THE GOOD: We know the numbers and we know there are other players that need playing time, but we hope that it kills Papa Joe Maddon to keep Jonny Gomes on the bench when he does. The first run of the game was all-Gomes. Started with a single, after which he stole second off of a lefty and then scored on a 2-out single by Dioner Navarro. He would later steal third base just before scoring on Jason Bartlett’s triple and moved to third in the 7th inning on a pitch in the dirt that barely got away from the catcher. He would score during that at bat on a ground out…Speaking of Jason Bartlett’s triple, how often are you happy when a player can’t get a bunt down? Bartlett appeared to be attempting a safety-squeeze in the 4th, fouling off one attempt and pulling back on the second pitch. He would then hit a triple to left-center that would score 2….A solid game from Evan Longoria. The opposite field double off the top of the wall in the 4th was a good sign as it was only his 3rd hit this season off a lefty. He also started a huge double play in the top of the 6th to quell a Yankees rally that had 2 runners on with only 1 out. Dirtbag gets rid of the ball faster than any third baseman we ever remember and his throws to second base are pinpoint.

THE BAD: Knowing that Jonny Gomes has to sit against righties. We understand. But we don’t like it.

THE TELLING: Cliff Floyd sat against the lefty while Jonny Gomes got the start at DH and Eric Hinske got the start in right…The Rays will have to earn tonight’s victory. Edwin Jackson takes the mound for the Rays while the Yankees will counter with their Ace, Chien-Ming Wang…The Rays remain 1 game up in the loss column over the Angels in the Wild Card standings. The Rays are 3 games up on the next teams, Baltimore and Cleveland.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! For those that haven’t done it yet, once you have voted for the first time, it takes a matter of seconds to vote a second time. The ballot stores all your info. So you have ZERO excuses. C’mon, let’s make sure C.C. is in NYC in ’08. VOTE OR DIE! [MLB All-Star Voting]
• We will have the Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo on Wednesday night for game 3 of the Yankees series, with James Shields going against Mike Mussina. The Live Blog-A-Baloo will be held right here.
• Anybody want to take bets on what substances Her Rays was under the influence of when writing their post-game recap? Not that there is anything wrong with that. Much of the best writing in history was done “under the influence”. Just ask fans of the Beatles or Hunter Thompson. [Her Rays]
• Jonny Damon said that the scoreboard gun that had Matt Garza at 92-93 last night, must have been low. [New York Times]

Before we knew it, he was jamming us and making us pop out. That’s what happens when you’re late on the fastball, and it seemed like we were late all day. It just seemed like we couldn’t catch up to it.

• Ben Zobrist has been activated from the DL with Andy Cannizaro being DFA’d…Ahh Andy Whatever-your-name-is. We hardly knew ya. [Rays Report]
• Alex Rodriguez will not play in this series…Also, Marc Topkin says that Al Reyes could be activated as soon as today, although there is no clear indication who will be let go. Scott Dohmann and Gary Glover seem like the only options to be removed from the roster. Both are out of options, meaning they would have to be DFA’d. Of course, we could see another “Willy Aybar” injury by tomorrow afternoon. That is Dohmann or Glover could come down with a mystery ailment that would normally keep a player out for a week or so, but still need to go on the DL, just in time for a needed roster move and 2 months later, they are still MIA…Just sayin’. [The Heater]
• Gary Shelton says the Rays are not “fluky” and are here to stay. [St. Pete Times]
• Yet another positive piece on the Rays in the New York Times…That is 2 this season and 2 more than the Yankees have had. [New York Times]
• Here is a neat graph that compares payrolls to performance. [Benfry.com]
• Always in love with the underdog, Joe Maddon said that if he were to name MVPs for the first month and a half, it would be JP Howell and Jason Bartlett. [MLB]
• An early proposal for a ballpark in St. Pete circa 1983, looks an awful lot like the new proposed waterfront stadium. [Ballpark Frankness]
• Seriously, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Yahoo! Sports has the Rays ranked 5th in their power rankings. [Yahoo! Sports]

Supposed to be that the Rays would do well generally, but struggle against the AL East powers. They’re now 15-11 against their own division.

