Looking Backward While Moving Forward Archives - Page 94 of 106

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Moore, Rays Win Second Consecutive Game 5-1

June 26, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Matt Moore ties his career highs with 11 strikeouts and six walks and throws a career-high 120 pitches in his second straight win. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times)

The Rays took the second game of a three game set against the Blue Jays Tuesday, on a very stormy night in St. Petersburg. With the sound of thunder echoing inside a 2/3 empty Tropicana Field, the Rays — led by Matt Moore — lowered a 5-1 boom of their own on the hottest team in baseball, scoring runs in the second, fourth, and seventh innings, while stifling a Blue Jays team who could get runners on, but couldn’t get them over and home.

Prior to Tuesday night’s game, Rays’ starters hadn’t posted (at least) three consecutive quality starts since April. And as of the third inning, it looked as though Matt Moore wouldn’t even make it to the fourth inning, after he loaded the bases with only one out. Moore faced a growth moment. The Rays lefty not only got out of the inning unscathed after striking out Rajai Davis and Colby Rasmus, he also went on to pitch three more innings while wringing up five more Jays along the way.

Moore’s control was awful at times, however he was dominant when he was able to regain it. Allowing seven base runners on two singles and five walks in the front three innings alone, Moore walked six Jays overall. He also struck out 11 and made big pitches in the third and sixth innings, when Toronto was threatening with runners in scoring position.

Moore varied his velocity, throwing fastballs as slow as 90 mph — though with a lot of movement — and the Blue Jays simply couldn’t hit them. He ultimately mixed his pitches well — hitting his spots — and the rest is history. Moore’s breakout: two-seam fastball (38 total/23 for strikes/4 whiffs), four-seam fastball (42 total/23 for strikes/9 whiffs), Change-up (15 total/eight for strikes/2 whiffs), slider (25 total/16 for strikes/7 whiffs).

Offensively speaking, Tampa Bay seemed perfectly comfortable against Mark Buehrle, tagging him for four runs on eight hits (seven singles) and four walks.

James Loney singled with one out in the second inning, ultimately advancing to second on a wild pitch. Jose Molina followed that up by walking. With two on and two outs, Desmond Jennings hit a well struck single to left field, plating Loney and knotting the game at one apiece. The Rays would go on to score three more runs fourth inning.

Jose Molina walked to open the inning, while Kelly Johnson was hit by a pitch to put a runner in scoring position with no outs. Jennings followed that with another single, consequently loading the bases and setting the stage for a special play at the plate. Sean Rodriguez hit a fly ball fairly deep to right field and Molina tagged, running as though a bear was chasing him from behind. Jose Bautista fired a strike home, by all accounts beating Molina to the plate. At this point things got a bit cloudy — after all, the outfield isn’t necessarily the most conducive location to see the intricacies of a play at the plate. I’ll leave this part to Ian Malinowski of DRaysBay,

“Molina is apparently trickier than he looks. He ran to the outside of the baseline, kept his left side back, and reached over the tag with his right arm to touch the base, safe.

John Gibbons came out to argue, but the call was correct, and Bautista looked decidedly unamused. Both runners were able to advance on his ambitious throw, and both would come around to score, on a sacrifice and a single.”

Tampa Bay would tack on an insurance run in the seventh inning, following a James Loney and Yunel Escobar double steal to move into scoring position. It should be noted that this wiped the slate clean of a triple-play threat with Molina at the plate. Malinowski went on to mention in his account of the game,

“Molina grounded straight to Encarnacion at third. Brian Anderson revealed that Rick Odioso, the statistician in the booth for the broadcast, pointed out that the double steal may have kept the Rays out of a triple play. He was absolutely right. With Loney at first and Molina running, I’ll go so far as to call it a probably triple play.”

Escobar would score on a softly hit Kelly Johnson ground-out to second.

