A call missed at the plate.

A foul ball that was ultimately called fair.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost an out and a run on offense on Tuesday, and on Wednesday they lost an out on defense.  The play at the plate was close, the foul ball call wasn’t even close.  The Rays got robbed, not by the umpires, but by baseball’s decision to use VERY limited replays to assist in questionable calls.

In a day and age where technology can send a game photo around the country in a matter of seconds, MLB has decided to stay its course and stick with the tired “human element of the game” argument rather than move forward with additional instant replay.  Last night, Oakland also lost an obvious home run when umpires couldn’t see what was obvious to everyone else at the park, in the announcers’ booth, on Twitter, and any sports show’s baseball highlights. » Continue reading “Rays: How ‘Bout That Human Element?”

A line drive by Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Desmond Jennings hit Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ in the head during tonight’s game. Happ was taken off the field on a stretcher. He moved his arms and was able to wave as he was taken off the field. You can see a GIF of the incident and screenshots shortly after it over at Business Insider.

The Rays currently lead the Blue Jays 4-1 in the top of the fourth. Tampa Bay blew a 7-run lead last night to fall to the Blue Jays 8-7. Tampa Bay Times sports columnist Gary Shelton writes that the blown lead symbolizes the state of the Rays;

“Once again, mediocrity rose up to grab them and pull them deeper into the ooze of fourth place.”

It’s still early in the season and I’m not ready to be sad about the state of affairs, but gosh, it is frustrating when 7 runs isn’t enough.

After last night’s 9-3 loss against the Colorado Rockies, David Price is still looking for win number two on the season. The Tampa Bay Rays are hoping to take the series in Colorado with a second win in the three game series.  Yesterday, Price allowed nine earned runs, his roughest outing since June of 2009, when he gave up ten earned runs in a game.  Joe Maddon and the Rays don’t seem to be concerned with the southpaw, believing he had a tough time adjusting to slick, dry hands in The Mile High City, and simply needs to get back on track.

The Rays rank 25^th in the majors in ERA, with only the Toronto Blue Jays being lower than them in the A.L. East.  They trail the Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles in OPS among clubs from their own division.  In the all-important runs scored department, they are next-to-last in the division.  I’m thinking they will improve in all those categories before too long.  With 24/7 sports on TV and radio, many are trying to predict who’s in and who’s out of the playoffs already.  Way too early.  They play 162 games for a reason in baseball – something a good buddy of mine doesn’t understand.  Of course, he’s a soccer guy. And I don’t get the whole tie-game thing.

• James Loney has been hot for a while.  He’s batting .486 with only two strikeouts in the past ten games.
• An article in Rant Sports gives good reason for Jeremy Hellickson’s success in Tampa Bay.  Of course, they also mention that he could be traded either this season or next.  What would a Rays season be without the mention of them trading one of their top-line players? 
  

Tampa Bay will start a ten-game home stretch tomorrow, and will hope to get to .500 and above as they host the struggling Toronto Blue Jays, sub-.500 San Diego Padres, and A.L. East rival Boston.

As the Tampa Bay Rays await discipline following the war of words between David Price and umpire Tom Hallion, they’ll face a familiar starter in Kansas City.

For the first time in my baseball fandom, I hope James Shields doesn’t come away with the win.

Shields, now with the Royals, said of facing his former team:

“I’m going to go out there and compete and try to win a ballgame. It’s going to be a little chess game out there. They know me, I know them.”

Alex Cobb gets the start for Tampa Bay in the 8:10 pm ET game. The Rays said via Twitter today that Luke Scott is back with the team tonight.

The Tampa Bay Rays sent ten players to the plate last night against the Chicago White Sox, and nine of them recorded base hits, as they smacked the Sox, 10-4.  The only one who didn’t was Jose Molina, who was hit by a pitch and left after two plate appearances.  Matt Moore saw his ERA skyrocket all the way to 1.13 as he allowed a single earned run in six innings.  Nice when one earned run over six raises the ERA.  In all, the Rays recorded 19 hits on the evening.

Moore was dominant again, as he struck out six of the first seven he faced in the first two innings.  In all, he allowed three hits and a single walk.  It seems like this year Moore could always go one more inning if needed.  That has to be a good feeling for Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey, as the southpaw came into the spring ready to work on pitch economy.

