All-Star Pitching Rays VS Halfabagofcandyleft Minnesota Twins 7/4-7/6

[Tobywan]

Mauer down swinging.
Cuddyer walks.
Thome walks.
Valencia grounds into a 5-4-3 DP.

On to the 7th Twins up 3-1.

[Tobywan]

Kotch grounds out to short.
Rodriguez PHing for Jaso pops to first.
Fuld singles into right.


Call to the bull pen.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching Alex Burnett.

With Johnson batting they attempt to pick off Fuld, it skips past Cuddyer and Fuld goes to second.

Johnson flies out to left.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching for the Rays Joel Peralta.

Tosoni pops out to right.
Repko lines out to first.
Nishioka grounds out to first.

On to the 8th, Twins leads 3-1.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching Joe Nathan.

Damon Ks.
Zobrist singles into center.
Longoria flies out
Joyce flies out to left.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching JP Howell.

Revere out looking.
Casilla grounds out to third.
Mauer grounds out to short.

On to the 9th, Twins lead 3-1.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching Matt Capps.

Upton swings on the first pitch high and deep to left....gone.

3-2.
Kotchman singles into right.
Brignac PRing for Kotch.
Rodriguez (stayed in the game at SS after PH in the 7th) flies out to deep center.
Fuld flies out to right.
Shoppach (replaced Jaso in the 7th) walks after a long battle with Capps.

Call to the pen.

[Tobywan]

Now pitching Glen Perkins.

Damon grounds out to short, game over.

Twins take the series, Rays will to keep from getting swept in the day game tomorrow.

[Tobywan]

Today’s match ups

The Rays will be fighting to keep from being swept.

Wade Davis has been pitching better in his last 3 starts after struggling but once again has been the victim of poor run support, especially in his last outing. He let up two runs in seven innings, he has a 1.80 ERA in his last 3 start, giving up just 4 runs in 20 innings.

Liriano pitched well against the Brewers on Friday, giving up two runs over seven innings with 7 Ks. He has a 2.89 ERA over his last seven starts with 47 Ks in 43 2/3 innings.

The Twins have gotten a big boost with Paul ..er I mean Ben Revere.

Super Sammy Fuld has batted .310 with four doubles in his last 14 games (eight starts). He finished June with a .308 average after hitting .157 in May.

Matt Capps almost gave up another game late last night after giving up a lead off homer to Upton and leaving the game with men on base.


The Rays still have a pitching streak going, today will be the 689th game started by a Rays pitcher under the age of 30. It is the second longest streak since 1900 when the 1913-17 Washington Senators had 704, the staff included Walter Johnson.

[zodious]

Toby, I went On centsports and put $0.60 on the under of 8 on this game! Based solely on your pregame.... Lol

[zodious]

4-2 Ray heading to the bottom of the 4th.... Toby's out to screw me! Lol! :P

[zodious]

12-5 final rays destroy the twins!

Under 8 runs was a baaaaaad pick

[Tobywan]

Even I never bet on these guys, they never do what you think they will do. I was waiting for a sweep, even when it was 9-5, I figured they’d blow it. Might have been nice if they had spread the runs out a bit.

All in all this was an ugly series and they go to NY next, before the break.
Between Longo's foot and Damon's hand things could get ugloy in the big apple.

[zodious]

and the anticipation of Jeter's 3,000th.... I'm not seeing good things...

[Tobywan]

Oh, I had a feeling as soon as Jeter got hurt it could very well come when the Rays were there. The Rays have been on the other side of a lot of histor. Really though, it couldn't come against a better group as Maddon especially is nostalgic and would probably think it was extremely cool that the Rays were part of it. I already have a box of Kleenex at the ready.