Cliff of despair

Unh.

Lefty Cliff Lee pitched the Texas Rangers past the Tampa Bay Rays last night, allowing just one run in a 5-1 victory.

The Rays performance in the playoffs encapsulated their season in some ways.  The team played well in spurts and the offense underperformed.  In the fifth game the Rays made defensive mistakes that were rare during the regular season.  And of course the big difference was the Rays experienced regular season success to the tune of the AL East title and the best record in the AL while playing in baseball's toughest division.

All in all it was a disappointing end to the season, but not the type of end that should surprise Rays fans who often had to watch the offense sputter.

Of course a substantial amount of credit for the Rays' troubles goes to the Texas Rangers, who played with alacrity and enthusiasm.  Plus they had ace-for-hire Cliff Lee, who deserves the MVP award for the series in light of his two wins in two games with only two runs allowed.

Best of luck to the Rangers.  May they disappoint the World Series hopes of the well-hated New York Yankees.

***

Next year:  The Rays will again play in baseball's toughest division.  The Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays are both on the upswing.  The Red Sox figure to have a better year with fewer injuries, and the Yankees have the dough to finish the season with a good team no matter what they start out with.  And they'll start out with a good team.  The Rays could experience a slight drop-off and fail to make the postseason.  That's probably what will happen as the team will say adios to Carl Crawford and a handful of other key players perhaps including pitchers James Shields and Matt Garza, 1B Carlos Pena, SS Jason Bartlett and closer Rafael Soriano. 

The team will continue to compete for a playoff spot if it fills almost every hole with a comparable replacement.  Only time will tell.  Desmond Jennings has a huge upside and may be able to replace Carl Crawford adequately.  Reid Brignac plays shortstop well but needs to learn to handle the high fastball.  Dan Johnson may be the solution at first base, though Pena's defensive skills will certainly be missed.

Hopefully J. P. Howell will make a successful return from injury.

Photo finish for the AL East?

The winner of the American League East division will not be decided until Sunday--last day of the season unless a rainout requires an extra day of regular season baseball.

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays have spent most of the season battling each other for first place as well as the best record in baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies put on a mad dash at the end to earn the best record, but home field advantage in the AL playoffs remains in play.

Though the Rays have played poorly overall in playing series against the AL's three last-place teams, the Yankees have failed to seize the opportunity--in large part because of six games against the Boston Red Sox.

About the Red Sox: I hate them almost as much as the Yankees. But credit where it's due. That team has played its way to a pretty good season despite a slew of injuries that caused many top Red Sox players to miss a ton of games. And the Red Sox have played the Yankees tough.

If the Rays beat the Royals in the last regular season game, they claim the AL East crown If the Rays lose and the Yankees win, then the Yanks get to burden their stadium with yet another division championship banner. If both teams win or both teams lose, the Rays get the title by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

What a season.


***

A little more about the playoffs: The Rays, Yankees and Twins have played mediocre ball in September and early October. The Texas Rangers are playing pretty well, but OF Josh Hamilton--their best hitter--is struggling with some broken ribs.

Still, this is a tough league to handicap. The Rays have received inconsistent pitching from the starting rotation--it's anybody's guess whom skipper Joe Maddon will use as starters after David Price (I'm guessing Matt Garza, Jeff Nieman then Wade Davis). The Rays need the starting staff to come through in order to advance, and it will be much easier if somebody in the batting order gets hot. Preferably two or more.

Unfortunately, there's not much reason to expect better offense from the Rays in the playoffs. Batting averages have been pretty much pedestrian all season for the Rays except for Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. I have to give Texas the edge to advance to the AL Championship series if the Rangers face the Rays.

The Twins have an excellent team with a foundation of solid pitching and great defense. The Twins will miss Justin Morneau in the first round of the playoffs because of injury, and they have a miserable history against the Yankees. I'd favor the Yankees if that matchup occurs.

I hope I'm wrong on both counts, and perhaps those pairings won't occur depending on how the regular season pans out.

Rays sweep Yanks in NY (Updated)

It's been a very long time since I posted about the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays.  My last post on the topic was the Rays' fourth loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

I had expected a better season in 2009 based on the seasoning of the Rays top three starting pitchers.  That didn't pan out for a variety of reasons, and since it's no longer 2009 and that topic has already received ample discussion, it's on to 2010.

