Photo by Keith Allison

Tampa Bay’s season is officially over after tonight’s ball game, but it was effectively over Monday evening when the Athletics took over the final wild card slot.  James Shields didn’t get the memo.  Last night, he pitched at the highest level of the season.

The right hander, who has been terrific since the trade deadline at four P.M. on July 31^st, whiffed a career-high, and franchise record, fifteen batters last night as he allowed only one run on two hits to the playoff bound Baltimore Orioles.  Along the way, he gave Baltimore no full passes, but fell victim to a single, solo long ball off the bat of Chris Davis.  Sadly, the Rays couldn’t match the O’s output, and Shields and the Rays fell, 1-0.

Tonight, the Rays will close out the season with Jeremy Hellickson on the hill.  My bet is that Tampa Bay will try to play spoiler, and make the Orioles play in the wild card play-in game.  Hellickson will be matched against Chris Tillman, 6-1 with a 3.19 ERA over his last ten outings.

• Since the trade deadline on July 31^st, Shields was 7-3, with eighty-nine strikeouts and only fourteen walks, allowing just fifty-two hits over 90.1 innings.  Forget “Complete Game James”, how about “Top Shelf Shields”?  He’s a bulldog, a winner, and hopefully, somehow, will be with the Rays for some time.
• Tampa Bay was shut out yet again. By my count, eleven times this season.  You never have a chance to win when you’re shut out.  It’s a credit to the Rays’ staff that they continually took the ball and gave great performances over the season.  Pitching doesn’t always win, but it usually does.  Look for the team to be strong again next season.  And look for them to make some moves to provide more offense next season.

Maybe having a perfect game pitched against Tampa Bay wasn’t a bad thing. Since that flawless outing by Felix Hernandez out in Seattle, the Rays have won five straight.

Last night, Tampa Bay played in the Trop after a 10-game road trip and defeated the Royals 5-1. Starter Jeremy Hellickson, picked up the W at home, his first home win since May 16 against Boston. Joe Maddon said Helly set the tone for the game.

Sean Rodriguez was optioned to Triple-A Durham today to make room for DH Luke Scott who was activated from the disabled list.

Southpaw David Price takes on Kansas City’s Luke Hocevar tonight at 7:10pm.

And just in case you’re dealing with the dreary Tampa Bay area weather tonight, here’s a link to the Richard Justice piece in which he says the Rays appear to be the best team in baseball.

The first line score I saw for the Rays game with Seattle yesterday showed no runs on no hits for Tampa Bay, and a single run on the board for the Mariners.  Jeremy Hellickson was pitching well, and Felix Hernandez was truly dealing for the Mariners.  The first at-bat I saw for Tampa Bay was an Evan Longoria line out to second, followed by a long fly ball to left by Ben Zobrist.  Carlos Pena grounded out weakly, catcher to first for the third out.  And Hernandez was perfect through five innings. » Continue reading “Rays: Reflecting On Perfection”

While I was away for the weekend, Jeremy Hellickson joined Twitter. I’d been waiting for that to happen for dayyyys, so of course it would occur while I was out of touch with Tampa. Anywho, Hellboy went with the handle JHell58.

Personally, I would have preferred something with JHelly so that I could pronounce it like jelly, but c’est la vie.

David Price, teammate and Twitter-user extraordinaire, is showing Hellickson the ropes.

Click this link to watch video look slightly uncomfortable while talking about Twitter.

While perusing David Price’s timeline today, I learned that it’s Astro’s birthday. [For those fans who either live under a rock or maybe just live without Twitter, Astro is David Price's dog.] Hope baby bear gets a W for ya, pup.

It’s Monday. Mondays usually stink. But, yesterday the Rays stopped a three-game skid with a 9-8 win over the Orioles.

So, let’s focus on some fun things this afternoon.

