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: Carl Crawford. With one out in the 1st and the Rays trailing 3-0, CC got himself in a rundown between 3rd and home. Only 2 throws later, Crawford was scooting past the catcher after he dropped the ball, scoring the Rays first run. Later, he would hit his 11th home run, giving the Rays the lead. Don’t look now, but guess who is leading the Rays in slugging (.521) and OPS (.901)? Yep. Superman…Jason Bartlett. He hasn’t delivered too many big hits this season, but he came through in the 10th inning with a walk-off base hit to score Carl Crawford…Future Stars. In yesterday’s MLB Futures Game, Desmond Jennings went 0-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. He stole a base and scored 3 times. Jeremy Hellickson started for the US, picking up the win after giving up 1 run in 2 innings. He struck out 1. Alex Torres pitched 1 scoreless inning for the World squad.
THE BAD: Jeff Niemann. He had a rough first inning that put the Rays in an early 3-0 hole. But after a 1-out visit from pitching coach Jim Hickey, Niemann settled down and retired 14 of the next 17 batters. But then he apparently tweaked his back and had to be pulled after throwing only 70 pitches…Joe Maddon? Jeff Niemann was replaced by Dan Wheeler who promptly allowed the first 4 batters he faced to reach base and blowing the 2-run lead. We have to wonder if Wheeler had enough time to warm up. If Niemann was indeed hurt, Wheeler should be allotted as many warm-up pitches as needed to start the 6th. It was difficult to tell on TV, but it did not appear that Wheeler took extra warm-up pitchers. So why didn’t Maddon make it clear to the umpire that this was an injury substitution? And why didn’t Wheeler insist on taking extra warm-up pitches?
THE TELLING: Carl Crawford DH’d on Sunday admitting his shoulder is still sore…Joe Maddon will start the second half with James Shields, Jeff Niemann and David Price getting the 3 games against the Yankees coming out of the break…The Rays will give $5,000 to A Boys and Girls Club in Clearwater that had several items stolen over the 4th of July weekend…If David Price starts the All-Star game, he would be the youngest starter since 1988 (Dwight Gooden).
WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 54-34, 2 games behind the Yankees and 3 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 88 games in 2008, the Rays were 55-33.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Several people sent this to us over the weekend…The Rays have expressed interest in Jayson Werth of the Phillies. [NY Post]
- Marc Topkin writes about Evan Longoria’s road the big leagues and now back home in California as an all-star starter. [St. Pete Times]
- Jerry Crasnick writes about Read the rest of this entry »