Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Hangover: Shawn Camp Found His Inner Nolan Ryan And His Inner Shawn Camp

White Sox 5, Devil Rays 4.
Surprise: The top four hitters in the Rays lineup went a combined 0-12, so it was not a surprise the Rays couldn't score past the 4th inning.

Not a surprise: A member of the middle relief struggle mightily. Casey Fossum faced 4 batters and allowed 3 hits and 2 runs blowing the Rays 3-2 lead.

Hell Apparently Froze Over Then Again It Didn't: Shawn Camp gave up a base hit to the first batter he faced. But something happened after that base hit. Camp faced 9 more hitters and struck out 7 of them. s-e-v-e-CAPITAL N...after the game, we imagine Bud Selig showing up and immediately administering a urine test...Entering last night's game, Camp only had 17 strike outs in 26.1 innings.
Of course Camp gave up the base hit that allowed the go-ahead run to score. No surprise there. Camp's ability with inherited runners is well-documented. It might have been the single most dominating performance of Shawn Camp's career and yet he still managed to let an inherited runner score to give up a Rays lead. The bitter irony.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...
  • Tim of Journeys of Jack Tripper has written and recorded a song titled "Elijah Dukes is My Daddy". Our favorite line? "I've got 1,034 siblings, that's 2,068 shoes"...If you've got a couple of minutes, it is highly recommended and you can hear the song HERE.
  • BJ Upton is likely to play for Vero Beach on a rehab assignment on Wednesday or Thursday and could possibly rejoin the Rays this weekend in Cleveland. Upton will initially play second base. Fans sitting behind the first base dugout have been warned.
  • James Shields is on pace to be only the third Rays pitcher to throw 200 innings. Normally that would be cause for concern for a young pitcher's arm. But Shield pitched over 180 innings combined last season between AAA and the Rays and 200 won't be the huge jump that is usually followed by a drop-off in performance the following season.
  • Speaking of innings. We can't say this stat surprises us...Scott Kazmir leads the AL in pitches thrown (1,734) and pitches per inning (18.1). As a result, the team is monitoring Kid K very closely to make sure he does not struggle or add any undue strain to his arm.
  • You may not agree with all of Andrew Friedman's moves, but it is hard to argue with the idea that the Rays may have made the three of the most valuable free agent signings this past off-season in the form of Carlos Pena, Al Reyes and Akinori Iwamura. He also pulled off a trade that netted the Rays a shortstop with all-star numbers (Brendan Harris) without giving up much in return.
  • The Rays offense has been very strong this season. Amazing considering that the Rays have two members of the "All Lost Potential Team."
  • The Rays are hanging on to their second-page status in the latest SI.com Power Rankings.
  • Happy Birthday wishes for Elijah Dukes. Lets hope his celebration is muted.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link!

4:57 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home