Rangers 3, Rays 1

Hank Blalock hit a two-run homer and four Rangers pitchers allowed a combined three hits as the Rays fell 3-1 on Friday.

Comments

[joemaddonsucks.com]

T-Bird, I hear ya, I agree with the Rays that Burrell should get hot soon but he isn't, and we may have been wrong about Upton, but the difference is Upton gave the Rays defense, and had upside(even if he doesn't run out ground balls and keeps getting picked off), but Burrell has gone 1/2 the season now, and is simply killing the lineup. Their league leading runs is so misleading, when they pitch close they tend to lose, and most of those runs are in blowouts. The last 4 games these young pitchers have made the Rays lineup look like AAA. None of these pitchers are extremely good, it seems like the Rays were counting on winning these games and aren't playing hard. Longoria is playing awful, and we know he is our best player, but he clearly doesn't look right, in his attitude and his hustle. If that hamstring is so bad, he needs to sit down and let Aybar play, because Longo is simply hurting this team right now. Scoring runs in bunches is nice, but the Red Sox are on top because they score enough to win high scoring and close games. The Rays have the right guys, but they aren't playing up to par. Funny how Maddon was so insistent on resting guys when they were hot, now that they aren't he still uses them and doesn't rest Longoria when he is injured. This pitching rotation move will backfire, Niemann leads the team in wins, and the Rays score runs even when Niemann isn't pitching well for some reason, and they usually win his starts. Why bench him, three times now, and mess him up again, and just look at Shields and Price. They aren't doing as well as Niemann, yet Maddon is so worried about getting them extra starts. I understand it in theory, but why mess with something when it is working, and why keep sitting Aybar when he could fill in for Longo and Burrell on alternate days, give them both a chance to sit and get better. Maddon has done a good job lately overall, but this Niemann thing is a head scratcher, and the Burrell experiment has failed so far, so why not sit him against right handers and let Aybar play? Navarro is the one with two hits tonight and 3 RBI's, the rest of the guys need to catch up. Of all guys to start hitting, I sure hope he can get hot and stay hot finally. They simply can't keep losing games to inferior pitching. One more thing, David Price is struggling, but have you noticed in the games he gets bombed, that right after Hickey talks to him, he gives up a big hit? Tonight it was a 3 run home run, then the next time a 3 run double. It might be coincidence, but the same thing happened in the Phillies game. Price clearly is going to be a star, but he has a long way to go to be consistent. Niemann has gotten better as the year has gone on, and deserves to stop being yanked each time.

[tbird]

Others have advised me not to worry as the likes of Burrell and Navarro "will come around", to quit being so negative and "we score more runs than anyone and strikeouts don't mean anything".. Cripes, I can't help but notice that we have scored 1 run in each of the last two games against a pitcher just called up from the minors and that we have struck out a lot. Heck, I shouldn't let Burrell's inability to touch a breaking ball bother me as "he'll get toasty and look at his body of work"..My Bad..

[KT]

Why is Pat playing, oh yeah we can't have an $8mil guy sitting his fat bum on the pine.
He batted .128 in June and had 2 HR's. We could have probably gotten that production had we let our pitchers bat. Pat looks terrible in most of his trips to the plate. A long, slow swing that pitchers are having an easy time pitching around. I think the reason we struggle to score runs by stringing together hits is because of the two gaping holes in our lineup, Navi and Burrell. They are both batting near .200. Tough to keep a rally going when these slugs come up to the plate...

[WTF]

If the bats don't wake up, we're gonna get swept...