THE GOOD: Carlos Pena's solo home run with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th inning to tie the game. Could this be the moment that gets El Gato back on track? Prior to that at bat, Pena had left 2 runners on in the 1st inning, 3 in the 2nd, 1 runner in the 4th and 2 more in the 6th.

THE BAD: Evan Longoria and Dan Wheeler in the 10th inning. You absolutely cannot lose that game. You are at home, going for a sweep against an inferior ball club and Carlos Pena had just bailed you out in the bottom of the 9th. You have to shut the Royals down in the 10th and give your team a shot to win. Longoria put Wheeler in a jam right off the bat with a throwing error that left the leadoff runner on 2nd and Wheeler gave up a 3-run home run to a guy who only had 3 coming into the game. This is one of those games that if the Rays miss the playoffs by a game or 2, we will look back and cringe.

THE TELLING: In order to give BJ Upton a day off, Joe Maddon penciled Carl Crawford into center field and CC was not happy about it...Reid Brignac did not play and is 0-4 with a walk and 3 strikeouts in his brief major league career...Remember that "reasonable goal" of a .500 season (81 wins)? The Rays need to go 27-47 over the remainder of the season in order to surpass that mark...Even though Boston has a 1.5 game lead in the Wild Card, the Rays magic number over the second place Twins is also 69 (for a playoff spot) as both the Twinkies and Red Sox have the same number of losses.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• We are back, if ever so briefly. On Thursday Mrs. Prof (no longer just figuratively) and I will be on our way to the Islands for a week. There will be updates while we are gone, although we are still working on the exact details. More to come in the next day or two.
• The Rays have a 77.8% chance of making the playoffs this season. [The Heater]
  
• Al Reyes threw a simluated game and says he is ready to come off the DL. [Herald-Tribune]
  
• Dioner Navarro and Scott Kazmir were named to the AL All-Star squad and Dan Shanoff says the Rays got screwed by politics. [The Sporting News]
• Evan Longoria still has a shot to be named to the final spot on the AL roster, and is currently leading the voting. [The Heater]
  
• John Romano says that Joe Maddon should have been named an all-star coach. [St. Pete Times]
• Marc Lancaster says the Rays are more likely to make a small move before the trade deadline, rather than go after some of the big names that are being tossed around right now...We agree. As we have stated before, our prediction is Eric Hinske for a utility infielder that is an upgrade over Ben Zobrist and possibly a relief pitcher to add to the bullpen depth. [Tampa Tribune]
• The Rays appear to have interest in Brian Fuentes. Of course the Rockies want Wade Davis or Jeremy Hellickson. That doesn't mean they will get one of those top pitching prospects. [The Heater]
  
• Bill Madden says that with the Rays on top of the AL East, the Yankees and Red Sox lack the "spark" from years past. [NY Daily News]
• The New York Daily News says the Rays are the new "beasts of the AL East." [NY Daily News]
• Richard Justice says that the Rays could be even better in the second half...While there is definitely room for improvement, it will be difficult to keep up this torrid pace of wins especially with more games on the road in the second half. [Yahoo! Sports]
  
• Now that the Rays are on the lips of media outlets everywhere some are offended that the Rays are often referred to as the "Tampa Rays". [St. Pete Times]
• The Rays surpassed 1 million in attendance in their 48th game this season. That is second fastest in franchise history, out-paced only by the inaugural season. [Tampa Tribune]
• A writer for the Aspen Times says the Rays are "not yet" this year's Rockies (upstart World Series participant)...He is right. While the Rays may not make it to the World Series, this Rays squad is much better than the Rockies squad that got hot late and ran through a weak NL playoff field. [Aspen Times]
• Marc Topkin lays out 5 keys to the Rays playoff hopes. [St. Pete Times]
• Former Rays prospect Wes Bankston hit his first major league home run for the A's. [MLB]
• Former Rays GM Chuck LaMar would like to take credit for the Rays success. We don't have the energy to give this it's proper beatdown. [The Heater]
  

Devil Rays 6, Red Sox 4.
The Devil Rays played yesterday? Unfortunate that the Rays pulled off their best performance in over a week, when the game was played at the same time as a Bucs home game in which the Bucs looked as good as they have since the 2003 season opener against the F'eagles*.

