The Rays announced today (via press release) that August 13 will be “Turn Back the Clock Night” at the Trop. The Rays will wear the 1970 Tampa Tarpon uniforms being modeled by Evan Longoria (right). The Orioles will wear all-orange uniforms that were worn only two times in 1970 (seen here).
The use of the Tarpons uniform is an interesting choice with all the recent debate about the location of a new Rays stadium. Read the rest of this entry »
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
THE GOOD: Big Innings. One feature of the Rays early in the season when they were winning everyday was the consistency of big innings and last night they had two of them. During this recent stretch of poor play, the Rays have continued to draw walks. Getting on base is great. But the walks are wasted if they aren’t followed by a string of hits and last night the Rays were able to string together hits for what seemed like the first time in a long time…Ben Zobrist. Zorilla is no center fielder, so let’s not use him as evidence for getting rid of BJ Upton. But in Upton’s absence last night, Zobrist got on base twice as the leadoff hitter, stole a base and even played some solid defense…Matt Garza. He had 104 pitches after 7, so it was a little surprising to see him come out to start the 8th. If we ignore those 2 batters, Garza held the Sox to 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks in 7 strong innings. He is now 9-5 with a 4.08 ERA on the year.
THE BAD: Zero Confidence. That’s what we have in Randy Choate right now. The Rays lone bad moment last night came when Joe Maddon left Matt Garza in to start the 8th and then brought Choate in to face David Ortiz who promptly hit a 2-run double.
THE TELLING: Jason Bartlett’s home run was his first non-solo home run since 2006, snapping a stretch of 21 straight 1-run home runs.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 45-32, 2 games behind the Yankees and 1 game behind the Wild Card leading Red Sox. After 77 games in 2008, the Rays were 46-31.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA… Read the rest of this entry »
