Rays’ win over BoSox could mean a lot
Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 4:36 PM
Reflections from watching the pennant races Tuesday night:
If Tampa Bay can hang on in the AL East over the final two and a half weeks of the regular season the Rays will look back at last night’s win over the Red Sox as their defining moment.
There were so many subplots:
Scott Kazmir once again slowed the Red Sox. He wasn’t overpowering (four strikeouts in six innings pitched) but in one fourth-inning at bat he fell behind Jason Bay 3-1, and then threw consecutive fastballs clocked at 93 and 94 mph that Bay could not touch. If you haven’t heard this from me before, the Mets 2004 trade of Kazmir to Tampa Bay is the worst deal of my lifetime.
Bay, the replacement for Manny Ramirez, homered off Dan Wheeler to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead. With Jonathan Papelbon good for the ninth, it appeared the Rays’ grip on first place (which had been in place for all but one day since June 28) was coming to an end.
But in the ninth, Dan Johnson, discarded by the A’s in the early season, homered to tie the game, and rookie Fernando Perez and Dioner Navarro hit consecutive doubles and Red Sox Nation was stunned to see the Rays back in front.
Rays closer Troy Percival, looking like a right-handed David Wells (I’ve given up believing that teams will ever demand fitness from their pitchers), closed out the win.
Interesting to watch the final out reaction from the Rays. There was no overt celebration from the Tampa Bay players, just an attitude that they believe in their ability to come back at any time. Four games remain between the Rays and Red Sox who are both postseason bound (Boston has a six-game wild-card lead with 18 to play) but Tampa Bay is looking more like the 1969 Mets each day.
The hottest team in the AL is Toronto, which swept a day-nighter in Chicago. The Blue Jays have won 10 straight, moved past the Yankees in the AL East but they made their run too late. The White Sox lost Paul Konerko in the night game to a knee injury after watching Nick Swisher take a called third with two on in the ninth of the first game. Can they replace Carlos Quentin? Can they hold off the Twins, who moved to within a game of the White Sox for the AL Central lead last night with Chicago having to play three more times at the Metrodome (Sept. 23-25)?
The Phillies can hit but their pitching is too erratic. Brett Myers and Jamie Moyer give them great outings at Shea Stadium this past weekend but Kyle Kendrick was hammered last night. Meanwhile, the Mets survived a poor Oliver Perez outing and pieced together 5.2 innings from their nondescript bullpen to open up a 2.5 game lead over the Phillies by outscoring the Nationals, 10-8. Watching the ninth inning in Philadelphia, you could feel some air leaking out of the Phils’ playoff hopes.
Amazing how many key at-bats and crucial innings come from released players, journeymen or untested youngsters in September. Houston, making the “Colorado run of last year” (the Astros are 28-10 since Aug. 1), is using Jose Castillo at third base. Two teams released Castillo this season, Florida and San Francisco. Milwaukee had a key pinch-hit last night from Mike Lamb, who was sitting home for a stretch after his release by Minnesota.
And St. Louis kept its wild-card hopes alive with a ninth-inning win over the Cubs. Biggest at-bat: Felipe Lopez, waived by last-place Washington and signed by the Cards, worked a walk from Carlos Marmol in a brilliant 11-pitch at-bat. An aside: Marmol, with a 95 mph heater, throws a ton of sliders. Will that lead to long-term arm issues?
Randy Wolf won for Houston last night. The Astros were widely mocked for their acquisition of Wolf but the numbers speak loudly: The Astros are still breathing in the wild card and they are 8-1 in Wolf’s starts.
The Brewers could not get one late-inning hit (Ray Durham had a three-run pinch-hit game tying homer in the seventh) and lost in the 11th. They are 2-7 on a home stand that has given hope to others in the wild-card race, the Phils, Cards and Astros.
CC Sabathia has been a savior and the Brewers need him more than ever tonight.
Last year the Padres were one Trevor Hoffman out from the playoffs. Sad to see a pretty much empty Petco Park last night, except for a vocal group of Dodger fans.
5 UNDER-THE- RADAR GOOD NUMBERS:
Aubrey Huff, Baltimore: .315 BA, 31 HR, 102 RBI, .952 OPS
Brad Ziegler, Oakland: 0.53 ERA, 1.02 WHIP as new A’s closer
Randy Winn, San Francisco: .311 BA, 9 HR, 59 RBI, 25 SB
Grant Balfour, Tampa Bay: 0.88 WHIP, 70K in 48.2 IP
Skip Schumaker, St Louis: .372 OBP as leadoff hitter
5 UNDER-THE- RADAR DISAPPOINTING NUMBERS:
Miguel Tejada, Houston: 12 HR, 58 RBI
Khalil Greene, San Diego: .213 BA, 10 HR, 35 RBI. Where did his bat go?
Michael Bourn, Houston .222 BA, .581 OPS (lower than Brad Ausmus)
Nate Robertson, Detroit: Over 200 hits allowed, 1.66 WHIP
Kenji Johjima, Seattle: .558 OPS, owed $24 million thru 2011