The New What Next

The Rays will go for the sweep with Roberto Hernandez on the mound. Robo will share the rubber with knuckle-baller RA Dickey. You can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/26/13 Starting Lineup

Joyce LF
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers RF
Scott DH
Molina C
Escobar SS
Hernandez RHP

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays, Hellickson Snap Jays 11-Game Winning Streak

June 25, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Wil Myers is congratulated at the entrance of the dugout after hitting the second in a series of historic back-to-back-to-back homers Monday night. (Photo Courtesy of Edmund D. Fountain/Tampa Bay Times)

Jeremy Hellickson worked into the seventh inning for the first time since May 22nd, in the Rays 4-1 handling of the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night, snapping Toronto’s 11-game winning streak. Don’t look now, but the Rays are starting to look toasty once more. Not only have they strung together back-to-back victories, they’ve also won four out-of-their last six games. The game also went down in the annals of Rays history and lore, after James Loney, Wil Myers, and Sam Fuld hit back-to-back-to-back solo shots for the first time ever in the Trop. More on the game below, in a segment that we like to call The Good, The Bad, and The Argyle: A Bulleted Summary of the Game.

The Good

I suppose that Jeremy Hellickson’s outstanding outing is a good place to start. Prior to last night, the Blue Jays averaged 6.7 runs per game over the span of their 11-game winning streak, while the pitching staff held opponents to 2.21 runs per game over the same span of time. In short, the Jays were scoring — on average — four runs per game more than their opponents. Enter Helly. The Rays needed a good start out of Jeremy Hellickson going into this series, and a good start they got in spades. Relying heavily on his four seam fastball (45 total/26 for strikes) and his change-up (32 total/22 for strikes/4 swinging), Hellickson posted seven solid innings of one hit/four walk ball, keeping a powerful Blue Jays team off-balance all night. Toronto had an incredibly hard time of making solid contact, while Colby Rasmus seemed to be the only Jay that was able to get anything started after walking three times and seeing almost a quarter of Helly’s total 96 pitches.
A historic second inning… Suffice to say, Esmil Rogers has been very good this season, only allowing five runs in a span of 30-1/3 innings dating back to May 14th. Rogers has also been incredibly tough against righties this season — so tough, I made the errant assumption that Myers wouldn’t hit his first homer at the Trop last night. Because of this, I neglected to purchase tickets to his home debut, choosing to attend tonight’s game instead. Whoops! Little did I know (going into last night’s game) that Tampa Bay would make history. It all started with one out in the bottom of the second. James Loney saw two pitches — a ball and a strike (on a foul) — before Rogers left a meatball in the heart of the zone, consequently finding a home 402 feet away in the right-center stands. Wil Myers followed Loney, crushing a massive 428 foot blast to dead center in his first at-bat under the big top. Then Sam Fuld, the last person that you’d assume would go yard, hit a 356 foot line drive shot to right-field, giving the Rays an early 3-0 lead. Loney, Myers, and Fuld made history, hitting three consecutive homers under the dome for the first time in franchise history.

Must See TV! Click this to be redirected to video of the historic back-to-back-to-back homers.

More on Myers. Myers became the third Rays player to homer in his first plate appearance at the Trop. He is also the first player in franchise history with seven runs batted in his first eight career games. Furthermore, Myers is currently in the throes of a seven game hitting streak. Both Joe Maddon and Sam Fuld seemed to be in awe of the Rays rookie, saying,

“That’s right up there. To see a young man come in like that and do that on his first at-bat, I thought it was outstanding…The crowd reaction was really wonderful also, and Wil responded. Like I said, he’s not really impressed with this whole thing yet.”

-Joe Maddon

“Mine’s more like a thud,” Fuld said. “His is like, ‘Whack.’ It’s true.” … “I guess, in some respects, hitting a grand slam [at Yankee Stadium] and then hitting a ball 1,000 feet to center field, it’s pretty impressive.”

-Sam Fuld

If I must… It’s only fair to acknowledge Luke Scott’s contribution to the game. Mister .243 BA blooped an RBI double into short left-field, scoring Matt Joyce from second.
Fernando Rodney put together his second consecutive save. It wasn’t as pretty or dominant at the preceding save, however Rodney’s 22-pitch outing was much more impressive than many of his earlier appearances. Rodney allowed only one base runner on a JP Arencibia come-backer that Rodney couldn’t snag, while striking out two and inducing the game ending Maicer Izturis ground-out to second.

The Bad

How refreshing, I’ve nothing to report!

The Argyle

Alex Torres’ scoreless streak comes to an end. Let’s be realistic, the scoreless streak had to come to an end at some point. However, that he was able to get out of a bases loaded mess with minimal damage, while also getting Bautista and Encarnacion to ground out and pop out, was HUGE. Though Torres was visibly upset with himself as he made his way back to the dugout, he can be confident that he did an outstanding job of making the big pitches that ultimately quelled the Jays uprising.

