Welcome home: With the 7-3 victory on Friday night, the Rays have now won 21 of their last 24 home games. This great home record has allowed the team to take control of the Wild Card despite having a sub-.500 road record. The Rays maintained a 2.5 game lead over Oakland for the Wild Card, and picked up a game on the Red Sox (1.5 back) who lost to the Cincinnati Reds. Amazingly the Rays are still 11 games over .500 despite playing the toughest schedule in baseball.
Sonny wins #7: Andy Sonnanstine struggled early, but pitched well enough to hang in there to earn his seventh victory of the season. After getting knocked around in the 1st inning, Sonny had a stretch of 13 consecutive batters retired and had the Marlins hitters completely off-balance. Was anyone else a little surprised that Maddon gave him the quick pull after 5.1 innings? The move worked well, and I guess Maddon felt comfortable going to the pen early with everyone well-rested. 5:0 K/BB ratio tonight for Sonny.
Percy back in action: It was great to see Percy pick up right where he left off before heading to the DL. He struck out the first two hitters and got a weak grounder to end the game. The 8th-9th inning combo of Wheeler and Percival has been great for the Rays all season and tonight was no exception. You could make a good argument that both guys deserve to be a member of the AL All-Star team. I highly doubt that either will be selected, but they both are having that type of season.
CC who?: The Rays familiar face in left field began serving his 4 game suspension tonight, but his absence was not felt at the top of the order. The 1-2-3-4 hitters in the lineup went a combined 7-15 with 4 walks. Dioner Navarro was slotted in the two-slot and put together several good at-bats during the game. I love the idea of putting a high OBP guy in that slot in the order. Could we see Maddon leave Navarro in that slot even after C.C. returns?I know there is no chance of that happening, but, hey, a guy can always dream right? Speaking of Navi, he is rapidly approaching the numbers of PA required to qualify for AL hitting statistics. His .335 average would currently rank first in the American League in front of Milton Bradley and Joe Mauer.
Long-O: The only black eye on the lineup tonight was the 0-5 night by Evan Longoria. I was hoping Evan to pick up where he left off in California, but he missed some meatballs tonight. Hopefully, the future AL Rookie of the Year can get back in the groove of things tomorrow night.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:23 am
I think it was necessary to make sure that Sunny did not get a loss and keep his confidence up. He got shield the last couple of time and again in the first, batters with a triple, double and a single. He was able to leave with his head up high, not his tail between his legs. Good job Sunny for regaining your composure. Did anybody see my sign “FEEL THE HEAT - FRY THE FISH”
June 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
It speaks volumes to this team’s ability to win games in a gritty fashion — even more so when they do it every other night.
Tonight they were without Carl Crawford, the former allstar left fielder with great speed and range but they made it work, in both the field and at the plate.
But even more frustrating, yet optimistic, is that Evan Longoria was 0-5 like you pointed out. This is very telling to this team’s overall ability, but what the heck is up with Evan? Does he really not like the Florida heat or what?
The next point regards Troy Percival. He returned from the DL in a very successful manner. He faced three batters in 1.0 IP. He struck out the first two and got the third, and final, batter to ground out to end the inning, and the game.