SB Nation Tampa Bay: All Posts by Steve Slowinski

Rays 10, Orioles 6: Rays' Juggernaut Offense Saves the Day

2013-05-19T00:42:44Z

Piggybacking off what Ian said yesterday in the lede for his recap, this Rays team is so incredibly backwards from what we're used to watching. After the past few season, I've grown accustomed to watching Rays teams that excelled at -- as cliche as it is to say -- the fundamentals. They pitched well and played spectacular defense, trusting on their run prevention skills to keep games close enough for their offense to win. Especially last season, when Longoria missed so much of the season, the Rays had to be good at run prevention or else they stood no shot at winning.

This year, though? It's been Bizarro Rays Baseball. Sure, we got to gripe about the offense for the first few weeks of the season like normal, but at this point, if anyone claims the Rays have an anemic offense, they're playing fast and loose with the truth. Because holy crap, this is ridiculous:

Yup, that's right: coming into today, the Rays had the second best offense in all of baseball. That's crazy talk. After losing B.J. Upton this offseason, nobody expected the Rays offense to be this good right now. But Evan Longoria is on fire, James Loney has rediscovered the ol' Kotchman magic, Kelly Johnson is crushing the ball, and even Luke Scott has been hitting well of late. It's surreal.

Yet despite the offense churning on all cylinders, the Rays are still making every game close due to uncharacteristic poor pitching. Take this evening's game for example.

Roberto Hernandez had been looking so good coming into tonight's game. His ERA was still in the mid-4s, but he was striking out hitters, keeping the ball on the ground, and providing the Rays with valuable innings by working a full six innings in all but one of his starts. He wasn't fooling anyone tonight, though, as the Orioles jumped all over him in the early innings. Hernandez ended up leaving after not being able to get an out in the third inning, after having allowed eight hits (including two home runs) and five runs. He kept the ball down in the zone, but it seemed like he got too much of the plate with many of them and the Orioles didn't let him escape.

The Rays scored four runs on Jair Jurrjens to chase him out of the game after five innings -- three of those runs were driven in by Matt Joyce, on a homer and a double -- but they still trailed 6-4 going into the top of the ninth inning. Jim Johnson has been pretty much automatic for the Orioles over the last few seasons, so the Rays seemed to have squandered another game due to poor pitching.

...And yet, the Rays found a way. Kelly Johnson brought the game to within one run by hitting a solo home run, and then the Rays started a congoline around the basepaths. By the time the full damage was done, the Rays had scored six runs off a total of five hits and four walks. Josh Lueke closed out the game in the bottom of the ninth, and that was that.

This offensive explosion most likely will not last. The Rays' offense is firing on all cylinders now, and we've all seen what it can do when things aren't running along optimally. At some point, the offense will cool down and they will have to go back to winning games through pitching and defense...but today was not that day. It'd be great if the Rays could get their pitching to turn things around, but for now, let's just be thankful the Rays have -- for the moment at least -- one of the best offenses in the majors.

While I sung the praises of the Rays' offense up above, Alex Torres was one of the main heroes from today. Going into the fifth inning, the game seemed to be on the verge of slipping away from the Rays. They were down 6-4 and Cesar Ramos hadn't been able to contain the Orioles either, so Joe Maddon called in Torres to start the fifth inning. Torres ended up being spectacular; he pitched four shutout innings without allowing a hit or a run, keeping the Rays in the game and in the position to come back in the ninth. Talk about clutch.
Matt Joyce was the big offensive star of the game for the Rays, going three for five with a home run, two doubles, and five runs batted in. Love me some MOM.
The Rays have officially announced that Jake Odorizzi will be starting Monday night's game against the Blue Jays. This move also wasn't contingent on Torres pitching four innings in relief tonight, as Odorizzi arrived in Baltimore before tonight's game ended.

Rays vs. Padres, Game 1 GDT: C'mon Cobb

2013-05-11T00:08:43Z

Seven strikeouts already...geez.

Rays vs. Jays recap: Bullpen actually holds a lead, Rays win 10-4

2013-05-09T03:33:28Z

Does it count as a win for a manager even if they get ejected midway through the game? I imagine the answer for this is "Yes" -- as who gets that technical on managerial wins? -- and in that case, Joe Maddon has just won his 600th game as a manager. And after the previous two games, it was a very, very welcome sight.

Coming into the season, who would have guessed that the Rays biggest struggle would be with their pitching staff? The offense has always been the Rays' weak spot, and even with the Shields/Davis trade, it seemed likely that the Rays would continue to have a dominant bullpen and rotation. The offense, though? Ugh, watch out - that could get ugly.

