The Rays are in Oakland tonight for the first game of a four game series against the Oakland Athletics. From there its south to LA for a 3 game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Rays don’t have the best track record on the west coast…we all remember what happened the last time the Rays were in Oakland! That’s right…they were at the wrong end of a perfect game! The SECOND perfect game in less than a calendar year! That being said, I’m sure there is a little bit of overall anxiety, or maybe that’s just me. Nothing like staying up to watch a west coast game when you are on the east coast, especially when the Rays lose and then you get to go to bed @ 1 am pissed off.
Anyway, let’s recap the home stand. The Rays went 5-1 on their most recent home stand taking 2 of 3 from Baltimore and sweeping the Rangers (in a BIG way). The first game against Baltimore was a little rough, losing 5-0 surely wasn’t the right way to start things off. Especially coming off of a bad road-trip in which, at times the offense was totally non-existent. It was nice to see the Rays hitting the ball and driving in runs. We all know that they are capable of driving in a lot of runs. It’s almost as though they are such a cohesive group of players that when there is a lot of offense, there is a LOT of offense, and when there is none…I mean there is NONE.
I think the highlights of the home stand were Longoria making good contact and driving in runs, BJ Upton being productive again, and of course the exceptional defense and running game that the Rays are known for. Of couse, the pitching all year has been pretty damn good. All of these things combined are definitely a formula for success…enough to win the World Series? I think so, but we still have quite a bit of baseball to play. Let’s hope that the slumps are behind us and we can push forward to the ultimate goal of the 2010 season, which is to win the World Series!
GO RAYS!