Results tagged ‘ Yankees ’
The future arrives…but the present is disappointing
First the good.
David Price.
Major league debut, your team’s last ever game at Yankee Stadium, in the middle of a pennant race. Nervous?
Price certainly didn’t look it as he came out of the ‘pen to start the third inning against the Yankees. He retired the first big league hitter he saw, Xavier Nady, with his first pitch, and retired the next five straight…
I like the Price…let’s play two!
Rainout last night. Day/night doubleheader today, with the first game starting in about an hour and a half. James Shields will be pitching game one, and Matt Garza in the nightcap. Thats a pretty good 1-2 punch right there.
But, if that is good, then what about the trio of arms that the Rays added to the bullpen last night.
Joining the team on Monday will be Mitch Talbot and Jeff Niemann. Not bad. I think there are many teams who would be happy enough to have that pair of arms in their ‘pen.
But, and no disrepect at all as they are quality pitchers both, their recall is hugely outshadowed by the guy who has joined up with the teams ahead of today’s contests in The Bronx.
He is here.
David Price has arrived.
He’ll be available from the ‘pen today, and with the doubleheader I would not be surprised to see him make his Major League debut. Exciting.
Also rejoining the Rays in New York is Jonny Gomes, and he’s gone right into the lineup for game one against Mike Mussina. You know how big a fan of Jonny I am, and I would like nothing better than to see him play a big role for the team down the stretch.
Oh yeah, and theres the small matter of Evan Longoria being back in the lineup.
With a Rays-Yankees doubleheader and a Boston-Toronto twin bill, today is going to be a big day. I could not be more excited.
Joe Maddon’s lineup for the opener (according to the St Pete Times) is stacked with righties to face Mussina – Bartlett (SS), Zobrist (2B), Pena (1B), Baldelli (DH), Longo (3B), Gomes (LF), Perez (CF), Hernandez (C) and Ruggiano (RF).
Ugh.
What a miserable sporting weekend.
Six major events/sports that I followed, and a positive outcome in two of them. Andy Murray beat Rafael Nadal to make the US Open final, and the Alabama Crimson Tide beat Tulane, despite a pretty unimpressive display.
But the Seattle Seahawks opened with a miserable loss to Buffalo. Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian F1 Grand Prix, only to be demoted to third because of a steward’s decision that can only be described as abysmal. And while the English football team did record a win in their opening World Cup 2010 qualifier, they managed just a 2-0 margin against Andorra, a country with a population (about 70,000) that is barely two-thirds as big as Basingstoke. Impressed I was not.
And then there were the Rays.
Ouch…
Getting used to the view
So it wasn’t quite a sweep of the Yankees this week, but despite losing on Wednesday, last night’s win makes it three straight days that the Rays have been looking down on the rest of the AL East. And you know what, I like the view.
So, it might not last. Who cares when you’re playing such good baseball. And I’ll tell you something for nothing…
Best. News. Ever. Plus, Net lag: Of Perci and E-Jax
The first thing I do every morning when I get in to work is, as I’m sure is the case with most people, check my e-mails. And then delete most of them. Including the one from the Rays saying ‘Postgame alert for the Tampa Bay Rays’. I mean, I don’t want to know what happened in last nights game until I watch it!
But this morning there was a second e-mail from the Rays. And its subject made me very happy indeed…
The hammer, two slams, and the win that started it all
Nothing to say on last night’s series opener at Disney because, well, I haven’t seen it yet. I’m planning to watch it after work this evening, so don’t tell me what happened in the meantime. It has to be said that the best part of following baseball from over here is that it is really easy to avoid seeing the scores when you want to! Though I do have to be careful when opening my own blog, thanks to the Rays news widget on the sidebar…
Anyway, in lieu of that, and thanks to my iGoogle ‘Today in history’, I thought I’d jot down a little on this day in baseball history…
Series split, now back to the Trop
This entry can also be read at RAP’s new home, HERE
For the first time this year, I didn’t watch the Rays last night (snapping an impressive 5-game watching streak, which may well turn out to be my longest of the year!). I had intended to watch some at work today, but the computers here disagree with Windows Media Player, so I shall just have to catch the highlights when I get home.
Not that there were that many highlights to be honest. Three hits, one of which was a Jonny Gomes homer. And that was it. Jason Hammel looks like he did ok, but unless he can really break out soon, I’ve got to believe that he will be departing the Rays (either to the minors or elsewhere via waivers) when Kaz is ready to return.
So a 2-2 split of the series at Yankee Stadium, and a 3-3 road trip to open the year. Not bad, but I think that the players are a bit disappointed not to be returning home with a winning record. Which is a very encouraging sign indeed.
Bad news, which considering my entry yesterday will come as no surprise, is that Cliff Floyd was a late scratch from yesterday’s game with a sore knee. No word yet on how serious, but hopefully it isn’t too bad. Elsewhere, Ben Zobrist has also had a setback in his return from a broken thumb, and it will likely be at least another 3 weeks before he is ready to rejoin the team.
Today’s home opener will see Matt Garza go up against Eric Bedard and the Seattle Mariners. Ordinarily I would be very positive going into this game, but looking at the numbers that some of our players have put up against Bedard in the past, and well… Lets just say that I’m holding out hope that sometimes stats don’t mean anything!
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