But as the Rays showed tonight, their offense has actually been performing quite well, thank you very much. They stormed out to an early 4-2 lead over the first two innings tonight, knocking starter Ricky Romero out of the game after only recording one out. They proceeded to batter Edgar Gonzalez around a good bit, racking up a total of eight baserunners and five runs over 4.2 innings pitched, and they kept the offensive pressure on in the later innings as well. Kelly Johnson and Evan Longoria led the way with three hits each on the night -- including a homer and double each -- but everyone (except Sam Fuld) got into the action with at least one hit.

With a 107 wRC+ through today, the #Rays are now tied with the #Athletics for the No. 6 offense in the #MLB.
— Bradley Woodrum (@BradleyWoodrum) May 9, 2013

Meanwhile, the Rays continued to receive sketchy and suspicious pitching performances. Matt Moore may have finished the night with a "W", but his pitching was far from crisp. He wasn't hitting his spots all night, and he was racked up a high pitch count each inning. Moore ended up walking four batters and allowing six hits in only five innings, and his swing-and-miss stuff just wasn't there tonight. His velocity was down overall, only averaging 93 MPH with his fastballs, and he only generated six whiffs over the entire night (three on fastballs, three on off-speed). In short, it was a disappointing process, but the end result at least ended happily.

After having the bullpen blow the past two games for the Rays, I was quite nervous on who Davey Martinez would put in the game after Moore left, but those fears ended up being misplaced. Davey used both Jamey Wright and Cesar Ramos to work the final four innings, and they got the job done in admirable fashion. Wright allowed a handful of runs during his outing, but he managed to avoid allowing any major damage. And Ramos was quite effective, allowing only one hit during his 2.1 innings of work.

It was a strange feeling, watching Wright and Ramos actually close out the gain and retain the lead for the Rays. Considering dominant relievers like Jame McGee and Fernando Rodney haven't been able to get the job done for the Rays recently, it's good to know that there are at least a few relievers who are still effective out there.

Joe Maddon was ejected from the game for arguing a missed call by the umps. You can find a GIF of the blown call here, and Maddon's reaction here (thanks, Ken Grants!). I will say this: that was some stellar acting.
James Loney entered today's game hitting .385, and he was a handful of at bats away from qualifying for the batting title. He went 2-5 while his other competitor, Miguel Cabrera, went 1-4 during his game, so Loney is officially the AL batting leader. Obviously it's still early in the season, but did anyone see that coming? I doubt it.
Web gem alert! I could have sworn Jeter trademarked that throw, so Brett Lawrie might owe him a bit after tonight.
So depressing, but maybe also a reason to hope?

@bradleywoodrum the most painful stat I've seen is that the #Rays would be on a 20 game win streak if they didn't give up any of their leads
— Matt R. Tucker (@TuckerMattR) May 9, 2013

Rays vs. Jays: Help us Matty Mo, You're Our Only Hope

2013-05-08T22:45:38Z

Seriously, Matt Moore better pitch a complete game because if not, who knows anymore.

Rays vs. Royals, Game 2: When did it become 2009 again?

2013-05-02T04:55:20Z

Things are just not going the Rays' way right now. When the offense isn't hitting, the pitching staff churns out gems. When the offense provides a bunch of runs, the bullpen gives up the lead. There have been times this season when the Rays have looked as good as we thought they'd be this season, but for the most part? They've looked like a mess.

Tonight was one of those frustrating games. The Rays jumped out to an easy lead thanks to solo home runs from Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist in the first inning, and they tacked on four more runs by the top of the fourth to lead the game 6-1. Hellickson allowed 10 baserunners in only five innings, and the Royals scored another three runs off him before he left after the fifth inning. His final line wasn't pretty -- five innings, nine hits, four runs, one walk -- but even then, he still left the game with a two run lead. The Rays bullpen should be able to hold that lead, right? Right?

Well, Jake McGee entered the game, and as you likely can guess, six hits and one walk later (one of the hits came off Farnsworth), the Royals have tacked on another five runs and taken the lead. The Rays added runs in the top of the seventh off some clutch hits from Zobrist, Longoria, Loney, Escobar, and Scott, but it wasn't enough to tie the game. C'est le vie.

May 1 is not the #Rays favorite day. Last time TB blew a five-run lead was 2 years ago today 5/1/2011 vs. ANA
— TK (@TampaBayTK) May 2, 2013

This has been a far-too-common story for the Rays this season: the team takes a lead, but their pitching staff then hands that lead away. The Rays have been handing away leads left and right this season, and as Michael pointed out earlier, their bullpen has been a replacement-level disaster. It's reminding me more and more of the 2009 season, when the Rays had (arguably) their strongest team on paper of any year, but they ended the season a disappointing 84-78 thanks to an under-performing bullpen.

