| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | |
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Oakland
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0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
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Oakland
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0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 7 | 10 | 0 |
You really expect me to write about this absolutely horrid weekend? Yeah, not bloody likely.
Instead, this guy has something to say:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
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Chi White Sox
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0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 17 | 0 | |
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Tampa Bay
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
Ugh.
Matt Garza… clearly didn’t have his good stuff today. (Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that. You come here for the expert analysis, right?) I’m pretty sure that if you put a pair of way-out-of-prescription bifocals on a 74-year-old woman who had never thrown a baseball in her life, she might have had close to the same command that Mean Matty had today. Oh, did I mention that the woman had polio as a child and is unable to raise either arm above her belly-button?
Adding Injury to Insult: The Bossman (Junior) left the game with a tweak in his quad. Personally, I think he just didn’t want to hang around for this bloodbath. After the sick-nasty catches he’s been making this week, he’s allowed to take a seat.
(In all seriousness, the injury isn’t thought to be too hardcore, and he will likely be back for the Seattle series.)
Let’s see, something good, something good… Oh, yeah! Ben Zobrist continues to mash. Am I the only one who thinks that maybe HE should be the regular right fielder? At least until he stops hitting, anyways.
What does 6 hits in 1 1/3 innings look like? Ask Lance Cormier. To me, it looks like a ticket to Durham in the near future.
Troy Percival… has now allowed 8 baserunners in 3 2/3 innings. Yes, you should be concerned. Very, very concerned.
Sanity check… Before anyone starts jumping off of the Long Bridge Check Gas, the Rays are still keeping pace with the Red Sox and Yankees, and the Blue Jays aren’t going to win 10 out of every 14 games all season long. It’s as simple as that.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |
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Baltimore
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5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 6 | 9 | 0 |
DVR is a beautiful thing… isn’t it? Due to various pre-Easter family commitments, I wasn’t able to watch the game live. But DVR… oh boy, DVR you are my friend. Because when Jeff Niemann allows 5 runs in the first inning before recording an out, you know it’s time to start fast-forwarding. And that’s just what I did.
You might say: “But Scott, you’re supposed to be covering the Rays! How in the world can you accurately do your job if you’re not watching the whole game?” And to those people I say: “Stuff it.”
I’m sure glad I did fast-forward through it, because not only was it a disappointing affair (O Pat Burrell, where art thou?) but it was an incredibly boring one, too.
B.J. Upton can’t get back soon enough. At least he keeps things interesting since you never quite know what dude is going to do on the basepaths next.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
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1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | |
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Baltimore
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2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 5 | 11 | 0 |
This is going to be a short one tonight… I’m ready for bed.
Andy Sonnanstine… certainly wasn’t at his best tonight. And by that, I mean it was among the worst he’s ever looked. I mean, if you take out his control problems, his crappy fastball, and the fact that he never looked comfortable he had a pretty hood night. But if you’re rational or not entirely blind, you saw that this was not the same pitcher who ate a ton of innings for the club last year.
Let’s hope it’s just a little bit of rust or early-season kinks being worked out.
MVP! MVP! Okay, so maybe we’re 4 games into the season, but Evan Longoria looks like the league’s best player. He’s so locked in right now, it’s scary.
Gabe Kapler’s got a new nickname: From now on, we’ll start calling him Gabe “B.J. Upton” Kapler. You know why.
Sharpened Lance: Lance Cormier certainly fit the bill tonight, tossing 2 2/3 of scoreless ball to at least give the Rays a chance to get back into the game. They didn’t quite do it, but he was certainly a shot in the arm out of the pen. I never projected him to make the roster, but I’m sure glad that I was wrong.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
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Tampa Bay
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |
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Boston
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1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 5 | 9 | 0 |
There was one very important lesson learned during the 2008 season: strikeouts with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs are never fun. Well, the more things change the more they stay the same, as the Rays placed a whopping 14 Ks into the Boston hurlers’ column in dropping the season opener 5-3.
El Golden Sombrero: Carlos Pena was the big winner tonight, as his bat never connecting with anything. 4 strikeouts in 4 at-bats. Hey, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been 5 in 5 at-bats.
It Wasn’t Just Carlos, Though: Gabe Gross went down 3 times, Dioner Navarro twice, and another two for Matt Joyce. Toss in another for Evan Longoria in a key 2-on, no-out spot, and you had the makings of a disaster.
Not a fan of Opening Day: On back-to-back Opening Days, James Shields didn’t have his best stuff. Last year, he was lucky enough to be facing a clearly out-matched Orioles lineup. Today, not so much. The Red Sox made him pay, including a 1st inning homerun by reigning AL MVP Scrappy Doo and a 6th-inning bomb by the American League’s worst catcher. On the plus side… well, there wasn’t really anything positive about it except that he made it into the 6th inning.
Lance Cormier and Joe Nelson… both looked pretty good. Cormier worked 1 2/3 innings, allowing just a walk and inducing a few groundballs. Nelson, meanwhile, tore through the three hitters he faced in the 8th inning. The bullpen is and will remain a major strength for this club, and you can bet that Joe Maddon will expertly manage it again in 2009.
What, no HD? Maybe it’s just Brighthouse in Orlando, but today’s game wasn’t broadcast in HD. Really? Opening Day and I have to watch in standard definition? Shame on you FSN Florida.
Taking one for the team: Did anyone else see the way that Jason Bartlett leaned into a curveball to get on base in the 8th inning? That was a thing of beauty, my friends. Plus, it helped the Rays give Hideki Okajima a 54.00 ERA to start the season. That’s a number I like to see.
Note to self: The new MLB strike zone is the size of a barn when the Rays are batting.
