HER RAYS!

Bizarre is how I’d classify game 1 in Boston.  The boys were wearing number 42 and it was 42 degrees and dropping that night.  Wade Davis was not sharp.  He got into way too many full counts and used way too many pitches, but who flippin cares.  He’ll work on those things later.  He’s the number five starter and he went to Boston and held them to one run.  I’m a simple girl and that makes me happy.

The baseball gods seemed to be on the Rays side.  Carl Crawford hits a ball to short.  Scutaro couldn’t make the play.  Then CC steals second.  Then Zobrist hits a chopper to third which Beltre loses in the lights?  Carl scores.  I can’t believe Josh Beckett’s head didn’t explode.  This is the run that held them through.  Weird.

So I hear that Varitek can’t catch up to a good fastball anymore, and the Rays were told to in no way throw him an off-speed pitch.  However he homered on an off-speed pitch.  Who’s grounded?

Big Papi finally hits a double and Youkilis forgets that he’s not wicked fast and tries to score from first.  You’re out dude!

Choate came in for his confidence booster and received a lolly pop for being a good boy.

Lance Cormier deserves a medal for his performance in this game.  Especially for getting two ground balls after some mishaps loaded the bases.  Kudos to Longo for making it up to him and getting the final two outs.  How many of you thought the Rays would get out of that jam?  How many thought Pat Burrell would be the one to bring it home?  Yeah not many.

It is pretty cool when the DH hits.  Keep it up Pat.

On to game two.  Disclaimer – I was flipping between this and the Mets/Cardinals while also keeping up on the no hitter.  That’s a whole lot of baseball boys.  I feel like I should watch a chick flick today.  Any recommendations.

The Rays got to Buchholz right off the bat.  Get it, off the bat.  Hee Hee.  Barty grounded out.  Crawford singled.  Benny moves him over, and then he steals third.  Speed rocks.  Longo walks.  Then Pena hits a fly ball to center.  This is where Cameron drops the ball and it’s the gift that keeps on giving.  Carl scores.  Upton walks to load the bases.  So what happens when the DH does hit?  Pat hits a double down the line and clears the bases!  4-0 good guys.  Way to go Pat, you phat.

Shields cruises with the lead.  Literally, he’s hardly taking a breath in between pitches.  In the fifth he got the first two batters out easily.  At this point I said out loud “He needs to slow down.”  That must have been my women’s intuition because right after that Scutaro hit a home run.  A single later and Hickey came out to tell James “Slow down man.”

Marco Scutaro is an excellent defensive player, so do you think that there is an E6 curse at Fenway?  BJ gets on, and is shortly at third.  Speed rocks.  Jaso doubles and brings him in.  Can we keep that Jaso kid?

Longo homers.  Love him.

Shields struggled in the 7th.  I think he was out of gas.  Sonny didn’t help.  No excuses for him.  Choate got another ground out.  Good boy.  Wheels worked a scoreless inning, and Soriano had his first 1,2,3 inning.  In short Rays win again.  Yahoo!

One final note, Sean Rodriguez looked awful at the plate and went 0-4.  Team Brignac, just sayin.  Go Rays!!

This morning on MSN.com, Fox Sports had one of the lead stories.  The hottest men in baseball.  Nice morning present right?  You would think but this particular piece only brought total confusion.

It is quite possibly the worst list I have ever seen.  If they were talking about good guys who do a lot for their charities, then it shouldn’t be called the hottest guys in MLB.  So why is this list so bad?  Because not only do they pick guys who are not hot, they miss so many obvious choices.

Think about all the hot baseball players out there.  It is freaking hard to narrow that down to a top ten.  Fox Sports got three maybe four, if we’re being generous, that would be in the top fifty.  Some speculate that the list was created by a guy.

All female fans have their favorites and tastes do differ.  I’m sure many a blogger has covered this aspect at one point or another.  I know Those Girls even have a podcast in which they pick all-star line-ups based on adorableness.  Good stuff, except for that AJ Pierzynski pick, but tastes do differ.

So let’s review the Fox Sports list.
Bronson Arroyo- not a bad guy to put on your top 50 list near the bottom, but top ten?  When he’s not in uniform he looks like a member of Nickelback, not that there’s anything wrong with that.  However he made a choice in the past that should prohibit him from being on any such list, ever.

Now that’s a bad hair day.

Jose Reyes – Many people would put him on this list.  He’s cute.  I don’t think he’s top ten material, but I get that some ladies would.

Marco Scutaro - Again he is definitely cute, and great at baseball, but top ten?  He has also been disqualified based on photographic evidence of severe creepiness.

Matt Kemp- Another good looking guy that I was surprised would make top ten.