On one hand, what I'm seeing so far this season has me worried and freaking out a little bit on the inside. On the other hand, it's still only May 1st. We're in that awkward part of the season where it's been going on for a while and it feels like there has been enough time to draw large conclusions about player and teams, but in actuality, we're a mere 17% of the way into the season. There's still a ton of time to go, and despite everything, the Rays are a mere 3.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. It's not like the Rays are far away from taking things to the next level; if their bullpen started pitching half as well as it did last season, the Rays would be in considerably better shape.

Anyone, on to other thoughts and observations from the game:

Luke Scott went three for three tonight, and he hit his first home run of the season. He also had a great at bat in the seventh inning, working the count and then driving an outside pitch into left field for a single to keep the ongoing rally alive. I know it's way too early to draw conclusions on him, but it was very nice to see regardless.
Matt Joyce hit a home run in May? Never saw that coming!
Farnsworth actually got a strikeout! Was it just me, or did Kyle Farnsworth look like a very different pitcher tonight than he had earlier this season? His velocity was way up -- fastballs sat around 94-95 MPH -- and he got two swing-and-misses on a mere seven pitches. Here's hoping that sticks around some.
Jake McGee continued to have struggles with his fastball command, and the Royals smacked him around plenty. I still believe that he has tons of potential and will turn it around, but he needs to get his command fixed.
I'm still not wow'd by Hellickson, and he was relatively lucky to get away with only allowing four runs (considering how many baserunners he allowed), but there was good news on the night: he had a total of 11 swinging strikes (12%). Helly is missing bats more often this year, which is a very good sign going forward.

Rays 10, White Sox 4: Matt Moore stays hot, improves to 5-0

2013-04-28T03:53:14Z

I love baseball. It's been my one constant obsession since, oh, probably the third grade, and I never get tired of reading about or following it. And yet sometimes, I swear, there are games that just drag on and on, and come about as close to "boring" me as it's possible for baseball to do. Tonight was one of those nights.

The big problem was that after about the second inning, it was never in doubt who was going to win the game. The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a Ben Zobrist home run, and Matt Moore was absolutely lights-out on the mound. After walking the first batter of the game, he proceeded to strike out the next six hitters in a row and carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning. He was locating his fastball well, getting ahead of hitters, and throwing his curveball for strikes. Basically everything was working for Moore, and the only dent in his armor came when Adam Dunn hit one of Moore's few mistake pitches of the night over the right-centerfield wall for a home run. Besides for that, Moore was brilliant: six innings, three hits, one run, one walk, and nine strikeouts.

THINK OF IT THIS WAY... Matt Moore has allowed 13 HITS in 32 innings. If it was 13 RUNS, his ERA would be a very respectable 3.66. #Rays via
— SunSportsRays (@SunSportsRays) April 28, 2013

So although Moore didn't work late in the game -- the one "negative" of his performance was that he racked up a high pitch count early on -- the White Sox never had a chance against him. And by the time he'd left the game, the Rays had opened up a 5-1 lead, and it seemed like it should be easy enough for the Rays bullpen to get the final nine outs and wrap things up. Let's clean it up, finish the job and go home.

Well, things weren't quite that easy. Jake McGee pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh, but not without some drama. McGee got two outs on strikeouts, loaded the bases on two singles (granted, they were both weak bloops) and a walk, and then finally got out of the inning with one more strikeout. He looked about as good as he has all season; his fastball location is all over the place still, and while he has gotten by with pumping fastballs by hitters, he's gotten into lots of tight jams as well. He escaped this time unscathed, but he's going to continue to be far from a sure thing until his command tightens up and he starts feeling more comfortable with his other offerings.

Jake McGee has thrown 179 pitches this season, and all but 12 of them have been fastballs
— jasoncollette (@jasoncollette) April 28, 2013

Come the eighth inning, Joe Maddon brought in Kyle Farnsworth to the nearly-audible joy of the White Sox hitters. There's no real way around it; Farnsworth looked awful out there. He threw almost all sinkers and sliders, but unfortunately, his pitches were either way too hittable or were outside the strike zone. Farnsworth walked a hitter, got one out on a pop-up, walked another hitter, and then allowed three singles in a row. He only had one swinging strike on the night, and he still has yet to log his first strikeout of the season. It is early, but at the moment, he's the pitcher in the Rays bullpen that I'm most concerned about.