The New What Next

Matt Moore will attempt to follow a solid 6-1/3 IP/4 H/3 ER outing against the Yankees, with another quality start against Mark Buehrle and the Blue Jays Tuesday night at the Trop. You can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/25/13 Starting Lineup

Jennings CF
Rodriguez LF
Zobrist DH
Longoria 3B
Myers RF
Escobar SS
Loney 1B
Molina C
Johnson 2B
Moore LHP

Noteworthiness

Zobrist is tonight’s DH, while Kelly Johnson gets the start at second base.
David Price will make another rehab start in Port Charlotte Wednesday. Price mentioned that things could hopefully move in the right direction if he felt good on Thursday. Joe Maddon was a bit cautious to conclusions about Price’s forthcoming activation from the DL, stressing that nothing would be decided until Price was re-evaluated after this start.
Peter Gammons tweeted, “Wil Myers makes Trop debut and they can’t draw 12,000?” We, in turn, wrote a response.
Cough, an 11-game win streak isn’t always indicative of how good a team is.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: The “A Few Quotes Should Sum Things Up Edition”

June 23, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Wil Myers celebrates with Sam Fuld after hitting a grand slam during the sixth inning. (Photo courtesy of Associated Press)

“We saw Wil-power today, but 9 walks by our pitchers was too much to overcome.” – Joe Maddon
“This is just on the pile of tough ones,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose pitchers surrendered a season-high nine walks, including two with the bases loaded. “There’s been a lot of them. Way too many. That’s the difference between us really being one of the elite right now and not. We’ve just permitted too many late games to get away from us…That’s not to say that I don’t have confidence. I do, in all these relief guys. It’s unfortunate. It’s just unsettling that we can’t get these guys right on a consistent basis like in the past, because they’re really good.” – Joe Maddon
“It’s got to be the toughest one…After Myers did what he did and we came from behind against CC and we had a two-run lead in the seventh inning, we shouldn’t let that go.” – Joel Peralta
“I don’t know — none of my pitches were working for me…I was trying really hard to throw the ball over the plate and I couldn’t find a way to do it. Bad day.” – Joel Peralta
“Today was 11th time Rays have blown a lead in the seventh inning or later, and 9th time they’ve lost after doing so.” – Marc Topkin
“It’s a pretty cool situation to be able to do that after an intentional walk…I was pretty excited. It was just awesome to be down two strikes and the crowd cheering and then to be able to put a swing like that on it. It was just a cool experience.” – Wil Myers

…At least Torres was pretty great once more, posting a 1.2 IP/0 H/0 R/0 BB/3 K slash line on 26 pitches (16 for strikes). Torres now has an overall 20 IP/4 H/0 R/5 BB/27 K line. Whoa!

And this is a pretty awesome view of Wil Myers grand-slam:

The New What Next

I’m at a point where typing certain things has become redundant. For example, I again find myself typing the same thing I’ve typed, time and again, when the Rays have found themselves in a similar scenario. Tampa Bay look to salvage the final game of their four game series with the Yankees. They can come home with a 3-and-4 record for this road trip with with a win Sunday. I wouldn’t really call that a moral victory by any stretch of the imagination, though it’s better than a 2-and-5 road record. Chris Archer will attempt to string together — at least — a six inning start against Ivan Nova (2-1, 5.16 ERA). You can see Archer’s numbers here.

Rays 6/23/13 Starting Lineup

Joyce DH
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers RF
Johnson LF
Molina C
Escobar SS
Archer P

Noteworthiness

Per Jonathan Gannt, Chris Archer has thrown his slider 104 times this year, allowing only 1 hit against it. Opponents are 1-for-22 with 10 strikeouts in plate appearances ending with a slider. Furthermore, the Rays have scored only three runs with Chris Archer on the mound over his previous four starts. Only three pitchers have lower run support in June — Shields being one.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Lose 6-3, Sputtering Offense Quiet

June 22, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Rays starter Roberto Hernandez watches Zoilo Almonte round the bases after his first big-league homer, giving the Yankees a 5-2 lead in the sixth. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

To put it bluntly, the swarming offense, that Joe Maddon’s so candidly spoken about, had more in common with a swarm of sugar ants Friday night, than it did with a swarm of yellow jackets. The Rays dropped an easily winnable game to the Yankees by a score of 6-2, and again find themselves two-and-a-haf games behind the third place Yankees going into Saturday afternoon’s game at Yankee Stadium.

