[Game 3: RAYS 4, Red Sox 3] Now THAT’S how you open the season
By Scott Caruso | April 9th, 2009 | Posted in Game Recap
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
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0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 2 | |
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Boston
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
Winning The Series: If a baseball team wins every single series it plays during the season, it will finish with something like a .700 winning percentage. Though the Rays are going to lose a series here or there, the ultimate goal should be to take 2-out-of-3 every time out there. After dropping the season opener (and looking quite sluggish in the process), the Rays took care of business and left Beantown with a 2-1 record and in great shape heading into a weekend tilt in Baltimore.
Masterful Matt Garza: Dead arm? What dead arm? Garza’s arm was about as dead as a group of 12-year-olds at a David Archuleta concert, as he weaved his way through the Red Sox lineup with 7 innings of 1-run ball. He just picked up where he left off last season; is there any doubt that the Rays could quite possibly have the best starting rotation in the division once David Price shows up?
It’s That Man Again: Evan Longoria is already mashing. The rest of the American League should be scared. Very, very scared. All he’s done so far is go 6-for-14 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, 5 RBI, and a 1.000 slugging percentage. I wouldn’t want to be a mediocre-to-bad pitcher right now, or else he’s going to murder me.
Re-Joyce: It’s clear that the Rays’ management – in general – loves Matt Joyce. On the other hand, the team is paying $1 million each for Gabe Gross and Gabe Kapler. I think it highly unlikely that the Rays move one of those two before B.J. Upton comes back next week, meaning that Joyce is likely ticketed to go to Durham no matter what. That’s too bad; he’s done a lot of real nice things so far.
Troy Percival… still gives me ulcers. And there was a whole lot of old going on when he and Jason Varitek squared off in the first inning.
All Shawn Riggans does… is it home runs in close games. Too bad he can’t do much of anything else.
Thievery! Akinori Iwamura has already stolen two bases this year. Could this be a more free-running Aki we’re going to see in 2009?
April 10th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Shawn Riggans Too bad he can’t do much of anything else?? That’s not fair.
“[I] left a hanging slider up to Bay after I shook off my catcher, which I shouldn’t have done, and [the pitch Shawn Riggans called] probably would have worked better,” Garza said.
Garza also has said the he likes the way Riggans gives a low target. Shawn also blocks balls in the dirt very well. I think he is a premiere back-up catcher still with some upside.