 |
 Home | Webstore
|
|
Latest News:
OOTP 27 Buy Now
- FHM 12 Available
- OOTP Go! 27 Available
Out of the Park Baseball 27 Buy Now! |
|
|
||||
| ||||
08-28-2004, 01:46 PM
|
#81 | |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
08-30-2004, 12:49 AM
|
#82 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
  Colorado Rockies vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 20-39, .339, (HM: 12-19), 5th AL East, -17.0 Colorado Rockies: 24-35, .407 (RD: 10-20), 5th NL West, -10.0 Season Series: 0-0, 1st meeting. Pitching Matchups: 06/11: Jason Jennings (2-7, 6.68) vs. Victor Zambrano (2-4, 5.47) 06/12: Deny Stark (2-5, 5.33) vs. Mark Hendrickson (3-2, 4.72) 06/13: Chin-Hui Tsao (2-5, 4.43) vs. Rich Harden (3-4, 4.26) Series Preview: In what might be an ironic twist of fate, the Devil Rays might be able to take advantage of their recent struggles this weekend when the face off against the third worst team in baseball, the Colorado Rockies. With little less to look foward to other than the first pick in the next draft, the Devil Rays might do themselves a favor in dropping this series to the Rockies. Neither team can really hope to contend at this point, so this series come down to some respect for struggling clubs in need of beating on the low calibur teams when possible. The Rockies enter this series with the second worst record in the National League despite an impressive Corrs Field-aided 78 homeruns. Of course, a mediocre pitching staff and struggling stars will curtail any hopes of the postseason no matter where you play your home game. Much like the Rays, the Rockies are trying out some of their younger talent that would still be in the minors if they were in the playoff race. Look for appearnces by Chin-Hui Tsao, J.D. Closer and Ryan Shealy at some point this weekend. Tampa Bay Team News: (06/08-06/10)
Around the League: (06/08-06/10)
American League East Standings: (6/11/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 37-22 .627 - W1 7-3 Boston 29-31 .483 8.5 W1 3-7 Toronto 29-31 .183 8.5 W1 6-4 Baltimore 22-37 .373 15.0 W3 5-5 Tampa Bay 20-39 .339 17.0 L3 3-7 |
|
|
|
|
08-31-2004, 03:54 PM
|
#83 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Zambrano wins second straight, Rays bounce back against Rockies
Game 60: Tampa Bay 4, Colorado 2 Tampa Bay took advantage of a crisp-looking Victor Zambrano and held off the high-power Rockies to take the series opener in St. Petersburg. Zambrano took home his second consecutive player of the game honor as Zambrano was able to get the Devil Rays a victory in his third straight start. Victor worked seven innings, allowing two runs while scattering five hits along with two walks and six strikeouts. Tampa Bay jumped on the board first in the bottom of the opening inning with a RBI-single from Rocco Baldelli. With one out, Baldelli followed Julio Lugo's double to the left-center gap with a shallow single thatproved deep enough to allow Lugo to beat the throw home from left fielder Rene Reyes. Unfortunately, the Devil Rays' aggressiveness on the base paths, which has been a characteristic of the season, ended the threat before it could really start. Baldelli was thrown out trying to steal second by catcher Charles Johnson and Aubrey Huff, after taking a base on balls, was thrown out trying to advance to third by Larry Walker on a Geoff Blum single to right field. In the bottom of the 3rd, Tampa Bay got to Colorado starter Jason Jennings once again, scoring twice on a Geoff Blum single. With the bases loaded, Blum slapped a line-drive single to left-center that scored Mike Redmond and Baldelli for a three run lead. Colorado cut the lead to one in the top of the 4th on a two-run double by Preston Wilson. Matt Diaz, who has done nothing by hit since being called up to replace Jonny Gomes, slugged his second homerun in six games in the bottom of the inning for some insurance for Zambrano. Colorado would threaten in the top of the 8th when Aaron Miles reached base on a throwing error by Lugo to lead off the inning. Al Reyes replaced Zambrano and allowed pinch hitter Marty Cordova to get on base before Todd Helton bounced into a doulbe play to advance Miles to third. Ryan Wagner, making his first Tampa appearance, entered the game to a loud round of applause from the 16,600 plus enjoying Glove Day at Tropicana Field before striking out Larry Walker swinging with a nasty slider in the dirt. Wagner worked stayed on in the ninth and shut the door on the Rockies for his first save with the Devil Rays. W: Victor Zambrano (3-4, 5.23); L: Jason Jennings (2-8, 6.60); SV: Ryan Wagner (9, 3.00) Player of the Game: Victor Zambrano. 7 IP, 5 Hits, 2 ERs, 2 BBs, 6 K's, 115 PI. Game Notes: Matt Diaz hit the longest homer of his career, it went 406 feet. After rough May, Hendrickson starts June off with win over Rockies Game 61: Tampa Bay 8, Colorado 4 Mark Hendrickson, despite teammates with worse numbers, kept looking over the transaction log every morning in the newspaper to see if his name was listed. After winning two of his first four starts with the devil Rays this season, Hendrickson struggled through May, posting a 1-2 record with a 6.02 ERA in 40.1 innings. "I've always been a guy togive up a few too many hits in a game, but, when it comes to getting an important guys out, I can throw down the hammer," Hendrickson explained about a .270 opponents average against him. Despite that high number, Hendrickson actually ranks third on the starting staff in hits per nine innings, trailing Jeff Suppan (11.1) and Todd Ritchie (10.6) After allowing a run in the first on Mary Cordova's single down the third base line that scored Royce Clayton, Hendrickson settles himself down and worked the next four innings without allowing just two hits until Lary Walker hit a solo homerun in the top of the 6th to cut the Tampa lead to just one run, 3-2. The Devil Rays had tied the game in the bottom of the first when Fred McGriff drove a 0-2 fastball from Joe Kennedy to right field that scored DH Eduardo Perez. McGriff was caught stealing to endt he inning on a failed hit-and-run play with 2B Rey Sanchez. With two outs in the 4th, Mike Redmond smacked a single to shallow left-center that scored Julio Lugo from second with the go-ahead run. Lugo would hit a sacrifice fly in the 5th for the third Tampa run. With the lead cut to one run, the Devil Rays put the game away in the bottom of the sixth with five runs on five hits. mike Redmond hit a two-run single down the right field line to score Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli easily. After Steve Reed replaced Kennedy, Eduardo Perez walked on four pitches and Aubrey Huff single to center, scoring Redmond. Huff and Perez advanced to second and third on the throw home by Preston Wilson. Fred McGriff hit a run-scoring groundout to second before Rey Sanchez singled home Huff for the final run of the inning. Larry Walker and Preston Wilson added solo homeruns in the top of the ninth against Hendrickson. Chad Gaudin came out of the bullpen to record the final out, getting Charles Johnson out on a deep fly ball that Baldelli was just able to catch up with against the outfield wall in right-center. W: Mark Hendrickson (4-2, 4.54); L: Joe Kenndy (2-3, 2.47) Player of the Game: Mike Redmond. 3-5, Run, 3 RBIs (17) Game Notes: Larry Walker hit the longest homer of his career, it went 449 feet. Devil Rays complete sweep, hold off Rockies 3-2 Game 62: Tampa Bay 3, Colorado 2 Despite the Rockies' poor record and obvious pitching problems, the Devil Rays were nonetheless excited after finishing off their sweep of the Rockies after holding off for a 3-2 victory. "Any time you can take three games in a row from an opponent it is a big thing," Manager Lou Pinella boasted after the three game series finished. "We are not going to get full of ourselves here, but we had three great outings from our starters and the bullpen looks to finally be straightened out. Having Ryan back there now lets everyone else settle into positions that best suit them. The guys have an off day to enjoy this then its back to work in San Diego and Arizona." For the third consecutive game, the Devil Rays starters worked past the seventh inning and the bullpen held onto the lead despite facing two of the most clutch hitters in baseball, Todd Helton and Larry Walker. Rich Harden took the mound for Tampa, still looking for his first win since being acquired from Oakland. "I know my role here is to go against other team's top guys and I'm ready for it," Harden said. "I was embarassed by that last game against the Giants and wanted to prove that they didn't make a bad move brining me in here." In his last start, Harden failed to record an out while surrending seven runs on four hits and 4 walks to San Francisco. Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli continued their cat and mouse game for the team record for stolen bases in the season as both men increased their season total in the bottom of the first against JC Closer's arm. Crawford led off the inning with a single and took second before Baldelli followed a Julio Lugo pop-out with a single of his own to score Crawford. Baldelli stole second himself before Aubrey Huff single to right to score the speedy centerfielder for an early two-run lead. The Devil Rays added one more run in the bottom of the 5th on a Huff groundout to shortstop. Crawford, who led off the inning with a double, score the eventual game winning run when Huff slapped a slow roller between Vinny Castillo and Damian Jackson that he was unable to beat out. Todd Helton broke up the shutout in the top of the 6th with a single to short right-center that scored Aaron Miles with the first Rockies' run. Miles had led off the inning with a triple to the corner in right field that Matt Diaz had trouble fielding. Vinny Castillo added a RBI-single in the 7th before J.D. Closer grounded into an inning-ending double play with the tying run on second. Al Reyes relieved Harden after a double by Damian Jackson in the 8th put the tying run in scoring position with one out. After an intentional walk to Helton gave the Rockies runners on first and second with one out, Ryan Wagner came out of the bullpen to strike out Larry Walker and Marty Cordova looking to end the threat. Colorado went down in the top of the ninth in order for Wagner's 10th save of the season. W: Rich Harden (4-4, 4.06); L: Chin-Hui Tsaso (2-6, 4.40); SV: Ryan Wagner (10, 2.86) Player of the Game: Rich Harden. 7.1 IP, 5 Hits, 2 Runs, 2 BBs, 7 K's, 10. PI. Game Notes: Carl Crawford sets a new season Team-Record for Stolen Bases with 32! Rocco Baldelli sets a new season Team-Record for Stolen Bases with 33! |
|
|
|
|
08-31-2004, 04:57 PM
|
#84 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. San Diego Padres Petco Park, San Diego, California Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 23-39, .371 (RD: 8-20), 5th AL East, -16.0 San Deigo Padres: 30-32, .484 (HM: 14-14), 4th NL West, -5.0 Season Series: 0-0, 1st meeting. Pitching Matchups: 06/15: Jeff Suppan (2-8, 5.94) vs. Ismael Valdes (1-1, 8.20) 06/16: Victor Zambrano (3-4, 5.23) vs. David Wells (6-4, 4.86) 06/17: Todd Ritchie (1-5, 4.96) vs. Adam Eaton (4-5, 5.30) Series Preview: Tampa Bay followed up a lackluster, disappointing three game sweep by the San Francisco Giants with their own sweep of the Colorado Rockies. Which teams shows up for this series is anyone's guess, but with the Padres still well within reach of both the National League West and the NL Wild Card, expect a greater fight than the Rockies gave. With Jeremi Gonzalez expected back before the All Star break, each of the starters know that their jobs are in jeopardy and will try to earn their spots once again. In the first season of Petco Park, the Padrs have not played particularly well at home, putting up a .500 record at 14-14. Despite having Brian Giles for a a full season and healthy Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko, as well as emerging rookie of the year candidate Khalil Greene, the Padres rank in the bottom third of most major batting categories. 41 year old David Wells has proven to be a solid offseason acquisition, starting 14 games. Behind him, Brian Lawrence, Jake Peavy and Adam Eaton have pitched better than their record lead you to believe. Tamp Bay Team News: (06/11-06/14)