The casual fan will look at Roberto Hernandez’s 7 IP/9 H/5 R/5 ER/o BB/4 K slash line, and assume the loss should be placed firmly on his shoulders. But to be fair, that assumption inaccurate. After all, Robo’s outing was a glaring example of the idea that pitchers are or aren’t lucky. In short — with a few exceptions, of course — Hernandez was a ground-ball machine.

A good number of the Yankees nine hits came on the ground, while Hernandez was able to induce 13 ground-ball outs. To put it another way, with a 68.2% ground-ball percentage (3.75 GB/FB) Hernandez did his job. The hits on the ground found their holes — squeaking past the Rays infielders — as the BABIP luck dragon nipped at Robo’s heels all night.

Click here for a brief explanation of BABIP and the associated luck dragons.

Look to the bottom of the fourth inning for further evidence. Hafner, Overbay, and Almonte hit three consecutive base-hits to load the bases. Overbay and Almonte’s singles found their holes, squeaking through the right side just out of reach of Zobrist and company. Hernandez followed that series of hits by inducing a double play, an aborted inning ending single, and a fielders-choice to short. The two-run outcome had more to do with luck, than anything else. Hernandez noted as much after the game,

“Some bad luck…I make good pitches, I’m trying to get a double play. The other ground ball scores a run. I can’t control that.”

The culprit of the Rays loss was the offense. Tampa Bay had ample opportunities to do damage, but they just couldn’t take advantage of those opportunities. As Joe Maddon put it in the post game presser,

“We attempted to swarm and the Raid was out…They swatted us back. We couldn’t get it going.”

Three of the four guys at the top of the order — Joyce, Jennings, and Longoria — went a combined 0-for-14 on the night. To add insult to injury, both Joyce and Jennings had the opportunity to blow the doors open with runners aboard in the third and fourth innings, though the only damage they would incur came in the third when they moved the runner over on a pair of ground-outs.

Per Marc Topkin, Matt Joyce assumed the blame, saying,

“Honestly, I think, for myself, we have to get at least one run right there,” he said. “There’s no really other way of putting it, just it has to be done. It’s basically giving you a run. There’s a lot of pressure on them, the pitcher, to throw a strike. And as a hitter you know your job — you’ve got to get that run in. It’s a tie ball game. That’s what I tried to do, I just didn’t get enough of it. …

“It’s frustrating for me because I feel like that’s something I take a lot of pride in. I look forward to those situations and really relish those situations, and it’s frustrating to not come through.”

Tampa Bay went on to strand nine men on the bags, while only pushing two runners across the plate.

The New What Next

The Rays have a good opportunity to beat the Yankees Saturday when they face CC Sabathia — a pitcher they’ve had a good amount of success against. Going for the Rays will be Alex Colome, who was impressive in a 5-2/3 IP start earlier in the year. You can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/22/13 Starting Lineup

Jennings CF
Rodriguez LF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Myers DH
Escobar SS
Loney 1B
Lobaton C
Fuld RF
Colome P

Noteworthiness

David Price pitched Friday with the Charlotte Stone Crabs. Price posted a 2-1/3 IP/1 R/2 H/4 K/2 BB 49 pitches (29 strikes) slash line against the Pirates Single-A affiliate, in Bradenton.
In other good news, Alex Cobb has started his rehabilitation.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Thump Yankees, 8-3

June 21, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Evan Longoria watches the flight of the second of his two solo home runs against the Yankees. He hit shots in the sixth and eighth innings. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

On the subject of Thursday night’s 8-3 win, a friend of mine summed up a general affect well, “The sound of a moaning, groaning, and grumbling Yankee Stadium is music to my ears.” In short, the Rays needed a win at Yankee Stadium, and a win they got in spades. Matt Moore collected himself and put together a well needed quality start, while the offense came alive for the second day straight, with Evan Longoria and Yunel Escobar mashing a handful of homers. Tampa Bay will enter Friday night’s match-up just one-and-a-half games behind the third place Yankees, ready to pounce on David Phelps. You can read our witty remarks on the game in real time (deferred by 12 or more hours, of course) at our Tumblr page. Otherwise, it’s time for The Good, The Bad, and The Argyle: A Bulleted Game Summary.

