CHEESE & WHINE: .500

Rays: 11
Angels: 1


CHEESE:

• Dioner Navarro. I've been pretty hard on Navi, so I'll give him some much deserved love today after finishing last night's game 2 for 5 with a solo homer and a 2 RBI double. He also caught Chone Figgins trying to steal second.
• Carlos Pena. El Gato was 1 for 3 with a 3-run homer and 4 RBI. Carlos now has 19 homeruns and trails only Gonzalez (22), and Ibanez (21) in the HR dept..
• Gabe Gross. Gabe was 3 for 4 on the night with 2 RBI and a walk. Remind me again why the other Gabe ever played in Gross's stead.
• Reid Brignac. Nothing spectacular, but 2 for 4 is a start for a young kid still trying to learn that hits in the gap can be just as useful as the long ball.
• David Price. I may be the only person in the blogoshere that would put him here, but hear me out. Despite all the control struggles and ridiculous walk total (6), King David left the game having allowed 0 runs (although one of his baserunners scored after Balfour came-in in relief). I know that Price needs to pitch much, much better than he did and get through more innings, but there were at least 10 occasions during the game that he could've melted down and completely let the game get out of control (including the top of the first when he walked the bases loaded with only 1 out, but held it together and got out of the inning without surrendering a run), but when it mattered the most he came through (with a little help from his friends). Price finished the night after just 4 and 1/3 innings having allowed zero runs on just 2 hits while walking 6 and striking-out 6.
• Randy Choate/Joe Nelson. Choate and Nelson combined to pitch 3 innings of no-hit baseball, recording 4 strike-outs and making sure that a comeback of Cleveland-esque proportions would not happen again on their watch.

WHINE:

• BJ Upton. Come on man! Enough is enough with the half swings and lack of focus at the plate. Once again BJ was 0 for 5 from the plate, striking-out 3 times. Hmmm... I wonder where Bartlett should land in the lineup (but won't) when he comes back next week.

CRACKERS:

• The Rays put runs on the board during 6 of the 8 innings in which they batted.
• Longoria was a career low 0 for 19 when he smashed his 400+ foot homer to centerfield off of Santana. What better way to say, "You buzz the tower again and its gonna get ugly", than to send one flying all the way to Sarasota. Take that you little punk- respect the game and straighten-out your hat!
• 100 games left in the regular season.
• Check-out this video of a seagull helping the Indians win.

CAVIAR:

Dioner Navarro. This is more like the Navi the Rays need; a role player playing his role.