• The Rays will make public their financing plan for the proposed waterfront stadium on Thursday. [Ballpark Frankness]

DRG here again to get you through the weekend. I can be reached here..

• The Good: The 2nd inning was Scott Kazmir’s coming out party. In the 1st inning, Kid K’d fastball was only 88-89, much like it was in his first start off the DL. However, in the 2nd inning, Kazmir struck out Juan Rivera to lead off the inning with only one fastball that broke 88. That seemed to be the at bat that gave him his confidence back, because in the next at bat, threw four fastballs that were clocked at 92. He walked that batter, but from that point forward, Kazmir was consistently 92-93 with his fastball including his 108th, and last, pitch in the 6th which was 93.
• The Bad: Mimosas, Coronas and whatever that blue crap was.
• The Telling: Stuart Sternberg predicted 50 home win in 2007. We laughed. They won 37. 2008 came and Sternberg predicted 50 home wins again. Again we laughed. The Rays have now won 8 straight at home (a record) and now sit at 12-7 at home this season. Brace yourselves. The Rays are on pace for 51 home wins in 2008. I can’t make it up…PS, the Rays are now in second place and 1 game back of wild card lead…PPS, take a look at those standings above and soak it in for a moment. The season is now 20% completed and the Rays are not only not in last place, but they are in 2nd place, ahead of the O’s. Ahead of the Jay. And ahead of the Yankees.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• ManRay is baaaaaaaccccccckkkkkkkkk. [Armchair GM]
  
• James Shields and Joe Maddon discuss the possibility of Shields throwing a no-hitter. [Tampa Tribune]
• Marc Topkin says that the Rays have narrowed their top choce down to 5 players…Prof loves the high school shortstop Tim Beckham. Personally, I am starting to lean towards one of the two catchers. I know the Rays do not draft for need, but with Dioner Navarro behind the plate and no obvious catching prospects in the system (John Jaso is not a catcher long-term), I love the idea of drafting a high school catcher. But hey, what do I know. [St. Pete Times]
• Beyond the Boxscore breaks down the two most likely candidates for the #1 pick. Tim Beckham and Florida State catcher Buster Posey. My Gator allegiances aside. Um. What? nevermind. Momentary lack of respect for my alma mata. Screw Posey. [Beyond the Boxscore]
• The New York Times takes a look at New York City native and potential #1 overall pick Pedro Alvarez. He says he would love to join David Price, his former Vandy teammate, in the Rays system…Sorry. As long as Scott Boras is his agent, he will not be drafted by the Rays. Even if the Rays thought they could afford his signing bonus demands, the bigger factor is that Boras almost always takes his clients to free agency and never signs away arbitration and free agency seasons. A key to the Rays franchise. [New York Times]
• Gary Glover and Al Reyes threw bullpen sessions yesterday. Sounds like Reyes is still a few days away, but Glover could be back today or tomorrow. [The Heater]
• Joe Maddon says that Akinori Iwamura is getting better at leading off and says that there are no plans to move him out of the spot. [Tampa Tribune]
• Her Rays thinks Akinori Iwamura’s luck is a’ changin with his new haircut. [Her Rays]
• Several Rays will use pink bats today for Mother’s Day in honor of breast cancer awareness. [St. Pete Times]

THE GOOD: The Red Sox lost…The Yankees lost…The Orioles lost…So the only team that the Rays lost ground to last yesterday was the Jays. Oh and the O’s are now in their rightful place, last place…

THE BAD: Shaun Marcum faced the minimum through the first 6.2 innings. The only hit prior to the 9th inning was a double single by Dioner Navarro in which he was promptly thrown out at second base because people that chubby should only sprint 90 feet at a time….For the second game this series, the Rays struck out at least 10 times, led by the Sombrero-loving Carlos Pena. Three nights ago it was a regular sombrero with 3 Ks in 4 at bats, Two nights ago it was the golden sombrero with 4 Ks in 4 at bats. And last night it was a regular sombrero again with 3 Ks in 4 at bats…We are still trying to figure out how Vernon Wells caught up to and actually caught Aki Iwamura’s long drive to center in the 7th…We know it was only 1 run in 6.2 innings, but we are not giving Matt Garza credit for a ‘good’. We can’t quite figure it out, but he either walks too many or strikes out too few. Maybe both?

