Looking Backward While Moving Forward: The Nibbler Returns, More on the Stadium Saga, Etc

Ever heard the saying SSDD? No? Hmm… How about Déjà vu? Think back to last Wednesday when Wade Miley and the Diamondbacks handcuffed Jeremy Hellickson and the Rays in a 7-0 loss, at the Trop. Helly couldn’t command any pitches in that game and Arizona made him pay. The Diamondbacks tagged Helly for four runs on seven hits in 4-1/3 innings of work, while Miley shutdown the Rays, holding Tampa Bay to two hits and no runs over 6-1/3 innings of work.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Myers, Rays Finish Off Giants in Extra Innings

The Rays were able to take the second game of a three-game set against the Giants by a score of 2-1 in dramatic walk-off fashion, in front of an impressive crowd of 31,969 fans at the Trop, Saturday night. Wil Myers drove in the game winning RBI with the bases loaded in the the bottom of the tenth, his first career walk-off. And though I wish the Rays could have tagged The Freak for more than a run, it was pretty damn cool to see a classic pitching duel between two former Cy Young Award winners.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Archer, Rays Lose 4-1

Most assumed that last night’s highly anticipated pitching match-up between Chris Archer and Madison Bumgarner would be a good one. At the end of the day though, only one pitcher would end his outing as the victor, while the other would walk away with a tally mark in the loss column. It just so happened that Bumgarner ultimately bested Archer and walked away knowing that he shut down one of the best teams in baseball.