*We are of course dismissing every game since then against the Falcons and Michael Vick.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• On Saturday, the Rays hitters broke the AL record for strikeouts in a season. BJ Upton became the first member of the 20-20 club in franchise history. [USA Today]
  
• Apparently beating Tim Wakefield is a "sign of progress". We believe being dominated by a knuckleballer is #4,376 on the list of reasons why the Rays are yet to experience success as a team. It comes in just ahead of "too many rainouts at the Trop" and just behind "Joe Maddon's shoe size". Believe us, we understand that finding an angle on a game with one week remaining in the last week of yet another 90+ loss season is a trying task at best. But Papa Joe...come back to us. please. [TBO]
• Carl Crawford did not play this weekend and with only one week remaining, he may not return this season. [tampabay.com]

"I'm not so sure right now he's going to be able to do this," Maddon said. "We're hopeful for the first game back (Tuesday), but it just doesn't seem like it's going anywhere we need it to go for him to participate right now. We'll look at it again after the day off but I'm not anticipating he wil be able to play."

• Joe Maddon makes a case for Delmon Young to be rookie of the year. [TBO]

"You put the whole picture together to tie this whole thing into a nice little bundle, and I think it equals Rookie of the Year," Maddon said. "Everybody just wants to talk about offense - talk about his defense and his stolen bases this year. He's playing a complete game for us right now."

• Joe Maddon probably should have saved his "Delmon Young for tookie of the year" speech for the Yankees series as it likely fell on deaf ears with the Boston Media. The voting members of the Boston are likely to already have their vote cast for Dustin Pedroia. [courant.com]
• Marc Topkin interviews Joe Maddon. We love, love, love the last question " Since the Rays won't be in it this year, who do you think is going to win the World Series?". ON the surface it seems a little ridiculous that Topkin would need to preface that question by informing the manager that his team has already been eliminated from playoff contention. But in Topkin's defense. He is interviewing Papa Joe Maddon, the eternal optimist. [tampabay.com]
• Stacy Long offers his thoughts on the pitchers and hitters that should be named as the top minor leaugers for 2007. Not much to argue with. [Stacy Long's Riverwalk Talk]
  
• The team decided to shut down James Shields for the remainder of the 2007 season, but will not do the same with Scott Kazmir, who will make his next scheduled start, stating that the lefty has looked fresher than Shields recently. [Devil Rays]
• We didn't write it, but we were thinking it. This was one campaign that we are sure seemed much better on the drawing board. [The Serious Tip]
  
• Al Reyes hopes to have his option ($2 million) picked up for 2008. It should not even be a question. Reyes mentions that he would prefer to close but would be willing to be used as a setup man if that is what is asked of him. [TBO]
• Wes Bankston, who was designated for assignment last week, was claimed off of waivers by the Kansas City Royals. [The Raw Feed]
  
• Raymond and Wool E. Bull show their hip hop moves...If you are into that sort of thing. [Deadspin]
• With the Devil Rays becoming the Rays in 2008, devilrays.com will need to change their domain name. The obvious choice is rays.com but that will not happen as the owners of that domain name, Rays Boathouse in Seattle, is not selling. [Seattle Times]
  

Angels 2, Devil Rays 1.
Come back in a little bit for a big announcement.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA...

