The offense was plentiful and the pitching good enough as the Rays went into U.S. Cellular Field last night and left with the best record in the American League. Tampa Bay scored 6 runs off of the Chicago bullpen over the final 2 2/3 innings to put this game out of reach, as the power was provided by Carlos Pena, Rocco Baldelli, and Ben Zobrist.
Rocco’s Modern Life: Since his return from the DL, Rocco Baldelli is hitting .300 / .364 / .450. A small sample-size, for sure, but still the kind of numbers you like to see. If he can keep that up, he gives the Rays a good amount of juice in the middle of the order against left-handed pitching.
Bringing the Pena: Carlos has been a house on fire since the All-Star Break, and he clubbed his 26th home run of the season last night just for good measure. Isn’t it amazing that, despite the “disappointing” season he’s put together, he’s still going to hit somewhere between 30 and 35 home runs? You can’t ask for much more from any player.
Edwin works his magic again: Again, Edwin wasn’t great by any means, but he was good enough to get the Rays through 6 innings of 2-run ball. How does he do it? Maybe it’s voodoo magic. I’m not entirely sure.
Grant Balfour… is a beast. What a job coming in when he did to get the two big strikeouts with the tying and go-ahead runs on.
When Jason Hammel throws strikes… he gets guys out. Another scoreless inning in which he threw 11 of 14 pitches for strikes.
Tags: Rays
