May 20th, 2008
It wasn’t always pretty, but the Rays somehow, someway made it to the 13th inning still tied, giving Evan Longoria a chance to play the role of hero. To me, it doesn’t really matter HOW they win so long as they win.
Oh, and for the record, I LOVE the 10:00PM start times. Even with the 4 1/2 hours of sleep I get as a result. No, really, I do.
The Evan Show: From his sparkling defense that was on display from the first batter of the bottom of the first, to the way he snapped out of his slump, Evan Longoria was the man of the hour last night. He could pretty much do no wrong.
The best play, in my opinion, was the rocket of a throw he made to catch Kurt Suzuki snoozing at second base on that bunt down the third base line. Like a cat he scooped the ball up and fired back to Bartlett, leaving Suzuki a dead-duck. It really showed off just how good his arm really is; it was a rocket. Did you know that he’s statistically the best third baseman in the league right now?
Offensively, all he did was go 3-for-6 with a clutch RBI double in the 6th and, of course, the bomb of a home run he hit in the 13th. He really looked locked in up there at the plate, ’cause he was taking some nice hacks. He didn’t strike out either, which was a nice change for what we’ve seen of late.
Evan seems to be at his best when the game’s on the line; he’s gotten quite a few “big” hits for the Rays in clutch spots (think back to the walk-off homer a couple weeks ago). His 20 RsBI despite hitting just .244 are a testament to that.
I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends: Though his line wasn’t pretty, James Shields actually wasn’t very bad at all. He was a little unlucky in that the only mistake pitches he threw got hit out of the park, but he actually had pretty good stuff last night. On many nights, pitchers get lucky and the offense misses their mistakes. Shields didn’t get lucky last night.
The 5th run that scored was the unluckiest of all, as Frank Thomas went down and golfed a pitch that was at his shoes for a base hit and that was followed up a Ryan Sweeney jam-job that barely found its way over the infield. Nothing Shields could do about either of those.
Was it his best outing? Absolutely not. But, he pitched just well enough not to lose, and his bullpen and his offense bailed him out. It just took them a little longer to do it.
Splendid Pen: Another fine performance from the Rays’ bullpen after being put through the ringer over the weekend. When I saw Gary Glover trotting out to the mound to replace Shields in the 8th, I just about crapped my pants I was so upset. But he, like everyone who followed him, kept the Rays alive in situations where one run was the deal-breaker.
Also, Joe Maddon proved that he was smarter than me by holding Troy Percival until the 13th inning. I’m the kind of guy who, once you get to the bottom of the 9th in a tie game, will start with his best reliever and work his way backwards through the bullpen, since you absolutely, positively cannot allow a run at that point. Maddon instead opted to patch his way through 4 innings with J.P. Howell and Jason Hammel before giving way to Percival, and the move paid off. Looks like I was wrong, because both Howell and Hammel were on their games last night. Hammel was most impressive as he hadn’t thrown in almost 2 weeks, but looked like a guy with a little something to prove.
Would the Glover, Howell, and Hammel trio have held the Red Sox or another prolific offense down for 4 1/3 innings? Maybe not. But they did the job last night, and last night’s the only game that matters.
Since Some Were Complaining: I had no problem with Joe Maddon going with Jonny Gomes as the pinch-hitter when he did. Knowing how thin his bullpen was, he was literally swinging for the fences. With the lefty Embree in the game, Gross’ chances of success were next to nothing, while Gomes is statistically one of the Rays’ top hitters against southpaws. The move almost worked out, as Gomes just missed one and flew out to center.
Yes, it weakened the Rays’ defense for the rest of the game, but I still feel like it was the right move at the time. Trying to get a run there was paramount. And, for the record, it didn’t look to me like Gross would’ve caught that flyball in the 13th inning, either. I can’t throw Gomer under the bus for that one.
The Buzzkill: With all of the good that there was with this game, there was also some bad. The Rays struck out 15 times; that total is still way too high. The big whiffers were your AL strikeout leader Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton, who each went down on strikes 3 times. Upton, for one, looked like he didn’t even want to be there last night. He took fastballs right down the middle and swung and curveballs in the dirt. He just looked totally lost. I know you hate to lose his bat, but maybe Joe considers giving him a day off here. And I’m not talking about 7 innings and then he pinch-hits off; I mean a full day off where he doesn’t need to worry about it.
Pena, though his single turned out to be huge as the Rays needed the second run on Longo’s homer, also had another less-than-stellar performance at the plate. Maybe they need to invent some kind of injury just to put him on the DL for a few weeks and let him get his head on straight. He’s taking fastballs down the middle and swinging at them when they are up and away. It’s like he just has no idea what he’s doing at the plate right now. At least he finally caught up to a fastball when he hit that single in the 13th.
Keeping Pace: The Rays remain one game behind the Red Sox (tied in losses, two back in wins) thanks to Jon Lester’s no-hitter last night. We probably need to win each of these next two games, because we can’t expect any help from a listless Kansas City ballclub.