Evan Longoria raised his average twenty-six points last night, and his OPS is now over .900 for the season, and he has thirteen RBIs on the campaign.  James Loney had three hits and raised his average to .379.  His OPS is a lofty .998, adding two RBIs.  Kelly Johnson went 4-5 with a pair of ribbies as well.

Today, the Rays will send David Price to the hill against righty Dylan Axelrod.  Both will be looking for their first win of the season.

• I heard a radio host talking today about how you can’t put much value on the season until the end of May, maybe the first of June. For all practical purposes, that’s true, unless a club is WAAAAY behind in the “W” column or has had catastrophic injuries.  The Rays are two below .500, but there’s a long way to go, and they know how to close.
• Interestingly, the Rays’ pitchers threw 164 pitches last night as opposed to 191 for the White Sox’ staff.  That might not seem like much, but it’s almost two innings worth of work.  Over the long haul of the 162 game season, that can add up.  Let it be noted that Chicago’s bullpen had great numbers before last night’s game.

The Tampa Bay Rays had a 5-1 record on their recent home stand, and take their show on the road to play the White Sox in Chicago.  The Rays did it with timely hitting and pitching, to the tune of only nine runs allowed over the six-game stretch.  It’s hard to lose when you don’t give up any runs.  The Rays got a combo-job shutout on Saturday, as Jeremy Hellickson started and got the win over Oakland, with relief help, 1-0.  Alex Cobb started yesterday and picked up the “W” with Fernando Rodney earning the save in another shutout, topping the Yankees 3-0.  Aside from the great home stand, the Rays managed to keep it loose, as well. 

Yunel Escobar won’t be in the lineup tonight after experiencing tightness in his hamstring.  Ben Zobrist will put on his infield glove and take over at shortstop until Escobar is back.  Good news:  Zobrist can fill in more than adequately.  Bad news? Escobar was six for his last twenty-one at bats, and has been playing stellar defense.

• Cobb threw only 106 pitches in 8.1 innings.  Seventy-two went for strikes.  Cobb featured a sharp breaking ball, and commanded both sides of the plate.  Lately, “both sides of the plate” has been the mantra for Rays pitchers, and it has served them well.
• James Loney’s batting average is up to .313, hitting .455 over the last ten games.

When I got home this afternoon, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson was battling with Brian Kenney on the MLB network over the use of statistical data in predicting winners in baseball.  Hawk doesn’t go much for metrics, except for the TWTW numbers.  As in “The Will To Win.”  Kenney, of course tried to pin him down on his disdain for numbers.  The subject of this weekend’s series came up, and Kenney stated that the Rays’ success came from metrics.

In fact, both are right.  Tampa Bay surely knows how to something out of very little when spending their money.  That doesn’t always translate to numbers, however.  The way they play the game indicates they also had TWTW.  The Tampa Bay Rays:  a Harrelson/Kenney conundrum.

Tampa Bay Rays southpaw Matt Moore picked up his fourth W of the season as his team extended their streak to four wins last night against the New York Yankees.

When you have a last name like Moore, you have to know headlines are going to take advantage of it. This one from today’s tbt* had me reminiscing about Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and trying to perfect his jubilant grunt in my head. (Click the image for the story.)

The stellar performance by Moore was backed up by Ryan Roberts’ bat. Roberts went 3-for-4 with two homers off of New York’s CC Sabathia in last night’s victory.

Here’s hoping another Tampa Bay lefty can come out on top when the Rays face the Yankees tonight at the Trop. David Price (0-1) will be on the hill for Tampa Bay as New York sends forth Phil Hughes (0-2).

When Matt Joyce homered to open bottom of the second inning, no one in Tropicana Field or watching at home could have imagined that being both the first and last run scored on the day.  In fact, it was, as the Tampa Bay Rays shut down Oakland’s bats for their seventh win of the season against ten losses.

Today, the Rays send Roberto Hernandez, (0-3, 5.79) to the mound against lefty Tommy Milone, (3-0, 3.86) at Tropicana Field.