The Good

Welcome back, Matt Moore! Suffice to say, Matt Moore had three consecutive poor starts prior to his outing Thursday night. But Moore made the proper adjustments after watching video of his previous starts, putting together a solid 6.1 IP/4 H/3 R/3 ER/3 BB/4 K outing. Throwing 99 pitches (66 for strikes) overall, Moore did a good job of keeping the ball down for much of his outing. This isn’t to say he was perfect — his three walks and 59% fastball K% speak to that. But with the exception of a very shaky three run/two walk sixth inning, Moore — typically a fly-ball pitcher — was able to get the Yankees to ground out nine times, keeping them off balance all the while. And to his credit, he was also able to limit the damage in the sixth. Moore’s breakout: 59 fastballs (39 for strikes, one swinging) with an average velocity around 93.6 MPH, 27 sliders (17 for strikes, five swinging), and 13 change-ups (11 for strikes, two swinging).
Jake McGee and Jamey Wright were again great! McGee and Wright combined for 1-2/3 innings of one hit ball. The one hit: An eighth inning come-backer at Wright’s head, in which Wright was able to slow the ball down with his pitching hand. The incident elicited the response of the Rays medical staff, but Wright was ultimately okay and retired the Yankees in order after, on a strikeout and a pair of ground-outs.
The Rays were able to put up four or more runs for the second consecutive day. Tampa Bay impressively scored eight runs in the second, third, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, while putting up decent numbers wRISP — they went 4-for-11. In fact, with the exception of designated hitter Jose Molina (Editor’s note: it’s really funny typing that), every Ray had a hand in the 8 R/14 hit/2 BB fun, Thursday night. It all started when Jose Lobaton plated Wil Myers on a sac-fly in the second inning for the first run of the game. Myers initially reached base on a single, and was moved over to third on a Yunel Escobar base hit and an Andy Pettitte wild pitch. Desmond Jennings (3-4, BB) led off the third with a single to right center, consequently moving to second when Brett Gardner slipped on a banana peel in center-field, and couldn’t field the ball properly. Sean Rodriguez (2-5, RBI, R) followed that with a single, moving Jennings to third. Ben Zobrist (2-5, RBI) hit the third single of the inning, plating Jennings and moving Rodriguez to third. Evan Longoria (2-3, 3 RBI, 2 R) capped a two run inning with a sac-fly, giving Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. Longoria would strike again in the sixth inning, hitting a 368 foot solo shot which put the Rays up by four. In the seventh — after the Yankees cut the lead by three — Rodriguez would strike again, crushing an RBI double to deep left center, and driving in Jennings who reached on a double ahead of him. In the eighth inning, Longo capped his three RBI night with his second solo shot of the game — this time off Joba Chamberlain, while Yunel Escobar crushed a mammoth 416 foot two-run blast to dead center, driving in Matt Joyce who hit a double ahead of him.
Speaking of Longo, he hit career RBI 500, 501, and 502 Thursday night, becoming one of seven active players to reach that milestone in fewer than 710 games. The other six: Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Todd Helton, Josh Hamilton, Mark Teixeira. Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Morneau.
An 8-3 win isn’t too shabby of a way to celebrate the Rays 2,500th game.
Tampa Bay did not relinquish any two-out runs.

The Bad

Matt Moore’s three run sixth inning, which included a base hit by former Rays short-stop Reid Brignac.

The Argyle

I’m a bit indifferent to Kyle Farnsworth’s outing. Sure, he was able to induce the game ending double play. However, he allowed a pair of base runners to reach on a single and a walk. Furthermore, he had a hard time with finding the strike zone — of a total 16 pitches thrown, only eight counted as strikes. I’d imagine that his .167 BABIP may speak volumes for his success in June.

The New What Next

Tampa Bay can come within a half game of the Yankees with a win tonight. Roberto Hernandez will take on David Phelps, and you can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/21/13 Starting Lineup

Joyce LF
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers RF
Scott DH
Molina C
Escobar SS
Hernandez RHP

Noteworthiness

Luke Scott is back in the lineup today at DH and hitting seventh. I just don’t understand why Johnson can’t fill the DH spot?!

Rays top draft pick Catcher Nick Ciuffo, of Lexington (S.C.) High, has officially signed a contract with the Rays. Ciuffo is headed to Port Charlotte to start his professional career with the rookie level Gulf Coast League Rays.