Matt Hewitt's Tampa Bay Rays fan blog

The Tampa Bay Rays will send 4 players to St. Louis for the All-Star game, and possible a 5th. Evan Longoria had the most votes for any third baseman, and for a while, had the most votes of anyone in the AL, until Derek Jeter surpassed him. Jason Bartlett was second among AL shortstops, behind only Derek Jeter and Carl Crawford earned another All-Star bid in the outfield. To add to those three, Joe Maddon (manager of the AL All-Star team by virtue of bringing the Rays to the World Series) chose Ben Zobrist to join the team as well.

And if 4 All-Stars wasn't enough, Carlos Pena is in the running for the final fan vote, battling it out against Ian Kinsler, Brandon Inge, Chone Figgins, and Adam Lind. Pena, leads the American League in homeruns, but sports just a .230 average. If Pena fails to makes the team, he would become just the 9th player since 1951 to lead the AL in homeruns, but not make the All-Star team. However, if he does make the team, it would add to the record breaking number of Rays to make the All-Star team. In attempts to get him in, the Rays and the Tampa Bay area have launched a "Vote Los" campaign to get Pena the final roster spot.

Continue reading "Rays send 4 All-Stars to St. Louis, look to send a 5th"

A day after the Rays do seemingly everything wrong, they come back and do nearly everything right in a 7-1 victory over the Phillies. The second game of the World Series rematch was much more eventful than the previous, with Garza throwing a gem, Burrell homering and Bartlett extending his hit streak to 18 games (ties a franchise record held by the long time Devil Ray great Quinton McCracken).

Matt Garza pitched 8 strong innings, giving up only 3 hits, striking out 7 and giving up 1 earned run. His only mistake was a ball Werth hit out of the ballpark for a solo shot. Equally as impressive, Joe Blanton matched Garza as best he could, going 7+ allowing 6 hits, striking out 10 and giving up 2 earned runs. He also only made one mistake the whole game, the only difference was Carlos Pena was on first base when he left a 0-1 fastball over the heart of the plate. Pat Burrell didn't miss it and launched it into the left field seats for just his second home run of the season.

Continue reading "Burrell goes deep against his former team, Bartlett extends his streak, Rays win!"

The Rays put up a dozen runs in the first game of the series, but can only muster three in the second game, as the Rockies hand them their first loss in seven games.

 Apart from his 4 run second inning, which included back to back base hits and a three run homer, David Price's outing last night was decent. He was finally able to go deeper into the game, something he was determined to do after several of his previous starts fell short. He gave up 5 earned in 7 innings of work. Unfortunately for the Rays, the couldn't match that offensively. Solo blasts from Crawford and Longoria and a RBI single by Burrell was the only support Price got, giving him his first loss of the season.

 Aaron Cook performed extremely well, pitching exactly the way you need to at Coors field; with a hard sinker and ground outs upon ground outs. Cook went 7 innings, giving up 3 earned runs and striking out 3, putting up the best performance by a red-head since Kathy Griffin on "Celebrity Mole".

Continue reading "Rockies return the favor, snap the Rays 6 game win streak"

It wasn't very pretty, but the Rays won the series opener against the Nationals, owners of the league's worst record. It was just the kind of game that the Rays won all last year but have failed to win so far this year. The Rays have been awful in one run games this year and it feels like a turning point.

 When Garza stepped on the hill to start the game, at home, against the Nationals, it felt like an automatic win, however when Garza stepped off the hill at the end of the top half of the first, it seemed like it would be a long night. With little control, he gave up 3 runs in the first while throwing over 30 pitches. But to Garza's credit, he battled through the next 4.2 innings and put up all zeros. And then the inconsistent bullpen followed and finished with 4.1 scoreless innings. So all they needed was 4 runs to pull out a victory.

Continue reading "Rays barely get by the leagues worst team"

Pat Burrell will make one more start at AA Montgomery before making his long awaited return to the big leagues. Out since May 11 with a stiff neck, Burrell will look to make an impact when he again graces the line-up with his power right handed bat. Don't get me wrong, Gabe Gross and Joe Dillon have filled his shoes well at times, I'm sure the Rays are looking forward to seeing Pat in the DH position. Although Burrell hasn't been the big off-season signee so far, we should all be confident that he can turn around his dismal .315 slugging percentage and 1 hr into something that propels the Rays over .500 and to the top of the division. Because someone has to do it! 

Continue reading "Pat Burrell hopes to make big impact in his return from the DL"