What a bummer of a loss last night. 14 games in to the season, and I’m growing tired of saying that the pen lost the game. I’m also growing agitated at hearing the pitching will come around. Interestingly enough, according to the Star Tribune’s La Valle Neal, the Twins had it on their scouting report that Matt Moore was tipping pitches. They looked at their video, but didn’t sense a pattern. Could Moore be tipping his pitches, and could that have something to do with is lukewarm start?
To be fair to the pitching staff, the offense certainly didn’t blow the lid off of the Trop last night. The Rays hitters scored a paltry four runs in nine innings of play.
I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Ron Gardenhire and Liam Hendricks surely did their homework. The Rays are primarily a fastball hitting team, and Hendricks is, for the most part, a fastball pitcher with average velocity.
Yet Hendricks really leaned on his secondary pitches last night, ultimately throwing the Rays batters off. Hendricks only allowed two base runners (a Matt Joyce single and an Evan Longoria walk) into the fifth inning, not including the Matt Joyce fifth inning home run. It wasn’t until the three-run sixth inning when they Rays incurred the bulk of their damage. Even then, Tampa Bay would only have one other base runner after the sixth, coming in the bottom of the eighth off of a Burton walk to Ben Zobrist.
The Rays will go into game two of this three game series with a 7-7 record. They need to take the next two games so they can go into next weeks series against a very good, yet somewhat slumping, Angels. Tampa Bay’s ace James Shields (2-0, 3.38 ERA) will toe the rubber opposite of Carl Pavano (1-1, 5.23 ERA) in tonight’s game.
ZiPS projected that Pavano would have a .292 OBA in 2012, and he’s well on his way to that. With an 89-90 MPH fastball that he depends on 60% of the time, the Rays ideally should be able to touch him for a few. Then again he’s coming off of a big win against the Yankees, so you never know. Tonight’s starting lineup is below. As always, Let’s Go Rays!
Rays (7-7) 4/21/12 starting lineup:
Jennings LF
Zobrist 2B
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Joyce RF
Upton CF
Molina C
Rodriguez SS
Shields RHP