Rays On Brink Of Elimination...Again
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THE GOOD: The Rays have been here before. July 18. Rays enter second-half losers of 7 straight. A loss out of the break and the season is over. The Rays win. September 9. Rays have lost 4 in a row including series opener in Boston. Lead in the AL East is down to half-game. Experts say one more (inevitable) loss and season is over. Rays win. September 16. Rays have lost 3 in a row and lead is down to percentage points. Experts say one more (inevitable) loss and the dream run is over. Rays win. Game 7 of the ALCS. The Rays have lost 2 in a row to the Sox and one more (inevitable) loss and the Rays go home. Rays win. It is now game 5 of the World Series. One more loss and the season is over. Of course, one more win and the Rays suddenly have home-field advantage in the World Series again...This must be killing the Red Sox and their Pink Hat Nation. They had to play the Rays while the Phillies somehow get the Devil Rays.
THE BAD: We don't know this team. Nothing is working in Philly. If it is just the Phillies playing well, then we tip our cap. But if it is because the Rays are playing tight then we would like to tip our foot up their asses...Andy Sonnanstine. Whether it be the 12-day layoff or the nerves of pitching in the World Series or a combination of both, Sonnanstine was not being Sonnnanstine. Of his first 14 pitches, 10 were balls. His 3 walks matched a career-high at any level. Of course the 6 hits in 4 innings is nothing new. We have always said, when Sonny is good, he can be very good. But when he is bad, he is very hittable. For Sonnanstine, he has to be near-perfect to get by with only a mid-80s fastball. Last night he was not...Edwin Jackson. Really? The pitcher? Jackson should be ashamed and embarrassed. And if he ever pitches in a Rays uniform again it will be too soon. The pitcher? *banging head on desk*...Joe Maddon. And why is Edwin Jackson in the game at all. Shit on top of shit is just more shit...The offense. 3 of the Rays 5 hits came from the 9-spot in the lineup...Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria. 0-29 with 15 Ks. Longoria is back to guessing. In the 6th inning he swung at a first-pitch breaking ball that was 6 inches outside. Instead of looking for pitches to attack, he has made up his mind to swing at anything and hope for the best...The Defense. 10 errors in last 8 games...Phillies leadoff hitters. On base 16 times in the first 3 games and they were on 4 more times last night.
THE TELLING: Cliff Floyd was removed from the World Series roster due to an injured shoulder and replaced by Eric Hinske...Ben Zobrist, or "The Good Christian" as Mrs. Professor likes to call him, got the start in right field over Gabe Gross, "The Shitty Christian" (The "Good" and "Shitty" of course refer to how she feels about their play, not their particular religious beliefs)...According to CoolStandings.com the Rays have a 13.5% chance of winning the World Series. According to the national media it is a 0.0% chance...After hearing the "Rocky" theme 36 thousand times last night, we are burning all of our "Rocky" DVDs today. Of course, we probably should have burned "5" a while ago.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA...
- Why is "lack of experience" suddenly a problem for the Rays? It wasn't a problem when they were playing in Chicago or Boston? And exactly how many current Phillies were on the 1980 and 1993 World Series teams? [USA Today]
- Joe Maddon spoke with the home plate umpire after the second inning about what he believed was pine tar on the cap of Joe Blanton. [MLB]
- John Romano says that the behavior of Phillies fans towards Rays family members and employees has been more suitable for a prison yard than a major league baseball game, going so far as to pour beer on a 9-year old boy...Stay classy Philadelphia. [St. Pete Times]
- Phillies fans were even throwing mustard packs at Joe Maddon's granddaughter...Strange. We expect better from Phi...Never mind. [LA Times]
- You can tell from Evan Longoria's quotes that he has no idea what he is doing right now. [Boston Herald]
- Jerry Crasnick takes a closer look at the struggles of Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria. [ESPN]
- Ken Rosenthal says the Rays hitters have lost command of the strike zone. [Fox Sports]
- Joe Smith takes a look at the rare errors committed by Akinoria Iwamura. [St. Pete Times]
- Gary Shelton says that even this is a lot to overcome for the Rays. [St. Pete Times]
- Who doesn't know what "WPA" is? Duh. Clearly the reason the Rays are losing the World Series is because they suck at wireless security. [DRays Bay]
- The Hardball Times takes a look at how both managers mismanaged game 3. [The Hardball Times]
- Just in case we didn't make it clear enough how awful Edwin Jackson was last night. [Sully Baseball]
- Joey Johnston takes a look at how the Rays bullpen handles hostile fans and each other. [Tampa Tribune]
Labels: Akinori Iwamura, Andy Sonnanstine, Carlos Pena, Edwin Jackson, Evan Longoria, Joe Blanton, Joe Maddon
posted by The Professor at 7:25 AM
13 Comments:
I feel like you feel Cork...
