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).

Photo by Nick Stepowyj

This evening the Rays will take on the Yankees at The Trop’ in St. Pete.  But earlier today while on WEEI radio Bobby Valentine took a cheap shot at Joe Maddon. While responding to questions about his tardiness to a game in Oakland, as well as other queries regarding the Red Sox dumpster fire of a season, Bobby said :

“Four o’clock, like that’s late for a 7:15 game.  Joe Maddon gets there every day at four o’clock, just for the record.”

Valentine is known to run his mouth at every opportunity, and for some unknown reason had to mention Maddon’s pre-game routine in an effort to deflect criticism.  When Maddon met the press this afternoon, he said:

“Sorry I’m late.  Just got here.”

It wasn’t so much what Valentine said that irritated me, it was the tone of voice.  I was on record with friends saying I didn’t think Bobby V. would be a good hire for the BoSox.  His arrogance and sarcasm have long been there for anyone who would care to look.  On top of that, he has proven to have no problem with throwing players under the bus. Please note:  Kevin Youkilis.

Anyone who has read my posts knows that I don’t take shots at people.  As a matter of fact, I rein in some of my stronger feelings, just because it’s better to take the high road whenever possible, plus we seldom get to hear both sides of an issue.  But Valentine has proven time after time that he’s going to do it his way, at anyone else’s expense.  And I think that’s reason enough to say he’s one of the very few people in the game that I have little or no respect for.

It’s never classy or honorable to try to deflect blame or criticism at someone else’s expense. We tell children not to act in that manner.  Maybe Bobby needs someone to him how to handle rough times.  Like, maybe you should just own up to it and keep working hard to set a new template for next season.  In the meanwhile, he keeps putting himself in the news, ahead of larger team concerns, and pouring gas on that dumpster fire.  Good job, Bobby.  That ought to work… and by the way, your bluster and finger-pointing seem to indicate some sort of true insecurity. » Continue reading “Rays Try To Sweep Yanks, Bobby V’s Tirade Is Tired”

Our Tampa Bay Rays fell back into a tie for first in the AL East with last night’s 5-2 loss against the Yankees. The featured photo of losing pitcher David Price in the DRaysBay recap captures the mood.

To make Price’s night a little tougher, a Twitter user decided to tweet this to the southpaw:

Kazmir, the one-time Rays standout, has not played in the bigs at all this season. In 2011, he played in one, yes, one game with the LA Angels in which he gave up 5 runs in 1.2 innings of work.

Somehow, I think Price (5-2, 2.98) is safe for now. » Continue reading “Rays: A Lesson In Tweeting After A Loss”

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.

The Rays will return to the Trop this afternoon to take on the Future Stars of the organization. Gates will open at 12:10 pm and first pitch is scheduled for 1:40 pm.

Two days from now, Tampa Bay will face some of the biggest current stars in the game when they open the season with a weekend series against the Yankees. To kick off the 2012 regular season, the MLB writers of Aerys Sports decided to get together to talk about the three things about our team that other writers should keep an eye on this season.

In the order that we’ll face their team, here’s what the other AL East writers from Aerys Sports had to say. » Continue reading “Rays: What To Watch For In The AL East”

Huzzah! The Rays picked up their first win of Spring Training when they beat the Yankees 4-0 over at Steinbrenner Field today.

I know it’s not all about the Ws during Spring Training, in fact, it’s not really about them at all.

But still…you have to admit that it still feels good to beat the Yankees. Starter James Shields threw two perfect innings. After the game he said:

“I felt good, felt really good. It felt kind of weird the first couple pitches, but that’s just a normal first game of Spring Training. Other than that, it was good.”

Head over to Rays Index to watch some of the highlights and lowlights.  Brandon Guyer getting thumped in the head by a shin while sliding into second falls into the latter category.

The Rays will split their squad tomorrow so half the team can take on the Tigers in Port Charlotte while the rest of the guys head to Fort Myers to face the Twins.