Around the League: (06/11-06/14)
American League East Standings: (6/15/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 39-23 .629 - W1 6-4 Boston 31-32 .492 8.5 W2 5-5 Toronto 31-32 .492 8.5 L1 6-4 Baltimore 24-38 .387 15.0 W1 6-4 Tampa Bay 23-39 .371 16.0 W3 5-5 |
|
|
|
|
08-31-2004, 07:06 PM
|
#85 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Suppan victimiez by late walks, Rays drop opener to Padres
Game 63: Tampa Bay 1, San Deigo 2 Jeff Suppan pitched well enough to earn the victory, and for six innings it looked like he would. Entering the seventh inning cruising towards his first shutout of the season with a one run lead, Suppan ran into trouble when he seemed unable to find the plate. A lead off walk to Ryan Klesko, who was replaced by pinch runner Kerry Robison, was just the beginning for the right hander. After Jay Payton flied out to short-right center, Robison stole second and third against Mike Redmond. With the tying run on third and two balls to the better, Lou Pinella decided to intentionally walk Phil Nevin in an attempt to set up the inning ending double play. Henri Stanley came in to pinch run for Nevin, putting the fastest Padre on first base representing the winning run. Ramon Hernandez struck out swinging for the second out of the inning, but not before Stanley stole second to move into scoring position. The next batter, SS Khalil Greene, slapped a single to left. With a full count and two outs, the runners were going with the pitch, allowing Stanley to score from second. Pinch hitter Brian Buchanan struck out swining to end the inning. In the top of the 8th, the Devil Rays tried to muster some runs, but pinch runner Alex Sanchez, who represented the tying run, was stranded at third when Tino Martinez grounded into an inning ending double play. Tampa Bay took a on run lead in the top of the 2nd when Carl Crawford laced a single to shallow left that proved just deep enough in the cavernous Petco outfield to score Frank Menechino from second. Menechino had led off the inning with a single to right field before advancing two second two batters later when San Diego starter Ismael Valdes hit Mike Redmond with a pitch. W: Ismael Valdes (2-1, 6.31); L: Jeff Suppan (2-9, 5.66); SV: Antonio Osuna (1, 4.58) Player of the Game: Ismael Valdes. 7 IP, 6 Hits, 1 Run, BB, 6 K's, 81 Pi. Six run 2nd dooms Rays as Padres cruise to easy win Game 64: Tampa Bay 3, San Diego 10 David Wells got all the support he needed in a big second inning as the Padres routed the Devil Rays 10-3 at Petco Park in San Diego. Mark Loretta opened the scoring with a three-run homerun in the bottom of the 2nd Sean Burroughs and Brian Giles followed Loretta with singles and Klesko chased Zambrano with a bases-clearing double to the gap in left-center. Lance Carter came out of the bullpen and allowed Klesko to score on a Jay Payton sincle before Phil Nevin ended the inning with a double play ball to Frank Menechino at second. Carter would work a total of three innings of shutout relief, surrendering five hits. Tampa Bay did make an effort to cut the lead down in the 4th. The Devil Rays loaded the bases on an error, a hits batsman and an infield single for Frank Menechino who delivered a single to left. Geoff Blum scored easily from third, but Julio Lugo, after running threw the stop sign at third, was cut down by Brian Giles at the plate. With Carter due up next in the pitchers' spot, manager Lou Pinella hesitated breifly before deciding to let his pitcher bat, which result in a called third strike to end the inning. "At that point, we didn't have anyone warming up and our bench was thin with Tino unavaliable." Pinella said, defending his choice not to pinch hit for Carter. "If I did bat for Lance, we'd have needed another guy to give us a few innings, and our 'pen doesn't have that." Eduardo Perez continued to crush lefties to the tune of a .365 batting average. Perez added solo homeruns to lead off the sixth and eight innings, but David Wells was able to put down the rest of the lineup before Jay Witasick and Scott Linebrink worked the final inning plus to end the game. W: David Wells (7-4, 4.66); L: Victor Zambrano (3-5. 5.79) Player of the Game: Jay Payton. 3-4, 2B (17), Run, 3 RBIs (47). Padres complete sweep with rally against Rays' pen Game 65: Tampa Bay 3, San Diego 6 The weird ride that is the Devil Rays' 2004 season continues to get weirder as the Rays completely their thrid straight series in which one team swept another. Todd Ritchie put in a decent effort through six innings, but it was Jesus Colome's one-third an inning of relief that spelt doom for the Rays. Sean Burroughs connected on a two-run homerun off colome in the 7th that proved to be the game winning runs. With eht score tied at three, pinch hitter Terrence Long walked in place of starter Adam Eaton, and, after retiring Brian Giles on a deep fly ball to left-center, Colome surrendered Burroughs' long ball, earning his first loss of the season in 8 appearances. Lance Carter, showing fatigue from a long outing the night before, replaced Colome after the homerun. He retired the final two batters of the eight, but gave up an insurance run in the 8th on Ramon Vazquez's single to the right-center gap. San Diego starter Adam Eaton looked rocky early on, giving up two runs in the first on a single by Aubrey Huff. Carl Crawford and Julio Lugo scored for Tampa Bay before Eaton retired the nest three batters without the ball leaving the infield. Ryan Klesko tied the game up quickly in the bottom of the 1st, connecting on the first pitch he saw from Ritchie for a two-run homerun to deep rightfield. Fred McGriff, a former Padre many years ago, drove an Eaton offering off the outfield wall in the 4th to give Tampa a one-run lead when Eduardo Perez crossed the plate. Mark Loretta tied the score in the 5th on a wild pitch to Ryan Klesko. w: Adam Eaton (5-5, 5.17); L: Jesus Colome (0-1, 2.45); SV: Scott Linebrink (4, 2.76) Player of the Game: Sean Burroughs. 2-3, HR (3), 2 Runs, 2 RBIs (10) |
|
|
|
|
09-02-2004, 02:05 PM
|
#86 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. Arizona Diamondbacks Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix, Arizona Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 23-42, .354 (RD: 8-23), 5th AL East, -18.0 Arizona Diamondbacks: 36-30, .545 (HM: 20-12), 2nd NL West, -0.5 Season Series: 0-0, 1st meeting. Pitching Matchups: 06/18: Rich Harden (4-4, 4.06) vs. Brandon Webb (9-1, 3.31) 06/19: Mark Hendrickson (4-2, 4.54) vs. Beltran Perez (2-2, 4.71) 06/20: Jeff Suppan (2-9, 5.66) vs. Randy Johnson (5-4, 3.75) Series Preview: Even though their pitching staff ranks in the middle of the pack statisticly, the Diamonsbacks are alive in the National League playoff race thanks to three players: 1B Richie Sexson (.297, 15 HR, 58 RBI), Brandon Webb (9-1, 3.31 ERA, 40:82 BB/K ratio), and Randy Johnson (5-4, 3.75 ERA, .218 OAVG). 32 year old Danny Bautista is having a breakout season in his walk year, leading the National League in batting at .384. The rest of the rotation is made up of veteran Shane Reynolds and rookies Edgar Gonzalez and Beltran Perez. Of course, if they do qualify, having a 1-2 punch like Johnson and Webb will get you far. After moving past the Orioles into fourth place in the division, Tampa Bay has endured a rollercoaster ride abck into the basement, having sandwiched sweeps by San Francisco and San Digeo with their own sweep of Colorado. Interleague play has not been kind to the Devil Rays and most on the team are looking foward to Tampa Bay Team News: (06/15-06/17)
Around the League: (06/15-06/17)
American League East Standings: (6/18/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 41-24 .631 - L1 6-4 Boston 34-32 .515 7.5 W5 7-3 Toronto 33-33 .500 8.5 W1 7-3 Baltimore 25-40 .385 16.0 W1 6-4 Tampa Bay 23-42 .354 18.0 L3 4-6 |
|
|
|
|
09-02-2004, 05:25 PM
|
#87 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
D'Backs rout Tampa to take opener in Phoenix
Game 66: Tampa Bay 2, Arizona 11 After losing to the Diamondbacks, Rich Harden looked dejected in front of his locker. A towel thrown over his head, face in his hands, the struggling right hander didn't respond to any questions put forth from the reporters with good reason. In four starts with the Devil Rays since being acquired from Oakland, Harden has an ERA of 12.56 to go along with a 1-3 record . Even more telling, in that time, his WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitches) is 2.34. the key to the trade that sent the disgruntled Jose cruz, Jr. out of town, Harden has not seen losing like this in his brief major league career. Harden worked an easy first inning, giving up a one-out single to Danny Bautista before retiring the next two batters to end the inning. In the second innings is when things got out of hand. Steve Finley and Alez Cintro led off the inning with walks before perfectly executing a double steal of second and third. Robbie Hammock struck out looking before Wes Helms delivered a double that rolled all the way to the outfield wall in right-center that scored both baserunners. After Brandon Webb stuck out for thes second out of the inning, Robbie Alomar tripled home Helms. Danny Bautista slammed the next pitch from Harden over the left field wall for a two-run homerun. Luis Gonzalez followed Bautista with a single through the hole on the right side of the infield before Richie Sexson launched his own two-run homerun, this one to right field. Harden struck out Steve Finley for his third off the innings, but the damage had been done in the form of seven runs on five hits. Chad Gaudin replaced Harden at the start of the thrid inning. Tampa Bay tried to chip away at the lead, getting runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. Carl Crawford crossed the plate on a wild pitch by Brandon Webb in the 3rd for the first run. crawford led off the inning with a double and stole third base easily, beating the throw from Hammock. In the 4th, the Devil Rays loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman, but back-to-back groundouts by Mike Redmond and Chad Gaudin only resulted in one run getting home. Arizona put the game away in the 6th when they added three runs off of Jesus Colome. Alomar and Bautista opened the inning with a pair of singles and Luis Gonzalez walked to load the bases for Richie Sexson. After a wild pitch scored Alomar from third, Sexson slapped ground ball to the right side that Fred McGriff had trouble handling, enabling him to only make a play at first. Bautista scored on the play. Steve Finley slammed a deep double off the outfield wall in center field, scoring Gonzalez. Alex Cintron and Robby Hammock followed with walks to load the bases, but Wes Helms lined into a double play to the third baseman Geoff Blum. W: Brandon Webb (10-1, 3.230); Rich Harden (4-5, 4.88) Player of the Game: Danny Bautista. 