If the Rays were just losing playing hsrd and getting beat, this would be easier to manage... But they can't pitch, can't field and really really REALLY cannot hit. It's like the clock struck midnight back in St. Pete after game 7 of the ALCS and we are depending on the Devil Rays to win 3 in a rMaybe by some act of GOD we can beat Hamels tonight and get back with 2 to play in St. Pete.
Come on Benzo, you are the closest with the man upstairs make it happen =)
If there is any town in America that deserves to choke away a 3-1 lead, it's Philadelphia, and all of thier class.
i was at the game last night...and really, it wasnt bad...i figured standing in line for the bathroom, with one lonely ray fan in there, he'd get abused....there was some good natured ribbing but that was all...some dude had a cowbell tho...didnt go over too well
i love how the national media is so quick to jump on philly fans for their boorish behavior...seems like in the NLCS, the only people talking about the gang bangers who were threatening to kill people, were blogs...hey everybody, did ya know philly fans booed santa???????
Seriously, did Joe Buck say Edwin Jackson has closer stuff? Really looked like a closer when Blanton was rounding the bases.
Just win tonight baby, one game at a time.
Got kicked out of Fenway for cowbell. I do not recommend using it anywhere but the Trop.
Na, Na, Na, Na - Hey, Hey, goodbye!
Oh, "hate the rays." First, what about the Rays do you hate? My best guess is that you hate the fact that the Rays beat whomever it is that you root for. That is a bad reason. If you are a Phillies fan, then I don't see what reason could you possibly have? You are winning and nothing objectionable has happened. Second, if you are going to come here and troll, get the number of "Hey's" right. Otherwise, you end up looking silly.
Think here is as good a place as any to try to make this point. The decision to start Saturday’s game at all, much less at 9:30 was terrible, terrible, terrible. This is baseball. Games, mostly, start on time, but they are open-ended. That’s part of the beauty of the game.
Viewers: Way, way down, and not just Saturday. Only the most die-hard fan is going to stay up that late. World Series games usually take at least 3 hours, and often are much, much longer. MLB surely knew that going in.
Players: Gives an edge to the home team. They go home. Visitors stumble into a hotel at 3 in the morning. Both get really sloppy and the quality of the ball being played (and shown off to the non-baseball fans) really drops.
Can anyone say that they saw good baseball either Saturday or Sunday night? Seems to me it was a matter of Rays being even worse than the Phillies, but neither team looked very good.
Not sure how to do it, but sure would like to make sure that MLB gets told -- a lot -- that they made a really dumb decision.
I hate their whinny, thin-skinned fans. I hate that miserable yurt of an excuse for a baseball stadium. I hate artificial turf. I could keep going, or is that enough for you?
There is difference in “feeling” for the ALCS as opposed to the World Series. We hate the Red Sox, they are so hated and the rivalry is now so strong that winning that series seems like it was more important. Mostly because of who the opponent was and how the Rays won it…
With that said, I tihnk a lot of us saw the Phillies as inferior, certainly we’d win the games that Hamels was not pitching and stroll right on through the series, because Philadelphia was inferior to Boston who was inferior to us. And the NL is an inferior league. Truth is, be literally blew our “load” against Boston and have fired blanks since…
I don’t think the players have taken it as seriously, and have not been able to “get up” for this…
Beating Boston was great, but if we are going to lose to Philadelphia-lose because you just not as good them, not making the mistakes we have not made all season. Lose because they just out hit us, not because we all of a sudden canoot catch the ball, or of all things Sonny cannot throw strikes. (tho he was squeezed bad early, and Moyer had the most liberal strikezone the night before god it pisses me off)… If they lose tonight, it will be ok, this is a young team and we will have a shot at this again (hopefully) but I want them to lose going down swinging. If they can win tonight, anything can happen at home. If we truly are a fairytale story, BELIEVE WE CAN WIN TONIGHT!
I know we can do it- I know we are the better team. In my heart I know we can win 3 in a row against Philadelphia
Mark my words: We are going to win tonight
Let's do this thing! One hit, one run, one play, one game at a time. B-E-L-I-E-V-E
@hate the rays: No, that's not enough for me. You still haven't revealed your allegiance, for one thing. How do you hate a stadium? Has it wronged you in some way? Is it the way that it keeps situations like last night from occurring? You'll have to explain the "thin-skinned" remark. I see no difference between Rays fans and anyone else. Also, it's spelled "whiny," genius. "Whinny" is the sound a horse makes. And again, what has the turf done to you? We have a field turf that is used all over the world for almost every sport. Try giving me a good reason.
@hatetherays:
That's no different than me saying i hate the phillies because they wear red and play in pennsylvania...
I'm glad you hate the Rays, I'd rather not have people like you on our side.
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