Rays of Light

Game #100: Looks like we made it

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Thread  

I heard and read a number of commentators and columnists who said that you’d know if the Rays were real if they could make it to the 100th game of the season and still be in the race. 1st place in the AL East still counts as “in the race,” right?

After last night’s rough loss, the Rays can still take this series behind James Shields today. If he’s on the mound for a series clincher, you like your chances.

What to watch for: Any signs of life from the offense. Things still just haven’t clicked yet.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
James Shields - Shields continued his home dominance on Friday night, notching his eighth win this season, six of which have been at Tropicana Field. The 26-year-old right-hander tossed seven innings of one-run baseball — allowing only a solo homer to Toronto’s Adam Lind — in the four-strikeout performance. Shields’ best pitch has always been his changeup, but he also has a plus fastball and curve and he’s added a cutter that has helped him throw inside to left-handers. He will be making his first start of the season against Oakland, a team he has traditionally fared well against. In four career starts, Shields is 2-1 with a 4.55 ERA.

Greg Smith - Smith struggled Friday night against the Yankees and exited after just 3 2/3 innings. He allowed six earned runs on eight hits in the shortened outing. He fell into long at-bats to contribute to the high pitch count. The lefty threw 62 pitches through the first three innings. Smith walked five and struck out just one in the game. He is 0-1 with a 2.57 ERA against the Rays.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Greg Smith.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

9 Comments

Tags: A's

A’s 8, RAYS 1: Nothing pretty about this one

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Recap  

(Box Score)

There’s not a whole heck of a lot that I can say about last night’s game, so I’ll make that part of this brief:

Andy Sonnanstine is only as good as his ability to limit the long-ball. He certainly wasn’t BAD last night, but one bad pitch and one trip around the bases for Jack “Irish Pub” Hannahan put the Rays in a hole they wouldn’t bounce back from. Again, not a bad performance from your #4 or #5 starter, but just not good enough last night.

Trever Miller and Al Reyes just aren’t that great. Certainly both has a little bit of value - Miller has been decent against lefties this season (which, by the way, are who he should be facing. Maddon’s decision to allow him to face righties on an almost-nightly basis has long run its course and is something I’ve been complaining about since April), while Reyes has actually been quite good against righties. The problem, of course, is that neither of them is being used to exclusively face the other side of the plate. If Maddon would leave Reyes to only face righties and Miller to only face lefties, both of them probably wouldn’t look nearly as bad as they do. I suppose in a game like last night you don’t have much of a choice, if you insist on saving the top arms in the bullpen and not trying to keep the lead at 2 runs.

Evan Longoria can’t do it by himself. Someone else needs to deliver a big hit. At the very least, Carlos Pena didn’t strike out with the bases loaded in the 3rd. A sac fly is better than nothing.

This Willy Aybar thing has run its course. He’s a nice bench player, but he shouldn’t be playing as much as he has been. What’s the more permanent solution? It’s not in-house, I don’t think, and we’ve all heard the rumors about Xavier Nady, but what about a guy like Ty Wigginton? Yes, I know we’ve gone that route before, but don’t you think he could be a capable DH against left-handed pitching? His OPS this year against southpaws is over 1.000 (and is more than .100 better than his line against righties for his career) and he gives the Rays similar defensive flexibility to Aybar. Wonder what it would take to get him back from the Astros, because I would certainly consider it.

5 Comments

Tags: A's

RAYS 4, A’s 0: Took me long enough to post this, eh?

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Recap  

(Box Score)

Could I have waited any longer to put up the recap of last night’s game? Sorry about that fellas…

Kid K: There was no bigger story last night than Scott Kazmir. Sure, he walked 4 batters and worked a ton of deep counts, but he gave the Rays 7 innings of 2-hit ball. With the back-end of the bullpen that we’ve got right now, that’s all you can really ask for. There might be no bigger key to the second half of the season than Scott Kazmir, and I don’t just mean throwing shutout innings. If he can give the Rays 7 innings each time out, it saves the bullpen and keeps the best arms on the hill in the key moments of the game. If you get 7 innings out of Scott Kazmir, it’s almost always going to be a win. He’ll have about 12 more starts the rest of the season, and the Rays are hoping for a carbon-copy of last night in the rest of those starts.

Evan (Still) Almighty: You might disagree, but I don’t think there’s any question who the star of this team is now. Yeah, he still strikes out a ton (on pace for about 150 of them), but when the Rays need big hits, who has been the one to deliver them this year? Not Carlos Pena. Not B.J. Upton. It’s been Evan Almighty. No player has been more important to the offense this year. 30 home runs is not just a possibility now; it’s a very real likelihood. If anyone still wants to tell you that Jacoby Ellsbury should be the Rookie of the Year, you have my permission to smack them.

