Of Tigers and trades...

The winningest team in baseball came to town last night and the Rays, playing two men short, made them look very ordinary.  It was very enjoyable.

Casey Fossum followed his worst outing of the year with probably his best.  He went 7 innings, allowed just 1 run on 6 hits, and struck out 10.  He had a brilliant slider going, and the Detroit hitters just couldn't cope with it.

And he got all the run support he needed in the form of 2-run home runs from Damon Hollins and Travis Lee.  Hollins went 3-4, scoring and plating a pair, and Rocco Baldelli, leading off in the wake of Lugo's departure, went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored.  The Rays were also helped by 4 errors by the Tigers, three of which were charged to first baseman Dmitri Young.  And in fact, Carlos Guillen will feel slightly hard done by that the fourth was charged to him and not to Young as well.  Rays won 7-3.

The face of the Rays has changed dramatically in the last couple of weeks, culminating with Julio Lugo leaving on deadline day yesterday.  Called up yesterday, to fill the gaps were:  JP Howell, to take Kaz's spot in the rotation; BJ Upton, to take over from Wiggy at third; and Ben Zobrist.  Zobrist was acquired from the Astros in the Huff deal, and, at 25, will be making his Major League debut, and playing at shortstop.  I think its safe to say that the next few weeks will be very interesting to watch (for Rays fans at least!), and there are certainly a lot of questions to be answered about how ready the team, and its young players, are to step up to the next level.