[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Big Dub’s Control, Pena’s Record And The Possible Return Of The Friedman Special
Aubrey Huff, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Derek Dietrich, Dick Vitale, Dioner Navarro, Jason Bartlett June 11th. 2010, 7:16am
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: Wade Davis. For the first time this year he worked into the 8th inning and for only the second time in 7 starts, Big Dub worked into the 7th inning. And in doing so, Davis rediscovered his control and command, matching his season-high of 7 strikeouts and walked only 1. Of his 105 pitches, 75 were strikes…BJ Upton. Another night in the leadoff spot and another 3 times on base.
THE BAD: Bearing Down. Each of the Jays first 2 runs scored with 2 outs…GTMI Fail. The Rays were 0-7 with runners in scoring position…BJ Upton. Leadoff specialist, rally killer. In the 6th inning of a 1-run game, Bossman was caught trying to steal third with Evan Longoria at the plate (replays showed he was safe). And in the 8th inning, his double-play killed a second late-inning rally.
THE TELLING: Dioner Navarro was scratched from the lineup with a “stiff neck” which leads us to wonder if Navi will end up on the DL in a “Friedman Special,” to make room for the return of Jason Bartlett…Carl Crawford was not in the starting lineup for the second time this week. Joe Maddon indicated that CC’s body needed some healing and JoeMa decided to rest him versus lefties….With Willy Aybar at DH and hitting cleanup, Joe Maddon has now used 13 different lineups in the last 13 games…Carlos Pena’s home run last night set a franchise record (129), surpassing Aubrey Huff.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 39-21, 2 games ahead of the Yankees and 5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 60 games in 2008, the Rays were 35-25.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- If you missed it last night, Dick Vitale was struck by a linedrive in the first inning. [Rays Index]
- Joe Maddon spoke about “Free Carl” week…Also, Jason Bartlett is still planning on being back with the Rays on Tuesday. [St. Pete Times]
- The Rays second-round pick, Derek Dietrich, signed with the Rays last night during the game while at The Trop.
- More Hardball speculates that Carlos Pena might only command a 1-year, $5.0 million deal this off-season…If that’s the case, look for Pena to be back next season with the Rays. [More Hardball]
- Carlos Pena talks about setting the club record for home runs (video). [The Heater]
- Richard Griffin writes about Joe Maddon’s old school baseball style. [Toronto Star]
- The Rays are bringing fancy food to the common folk. [Tampa Tribune]
DOWN ON THE FARM…
- Check out Rays Prospects for boxscores and more detailed recaps. [Rays Prospects]
- DURHAM: Heath Phillips worked into the 8th inning, giving up just 1 run (7.1 innings) on 4 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 6…Desmond Jennings was 1-4 and Matt Joyce was 2-3 with a double…Jose Lobaton hit his 5th home run.
- MONTGOMERY: Alex Torres improved to 6-3 despite giving up 4 runs (3 earned) in 5.2 innings. He struck out 4 and walked 1. His ERA is now 2.47…Cody Cipriano hit his 2nd home run and had 3 hits…Matt Sweeney was 3-5 with 2 RBI.
- CHARLOTTE: Nick Barnese gave up 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings on 8 hits. He struck out 1 and walked none…Matt Bush pitched 1 perfect inning, striking out 1…Tim Beckham was 0-4 with a walk.
- BOWLING GREEN: Aaron Dott gave up 2 runs in 5 innings, striking out 4 and walking 3…Chris Murrill had a single, 2 walks and stole his 23rd base.
Related posts:
Davis is beginning to look like what he did when he came up in september, but i have a question. in the 8th when he came out there was a runner on 1st. Choate came in and that guy was thrown out, but when wheeler came in and gave up a run on a NEW runner it was charged to wade..why?
The short answer is, I don’t know. Maybe they are ruling that Wade’s runner was effectively “replaced” since the play would have been a normal groundout if nobody was on base. But that seems strange. I’m checking with a couple of people now. Will let you know what I hear.
Choate inherited one runner from WD. In the official scorebook, the first runner on base remains on WD until the bases are cleared. The logic is that Choate wouldn’t have been in the spot of having that runner on first that scored if Wade hadn’t put one there in the first place.
Ref: the “fancy food”. On the fouth floor, there is a spaghetti and boars head deli food stand that is price equivelent to the burgers, pizza, and chicken fingers, etc. That’s the hidden gem food-wise of the Trop. You can’t beat it with a stick.
Dan Wheeler with more clutch pitching….
Not only did the runs score with 2 outs but I am pretty sure Davis allowed 4 out the first 5 hits after having been up 0 – 2 on the batter (including the 3 singles in a row that lead to run #2)…very Kazmir-esque, just not able to put the hitter away.
he struck out 7 people…. what are you talking about
To tell the truth, I really don’t want Bartlett to come back. I’m enjoying S-Rod and Briggy down the middle. Both also bring more hitting and power with better D(since 08 Bartlett’s D hasnt really been that good.).And I think we should just make Jaso a catcher/DH as in nights when he isnt catching he should be DHing whether it be a righty or lefty on the mound. He is one of our better bats that get on base and this offense really needs that every night.On nights we he isnt DHing I would put Aybar or Shop(when he isnt catching) there. And just forget about Blalock and DFA him. Let him go somewhere else and play.
Triple comment time. I was thinking the same thing about Bartlett too. I really don’t want him back. His defense has never been that good in the first place (relative to what we have had he was, minus Nick Green) and obviously his offensive numbers were an aberration last year. We’ll miss his timely steals but it was inevitable that he would be gone at some point. I’m just glad I was wrong about Brignac sucking this year.
I thought Briggy was going be bad(offensively at least) too. Glad we were both wrong.
Its funny you say that. I said the same thing last night to my friend. Davis reminds me of Kazmir only he can’t strike people out at all. He has a good fastball that he can’t control, he starts to lose track of the fact that he has other good pitches (he throws a good 12-6 curve right?), constantly falls behind especially with a garbo hitter at the plate.
One more thing on CC “resting” and I’m tired of Maddons bullshittingeveryone….
What Maddon doesn’t understand or considers… when you “rest” a player like CC…you lose a player that can go 4 for 5, homeruns and 3/4/5 RBIs….
Kaplar can’t do that (0 for 2 by the way)…
So Maddon puts the team in a spot where they can lose 1 run games, without his bat, and Maddon never gets called out for it in the media or by knowledgeable fans!
Joe..keep up your bull shit…. the media and fans will continue their blind
praises!
Also, note Jaso was the hottest hitter we had last week (esp. SUN)…and he sat on the bench since… cooling off… as 0for3 will testify!