The final 5 weeks of this season should be a rollercoaster ide of emotions and sweat and determination. The Rays ares showing that they are out of the cellar and kinda love the view from the top this year. With the proposed Yankee payroll maybe itching towards $ 200 million next season, the Rays will be the Costco again of baseball.

Sure we have a few contracts that have a huge upside to them, but we are not paying a pitcher to rehab for the last two years (Pavano), and we do not have a thrid baseman that is making more than our entire infield makes per year. We will have some salary jumps due to arbitration, and some really hard decisions to make over free agents and possible additions to this squad.

We will also have to decide what to do with all our pitchers, both at the minors and up here in the show. We will have to seek and destryo other teams to get another right-handed bat that can deliver us to another realm of success. The aspect of David Price being up in the majors next season might be a easy guess, and a popular one for the Fans’, but will he truly be ready in only one year?

I know I am doing alot of foreshadowing here right now, but the future is now for the Rays. The decisions we make in the next few weeks and the coming months will decide if we get to this same plateau next season and beyond. The Rays might have dodged a bullet by staying pat in the Trade Deadline, but the jury is still out on that silence. Be lieve me, if we miss the playoffs, or get a real early exit, the voices will ber loud and proud that we shortchanged ourselves.

People will not just be happy that we got to the party finally, they want to be the hit of the ball, not the wallflower who goes home alone. This franchise is growing faster than we imagine. Bandwagon fans are screaming for more, and the original fans are just being patient hoping the dream can finally be fulfilled. We shall see if the dream unfolds or implodes. But whatever it does, remember that the bulk of this same squad is intact and signed for next season.

The Rays will be only as successful  as the rest of the league lests it be from now on. The Trop is fastly becoming “The Pit” as Rays Manager Joe Maddon calls it. People hate to come play here, not for the cowbells or the blue-wigged fans, but because this team expects to win in this building now. The hate to come here because no longer is it a golf holiday and a few days of work.  No longer is this the place where people go to play a few more years than retire from baseball. No longer is this team a bunch of rookie or Triple-A talented players trying to compete in the majors. This is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, and it is always 72 degrees in the Trop.

Rangers 3, Rays 0

I was strolling through the TV channels today and ran upon the USA vs. Cuba Olympic baseball game. The US squad had tied the match in the 11th inning, and they were about to start this experimental new Olympic  scoring plan.

It seems the Olympic Committee thought that baseball was too dull and had a tendency to be long and boring, So they put their own twist on the tie-breakers/sudden death mode for baseball. The teams will both be able to start anywhere in the 9-man line-up in the inning. They will also have the advantage of having a guy at first and second, and no outs  to start their half of the inning.

I guess the Olympic gurus thought that the possibility of guys on base would make the opposition team play more defense, or pitch their way to a victory.  I understand that baseball can bore someone who is seeing it for the first time. And that if you do not understand all the actions  surrounding the game, it can confuse you. But to tinker with the basics of scoring, and to throw a wrench in the system like this is just foul.

For example, who is charged with the baserunners and what happens to the pitcher on the mound if a run is scored. The pitcher should not have his ERA jacked up because of inherited baserunners that did not even exsist before that inning started. And how can you tack on runs that have no formal basis as to why the guy are on base in the first place. The Olympic Committee has voted before these games that baseball will be dropped after the 2008 Olympics.

Hopefully it is dropped to devise a better way to solve the issues at hand in this game, and not a political hotbed because of the popularity of the sport mostly in the Western hemisphere. Japan and  South Korea have made huge strides in developing talent and teams to compete with the USA’s and Cuba’s of the world. It is a shame they will have to wait “X” number of years until they can meet on the stage like the Olympics again.

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Sometimes you run into a hot pitcher, or a team on a roll in the mnonth of August. And sometimes a team will promote a pitcher to see if they have the right stuff for the near future. The Rays ran into the Ranger’s 2009 rotation addition in Matt Harrison.

Harrison threw 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball against the Rays on Sat. night. To make matters worse, the Rays struck out 8 times in the contest. It was the 5th shoutout of the Rays this season, and evened the series at 1-1, with the deciding game coming Sunday night.