The loss of J. P. Howell had me very concerned headed into the season.  The bullpen was a pretty big question mark.  On the other hand, the five starting pitchers had all shown some good indications of promise.  And the team in the field seemed stronger at the plate with the addition of Sean Rodriguez, though second baseman Akinori Iwamura's defensive skills would be missed.  I thought the Rays would be better than in 2009 but with no guarantee of reaching the postseason because the Yankees and the Red Sox have noticed the competition and tried to take steps to stay at the top of the division.

Thursday night, the Rays beat the Yankees to sweep a two game series in the Bronx.  The win increased the Rays' lead over the second place Yankees to five games.  No other team in the Major Leagues has a lead that size, and the Yankees would have the best record in baseball (actually second to the Philadelphia Phillies, after review) if the Rays were suddenly plucked from the league.

That means that the baseball team from Tampa Bay is playing extremely well.

The formula is the same one that led to success in 2008:  Solid pitching, great defense and persistence at the plate.

Through this point of the season, each of the five starters has performed extremely well, with righty Matt Garza (5-1, 2.38) and lefty David Price (6-1, 1.81) putting up the kind of numbers that might lead to All-Star selection.

Though the team batting average sits at an unspectacular .257, the Rays stand close to the league lead in runs scored.  The Rays have improved situational hitting under new hitting coach Derek Shelton and taken an aggressive approach to base running.

The result:  winning baseball and perhaps the most entertaining team in the Majors.

Fun stuff.


May 21, 2010:  Amended the shrunken status I saddled on the Phlllies

Yankees take two from the Rays

I guess you can call it a "sweep."

But it sounds like hyperbole when applied to a two-game series.

Yes, the hated Yankees defeated the Rays in both games up in New York, with the Rays scoring only one run. Obviously scoring only one run in two games bodes ill for one's fortunes in that series. Give the Yanks credit.

As for the greater meaning of the series ... the Rays still have to show that they can go on the road and whip the chief competition in the division. The losing streak in New York and Boston combined is pretty ugly right now. I'd like to keep pointing out that the Rays' offense is likely to do better, but the season is half over. Tampa Bay had appeared to start hitting better with its series against Kansas City and I dared to hope that it would signal a trend. If it was a trend then the 2008 Yankees would not have snuffed it out like they did.

I'll tab Edwin Jackson as the Rays MVP for the series, noting the slim pickings. Jackson pitched a nice game (one earned run in 6.1 innings) but the Rays lost in extras.

Rays take 3 of 4 from Yanks, win series

The Tampa Bay Devil* Rays beat the (hated) New York Yankees at Tropicana Field on Thursday, dropping the Bronx Bombers into the AL East cellar and taking a one game lead on the second-place Boston Red Sox.

Yes, it's still early in the season.

The Rays' offense continued to produce somewhat below last year's team, which drew the benefit of rookie Delmon Young's consistent contributions at the plate. Akinori Iwamura's leadoff home run and Shawn Riggans' two-run shot in the fourth inning paced Tampa Bay.

Southpaw pitcher Scott Kazmir pitched six shutout innings to celebrate signing a long-term deal with the team.

I attended this game. Though Bostonfan has developed a reputation for out-irritating Yankeefan, we had a real winner in our section. Some guy with a girl voice provided biased play-by-play action through about the fifth inning, when a Rays fan in front of him told him off.

Here's some typical commentary.

On the Iwamura home run: "That was almost a foul ball."
For about half of the at-bats: "Ball two."
After the first inning, with the Yanks down by one: "It's still early."
After the third inning, with the Yanks down by two: "It's still early."
After the fourth inning, with the Yanks down by four: "It's still early."

At some point between the fourth inning and the eighth inning the guy left. Apparently it wasn't still early by that time.

*****

On a fun note, a promotion a few years ago started the practice of cheering the Rays using cowbells.

Occasionally the scoreboard calls for "More Cowbell!"

The connection is obvious to some:



I need more cowbell!

Is the strike zone different for the Yankees?

I was too busy to blog about the Rays extra-innings win over the much-hated New York Yankees last night.

