It’s late’ish, I’ve had a few to drink, and I just watched the Tampa Bay Rays drop their second consecutive game to the Baltimore Orioles — this time by a score of 4-2. I’m tired, and since I have to be up early in the morning, I’m putting a challenge on myself — summarize the game in a paragraph or less. Here goes:
Both starters didn’t have their best stuff, and while Alex Cobb and Wei-Yin Chen were worked over for a fairly hefty pitch count early on, they both worked hard to keep their respective teams in the game. The loss could be blamed on three factors: fielding gaffes, three plays at the plate culminating in Rays outs, and a tough strike zone by home plate umpire Pat Hoberg. Yup, that about sums things up.
I live blogged the contest at our Tumblr site, and you can read a blow-by-blow account there. Below are handful of bulleted highlights (in a loose, liberal sense).
- Apparently Evan Longoria makes that long throw from third to first look incredibly easy, because on three separate occasions, neither Sean Rodriguez nor Logan Forsythe could make a strong and accurate throw. Both of S-Rod’s throws resulted in a base runner, while James Loney did an excellent job picking Forsythe’s low and wide throw for an out. Finally, Yunel Escobar threw errantly on what would have been the back end of a double play. The run that scored in the sixth inning was directly contributed to that play.
- The Rays were thrown out at the plate not once, not twice, but three times. In the first inning, Desmond Jennings tried to score from third on what would go down as a 5-3-2 double play. And even though Joe Maddon asked for a check of rule 3.17 allowing the Rays to save their challenge, it was determined that the catcher did give Jennings a lane and the out call stood. Call me crazy, but I really think Jennings was foolish in trying to score on a weakly hit tapper down the third base line. A little while later, Hanigan attempted to score from second on a grounder up the middle. I get it, he was running on contact with two outs. However, Adam Jones — who fielded the play — has a gun for an arm. We all saw what he did to the Rays from deep center, Monday night. Why would Hanigan even assume he could score from second? Finally, with the bases loaded, Jennings grounded to Chris Davis who made an excellent bare-handed grab. David fired the ball home for the force out. Tampa Bay ended the night 2-6 wRISP.
- Home plate umpire Pat Hoberg put the royal squeeze on both the Rays and Orioles pitchers. To his credit, Hoberg’s strike zone was consistent — however it was also small which forced pitchers to focus on pitching within the zone, as opposed to being able to expand it.
The New What Next
Drew Smyly will try to put together another excellent outing following his two hit, complete game shutout Friday. He’ll be opposed by Kevin Gausman. The Rays beat up on Gausman (7-5, 3.81 ERA) back in June, tagging the RHP for five runs in five innings of work. Gausman’s performed well since, giving up three runs or fewer in eight of his last nine outings. He’s thrown for five innings or fewer in seven of his 14 starts, while opposing teams (Rays included) have walked away with wins in five of those games. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/27/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Joyce LF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers DH
Escobar SS
Hanigan C
Kiermaier RF
Smyly LHP
Noteworthiness
- Your tweet of the day:
#Rays Maddon said he still thinks Jennings was safe at plate in First inning
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) August 27, 2014