To make matters even worse, the Boston Red Sox had lost to the Toronto Blue Jays earler in the evening 4-1, and the Rays lost a chance to gain more distance between themselves and the Red Sox. In this time of the year, every game is a critical plus or minus for the squad. Wins come at a premium right now for the Rays since they will be playing most of their finalk games against team over the .500 mark.

Edwin Jackson came into this game going 5-1 in his last 9 starts.  To put his inprovement into prospective, last year at this time Jackson was 3-12, with a 5.69 ERA. Jackson also threw a complete game shutout against the Rangers on August 12, 2007. In the contest, Jackson threw 110 pitches, and his last pitch of the night registered 99 mph on the juggs gun at the stadium.

Jackson pitched 6 innings of 1-run 1-hit ball against the Rangers. He also got 6 strikeouts on the night. But the game was decided on the first pitch of the ballgame. The Ranger’s Ian Kinsler took Jackson’s first pitch, a four-seam fastball, to the leftfield wall for an early 1-0 score.

Rays reliever J P Howell came on in the 7th inning and gave up 3 hits and 2 runs in his 1/3 of an inning for the Rays.  Chad Bradford and Trever Miller came in and finished the rst oif the game for the Rays.

The Rays did have ascare in the 3rd inning when Jason Bartlett came up limping after being forced out at second base. It seems that Bartlett’s trail leg caught the edge of the bag and twisted in an odd manner. Rays’ trainer Ron Porterfield looked at Bartlett on the bench and Bartlett returned to the field in the bottom of the inning.

The Rays did have a huge momentum swing stolen from them by a former Ray. Josh Hamilton made a remarkable run and jump to rob Ben Zorbrist of a home run to deep center field. Hamilton jumped up and snagged the ball on it’s way down  over the fencing to rob the Rays of a run in the game.  The play was another example of the type of night the Rays’ were having in Arlington, Texas.

The Rays did most of their damage early in the contest against Harrison. In the first inning, the Rays got 4 straight batters on base, but did not knock in a run in the inning. Akinora Iwamura  lead off the game with a single to right, and got forced at second on Ben Zorbrist’s fielder’s choice.

Zorbrist was then erased on a force out at second on  Carlos Pena hit back to Harrison. Rocco Baldelli then came up and singled to leftfield, but was stranded on first after Willy Aybar lined out to leftfield.

The Rays did not get another baserunner until the Bartlett single in the 3rd inning. After the 3rd inning, the Rays were effectively shut down by Harrison, and Eddie Guardado came on in the 9th inning for his 4th save of the season.

Rays 3, Athletics 2

There is a swirling Internet rumor that someon ein the AL East put in a claim for Seattle leftfielder Raul Ibanez. Now we all know that the claiming party has 47 1/2 hours to complete the trade, or the Mariners’ can take him off the board. It would be a blessing if the Rays did get into that scenario, but I believe someone below us in the standing has gotten the outfielder before we could claim him.

The way the Waiver wire claim list goes is from least winning/playoff bound team from the same league, to the top dogs in the league. The Rays are currently the second top dog and everyone else in baseball would get a shot at Ibanez in the AL before the Rays even get to sniff daylight.

My personal opinion is that the Toronto Blue Jays, who were kicking the tires on Ibanez in the wee hours of the Trade Deadline might have finally gotten their guy. But the Jays have to submit a trade request which will probably have to contain at least two top prospects, to counter the two picks they will recieve as compensation if Ibanez walks away after this season.

Seattle’s new GM might be young, but he was not born yesterday, so the Jays will have to make it almost a “no-brainer” type of offer, or the Mariners’ might just take Ibanez off waivers and take their chances with their two Compensation picks in next years’ draft.

This is the time of year that a GM can make or break his name in the upcoming Winter discussions for players or for trades. A great move or shrewd business deal right now can set the parameters for future discussions. It will show either a willingness to deal, or a subborn syreak to hold onto prospects and MLB ready guys who are stuck at the Triple-A level.

Hopefully the Rays did get a surprise and Ibanez fell into their laps, but Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman would not be that kind to Andrew Friedman. Now, if we were below those two teams, we could have snapped him up wihout incident. Oh, how the winning ways can be a crime sometimes…………..or we might have stolen a prize without a fight.