Gettin’ On: When your top two hitters got 4-for-7 and are on-base a combined total of 7 times, you like your chances to win a ballgame. Akinori Iwamura and B.J. Upton form a dynamic duo atop the lineup, and one that I hope Joe Maddon sticks with for the time being. Now if we can just get Crawford out of the 3-hole until he starts hitting…

Walk This Way: Patience is a virtue, especially in baseball, and if the Rays are going to be walking 8 times a game, they’re going to score some runs. Unfortunately…

Big Hits? The big hits were few and far between, as the team continues to leave a lot of runners on base. 13 left on last night, to be exact. They got the win, which matters most, but you’d really like to see them convert some of those extraneous runners into ticks on the scoreboard.

Honeymoon Over? Big hits aside, Ben Zobrist hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire. Capable back-up? Certainly. Everyday solution? Probably not. Hopefully Jason Bartlett’s ready to come back soon so we can get back to some normalcy in the lineup.

Jonny Gomes Watch: Gomer did his part to try to stay on the roster last night, singling and drawing a walk (without a strikeout!).  If he can hit lefties, he will continue to be an important player for this team. If he can’t, then he’ll be gone before the end of the season. He’ll get two more chances here to prove himself.

Are You Taking It For Granted? 98 games into the season, and the Rays are still in first place. Don’t forget how bad things were last summer and make sure to enjoy this run the team is on right now.

4 Comments

Tags: A's

Game #98: Feeling Athletic

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Thread  

2-out-of-3 ain’t bad, and the Rays aim to do that again against the A’s. If they can take 2 out of every 3 from her eon in, they are going to win the division, so that’s what the goal should be going forward.

Kid K returns to the hill after his win in the All-Star Game. A lot of people were critical about the decision to push him all the way back to today, but I’m okay with it because he’s the most important arm in the starting rotation. No reason to even tempt fate.

What to watch for: Jonny Gomes will get three straight starts against left-handed pitching. This could be his chance to save his job, period.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Scott Kazmir - Kazmir took the loss in his last start, against the Indians on July 13, when he allowed five runs on eight hits in six innings. Kazmir has not picked up a win since June 27 at Pittsburgh, and he’s 1-4 in his last five decisions. In addition, Kazmir has made it into the seventh inning just once in his last seven starts. The lefty is still working to gain command of his slider, which has historically been his best pitch. Without his slider, he has primarily used a fastball-changeup combination this season. He is 5-1 with a 2.96 ERA in nine career starts against the A’s.

Dana Eveland - First-inning struggles continued for Eveland in his last start against the Angels. He pitched well in 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs in the first inning, on five hits with five strikeouts, but he also walked five. It was the third straight outing in which Eveland had trouble in the opening frame, but after the game he said toning it down to about 80 percent may be the solution to his early-inning woes. He pitched his first career complete game in his only start against Tampa Bay earlier in the year, giving up a lone run on just three hits while walking one and fanning five in the win.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Dana Eveland.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

3 Comments

Tags: A's

Game #97: Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Thread  

Well wouldn’t that be a nice way to end the first series after the All-Star Break? The Rays could use a sweep - that would be 3 games in a row, called a winning streak in some circles - after the pre-All-Star Break debacle. The Angels, for their part, have been helping the Rays out and we’re now the proud owners of a 1 1/2 game lead in the East again. Maybe the stars align properly and we come out of today with a 2 1/2 game lead? We can only hope.

What to watch for: Parrish has been a reliever for most of his big league career, so you’d think he’d take his lumps in his transition to a starter this year. Not so, thus far, but the Rays offense is primed to break out and today is as good a day as any to make that happen.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Edwin Jackson - Jackson threw 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball in an impressive outing against the Yankees on July 9. The right-hander gave up just six hits and struck out three to come away with the no-decision. Jackson allowed his only earned run in the first inning, but he kept the Yankees off the scoreboards after that and retired seven of the final eight batters he faced. Jackson is 0-2 with a 3.38 ERA in seven career appearances against the Blue Jays.

John Parrish - With starters Dustin McGowan (right shoulder) and Shaun Marcum (right elbow) sidelined for the time being, Parrish has pitched his way into a rotation job. In his first two outings for the Jays, the lefty gave up four runs on 10 hits over 13 innings, in which he struck out seven and walked four. On July 10, Parrish took a no-decision after allowing three runs on six hits in a seven-inning effort against the Orioles.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against John Parrish.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

6 Comments

Tags: Blue Jays

RAYS 6, Blue Jays 4: Evan slams the door shut

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Recap  

(Box Score)

Not going to lie - I didn’t get a chance to watch this game last night. Just use this thread for your thoughts on:

Marvelous Matt Garza

Evan Almighty

Clifford Cornelius

How Much Al Reyes Stinks

And anything else from last night’s game that you want to address.

And a teaser: we’re going to have an interview with someone from the Rays organization in the near future. Not ready to name-drop yet. That’s how I roll.

1 Comment

Tags: Blue Jays

Game #96: Let’s make it two!

