A lot has happened in the Rays world since my last post.
Injuries – Two of my favorite outfielders had set backs. Just when BJ was finally getting started on his comeback, he got hit by a pitch. Infuriating. He should have charged the mound, but he shouldn’t really be throwing punches in his current state. Maybe he could have kicked him.
Then Perez got the news that his wrist is more damaged than they thought. He’ll be out for while. Yes, I’m making my pouty face.
At least Matt Joyce is on the comeback trail and Carl Crawford is looking good.
WBC – The game last night featured some Rays action. Aki hit a big triple. JP Howell pitched a scoreless inning, getting Aki to fly out. Longo even got an at bat. Plus watching the game made me really appreciate Joe Maddon. I rarely yell at the TV when Maddon’s managing. Last night my neighbors were probably wondering who pissed me off.
In person – Last Friday I caught up with the Rays live, when they played the BlueJays. It was a beautiful day and the Rays brought a pretty good line-up. The most exciting part by far was I got to see Mr. Garza pitch. For some reason last season I was on the Edwin Jackson rotation, so I was very glad to see someone else.
Garza looked very relaxed as he got his work in. He wasn’t stellar, but he never let anything get out of hand.
Jason Bartlett looked great. He started the game 0-2, but battled back to draw the walk. He also looks bigger up close.
Carl Crawford hit a homerun his first time up, and he looked downright speedy when he was in the game. Navi also looked speedy, and Mr. Pena looked very handsome solid. A BlueJays fan in front of me was bummed when he got out, she was hoping he would make it to third so she could look at him for a while. My kind of fan.
Gabe 2.0 (Kapler) made a great catch in center. Morgan Ensberg hit better, but he’s no Longo, especially in the field. Ray Sadler played right field and he was super nice. He came over and signed a bunch of balls for a bunch of kids who had no idea who he was. Elliot Johnson was super cute. Can we keep him?
Everything was moving along just fine. I’m not sure if Garza got to a certain pitch count or if Maddon just thought he was done, but they decided to bring in Niemann to get the final out of the inning.
That’s when the sucking started. He sucked at pitching, and I sucked down the beers. Ya gotta love spring training! Go Rays!
