CHEESE & WHINE: Something In The West Coast water

Rays: 7
Angels: 8


CHEESE:

• One Player To Rule Them All. Jason Bartlett is doing everything he can to try to lead this team to the promised land, but apparently not everyone's on-board (I'm talkin' to you Melvin). JB finished a single shy of recording the Rays' first ever cycle; going 3 for 5, with a double, a triple, a HR, 2 RBI, and 9 total bases. Come on JB, is that all you got?
• Ben Zobrist. Zorilla finished the night 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, and was robbed of a game-tying homer in the 9th.
• Randy Choate. On a night where everyone else was giving up runs like they were going out of style Randy manned-up for 1 and 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 hit and no runs. Choate's ERA is an impressive 2.21 over 36 games with the Rays.

WHINE:

• Matt Garza. Matty-G's team kept giving him forgiveness for his sins. They spotted him 2 runs right off the top, but that wasn't good enough. They gave him back the 3 runs he had so hastily given away, but it wasn't enough. Garza lasted an abysmal 3 and 1/3 innings, allowing 6 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, while walking 4, hitting a batter, and surrendering 2 HR's. Do me a huge favor- stop hanging out with Scott Kazmir!
• BJ Upton. Still not sure why you're not leading-off? Another 0-fer for the junior Bossman. 0-4 with 1... 2... 3 more strike-outs in the old ball game. Thanks for all the help.
• Willy Aybar. Maddon has tried his best to get Aybar consistent AB's, but it seems that he's a much more effective batter from the bench. Aybar was 0 for 3 with 2 K's. Do me a favor and stop hanging-out with BJ.
• Russ Springer. A few reports have said that Springer is just what the Rays needed. Ummm.. really? Last night Jerry's brother pitched to 2 batters, allowed 2 hits, one of which was a homer, and was quickly yanked before Rays' fans mistook him for Shawn Camp or Brian Stokes.

CRACKERS:

• Despite the fact that the Red Sox have done everything in their power to help the Rays slide into the wildcard slot the Rays' inability to win in the Pacific Time Zone still has them 2.5 games back of Boston and 2 games behind the Rangers with 50 games to go.

CAVIAR (game ball):

• Jason Bartlett. I bet Maddon wishes he'd have listened to the informed masses and made the lead-off switch about 2 months ago. Hey Joe, I told ya so (so did everyone else)! JB is batting .340 over the last 365 days- not bad for an add-on to the Delmon Young trade. No single player has ever re-formed my opinion about them as much as Mr. Bartlett.