Sep 07
Joe will sleep quite soundly tonight.
Why? Well, nothing brings Joe more joy to see the Rays positively seal club the Red Sux.
How cool was it to see Carl Crawford belt three doubles in four innings?
Zorilla homers. Mullet-growing Dirtbag homers. Red Sux killer Dan Johnson homers. Bossman homers. Bartlett homers.
Loved it!
Also impressive that David Price was solid — albeit racking up a large pitch count early — in his first outing at Fenway Park, not a park normally friendly to southpaws.
Best part of the win was to see those miserable locals (more) irritated. Friggin’ Red Sux fans. They speak as if someone is constantly choking them and after tonight they have good reason to sound like they’re being gagged. Your season is over slugs. Oh-VAH!! (Rhymes with “No-MAH!”)
Have fun with your Bill Belicheat hoodies!
Sep 07
Baseball America today announced that Jeremy Hellickson has been named their minor league player of the year. Hellickson was 12-3 with an International League-leading 2.45 ERA in 25 starts. He struck out 123 and walked 35 in 117.2 innings.
He joins Rocco Baldelli (2002) and Delmon Young (2005) as the third Rays prospect to win the award. Hellickson is the fifth pitcher to win the award in the last 20 years. The other four were Rick Ankiel (1999), Jon Rauch (2000), Josh Beckett (2001) and Jeff Francis (2004).
Sep 07
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: Expanded Rosters. With the Rays trailing 12-2 in the 7th, the expanded roster gave Joe Maddon the opportunity to pull 6 starters and get them a little extra rest prior to the final two games of the series.
THE BAD: Jeff Niemann. For only the second time this season (ignoring his injury-shortened start), the Giraffe failed to work 5 innings, and both have come since his return from the DL. In his 3 starts since the DL-stint, he has given up 23 runs in 10 innings on 19 hits and 8 walks. When Niemann loses his mechanics, he loses them big time. One has to wonder if he needs to take a week or two off and just throw simulated games until he gets his groove back. Because this Niemann won’t be on the post-season roster.
THE TELLING: Andy Sonnanstine was added back to the roster after spending the past week on the Hudson Valley roster as part of the September roster expansion…The Rays magic number to clinch the Wild Card is 19 with 25 to play…If the Rays go just 12-13 in the final 25, the Red Sox would have to go 18-6 just to tie…David Price is 2-2 with a 3.81 ERA in 4 career starts against the Red Sox, but tonight will be his first career start in Fenway Park.
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 83-54, 2.5 games behind the Yankees (2 in the lost column) and 6 games ahead of the White Sox in the Wild Card. After 137 games in 2008, the Rays were 84-53.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
