Tag Archives: Baseball

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Seventh Straight Behind Lack of Offense

Do you remember when the Rays would swarm the opposing pitcher? You know, back in the olden days of last year, when the offense would knock the pitcher off his game early on — not allowing him to get comfortable. Those sure were the good old days. I certainly would have killed for that approach at the plate last night. Tampa Bay fell to their Florida rivals by a 3-1 margin in Miami. The Marlins improved to 21-11 at home (29-28 overall), while the Rays fell even further back in the rankings. The good guys have now dropped seven consecutive games, scoring all of 17 runs in the process. This isn’t good, and yes…this sucks.

The New What Next: The Citrus Series — A Series Preview of Sorts

What was once a certainty, that the Rays would walk away with the Citrus Series title, has now become murky. At 28-28, the Marlins are exceeding everyone’s expectations (hyperbole withstanding) — especially at home. The Marlins have the best home record (20-11) in all of baseball, while the Rays have vastly underperformed on the road. Tampa Bay has gone 11-20 away from the Trop, having dropped their last eight road games.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: A Look at the Previous Month of Rays Baseball (May)

The Tampa Bay Rays concluded a 12-17 month of May with a 7-1 loss in Boston, Saturday. It’s safe to say this isn’t what was hoped for by anyone, following their 11-16 April. This may be an oversimplification of things, but at 23-33 the Rays need to start playing better baseball, plain and simple. To reference things a bit, Tampa Bay was 30-24 after the first two months of play last season.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Fall 3-2 In Extra Innings

In the fifth, Yunel Escobar led things off with a hard hit double of the Monster. Jose Molina moved Escobar to third on a beautifully executed bunt up the right side. If I may, Molina looked like he was setting up camp as he slowly lumbered up the first base line — subsequently getting tagged out halfway between home and first. I’ve seen Molina run slow before, but Christ! J-Mo looked like he ran out of gas two steps out of the batters box.