• Justin Ruggiano made his major league debut last night. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Rays designated Wes Bankston for assignment. [tampabay.com]
• Brendan Harris was unavailable again yesterday after pulling a muscle in batting practice on Tuesday. [TBO]
  
• As far as late-season rookie hazing goes, Aki Iwamura got off easy (Dice-K was made to dress like a Teletubby). On the other hand, Aki's interpretor looks like he is in pain. [tampabay.com]
  
• There is a Devil Ray that holds a major league record. Scott Aldred from 1998 currently holds the record and the record is about to go down and its going down hard. [Baseball Prospectus]
• David Chalk is not happy that the Rays are dropping the "Devil". He feels the team name has not been marketed properly, offering his own "suggestion". [Bugs & Cranks]
• I organized my first "Rotisserie Baseball League" in 1988 (I had Kirk Gibson on my team). And SimonOnSports reminds us why we stopped playing fantasy baseball 2 years ago. Too many people now believe that Fantasy Baseball is more important than the real thing. You see, Simon apparently got "kicked in the groin" when the Devil Rays decided to shut James Shields down for the season and Simon is pissed off that Joe Maddon did not personally inform Simon of the decision in time for him to make a roster move. Apparently the Rays are idiots for caring more about the longterm health of their young Ace rather than Simon's fantasy baseball team. [SimonOnSports]
• The folks at Roto Authority, on the other hand, understand that when a young pitcher bests his previous career high in pitches thrown, they are at a very high risk of suffering an injury or a dead arm in the following season. [Roto Authority]

With Jamie Shields shut down for the season (smart move) let's take a look at his breakout 2007 season...Boiling all of these peripherals in a big stat cauldron gives us a 3.62 ERA to go with that 1.22 WHIP (in 2008). With the right win total that could garner some Cy votes...Speaking of which, with that many innings I think he could pick up 15 or 16 wins in 2008. He's quietly becoming the AL's Aaron Harang, even pitching in the East. His changeup is top ten in the game and he's got two other above average pitches as well.

• John Sickels takes a close look at two of the top left-handed pitching prospects in baseball, Jake McGee and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. [Minor League Ball]
  

Durham 9, Columbus 8. Mitch Talbot struck out 7 in 5 innings, but allowed 6 runs (5 earned). Shawn Camp pitched the 9th inning for his first save. Evan Longoria made his AAA debut, playing third base and batting 6th. He was 0-3 with a strike out, but had a first inning sac fly to drive in a run. He also committed a throwing error which led to a run. Joel Guzman, who has been shifted to first base with the promotion of Longoria, was 2-4 with his 15th home run and 3 RBI.

Tennesee 5, Montgomery 3. The Biscuits committed to errors which led to 3 unearned runs being charged to Wade Davis. In all Davis allowed 4 runs in 6 innings on 7 hits and a walk. He struck out 3 and dropped to 4-2 at AA. Reid Brignac was 3-4 and hit his second home run in three games. He now has 15. Rhyne Hughes was 0-4 and is now 0-7 since being promoted.

Brevard County 5, Vero Beach 2. Doug Waechter dropped to 0-4 in 4 Vero Beach rehab starts. He allowed 5 runs in 4.1 innings. He gave up 9 hits but id not walk a batter.

Columbus 2, West Virginia 0. After missing a start, Wade Townsend returned and pitched 6 scoreless innings despite battling control problems. He allowed 3 hits and walked 5, while striking out 4. Cesar Suarez was 3-4 and drove in one of the Catfish 2 runs. He also stole his 25th base.

Tri-City 7, Hudson Valley 1.

Princeton 3, Greenville 2.

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM...

• Jeff Niemann's shoulder is fine but he will miss two starts. While the setback is minor for the team, being shutdown for two weeks could be a big setback for the big right hander. In his last few starts, Niemann was beginning to show that he was ready to make the jump to the major leagues. With this latest shut-down, Niemann may have endangered any chances of making his big league debut in 2007 as the team will take every precaution. [MLB]
• Joel Guzman will continue to receive playing time at third base but he is comfortable with the move to first base. With Carlos Pena firmly entrenched at first base at the Major League level, we have to wonder what the long-term plans are for Guzman and Wes Bankston. We will have to wait and see how long the team will allow two spots on the 40-man roster to go to two players that appear to have no future with the ball club. We expect one or both to be traded this off-season. [Herald-Sun]
  

"I'm pretty comfortable over there," he said. "I played winter ball down in the Dominican Republic, and I played first and third over there. Last year when I was with the Dodgers, I played pretty much around first, third and he outfield. It's nothing new, not like I'm lost over there."