CHEESE & WHINE: Texas Toast

Rays: 3
Rangers: 8


CHEESE:

• No one got hurt.

WHINE:

• BJ Upton. Upton was 2 for 3 from the plate, but made 2 base running blunders that were costly. Bossman was picked-off at first and was caught taking a big turn around third on a hit that he presumably thought had gotten past Texas' SS Andrus... it hadn't.
• Grant Balfour. Balfour came-in in the 8th and managed to walk 2 before giving-up a 3-run homer to Ian Kinsler. Well done Grant, well done indeed. Apparently Shouse and Springer are contagious.

CRACKERS:

• Kinsler's 3-run dinger off of Balfour put him in the 30/30 club (30 homerS and 30 steals). Congrats to Kinsler.

CHEESE & WHINE: Who Was That Pitcher?

Rays: 5
Rangers: 3


CHEESE:

• Gregg Zaun. Kazmir will get all the love, but I'm going to have to go out on a limb here and agree with Kevin Kennedy and say that Gregg Zaun had as much to do with Kaz' efficiency as Kazmir himself did. Zaun called a game that played to Kaz' strengths, and when things got a little hairy (men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out) Zaun imposed his will, worked the batters, and helped Kaz get out of a jam. I was a little critical of the Zaun signing, but all I've seen so far is the glaring difference between Zaun (a hard worker and intelligent game caller) and Navi (a lackadaisical youngster who's got a lot to learn). If the Rays are able to squeeze into the wildcard a good portion of the credit may go to 38 year old Gregg Zaun- and rightfully so.
• Scott Kazmir. Kaz was efficient, I repeat Scott Kazmir was efficient! Kaz lasted 7 and 1/3 innings,his longest outing of the year (some will call it coincidence, I'll call it Gregg Zaun's game calling ability), allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, striking-out 4 and walking 2. Kaz threw 67 of his 106 pitches for strikes.
• Ben Zobrist. Zobrist finished the night 2 for 3 with a walk...oh, and another homer; a 2-run shot which was his 22nd of the season. Zobrist is hitting homeruns at a clip of 1 every 16.4 at-bats. To put that into perspective, your league leading HR hitter (Carlos Pena) is hitting a homer every 13 AB's. Impressive for a utility guy. If the Rays are able to squeeze into the playoffs we'll all know that Zorilla played an unexpectedly huge role.
• JP Howell. At what point do we start saying that this kid is money?

WHINE:

• RISP. As a team, the Rays were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. If you think you're going to win games against tough teams without pushing runners across the plate via productive outs you're wrong... I'm talking to you Carlos Pena, sometimes you just have to put the ball in play with 2 men on and 1 out, I understand you're a power hitter and you should dance with who brung ya, but swinging for the fences in that situation is busch-league.
  

CRACKERS:

• With this win over Texas and the Yankees beating Boston, the Rays are once again 3 back of Boston and 2 back of Texas in the AL Wildcard hunt.

CAVIAR (game ball):

• Scott Kazmir. The Rays could use more quality starts like that. Well done.

Wins are Bigger Vs Texas

One more game against Baltimore, which I'm looking past, but hopefully the Rays are not, and then in comes Texas.

Texas is currently trailing Boston by 1 game and lead the Rays by 2 games in the AL Wildcard race.
Let's say hypothetically that the Rays, Sox, and Rangers all win tonight so Texas rolls into town with a 2 game lead over the Rays.

Here's the pitching match-ups for the 3-game set:

GAME 1
Dustin Nippert, RHP (4-1, 3.52) vs. Scott Kazmir, LHP (7-7, 6.36)
Despite Nippert's impressive ERA, the sample size is fairly small considering that he's only started 6 games this season. He was quite hittable in his only start v. the rays last season, giving up 7 runs in just 4 innings of work.

