[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Dynamic Duo And The Ghost Of Bullpens Past
Evan Longoria May 2nd. 2009, 11:44am
Time to bring back the GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: The Dynamic Duo. It was a bases-clearing double on Thursday. Last night it was a bases-clearing home run for Evan Longoria. Two pitches later it was Carlos Pena with his league-leading 10th home run…Andy Sonnanstine. The Duke entered last night’s contest with an ERA north of 7.00, so their was only one way he could go. And he was better. He held the Sox to 2 runs in 5.2 innings despite 4 walks…Sacrificial Lambs. It was only the Rays second sacrifice of the season, but Dioner Navarro’s bunt in the 5th moved the runners over and led to the first run for the Rays on BJ Upton’s sac fly…Ghost of 2008 Bullpen. The Bullpen has been much better of late. JP Howell helped shut down the Sox after the Rays took the lead by striking out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the 6th. Then after walking back-to-back batters in the 7th, Dan Wheeler came on and struck out Jason Bay to end the inning. he then retired the Sox 1-2-3 in the 8th including 2 strikeouts.
THE BAD: The Baserunning, again. Two more would-be base stealers thrown out at third base. BJ Upton was out by 10 feet and Gabe Gross clearly missed a sign in the 6th.
THE TELLING: The Rays are now out of last place and only 3.5 games behind the Yankees and 4.5 games behind the Sox.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Evan Longoria. Duh. And did you see the new t-shirt in the Rays Index Store?
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Rays Party compares the Rays plate discipline in wins and losses. [The Rays Party]
- Sean McAdam of the Boston Herald says the Red Sox have already seen enough of Evan Longoria. [Boston Herald]
- Forgot to include this in the early post, but the Durham Bulls wore special Autism awareness jerseys last night. The jerseys will be auctioned off next week. [The Biz of Baseball]
- The Rays Party has their explanations for their choices in the Tampa Bay Rays Trade Pool. [The Rays Party]
Related posts:
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Dirtbag’s Hot Bat, The Ghost Of Baserunning Past And A More Comfortable Giraffe
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Ghost Of Dave Kingman, CC’s Back And A Short Bench
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss The Ghost Of ’07, Offensive Failure And Kazmir’s Battle With Mechanicia
You guys thinking sweep?
It is all about winning series. Just win one of the next two and we’ll be happy.
Honestly, I think tonight’s game may get away from them. But even if Boston wins the next 2 its still considered a decent series for the Rays. Let’s not forget how dire things were seeming just 2 games ago… the Rays’ players and fans needed a couple of wins in big games to remind themselves they’ve still got what it takes, so even if it ends up 2-2 for the series its a win for Tampa because it pushed away the grey clouds and the sinking feeling everyone had after the West coast trip.
no no no, go for the kill…. sweep the leg! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssAvULPzuzg )
In Golf its ONE shot at a time…In baseball its ONE GAME at a time…Why talk in series?? Tonight’s game is MOST important!
Are you sure Gross missed a sign? I thought the sacrifice was on again and Navarro simply pulled his bat back instead of protecting Gross. Maybe it was a missed sign, but my impression was that Maddon was repeating what had worked the previous inning.
I also was not impressed with Sonnanstine who is among my favorite players. Walking in a run? Four BBs in 5.2 innings? Especially early he seemed unable to get any of his pitches over the plate, and when he did they were not where they should be and got smacked. He wiggled out of trouble which is good, and kept the Rays close, but was it good pitching or good fortune?
That was definitely what Navi and Madeon were doing, but Gross took off as if it were a hit and run, which you wouldn’t do with a runner on second with no outs. On sac bunt still have to make sure bunt gets down before taking off. Maybe a running lead but not a full sprint to third.