Cheese & Whine: July 9

CHEESE & WHINE: Damn Yankees!

RAYS: 0
Yankees: 5

CHEESE:

• No one got hurt.
• BJ Upton was 2 for 4 with a double, and sent several balls back to the track, so he's making good contact. Oh, and bossman recorded another stellar assist from CF cutting down Jeter at the plate to end the third.
• This was only the third time this season that the Rays were shut-out... hey, they lost 5-0 to NY- I'm reaching here.

WHINE:

• Scott Freakin' Kazmir makes me furious! I've already written one post about his pitch-count woes and now it seems like I'm due for another. Once again, the Rays "ace" didn't make it into the sixth inning, throwing 97 pitches in 5 innings. Kid-K did live up to that moniker by recording 9 K's, but he's fortunate to have not given up 5 or 6 earned runs in the process. This kid has to cut down the pitch-count or he's just not that useful as a starter.
• Navi getting thrown out at second by a spinning Derek Jeter just helped all the Jeter worshippers find one more thing to drool over... problem is if that's any other player on the roster (maybe even including Cliff Floyd) Jeter's theatrics are meaningless because they'd have gotten there easily.
• The Rays looked like the Devil Rays. Last trip to Boston the Rays looked like the Devil Rays, and now they go to NY and do the exact same disappearing act... neither team is going to take you seriously if you lay a big, fat egg every time you leave the Thunderdome-- and they shouldn't. If you can't put a quality effort together on the road against division rivals you're destined for mediocrity. Rays Index agrees.