VS   

This was a bad day.

On my end, unforeseen circumstances kept me from my plan to head over to the Trop to catch the game.

I’m wondering if that was such a bad thing. 

The Rays mounted little offense today behind a decent pitching performance from David Price, falling to the Rangers and Scott Feldman 4-0. 

It is a day that, hopefully, will not be looked on as being to big when considering our playoff chances.

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KO’d

The Rays–and their fans–came into today’s game riding high off of the 10-inning walkoff win last night.  Carlos Pena’s amazing performance in that game gave the Rays faithful reason to believe in this defense, this pitching staff, and this offense.

Today, only 2 of those 3 showed up to the ball park.

Carl Crawford and Gabe Kapler turned in exceptional defensive efforts, making important diving catches today, and David Price threw 7 strong innings (3 hits, 3 runs, 4 K’s). 

But the offense managed only 5 hits today, and 2 of those 5 were marginal errors that were ruled hits. 

A great big goose egg displayed the runs they scored today, only the 6th time they’ve been shut out this season.

But what makes the lack of hitting and scoring runs difficult to swallow is the fact that the Rays hitters showed no discipline whatsoever today.  Instead of a patient approach that can often be effective against young pitchers, the Rays looked like inexperienced hitters all day long.  They flailed away at poor pitches and watched the good ones go right by.

Evidence?

How about 15 strikeouts!? 

15 K’s!!!

That will cause any team to go down.

And while 11 of those strikeouts came from Feldman, the Rays also allowed Darren O’Day to strike out the side in the 8th and Frank Francisco to strike one out in the 9th.

YucK.

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Sweep Would Have Been Nice

Everybody loves a sweep, of course.

But when it comes at the end of a 9-game home stand to make the home team go 7-2 in a heated playoff race, it means that much more.

So what does it mean when it doesn’t happen?

And what does it mean when it doesn’t happen against a team you are fighting for a playoff spot?

And what does it mean when it doesn’t happen just before you leave home to go on an extremely difficult 9-game road trip?

This was a missed opportunity, no doubt.

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Lazy Sunday

The Rays have absolutely stunk on Sundays this year.  It’s difficult to figure out why.  It is one of those things that teams go through, I guess. 

I hate it.

They just can’t score on the 7th day of the week.  On their last 8 Sunday games, they have scored just 18 runs.

That’s about 2 a game.

Ouch.

And if you remove newbie Gregg Zaun’s grand slam from last Sunday’s 5-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays, then you have the Rays scoring 14 runs in 8 games. 

Under 2 per game.

In those games the Rays have gone a terrible 2-6!

Again, maybe it’s just one of those things.  But it sure would hurt if “one of those things” kept us out of the playoffs.

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Maddon Not Concerned

In Joe’s postgame conference he gave off a very nonchalant attitude.

When asked if he was worried about the team’s offensive inconsistencies as of late, his answer was a short “No.”

When asked about the upcoming road trip being make or break, his answer was again, “No.”

As usual, Joe kept things positive. 

–“I’ll take 2 out of 3 from any team any time.”

–“Our effort today was fabulous.”

–“That was the best pitched game against us all season long.”

–He also heaped tons of praise on Price for keeping the team in the game and saving the bullpen.

Joe’s approach has worked the last two years.  But let’s hope he’s talking to his guys with a little more ugency in the clubhouse.

Maybe it’s the new hair that’s helping him stay mellow.

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I felt that this series was big for the Rays. 

It was.

Luckily, it was not a devastating series for us.  Sure, instead of picking up 3 games on the Rangers we picked up only 1, but the other way around would have really hurt. 

So we’ll take a 6-3 home stand and hope to make it a 6-3 road trip.  It’ll be tough.  Roy Halladay awaits us at the Rogers Centre tomorrow night and the Yankees are also lurking out there.

When the Rays get back to the Trop next week I think we’ll have a good idea of what kinds of plans to make for October.