Up until first pitch, use the comments section to predict who you think will be the Sunburst Player of the Game. (be sure to use a valid email address while leaving the comment). The commenter that correctly predicts who we will name the Sunburst Player of the Game the most times prior to the all-star game, will win two tickets to a second-half game. Runners-up get their choice of a t-shirt. [Click HERE for rules]
Check Marc Topkin’s blog for the starting lineups.
Last night was only the 8th World Series rematch since the introduction of interleague play. But a look at the stands and one would have thought it was just another mid-week matchup with an AL Central foe. 19,608 was the paid attendance and Matt Silverman is disappointed.
“…we circled this series as one of the most compelling of the year,” team president Matt Silverman said Tuesday night. “It’s a rare privilege to host a rematch of the World Series, especially against a team with local connections. Based on all the information we had, we projected full houses. It’s a huge miss…Quite frankly, we don’t know what to attribute it to, but it’s not just the economy,” he said. “It’s bewildering. There seems to be great affection for the team and excitement for the ’09 campaign, but it’s not showing up at the gate at all.”
Of course, this comes as no surprise to us as we have been tracking the 2009 attendance and it is barely outpacing the 2008 figures with the Rays still near the bottom of the league.
The Rays are never one to say anything negative, but Silverman came very close when asked if the attendance would have been better in Clearwater or Tampa.
“I don’t know how it might have drawn at other locales within Tampa Bay, but a matchup of World Series teams would clearly have drawn a good deal better in every other baseball market.”
The jabs are subtle, but they are starting to come more often and one has to wonder if the Rays are slowly starting to place pressure on the City of St. Pete to either build a new stadium or risk losing their one major league franchise.
Tampa Bay Rays find small crowds “bewildering” [The Heater]
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
Apparently the Rays decided to take a second day off. Maybe they will show up tonight.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Winston Abreu and Lance Cormier or else it would have been much worse.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Toledo 11, Durham 10 (13). Reid Brignac was 3-6…Matt Joyce was 0-7 with 2 strikeouts…Rhyne Hughes was 3-6 and hit a pair of home runs, driving in 4…Ray Sadler added a grand slam, his 9th home r4un.
Montgomery 1, Tennessee 0. Brandon Mann pitched 6.2 shutout innings, striking out 6 and walking none. He gave up 4 hits…Desmond Jennings was 0-2 with a walk.
Charlotte 7, St. Lucie 3. Alex Cobb struck out 6 and walked none in 5.1 innings and allowed just 1 run on 6 hits…Cody Cipriano was 3-4 and drove in 3 to raise his average to .312…Henry Wrigley drove in a pair and was 2-5.
Bowling Green. (no game scheduled)
Brooklyn 7, Hudson Valley 3. Glenn Gibson allowed 3 runs in 2 innings on 2 hits and 5 walks.
Princeton 2, Burlington 1 (10). Princeton won their opener on a Kyle Spraker single with 1 out in the bottom of the 10th…Jason McEachern pitched 5 shutout innings, striking out 4 and walking none.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
