Rays Blog

The Tampa Bay Rays fell to the Chicago White Sox who were led by some terrific pitching.  The White Sox, led by John Danks, beat the Rays on Thursday 5-1.  The loss drops the Rays to 32-22.

Edwin Jackson started for the Rays and was no match for Danks and White Sox pitching staff.  Jackson lasted six innings but gave up 10 hits and 2 walks, he struck out four.  Jackson’s lose drops his individual record to 3-4, his ERA remains respectable at 3.70.  Jason Hammel threw the final three innings and gave up one additional run.

The Rays got their only run of the game on a Carl Crawford single in the third inning.  Akinori Iwamura was the only Ray with multiple hits, with two.  Willy Aybar and BJ Upton each doubled for the Rays.  Carlos Pena struggled again at the plate as he went 0-4 with a pair of strike outs.

The Rays will continue their four game series with the White Sox on Friday.  James Shields starts for the Rays and Jose Contreras will go for Chicago.  Game time is 7:10pm.

The Tampa Bay Rays won for the 17th time in their last 19 home games today.  Matt Garza helped lead the Rays to a 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers.  The win today moves Tampa Bay to 32-21 on the season.

Matt Garza got the start for the Rays and got the win as he moved his record to an impressive 4-1.  He went eight innings, striking out 10 and allowing only two earned runs.  Troy Percival came on in the 9th for the save but injured himself and ended up getting charged with a run.  Dan Wheeler replaced Percival and got his first save of the season.

The Rangers pitching struggled with their control as they walked in two of the Rays five runs.  The Rays collected only seven hits during the game but tacked on nine walks on top of that.  Akinori Iwamura was the only Ray with two hits.  BJ Upton and Cliff Floyd each walked twice.  The Rays scored their five runs without a single extra base hit.

The Rays will stay at home to start a weekend series with the AL Central leading Chicago White Sox.  Edwin Jackson will start the opener on Thursday night against John Danks.  Game time is 7:10pm.

The Texas Rangers continued their improved play by beating the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.  The Rangers 12-6 knocked the Rays down to 31-21 and brought the Rangers up to .500 on the season.  Andy Sonnanstine got hit around by the Rangers potent line up.

Sonnanstine took the loss in this game to drop his record to 6-3 this season.  Sonnanstine lasted five innings and gave up seven runs although only two of them were earned runs.  He also struck out seven but allowed 10 hits.  JP Howell came on in relieft and coughed up five runs over only two innings.

The Rays offense put some runs on the board  but it just wasn’t enough to get another win.  The Rays got home runs from Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd.  Carlos Pena really struggled as he went 0-5 with three strike outs, that will kill some rallies.  Akinoria Iwamura, Floyd, and Dioner Navarro led the Rays with two hits each.

The Rays and Rangers will wrap up their series tomorrow afternoon.  Matt Garza will get the start for the Rays as he searches for his fourth win of the season.  Game time is 12:40pm.

The Rays had a great long weekend as they swept their way through Memorial Day.  After a win Friday night against the Orioles, the Rays took two more from them and then on on Memorial Day against the Texas Rangers.  With those wins the Rays are now 31-20 this season.

On Saturday the Rays beat the Orioles 11-4 behind the pitching of Edwin Jackson.  Jackson went five innings giving up three runs and picked up his third run in the process.  Three Rays relievers combined to finish the game.  The Rays offense was terrific as they scored 9 of their 11 runs in the first two innings to put the game out of reach.  Evan Longoria homered twice and picked up six RBIs to help lead the Tampa offense.  BJ Upton went 4-4 and Carlos Pena went 3-3.  This one was over early.

On Sunday the Rays finished their sweep of the Orioles with a  5-4 win.  James Shield got the start on the mound for the Rays and went eight strong innings.  He gave up 4 runs with only three of them being earned.  He didn’t factor in the decision.  The Rays won in the final at bat, so Troy Percival, who got two outs in the 9th, got his first win of the season.  The Rays went up 4-1, but the Orioles came back to tie it at 4 in the sixth inning.  With one out in the 9th inning, Evan Longoria hit a RBI double that won the game for Tampa, continuing his huge weekend.  Longoria and Dioner Navaro were the only Rays with two hits.

Finally on Monday, the Rays topped the Texas Rangers  7-3 with Scott Kazmir getting the win.  Kazmir was almost un-hittable as he went seven inning, gave up three hits and run while he struck out 10.  Kazmir got the win and improved to 4-1 on the season after starting on the DL.  Carlos Pena and Dioner Navarro each had three hits for the Rays and Eric Hinske homered.  BJ Upton had two hits and two RBI.

The Rays will continue their series with the Rangers on Tuesday.  Andy Sonnanstine will start for the Rays as he looks for his seventh win of the season.  Game time is 7:10pm.

Matt Garza went 7.1 innings of shut out baseball to help lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 2-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.  The Rays got some timely hitting to put the game away, but pitching was the story in this game for Tampa.  The win bumps them up to 28-20 on the season.

Over his 7.1 innings, Garza struck out four batters and walked four, he also gave up only four hits to pick up his third win of the season.  Trever Miller finished the 8th inning for Garza while Troy Percival came on for the ninth.  Miller and Percival were perfect in preserving the win for the Rays.  Percival now has 14 saves on the season.

The Rays offense didn’t do much tonight, but they did do enough to put this one in the win column.  They got a run in the fifth inning on a Carl Crawford single.  They tacked on another run in the eighth inning on a Carlos Pena sacrifice fly.  The Rays had only five hits the entire game but capitalized on some Baltimore errors to score some runs and win the game.

The Rays and Orioles will play again tomorrow in Tampa.  Edwin Jackson will start tomorrow in search of his third win of the season.  Game time is 6:10pm.