THE TELLING: We like to call this a “tip your cap” game. When the baseball gods gathered yesterday morning and reviewed yesterday’s matchups they declared that the Jays would win. At that point there was just nothing that the Rays could do. It was predetermined. For you Maddon players out there, it is like when you are rolling through a season and your Bucs squad sits 10-0 and all of the sudden the computer opponent goes into “49ers Dynasty Mode” in which it can do nothing wrong and you can do nothing right. Your undefeated team is guaranteed to fumble at least two kickoff returns that will both be returned for touchdowns, and no matter how many of your “sure-thing” plays you run, nothing goes right. Sometimes, when the gods speak, it is not in your favor.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Our apologies for the lack of Live Blog-A-Baloos. They will return with full-force next week. Not sure what day yet. Any suggestions? And next week’s will be held here.
• Joe Maddon and Carlos Pena had a closed-door meeting that lasted for 20 minutes following last night’s game. During the meeting, which was heated at times, Maddon threatened to bench the slugger if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass…Oh, who are we kidding. This is Papa Joe we are talking about. They hugged it out and Papa Joe sang El Gato sweet nothings, and told him some tales of lollipops and daffodils. [Rays Report]
• More injury updates from Marc Lancaster: Ben Zobrist had his first rehab start for Vero Beach. He DH’d and went 1-3…Cliff Floyd played in another extended spring game as a DH and should rejoin the team within a week…Willy Aybar also played DH in the same game but is still a ways off. Which begs the question: Why is he playing in an extended spring game, if his hamstring is no where near ready to come back? Is there more to his injury?…Al Reyes and Gary Glover played catch (we assume Reyes played the role of ‘Dad’). Reyes has a bullpen session scheduled for today, while Glover will do the same on Saturday…Scott Kazmir had “spectacular” command in his bullpen session yesterday. [Rays Report]
• Bugs & Cranks wonders if Joe Maddon was trying to bait the Jays fans with his comments of their booing of Eric S#!tske. [Bugs & Cranks]
• And Drunk Jays Fans, proprietor of the aforementioned nickname, S#!tske, are a little perturbed that there is a chance that Eric Hinske does not know why he is being booed in Toronto…For the record, we understand. But we also love that the Toronto fans are fanning the fire that is Eric S#!tske, because right now? Hinske is The S#!tske. [Drunk Jays Fans]
• The Strike Zone sees Andy Sonnanstine as a strong candidate to win 20 games. [The Strike Zone]
• Jays fans didn’t take losing to Andy Sonnanstine too well. [primoz forever]
• One blog takes a shot at the upcoming auction at the Trop for “extraordinary baseball experiences”…We gotta admit, they are pretty ridiculous. Also, the name of the website It Is High, It Is Far, It Is…caught is pure awesome. For those not familiar, it is a reference to John Sterling, Yankees broadcaster/blowhard and his home run call, which he uses for anything approaching the outfield wall. And it doesn’t matter if the home run was actually a line drive that just cleared the fence. He will still use the same idiotic call…P.S. The slogan for the website is “The road to the New York Yankees’ 27th World Championship”. Might as well have made that the name of the site, because the “road” is going on 8 years and it does not look like the number is changing anytime soon. [It Is High, It Is Far, It is...caught]

THE GOOD: Good game for Akinori Iwamura offensively. In the 3rd, Aki had an RBI single, but more impotantly, with 2 outs, he advanced to second base on Carl Crawford’s sac fly. That allowed Aki to score on BJ Upton’s single…Jason Bartlett made two amazing plays in the field. The first came in the 5th when he charged and barehanded a slow grounder to get the runner. Later in the 8th in a 1-run game, he ranged deep into the hole to his right, stabbed a grounder, turned and made a strong one-hop throw to Carlos Pena. Make no mistake, that one-hop throw was as intentional play that shortstops often make on artificial turf, the same stuff Bartlett played on in Minnesota…Eric Hinske hit a lonnngggg home run. We pedicted two. One to go……Despite his struggles at the plate, Evan Longoria is still playing solid defense making a couple of good plays including the start of a very important double play. With 1 run in already and the Rays up by 1 in the 6th, the Jays had 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Dirtbag started a 5-4-3 to kill the rally.

