The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

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THE GOOD: Carlos Pena. This offense is different just when Carlos Pena is in it, whether or not he is hitting. He is that threatening presence that nobody else provides. But the Rays offense can be scary-good when Pena is clicking. And you know The Crime Cat is clicking when he is smacking oppo-field blasts like his 3-run home run Monday night…Wade Davis. Big Dub is now 5-0 in 6 starts since the All-Star break. And for just the third time this season he worked into the 8th inning, giving up just 2 runs in 7.2 innings…Chad Qualls. With the tying runners on and 2 outs in the 8th, Qualls came in to face Jose Bautista and his 42 home runs. Qualls got him to strike out swinging on a slider to end the Jays last threat.

THE BAD: Attendance. We hate pointing it out, but 11,968 last night was just the third time this season the Rays failed to crack 12,000. That’s not good…Official Scoring. Anybody else think that Carl Crawford was going to beat out that slow roller in the 3rd inning anyway? We thought it should have been a single, not an error. Nitpicking, but still…Randy Choate. You are absolutely right. It is not fair to put Choate in “The Bad” when he came in and retired both batters he faced. But c’mon, admit it. You were a little nervous with Choate in the game, even with a 4-run lead in the 9th. And that is not good. Jake McGee and/or RJ Swindle can’t get here fast enough.

THE TELLING: The Rays and Yankees have now been tied atop the East for 7 straight days and 12 days in August…The Rays magic number is now 25 with 31 to go…Matt Moore was named the FSL pitcher of the week…Alex Torres was named the Southern League pitcher of the week.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are now 81-50, tied with the Yankees for first place in the AL East and 7 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 131 games in 2008, the Rays were 80-51.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Wade Davis talks about last night’s effort. [The Heater]
  • Did the Red Sox block the Rays from picking up catcher Mike Napoli from the Angels? [NESN]
  • Noah Pransky feels the ugly situation Read the rest of this entry »