May 09
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
It’s amazing what can happen when a lefty swings the bat with the game on the line in Yankee Stadium.
What a concept!! Take note, Carlos Pena.
The beer is glorious right now after Matt Joyce walloped a three-run bomb in the ninth inning, with two outs, to give the Rays their first lead of the night and set up Crooked Cap for his second win of the season. The three-game losing streak is over in grand style, dumping the Yankmees 4-1.
On a night like this, Joe’s even going to dare to dream that Jeff Niemann might be back to the guy Rays fans haven’t seen in a long time. He threw a ton of strikes and actually went seven innings.
Tom Foley even got into the act sending a runner home on a sac fly in the ninth. Another great concept!
The world feels right again.
May 08
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
Carlos Pena ending the game on the third called strike of his at bat with the bases loaded was just too much to bear. Swing the damn bat and stop complaining about close pitches.
But who could be surprised? Lack of aggression was sort of the theme of this 5-3 loss to the Yankmees.
In what had to be the ugliest stop sign in recent memory, Rays third base coach Tom Foley put the brakes on Jeff Keppinger with one out in the seventh inning on what could have and should have been the tying run at 3-3. Nick Swisher appeared to be fumbling a rain-soaked ball in the right field corner, so Joe’s not sure what the hell Foley was thinking. Surely he wasn’t worried about taking the bat out of Sean Rodriguez’s hands.
So then Rodriguez goes and flies out to right and Keppinger gets another stop sign, and the inning ends with Ivan Nova getting Jose Molina. Hey Foley, there’s a reason those guys bat eighth and ninth in the order.
It was a horsecrap game all around, with the Rays worthless with runners in scoring position and James Shields off his game and catching his first loss of the season.
Just like that the Rays have dropped three in a row.
May 06
Joe is back with his postgame thoughts….
So the Rays jump out to a four-run, first-inning lead today against the formerly anemic A’s and lose 9-5 at home.
What odds would the stat geeks have given for that to happen? A 1.5 percent chance?
Joe was in agony watching Matt Moore labor pitch after pitch with his control and get clobbered and knocked out with eight earned runs in the fifth inning. It’s probably only six runs if Elliot Johnson isn’t over-matched in left field, but it was still ugly. Rays fans can only hope Desmond Jenning’s mysterious knee injury that landed Johnson in left field is nothing serious.
Joe thought Chris Jimenez should have called for more curveballs and off-speed stuff, but that’s probably wishful thinking. It just didn’t feel like he called the smartest game. Joe Maddon probably put it best about Moore after the game, calling him “out of whack.”
Jonny Gomes was a catalyst for the A’s again today and good riddance. Joe’s not in the camp of fans that goes ga-ga over Gomes.
However, Gomes dropped a heart-warming, one-liner on This Week In Rays Baseball, aired on WDAE-AM 620 this afternoon. Asked about one of his famous fights in 2008, Gomes said he “was tired of the Red Sox taking our lunch money.” … Just when you officially hate Gomes he goes and spits out a glorious memory.
This truly was the series that got away.
May 04
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
Geez, the way the Rays are pitching, Joe’s going to get sick of pizza.
Fans again will be grubbing out on the Rays’ dime after David Price mowed down Oakland like Joe does slices of free pizza after a few beers. Price racked up 12 strikeouts while finishing eight innings. Somewhere, Astro was smiling while hovering over a puddle of drool.
This was one of Price’s best outings. He continues to pitch like that, along with Big Game Shields and Hellboy, Joe’s not sure the Rays would miss Dirtbag.
Now 13-1 at home, the Rays are starting to put up some scary numbers. Hell, even Bossman is hitting like a savvy veteran rather than an indifferent strikeout man.
Just remember: Every win from now through probably July 4th, is one game closer to the return of Dirtbag.
May 03
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
Don’t expect master string-puller Joe Maddon to do anything differently than what he already does. Wise men might say he shouldn’t. But even in victory, even with an 18-8 record, this Joe has to at least put something somewhat contrary out there.
Hopefully, maybe, Maddon files away Jake McGee’s perfect 2 1/3-inning performance today the next time he wants to yank a reliever after a flawless sixth, seventh or eighth inning. Sometimes it’s just OK to roll with it and throw the computer to the wind.
Yeah, it came almost out of necessity today with a drained bullpen, but Maddon deserves credit for sticking with McGee, and even Crooked Cap got his ninth inning — and ninth save – with plenty of recent mileage on his blessed arm.
The box score looks like a typical 4-3 Rays win, but there was seriously sloppy defense continuing out there with a shortage of clutch hitting. Amazingly, it’s just not mattering with different guys stepping up daily, with Jeff Keppinger and Desmond Jennings stroking all four RBIs today.
