RAYS 6, Orioles 2: Niemann on the Block
Sunday, April 13th, 2008Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the archive feature on MLB.com. I was out all afternoon doing some shopping for the new baby who is on her way soon, and I was able to come home and watch the game later while doing some chores around the house. You can even get to the MLB.com multimedia page without seeing the scores, so I had no idea what had happened until I turned it on.
Anyways, a very workman-like, matter-of-fact win for the Rays today while also getting a tremendous starting pitching outing by Jeff Niemann.
Great Debut: In the first inning, it looked as if Jeff Niemann’s big league debut might be short-lived. By the time he left the mound after the top of the 6th, he looked like he was a seasoned pro. Niemann spotted his fastball well, worked ahead in the count, and kept the Orioles hiters off-balance the whole time. You could really tell that he gained confidence as the game went along, as his pitches began to have more bite and he began to work with more conviction on the hill.
It wasn’t all beautiful, though. Of the 12 batted outs he got, 11 of them were in the air. There were quite a few of them that were near the wall, too. With these kinds of numbers, he could be particularly prone to the home run ball going forward. I’m sure this wasn’t lost on the Rays, either. Relying on fly ball outs is a dangerous way to go.
With Niemann throwing well in this first outing, and Jackson and Hammel pitching well each time out, the Rays have a very interesting conundrum on their hands, but I’ll tackle that in tomorrow’s lunch break.
It’s not the number of hits, it’s how you use them: 6 runs is 6 runs, and you can win on most days by scoring 6 runs. But the fact that they only came on 6 hits is a little confounding. This is kind of a microcosm of the first 12 games, to be honest. The Rays have played excellent baseball in short spurts – a few late rallies, for instance – but have gone through plenty of stretches where they’ve looked lost at the plate.
Now, today was a little bit different because the Rays were using a great plate approach and drew a bunch of walks (5, in fact) to go along with the hits. When you get 11 baserunners, you’re going to score some runs. And the Rays did just that.
Bossman Cometh: Holy cow, that was a bomb. When he turns one around, he REALLY turns one around.
And about B.J.’s baserunning: I’ve got no problem with his “baserunning gaffes” as they are being called. On a few plays, he’s been hosed by bad umpiring (including the “balk” from Saturday night) and today he made the right call trying to take second base on that ball in the dirt. It took a perfect play from a backup catcher, and that’s exactly what Quiroz did – a perfect play. And Bossman still nearly beat it out. I hope he doesn’t start to tone it back, because most of his baserunning “errors” haven’t been his fault at all.
You knew it would happen eventually: J.P. Howell did not look sharp today at all. Perhaps working on 2 consecutive days didn’t agree with him. He’s never been a reliever before, so he’s still working out some of the growing pains. I’m not going to go crazy over one outing, but I suspect it has something to do with never before working on consecutive days.
.500 through 12: 6-6. Could be better, could be worse. What helps the Rays is that the rest of the division is playing equally mediocre baseball. A few wins in a row and a couple of series wins, and the Rays could very quietly move into the division’s top spot.
Evan Watch: His first big-league strikeout, but he bounced back with a walk and a rope of a single later on. More solid defense down at third. He’s been playing a solid, professional game of baseball.
Reyes of Light: Rumors of Al Reyes’ demise might’ve been a bit premature.
Interesting Call: So Joe Maddon uses Troy Percival with a 4-run 9th inning lead tonight, but doesn’t use Percy in the 9th inning of a tie game yesterday. Questionable at best.
Bring on the Yankees: I think we’re ready for them, I really do. We can win both of these games coming up.