THE BAD: We complained about the Toronto broadcast in the Orlando series and things were only worse this time. In the bottom of the third, the Jays scored on a close play at the plate. We are still yet to see a good replay or one that slowed the play down enough to get a good look. In the bottom of the 6th, Akinori Iwamura made a great play up the middle and made a good throw. Once again, we failed to get a good replay or one slow enough to see if the runner was indeed safe…The Rays struggled early on with 5 of the first 6 batters going down on strikes…In the 2nd inning, we saw our first incident in which Aki Iwamura looked lost at second base. With a runner on first, Aki fielded a ground ball only a few steps from the bag. He should have stepped on the bag himself, but instead tried to glove-flip the ball to Jason Bartlett. It worked, but it was awkward and eliminated a chance at turning two…Aki Iwamura also made a terrible baserunning play. On an RBI double in the 5th, he hesitated out of the box and then hesitated at second base and got thrown out at third for the first out, breaking a golden rule in baseball, never make the first out at third base…The Rays rarely sacrifice, but Joe Maddon tried in the 3rd with men on 1st and 2nd with no out. But Jason Bartlett failed to get the bunt down in fair territory…Evan Longoria is 2-19 and looks lost at times…Carlos Pena had the golden sombrero (4 Ks)…In the 9th inning, Carl Crawford swung at a pitch that almost hit his back leg. With 2 strikes that is almost acceptable. But not with 1 strike.

THE TELLING: What we love the most about the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are wins like last night. The game was close, but there was little or no drama after the 6th inning. That has never happened before. If this game was in 2007, the Rays might have won, but not until after they blew the lead, and fought back, or at the very least, loaded the bases in the 8th and 9th innings…Joe Maddon went with Dan Wheeler for 2 innings again. We have to assume that he will not be available tonight…Troy Percival now has 7 saves, and 4 have come against the Jays…The Rays are now 7-8 on the road and 10-7 at the Trop…

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Injury updates from Marc Lancaster: Cliff Floyd and Ben Zobrist played in extended spring training games yesterday. Zobrist may join Vero Beach as early as tomorrow and play there the rest of the week. He will have the pins removed from his thumb next Monday and he could join the Rays on Tuesday. Floyd could also return about that time. Al Reyes could also return as early as next week and Gary Glover could be back as early as this weekend. [Rays Report]
• Interesting read from ESPN.com as they take a look at exactly how each member of the Rays’ 25-man roster was acquired and who was responsible for the acquisition. The point being that despite all Chuck LaMar’s failures, he deserves credit for a number of the players that have helped the Rays turn the corner…He may deserve credit, but he is not getting any from us out of pure stubborness. [ESPN]
• Scott Kazmir will work on ironing out his mechanics in his bullpen session today. [Tampa Tribune]
• Eric Hinske was booed continually last night and Joe Maddon can’t figure out why. [MLB]

“What’s going on with the booing,” said Maddon, with a huge smile. “One of the nicest guys in the history of the United States and he gets booed in Canada. What’s going on?…Don’t boo Eric Hinske,” he said. “He’s a great guy. I thought, what did he do? Maybe skip town with a couple parking tickets? I don’t know. And he gets booed. He’s a wonderful young man. One of the finest.”

• Carlos Pena is the inaugural member of the “LBS Golden Sombrero Club”. That’s not a good thing. [Larry Brown Sports]
• Evan Longoria is third after 5 weeks in the Baseball Happenings AL Rookie of the Year poll. [Baseball Happenings]
• We are a little lost on this one, as we have no idea who Paul DiMeo is, but we do see the similarity. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]
• Marc Topkin tosses a few names around if Andrew Friedman decides to keep playing musical chairs in the outfield…Jacque Jones does nothing for us, but then again, we still aren’t sure why Nathan Haynes is a Ray. [The Heater]
• Andrew Friedman says that the Rays have narrowed their choice for the top pick in the draft to five players and signability may be a factor as Friedman says that they may try to sign a player prior to the draft. [MLB]

DRG here again. I can be reached here.