• Hellickson has continued the trend of excellence among the youngest of the Rays’ starting staff.  Although he’s only 1-1, he has an ERA of 3.55 and a WHIP of 0.99, with at eighteen strikeouts while only allowing six free passes.  Matt Moore has a WHIP of 1.06 and twenty strikeouts in eighteen innings, along with a perfect three-and-oh record and ERA of 1.00.  Alex Cobb is 2-1, and has allowed only six walks in three starts.
• Hellickson took command of the game from the start yesterday, pitching inside very effectively with his fastball, then mixing in his breaking ball and his featured change up.  The highest read I saw on a gun was 91, but he continually had hitters off-balance and was also able to blow fastballs by them, due to his location and effectiveness of all three pitches.
• Moore throws harder, and has set hitters on their heels when ahead in the count.  He has pitched in with great success, and has elevated in and out of the strike zone very well.  He has also found a way to make the big pitch when his command has gotten him in a jam.
• Cobb has used his curveball as well as Hellickson has used his changeup.  He isn’t afraid to pitch inside, and sets up his fastball to look harder than its general top-end of 91-92.  And he isn’t afraid to pitch with men on base.  If the opposition doesn’t get him early, he gets them!  Fun to watch pitch because he’s such a tough competitor.
• Desmond Jennings used his glove and speed to record an unassisted double play, catching a short fly ball by Coco Crisp and running to tag first base and double up A’s second baseman Eric Sogard, who was running with the pitch. 
  

The Rays are trying to find consistency on offense.  At this time, they rank dead last in the American League East in average, OPS, and the all­-important category of runs scored.  David Price is scuffling, and Roberto Hernandez hasn’t found the winner’s circle.

The good news is that Price won’t scuffle all season, he will put it all together before too long.  Hernandez has shown the ability to get ground ball outs in the past, and hopefully finds command soon.  And the offense has shown signs of promise over the past week, despite yesterday’s small output.  The Rays won’t crumble under a rough start.  Joe Maddon won’t let them.  This is just the start of a very long season.  This club knows how to win, and if healthy, my money is on them to do just that.

Matt Moore actually gave up a couple of earned runs last night, even though he was in charge into the seventh inning against Baltimore. James Loney went three-for-three and had three ribbies. Three relievers went two-and-one-third innings of shutout baseball. And the Tampa Bay Rays topped the Orioles by a score of 6-2. It looked like good, old-fashioned Rays baseball, winning in a quietly dominant fashion. Oh, yeah, and Joe Maddon got tossed arguing a caught-stealing call.

Moore stretched into the seventh inning, and part of the reason is that he threw 67 strikes in 104 pitches. In eighteen innings, he’s given up eight hits. He has twenty strikeouts over that stretch, and although he has issued eleven walks, his WHIP is 1.06. Sadly, his ERA blossomed to 1.00 last night… For anyone wondering about what he would bring to the staff this season, a small, three-game sampling shows growth and confidence. Everyone knows he has the arm and stuff.

Loney had his best game as a Ray. He spread the wealth, with a double to center, another to right, and a single to left. On top of that, he had a walk. If he can continue to hit to all fields, that along with his glove will make him the valuable addition the Rays were hoping for when they signed him.

Maddon put up a pretty good beef before getting run. The call was close, and it could have gone either way, but it was good to see Maddon stand up for the club. Early this season, the Rays haven’t had a lot of calls go their way. Whether planned or just frustration, Maddon took one for the team with his first ejection of the season.

In news from down on the farm, Wil Myers was pulled from his game with a contusion on his foot. Not to worry. He’s day-to-day.

•Tampa Bay sends Cy Young winner David Price to the hill tonight, facing off with Miguel Gonzalez. Price is looking to lower his uncharacteristic 5.82 ERA and notch his first win. Gonzalez is 1-1 with a 2.92 ERA.

Following their series against the Red Sox at Fenway, the Tampa Bay Rays boarded a plane for Baltimore, shortly after the bombings in Boston. Rays beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times, Marc Topkin, wrote about the sights and sounds in Boston yesterday.

Topkin wrote:

From the press box, we couldn’t see anything, though one of writers who was there at the time said, in retrospect, he may have heard one of the blasts without knowing what it was.

But what I could still hear, loud and clear, was the sad remnant, the horrifying wailing of the sirens from the steady stream of ambulances and emergency vehicles headed to the site.

The Rays will face the Baltimore Orioles at 7:05 ET tonight. Both teams will honor Jackie Robinson.