Looking Backward While Moving Forward Archives - Page 94 of 100

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop the Second Consecutive Game to the Red Sox

May 17, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Look at the bright side: we don’t have to deal with these Masswipes for another month. (Photo courtesy of X-Rays Spex)

The Rays dropped their second consecutive game, following a blown save, 4-3 loss to the Red Sox Thursday night at Tropicana Field.

In short, Fernando Rodney looked horrible, directly contributing to the loss. Rodney walked the bases loaded in the ninth, subsequently giving up the go-ahead three-run double to Will Middlebrooks, handing Boston a one run lead they’d never relinquish. He could not find the zone to save his life, throwing 35 pitches in 2/3 of an inning, only 16 pitches going for strikes. Rodney’s crap-fest followed an excellent 6.1 IP/1 R/1 ER/3 H/1 BB/6 K outing by Alex Cobb. Both McGee and Peralta — who came on in relief of Cobb — looked great as well, combining for 1-2/3 innings if no hit ball.

You’re right, this wasn’t one of Rodney’s better outings. (Courtesy of Brooks Baseball)

Offensively speaking, the Rays could only put three runs on the board even though 15 men reached base safely on seven hits and eight walks. While Tampa Bay was able to knock Felix Doubront out of the game after five-plus innings and 104 pitches (54 for strikes), he — like Lester the night before — was able to make the big pitch when necessary, stranding seven Rays on the bags.

Tampa Bay ultimately went 2-10 wRISP, stranding 12 base runners, while scarcely taking advantage of a pair of bases loaded opportunities. And though the Rays had a number of two-out opportunities to plate runs, only Ryan Roberts could take advantage, blasting a solo shot to left-center in the second inning.

It just goes to show, if Longo, Zobrist, and Loney aren’t clicking — they combined to go 1-11 with a pair of walks Thursday, while going 2-12 Wednesday night — Tampa Bay isn’t nearly as consistent — or potent — as it is otherwise. Hitting and scoring with constancy are contagious. Then again, so are not hitting or scoring with constancy.

The Rays ended their home-stand with a 6-4 record; not bad, but not nearly as good as it could — or should — have been. They’ll start a six game road trip in Baltimore Friday; one which will take them through Toronto before returning home to face the Yankees on May 24th.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Price Headed to the DL

May 16, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

David Price #14 of the Tampa Bay Rays pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the game at Tropicana Field on May 15, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

David Price pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the game at Tropicana Field. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

The Rays will take on the Boston Red Sox Thursday night, in the rubber match the current three-game set. There really wasn’t much to like about the previous game. Tampa Bay gave up nine runs over the course of two innings, while the bats — though alive — couldn’t score more than two runs off Jon Lester — who was more lucky than dominant.

The biggest news of the night revolved around the removal of David Price after only 2-1/3 innings of work, due to left triceps tightness extending from a strain. This is the first injury of Price’s major league career, and the timing couldn’t be worse for the pitcher who has already been battered and bruised — metaphorically speaking — following a 1-4 start to the season, with a 5.24 ERA.

Price called for the training staff after feeling what he described as a tight feeling in his left triceps following a third inning single to David Ortiz. The discomfort was apparent — David clenched and unclenched his fist several times after the play.

Per Steve Carney of 620 WDAE, Price is headed to the 15-day disabled list. The question begs: If Price is added to the DL, who will take his place?

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times speculates that Jake Odorizzi will more than likely get called up. Odorizzi is on the same pitching schedule as Price, while Chris Archer is on a limited pitch count after a set of abbreviated starts. Carney also noted that the Rays have decided to help out the bullpen for next few days, calling up Alex Torres since he has bullpen experience. Alex Torres (2-2, 2.39 ERA) has seven starts under his belt this season, and is third in ERA and strikeouts (49), while holding hitters to a .190 BAA. In any case, a starter should be added to the rotation by Monday.

In better news, Cesar Ramos looked really good Wednesday night, putting together a 3.0 IP/1 H/0 R/0 BB/2 K outing on 42 pitches (29 for strikes). Ramos has now gone 13 consecutive innings without relenting a run, while giving up only three hits in that span.

The New What Next

Alex Cobb (4-2, 3.09 ERA) will butt-heads with Felix Doubront (3-1, 6.40 ERA) and the Boston Red Sox Thursday night at Tropicana Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10. If the Rays win tonight, they will again be two games over .500, they will have won their second consecutive series, and they will have ended their 10-game home stand with an impressive 7-3 record. You can read more on the match-up here.

Rays 5/16/13 Starting Lineup

1. Desmond Jennings CF
2. Luke Scott DH
3. Ben Zobrist RF
4. Evan Longoria 3B
5. Yunel Escobar SS
6. James Loney 1B
7. Sean Rodriguez LF
8. Jose Lobaton C
9. Ryan Roberts 2B
SP. Alex Cobb RHP

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Beat the Sox 5-4

May 15, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Yunel Escobar and Jose Molina celebrate after scoring in the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

Yunel Escobar and Jose Molina celebrate after scoring in the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox. (Photo by J. http://tampabayrays.co/wp-admin/post.php?post=6734&action=editMeric/Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox Tuesday night by a score of 5-3, taking the first game of a three game set from their AL East rivals. Tampa Bay has now won six consecutive games, while Matt Moore has become Major League Baseball’s only 7-0 pitcher on the back of a 6.0 IP/3 H/3 R/3 ER/2 BB/8 K/1 HR outing where he threw 100 pitches (62 for strikes). Fernando Rodney got his seventh save in his first 1-2-3 outing of the season.