The last few innings of the game dragged along, as the White Sox and Rays both kept scraping across a few runs here and there, but there was never a serious threat to the Rays' lead. After Cesar Ramos closed it out in the ninth, Matt Moore improved to 5-0, putting him in some illustrious historical company:

Via @eliassports 3 AL pitchers under age 24 have gone 5-0 or better in April.Matt Moore will join Babe Ruth (1917!) + Greg Swindell (1988)
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 28, 2013

Gavin Floyd left the game in the middle of the third inning, and it was later announced that he has a right elbow flexor muscle strain - the same injury that sidelined him last season. That was an unlucky break for the White Sox, as the Rays proceeded to batter Hector Santiago. They got 10 hits in only four innings off him, breaking the game open.
Jose Molina also left the game early after being hit in the right knee in the fourth inning. He was later diagnosed with a right hamstring contusion and is day-to-day.
The Rays finished the game with 19 hits, their highest total in a single game so far this season. Kelly Johnson and Evan Longoria both had four hits, and James Loney continue his hot hitting by going three for five.

4/27/2013 GDT: Matt Moore vs. Gavin Floyd

2013-04-27T21:00:04Z

Keeping it rolling, Matty Mo!

Rays 3, Yankees 0: Alex Cobb is masterful

2013-04-25T02:55:35Z

My brain is currently feeling a little bit fried, so let's keep this simple. Bullet points!

Alex Cobb was masterful tonight. He pitched one of the best games of his career, nearly lasting for a complete game (8.1 innings) while holding the Yankees to a mere four baserunners (three hits, one walk). He kept the Yankees off the board entirely, striking out seven and generating swinging strikes on eight percent of his pitches. To nobody's surprise, almost all of those swinging strikes came off his changeup.

In his post-game interview, Cobb credited a lot of his success tonight to his ability to locate his fastball where he wanted. He was all over the zone tonight with his pitches -- in, out, up, and down -- and four of his strikeouts came on fastballs where he caught the hitter looking. For a pitcher with a fastball that tops out at 92 MPH, that's not too shabby.

So four starts and 29 innings into the season, and Alex Cobb is looking like quite the ace with a 1.82 ERA and a 2.78 FIP. He will obviously regress at some point, but for now....Shields? Who needs 'im?
Andy Pettitte was also cruising through today's game -- 10 strikeouts on the day -- but he made a handful of mistakes that ended up leading to his downfall. In the bottom of the fifth inning, he just nicked Jose Molina on the foot with a pitch, and then Kelly Johnson hit a liner to right field. It should have been a single, but the ball slipped under Brennan Boesch's glove and went all the way to the wall. Molina and Johnson advanced to second and third, where they were driven in later on that inning by a double from Ben Zobrist. In the next inning, the Rays added on another run when Sean Rodriguez hit a lead-off homer.

Both of those key hits -- Zobrist's double and S-Rod's home run -- came off what appeared to be backdoor cutters that got too much of the plate. Pettitte was dealing all night and struck out many Rays with that backdoor cutter on the outside of the plate, but that pitch definitely backfired in these two instances.
Both Desmond Jennings and Ryan Roberts earned the illustrious Golden Sombreros by striking out three times each. Roberts came into the game swinging a hot bat, but Pettitte caught him looking at pitches a few times (at least one of those times, it was the backdoor cutter that got him).
The Rays' defense was on full display tonight. Sean Rodriguez made a number of great scoops and snags at first base, looking like a real natural at the position (as opposed to someone playing it for the first time this season), and James Loney made a great stop on one absolutely scorched groundball.
So...Sean Rodriguez. After going two for three tonight with a home run, he's beginning to make me look wrong about him...and I couldn't be happier. Here's hoping he keeps hitting as well as he is right now, and that his power returns against lefties, and that he maintains some of this plate discipline improvement going forward.
Again, Rodney was a little bit shaky before finally bearing down and closing out the final two outs. He's moved back to the first-base side of the rubber, though, and his stuff is obviously still there; his location has just been way off. Fingers crossed that he gets that fixed sooner rather than later.

Rays just went 6-3 over last 9 gms vs. 3 playoff teams from 2012 (Bal, Oak, NYY) and 5-1 on the homestand vs. 2 defending division champs.
— Dave Haller (@HallerDave) April 25, 2013

Coming into series vs Rays, NYY ranked 2nd in AL scoring at 5.18 runs per game--they only scored 5 runs over the entire 3-game series vs TB.
— Jonathan Gantt (@Jonathan_Gantt) April 25, 2013