3-5, HR (10), 2 Runs, 2 RBIs (45) Rays drop 5th straight as D'Backs chase starter early Game 67: Tampa Bay 5. Arizona 12 It might seem obvious to even the most casual of baseball fans, but when your starter doesn't go deep into the ballgame, your chances of winning are greatly reduced. After Rich Harden failed to make it into the thrid inning the night before, Lou Pinella really needed Mark Hendrickson to work deep to give his bullpen much needed rest. With a staff that has yet to throw a complete game all season, that might have been wishful thinking. Hendrickson didn't even make it out of the second inning, retiring just 4 of the eleven batters he faced on his way to surrendering 6 runs on 6 hits and a walk. The Devil Rays opened the scoring in the top of the first with Fred McGriff's RBI-single to left off Beltran Perez. Julio Lugo, who singled with one out earlier in the inning, scored from second without a throw. Riche sexson and Steve Finley almost immediately took back the lead in the bottom of the inning when they followed strike outs by Donnie Salder and Robby Hammock with back-to-back solo homerums to deep left field. Finley's shot, his tenth of the season, traveled an estimated 417 feet, a good forty more than Sexson's. Frank Menechino gave Devil Rays fans some hope in the 2nd when he singled home Alex Sanchez, who was given his first start in more than a week to rest Rocco Baldelli. Sanchez doubled to lead off the inning for his only hit on the day. Perez struck out the next three batters to keep the game tied at two. Of course, the excitement was shortlived, if it even existed at all. Tim Olson lef off the bottom of the 2nd with a single and stole second before Wes Helms worked a 0-2 count into a walk. Perez struck out for the first out of the inning, but that proved to be the last Hendrickson would earn. Donnie Salder doubled home Olsen and Robbie Hammock cleared the bases with a two-run double down the first base line. With Al Reyes coming on in relief of Hendrickson, Richie Sexson doubled home Mahhock and Danny Bautista followed Steve Finley's strike out with a RBI-single of his own to increase the lead to five runs. Orlando Merced mercifully grounded out to McGriff at first to end the inning. Reyes combined with Bartolome Fortunato to work the next three innings, surrendering just one run on back-to-back doubles by Bautista and Merced in the bottom of the fifth. Ryan Wagner, used primarily as a closer this season, came into the game relatively early in the 5th when Pinella ran out of avaliable relief pitchers. Wagner threw a career high 66 pitches over three and a third innings of work, surrendering four runs, three of which came in the eight when he clearly throwing on fumes. "Ryan was game," Pinella said. "I talked to him before he went to the bullpen, after Mark left the game and let him know we'd need him for a few innings and he said 'whatever it takes'. Having a closer is important, but when you are not in positions to use him to close out wins, you need him elsewhere to stop the bleeding. He is our best guy out there, and our best guy is going to be used in the important positions, whether it is the fith inning of the ninth inning." Trailing by seven in the top of the 8th, Julio Lugo and Aubrey Huff hit back-to-back homeruns off Perez. Lugo's two-run shot came after carl Crawford led off the inning with a walk. Unfortunately, much like the second inning, the next three batters all struck out to end the threat. This time it was Brandon Villafuerte doing the damage for Arizona. Ryan Wagner, clearly working with nothing left in the tank, surrendered a three-run homerun in the bottom of the 8th to Richie Sexson. After hitting Steve Finley with a 0-2 fastball that cuase both teams to recieve warning from the homeplate umpire, Wagner retired the next two batters without incident. W: Beltran Perez (3-2, 5.05); L: Mark Hendrickson (4-3, 5.15) Player of the Game: Richie Sexson. 3-5, 2B (14), 2 HRs (18), BB, 3 Runs, 5 RBIs (66) Game Notes: Beltran Perez sets a career high for K's (8) in a game! Diamondbacks finish sweep of expansion brothers with dominant Johnson performance Game 68: Tampa Bay 2, Arizona 6 Eduardo Perez continues to prove himself to one of the most prolific hitters of left-handed pitching in the major leagues. Against Randy Johnson, the marque lefty of the Arizona Diamondbacks and one of the best in baseball history, Perez hit a solo homerun in the 4th and a double in the 7th on his way to raising his average to .388 against lefties, which is good enough for tenth best in baseball. Perez is second on the team though, trailing Rocco Baldelli (.402) against southpaws. Unfortunately, Perez alone couldn't do enough alone to bring the Devil Rays back from an early three run defecit. Jeff Suppan, pitching against his former team, allowed three runs in the bottom of the 1st, which proved to be enough for Johnson this day. With one out, Danny Bautista single to left, and, after Luis Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, Richie Sexson smacked a two-run double to left field, scoring Bautista and Gonzalez without a throw. Steve Finley advance Sexson to third on a groundout and AleX Cintron smacked a single past a divind Julio Lugo at short to score Sexson. Perez scored both Devil Rays runs against Johnson. The first came in the top of the second, when, after a Johnson issued two-out walks to him and Frank Menechino, Jeff Suppan helped his own cause with a single to left to score Perez from second. Perez's homerun in the top of the 4th cut the Diamondbacks' lead to one run, but Suppan was unable to deliver the tying run home when he grounded out with Menechino on third. Luis Gonzalez added an insurance run against Suppan with a solo homerun to lead off the bottom of the 6th. After a perfect inning of relief from Jesus colome, Bartolome Fortunato gave up two meaningless runs in the bottom of the 8th on a two-run single by Alex Cintron with two outs. W: Randy Johnson (6-4, 3.68); L: Jeff Suppan (2-10, 5-68); SV: Jose Valverde (3, 1.60) Player of the Game: Randy Johnson. 7 IP, 5 hits, 2 Runs, 3 BB's, 7 K's, 110 PI. |
|
|
|
|
09-03-2004, 01:01 AM
|
#88 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. Toronto Blue Jays Skydome, Toronto, Canada Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 23-45, .338 (RD: 8-26), 5th AL East, -21.0 Toronto Blue Jays: 35-35, .507 (HM: 15-19), 3rd AL East, -9.5 Season Series: 0-0, 1st meeting. Pitching Matchups: 06/22: Victor Zambrano (3-5, 5.79) vs. Roy Halladay (8-2, 2.50) 06/23: Todd Ritchie (1-5, 4.91) vs. Josh Towers (1-3, 7.36) 06/24: Mark Hendrickson (4-3, 5.15) vs. Josh Banks (6-4, 5.23) Series Preview: Even though the Blue Jays are no cake walk, the Devil Rays have to be excited to be back playing the American League team. Their twelve game trip through the National League West has a disaster. Dropping six straight and nine of 12 has clearly dealt a huge blow to the morale of the devil Rays and cost them one of their highly touted pitchers, as Rich Harden was sent to Triple-A Durham to work out whatever it is that is ailing him. Rather than ruining the confidence of another youngster, in his place comes the well traveled Mike Hampton. Much like Arizona, the Blue Jays will only go so far as their big three can carry them. Carlos Delgado (.289 avg., 23 HRs, 63 RBIS) leds an offsense that ranks in the middle of the pack, but, it is reigning CY Young winner Roy Halladay (8-2, 2.50 ERA, .223 OAVG, 0.98 WHIP) who has emerged as the heart and soul of this club. Despite being forced to rush david Bush to the majors after dealing Miguel Batista to Anaheim, the Blue Jays still a strong pitching staff that has allowed opponents to hit only .258 against them. While any realistic chance of climbing into the race for the East crown might be gone, the Blue Jays are still very alive for the Wild Card, trailing Oakland by just 4.5 games. Tampa Bay Team News: (06/18-06/21)
Around the League: (06/18-06/21)
American League East Standings: (6/22/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 44-24 .647 - W3 8-2 Boston 36-33 .522 8.5 W1 8-2 Toronto 35-34 .507 9.5 W1 7-3 Baltimore 26-42 .382 18.0 L1 5-5 Tampa Bay 23-45 .338 21.0 L6 3-7 |
|
|
|
|
09-03-2004, 02:29 AM
|
#89 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Rays rally late, hold off Jays for win in 10
Game 69: Tampa Bay 8, Toronto 6 With a six game losing streak and Roy Halladay on the mound for Toronto, there was much hope for victory for Tampa Bay against the Blue Jays. And that is the way the team played for 8 innings, mustering two runs on six hits against Halladay. It wasn't until the Blue Jays turned the game over to their bullpen that the Rays came alive and score three runs in the ninth and tenth each to steal a victory from the Blue Jays. Tampa Bay got on the board in the fist against Hallday with Rocco Baldelli's RBI-single to right field scored Julio Lugo from second. Lugo had stolen second after hitting a one-out single. Toronto tied the game up in the bottom half of the inning with a RBI-single off Victor Zambrano by Frank Catalanotto. Orlando Hudson's two-run homerun in the bottom of the 3rd staked Halladay with a two run cushion. The Blue Jays added another run in the 5th when Catalanotto followed up a wild pitch by Zambrano with a double to left that scored Vernon Wells. Tampa Bay tried to chip away at the lead against Halladay, adding one in the top of the 5th. Rocco Baldelli singled with two outs and stole second before Aubrey Huff slapped a single to center than Wells was unable to reach in time to keep Baldelli from crossing home. With a two run lead, Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca turned the game over to his bullpen and closer Terry Adams. After retiring Baldelli to lead off the inning, Adams hit Huff with a pitch. Geoff Blum advanced Huff to second with a single to center before being retired on a fielder's choice by former blue Jay Fred McGriff. With two outs and runners at the corners, pinch hitter Tino Martinez, barely able to run the bases due to a severly inflamed hamstring, drove a 1-1 slider over the wall in right field for a three-run homerun. Kerry Ligtenberg was summoned out of the 'pen and, after a single to Eduardo Perez, retired Mike Redmond to end the inning.  Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Tino Martinez is congratulated after hitting a three-run homerun in the ninth against Kerry Ligtenberg. With regular closer Ryan Wagner unavaliable due to his lenghty appareance in Arizona, former closer Al Reyes came out of the bullpen in relief of Lance Carter, who, along with Jesus Colome, had worked two perfect innings in relief of Zambrano. After allowing a single to Vernon Wells and a souble to Frank Catalanotto to put the winning run in scoring positon, manager Lou Pinella decided to intentionally walk DH Tim Salmon to create the force play at home in the hopes of keeping the Blue Jays from rallying. With the bases loaded, Reyes faced Greg Myers, who was hitless so far on the night. On a borderline call, Myers was issued a walk that had Reyes fuming on the mound. After the tying run touched the plate, Redmond calmed his pitcher down with a lenghty chat. Reyes responded by retiring the next two batters, the first of whom, Reed Johnson, hit a fly ball to left that looked for a moment like it would drop before Carl Crawford sprinted to make a spectacular sliding catch. Responding possibly to the excitement of his acrobatic display of fielding, Crawford led off the top of the 10th with a single to the right-center gap and stole second on the first pitch by new reliever Aquilino Lopez. Julio Lugo sacrificed Crawford to third before Tosca decided to load the bases with intentional walks to Baldelli and Huff. Geoff Blum broke the tie with a weak groundball that forced Huff out at second, but was just enough to allow Crawford to score from third. Fred McGriff followed Blum with his first triple since 2002 when he was with the Chicago Cubs, brining home Baldelli and Blum easily. In the bottom of the 10th, Reyes allowed the tying run to reach the plate in the form of Alexis Rios Vernon Wells followed a walk to Carlos Delgado with a RBI-double. Rios was unable to due any damaged and ended the game missing a 0-2 fastball off the plate. W: Al Reyes (1-3, 5.91); L: Kerry Ligtenberg (4-2, 4.89) Player of the Game: Tino Martinez. 1-1, HR (8), Run, 3 RBIs (23) Game Notes: Rocco Baldelli extends his hitting streak to a career high 14 games! Last edited by BostonRS14; 09-03-2004 at 02:33 AM. |
|
|
|
|
09-03-2004, 03:35 PM
|
#90 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Where we talk proper English like the Queen innit?
