Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Smyly Overpowering, Rays Sink O’s 3-1

Call it overpowering and/or dominant; Drew Smyly put together another excellent start Wednesday night, one in which he held the Baltimore Orioles to one run on two hits in his fourth consecutive plus-quality start as a Ray. And while they left a good amount of chicken on the bone — going 2-8 wRISP — the Rays offense was able to do just enough to come out on the winning side of the ledger.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Another to the Orioles, 4-2

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.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays, Odorizzi Crushed By Orioles, 9-1

Friends, I’d put myself into category number three. I willingly watched as Jake Odorizzi gave up for homers in four plus innings. I willing watched as the Orioles put together their 49th multi-homer game of the season — they’re now 39-10 in those games. And I willingly watched as the Rays hitters did nothing with the scoring opportunities they put together against Chris Tillman. Four plus innings (and eight runs) later, I regretted my decision and turned on Bizarre Foods as penance.

Rays 8/25/14 Starting Lineup, Etc.

Rays 8/25/14 Starting Lineup Zobrist CF Joyce LF Longoria DH Loney 1B Myers RF Forsythe 2B Escobar SS Molina C Rodriguez 3B Odorizzi RHP Noteworthiness Though Marc Topkin doesn’t believe the Rays will trade Yunel Escobar to the Oakland Athletics, I wrote about the possibility of a trade, and what the Rays could look like …

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Here, Under Protest

There’s a certain irony when you compare Saturday’s game against Mark Buehrle and the Toronto Blue Jays, with Buehrle’s last start against Tampa Bay on July 11. In both contests, the Rays were able to tag Buehrle for a crooked number of runs. In both contests, the Rays knocked Buehrle out of the game early. And in both contests, a reliever relinquished the go-ahead runs to give the Rays an unfortunate loss.