Tampa Bay’s pitchers who had the day off sure had some fun yesterday. Joel Peralta danced in the dugout, and as you can see from this screen grab from Cork Gaines, pitching coach Jim Hickey was not all that impressed.

Peralta proceeded to flutter his hands and prance off as if he were a ballerina.

Before the game, David Price helped Jeremy Hellickson show some love for Mom. The following photo comes from Dave Haller, the Director of Communications for the Tampa Bay Rays. » Continue reading “Rays: Beating The Monday Blues”

Marc Topkin was tweeting from Detroit when Jeremy Hellickson was hit in the head by a batted ball during batting practice. (Read tweets from the bottom up.)

While it looks like this is one of those times when we are lucky enough to say, “It could’ve been worse,” let’s send our good thoughts, prayers, and/or best wishes Hellickson’s way.

On Easter Sunday, Hellickson got his first start of the season and shut out the Yankees 3-0 to get the series sweep.

Not long ago, somewhere around dessert after a late Easter lunch, Jeremy Hellickson went 8.2 innings while dominating the Yankees.  Hellboy gave up three hits and four walks en route to winning the last game of a three-game season opening sweep of New York.

Pitching inside effectively allowed the righty to keep the Yankees off-balance throughout the game.  The highest velocity I saw for the day was 91 MPH.  His location resulted in more than a few weak pop-ups, for which he is famous, as well as a host of routine ground balls.  Fernando Rodney came in to get his second save in a row, to add to his win from Friday night’s game. » Continue reading “Different Ways For The Rays”

They’ve taken us on an emotional rollercoaster, but the Rays took their first series of the season with wins on Friday and Saturday. Today, they’ll go for the sweep against the Yankees.

At 1:40 this afternoon Jeremy Hellickson, the 2011 AL Rookie of the Year, will take the hill for the first time in 2012.

Fingers crossed Helly won’t suffer a sophomore slump.

[I do get a little kick out of the fact that a guy sometimes referred to as Hellboy not only gets the first Sunday start of the season, he gets the Easter Sunday start.]
-Rays Index broke down last night’s game in their morning hangover post.

-The Minor League season is underway and you can catch up with what went down on the farm on Saturday at DRaysBay.

Jeremy Hellickson scattered seven hits over six-plus innings, and looked to be in mid-season form as the Rays fell to the Phillies by a score of 2-1. Mixing pitches and changing location and velocity, Hellickson also worked his pitch count to over 100, while allowing only a solo homer to Phils’ catcher Brian Schneider in the fifth inning. In the meantime, Cole Hamels went five and two-thirds innings, and allowed only three hits while striking out seven and walking two.

Philadelphia got to Rays’ reliever Ryan Reid for a run on three hits in the ninth inning to take the victory. Jonathan Papelbon, slotted to be the Phillies’ closer, came in with the game tied at one apiece in top of the ninth to get the win.

Hellickson, who had struggled against Minnesota in his last outing while allowing 10 earned runs on 11 hits, seemed to be back on top of his game. During an in-game interview, Hellickson was asked if there was extra pressure on Rays’ pitchers due to the offense scoring so few runs, and he responded by saying the pitchers expected to throw shutouts when they went to the hill. Always low-key and confident, Hell-boy sounded ready to get the REAL games underway.

» Continue reading “Rays: Offense Still Searching, Hellickson Ready To Go”

The Rays will be here soon.

Spring break began for me last Friday when the school bell rang at 3:30.  As my break is beginning, Spring Training is winding down while teams are gearing up for the start of the season.

Yesterday, the Rays fell to Minnesota by a score of 19-4 as Jeremy Hellickson struggled with his command.  Hellickson got his work in, was fortunate not to be injured by a ground ball off Joe Mauer’s bat that hit him in the foot, and saw his ERA rise to 15.30.  Neither he nor Joe Maddon was concerned with the outing.  It doesn’t count yet- just get the work in, and extend the pitch count. » Continue reading “Rays: Winding Down The Spring And Gearing Up For The Season”