Tampa Bay Rays 2014 Season time to "Rays Up!"

[Tobywan]

I am convinced that Joe West is MLB poison, no game is without drama if he is on the crew.

The tribute to Jeter was very nice, the Rays gave him a custom made kayak with pin strips for him to use at his waterfront home and also a framed Zimmer jersey presented to him by Don's widow Soot.

It was a close 1-0 game, decent pitching from both sides until the 5th, when two errors by the Yanks allowed Kiermaier to score tying the game. In the 6th Nick Franklin doubled, then Joyce walked on a wild pitch, Franklin went to third, but was called out, Rays challenged and it was overturned. Then after the Rays got two runs in the 7th, Wil Myers pinch hit for Joyce with Longo at 3rd and Loney at 2nd, he hit a ball to deep center that Ellsbury miraculously reeled in, but it put him off his feet and both runners scored. Girardi went ballistic that the second run couldn't possibly have scored if Loney had tagged. The runs stood. The Rays are now up 6-1, Rookie Steve Geltz comes into start the 8th, Jeter is leading off, his last at bat of the night, with two strikes on Jeter, Geltz grazes his wrist on the 4th pitch and Girardi comes completely unglued, Joe gets ejected, both teams warned. Then in the Rays half of the 8th David Phelps brushed back Kiermaier, benches cleared, pushing, shoving and Phelps gets ejected along with bench coach Tony Pena Sr. What a mess. Rays won with the 6-1 score.

Other than the win, the nice tribute my thrill of the night was getting a big bear hug from my boy Toby Hall. Whoo!

[Tobywan]

Here are a few memories from the Rays tribute to Jeter.




With Mitch Lukevics who is the Rays' Director of Minor League Operations, he held the same job with the Yankees on Derek's first day as a Yankee presenting the Rays' gift a custom made kayak.




Rays Senior Vice President Mark Fernandez and students from the St. Peter Claver Catholic School in Tampa, presenting a check for Derek's 2 Turn Foundation.



Getting a hug from Don Zimmer's widow Soot.



Being presented with Zimmer's last jersey, with Soot, Jose Molina ( his teammate from the 2009 World Series championship season) and our franchise player Evan Longoria.

[Tobywan]

Longo started off the scoring with a solo home run in the fourth. Cobb gave up a air of doubles to Chase Headley and Brendan Ryan to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the 5th, Jeter got out of his 0-28 slump with a single to lead off the 6th, a sac fly in the 6th brought him in making it 3-1. The Rays got one more in the 6th, Yanks win 3-2.

No drama, no flare ups, though another Yank did get plunked this time it was Chris Young. Cobb pitched well, but McCarthy pitched better, he went seven innings gave up 4 hits, 2 runs, walk one and stuck out 4.The awesome catch this time was Wil Myers keeping the 6th limited to just a sac fly by Gardner though the
bases were loaded.

[Tobywan]

The Rays got off to a nice 3 run lead, but got completely erased in the 5th inning as Hellickson struggled once again. Jose Quintana settled down, he and the Sox relievers didn't allow the Rays to come back. Logan Forsythe homered in the 4th for the Rays last run, he collected all 3 RBIs and Avisal Garcia drove in 2 RBIs for the Chisox. Another short outing for Hellboy just 4.1 innings in the 4-3 loss. The Rays were officially eliminated from play-off contention.

[Tobywan]

In last night's game Chris Archer pitched 6.1 innings giving up just 2 hits, 4 walks and struck out 3. With James Loney on 2nd, Nick Franklin launched his first home run putting the Rays up 2-0 in the 2nd, Zobrist drove in Escobar in the 5th for a 3-0 lead. The Sox got on a run in the 9th when Marcus Semien dove in Jose Abreu, Rays win 3-1.

[Tobywan]

Fitting final home game for a less than magical season, they get whooped. They were hittless until the sixth inning at the hand of John Danks, the Rays were already down by 10 runs when they finally scored 2 runs in the 6th, one in the seventh and then a Brandon Guyer hit a 2 RB single in the 9th. The White Sox got good pitching from their starter and lots of offense, Avisail Garcia had 2 solo homers, Marcus Semien homered to left for 3 runs and Alexei Ramirez had a 2 run double for the bulk of the Sox 10-5 win. Nate Karns who had such a good outing in Toronto gave up 6 runs in 5 innings, Alex Colome gave up 4 runs in one inning.


The loss ends a 6th straight winning season for the Rays.
2014 is also their worst home season since 2003 where they also went 36-45 at Tropicana Field.



At least for the home fans Sunday's game was the "Shirts Of Our Backs" game, I'm sure other teams do this.





Players waiting for their jerseys to be called.




Joe Maddon




Curt Casali



David DeJesus




Nick Franklin




Steve Geltz

[Tobywan]

It's been quite a few years now since a game between the Rays and Red Sox didn't mean anything other than finishing out the remaining games on he schedule, but............

the Sox got on the board first when Daniel Nava doubled in Yoenis Cespedes in the fourth. Clay Buchholz had kept the Rays scoreless until the 8th , when he was touched for 5 runs.Alex Cobb let up just the one run, the Rays won 6-2.

The Rays will finish on the road, they are in Fenway then the last series will be in Cleveland.

[Tobywan]

Jake Odorizzi went just 3 innings, gave up 5 runs on seven hits including a home run to Garin Cecchini. Brandon Gomes gave up 2 runs and Kirby Yates gave up four. Anthony Ranaudo gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, walked one and struck out 2. Xander Bogaerts brought in 3 runs, Daniel Nava with 2 RBIs for the Red Sox in the 11-3 rout.

[Tobywan]

Another short outing for Hellickson, he gave up 6 runs in 2.1 innings, the Red Sox got off to a big 7-1 lead with the help of a 2 run homer by Christian Vazquez in the 2nd and a 3 run homer by Rusney Castillo in the 3rd. The Sox added 4 more runs for an 11-1 win, the lone run for the Rays came in the 2nd when Zobrist singled in Ryan Hanigan. Vazquez with 4 RBIs, Mookie Betts with 3, while Rusney Castillo, Yoenis Cespedes and Bryce Brentz had two RBIs. Allen Webster went 7 innings for Boston giving up 1 run, 7 hits, 1 walk and stuck out 5.

[Tobywan]

Alex Colome did another nice job going 6.1 innings giving up 4 hits, no runs, walking one and striking out six, Carlos Carrasco also pitched well, giving up 2 runs on four hits, walked three and struck out 10. Wil Myers started the scoring by singling in DeJesus and James Loney singled in Zobrist in the 8th for the 2-0 win.

[Tobywan]

No surprise that the Rays 2014 season came to an end on a losing note.

Alex Cobb went 6 innings giving up 4 runs on 10 hits, Jeff Beliveau gave up three runs in less than an inning, Cleveland's starter T.J. House gave up one run in 5 innings. Rays got out to a one run lead in the 2nd when Sean Rodriguez hit a solo homer, but the Indians would jump ahead 3-1 when David Murphy and Zach Walters hit solo home runs in the 2nd, then Jose Ramirez hit a sac fly to bring in Tyler Holt in the 5th. The Rays got another run in the 6th on a Longoria sac fly that brought in Brandon Guyer, but the Indians scored 4 more runs to win the final game 7-2.

The homer Cobb gave up to Murphy ended his 82 1/3 consecutive homerless innings streak.