The Rays beat the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night but lost on Wednesday evening.  The split gave the Rays a 2-1 series win against the Athletics. They won Tuesday’s game in a nail-biter by the score of 3-2 and got whooped on Wednesday, 9-1.  Tampa Bay is now 27-20 on the season, hanging in there in the tough AL East.

The Rays offense obviously struggled a little bit in both of these games.  On Tuesday, Dioner Navarro delivered the big blow with a bases loaded double that drove in all three runs in the 8th inning.  BJ Upton had a pair of hits, the only Rays with more than one.  On Wednesday they couldn’t get much going against the A’s staff again.  They got their lone run in the 8th inning on a solo home run from Jonny Gomes.  The Rays managed only three hits all game.

The pitching on Tuesday night was the story in their 3-2 win.  Scott Kazmir got the win as he went seven innings and gave up only one run while striking out 8  batters.  Troy Percival gave up a run in the 9th to make things interesting but picked up his 13th save.  On Wednesday, Andy Sonnanstine had no answer for the Athletics offense.  He lasted six innings but was hit hard for seven run on nine hits.  Sonnanstine is now 6-2 on the season.

The Rays will get Thursday off as a travel day as they head back to Tampa from California.  On Friday they will start a weekend series with division rival, Baltimore.  Matt Garza will start the opener.

The legend of Evan Longoria continues to grow.  Longoria has been in the major leagues for about a month and already has a couple game winning home runs.  Longoria hit a two run homer in the 13th inning to lead the Rays to a 7-6 win in Oakland on Monday night.  The win bumps the Rays record on the season to 26-19.

James Shields started for the Rays and did not have his top stuff.  Shields went 7.2 innings and gave up five runs.  Coming up big for the Rays was Jason Hammel who threw three scoreless innings to pick up his third win of the season after starting the season in the starting rotation.  Troy Percival gave up a run in the bottom of the 13th inning but still got  his 12th save of the season.

The A’s got out to a 3-0 lead early in the game but the Rays bats battled them back into the game.  Longoria, along with his game winner, had three hits on the game driving in three runs and scoring one.  Eric Hinske hit a two run homer in the fifth inning to help get the Rays back into this game.  Hinske had two hits, as did catcher Dioner Navarro.   As usual, the Rays Achilles heal in this game was strike outs as the struck out an astounding 15 times in this game.

The Rays and A’s will play another late game tonight in the second game of their series.  Scott Kazmir will start for the Rays.  Game time is 10:05 pm.

The Rays fell for the second straight day on the last pitch of a game.  Yesterday they lost on a Ryan Ludwick homer today they lost on a walk single, 5-4.  Today’s winning hit for the Cardinals was by Skip Schumaker and the loss knocked the Rays down to 25-19 on the season.

The Rays got a decent start out of Edwin Jackson who just threw too many pitches to pitch deep into the game.  Jackson got through 5.1 innings, allowing only one run, however he needed 96 pitches to do so.  Jackson struck out seven but walked four batters and allowed 6 hits during his outing.  The Rays bullpen just didn’t get the job done today as they combined to throw three innings (5 pitchers) while giving up the final four runs of the ball game, including the game winner.  Gary Glover came on in the 9th and took the loss.

The Rays led the game 4-2 after their half of the 8th inning after a Carl Crawford solo home run.  Iwamura, Zobrist, and Upton each had two hits to help lead the offense.  Every Rays starter (excluding Jackson) had at least one hit on the day.  The offense was hurt by a double play and by striking out seven times on the afternoon.

The Rays will now head from St. Louis out west to Oakland to start a series with the Athletics on Monday night.  James Shields is penciled in to start the opener.  Game time on Monday is 10:05pm.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost a heart breaker on Saturday afternoon at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Rays fought back from numerous deficits to tie the game at eight before losing the game 9-8.  The Rays loss drops them to 25-18.

Matt Garza was the starting pitcher for the Rays and couldn’t get through the fifth inning.  He lasted 4.1 innings and gave up seven runs on 10 hits and a pair of walks.  Due the Rays comeback, he didn’t get stuck with a loss.  Al Reyes who has struggled all season threw two scoreless innings to help the Rays get back into the game.  However, Dan Wheeler gave up a walk off home run to Ryan Ludwick in the 10th inning and the game was over.  Wheeler is 0-3 this year.

The offense just kept coming back and coming back on Saturday and really gave them a shot for a victory.  Jason Bartlett kept swinging a hot bat as he collected four singles and scored a pair of runs.  Carl Crawford and BJ Upton each had three hits and two runs scored.  Carlos Pena got his bat going a bit with a huge three run home run in the seventh inning to bring the Rays back into the game.

The Rays and Cardinals will wrap up their weekend series this afternoon in St. Louis.  Edwin Jackson will start in search of his third win.  Game time is 2:15pm.

The Tampa Bay Rays took game one of their series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.  The Rays got some terrific pitching from Andy Sonnanstine who helped lead them to a 3-1 victory.  The surprising Rays are now 25-17 this season.

Sonnanstine was terrific once again on the mound as he improved his record this season to 6-1.  Sonnanstine pitched eight innings, giving up only one run on eight hits.  He struck out four and the key was in his walking no one.  He threw 76 strikes and 22 balls, his control was remarkable.  Troy Percival threw a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his 11th save of the season.

The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 off of Braden Looper of the Cardinals.  In the third inning they got RBI singles from Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena.  They tacked on one more run in the fourth inning on an Akinori Iwamura RBI single.  Iwamura, hitting lead off, led the Rays with three hits tonight.  Longoria, Bartlett and Sonnanstine had two hits apiece.

The Rays and Cardinals will go it again tomorrow afternoon.  Matt Garza, coming off  a nice start against the Yankees will start for the Rays.  Game time is 1:10pm.