CHEESE & WHINE: Holy Homers, Batman!

RAYS: 8
YANKS: 6


CHEESE:

• Evan Longoria. I consistently say that he'll soon be the best player in the league, sometimes I wonder why he's not already considered the best. Dirtbag was 3 for 5 with 3 more RBI (38), recording not 1, but 2 homers.
• Carl Crawford. Although CC's stolen base streak ended, so to did his home run drought. Crawford hit his first homer of the season off of Mo Rivera in the 9th and finished the night 2 for 5 with 1 RBI and 0 K's.
• J.P. Howell. A slight bit of redemption for J.P. who came-in in the 6th and pitched 2 innings, allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 3. That's more like it.
• Ben Zobrist. Zobrist continues to show his worth, going 2 for 4 from the plate and hitting a solo homer in the 6th.

WHINE:

• Dan Wheeler. Wheels was brought-in in relief of Howell, but couldn't manage to hold-on, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits while striking-out zero, to allow the Yankees to tie the game at 6 and effectively blowing the save. The Rays need more consistency out of their "set-up" guy.
• Joe Maddon. Papa Smurf has to make a decision. He chose Niemann as his 5th starter, but won't lengthen the leash enough for Niemann to breath. Yes, Niemann was struggling with control, but he'd thrown less than 80 pitches and was standing on a 4-0 lead. With a 4 run lead there's no need to throw as many hittable pitches, and the result is a few walks. Did Maddon really feel that Niemann was looking that bad? Bad enough to give him the hook in the 4th inning in exchange for Lance cormier? Well, hindsight now shows that Cormier wasn't any better, and once again Maddon "out-thunk" himself. If he's lost all faith in Niemann (right or wrong) then a change needs to happen- sooner than later.

CRACKERS:

• The Rays amassed 6 homers which is a new team record.
• For the first time in his 15 year career Andy Pettitte surrendered 4 homer runs. This season he has allowed 5 total, all of which are credited to the Rays.
• For the first time in his 15 year career Mariano Rivera gave up back to back homers (Crawford, Longoria).