Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Strike Back, 7-0

For those of you pining for the acerbity of the Rays and Red Sox games of yore, the acrimonious linkage returned to The Trop Saturday night, in what would go down as one of the more truly bizarre games in recent history. A power outage to start the game, five hit batsmen, and a TKO of Dustin Pedroia later, the Tampa Bay Rays walked away with a combined 7-0, one hit shutout of the Boston Red Sox.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Red Sox Rip Rays, 8-4

It didn’t feel like a Rays/Red Sox game Friday night. It also didn’t feel like a contest that was relevant or important — and let’s be honest, it wasn’t. From the half empty stands to the hushed crowd, the atmosphere at The Trop felt stale. And despite what Joe Maddon said, about the Rays still having a shot at the playoffs, the good guys are playing as though they’ve resigned themselves to mediocrity. The first and second innings epitomized that feeling to a T. If only the Rays could be credited with a win based on their play in segments, not as a whole — they easily would have won the game from the third through ninth innings.

Rays 8/29/14 Starting Lineup, Etc

Rays 8/29/14 Starting Lineup Jennings CF Zobrist 2B Joyce LF Longoria 3B Loney 1B Myers DH Escobar SS Hanigan C Kiermaier RF Archer RHP Noteworthiness The Rays committed errors in their last five games — the longest streak since May of 2012 when they committed errors in seven consecutive games. Of note: That was right …

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Smyly Overpowering, Rays Sink O’s 3-1

Call it overpowering and/or dominant; Drew Smyly put together another excellent start Wednesday night, one in which he held the Baltimore Orioles to one run on two hits in his fourth consecutive plus-quality start as a Ray. And while they left a good amount of chicken on the bone — going 2-8 wRISP — the Rays offense was able to do just enough to come out on the winning side of the ledger.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Another to the Orioles, 4-2

It’s late’ish, I’ve had a few to drink, and I just watched the Tampa Bay Rays drop their second consecutive game to the Baltimore Orioles — this time by a score of 4-2. I’m tired, and since I have to be up early in the morning, I’m putting a challenge on myself — summarize the game in a paragraph or less.