Cheese & Whine: July 12

CHEESE & WHINE: Shut-Down in C-Town

RAYS: 0
Indians: 5


CHEESE:

• Boston and New York sucked equally as badly as the Rays did, so no harm no foul.
• You can't actually expect to win too many games against a team's ace at home (espescially Cliff Lee so far in '08).

WHINE:

• James Shields cannot pitch away from the Trop. Shields struggled again, giving up 5 earned runs on 10 hits over 6 innings, recording 4 K's while walking 1.
• Carl Crawford hasn't recorded a hit in his last 20 AB's, and was credited with an error when he let a routine line-drive into left field bounce off the top of his glove.
• I implore all Jonny Gomes fans to give me one good reason why he belongs on the field...ever! Not once or twice or even three times last night did he misjudge the ball, but four times. This guy, no matter how charismatic or how great his work ethic is, is costing the Rays games. Unbelievable! More later...
• The Rays bats are as silent as I've ever seen them; on this roadtrip Rays hitters are a staggering 2 for 40 with runners in scoring position!!!!!
• I could go on forever, but if you watched the game you've already endured enough torture.

CRACKERS:

• The Rays haven't won in Cleveland since 2005, I'd say the law of averages has them finally getting one very soon.
• The Rays have no excuse to lose either of their next 2 games considering the pitching match-ups: we've got Garza vs. Ginter, who is making his Cleveland debut tonight and tommorow we get Kaz vs. Sowers, who is 0-5 and touts an ERA of 7.81. The Rays lose either of those games and you can go ahead and push the panic button.