I watched just a little bit of the game tonight. It seemed like Rays pitcher J. P. Howell wasn't getting much benefit of the doubt on the ball and strike calls. I decided to use MLB GameDay for the semi-forbidden purpose of graphically verifying my impression. Here's the at-bat of Doug Mientkiewicz in the key fifth inning (Mientkiewicz led off with a weak single and later scored the third run of the game, starting off a big inning for the Yankees):



I noted a number of weeks ago that MLB removed the strike zone from the graphic, but it's very easy to see that pitches 1 and 3 were well within the strike zone.

I've heard it mentioned that Yankees hitters get favorable treatment at the plate; the team exhibits terrific patience while at bat and one wonders whether that patience causes the supposed favorable treatment or vice-versa.

This at-bat provides a small piece of evidence supporting a tiny strike zone for Yankees hitters. Allow me to admit that I have no idea whether or not Yankees starter Paul Wang had his pitches called the same way. I'm willing to forgive inconsistency from umpire to umpire if each ump calls it about the same for both teams.


*****

Rays take 2-1 series win over Yankees with 8-2 victory

I figured Edwin Jackson would have trouble shutting down New York's offense in the second game of the series. I haven't seen enough of Jason Hammel to make any kind of solid prediction, but Hammel had struggled recently. The righty surprised me--and probably the Yankees--by turning in a solid pitching performance, besting Andy Pettitte to pick up his first major-league victory as a starter.

Carlos Pena hit three homers for the Rays during the series. He now ranks second in the American League with 34, trailing Alex Rodriguez's impressive 45 dingers.

It certainly didn't matter with respect to the final outcome, but Johnny Damon's at-bat in the ninth inning gave me some pause.
Let me state up front that I have no idea how close the MLB "Gameday" graphic comes to representing the actual position of a ball relative to the strike zone. I figure they probably have some "umpire" poking a screen with a pointer or something like that to register the position of balls and strikes. That said, pitch no. 2 is as close to the middle of the plate as I've seen for a pitch called as a ball.

I dig the "Gameday" feature. It's a fast way to get caught up on a game when you're in the midst of doing other things. Not all the ballparks are equipped to simulate the path of the ball from the pitcher to the catcher. That's one of the nice things about the Rays visiting Yankee Stadium.

Anyway, the Rays beat the Yanks convincingly in two of three games, scoring 9, 6 and 8 runs in the three games. The big difference for the Rays since the pounding from the Yankees the last time the teams hooked up for a series was the Rays' bullpen upgrade. The team has shipped off a host of relievers with hideously swollen ERAs. The replacements have been solid, if unspectacular, and "solid" represents a spectacular improvement.

Rays tame Yankees, 9-1

Andy Sonnanstine pitched a 2-hit gem over eight innings, and Carlos Pena clocked two home runs to pace the Rays' 12-hit attack.

Every win against the Yankees is sweet, so much so that I'll tempt fate by posting about the first victory in the series despite what happened last time I did so.

Looking at the pitching matchups, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Yanks take two of three. Edwin Jackson has been pretty strong for the Rays in the second half, but I think he'll need his best stuff to keep New York's batting lineup in check. Hopefully the Rays' offense can punish the rookie pitcher the Yankees will send to the mound against Jackson.

The third game features Jason Hammel against Andy Pettite. Hammel has struggled starting in the majors after putting up good numbers in AAA ball. Pettite isn't what he used to be, but he was very effective the last time he pitched against Tampa Bay.
*****

In a grumble over ESPN coverage of the game, the sports ticker included no highlights other than the box score. One would think that Carlos Pena reaching 33 home runs while going 2 for 2 with three walks would merit mention. I'm pretty sure that every other major league game specifically highlighted the numbers of either a pitcher or a hitter. I guess they could have highlighted Alex Rodriguez's 125th RBI, too.

Yanks wreak revenge, take last 3 of 4-game series

Ack! Just when I was in gloat mode over the Rays' fine 14-4 walloping of the Yanks in the series opener, the Yankees stormed back to take three straight in dominating fashion, 7-3, 17-5, and (ouch!) 21-4.

