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.

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”

For those of you who follow me on Twitter (cough, @SarahSeesSports, cough), some of this may look familiar to you.

On Friday night, I attended Joe Maddon’s Thanksmas fundraiser at 717 South in Tampa.

There was a good size crowd and I imagine there was a good amount of money donated. Plus, the mixing of pro athletes with the common folk always leads to some fun people watching.

I’m in love with most ice sculptures and this one was no exception to that general rule. Plus, there was a gnome at the bottom of it.

Click through for some of the other photos I took without flash, so as not to be too obnoxious, along with my thoughts from the event.

The Thanksmas events in which Joe Maddon and company feed the homeless continues this week in the bay area and concludes on December 18th in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

» Continue reading “Tampa Bay Rays: Thanksmas Fundraiser Revisited”

It’s less than a week after the end of the season for the Rays, and I am suffering from withdrawal. Oh, sure, there are the playoffs. Even though Tampa Bay isn’t involved anymore, I will enjoy them greatly.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss the Rays on the field until spring training begins. This season, a most improbable season, got right to the heart of the game for me. From an 0-6 start to 91 wins during the regular season, from “No team has ever started 0-6 and made the playoffs” to “Guess who’s the first team to make the post-season after starting 0-6?”

Over this past season, I have written a piece on the Rays roughly once a week, usually on Sunday. Generally, there was a wrap-up of the previous day’s game and a preview of the Sunday game. But I also tried to look at the big picture.

Baseball, like anything else, is about the big picture. With social media, the MLB Network, ESPN, and every other way in which we learn about every subtlety and nuance not only of every game, but also of everything anyone has said or done, plus being told exactly the meaning behind everything anyone has said or done (it amazes me part of journalism today is that the journalist must also be prescient), from throwing a hanging curve ball to tossing out an ill-advised tweet, we sometimes lose the big picture.

Manager Joe Maddon and the Rays didn’t forget about the big picture. After the horrendous start, losing six straight at home, Maddon took out a bottle of whiskey, gave the team paper cups, and toasted the best 0-6 team in baseball. From that point, the Rays faced the uphill climb of a potential post-season that ended with Evan Longoria lining a home run over the short “L” in the left field wall to realize another year in the playoffs for the Rays.

Along the way, Kyle Farnsworth became the closer many always thought he had the potential to be.

Longoria overcame two injuries, missed 29 games, and still played hard on a daily basis and put up 31 home runs along with 99 ribbies. His defense may have suffered briefly while dealing with his ailments, but no one plays a better third base on a day to day basis than Longo, and he constantly made the routine play, and dazzled with many great ones.

James Shields went from “Big Game James” to “Complete Game James” while striking out 225 and posting a 2.82 ERA in what was a remarkable season, Shields showed the mental and physical toughness that defines the best who take the ball every five days.

Ben Zobrist had 46 doubles, 20 homers, scored 99 runs, and generally showed everyone what a true professional he is by playing several positions over the year,and playing them all very well.

B.J. Upton, while enduring being on the trading block, came up with a fantastic September, and was a major cog in the success of the team over the last month of the season. Without his offense, it is highly unlikely the Rays would have made the playoffs.

And what about Johnny Damon, whose soul seemed to keep the club afloat when times were toughest?

» Continue reading “Looking Back To Look Forward”

Righthander Jeremy Hellickson got the nod on Sunday to start at the Rays looked to take their weekend series against the Orioles.

Hellickson did not disappoint.   He improved his record to 12-10 on the year with a complete game, allowing just four hits and one run with no walks and five strikeouts.  Hellickson needed just 97 pitches to get W.  Wow.  As the “Post Game Shot of Joe” on Rays Index suggests, Hellickson deserved a standing ovation for his outing.

You can watch highlights from Hellickson’s day here.

Tampa Bay’s bats were lively on Sunday afternoon which always calms this fan’s nerves.  The Rays put up eight runs on eight hits in the victory.  Sean Rodriguez was the only Rays player with more than one hit.  SRod went 2-for-4 with a homerun.

Matt Joyce also went yard and is adjusting well to his relatively new spot in the middle of the lineup.  Check out Joyce’s sixth inning shot here.

After securing the victory, it looks like the Rays enjoyed the rest of their Sunday.  Some members of the team took part in the Rays League Fantasy Football draft.  Kelly Shoppach is hoping to defend his title from 2010.  But the catcher might be getting ahead of himself, just ask David Price.

Shoppach shared his roster on Twitter:

Shoppach might want to keep an eye on Evan Longoria this football season because the third baseman believes he has what it takes to win.

Baseball, football and friends?  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

The Rays fell to the Rangers 2-0 in Arlington last night.  If you relied only on MLB sources, you’d think starter Jeremy Hellickson was absolutely abysmal.  The Tampa Bay recap from MLB.com was titled “Hellickson stumbles as Rays get blanked” with the sub-heading “Tampa Bay manages just three hits in 13th shutout loss.”

MLB posted this little beauty from their Facebook page during the game:

I’m sure that the fact that the Rays were losing when this photo popped up in my newsfeed didn’t help, but I was really miffed.  I wasn’t annoyed that MLB ran an unflattering photo of Hellickson, it was the lack of context.  Put in a caption like “Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson feeling the heat in Texas. Rays down 2-0″ and then ask for your fans’ input.

From that photo alone, you’d think Hellickson had just served up a grand slam.  I don’t even want to get into what hundreds of people had say about the post and I haven’t looked at it today to see how many hundreds more climbed on the Caption THIS bandwagon.

Hellickson was not perfect (duh, he gave up two runs) but let’s not completely pin the loss on his shoulders. Only BJ Upton, Sean Rodriguez and pinch-hitter Sam Fuld showed signs of life at the plate.

The other night my dad and I were talking Rays baseball and what do you know, the lack of offense came up.  Dad was a pitcher through college and can empathize with the Rays rotation.  When you can’t count on your team for a few runs each night, it makes stepping on the mound a more daunting task than usual.

Feeling like you need to be perfect wears on you after a while, whether you’re a baseball player, a student, or in the working world.

Yes, Hellboy struggle.  He lasted six innings, gave up six hits and two earned runs with four walks and four strikeouts.  Over the course of the night, he threw 112 pitches, 69 were strikes.

James Shields, who has 10 complete games under his belt this season, will look to turn things around for his team, and himself, when he’s on the bump tonight.  Shields is 1-2 with a 5.14 ERA at Arlington.

I hope that you were in a post-barbecue food coma last night. If that was the case, you were able to avoid some of the pain the Rangers unleashed on Rays fans during their 11-5 win.

Wade Davis dropped to 4-5 on the year after giving up seven earned runs in two and two-thirds innings. Ouch.

And for once, Sean Rodriguez’s sad eyes fit the situation perfectly. S-Rod committed three errors and single-handedly stopped the Rays’ MLB record streak of consecutive games to start a season without multiple errors in a game at 52.

The Rays will look for redemption in the Trop tonight. C.J. Wilson will start for Texas. Whenever I hear Wilson’s name, or see one of his many tweets, I get a painful flashback of Game 2 of the 2010 ALDS when he shutout the Rays over 6 and 1/3 innings. We can all relive that nightmare, courtesy of MLB.com.

Tampa Bay will send some fresh meat, in the form of right-hander Alex Cobb, to the mound. Reliever Brandon Gomes was optioned to Triple-A Durham last night following to 2 and 1/3 innings of work so Cobb could be called up.

Want a little good news? It doesn’t look like Casey Kotchman’s ankle sprain will land him on the DL and Rays Index hasn’t forgotten that there are more than two teams in the race for the top spot in the AL East.