• The Good: Lot’s o’ alcohol during a game like that.
• The Bad: James Shields outing was only 1 out longer than his shortest ever, a 3.1 inning performance last July against the Yankees in which he gave up 10 runs…JP Howell’s first 7 pitches in which he walked a batter to load the bases and then got ahead of a batter 0-2 before hitting him to drive in a run.
• The Telling: Prof mentioned that Aki Iwamura was bailing out on most pitches. Well, he hit an opposite-field home run yesterday which is a good sign.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• Scott Kazmir is set to make his major league debut today and will have a 100-pitch limit. [MLB]
• BJ Upton was out of the lineup again last night, but should be ready to go today. [Rays Report]
• Al Reyes suffered a minor set-back and the Rays bullpen is better for it. Reyes will be out at least two more weeks, after an MRI revealed Tendinitis in his elbow. [MLB]
• Joe Henderson says the Rays are not overachieving noting that injuries have hampered the Rays and several players are yet to start hitting. [Tampa Tribune]
• Buster Olney points out that Andy Sonnanstine is one of the best in the league at avoiding hitters counts. In fact, only 10.9% of batters faced have been in a hitters count at any given point. That is the third best rate. [ESPN]

Giving up base on balls was something that nagged at Andy Sonnanstine and in spring training, the Rays’ right-hander began having conversations about the mentality of hitters with a couple of teammates — veteran Eric Hinske, and first-base coach George Hendrick, who accumulated 1,980 hits and 267 homers during his career.

What those lengthy conversations reinforced to Sonnanstine was the peril of pitching into ball-strike counts that greatly favor the hitter — two balls and no strikes or 3-1. “I was telling [Hinske] of how much better I felt if I threw a first-pitch strike,” said Sonnanstine, from Fenway Park, “and he was letting me know how amped he’s getting when there’s a 2-0 count, or 3-1. He gets excited because he knows that statistically, the chances are he’s going to get a base knock.”

• Justin Ruggiano is obviously unhappy about his demotion to Durham, but would rather play everyday in AAA than sit on the bench for the Rays if he isn’t given at least occasional playing time. [MLB]
• A blog lists the Rays among “The Failure Dynasties”. If you are interested in what they have to say, check the link. Just don’t ask me. The piece is about 64,000 words long and I really don’t feel like reading another piece about how much the Rays have sucked. [Ara Sports]

THE GOOD: Evan Longoria’s walk in the 2nd. Dirtbag is struggling and Joe Maddon always said he wanted to see how he would handle a slump. Even if the hits aren’t coming right now, you want to see that he still has a mastery of the strike zone and is not getting himself out. If the that continues, the hits are likely to return sooner rather than later…Edwin Jackson. Yes Nuke. Why? Because if the Rays were going to lose one game in the series, it was this one. Now he is out of the way and we can move on to James Shields and Scott Kazmir.

THE BAD: Akinori Iwamura is bailing out on everything. I have no idea why a pitcher would throw him anything but a fastball on the outside part of the plate right now. When he swings, his front foot lands in the first base dugout…The 3rd inning. After getting the first two batters on, the next three struck out…Carl Crawford’s arm. We have seen some bad throws from CC in our day, but that was one of the worst, and while the wet field may have been a problem, it did not seem to bother the Sox when they were throwing out two different runners at home…Did we mention that the Rays had 2 runners thrown out at home. It is starting to seem as if the Rays get out more on the basepaths than they do at the plate. You know what they say about errors in the field and not “giving the other team extra outs”. Works the same on the base paths. You can’t give the other team free outs.

THE TELLING: Were we the only ones praying for a rainout? Just knew this would not end well with Jackson. He is capable of great starts. But not in Boston on a rainy night after the Rays had swept the Sox just a week prior….Jonny Gomes batted 3rd versus a right-handed pitcher. Huh-wha? He couldn’t even get a start against a righty two weeks ago and now he is batting third?

