HER RAYS!

I couldn’t make it home until about 9pm tonight and I didn’t have it in me to rewind the game to the beginning.  I had a vague idea of what was going on because every where you go in Florida there are Yankees fans.  So I’d heard about multiple homeruns, yada yada.  Why do I want to go back and put myself through that.

Sounds like Sonny had a night to forget right from the beginning.  He must not have been breathing through the right eyelid or something.  Damon and Rodriguez each hit one out in the first inning.  Then in the second Morgan Ensberg sends one to the seats in left.  Morgan Ensberg!  He looks like a tax accountant not a baseball player, and I’m pretty sure he should be an easy out.  After four more runs in the fourth Sonny’s done.

So I sit down to 7-2 Yankees, just in time to see BJ get thrown out at third.  I’m not entirely sure he was out, but he’s got some seriously bad base running karma going on right now.  Maybe he should play it a little safer for a while.

Cut to the bottom of the seventh where things get real interesting.  Aki flies out.  Carl Crawford 2 run shot!  Pena hit by pitch. (possibly on the end of the bat?), BJ Upton 2 run shot!  Longoria hits his first homerun, to tie it up!  Cool! 7-7  Hinske grounds out and Riggy strikes out to end the party.

Top of the 8th, things are rolling along.  Reyes gets the first two outs, then Robinson Cano comes in to pinch hit and totally rains on our hit parade, homering to right.  Dag-nab-it.  I had a feeling that might be the end and that was before they brought in Rivera. 

I guess this is what you call a positive loss.  Yankees 8 – Rays 7.  Some would argue that a loss is a loss but the Rays showed some spark tonight.  Doh!mann was impressive and kept the game from getting really ugly by fending the Yanks off for 3.2 innings.  Reyes took another loss, but Glover did a great job getting A-Rod out in the clutch.  The offense got going.  Carl Crawford cranked it up for 3 RBI.  BJ, Longoria and Hinkse hit well too.  It would be great to see more of that.

One negative thought – This batting order gives me the heeby geebies: Riggans, Haynes, Bartlett, and Aki.

C’mon EdWIN, get them back to .500!

Well I wasn’t able to watch the game live today, so I knew the outcome before I sat down to watch it tonight.  The bad news is the Rays lost, the good news is I don’t have to subject my three readers to any more terrible poems!  Also it’s way better to fast forward a game that Chien-Ming Wang is pitching.

It was a pitchers game.  Wang was really on today and the Rays were barely able to get anything going against him.  Shields pitched well too.  He got out of most of the jams he was in, but couldn’t stop Matsui’s hot bat.  The relief pitchers for both teams were superb.

BJ Upton had a couple of great plays in center.  One of my favorite things to watch in baseball is when an outfielder guns out a runner, and BJ threw a missile to third today to get Betemit.

The Rays started to get something going in the 5th when Riggans hit a double play ball and Robinson Cano tried to hot dog it with one hand but completely missed it.  So the Rays have men on first and third, at which point there is a total miscommunication on a squeeze play and Aybar gets tagged out on his way home.  A major lost opportunity.

They also had a chance against Joba Chamberlin in the 7th.  Wang gave up singles to Floyd and Hinske, so there were men on the corners.  Riggans hit a hard line drive, but it was right to Cano at second and Hinske got doubled up at first.  Big fat bummer.  The Rays lose 0-2.

Let’s hope tomorrow they can light up Mussina and take the series.