Cheese & Wine: Oakland pt 2

RAYS: 2

A's: 5 

CHEESE:

·         RISP hitting. The Rays went 3-8 hitting with runners in scoring position. That’s a pretty good percentage, but unfortunately only two of the hits knocked in a runner, and none were extra base hits.

·         Akinori Iwamura. He only went 2-4 today, but when he came up with a runner in scoring position he delivered, driving in Gabe Kapler from second.

·         Grant Balfour’s fastball. In the bottom of the sixth, Garza had started the inning with two straight strikeouts, but then gave up a first-pitch single to Nomar Garciaparra and walked Travis Buck on four pitches. He had thrown 107 pitches and Joe Maddon had decided to bring in the Aussie flamethrower. Balfour threw three straight sliders, all outside of the strikezone (although he did get a swinging strike). His next two pitches were fastballs that just missed. So with the bases loaded, Grant Balfour proceeded to pitch 5 straight fastballs and strike out Landon Powell. That helped keep the game close.

WHINE:

·         4th inning walks. Matt Garza gave up walks to three of the first four batters he faced in the inning, loading the bases for Nomar Garciaparra’s 3-run double. The Rays were only down one run when the inning started, and were in a much deeper 4 run hole when it finished.

·         B.J. Upton. Bossman continues to struggle at the plate. He was 0-4 with a walk and a strikeout on the night, his bases on balls somewhat redeeming the fact that he has two extra base hits in 37 plate appearances this season. If the Rays are going to contend this season, they need B.J. to get himself on track.

·         Gabe Gross. Pinch-hitting in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded, you need to do better than get struck-out on 4 pitches.

·         Jason Bartlett. 0-4 is bad, but failing to get on base to start two innings is worse. Perhaps the biggest disappointment from Bartlett today was his at bat when the bases were loaded in the 8^th. The Rays were down by three and Bartlett grounded out to end the inning.

·         No TV. Saturday games are always blacked out if they start before 7 o’clock eastern, and after 1:40, unless they’re the FOX game of the week. That meant nobody in either Bay area got to see the game televised. Not even on MLB.tv, unless you live out of market.

CRACKERS:

·         Yankees and Red Sox starters. Most Rays fans just hope that these games end in benches-clearing brawls with lots of suspensions, but in Saturday night’s matchup two big names were having a lot of trouble:

Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
A Burnett	5.0	8	8	8	3	3	2
J Beckett	5.0	10	8	8	4	3	2

I’m okay with their pitchers getting lit up.

·         Introductions. Just wanted to introduce myself briefly, as I’ll be joining the Rays the Stakes’ writing staff. I was born in St. Pete but currently live in Gainesville studying telecommunications at UF. I’m hoping to contribute a lot to the site.

-Alex