Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

Last night the Rays took game one of their three game set against the Orioles by a score of 5-2, moving the Rays a half game closer to the seemingly idle Boston Red Sox in the wildcard race.

The big stories of the night were Ben Zobrist, BJ Upton, and Jeff Niemann who helped power the Rays passed the sub .500 and perennially slumping O’s.

Zobrist went 3-5 with three RBI’s, including a two run double off of the left field wall in the top of the second. Zorilla finds himself just two doubles shy of the single season record for doubles hit by a Rays player, set previously by Aubrey Huff. It’ll be nice to wipe his name off the books! Speaking of Rays franchise records, how about BJ Upton!?! Never thought you’d hear me say that, eh?

Upton had another good night at the plate, going 2-3 with a run scored and two walks. He too set a new franchise record for most consecutive plate appearances reaching base nine times in a row between last night and the night before. Capping off the offensive end of things, Sean Rodriguez had a good day at the plate as well, going 2-5 including an RBI from driving home Zobrist on a second inning single, giving the Rays the lead that they would never relinquish.

After struggling his last two outings against the Rangers, Jeff Niemann pitched a very solid 7.2 innings giving up only two runs (both earned) on six hits, while getting five strikeouts, and giving up two walks. To be fair, he did have a rough fifth inning where he threw 29 pitches, however all of the innings prior to and after went smoothly. To his credit, he was able to get out of a fifth inning jam giving up only one run. Niemann threw 23 of 30 first pitch strikes. When the Big Nyquil is on his game, that’s something you look for. The fact that he only got seven strikes swinging is a bit deceptive because he was able to induce weakly hit ground balls out of the O’s for a good chunk of his outs. Good pitch location was key in Niemann’s performance.

Zone Plot Courtesy of www.brooksbaseball.net

Niemann was taken out of the game with one on and two outs in the bottom of the eighth as the Orioles DH Vladimir Guerrero made his way to the plate. LHP JP Howell came in relief and got the quick third out without any other damage being done. RHP Joel Peralta came in the ninth and got three quick strikeouts to end the game and get his third save of the year.

Tonight David Price (12-12, 3.40 ERA) will take the hill against Alfredo Simon (4-8, 4.83 ERA) in an attempt to get his 13th win of the year, and lead the Rays to their sixth victory in a row. Tonight the old man of the mountain, urm…hill, Tim Wakefield, will take on Brandon Morrow and the Toronto Blue Jays. Here’s to hope that Joey Bats and the rest of the Jays can take advantage of the Sox and beat them up a bit. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the good guys could be only 2.0 games out by the end of the day! As always, Go Rays!

 

Join the Conversation

2 Comments

  1. Come on! Even Sox haters have to want the oldest player in baseball to win -something-. This 200 fight is just heartbreaking. I hope he gets it today, if for nothing else, so we can just stop talking about it.

    1. I don’t speak for all Sox haters, but I can tell you if I have to choose between my team possibly ending this evening 2.0 games back or putting a Sox loss on the back burner so Wakefield can have his 200th win, I’d choose whatever benefits my team the most. Ie: a Sox loss and a Rays win. Sorry, I’ve got no love for Sox or Yankees accomplishments in September.

Leave a comment