Rays Open 3-Game Set In Fenway
THE GOOD:
THE BAD:
THE TELLING: Even if the Rays lose 2 of 3 in this series, the Rays would still be in first place in the AL East...David Ortiz went on the DL and will miss this series, and will be out at least a month, meaning he will miss the next Rays-Red Sox series at the end of this month. There are even rumblings that Big Papi's injury could be season-ending.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...
- Don't forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven't voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
- Is our push to get Carl Crawford voted to the All-Star team working? CC moved up a spot to #12 on the list. Remember he only need finish in the top 3. [Rays Report]
- Looks like this week's Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo will be Thursday night. There is a small chance we will have to move it to Wednesday night. We will make another announcement later on to confirm the day.
- Scott Kazmir was named AL Pitcher of the Month. [Yahoo! Sports]
- just to show how Sox fans are not taking this series seriously, the opening line of this Boston Globe piece: "For now, it ranks more as novelty than high drama, this notion of the Red Sox playing a showdown series in June against the Tampa Bay Rays". [Boston Globe]
- One blog nominates first base coach George Hendrick for "Most Interesting Man in the World". They even found a picture of him, which is apparently not an easy thing to do. [The Place To Be]
- Jim Caple of ESPN.com has had enough of "Red Sox Nation" and set out to figure out exactly when the Bandwagon started filling up. It is refreshing to know that the Trop isn't the only park where the home team's fans are outnumbered by the green and pink hat wearing newbies. [ESPN]
- Baseball Prospectus does a Q&A with Andy Sonnanstine. It is hidden behind their password wall if you don't have an account. It is an interesting read in that Sonnanstine still considers himself a pitcher that throws from different arm angles even though we showed you a while back that he is not doing that this year. [Baseball Prospectus]
Labels: Andy Sonnanstine, Carl Crawford, David Ortiz, George Hendrick, Scott Kazmir
posted by The Professor at 9:59 AM
10 Comments:
I think there's something wrong, I believe you mean that David Ortiz hit the DL, not David Price
thanks jake...guess i got King David on the mind.
Rays gotta have this game tonight against Masterson. It would set the tone for the whole road trip.
I live in Boston and am going to the game tonight (curse my lack of Rayshead gear!). I'll chime in tomorrow with a fans-eye view of how seriously the people in the seats are taking the game. All the previous Rays games I've gone to at Fenway, the fan attitude ranged from "don't care" to kicking while they're down - that was the last game I went to at Fenway two years ago when Youkilis homered off Doug Waechter on the first pitch and it went downhill from there.
I think if Garza is the Garza we saw the last two times, this game can be had. I also think that Shields can take game 3 against Lester. Honestly, I'll take 1 out of 3 and walking out in first place, but 2 out of 3 would be huge.
It really doesn't matter if the Bo-Sox or their obnoxious fans take the Rays seriously right now- soon enough they won't have a choice!
Realistically though, if you were a Sox fan would take the Rays seriously after a decade of cellar-dwelling?
If I'm a Bosox fan, I'm going into this game a little nervous about Dice-K and Ortiz on the DL, but still confident that the Rays will fade. If Garza shines tonight and the Rays win, I feel like that inkling of worry increases exponentially as the Sox are all of a sudden 2.5 back and the Boston media starts printing "Sox are in a dogfight" articles.
Prof --
The Orioles beat the Red Sox last night. So that means that all three AL east teams in action did not lose.
The Orioles are still in the East? damn. my bad.
The Orioles are still in the East? damn. my bad.
I'm not really sure that Boston Globe article was stating anything about not believing the Rays were indeed a good team, I think it was more of the writer being in disbelief that they actually ARE quite good. On another note, taking 1 of 3 and a few close games should be more than enough convincing considering how ridiculous Boston has been at home this year.
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