Posts: 2,030
|
Great Dynasty thread BostonRS14!
 Any chance of posting your current lineup and stats at the start of the next month? Keep it going and good luck!
__________________
Population of Pominville - 293 My Sports Replay Blog Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
09-06-2004, 01:23 AM
|
#91 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Ken Griffey Jr. Hits 500th Homerun
After hitting his 18th homerun of the season on June 19th, you could feel the excitment following Ken Griffey, Jr. the Cincinnati Reds started to grown. The baseball media turned their focus away from the local playoff races, and focused instead on a 4th place team, 13.5 games out of first place in a highly competitive division. It wasn't Jose Acevedo's first career shutout that drew the attention, but rather Griffey's 499th career homerun in the 2nd inning of Woody Williams that created the buzz. Ken Griffey now stood on the doorstep of one of baseball's elite clubs and every swing of his bat might give him membership with the likes of Aaron, Ruth, Bonds, Williams, and Banks; some of the most loved and treasured men to over don a uniform.  Ken Griffey Jr. is congratulated by his father, Ken Griffey Sr. after hitting his 500th career home run. After being given the next game off, Griffey returned to his pursuit at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets. In the first game of the series, manager Art Howe clearly has his pitchers avoiding pitching to the hot handed Griffey. "We want to win the games," How said after losing the series opener. "I'm trying to put us in the best position to win every game, and avoiding the hottest hitter on their team is one of the best ways in doing so, and, if along that way, one of our guys avoid become the next Carl Pavano, then so be it." Carl Pavano, for those of you not in the know, was, of course, the pitcher responsible for surrending Mark McGwire's 70th homerun in 1998. For the day, Griffey went 1-5 with three strikeouts and a meaningless single in the 9th. "I was swining for the fences, getting out of my groove," Griffey said. "I was nervous and wanted to get it out of the way and thy kept the ball away and I chased." With some of the excitement leveled off for the second game of the series, Griffey came to bat in the top of the 8th hitles in 3 atbats and the Red trailing by one. Facing Pedro Feliciano to start the inning, Griffey launched the second pitch of the atbat straight down the right field line, clearing the outfield wall easily. Estimates put the distance at 461 feet.  Ken Griffey, Jr. watches his 500th career home run leave the park Wednesday afternoon Griffey emotionally rounded the bases, recieving high-fives from first baseman Mike Piazza and centerfielder Mike Cameron, whom the Reds traded to Seattle in the deal that brought Griffey to Cincinnati in 2000. Teammates mobbed the slugger at home plate to celebrate the milestone.  Griffey is hugged by teammate Sean Casey and surrounded by teammates after touching home plate following his 500th career home run. "This is a lot to take in," Griffey said at a post game press conference with his family. "I would have loved to have done this in Cincy, but hey, it was out of my hands. I'm glad my family was here to witness it, but, um..I want to win games too, not just set records. The fans of Cincinnati deserve that and we are going to do our best to do that." Griffey is the 20th player to hit 500 homers and at 34, the sixth youngest to reach the milestone. Griffey was the fastest to 350, 400 and 450 before being slowed by injuries the last three seasons. From 2001-03, he played in only 234 games and hit 43 homers. Griffey is the only player in Reds history to reach the milestone while wearing a Cincinnati uniform. "I always knew he'd hit 500 or 600 before he was through," Griffey Sr. said. "The first game I saw him play as a professional in San Bernardino he hit a ball to left that I thought was a fly ball. It almost went out of the stadium. I knew what kind of power he had." Three other active players have hit 500 homers. Barry Bonds is third on the career list with 690, Sosa has 559 and Rafael Palmeiro 550. Next on the list to join the 500 homerun club is Tampa Bay first baseman Fred McGriff, who currently sits at 497. The Mets rallied with two runs in the bottom of the inning to steal the win, but not the excitement. Feliciano was not avaliable for comment after the game, but a team spokesman relayed a message of congratulations for Griffey. |
|
|
|
|
09-10-2004, 01:13 PM
|
#92 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Towers cruises past Rays in rout
Game 70: Tampa Bay 1, Toronto 9 Vernon Wells' first inning, two-run homerun off Todd Ritchie was all the support Josh Towners needed as the 17 year old right hander went eight and two-thirds innings to earn his second win of the season. On the day, Wells went two-for-four with two homeruns and four RBI's to earn the player of the game honor. With an early two run lead, Towers cruised through the first three innings, allowing just one hit before Wells' second homerun in the 3rd gave the Blue Jays a five run lead. Chris Woodward and Orlando Hudson hit back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning for the 3rd run of the game before Wells deposited a pitch from Todd Ritchie to deep right-center.  Toronto Blue Jays' Vernon Wells follows through on a two-run homerun against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the third inning. The Devil Ryas chipped away at the lead in the 4th when Rocoo Baldelli led off the inning with a double down the left field line. Aubrey Huff flied out to right before Geoff Blum smacked a single to left-center, allowing Baldelli to beat the throw home from second for the first, and ultimately only, Devil Rays run. Blum advanced to second on the throw home, but was stranded whtn Fred McGriff and Frank Menechino both failed to get the ball out of the infield. Chad Gaudin took over for Ritchie to start the 4th and was victimized by a Chris Woodward single that skipped under a diving Menechino for a RBI-single. Reed Johnson has previously hit a two-out triple off Gaudin and scored on Woodwards' hit. Carlos Delgado added a solo homerun in the 5th to end Gaudin's day. Jesus Colome entered the game with one out and loaded the bases on two walks and an error, but Johnson lined out to Blum at third to end the threat. The Blue Jays added two more runs in the 8th on a double by Eric Hinkse that scored Johnson and Orlando Hudson, both of whom had singled against Lance Carter. Carlos Delgado grounded into a double play to end the inning. W: Josh Towers (2-3, 5.92); L: Todd Ritchie (1-6, 5.40) Player of the Game: Vernon Wells. 2-4, 2 HRs (14), 2 Runs, 4 RBIs (52) Game Notes: Rocco Baldelli extends his hitting streak to a career high 15 games! Eric Hinske extends his hitting streak to a career high 13 games! Rays waste early lead, rally late to take series from Jays Game 71: Tampa Bay 9, Toronto 7 It was obvious that this game was going to be difficult right from the start, when Carl Crawford led off with a single but was erased one pitch later when he attempted to steal second with Julio Lugo at bat. Manager Lou Pinella has given Crawford and Rocco Baldelli the green light all season to run whenever they chose, and both have, having already shattered the team record while continually ranking second and third in the league behind Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle. After crawford was erased, Lugo and Baldelli reached base with singles themself against starter Josh Banks before Aubrey Huff his a three-run homerun to deep left-center for this tenth homerun of the season. Huff is tied with Lugo for second on the team in homeruns, one behind leader Eduardo Perez. Tampa Bay added another run in the 3rd, when Baldelli hit a one-out single and stole second against Banks. Huff followed him with a double to right field that brought Rocco home without a throw. The Blue Jays cut the lead in half in the bottom of the 4th against Mark Hendrickson. Vernon Wells started things off with a one-out single and Tim Salmon and Eric Hinksie followed with singles to load the bases. After Frank Catalanotta struck out looking, Howie Clark, starting in place of Chris Woodward, slapped a single to right that scored Wells and Salmon and put runners on the corners. Orlando Hudson slammed an offering to right-center, but Baldelli was able to make a spectacular running catch to preserve the lead for Hendrickson. Geoff Blum took the two runs right back from Toronto in the 5th when he launched a hanging breaking ball 400 feet from home plate to the seats in right-center. Aubrey Huff also scored on the longball after walking with two-outs. The Blue Jays weren't done though, as they rallied to take the lead with three runs in the 5th and two in the 6th. Hendrickson put runners on the corners with no outs in the 5th with a double by Reed Johnson and a single from Greg Myers. Carlos Delgado lined out to Blum at third for the first out, but Well's cleared the bases with a souble to the left-center gap. Tim Salmon grounded out to the pitcher, but Eric Hinksie followed him with a RBI-single that brought Wells around from second to cut the lead to one. Chad Gaudin was called on out of the bullpen and ended the rally, striking out Frank Catalanotto. After the Devil Rays went down in order in the top half of the 6th, the Blue Jays got to Gaudin for two runs. Howie Clark led off the inning with a walk, and Orlando Hundson and Reed Johnson hit RBI-doubles on back-to-back pitches to erase the one run lead Tampa Bay was enjoying. Gaudin was quickly replaced by Jesus Colome, who was able to keep the inherited runner from scoring by striking out Myers, Delgado and Salmon in order to end the inning. Tampa Bay's bats remained quiet until the 8th, when Toronto closer Terry Adams came into the game in relief of Justin Speier to get the final five outs. With pinch runner Alex Sanchez on first after Frank Menechino reached on an error by Speier, Adams quickly reitred pinch hitter Tino Martinez with three pitches. Mike Redmond followed Martinez with a ground ball to second base than Hudson booted, putting runners on first and third with two outs. Carl Crawford came up next, and, after falling into an 0-2 hole, stroked a line-drive single to right that scored Sanchez and Redmond to take back the lead, 8-7. Crawford stole second, but julio Lugo stranded him there when he grounded out to Clark at short to end the inning. Al Reyes, who had entered the game in the seveth, worked a perfect eight to keep the Rays with the lead. With Adams still on the mound with one out in the 9th, Aubrey Huff crushed his second double, this one off the top of the outfield wall in center. Geoff Blum followed with a RBI-single to left, scoring Huff without a throw. Fred McGriff slapped a double down the right field line that advance Blum to third, but both would be stranded there when neither Rey Sanchez or Edurado Perez could successfully make contact.  Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Aubrey Huff watches his second double against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning. In the bottom the ninth, Mike Hampton, who had signed with the club just days before, made an emergency appearance to close out the game. Ryan Wagner was still unavaliable for this game. Despite surrendering two singles, Hampton was able to retired the winning-run twice with pop-ups in the infield to earn his second career save and first since his rookie season in 1993 with Seattle. W: Al Reyes (2-3, 5.70); L: Terry Adams (1-7, 5.93); SV: Mike Hampton (1, 6.00) Player of the Game: Aubrey Huff. 3-4, 2 2Bs (15), HR (10), 3 Runs, 4 RBIs (45) Game Notes: Rocco Baldelli extends his hitting streak to a career high 16 games! Eric Hinske extends his hitting streak to a career high 14 games! |