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This season, the Rays are finally seeing what Ben Zorbrist can do at this level. As Rays analyst, Brian Anderson quoted during the game last night, ” Zorbrist is hitting like he has had enough of Durham.”

I actually love that quote. It shows the changes and the maturity of Zorbrist as a player and as a hitter for the Rays. Zorbrist is fast becoming a hitting factor for the Rays.  And with Jason Bartlett about to come back to his position at shortstop, Zorbrist has to give the Rays reasons to keep him up here, and not deposit him back to Durham until the Sept 1st expanded roster call-ups.

Zorbrist did all he could to cement his image in Rays Manager Joe Maddon mind by going 1-4, with a RBI producing double down the rightfield line to put the Rays up 3-2 last night. Zorbrist hit a blistering shot past A’s rookie third baseman, Cliff Pennington to score pince-runner Justin Ruggiano and complete the scoring for the Rays.

In the 4th inning, Zorbrist hit another hard shot towards rightfield, but A’s second basebman Marc Ellis jumped high to snare the ball and prevent a Rays rally.  His 5 homers this season have all come in the last 24 games for the Rays. With a  roster decision coming concerning Bartlett, you have to hope the Rays will give Zorbrist more time to hit and play the infield and even the outfield in the coming weeks for the Rays.

Andy Sonnanstrine became the fastest Rays pitcher in history to reach his 12 win last night.  Sonnanstine pitched  6 innings of 6-hit, 2-run ball last night and struck out 6 A’s batters in the contest.

Andy started the game by getting in a little trouble, but was bailed out by a great 3-6-3 double play to end the 1st inning.  In the 3rd inning, Sonnanstine gave up a single to A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki that was barely missed by Zorbrist up the middle. 

 Suzuki moved into scoring position after Sonnanstine threw a  Wild Pitch.  Marc Ellis hit a single into leftfield that Eric Hinske fielded and  quickly threw to Willy Aybar. Suzuki was heading for home and Aybar threw a strike to Dioner Navarro that got Suzuki in time and stopped the A’s rally.

In the 5th inning, the A’s scored their only runs of the ballgame . Bobby Crosby lead off the inning withdouble that  1-hopped off the leftfield wall that came down within a foot of the foul line.  Jack Hannahan then hit a looper into center that fell in front of a charging B J Upton, and Crosby moved to third on the play.

Sonnanstine then walked Suzuki on 5 pitches to load the bases for the A’s. Eric Patterson then  came up and put a ball down the first baseline, just out of the reach of a diving Carlos Pena. Hannahan scored and the A’s tied the game 2-2.   A 5-4-3 double play got the Rays out of the inning.

Carlos Pena is beginning to warm up at the plate, and that could mean some trouble for starting pitcher the rest of this season. Pena took a  rolling backdoor cutter from A’s starter Justin Duchsherer and deposited it in section 146 up about 20 rows for an early 1-0 Rays lead.

The shot was Pena’s 22nd homer of the season, which teid him with Evan Longoria for the team lead.  In his last 7 games, Carlos is 10-29, with a .345 average, * RBI’d and 3 homers. He  now has  a season high average of .243 for the Rays. Pena also has 7 homers in the last 18 games, and has hit 11 since July 4th.

Eric Hinske also added a shot of his own in the 2nd inning  on a fastball over the plate. The homer was Hinske’s 17th of the season and upped his RBI total for the season to 50 RBI’s.  Hinske also has a pair of 3-hit games in his last 2 starts.

Last night Hinske went 3-3, with 1 RBI and 1 run scored for the squad. His last start on Sunday, Hinske went 3-5 with 3 runs scored. His 17 homers are the most in his career since he hit 24 as a rookie for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Even with their troubles on the left side of the infield with injuries, the Rays again came up big and got two double plays that helped out Sonnanstines pitching performance. Aybar completed a nice around the horn (5-4-3) double play to end the 5th inning threat.

On a somber note, Dave Price, the Rays 2007 first round pick is no longer undefeated as a professional. Price started Wed night’s game for the Durham Bulls and went 4 innings and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits in a losing effort. Price did get 6 strikeouts of the Tide’s batters.

The Bulls nearly came back after scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth, but they could not push across the tying run in the ninth and took a 7-6 loss.