Grady Sizemore – This one they got right.  9 out of 10 women would put him in their top ten.

Robinson Cano- What?!  Not even Yankees fans think Cano is hot.

David Wright- Extra credit.  He’s a no brainer, and even cuter in person.

Ichiro- Really?  I don’t see it.  He can fit in Frank Thomas’s pocket.  Aki is way hotter than him if they were trying to represent the Asian population.

Barry Zito – Now I know somebody is smoking something, and probably with Barry.  He doesn’t do it for this girl.

Jimmy Rollins – Another decent choice, but he has teammates that I think are hotter than he is.

In conclusion the Fox list is terrible.  Since I can’t do worse I will bring you my Hottest Men in Baseball list tomorrow.  (actually later today since it is after midnight now)  Hopefully the Rays will win and this will all just be gravy.

The curious case of the baked blogger.

So I had a tooth pulled yesterday.  Always fun.  However I got some pretty good pain pills which I popped mid-way through the game.  The Rays were cruisin along.  Jackson was on.  Shockingly Mr. Gross hit a homerun, and Pena actually made contact and hit one out too.  All was well in Rays land.  3-0 Rays.  I’d be in bed soon.

Edwin Jackson pitched 8 innings of shut out baseball.  It was a great performance.  When he left the game I was doing the drunken “I love you man” thing.  Then all hell broke loose.  Percy comes in to finish ‘em off.  Uh-huh.

Rolen hits a single to left.  No sweat, he’s been hot lately.  Percy then strikes out Stairs.  Alright two more and we’re outta here.  Or not.  Percy leaves one up and Wells hits it a long way.  2 runs score.  So now I’m having a panic attack.  Mercy Percy don’t do this to me, please get two more outs.  I can’t take two nights of bullpen suckage.  Then Overbay doubles and the panic turns to anger.  I called Percy some terrible things, some of which might be illegal.   Just as I’m starting to catch my breath, Aaron Hill singles and the run scores, tie ball game.  Right, I completely lost it, but this time I’m yelling at Maddon.  “Pull his ass.  Get out of the dugout and pull his ass.  They are hitting everything!”

Maddon didn’t pull him, and the next batter hit it, but it was a fly ball to right.  Okay two down.  Aaron Hill steals second.  The winning run is in scoring position people.  Scutaro is up.  Isn’t he the one that pissed off Garza yesterday.  Percy struck him out.  Of course I cheered for Percy, even though I had called him every name in the book a few minutes earlier.

BJ Ryan shut down the Rays in the top of the tenth.  Wheeler came in to pitch the bottom.  First batter Rios hits a triple.  A ball that Crawford might have caught but Gomes was out there instead.  I threw my hands up, it’s over, I’m totally pessimistic on these drugs.  Wheeler dug deep.  Struck out Stewart, intentionally walked Rolen, struck out stairs, unintentionally/intentionally walked Wells.  Bases loaded got Barajas swinging.  Unbelievable.

In the 11th Crawford had a single and Upton walked but Pena went down again.  Hope he pulls out of this soon.  Howell came in and shutdown the Jays.

I’m good and fuzzy at this point.  12th.  Longo singles.  Love him so.  “Noooo!” Navi hits into a double play.  You’d think I’d been shot.  I think I even made some cracks about his weight.    Gross singles.  I’m not used to typing that.  Gomes couldn’t bring him in.  Howell gets them one, two, three.

13th.  I’m fried, can’t take much more.  Camp in to pitch.  “You owe us you little….It’s redemption time”  Yep, I got all cocky and shit.  Bartlett singles.  Love him so.  Aki singles too.  Way.  Crawford hits a sac fly and Bartlett scores!  Yes!  BJ singles and Aki goes to third.  Then BJ tries the ‘ol Bad News Bears trick and gets caught in a pickle so that Aki could sneak home.  Almost worked and miraculously they were both safe.    Camp walks Pena and the bases are loaded.  Longo fouls out.  Navarro comes up with two outs.  Oh the drama.  He hits a grand slam!  Off of Camp.  So sweet.  I was jumping around the room.  I think I might’ve even peed a little bit!  Gross struck out after that but who cares.

Howell came in and scared me a little bit in the bottom of the inning, but I was starting to doze off at that point.  He got the job done and the Rays won 8-3.  Woo-Hoo!

Another series win, 2 games over .500, 2nd place in the AL East.  Good on ya boys, and good luck against those Angels now that you’ve gotten rid of the devil.  Go Rays!!

So now that I’m sober again I would like to apologize to the players I called awful names.  Yes even Shawn Camp.  Oh and to my neighbors sorry for the ruckus!