CHEESE & WHINE: Victory at Last

RAYS: 9
M's: 3


CHEESE:

• Carl Crawford. I think CC just crossed home plate again... Crawford had a spectacular night offensively, going 4 for 5 from the plate, scoring 3 runs and stealing a base. Carl is long overdue for a hot streak- hopefully this is just the beginning.
• Evan Longoria. Dirtbag also had a good night, going 3 for 4 with 3 RBI. Just as important as the hits was the Sac-fly in the 2nd which scored Bossman. The sac-fly has been missing in action thus far this season, and it's high-time the Rays started recording some productive outs.
• Jeff Niemann. I'll take it. Four innings of perfect baseball is good enough to make me happy. The minor implosion that followed is a bit worrisome, but I have faith that "The Giraffe" (as the folks at Rays Index have dubbed him) is just starting to round into form. Niemann finished the night having thrown 86 pitches (50 for strikes) in 5 and 1/3 innings. Allowing 3 runs on 3 hits while walking 2 and striking-out 3.
• Winning. Thank the Lord the Rays finally won, having lost 6 of the previous 7 had had Mrs. DirtbagFan ready to ban me from watching the game due to the bad mood I've perpetually been in.
• The Outfield. It seemed to me that the outfielders were actually in position more often last night than they had been over the last week or so. Its about freakin' time.

WHINE:

• Base running Gaffes. How can a team which is as speedy as the Rays get caught in so many base running brainfarts? Last night was another shining example of pushing the "aggressive envelope" too far as three base runners were cut down one way or another. In a closer game those would've been potentially valuable runs they're giving away. Not to mention the fact that they're saving opposing pitchers on their pitch count. Every base running out probably saves an opposing pitcher 4-8 pitches which can translate into another inning or two for a starter whom you may have chased earlier in a game had you made him work for it.
• Trains. They still run those things? Apparently in Seattle that's the only way they transport things at all. I had forgotten how many trains go screaming past Safeco field in a 3-hour span. Talk about annoying.
• Dioner Navarro. Another sub par offensive night for Navi who went 0-5 from the plate. His BA is now .184 and his numbers are starting to look a lot more like his '07 numbers than his '08 ones. Hopefully last year's offensive numbers weren't just an anomaly.

CRACKERS:

• Longoria and Crawford combined to be 7-9 from the plate, accounting for 4 RBI and 4 runs. Now just imagine if Pena and Burrell can find some type of consistency to go along with that.
• The Rays are now 4.5 games behind Toronto, and more importantly 3 games behind NY and Boston.