I was going to write something about how starting out with a 10-run win made it seem like one of those series where you might want to use some of those runs in one of the other games, but when you lose games by 12 and 17 runs, 10 runs isn't much good. Probably the Yankees are wishing they could apply a few of those 21 to the first game.

The Rays were out of the three games primarily because of pitching. Tampa Bay had more hits than New York in the second game, but a bad inning by reliever Jae Kuk Ryu (1.2 innings, 4 hits, 5 earned runs) gave the Yankees the win when combined with missed offensive opportunities (24 runners left on base compared to 12 for New York).

In the final two games, the Yankees' offense was just too much for the Rays' pitching. Starter J. P. Howell improved modestly on his previous start--a first-inning exit against Boston--as he allowed 7 runs on 10 hits in just 4 innings of work. Building confidence with that type of improvement can be a drawn-out process.

In the finale, Rays' ace James Shields came out flat. When Shields is on, he throws first-pitch strikes. Shields walked the first batter and was never able to regroup.

A tip of the hat to the hated Yankees. Raspberry to follow.

Rays drub Yankees 14-4

How sweet it is (I can't stand the Yankees).

The Rays redeemed themselves after being shut out by the Angels yesterday. Dioner Navarro added a bright spot to his dismal season by clubbing a grand slam in the 5th inning.

B. J. Upton went 3-for-5 with two homers and a double, to go with 3 RBIs.

Brendan Harris had 2 RBIs while going 2-for-4.

Edwin Jackson notched just his second victory of the season by pitching six shutout innings.

The Rays displayed some lackluster defensive play late in the game. Delmon Young had trouble going back on a fly ball out to the right field wall. Young turned his back on the ball and waved his glove at the ball--and missed. In the ninth inning, Hideki Matsui reached second base when his high pop near the line in shallow right field was allowed to drop. Second-baseman Josh Wilson was charged with an error on the play. There were other defensive miscues, but they were of minor variety.

Rays Sweep Yankees

That's the beauty of a two-game series.

It's odd how well the Rays seem to match up with New York. The Rays won the season series in 2005 from the Yankees and managed to steal a few from New York last year despite some injuries the Rays could ill afford (lost slugger Jonny Gomes to a shoulder injury after a torrid start, and second-tier slugging infielder Ty Wigginton for a number of games late in the season).

On the downside, the Rays lost third baseman Iwanura to a strained oblique.

I thought his at-bat against Mariano Rivera looked suspiciously pathetic (swing & miss x3). Turns out there was a reason for it.

Rays top Yankees, 10-8

Alex Rodriquez clubbed a couple of homers, but the Rays downed the Yankees at Tropicana Field.
A win over the Yankees is always sweet. It was nice seeing the shots of Yankee fans at the Trop looking on with two out in the ninth and two strikes on their final hope.
Al Reyes struck out Melky Cabrera with a fastball up and in (over the plate, though, by my reckoning) to record the final out. Not that it had to be over the plate. Cabrera swung and missed.

Rays tie Yankees in NL East race

It's not quite fair that I'm writing about baseball again after completely ignoring the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially since the Lightning are making a nice push for the Southern Division crown, nipping at the heels of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Unfortunately, I fear the Lightning aren't going far in the playoffs. Holmquist and Denis just haven't played well enough to produce high playoff expectations. I don't count the Lightning out, since a goaltender can hit a hot streak, but playoff wins usually go to teams with good goaltending.

It helps even things out that I'm leading off with hockey in a baseball post, I hope.

I can't stand the Yankees!
Just to get that out of the way.

The Rays beat the Yankees amid snow flurries in New York. The Rays' pitching was shaky, but New York's pitching wasn't much better plus the Bronx Bombers made oodles of mistakes in the field, including a couple of pitches that got away toward the backstop, allowing TB runners to score runs.
Nearly every loss by the Yankees is satisfying, and it's that much better when the loss comes to the hometown team, which isn't very good.

I don't want to knock the Rays too much, though. The pitching almost certainly isn't good enough as it stands to support a .500 season, but the team around the mound is pretty decent.
Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young might be head cases, but they sure are talented athletes. Dukes scorched a flat liner tonight that probably didn't get 25 feet over the field of play at its apex before leaving the park for a home run. It may have been lower than that. It was one of the flattest homers I've ever seen.
Go Rays. Boo Yankees.