|
|
|
|
09-11-2004, 02:27 PM
|
#93 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
 Florida Marlins vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 25-46, .352 (HM: 15-19), 5th AL East, -22.0 Florida Marlins: 33-39, .458 (RD: 13-22), 3rd NL East, -14.5 Season Series: 0-0, 1st meeting. Pitching Matchups: 06/25: Jeff Beckett (5-3, 4.54) vs. Jeff Suppan (2-10, 5.68) 06/26: Carl Pavano (2-7, 6.04) vs. Victor Zambrano (3-5, 5.70) 06/27: Brad Penny (1-8, 6.90) vs. Todd Ritchie (1-8, 6.90) Series Preview: Quite possibly the biggest disappointment of the 2004 season so far could be the defending World Series champions. The Marlins come to face their instate rivals sitting below .500 in 3rd place in the National League East. With the Braves pulling away with that race, attention in southern Florida is turning to the Wild Card, which the Marlins trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 8.5. Hee Seop Choi has emerged as the star many thought he'd be when he was acquired from the Cubs in the offseason, and, along with Luis Castillo and Juan Pierre, is one of the few Marlins batting about .300. Pitching wise, the club has struggled and currently ranks in the low teens in most major categories. Dontrelle Willis leads the staff with a 3.31 ERA, but the rest of the staff (Josh Beckett, AJ Burnett, Carl Pavano and Brad Penny) all are above 4.50. Tampa Bay meanwhile, is coming off a rollercoaster stretch that saw it play some of its worse baseball during the bulk of the interleague schedule (3-9). Taking two impressive victories while in Toronto has the team hoping to turn the corner, but the recent demotion of Rich Harden will be a burden on an already lackluster pitching staff. The highlight of the season so far has been the battle between Crawford and Baldelli for the team stolen base title, something that will probably come down to the final series of the season. Tampa Bay Team News: (06/22-06/24)
Around the League: (06/22-06/24)
American League East Standings: (6/25/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 47-24 .662 - W6 9-1 Boston 39-33 .542 8.5 W4 9-1 Toronto 36-36 .500 11.5 L1 5-5 Baltimore 26-45 .366 21.0 L4 3-7 Tampa Bay 25-46 .352 22.0 W1 3-7 |
|
|
|
|
09-12-2004, 01:27 AM
|
#94 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Ex-Devil Ray Colbrunn leads Marlins over Tampa in series opener
Game 72: Tampa Bay 4, Florida 9 Greg Colbrunn's tenure with the Devil Rays was a short one spent mostly on the bench. With a crowded 1B/DH platoon feature Aubrey Huff, Tino Martinez, and Fred McGriff, Colbrunn sulked and slumped and ultimately forced his way south to the Marlins in exchange for Mike Redmond. since that trade, he has batted over .330 while battling for time with youngster Hee Seop Choi. In his return to Tampa, Colbrunn made a statement, smacking two homeruns and driving in four runs to lead the Marlins to an easy 9-4 victory in the series opener of the instate rivalry. Sending the enigma that is Jeff Suppan to the mound, manager Lou Pinella can never be too sure what kind of outing he is going to get. Unfortunately for the 17,912 Devil Rays' fans in attendance on Aubrey Huff Noddin' Head Doll Day, the Jeff Suppan that showed up was the one who likes to work short outings and display complete lack of movement on pitches. Suppan was the victim of an error by right fielder Matt Diaz that led to four unearned runs being scored against him during a big six run second inning. After retiring the three batters of the first inning in an easy fashion, Suppan struggled right from the start of the second inning, walking Hee Seop Choi on four pitches that were nowhere near home plate. A breif meeting with Mike Redmond only seemed to make matters worse and Suppan seemed to aim his next pitch right down the heart of the plate to Greg Colbrunn, who desposited the pitch 419 feet away in deep left-center. The two-run homerun was the longest of the season for Colbrunn at that point. Alex Gonzalez followed Colbrunn with a single to left before third baseman Wil Cordero took a walk. Ramon Castro popped out to Huff for the first out of the inning and things began to look better for Suppan, but, a mis-play by Matt Diaz on Juan Pierre's routine fly ball to right. The error allowed Gonalez to score from second with the third run of the inning. Pierre stole second without a throw from Redmond before Luis Castillo drove a two-run single to right field. Geoff Jenkins singled right back up the middle to advance Castillo to third. Choi came up again next and slapped a single to right, scoring Castillo and putting runners on the corners. Choi's single ended Suppans day after just 53 pitches over one and two-third innings. Chad Gaudin was summoned out of the bullpen and retired Colbrunn on a groundout to the shortstop Julio Lugo. The Devil Rays mounted a comeback in the bottom of the third. Trailing by six, the Devil Rays put up 4 runs against Florida starter Josh Beckett. Catcher Bobby Estalla, making just his fourth appareance this season, started things off with a lead off double down the right field line. After an Eduaro Perez fly out, Julio Lugo drove Estella home with a single to short left. Jenkins make an effort to throw Estella out at home, but a bad hop in front of the plate allowed the slow footed catch to come around from second with the first Tampa run on the night. Lugo advance to second on the throw. Rocco Baldelli followed with a single before a walk to Aubrey Huff loaded the based. Geoff Blum's sacrifice fly to left-center scored Lugo without a throw to cut the lead to four runs. Fred McGriff brought home Baldelli and Huff with a long single to center to cut the lead to two before Frank Menechino ended the inning with a deep fly out to right-center. Josh Beckett worked through seven and two-thirds innings, surrendering 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks whiles striking out 7 Tampa batters. Hee Seop Choi got one run back in the top of the 4th with a two-out solo homerun off Gaudin. Colbrunn added another homerun, a two-run shot off Ryan Wagner in the top of the ninth to cap the scoring. The 420 blast, which past his previous homerun by one foot for the longest of the season for the first baseman, was met with a long pause in the batter's box as he watched it leave the park. Colbrunn didn't move until Wagner started slowly walking towards the plate. With a little more gas on his pitches, Wagner struck out Alez Gonzalez on three pitches to end the inning. Tommy Phelps finished the Rays in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game. W: Josh Beckett (6-3, 4.55), L: Jeff Suppan (2-11, 5.77); SV: Toomy Phelps (2, 4.18) Player of the Game: Greg Colbrunn. 2-5, 2 HRs (9), 2 Runs, 4 RBIs (34) Game Notes: Greg Colbrunn hit the longest homer of his career, it went 419 feet. Greg Colbrunn hit the longest homer of his career, it went 420 feet. Rocco Baldelli extends his hitting streak to a career high 17 games! Group effort leads Rays to win over Marlins Game 73: Tampa Bay 11, Florida 5 All nine Tampa Bay starters reached bases and scored as the Devil Rays survived another early exit from a starting pitcher for the victory over the Florida Marlins. Only right fielder Matt Diaz was unable to drive home a run as the Rays hammering out 11 runs on 15 hits and 8 walks. Marlins starter Carl Pavano was unable to hold onto the early lead given to him by a three run Hee Seop Choie homerun in the top of the 1st off Victor Zambrano. In the bottom of the first, the Rays got one run on a Geoff Blum bloop single to right. Rocco Baldelli, who laced a two-out double off the outfield wall two batters early, was running with the pitch and easily scored from second. Fred McGriff ended the inning with runners at the corners when he was robbed of a hit by a divign Luis Castillo. Fortunately, Tampa Bay kept connecting in the 2nd inning. Frank Menechino led off with a single and advanced to third one batter later on a Mike Redmond single. With runners at the corners, Carl Crawford dropped a single between the right and center fielder to cut the lead to one run. Pavano recovered though and struck out Julio Lugo and Baldelli on seven pitches to get out of the threat. Zambrano did not fare much better than Pavano on this night. In the thrid, after retiring two of the first three batters, Hee Seop Choie hit his second homerun of the night, this one a two-run blast to right-center. With a three run lead, the Marlins look poised to pull away, but manager Lou Pinella called on Jesus Colome out of the bullpen, and he came up large along with Bartolome Fortunato and Ryan Wagner who combined to work the final six and a third innings of shutout ball to keep the game from getting away. Wagner was clearly the most valuable of the three, working three and two-thirds of hitless ball, walking just two while striking out four in his longest appearance of his career. "We didn't want to