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Thread  

I enjoyed last night’s win so much, I’d like to try and do it again today. Sure it’s Roy Halladay on the mound, but we can handle him, right? Okay, so maybe it’ll take a great effort from Matt Garza to get it done. Maybe it’s too much to expect back-to-back wins against Burnett and Halladay, but a dude can dream, can’t he?

What to watch for: ANYTHING from B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena. Those guys really need to start hitting like a 3- and a 4-hitter soon.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Matt Garza - Garza will be making his 18th start of the season after taking his fifth loss July 12 against the Indians when he allowed seven runs on 11 hits and two walks while striking out five in five innings. Garza has a mid-90s fastball that sinks, a curve, a slider and a changeup. He is 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in two career starts against the Blue Jays.

Roy Halladay - The undisputed ace of the Blue Jays staff, Halladay has enjoyed another stellar season thus far, earning his fifth career All-Star selection in the process. His 11 wins lead the team. As well, his seven complete-games and 146 1/3 innings pitched, lead the Majors. In his last start, Halladay dominated the Yankees, allowing just two hits in a shutout. He walked just one, while striking out eight New York hitters. In his career against the Rays, the right-hander is 9-5 with a 3.76 ERA.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Roy Halladay.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

3 Comments

Tags: Blue Jays

RAYS 2, Blue Jays 1: Not pretty, but I’ll take it

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Recap  

(Box Score)

Just because they won, it doesn’t mean the Rays are out of their funk yet. The offense was yet again abysmal in the chances it had to plate some runs, but the Rays took advantage of some stellar pitching to finally snap that 7-game losing streak and move back into first place in the AL East. (Thanks, Angels!)

James the Great: That’s exactly what Shields was last night. It was a vintage Shields-ian performance, getting a lot of weak swings and limiting the Blue Jays to just 4 hits and 6 total baserunners in 7 innings. It was starting to look like one of those games where Shields would end up as the hard-luck loser (he has a lot of those, doesn’t he?) until…

Benny Boo-Boo Goes Yard: You think Zobrist was looking fastball? He got the pitch he was waiting for and turned it around deep into the seats in right. He’s got some surprising pop (4 home runs) for a guy we’ve always heard was more of a glove-first, good-eye utility infielder-type. This comes just hours after rumors popped up that the Rays might be interested in Clint Barmes as a utility infielder. Not sure why they would need to do that when Benny does a fine job on his own. Unless its ALONG with Zobrist and in place of Aybar.

B.J. Upton…  has apparently gone to the Carlos Pena school of hitting. 3 strikeouts in 4 at bats, and he looks just flat-out lost at the plate right now. Um, hit please?

Speaking of Carlos Pena: Did you know that he’s hitting just .217 with runners on base right now? He’s got nearly as many at bats with men on as at bats with the bases empty, and his average is 33 points higher with the bases empty and he has struck out about 15 more times in runners-on situations. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Pen Pals: Another day, another great performance from the ‘pen. J.P. Howell pitched around a Ben Zobrist error, and Grant Balfour just blew them away like he’s been doing lately. Troy who?

1 Comment

Tags: Blue Jays

Game #95: The first game of the rest of our lives

By Scott Caruso  |  Posted in Game Thread  

All-Star Break’s over. Time to get back to business. It’s also time to snap that 7-game losing streak. That’s not an albatross this team needs hanging over its head any longer. How about a nice 5-game win streak or something like that to open up the second-half? That’d be awesome.

As an aside, I hate that we call today the start of the “second half” of the season. Game #82 was the second half of the season. It’s not my fault that MLB waits until 2 weeks later to play the All-Star Game.

What to watch for: Signs of life from the offense that wren’t there in the week prior to the break. If past history is any indication, A.J. Burnett’s the guy to try to do it off of.

James Shields - Shields took his sixth loss of the season on July 11, when he allowed five runs on 10 hits in six innings against the Royals, continuing his hard luck on the road. Fortunately for the Rays, he has been strong at Tropicana Field this season where he is 5-1 with a 2.13 ERA in 10 starts. The 26-year-old right-hander’s best pitch has always been his changeup, but he also has a plus fastball and curve and he’s added a cutter that has helped him throw inside to left-handers. He is 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA in four career starts against the Blue Jays.

A.J. Burnett - Burnett has had mixed results over the first half of the season. Despite this, his win total (10) in the first half of the campaign, has already matched the overall total that he had amassed in each of the previous two seasons. Amidst various trade rumors, Burnett handcuffed the Yankees in his last start. He took a shutout into the ninth inning, until surrendering a solo home run to Jason Giambi. Burnett allowed just the one run on six hits over 8 1/3 innings. He walked one while striking out eight, and tossed 98 pitches in the outing. In his career against the Rays, the Toronto right-hander is 6-3 with a 3.21 ERA in 14 career starts.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against A.J. Burnett.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

7 Comments

Tags: Blue Jays