have thought the Rays have been developing good young talent way before mlb.com jumped on their bandwagon this season.
With the somewhat less than bad outing by Joba last night, I think its a safe assumption that the Rays will go right down to the wire for a playoff spot, maybe even the division if Papi’s wrist doesn’t heal. The only real problem I see for them is the inability to make a midseason pitching acquisition due to the lack of funds they have.
But really, good luck for the rest of the season to the Rays. I agree 1000% that it is refreshing to see someone other than just Sox and Yanks in the AL East mix.