John Lackey, on the other hand, was all but good, having gotten knocked out of the game with one out in the fifth inning after giving up five runs (all earned) on nine hits.

The Good

Matt Moore certainly may not have had his best stuff Tuesday night, but he had enough to shut the Red Sox down. Things got ugly in the first inning. Moore started the game by plunking Jacoby Ellsbury, then gave up a one out double to Dustin Pedroia. With two on and one out, Moore left a 1-0 meatball up in zone to David Ortiz; a pitch that found a home 402 feet down the right-field line. But Moore would settle down after that 33 pitch first inning, retiring 12 batters in a row at one point — five of which on strikeouts. The Rays LHP would relent only one other hit and two walks on the night, impressively throwing 13 deadly changeups for strikes (all for strikes, 5 for swinging strikes), locking up batter after batter. Matt Moore is the first Rays pitcher to start the season with a 7-0 record, winning eight consecutive games extending back to 2012.
The Rays only scored in one inning, though the hitters were able to continually apply the pressure to the Red Sox pitchers. That is to say, they didn’t score a few runs then seemingly give up as they had a couple of weeks prior. What’s more, the Rays have now held a lead in 26 straight games — though that includes the 10 in which they gave up the lead.
Holy moly, Jose Molina was on fire Tuesday night. Not only did he go 3-3 including a double, and not only did he score a run while driving in a pair, he also successfully laid down a sac bunt and actually tagged up on a medium-to-deep hit ball to center.
Hate on the Trop all you want, but weren’t it for the Trop, the Rays wouldn’t have scored the go ahead runs in the fourth inning on a Matt Joyce bloop that camouflaged itself nicely with the roof, and subsequently landing in fair territory.
The bullpen was electric… with the exception of Jake McGee, that is. Josh Leuke threw some filthy off-speed pitches in relief of McGee, ultimately getting Shane Victorino to line out to first, shutting down a seventh inning McGee borne jam. Joel Peralta posted a 14-pitch 1-2-3 eighth inning which included a come-backer for the first out, a David Ortiz pop-out, and and a swinging strike out of Mike Napoli on a fastball. Fernando Rodney finally looked like Fernando Rodney, posting his first 1-2-3 inning of the year while earning his seventh save. His Bugs Bunny changeup was in full effect Tuesday night, and his series of pitches (fastball-fastball-changeup) to ring up Jonny Gomes was beautiful. Rodney struck out the side to end the game, all on strike-three changeups, and all on swinging strikeouts.
James Loney: Another night, another multi-hit game, AKA James Loney: Another night, another extra base hit. Loney is now up to 15 extra base hits on the year; 12 doubles and three homers.

The Bad

To be fair to Jake McGee, he wasn’t terrible Tuesday night. He, however, wasn’t nearly as sharp as he had been in his previous two outings. McGee started the inning innocently enough by getting Will Middlebrooks to ground out to short. But it wouldn’t take long for Jake to get into a full blown jam after giving up a pair of walks to Drew and Ellsbury. Maddon made the call to the pen with two on and two outs after McGee threw 27 pitches, only 13 for strikes.

The New What Next

David Price will try to put together his second consecutive solid outing tonight, against a tough 5-0 Jon Lester. It won’t be easy. Even though Lester has cooled down following a torrid start to the season, the Rays splits against are in Lester’s favor. You can read more on Wednesday night’s match-up here.

Rays 5/15/13 Starting Lineup

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

Noteworthiness

Tonight’s game will be available on Sun Sports and ESPN. Three guesses which telecast we’ll be watching.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Sweep the Padres

May 13, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Tampa Bay Rays James Loney in congratulated in the dug out after hitting a home run to make the score 4 to 2 against the San Diego Padres during the 8th inning at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg Sunday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times )

What a difference a few days make. Five days ago, we were looking at a Rays team that had dropped two games after holding a pair of sizeable leads. And though the offense was strong, the pitching was shaky at best — especially the bullpen. Fast forward to Mother’s Day. The Rays completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres and are over .500 for the first time this season. What’s more, they look primed to to do damage against their AL East Rivals this week, the Boston Red Sox.

Backed by a stellar defense, above average pitching, and timely hitting, the Rays looked like the Rays of old Sunday afternoon. Though starter Roberto Hernandez had a pair of shaky innings in the fourth and fifth, he was good overall, throwing six innings of two-run baseball. Hernandez limited the Padres’ offense to a pair of two one-run innings, giving the Rays a chance to stay in the game. The veteran righty posted a 6.0 IP/5 H/2 R/2 ER/2 BB/4 K/1 HR slash line, working primarily off his sinker which he threw for strikes 66% of the time, while generating seven ground outs.

