A’s See the Rays of Light in Loss

Rays 3, Athletics 2   The Rays currently have the 4th best record in the MLB. They trail only Boston (28-19), Arizona (28-16), Chicago Cubs (28-17). The Rayts are also still 7 games over .500, and are one victory away from equalling their new record for games over .500( 8 games over .500). ************************************************************************************************************************************************** Trivia Fact of the Night: The legendary Ty Cobb owns the record for stealing home, he did it 54 times in his career. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************                                               The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly                       Rays starter Scott Kazmir( 3-1) is getting better and better every time he has started since coming off the DL.  Kazmir is more relaxed and his control is becoming pinpoint, which means trouble for AL batters. Last night, Scott tossed 7 innings of 4-hit, 1 run ball against the Oakland A’s.  The win sealed another series for the Rays this season. Kazmir is now the All-time Rays victory leader with his 37th win. Kazmir  passed Victor Zambrano, the player he was traded for when the Rays aquired Kazmir in 2004. This was also Scott’s 101st career start, which is amazing considering he is the youngest member of our rotation. Honorable Mention “Good Guys”:                                          ***  Rays closer Troy Percival came on and recorded his 13th save of the season. Troy got stronger as the inning progressed. His pitch speed increased, and his location was dead-on tonight. He did have a small wobble on the mound in one occasion, but shook off the trainers and pitched the inning for the save opportunity.   ** Rays reliever Dan Wheeler currently owns the AL lead in “holds” with 12 this season. Opposing teams are batting .148 against him. Since 2005, he has 65 holds, which ranks him 5th in that time span in the MLB.                                              * Rays catcher Dioner Navarro has not let his average dip below .300 at any point this season. To really put that in perspective, at the All-Star break alst year, Dioner was hitting .177 for the Rays. He is currently leading ALL catchers with a .366 average. Last night, he connected on a 3-run double that put the Rays on the board for good, and sealed the victory for the Rays. That gives Dioner 16 RBI’s for the year. He has appeared in 22 of 26 games since coming off the DL on April 22nd.                                                  The Bad For once, “The Bad” is actually a repeat plea for the team to help develop a better plan to help those stranded Rays on the basepaths. The Rays left 8 guys on base last night that could have sealed this victory alot earlier for Joe and the boys. Think about it, if that is the worst I can find wrong in this game, that is a great thing.   GO RAYS!!!!                                                                                The Ugly Before this series, the “Ugly” was any time we stepped foot in the McAfee Stadium’s doors. Before this series, the Rays were 11-35 in prior series in this park. And they had only won two series in their  short history here.  The good news is that as of last night, the Rays have now won 3 of the last 4 series in the park and might be overtaking the mystic that is the A’s home field advantage. Again, the stadium’s lights played a major role in the winner of this contest. In the top of the 8th inning, Dioner Navarro hit a routine fly ball to leftfield. The A’s Emil Brown was positioned to catch the ball before the lights turned the play into a blooper for the ages.                            The ball sailed between his glove and his left shoulder and skidded to the outfield wall for a Navarro 3-run double. the reason I mention this, it was the winning runs in the ballgame.       Do not forget that the Rays are coming home for a series against their AL division nemesis the Baltimore Orioles. Both teams are playing inspired ball, and the Saturday night game features an after game concert by the Commodores. So bring your “Brick house” to the game so you can tell her why she is “Three times a lady.” Sorry, I had to do it!