I tried bargaining with the baseball gods, ahead of the series opener last night. My bargain: Allow Tampa Bay to win a close game, and let James Shields to walk away from The Trop with a quality seven inning, no-decision under his belt. The plan seemed like a win/win to me. However, neither the baseball gods nor James Shields accepted my very reasonable bargain. In the end, despite the very good start by Jake Odorizzi, Big Game James was downright dominant in his seven inning homecoming, slashing 7 IP/3 H/0 R/1 BB/10 K on 103 pitches (64 strikes). Truth be told, with a pair of winnable games remaining in the series, I’m not that broken up over the loss — well, with the exception of Juan-Carlos Oviedo’s fart-on-a-snare-drum worthy two innings of work.
Category Archives: Looking Backward While Moving Forward
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: The Rays Romp the Tigers, 7-2
The Tampa Bay Rays were in a prime position going into the contest agains the Tigers, Saturday. Just 8.5 games out of first, the Rays had an opportunity to end the day 7.5 games back if everything broke in their favor. Yet things didn’t look good until the fifth inning — dare I say it looked like as though they were in route for yet another low scoring game, or even another no hitter? But something happened: Logan Forsythe opened the door to an offensive onslaught with his solo shot in the fifth inning. The Rays walked out of Comerica Park with a big 7-2 win.
Looking backward While Moving Forward: Rays Take Second Game of the Series, 6-3
I mentioned yesterday, that the true test would be whether the Rays could bounce back from their 8-1 shellacking at the hands of the Tigers, Thursday. Bounce back the could, and did. Nine (total) runs, three hit-by-pitches, and an ejected manager later, Tampa Bay was able to close out its Fourth of July game with plenty of fireworks, beating Detroit 6-3.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Bedard, Rays Fall in Ugly 8-1 Loss
Yikes, last night’s 8-1 loss to the Tigers wasn’t pretty — thank god for second chances. The true test will be how well the Rays can bounce back tonight.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: How Sweep It Is!
Sweep! The Tampa Bay Rays are able to exit the Bronx in huge, sweeping fashion on the heels of a huge 6-3 win against the Yankees. Despite falling behind early, Tampa Bay battled back — putting up one spots in the third, fourth, and fifth innings knotting things up at three apiece. Then they pulled ahead in the sixth inning on a huge Sean Rodriguez two-run blast to left-center — the longest homer at Yankee Stadium in two years (measuring 102.1 MPH off the bat).