No More "Game Recap"....

Instead of doing the game-by-game hi-lites/low-lites segment which we had given the misnomer of "game recap:" We will now change the format and call it... drumroll, please...

"Cheese and Whine"

"Cheese" will detail the positive points that I drew from that particular game, while "Whine" is self-explanitory; I'll whine about what I didn't like... it's what i do best. I may even occassionally include a bonus section called "Crackers" which will just be facts/stats points to ponder, etc.


Bon Apetit.

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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be sure to check in at Rays Index too.

Superstition...

Given how baseball is such a superstitious sport it occured to me that since I started blogging a "Game Recap" the Rays haven't won a game, so in the interest of trying to dig out a win.... today's recap has been cancelled (I know, how will you get through the day?... it's okay, we'll hold hands and get through it together).





...the game sucked anyways.
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as always, for more in-depth analysis head over to Rays Index.