Rays Make Their Point

Another tough outing for Derek Holland. Not sure what the purpose of the socks thing was. It’s about the strike zone. After watching him make great strides second half last year and in the playoffs, it seems like maturity might be a problem again. I had mentioned previously that Joe Maddon has this team prepared and is a great manager. It wasn’t a coincidence that four straight hitters in the second inning took Derek the opposite way with pretty decent pitches. That is from watching a lot of tape and having a plan at the plate. There are other reasons we lost. We were 1 of 8 with runners in scoring position, chief among them.  It was Wash’s 60th birthday and for a special gift, he was ejected arguing balls and strikes in the 7th inning. I thought I had heard he had only been ejected once previously as manager, but I couldn’t find a number anywhere. I did find this really cool website that tracks MLB umps.

We lost our first series of the year. I knew it had to happen sometime, but we lost two games that we could have won. What had been our hallmark previously evaded us in those two games. That was having a different player come through in the clutch. The other piece of bad news was that Josh Hamilton tweaked his back and is day-to-day. The saving grace about losing tonight was that everyone else in our division lost as well so the standings will stay the same. The Angels were shutout but the Indians 4-0 and no Albert didn’t get a home run, extending his now career long streak. The buzz is picking up steam again about his age being a few years older than what you find on your scorecard.

Off to Toronto to kick off a 10 game road trip with stops in Cleveland and Baltimore before coming home to take on the Angels. Yikes. Our next off day is Thursday and then not another until May 24th. Double yikes.

Well happy birthday anyway Wash. I read your lips and I totally agree.

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