These are really glorious days for Rays fans and, as Joe’s written before, banking all these wins early will make all the difference come September.
May 02
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts…
Man, these Rays games are fun to watch. It seems every night there is a different player making big plays.
Big Game was big tonight, except for one pitch. Wolverine was great, with the help of Michael Saunders. Zorilla made a wonderful, game-saving catch on the run in right field in the top of the eighth that saved two runs.
But on this night, Joel Peralta of all people revved up the Way Back Machine and got a save that consisted of more than three outs. With the Rays starters unable to get past the sixth inning much of late, it has pretty much used up`the Rays bullpen. Fernando Rodney, for example, was not pitching tonight.
Enter Peralta, who has pitched well of late. His pitches had some nasty movement on them and after recorded five outs, he honored Rodney with Rodney’s glove-in-the-air signature exclamation point after wins.
Keep it up Rays, and you may not miss Dirtbag or Bossman much over the next few weeks.
May 01
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
Tonight’s 3-1 silencing of Seattle was what many Rays fans expected this season before Evan Longoria and Kyle Farnsworth went down. Superior pitching. Flawless defense. Just enough in the bats to frustrate fans but win games.
But Joe and everyone else was pretty darn spoiled through April’s hit show. Tonight, though, was more like the Rays baseball we’ve all learned to love — somebody steps up just enough to win with three sub .200 hitters in the lineup.
Matt Joyce drilled a solo shot and a triple — two of the Rays three hits — and Matt Moore, Burke Badenhop and Joel Peralta set the table for strike-out-the-side performance of Crooked Cap. (Joe’s really starting to get more enjoyment out of a Crooked Cap ninth than a MFIKY shirt pull-out to end a game.)
So now the Rays are 1-0 in the Longo Hammygate era and 16-8 overall. Joe suspects Longo won’t be missed until the schedule gets brutal again next week.
Apr 30
OK, raise your hand if you thought the Rays would run through the brutal schedule of April winning nearly twice as many games as losses. Quick, who guessed? Anyone?
Joe’s pretty sure no one. Not even after five glasses of wine would Merlot Joe even suggest the Rays would be 15-8 for the month of April, atop the AL East.
That’s exactly where the Rays stand as the final minutes of April tick off the clock. Joe’s of the mind this demonstrates just how special this team is. Facing the Yankmees, Blowsux, Jays, Rangers, Angels and Twinkies and come out with 15 wins is really, really impressive.
Tonight, after tanking too many at-bats to count, Elliot Johnson — ELLIOT JOHNSON! – came through with a single in the bottom of the 12 to finish what was a wonderful pitching duel between Hellboy and King Felix with both team’s bullpens pitching in.
The only thing troubling about this win is that Dirtbag suffered some weird looking injury running from first to second and will have an MRI.
Still, it didn’t appear to be a major injury and the future looks really good for the 2012 season for the Rays
Apr 29
Joe might need another beer so he can sleep. What an incredible series win over the Rangers.
The Rangers never lost a series this season… until tonight. David Price pitched well, but as always had a lot of pitches. Sooner or later this Scott Kazmir-like habit is going to fry the bullpen.
The Rays ganged up on Derek Holland early when he was struggling. Joe loved the aggressive hitting (is the Ballpark at Arlington the new Polo Grounds? Seemed like the Rays had three homers that were just warning track shots.).
How charmed were the Rays tonight? They not only got out of a rare jam that Crooked Cap found himself in, they also overcame a major baserunning error by Dirtbag, who seems to have his head into wearing diapers and hanging with his Playmate girlfriend rather than his job.
(No, if Bossman missed a bunt sign, then why did Zorilla not run on the play from first base? There was no bunt sign. Hard to believe Zorilla would miss that as well.)
Yes, if we are going to kill Bossman for his many mistakes, then why should be look the other way when Dirtbag is having a rough season away from the plate?
Still, Joe is really, really pumped with the win. If this keeps up, the Rays will treat us to something very special this season.
Apr 27
Joe is back with his post-game thoughts….
This one went from a Rays laugher in Texas early to within inches of a horrendous nightmare in the eighth inning. Isn’t baseball fun?
This is why those antacid companies are so profitable.
Kudos to Wade Davis for shaking off a near grand slam, then a near wild pitch with a true defensive gem at home plate, before coming up roses in the wild eighth inning.
And Joe has to praise the grit — and that sick pickoff move – of James Shields. He grinded out the rare 11-hitter, an 8-4 victory, on a day the Rays didn’t need him to be anywhere close to perfect. Now his perfect record runs to 4-0.
Of course, the Rays’ four-run first innng could have been much more and averted all this late drama against the AL leaders. But what fun would that have been?
The streak now sits at six games. These Ws in the bank are going to be oh so meaningful come September.
