May 31
How ’bout these cardiac Rays? Down three times in this game, all but buried, and voila! A win.
Lotta things to like about this game:
* Alex Cobb. Dude was shaky at first but sucked it up and manned up and righted himself when many other rookies would have folded and imploded. Of course, he wasn’t helped by the defense too much.
For those who weren’t seated for Alex Cobb’s shaky first inning, Felipe Lopez did him wrong not catching that alleged error of a pickoff throw to first base. And Dirtbag might have really won the game moments later, diving to snag Cobb’s legitimately bad throw to third. No doubt that play helped the kid settle down.
* Matt Joyce. If this guy isn’t the every day right fielder, than Joe is Rachel Watson in drag. Damnit, this guy can hit lefties. What a way for Joyce to finish a fantastic month of May.
* Dirtbag has warmed up with the stick. His game-winning homer has been icing on the cake for a weekend that saw Dirtbag wake up from his hitting slumber.
It was a near-miracle the Rays won. Kelly Schlappach is basically a waste of human flesh on this roster. Schlappach isn’t even hitting his weight and if a catcher can’t hit his weight, dude better be a combination of Johnny Bench (defense) and Tony Pena (calling a game) behind the plate and while he may be close to Pena when James “Big Game” Shields pitches, he’s a friggin’ bad joke the rest of the time.
What is it with the Rays and catchers? They haven’t had a decent catcher since this franchise was born.
Joe’s giddy about the win but isn’t that drunk that he over looks the bad things about this game.
May 31
On Sunday, the Rays handed out “Super Sam” capes to the kiddos. But a few of the players got their mitts on the capes prior to Friday’s game. Here are a few images from the shenanigans (click on any image for a larger view)…
Picture 1 of 4
Matt Joyce did his best Super Sammy impersonation
May 31
Ok. Not the best baseball movie ever. But have you ever wondered what happened to that kid from “Rookie of the Year“? We think we found him playing left field for the Rays.
Guess we can add “childhood actor” to Sam Fuld’s list of amazing accomplishments.
May 31
This weekend we got a good look at ESPN’s New York-Boston bias when they presented a graphic titled “RACE FOR 1st IN AL EAST.”
So we thought it was only fair to take a look at what the graphic should look like. Our budget is a little less, but apparently, so is our bias…
This is just a fancy way of saying that two teams started hot, two teams started cold, and all four are now within two games of each other as we approach the one-third mark of the season.
May 31
- Rangers 11, Rays 5 (click image for boxscore)
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: Matt Joyce. Joyce was 2-4 with an RBI on a night when the Rays needed a lot more than 1 run. But what was “good” was that Joyce’s two hits came off of lefty Derek Holland. It was just the fifth start of the year against a lefty for Major League Baseball’s leading hitter.
THE BAD: Wade Davis. Did Andy Sonnanstine steal Big Dub’s jersey? Davis faced 22 batters. 12 of them picked up hits and 14 of them reached base. In the end, Davis gave up 7 runs and didn’t finish the third inning. And that’s it. Sure the Rays had the tying run at the plate in the 6th inning. But with 2 outs, the Rays still only had about a 10% shot at winning the game at that point. Coming back from Davis’ mess would have taken a minor miracle…Oh Wait. There was one more. The defense. Actually, just Sean Rodriguez, who committed 3 errors at shortstop, just a day after we heard he would start to see more playing time at the position. It also marked the first time this season that the Rays committed more than one error in a game.
THE TELLING: As expected, Alex Cobb was
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May 30
One year ago on Rays Index we got a glimpse of the Rays in Chicago Blackhawks gear.
Rays In Their Anti-Flyers Hockey Sweaters [Rays Index]
May 30
Marc Topkin is reporting that the Rays are ecpected to recall Alex Cobb from Durham and will start for the Rays tomorrow. The move means Andy Sonnanstine’s time in the rotation has finally come to an end. Sonny can now get back to doing what he does well, cleaning up messes left by other pitchers. [The Heater]
May 30
- Rays 7, Indians 0 (click image for boxscore)
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: Jeremy Hellickson. In his last 5 starts, Hellboy has allowed just 5 runs in 33 innings (1.36 ERA)…John Jaso. JJ Dyn-O-Mite’s 2-run home run was his 3rd of the year and put the game out of reach…Evan Longoria. Two more hits, two walks and it might be safe to say that Longoria is out of his funk…BJ Upton. Three walks and his 10th stolen base.
THE BAD: Casey Kotchman. Kotchman sprained an ankle sliding into second base. He was pulled from the game and is day-to-day. Look for Felipe Lopez to start at first base today. Yay.
THE TELLING: Evan Longoria led off for the second straight day.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
May 29
Bring on Justin Masterson every day. The Rays have no problem smacking around the Indians’ stud starter.
This time it was in front a very healthy home crowd of almost 25K. Joe even had to wait a fair amount of time on the beer line.
John Jaso almost tagged Masterson his first time up but drilled a two-run bomb in the fourth, and HellBoy scattered three hits over seven scoreless innings and dropped his ERA to 2.80. Does anyone pitch better with a lead on the Rays?
It would be something if HellBoy can keep it going and outmuscle David Price for an All-Star spot. … Joe can dream on lazy Sunday.
So the Evan Longoria leadoff experiment worked again, and nobody can fathom a guess (at this typing) of what the mad scientist skipper is going to come up with against Texas on Monday night.
Logic would say Dirtbag shouldn’t stop leading off, since the whole point of putting him there was to snap him out of his slump. Mission accomplished, but maybe there’s a new mission?
Johnny Damon’s professional stick continues to make Joe stop and take pause. The rollercoaster’s heading down again. With pitching like this, it’s hard to make sense of the Rays losing a series.
May 29
Four years ago on Rays Index we were critical of the St. Pete Times’ decision to pull their paper from the Trop after Elijah Dukes most recent bad headline.
St. Pete Times Reports The News, But They Don’t Want You To Read It [Rays Index]