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Kurt Birkins gets to stay with the Rays a little longer. Gary Glover is now on the DL and Al Reyes is still not ready to come off. [Ray Report]
• Jason Hammel is not officially in the bullpen with Scott Kazmir coming back on tomorrow. [MLB]
• A couple of days ago, we linked to a story on The Sporting News about the Rays improved defense. Yesterday Rob Neyer at ESPN discussed that story, and now he is starting to believe in the Rays. [ESPN]

I was skeptical about [88-89 win projections for the Rays], for the simple reason that the Rays finished last season with a 5.53 ERA, worst in the league. How do you get from there (I wondered) to 87 wins simply by adding Matt Garza? You don’t. But when you add Garza, and get Brendan Harris and B.J. Upton out of the infield, and Dukes and Young out of the outfield, maybe that does get you partway there. Maybe all the way. The Rays are in first place, with the best run differential in their division, having gotten one win from Garza and none from Kazmir. I’m still skeptical. I still think the Rays are more likely to win 82 games than 88. But if they do win 88 games and we’re shocked, it’s because we weren’t paying attention.

• Yesterday it was stories in the New York Times and The Boston Globe that were actually flattering. Today it is the Chicago Tribune. Tomorrow? The LA Times? We only hope that the Devil has a jacket. [Chicago Tribune]
• The Boston Herald calls Evan Longoria a “Sure Thing”. [Boston Herald]

“For me, sometimes when you hear a guy is touted like this, sometimes they don’t live up to expectations or they’re just not as good, in my opinion, and when I saw him, he lived up to all of it and more,” said Longoria’s teammate and former Red Sox Eric Hinske. “He’s better than I thought he would be, for sure. He does everything right, he’s fundamentally sound, on defense as well – he’s got good footwork, a good arm.”

• No Scott Kazmir is not the only surprise about the Rays early season success. DRays Bay points out that the top 2 hitters in the Rays lineup are not getting on base. [DRays Bay]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Bleacher Report breaks down the first month of the season for the Rays. [Bleacher Report]
• Her Rays breaks down the AL East after the first month. [Her Rays]
• The Rays are #9 in this week’s power rankings from The Sporting News. [The Sporting News]
• Big League Stew wonders if the Rays are for real. [Big League Stew]
• Whoever is the oddman out when Scott Kazmir returns might be able to stay a little longer as Al Reyes is not expected to come off the DL on Thursday as originally thought. The means Kurt Birkins will be sent down when Kid K rejoins the team. [The Heater]
• Carter Gaddis looks at the upcoming return of Scott Kazmir and wonders who is going to be the starting pitcher without a chair when the music stops. [Tampa Tribune]
• Outs Per Swing also takes a look at who might be out of the rotation. [Outs Per Swing]
• Rays the Roof names four Orioles that they hate. [Rays the Roof]
• David Price threw another live bullpen session. He is expected to make the first of 3 or 4 extended spring training starts on Friday before reporting to Vero Beach. [The Heater]
• The Rays would make history if they selected Vandy’s Pedro Alvarez with the first pick of the draft in June. [USA Today]
• James Shields was named player of the week for the AL. [MLB]
• Scott Kazmir made his final rehab start on Monday night for the Durham Bulls. Everything went well and he is scheduled to make his 2008 debut on Sunday in Boston. [News & Observer]

Durham 3, Charlotte 2. Dan Johnson homered in his first game with the Bulls.

Birmingham 4, Montgomery 2.

Brevard Co. 5, Vero Beach 1. Al Reyes started the game and pitched 1 perfect inning in his first rehab appearance.

Columbus 7, Charleston 4.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Nada

DRG here again to get you through the weekend. I can be reached here…

Yesterday: Tampa Bay Rays.

• The Good: In what might be the biggest series to date in the history of the franchise, the Rays played the best defense I have ever seen. The diving catches. The diving stops. Stops in the hole. Double plays. Nobody went for a potty break without calling time with a runner on third base….Joe Maddon’s crystal ball that predicted Nathan Haynes would win the game in the 11th. Inexplicably Maddening Maddon pinch ran for Carlos Pena in the bottom of the 9th inning with a runner on third base ahead of Pena. Pena’s run means nothing, so if Maddon was worried about Pena’s recent leg issues, Pena did not have to run and he was in the DH slot so he didn’t have to play the field. There was absolutely no reason to pinch-run there and yet Papa Joe proved he is smarter than all of us. Instead of having a top 10 MVP bat at the plate with a chance to win the game in the 11th, he went with his gut and put the game on the line with guy with an OBP near the Medoza line. And Haynes came through. I bow in awe to the genius that is Joe Maddon’s crystal ball of wackiness.
• The Bad: Whiskey
• The Telling: The last time the Rays won 5 in a row was August 21, 2005. The winning pitchers in that streak were, Chad Orvella, Trever Miller, Seth McClung, Scott Kazmir and Casey Fossum. No shit.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

