Blue Jays 3, RAYS 1: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
By Scott Caruso | July 28th, 2008 | Posted in Game Recap
What do they Rays have in common with a man with no arms? Neither of them can hit anything.
How much longer will this offensive malaise continue? I’m just curious because I’d like to know when I can actually start watching them and NOT want to vomit. It’s not going to get any easier against Roy Halladay tomorrow, either.
And this, my friends, is the reason why simply getting another bat isn’t going to cure this team’s ills. Right now, NO ONE is hitting. Perfect example: third inning, Rays load the bases with Evan Longoria, Carlos Pena, and Cliff Floyd coming up. They proceed to strike out, ground out, and strike out and only push across a single run. It’s just plain laughable at this point. They loaded the bases again later and managed to get nothing out of it. They loaded them up the inning before that, too, but with two outs. I don’t need to tell you that there weren’t any runs scored there, either. There are hitters in this lineup who should be doing so much more than they are right now, so simply going out and getting Mark Teixeira or Matt Holliday or Adrian Beltre or any other flavor of the month isn’t going to solve the problems. Sure, I suppose adding Tex to the middle of the lineup could help take the pressure off and make everyone else better, but it could just end up being a very expensive (both in terms of money and prospects) acquisition that doesn’t solve the greater problem: lack of situational hitting.
Too many times this team has struck out when it needs to put a ball in play. Grounded out the pitcher when it needs a fly ball. Failed to move runners up. Failed to get that guy home from third with less than 2 outs. When does the hitting coach take some of the blame? He’s certainly not getting these guys to perform at a very high level.
Until the rest of the team starts performing, no mid-season trade is going to fix the problems.
But, hey, at least they are the problems of a team still in first place. Things could be much, much worse right now.
Tough-Luck James: Shields deserved much better than he got. He was absolutely great save for two pitches. Does any pitcher have more tough-luck losses and no-decisions than Jamie?
Walk This Way: Eric Hinske walked 3 times against Burnett tonight; even though he’s not hitting a whole lot right now, he’s still getting on base. (A .351 OBP from your number 8 hitter is certainly something you’ll take.)
Tags: Blue Jays
July 28th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Good starting pitching, but the position players just downright SUCK. Yes, I hope they read the blogs. They just SUCK. Should not even take their bats with them for half their at bats; bet their BAs do not change.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
All- sorry for my rant. I realize the Rays are still in first place…it is almost comical that neither the Sux nor Yuks have yet overtaken the current Silent Bats of Tampa. I just hate to see the Rays waste such a good effort to date…these magical opportunities must be seized when they appear as fate can be brutal…the opportunity may not come again for a while.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hate to say it but looks like we have the Ruks, the Sux and the Yuks battling for first. We are letting golden opportuinties to stretch lead get away. Maybe just completely reverse the order or have them wear their uniforms inside out. Please Joe try anything. Maybe let them drink a bottle of Merlow before the game and maybe they could stagger into a hit.