GAME 2
Tommy Hunter, RHP (6-2, 2.64) vs. Matt Garza, RHP (7-8, 3.73)
Hunter has been on a tear as of late, winning 6 of his last 7 decisions, and has held opponents to a BA of below .220. This is the match-up that intrigues me the most as we're never sure what to expect form Matty G. It'll take a solid outing to keep the Rays in this one.

GAME 3
Scott Feldman, RHP (12-4, 4.06) vs. David Price, LHP (6-5, 5.03)
Feldman at 12-4 has been very good for the Rangers thus far and has a career ERA of 2.50 against the Rays. A win by the Rays in this game would be a nice accomplishment and could go a long way in helping the Rays secure a wildcard spot.
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All three games are wide open, and a sweep in either direction is by no means out of the question, but I'm feeling optimistic in light of JoeMa's black hair and think that the Rays will win the first 2 before dropping the third game to Feldman.

If that theory holds true, at the end of the series the Rays would trail the Rangers by just 1 game, and should I dare to dream that Boston were to drop 2 out of 3 during that same time span (v. New York), only 2 games behind the Sox with 39 games to go.

CHEESE & WHINE: Losses seem Bigger in Texas

Rays: 1
Rangers: 3

CHEESE:

• Scott Kazmir. Kid K was fairly solid last night lasting 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (1 earned) on 5 hits, while walking 1 and striking-out 6. Of course we'd always like to see Kaz be able to stretch a start past 5 innings, but at this stage in his career 5 solid innings seems to be all we can expect.
• Grant Balfour. While it wasn't always pretty the Mad Aussie worked 2 innings allowing no runs, no hits, no walks, and striking-out 2.

WHINE:

• Fielding Errors. Both Jason Bartlett and Ben Zobrist committed fielding errors while trying to throw to 1st, neither should've hurried their throw as much as they did. These are the mistakes that the 2008 AL Champions didn't make.
• Ben Zobrist. Not only did he commit the throwing error, but he was also 0 for 4 at the plate, striking out once and leaving 3 men on base.

CRACKERS:

• Texas starter, Tommy Hunter was originally drafted by the Rays, but opted to go to college instead of signing with the Rays, and was later drafted by the Rangers.

CAVIAR (game ball):

• Grant Balfour. Consistent performances by relievers are critical down the stretch.

Game Recap: Make it a Dozen!

June 6, 2008

RAYS: 12

Rangers: 4

HIGH-LITES:

The Rays bounced back nicely from the debacle that was the BoSox series. After a shaky start offensively the bats warmed up in the latter half of the game.

Evan Longoria (aka Dirtbag), smashed a homer into the second deck in leftfield of Rangers Stadium. Staats made some comment in passing that he (Longoria) was 1 of only 14 players to hit one into the second deck in Texas. Dirtbag also made some great infield plays on the run to get a couple tough outs at first (one of which was headed right for ol' Noodle-Arm Bartlett who was already camped out waiting for the ball and never would've had time to make the play at first had Evan not come to his rescue- from the looks of it, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find that management told Bartlett to let Dirtbag cover as much ground as possible). The Kid's
got a cannon!

Scott Kazmir pitched another gem. Kaz did exactly what the Rays needed, and that was to go out there with a solid performance and eat up innings so as not to use up the already tired 'pen.
Kid K went 8 innings giving up 6 hits, 2 earned runs, and recording 6 K's with no walks. He also recorded a pick-off when he caught Murphy trying to steal 2nd (although it was very close to being a balk, it was a great move).

The Rays, as a team, only struck out 5 times as opposed to 9 the night before.


LOW-LITES:

Al Reyes looked old, and used up. He came in in the 9th as the closer and proceeded to give up 2 runs on 2 hits while recording just one K. I understand that the Rays effectively had the game in the bag, so there robably wasn't a lot adrenaline involved, but he looked as if he was already on his last leg and its only the beginning of June.

No bench-clearing brawl... ah, shucks!

Gabe Gross went 2 for 5 with a double, but still looked uncomfortable at the plate (being a huge GG fan, i feel like a Dad who holds his kids to a higher standard... come on Gabe, make Daddy proud).

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