Game Recap: The Umpire Strikes Back

June 11, 2008

RAYS: 2

Angels: 4

HIGH-LITES:

Kazmir, who got the L, pitched a great game. Kaz started the game by retiring 14 consecutive batters before giving up a HR to Matthews with 2 outs in the fifth. Kaz pitched 6 2/3 surrendering 3 earned runs on 6 hits and striking out 10. He pitched very accurately; placing 82 of his 117 pitches in the strike zone (bear in mind he intentionally walked Guerrero and had 2 obvious strikes called balls in the 7th so you can deduce that he could potentially have thrown 86 or 87 strikes (that's 75% or 3 out of every 4 pitches being strikes)).

Aki led-off the game with a nice triple and was quickly pushed across the plate by Crawford, giving the Rays a nice jump-start in a game where scoring opportunities were going to be at a premium.

Dirtbag hit another double.

LOW-LITES:

Joe Maddon calling for an intentional walk of Guerrero when firstbase was already occupied (see post from yesterday).

Umpire Derryl Cousins cost Kaz and the Rays a win by giving Willits a BB after clearly being struck-out not once inthe AB but twice (at the time the Rays led 2-1). All events following this gaffe were a direct result of this phenominal screw-up.

----------

visit Rays Index for more in-depth coverage