The much maligned Jake McGee would come on in relief of Hernandez in the seventh inning, putting together his second solid 1-2-3 inning of the last three days. Here’s to hope that this is the mark of a trend for the Rays left handed reliever. After Joel Peralta handled the eighth inning, the plantain wielding Fernando Rodney came on to close out the game in the ninth. Rodney still hasn’t put together a clean inning this season after giving up a two-out walk to Jesus Guzman. He, however, struck out two Sunday and has — by all accounts — regained his velocity and control. Though purely anecdotal, I’m a firm believer that his placement on the rubber has had a drastic effect on the location of his pitches. He recently shifted back to the first base side of the the rubber, and his last few outings have been vastly improved.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the Rays outstanding glove work. Sam Fuld made an excellent leaping catch at the wall in the first inning, easily robbing Will Venable of a double. Not to be outdone, Yunel Escobar made a diving stop — ranging to his left — to end the sixth inning. And Matt Joyce made his best Willie Mays impersonation, making an over the shoulder basket catch, robbing Chris Denorfia of at least a double in the ninth.

The Rays offense was held largely in check by the soft tossing Eric Stults, who did a good job of inducing weakly hit ground-outs and pop-outs in his 5-1/3 innings of work. Tampa Bay was able to take advantage if him, scoring the bulk of their runs in the second and sixth innings. With the bases loaded and one out in the second, Jose Molina hit a sac fly to plate the Rays first run of the day. In the sixth inning, Evan Longoria lead things off with a double to deep left center, and was moved to third on a James Loney fly-ball. Sean Rodriguez plated the tying run, hitting a soft single into center field to. Yunel Escobar followed that up with an RBI double off the right field wall. James Loney added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning, blasting a 392 ft. homer to right field — his second home run in as many days.

The Tampa Bay Rays are now 19-18, over .500 for the first time this season. They’re also on a five game winning streak. Tampa Bay will start an important three game set against the BoSox Tuesday, at Tropicana Field. We’ll have a series preview for you Monday, dear readers.

Looking Backward While Forward: The Win That Almost Wasn’t

May 12, 2013 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Thankfully Longo came to the plate with a runner on and two outs in the ninth, otherwise, the outcome of Saturday’s game would have been vastly different. (Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times)

Going into the seventh inning Saturday night, Jeremy Hellickson appeared to be on cruise-control. The Rays were up 6-2 and he’d given up only two runs on three hits, while retiring 16 consecutive batters — including six strikeouts. But then Helly did something that he’d done a few times this season: he gave up four or more runs, evaporating the Rays sizable lead.

ESPN’s seventh inning synopsis sums things up well:

Courtesy of ESPN

The culprit? Hellickson leaned heavily on his changeup because his fastball location was off. As Robbie Knopf of DRaysBay put it,

Helickson’s bread and butter is his fastball and his changeup, and when he stops using one, he’s a vastly inferior pitcher. Hellickson’s changeup is clearly his best pitch, but he has to learn to trust his fastball more or he will be in serious trouble moving forward.

Though the Rays would eke out an 8-7 victory, thanks to an Evan Longoria two-run walk-off homer in the ninth, the ultimate outcome was vastly different than that which was (practically) written in the cards. This should have been a relatively easy victory, and Helly should never have blown a big lead for Tampa Bay. It sounds redundantly familiar.

Joe Maddon was incensed, calling out a faltering Jeremy Hellickson,

“I’m not happy with that,” Maddon said. “I’m not happy with that. I’m going to tell you, I’m not happy with that. Nooooo, I’m not happy with that. That’s inappropriate. That’s got to stop. We’re better than that. We want to play in October, we got to be better than that. That cannot happen. You’re not going to be lucky, you got to be good.”

Maddon went on to say,

“(With) Guzman, he should have been able to do something right there,” Maddon said. “I felt very strongly. … He’s better than all of that. He had it on cruise control. He pitched very well. One walk, eight punchouts, but right there under those circumstances he has the ability to put that hitter away right there and get himself a win.”

On a positive note, every Ray contributed to the win that almost wasn’t. Though neither Luke Scott nor Ben Zobrist had a hit on the night, their walks proved to be big — especially Zobrist’s ninth inning walk which resulted in the Rays tying and winnings runs.

Moving forward.

The New What Next

Roberto Hernandez and the Tampa Bay Rays will take on Eric Stults and and the Padres in the final game of this three game set. Hernandez is coming of his best outing of the year and another solid outing will surely factor into things, as the Rays attempt to get over the .500 hump for the first time this season ahead of the upcoming series against the Red Sox. Plus, a sweep on Mother’s Day would be excellent! Read more on today’s match-up here.

Rays 5/12/13 Starting Lineup

Roberts 3B
Johnson LF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria DH
Loney 1B
Rodriguez RF
Escobar SS
Molina C
Fuld CF
Hernandez RHP

Noteworthiness