Matt Cain pitched the first perfect game in Giants franchise history last night. We think that’s pretty awesome! And save for a first inning BJ Upton hit, RA Dickey would have thrown a no-hitter against the Rays. Depending on your perspective, that’s not so awesome. Sheesh, Dickey’s knuckle-ball danced in and around the strike zone, thoroughly keeping the Rays hitters off-balance. In the end, Dickey struck out a career high 12 hitters in nine innings.
On the flip side, Price looked good…for the first four innings. Then the bottom fell out. To be fair, Price had some swing-and-miss stuff. But he got into some deep counts and either walked the batter, or threw a predictable pitch that was hit. Look at the bright side, at least we don’t have to see the Mets any more during the regular season after today.
Jeremy Hellickson (4-2, 2.65 ERA) get’s the call against Johan “I got the first Met’s no-no in franchise history” Santana (3-3, 2.96 ERA). Both pitchers are looking for better outings following less than stellar starts. Santana gave up six runs and a career high-tying four homers in a five inning, 9-1 loss against the Yankees. Hellickson walked a career-high seven batters while allowing one run and five hits in 4-1/3 innings of work against Miami. Helly has an impressive 1.93 ERA in his last two home starts. In those two starts Tampa Bay has committed five errors. The Rays will need him to be on today, especially when you consider that the Mets have batted .354 and scored 20 runs in this series.
Carlos Pena, Hideki Matsui, and Jose Molina are hitting a combined .349 against Santana with six homers and five walks. That said, Matsui will be hitting DH again. In the end, that trifecta could play key roles at the plate. Eek gad, if the Rays can work the count and force Santana to pitch up in the zone, they may be able to take the game…that is if they don’t get BABIP’d to death like they have the last two games.
Rays Starting Linuep 6/14/12:
Jennings LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Matsui DH
Zobrist 2B
Joyce RF
Rodriguez 3B
Molina C
Johnson SS
Hellickson RHP
Alright I know I’m supposed to be writing stuff and I haven’t gotten it yet… but I’m doing some research looking at the Rays offense the past few years and see if any conclusions or notice any correlations. I hope to get it up soon!