use Ryan like this again," Lou Pinella explained after the game. "But, what else do I have. We used Chad [Gaudin], Al [Reyes], Bart [Fortunato] and Ryan all last night. And tonight, what happens? Another piss-poor start results in more work for our bullpen. Lance Carter was still unavaliable unless it was an emergency. I just wish I had used Bart a bit longer I guess, taken some slack of Ryan later on but waht the hell. We won, right? God forbid it happens again tomorrow, but you might Todd Ritchie is going so you might see Hampton or Hendrickson back there." Trailing by three, the Tampa batters didn't fool around and quickly got to Carl Pavano once again. A lead off walk to Aubrey Huff was followed by a Geoff Blum since and a Fred McGriff double to cut the lead to two. Menechino struck out swinging before a walk to Matt Diaz loaded the bases. Mike Redmond tied the game at 5 with a two-run single to shallow left-center that proved just deep enough to allow the slow-footed McGriff to come around from second and beat the throw home. With the lead gone and the score tied, Florida manager Jack McKeon had seen enough of his starter and turned the game over to Mike Neu. Carl Crawford, after fouling off two bunt attempts, worked the count full before taking a close ball four to load the bases once again. Julio Lugo slapped a single through the hole on the left side of the infield to break the tie, brining the eventual game-winning run to the plate in the form of Matt Diaz. With the bases still loaded, Rocco Baldelli took a RBI the wasy way with a base on balls. Huff came up again in the inning, this time grounding into a fielder choice at second base. Thanks to a good slide at second by Baldelli, Huff was able to able to beat out the throw home, thus allowing the sixth run of the inning to come home. Geoff Blum batted next, grounding into a routine out to the second baseman. With just four hits, the Devil Rays scored six times to take an 8-5 lead. The Marlins would put runners into scoring position in each of the next two innings, but were unable to capitalize on it. Tampa Bay added insurance runs in the bottom of the 5th against Michael Tejera. Julio Lugo led off the inning with a single to shallow center. He was followed by a four pitch walk to Baldelli. Aubrey Huff delivered a double to the wall in right-center to score Lugo. After a Geoff Blum walk, Fred McGriff failed to deliver a fly ball deep enough, and instead delivered the first out of the inning. A fielder choice by Frank Menechino brought home the 10th Devil Rays run in form of Rocco Baldelli. The Devil Rays added one more for good measure in the 7th on three singles by Huff, Blum and Menechino against Chad Fox. W: Jesus Colome (1-1, 3.00); L: Carl Pavano (2-8, 6.72); SV: Ryan Wagner (11, 3.59) Player of the Game: Hee Seop Choi. 3-4, 2 HRs (5), 2 Runs, 5 RBIs (21) Game Notes: Hee Seop Choi set a career high for RBI (5) in a game! Rocco Baldelli extends his hitting streak to a career high 18 games! After loud performance, Rays close series on a wimper. Game 74: Tampa Bay 0, Florida 3 After posting 11 runs on 15 hits the night before, the Devil Rays looked confused by Brad Penny's stuff all night long, managing just three hits all night. In fact, Penny had a perfect game going until a one-out double in the bottom of the 5th by Geoff Blum broke that up. Blum's double was the only time the Devil Rays had a runner in scoring position against Penny, who mixes his dominating slider in well with a sharp breaking ball and a nasty rising fastball to strike out seven Devil Rays while walking none. Todd Ritchie, after having no comment concerning the apparent lack of faith given by his manager the night before, worked seven and two-thirds, scattering eight hits while walking two and striking out five. Talking about the excessive use of his bullpen of late, Lou Pinella told reporters that, with Ritchie on the mound, expect to see starters Mike Hampton and/or Mark Hendrickson entering this game early instead of a regular reflief pitcher. Rather than respond to the comments, Ritchie pitched shutout baseball for six and two-third innings before Wil Cordero deliver a homerun in the 7th to deep right-center. The solo shot proved enough for Penny, who held the Rays off balance all night for the well-deserved victory. Ritchie would get in more trouble in the top of the 8th, when he loaded the bases with one out. Luckily, he would escape after surrending only one run on a sacrifice fly by Tampa-nemesis Greg Colbrunn. Ryan Wagner relieved Ritchie and retired shortstop Chris Gomez on a groundout to Aubrey Huff at first. A lead off double got Wagner into trouble in the top of the ninth. Wil Cordero follow Miheul Cabrera with a base on balls and the two were sacrificed over on a bunt by Ramon Castro. A walk to Juan Pierre loaded the bases once again with one out, but one more insurance run would be all they would get on a fielders choice by Luis Castillo. Geoff Jenkins flew out to right-center with runners on the corner to end the inning. Armando Benitez worked the final inning of relief to earn the save for Penny. Rocco Baldelli's career high 18 game hitting streak came to an end with an 0-4 performance against Penny. W: Brad Penny (2-8, 6.04); L: Todd Ritchie (1-7, 5.06); SV: Armando Benetiz (15, 2.16) Player of the Game: Brad Penny. 8 IP, 3 Hits, 7 K's, 102 PI. Game Notes: Todd Ritchie's losing streak reaches a career high 7 consecutive decisions. |
|
|
|
|
09-17-2004, 12:46 PM
|
#95 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tropicana Field, St. Petersburgh, Florida Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 26-48, .351 (HM: 16-21), 5th AL East, -23.0 Toronto Blue Jays: 37-38, .493 (RD: 20-15), 3rd AL East, -12.5 Season Series: 2-1, Tampa Bay. Pitching Matchups: 06/28: Josh Towers (2-3, 5.92) vs. Mike Hampton (2-0, 6.00, 0-0, 0.00 w/ TB) 06/29: Alfredo Simon (2-2, 4.79) vs. Mark Hendrickson (4-3, 5.40) 06/30: Ted Lilly (6-3, 3.98) vs. Jeff Suppan (2-11, 5.77) 07/01: Josh Banks (6-4, 5.64) vs. Victor Zambrano (3-5, 6.02) Series Preview: While the Devil Rays were taking two of three from the Blue Jays last week, the Boston Red Sox were red hot, in the midst of winning nine of ten games to pull ahead of the Blue Jays in the hunt for the American League Wild Card. With the Yankees not looking like they are going to give up their strangle-hold on the American League East, all attention has turned to the all important final playoff spot, which now currently belongs to the Texas Rangers (41-31, .569). Boston trails by just a half game, while the Blue Jays are trailing by 5.5 games. Toronto must win this series to keep pace with the field if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since winning their second World Series in 1993. The Devil Rays, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out how to balance their youth and their desire to make progress this season. With the departure of a few veterans already, things should have been looking good for the youngster, but none who have passed through the revolving door from Durham to Tampa have really made their presence known. In the midst of all this, manager Lou Pinella has had to deal with a highly suspect pitching staff. In the end, winning games, nevermind a series, against a division foe would be a success. Tampa Bay Team News: (06/25-06/27)
American League East Standings: (6/28/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 49-25 .662 - W2 8-2 Boston 42-33 .560 7.5 W7 9-1 Toronto 37-38 .493 12.5 L1 5-5 Baltimore 28-46 .378 21.0 L1 4-6 Tampa Bay 26-48 .351 23.0 L1 3-7 |
|
|
|
|
09-17-2004, 11:51 PM
|
#96 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Jays score early, hold on to win opener.
Game 75: Tampa Bay 2, Toronto 3 Despite losing the opener of the series to the Blue Jays, the Devil Rays are breathing a sigh of relief after Julio Lugo and Eduardo Perez both were forced out of the game with arm injuries. Julio Lugo, a darkhorse candidate for the upcoming All Star game in Houston, was injured in the second inning. After throwing out DH Tim Salmon on a routine ground-out, Lugo looked uncomfortable, but, after a few minutes trying to shake off the inkury, manager Lou Pinella took his shortstop out of the game as a precaution. Perez came in at third base as a defensive replacement in the ninth for pinch hitter Tino Martinez but lasted just one play himself. Alexis Rios grounded out to Perez, whose throw had to be dug out of the dirt by Aubrey Huff. Almost immediately Perez went to one knee holding his shoulder before leaving the game. Both players were listed as day-to-day. Lugo suffered an inflamation of his throwing elbow and will need to be re-evaluated daily. Perez apparently just strained his shoulder and should still be avaliable for regular duty. Mike Hampton, meanwhile, made his first start for the Devil Rays after an emergency relief appearance in Toronto last week. The Blue Jays were able to be patient all day with Hampton, forcing the lefty to throw a 107 pitches in just five and two-thirds of work. On the day, Hampton surrendered three runs, all earned, on seven hits and three walks while striking out two. Al Reyes worked the final three and a third innings, allowing only one hit while striking out four. Toronto scored all the runs they needed in the second inning, when they got to Hampton for three runs. After Salmon's groundout, Eric Hinskie walked and advanced to second on a single by Alexis Rios. Chris Woodward followed that with a tow-run double down the left field line, clearing the bases. Orlando Hudson moved Woodward to thrid with a single to center before Reed Johnson launched a deep sacrfice fly to Rocco Baldelli in center for the thrid run of the inning. Hampton was able to get out of the inning with no further damage when he forced catcher Guillermo Quiroz to fly our to shallow center. Josh Towers kept the Devil Rays off the board until the bottom of the 4th when Aubrey Huff launched a homerun to deep right-center. The solo shot, his eleventh of the season, moved Huff into a first place tie on the team with Perez. Tampa Bay threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth against struggling closer Terry Adams. Matt Diaz led off the inning with a single to left and advanced to second on a Mike Redmond single. With runners on first and second, Carl Crawford was unable to lay down a bunt and eventually grounded into a double play, moving Diaz to third, but erasing the tying run from the bases. Rey Sanchez came up next and slapped a solid single to left to drive home Diaz, cutting the lead down to just one. Baldelli stroked a line-drive single to left that unfortunately was only able to advance Sanchez to third. Adams was able to strike out Huff for the final out of the game with the winning run on first. W: Josh Towers (3-3, 5.12); L: Mike Hampton (2-1, 5.82); SV: Terry Adams (15, 5.91) Player of the Game: Josh Towers. 