[Game 17: RAYS 8, A's 2] Bringing the C-Pain
By Scott Caruso | April 25th, 2009 | Posted in Game Recap
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
|
Tampa Bay
|
1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 1 | |
|
Oakland
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
El Gato Grande: Carlos Pena was undoubtedly the hitting star, stroking a pair of home runs and knocking in 4 of the Rays’ 8 runs in the romp. His first homer – a 3-run bomb to center – was absolutely tattooed and got out of the park in a hurry. You talk about being locked in, and Carlos certainly looks to be that after about 10% of the season has been completed.
All he’s done so far this season is lead MLB in home runs and RBI (8 and 21, respectively) while doing everything he can to keep the Rays’ offense afloat. Can he keep it up all season? I sure hope so.
A tale of two Kid K’s: For the first two innings, Scott Kazmir looked like Kid K, Circa Second Half of 2008. For the rest of the game, he looked like a total different pitcher. He really labored through those first two frames, but settled in nicely and gave the Rays a solid 6 innings of work. If it had been a close one, they probably could have stretched him to 7, but was there really a reason to?
Joe Nelson… was bound to have a rocky outing at some point. Thankfully it came when the Rays were up on the Green Elephants by 8 rather than in a 1-run nailbiter with the Yankees.
Look out Ted Williams… here comes Jason Bartlett and his .390 batting average! A 4-for-5 performance last night is just another in a line of fantastic performances by the J-man. Sure it was a bunch of infield hits. And sure there’s no way he finishes the season near .400. But, still, he’s getting on base (44 percent of the time!) and that’s all the Rays can ask for.
Walk this way: You know how you win games? You score runs. You know how you score runs? You get guys on base. You know how you get guys on base? You take balls and swing at strikes. The Rays took enough balls to walk 8 times last night, a great sign that the offense is beginning to see the ball a bit better. (Of course, it helps when the opposing pitchers couldn’t find home plate even with Google Maps.)
Did you know… that Gabe Gross’ on-base percentage is nearly .400 despite a batting average below the Mendoza line? Remember that the next time you say that the Rays should immediately cut him.
Oh yeah, and he’s got a quarterback’s arm in the right-field.
Carl Crawford… now has 6 stolen bases on the season. At this pace, he’ll nab about 60 this season. I’ll take that.
April 25th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
great to report on such positive stats, but the only stat of real importance is the team stat: wins and losses. the Rays as sucking in this department so far this year. they better “cowboy up” quickly or the AL East competition will leave them in the dust.