• I love how Red Sox fans all of the sudden think it is their birthright to win. And boy do they not take well to losing to the “Devil Rays”. [Tales From The Ballpark]
• Al Reyes will start a rehab assignment in the next day or two and will be back with the Rays next Thursday. Cliff Floyd will begin a rehab assignment next week and could rejoin the Rays on May 9th after their road trip. [Rays Report]
• In an interesting twist, Dan Johnson cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to AAA Durham. Not sure who has been dropped, but Durham has some changes to make as all the recent demotions from the Rays has left the Bulls with a very crowded roster. [Rays Report]
• Marc Lancaster says Evan Longoria is struggling against lefties. Dirtbag has an OPS of .951. I can’t wait to see how well he hits once he figures out lefties. [Tampa Tribune]
• Jayson Stark looks a the lack of a long-term deal for BJ Upton and suggests that the Upton brothers may not be willing to sign at below market-value. [ESPN]

THE GOOD: We can thank Brendan Harris for the 2 runs in the 6th by letting one go right through the wickets eventually letting 2 runners score. This is how bad Harris’ range is, he can’t even get balls hit right to him…Kurt Birkins looked solid in his first action for the Rays posting a 1-2-3 6th inning…Jonny Gomes got a rare start against a RHP and delivered getting on base twice in 4 plate appearances…Carl Crawford’s sliding catch in the 8th inning in foul territory.

THE BAD: Carl Crawford’s sliding catch in the 8th inning in foul territory which allowed Delmon Young to tag up and score the go-ahead run…Riggans missed a hit-and-run in the 2nd inning getting Gomes thrown out at 2nd…The Rays had a total of 4 base runners in the first 2 innings and couldn’t score a run…BJ Upton needs to have his wheels taken away from him for a while. Another caught stealing last night is already his 3rd of the year and how many other base-running gaffes has he made?…Another throwing error by Jason Bartlett but this one was just as much Carlos Pena’s fault as he tried to scoop the ball which was a little to his left rather than backhand it (remember glove is on his right hand). Usually those throws are routine for Pena.

THE TELLING: The Twins broadcast crew had their “Aflac Trivia Question” last night: “Who is the only original Ray still with the team?” The problem with that question is there are two answers. Both Mike DiFelice (their answer) and Dave Martinez (bench coach) are “still” with the Rays…Jonny Gomes got a start versus a right handed pitcher?

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• According to Forbes magazine the Tampa Bay Rays are worth $290 million which is just under 1/5 of the value of the New York Yankees ($1.3BB). That is ahead of only the Florida Marlins ($256MM) and just behind the Pittsburgh Pirates ($292MM). The value is up from 2007 when the Rays were worth $267 million. In 2006 the Rays were worth $209 million and $176 million in 2005. In three years the Rays’ value has increased 64.8%…Then again, 64.8% of not much is still not very much. [SI.com]
• Ten is the unlonliest number… Al Reyes is the 10th Ray to land on the DL. It didn’t take a doctor to realize that Reyes just hasn’t been all there this season. Kurt Birkins will be activated from the DL and will be the third lefty for the Rays in the ‘pen…Gotta be honest we didn’t think we would ever see Birkins in a Rays uniform. [Rays Report]
• Everybody is trying to defend Carl Crawford’s play down the left field line, including Joe Maddon (He didn’t know how close he was to the line)…Maybe so, but the Maddon’s facial expressions for about 5 minutes following the play told a completely different story. [Rays Report]
• Fire Gardy calls Carl Crawford “dumb”…That might be too far in the other direction. [Fire Gardy]
• Tristan Cockcroft of ESPN.com says that Evan Longoria is “the real deal” but wonders if the Rays will be stupid and send him back down to delay his arbitration clock…Would anybody be surprised? [ESPN]