7.2 IP, 7 Hits, 1 R, 2 BB's, 2 K's, HR, 103 PI. Game Notes: Julio Lugo was injured while throwing a ball. Eduardo Perez was injured while throwing a ball. Devil Rays rebound with rout of Jays Game 76: Tampa Bay 13, Toronto 3 Fred McGirff moved closer to joining the exclusive 500 homerun club with his seventh homerun of the season, this one off Toronto reliever Justin Speier. His 498th career tater, the longest of the season for the crime Dog, came as the Rays were blowing the game open with 7 runs in the 7th against the Jays. Leading 6-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Devil Rays blew the game open and allow Mark Hendrickson to move ahead of the injured Jeremi Gonzalez for the team lead in wins with 5. The Devil Rays loaded the bases with one out against Eyre with walks to Frank Menechino, Mike Redmond and an infield single by Carl Crawford. Rey Sanchez hit a RBI-single to left to score Menechino. Rocco Baldelli then came up with the bases still loaded and drove a single through the left side of the infield to bring home Redmond and Crawford. Baldelli and Sanchez advanced to second and third, respectively, on the thrown home by Vernon Wells. Aubrey Huff followed Baldelli with a similar single, scoring both runners for the fourth and fifth runs of the inning. After Huff, Toronto manager Carlos Tosca replaced Eyre with Justin Speier who, after striking out a painful Edurado Perez, surrendered McGriff's long ball for the final two runs of the inning. After a walk to Menechino, Speier was replaced by Aquilino Lopez who struck out Matt Diaz. Hendrickson looked much like himself, only this time he was able to keep the high number of runners who reached base from scoring. Scattering eight hits and a walk over seven and two-thirds inning, Mark was tagged for only two runs in the sixth, one of which was unearned by the high powered Blue Jays offense. Trailing by three runs, the Blue Jays led off the sixth with a Greg Myers singled, which was followed by a RBI-double by Carlos Delgado. With things looking not so good, Lou Pinella stuck with Hendrickson, who responded by retiring Vernon Wells and Eric Hinkse with two groundouts to Rey Sanchez at shortstop. Frank Catalanotto lucked out though, when he hit a ground ball to Eduardo Perez that the third baseman was unable to field properly because of his sore shoulder. Delgado advanced to third on the play and scored on a Alexis Rios single to left. After walking Dave Berg to load the base, Chris Woodward grounded out to Perez, who wisely step on the base rather than risk a throw across the infield. W: Mark Hendrickson (5-3, 5.04); L: Alfredo Simon (2-3, 4.70) Player of the Game: Rocco Baldelli. 2-5, 2 Runs, 4 RBIs (39), SB (40). Game Notes: Alfredo Simon gives up a career high number of walks (6) in this game. Rocco Baldelli set a career high for RBI (4) in a game! Fred McGriff hit the longest homer of his career, it went 419 feet. Suppan blows lead, joins Schilling as only 12 game losers in baseball Game 77: Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 8 Jeff Suppan's season from hell continued at Tropicana Field as he lost his 12th game in 17 starts. Suppan is inching closer to his career high of loses in a season from 2002 when he went 9-16 with the Kansas City Royals. In fact, he is on pace to pass Tanyon Sturtze's team record of 18 loses in one season, also set back in 2002. While Robert Groom's 1909 record of 26 loses for the Washington Senators might be safe, nothing is out of the realm of possibility with these eratic Devil Rays. The Devil Rays got out early against Blue Jays' starter Ted Lilly. Rocco Baldelli led off the bottom of the first with a single to left, stole second and scored without a throw on Mike Redmond's single to center. Eduardo Perez showed little signs of his recent injury in his first at bat, doubling down the left field line to score Redmond from first. Fred McGriff adanced Perez to third with a single to left before Matt Diaz hit a RBI-groundout to third. Frank Menechino walked to put runners on first and second, but Lilly was able to force geoff Blum into a weak grounder down to second base. The Blue Jays got their first run of the night in the top of the 3rd after Reed Johnson led off the inning with a single to center. Johnson stole second before advancing to third on a deep fly ball by Chris Woodward. Greg Myers followed with a slow-roller down the first base line that allowed Johnson to score from third. Tampa Bay took the run back in the 5th when Baldelli reached on an error by Eric Hinske to lead off the inning. After stealing second and third base, Rocco scored easily on Fred McGriff's single to cetner for the fourth Rays run. Carlos Delgado erased the Devil Rays three run lead in the top of the 6th when he launched his American League best 26th homerun to deep left field. Greg Myers reached bases leading off the inning on an error by Frank Menechino, who was making his first start at shortstop for the injured Julio Lugo. Orlando Hudson followed with a single before Dave Berg advances the runners to second and third for Delgado with a sacrifice bunt. Tampa took back the lead in the bottom of the inning when Rey Sanchez scored on a RBI-double by Geoff Blum. But, Suppan once again gave the lead away, surving up his second three-run homerun in as many innings, this one to Orlando Hudson in the top of the 7th. With two outs, Suppan surrendered a double to Chris Woodward and a walk to Greg Myers before facing Hudson. Chad Gaudin replaced Suppan to start the eight and allowed one unearned run over the final two innings. W: Kerry Lighteberg (5-2, 5.44); L: Jeff Suppan (2-12, 5.91); SV: Terry Adams (16, 5.56) Player of the Game: Orlando Hudson. 2-5, HR (8), 2 Runs, 3 RBIs (36). Game Notes: Carlos Delgado extends his hitting streak to a career high 10 games! Attendance: 8,742 (43,772) at Tropicana Field |
|
|
|
|
09-18-2004, 12:13 AM
|
#97 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Tampa Bay Warp-Up: July 1st, 2004.
Manager: Lou Pinella Code:
Record: 27 Wins, 50 Losses, .351 %. Home Record: 17-23 Away Record: 10-27 1 Run Games Record: 6-13 X-Innings Record: 4-2 Record vs LHP: 8-12 Record vs RHP: 19-38 Payroll: $26,546,000 (29th) Fan Interest: 8/100 (30th) Batting AVG: .268 (17th) Pitching ERA: 5.65 (29th) Homeruns: 81 (21st) Opponents AVG: .284 (26th) Walks: 244 (23rd) HRs Allowed: 91 (20th) Stolen Bases: 111 (2nd) Walks Allowed: 301 (24th) Runs Scored: 383 (19th) Runs Allowed: 469 (29th) Code:
Batting Average: R. Baldelli, .328 Homeruns: A. Huff/E. Perez, 11 Runs Batted In: A. Huff, 50 Runs Scored: R. Badelli, 56 Stolen Bases: R. Baldelli, 43 Doubles: G. Blum, 17 Triples: C. Crawford, 6 Base on Balls: A. Huff, 43 Strikeouts: J. Lugo, 57 OBP: A. Huff, .487 SLG: E. Perez, .585 OPS: A. Huff, .875 ERA: M. Hendrickson, 5.04 Wins: M. Hendrickson/R. Wagner, 5 Loses: J. Suppan, 12 Games: A. Reyes, 33 Saves: R. Wagner, 11 Strikeouts: V. Zambrano, 74 Innings Pitched: J. Suppan, 99.0 Complete Games: n/a Shutouts: n/a Hits Allowed: J. Suppan, 113 Base on Balls: V. Zambrano, 54 Code:
Player # Pos Birthday Bats Throws AVG HR RBI SB OPS CATCHERS Mike Redmond 21 C 5/5/1971 Right Right .281 3 21 0 .707 Bobby Estalella 2 C 8/23/1974 Right Right .222 0 0 0 .633 INFIELDER Tino Martinez 24 1B 12/7/1967 Left Right .253 8 23 0 .763 Fred McGriff 37 1B 10/31/1963 Left Left .278 7 26 3 .821 Julio Lugo 23 SS 11/16/1975 Right Right .288 10 38 11 .804 Geoff Blum 27 3B 4/26/1973 Both Right .258 7 38 0 .735 Rey Sanchez 1 2B 10/5/1967 Right Right .283 1 9 0 .700 Frank Menechino 3 2B 1/7/1971 Right Right .202 1 11 0 .585 OUTFIELDER Alex Sanchez 86 CF 8/26/1976 Left Left .238 1 10 5 .601 Matt Diaz 99 RF 3/3/1978 Right Right .245 2 3 1 .676 Rocco Baldelli 5 CF 9/25/1981 Right Right .328 8 39 43 .820 Aubrey Huff 19 DH 12/20/1976 Left Right .285 11 50 1 .875 Eduardo Perez 32 DH 9/11/1969 Right Right .286 11 31 0 .958 Carl Crawford 13 LF 8/5/1981 Left Left .295 3 33 39 .752 Player # Role Birthday Bats Throws ERA W L S WHIP STARTERS Mike Hampton 43 SP 9/9/1972 Right Left 5.82 2 1 1 1.68 Jeff Suppan 22 SP 1/2/1975 Right Right 5.91 2 12 0 1.51 Victor Zambrano 47 SP 8/6/1975 Right Right 6.02 3 5 0 1.65 M. Hendrickson 43 SP 6/23/1974 Left Left 5.04 5 3 0 1.36 Todd Ritchie 46 SP 11/7/1971 Right Right 5.06 1 7 0 1.54 RELIEVERS Al Reyes 47 MR 4/10/1970 Right Right 4.97 2 3 6 1.30 B. Fortunato 96 MR 8/24/1974 Right Right 3.44 1 0 0 1.25 Ryan Wagner 82 CL 7/15/1982 Right Right 3.68 5 0 11 1.05 Chad Gaudin 68 MR 3/24/1983 Right Right 3.89 2 1 0 1.68 Jesus Colome 49 MR 12/23/1977 Right Right 3.00 1 1 1 1.78 Lance Carter 38 MR 12/18/1974 Right Right 3.97 3 1 0 1.52 Code:
Player Status Recovery Time Time on DL left Diagnosis Julio Lugo Day-to-Day (80%) 5 days 0 days Inflamed Elbow Ligament Tino Martinez Day-to-Day (80%) 3 days 0 days Inflamed Hamstring Muscle Toby Hall OUT full season 5 days Broken Wrist Eduardo Perez Day-to-Day (90%) 2 days 0 days Sore Shoulder Jeremi Gonzalez OUT one week 0 days Torn Tricep Muscle Seth McClung OUT 3-4 weeks 0 days Boof Bonser OUT 8 weeks 0 days Torn Bicep Muscle Josh Hamilton OUT 18 weeks 0 days John Webb OUT one week 0 days Aaron Boone OUT 15 weeks 57 days Code:
LINEUP VS RHP Pos LINEUP VS RHP+DH Pos 1) L C. Crawford LF 1) L C. Crawford LF 2) R J. Lugo SS 2) R J. Lugo SS 3) R R. Baldelli CF 3) R R. Baldelli CF 4) L A. Huff RF 4) L A. Huff 1B 5) S G. Blum 3B 5) S G. Blum 3B 6) L F. McGriff 1B 6) L F. McGriff DH 7) R F. Menechino 2B 7) R F. Menechino 2B 8) R M. Redmond C 8) R M. Diaz RF 9) 9) R M. Redmond C LINEUP VS LHP Pos LINEUP VS LHP+DH Pos 1) R R. Baldelli CF 1) R R. Baldelli CF 2) R M. Redmond C 2) R M. Redmond C 3) L A. Huff RF 3) L T. Martinez 1B 4) S G. Blum 3B 4) R E. Perez DH 5) L T. Martinez 1B 5) L A. Huff RF 6) R J. Lugo SS 6) R R. Sanchez 2B 7) L C. Crawford LF 7) R J. Lugo SS 8) R F. Menechino 2B 8) S G. Blum 3B 9) 9) L C. Crawford LF Code:
