Baseball Prospectus caught up with Fernando Perez and Gabe Kapler for an interview. Or did Perez interviewed Kapler? Or Kapler interviewed Perez. Or! Perez and Kapler interviewed Perez and Kapler! Our head just exploded. [Baseball Prospectus]
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.
One year ago on Rays Index we posted a single picture that epitomizes Red Sox Nation.
Stay Classy Red Sox Nation [Rays Index]
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 Big W. Wade Davis made his first big league win a memorable one, pitching a 4-hit shutout, striking out 10. And he didn’t back into the shutout either, striking out the side in the 9th. After allowing the first 3 batters to reach base (2 walks and a double), Davis settled down and faced just 1 over the minimum the rest of the way…Evan Longoria. 3-4 with a double. It was his 9th game this season with at least 3 hits.
THE BAD: Lots O’ Pitches. Wade Davis threw 124 pitches last night. We have already openly complained about Matt Garza throwing 118+ three times this month. It is not so much the number of pitches as much as the timing. Why now? When the Rays are out of the playoff hunt and these guys are hitting career highs in innings pitched? Davis has now thrown 177.1 innings this season exceeding his previous high (160.2 in ’08) by 10.2%. At a time when other teams are shutting down pitchers or moving to 6-man rotations, the Rays are actually increasing the workload on their starting pitchers…Ring of Fire. Joe Maddon does know that when Johnny Cash sang about a “Ring of Fire,” it was a bad thing, right? In the 8 games prior to dying his hair black, the Rays were 6-2. In the 25 games since, they are 8-17…‘Nando-mania. If we were the manager of an opposing team and saw Fernando Perez at the plate batting left-handed (he is a natural righty) we would put 6 fielders 10 feet from the plate. That is an almost guaranteed bunt attempt.
THE TELLING: The Rays and O’s are so bad they can even screw up a game of leapfrog (above)…The Rays Pythagorean record is 78-69. That suggests that this team has underachieved by 4 games, but that would still leave them 9 games back in the wild card…Speaking of which, the Rays tragic number for elimination is 4. But for you eternal optimists out there, the Rays magic number to clinch a wild card tie is 29 with 15 games remaining.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Wade Davis.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Durham 3, Scranton/WB 2 (Bulls win series 3-0). The Bulls won the IL championship in come-from-behind fashion. After getting just 1 hit in the first 7 innings, Durham scored twice in the 8th to tie it on a Desmond Jennings two-out single. And then the Bulls scored the go-ahead run in the 12th on a John Jaso single…Sean Rodriguez dodged a goat-sized bullet when he was ejected in the 7th inning. Rodriguez hit a dribbler in front of the plate and was thrown out. Rodriguez thought the ball was foul. Rodriguez argued and got tossed. Twice in later innings, Rodriguez’ spot in the lineup came up with runner(s) on base. Each time, Chris Nowak, Rodriguez’ replacement, grounded out to end the inning. In the 9th, it was an inning-ending double play. And in the 11th it was a groundball with the bases loaded…Jason Cromer started, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings, but the stars of the game were the relievers who worked 6 shutout innings and survived a couple of late-inning jams.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