Starting Rotation 1) R V. Zambrano 2) L M. Hendrickson 3) R J. Suppan 4) L M. Hampton 5) R T. Ritchie Mopup Reliever Middle Reliever 1) R L. Carter 1) R J. Colome 2) 2) R A. Reyes 3) R L. Carter 4) Setup Reliever Closer 1) R C. Gaudin 1) R R. Wagner 2) R B. Fortunato |
|
|
|
|
09-24-2004, 01:44 PM
|
#98 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Hudson (OAK) and Schmidt (SF) win monthly pitcher award (07/01/2004)
Tim Hudson couldn't have pitched much better than he did in June, and the American League thought so as well, naming the right-hander Pitcher of the Month. He had an ERA of just 3.30 in 43.2 innings of work in which he struck out 20 hitters. His record in June is 5-0. His ERA of 4.06 helped him to a 10-3 record this year. He struck out 81 and walked 42 in 122 innings. Tim has pitched one shutout and 2 complete games. He's 1st in the American League in wins! Jason Schmidt couldn't have pitched much better than he did in June, and the National League thought so as well, naming the right-hander Pitcher of the Month. His record of 5-0 in 6 was among the leagues best this month. In 47 innings of work he allowed just 36 hits while striking out 38, compiling an ERA of just 2.30. His ERA of 3.02 helped him to a 7-3 record this year. He struck out 97 and walked 32 in 104.1 innings. New York (A)'s Jeter, Houston's Bagwell named Batters of the Month (07/01/2004) New York (A)'s shortstop Derek Jeter had some reason to celebrate, as the league named him the American League Batter of the Month. Derek was on fire, hitting .434 with 5 homeruns and 25 RBI. While compiling an on base percentage of .395, Derek hit .341 and slugged .484. He has collected 48 runs batted in this year. He's 6th in the American League in batting! It's the 1st time that the National League Batter of the Month award goes to Houston's first baseman Jeff Bagwell. Bagwell helped his team with an average of .370 and 25 RBI in 100 at bats. Jeff is hitting .286 this year, with 78 hits in 273 at bats. He has driven in 61 runs, slugging .553. He's 9th in the National League in RBIs and 7th in homeruns! Last edited by BostonRS14; 09-24-2004 at 03:01 PM. |
|
|
|
|
09-24-2004, 03:19 PM
|
#99 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Blue Jays take finale, series; Rays ties Pirates for worst record
Game 78: Tampa Bay 8, Toronto 9 After catching the Blue Jays sleeping a week early in stealing two of three games at Skydome, the Devil Rays were sure that they would not be able to sneak up on their AL East rivals this series. Number one starter by-default Jeremi Gonzalez lasted only four and two thirds innings, but it was Al Reyes who was the goat on this night, surrendering four runs in the sixth to erase a one run lead. Tampa Bay had battled back from a two and three run deficit to take a one run lead heading into the top of the 6th when Reyes self-destructed. After striking out Chris Woodward to end the fifth in relief of Zambrano, Reyes returned for the sixth with a one run lead, which lasted all of one batter. Reyes was greated with a Greg Myers solo homerun to lead off the inning. Orlando Hudson followed with a base on balls, and was scarficed over to second by a Eric Hinske sacrifice bunt. With the go-ahead run in scoring position, Vernon Wells struck out on three pitches. Frank Catalanotto followed Wells with a two-out walk. Tim Salmon brought home both runners with a double off the outfield wall in left. Jesus Colome replaced Reyes, but was unable to keep the inherited runner from scoring. Reed Johnson, the first batter Colome faced, slapped a single to left that brought Salmon around from second with the eventual game winning run. Toronto started the scoring in the opening frame, cracking three straight one-out singles against Zambrano to open the scoring. Eric Hinskie got the first hit off Victor, but was erased trying to steal second against Bobby Estalella. Wells and Catalanotto followed with singles and a walk to Tim Salmon loaded the bases with two outs. Zambrano seemed to close his control when Reed Johnson came to the pate. Wells scored the first run on a past ball by Estalella. The passed ball was followed by a wild pitch, scoring Catalanotto and finally an erant fastball which hit Johnson in the back of the leg. A breif visit by the team doctor along with manager Lou Pinella seemed to correct Zambrano's mechanics as he struck out Dave Berg to end the inning. The Devil Rays tied up the game in the bottom of the 3rd with two runs against Toronto starter Josh Banks. Carl Crawford started things off with a two-out single to center, followed by a Julio Lugo single, which advanced him to third. With runners on the corners, Pinella put on the green light, allowing Lugo to steal his twelfth base of the year. Rocco Baldelli cleared the bases with a two-run double to the gap in right-center. Banks struck out Aubrey Huff to end the inning. Toronto took back the lead in fifth when Zamrano offered up two wild pitches to Eric Hinskie, advancing Orlando Hudson to third base. After retiring Hinske and Vernon Wells, Catalanotto double to right to score Hudson. Tim Salmon drew a two-out walk, followed by run-scoring singles by Reed Johnson and Dave Berg before Al Reyes came out of the 'pen to replace Zambrano to face Chris Woodward. In the bottom of the 5th, the Rays took the lead back with four runs, chasing Josh Banks from the game when three of the first four batters reached base. Bobby Estalella led off the inning with a walk, followed by a Carl Crawford single to put runners on the corners. After Crawford stole second, Julio Lugo popped out to the second baseman on the outfield grass, freezing the runners on second and third. Rocco Baldelli, though, was able to bring them home with a two-run line-drive double to the left-center gap that fell past a diving Vernon Wells and rolled all the way to the wall. Banks was taken out by manager Carlos Tosca in favor of reliever Justin Speier, who retired Aubreey Huff with a high-fly to right that was just short enough to deep Baldelli at second. Geoff Blum was able to drive Baldelli home with a single down the right field line that Reed Johnson was able to cut off spectacularly with a sliding play to keep Blum at first. An error by Woodward allowed Fred McGriff to reach first before Rey Sanchez singled through a drawn-in infield to break the five-all tie. With runners on first and second, Matt Diaz grounded out weakly to Speier to end the inning. Aubrey Huff, who was hitless on the day going into the 7th, followed a Baldelli single to right with a two-run homerun to right field against Justin Durocher, to cut the lead to one run for Toronto. Tosca quickly puled Durocher in favor of Aquilino Lopez, who retired the next three batters without the ball leaving the infield. Jesus Colome, after allowing the inherited runner to score in the sixth, worked the final three inning without allowing a run. Toronto was able to get a runner into scoring position in the 8th, but a key strikeout of Reed Johnson end that threat. In the bottom of the ninth though, Tampa Bay themselves threated against struggling Terry Agams. With one out, Aubrey Huff doubled to right field. Pinch hitter Tino Martinez followed Huff with a base on balls, putting the winning run on base for Fred McGriff, who consequently grounded into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play. W: Justin Speier (1-0, 5.52); L: Al Reyes (2-4, 5.70); SV: Terry adams (17, 5.30) Player of the Game: Rocco Baldelli. 3-5, 2 2Bs (16), 2 Runs, 4 RBIs (43) |
|
|
|
|
09-24-2004, 03:30 PM
|
#100 |
|
All Star Starter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Boston
Posts: 1,030
|
Upcoming Series:
Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. Florida Marlins Pro Player Stadium, Miami, Florida Team Records: Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 27-51, .346 (RD: 10-27), 5th AL East, -24.5 Florida Marlins: 37-42, .468 (HM: 20-17), 3rd NL East, -13.5; 7th NL Wild Card, -11.0 Season Series: 2-1, Florida. Pitching Matchups: 07/02: Todd Ritchie (1-7, 5.06) vs. Brad Penny (2-8, 6.04) 07/03: Mike Hampton (2-1, 5.82) vs. AJ Burnett (4-1, 6.00) 07/04: Mark Hendrickson (5-3, 5.04) vs. Dontrelle Willis (8-4, 3.21) Series Preview: A rematch of the budding Florida baseball rivalry sees both teams struggling to meet expectations. The Marlins clearly don't look like the defending World Series champions while the Devil Rays are nowhere near taking the next step out of the league baseball like many in the organization had hoped. Florida currently sits in outside the NL playoff picture, trailing both the NL East and Wild Card leaders by double digits. With a streaky pitching staff, anything is possible in the second half with the right addtion or two. Hee Seop Choi has emerged finally as a productive piece of the lineup and, despite a current platoon system, is battling former Devil Ray Greg Colbrunn for playing time at first base. Dontrelle Willis is the only current starter with an ERA under 4.50, which will not get the Marlins back into the playoff hunt any time soon. If they plan on making any kind of run, a series victory here is essential. The Devil Rays are coming off a horrible month of June (10-17) that saw them briefly taste fourth place in the AL East before a heartbreaking trip through the NL West (3-9) dropped them back into the basement behind the Orioles. With this disappointment in Rich Harden's arrival and subsequent dismisal to Durham, the only bright spot has been the turn around by a shaky bullpen which is now anchored by Ryan Wagner. Wagner arrival, along with the emergence of Bartolome Fortunado, Jesus Colome, and Chad Gaudin, has really helped to shore up the backend of the ballgames. Unfortunately, Tampa Bays pitching staff still ranks near the bottom of most every major category due to a lackluster starting pitching staff that has missed the veteran presence of Jeremi Gonzalez. Tampa Bay Team News: (06/28-07/01)
Around the League: (06/28-07/01)
American League East Standings: (7/02/2004) Code:
Team W-L PCT GB Streak Last 10 New York 51-26 .662 - L1 8-2 Boston 43-35 .551 8.5 W1 8-2 Toronto 40-39 .506 12.0 W2 5-5 Baltimore 28-50 .359 23.5 L4 2-8 Tampa Bay 27-51 .346 24.5 L2 4-6 Code:
Durham Bulls (AAA) 59-19, .756, 1st Place, +9.5 Orlando (AA) 30-48, .385, 14th Place, -16.0 Bakersfield Blaze (A) 39-39, .500, 7th Place, -10.5 |
|
|
|
 |
| Bookmarks |
|
|
