Inventing new ways to lose

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are no strangers to losing, but this weekend in St. Petersburg, there were two innings that were the difference between a three game sweep of the Cleveland Indians, and losing the series 1-2. Which translates to the difference between being 9-9 with a half game lead over the Yankees who come into town today for a quick two game series, and sitting at the bottom of the AL East, and dangerously close to the bottom of the league at 7-11. These losses are hard enough to take for the young Rays team, but knowing that they were lost on managerial mistakes, makes it harder to take for the fans.

James Shields, and up and coming right handed pitcher for the D-Rays pitched an outstanding game. He struck out 12 batters through 8 innings of work, a 12 k outing that fans in Tampa Bay have only seen once before, when Dan Wheeler struck out 12 in a game in 1999. The Rays had just taken a 4-2 lead, in an exciting eighth. After Akinori Iwamura and Dionner Navarro got on base to start the inning, B.J. Upton, singled up the middle to score Iwamura, and later in the inning Navarro scored on a wild pitch. So with the momentum in their favor, Rays manager Joe Maddon, elected to pull Shields, in favor of Brian Stokes to face the Indians in the 9th. Shields had only allowed two hits, one of them a two run homerun by Indians Jhonny Peralta in the second inning, when he exited the game, so it seemed odd that Maddon was pulling the starter after such a dominant performance. What seemed even more odd, was why Maddon didn't bring in the closer Al Reyes again. In thursday night's game vs. the Indians, the game was tied when Maddon, elected to leave in reliever Juan Salas who had pitched the inning before, as opposed to the closer Reyes, and Salas put the first two batters on base before he was pulled. A batter later, the Indians would score the go ahead run to win. So why with a two run lead in an obvious save situation Maddon would keep Reyes in the pen and bring in the often times shaky reliever Stokes was beyond me. Stokes, who has lasted longer than an inning in 8 other appearances this season, allowed multiple hits in all but three of those appearances and allowed runs in half of them. With the series on the line, this was definitely no time to give Brian Stokes a chance. Stokes wasted it, by allowing a RBI hit and a walk before serving up a three run home run to Indians 1B Ryan Garko. So in 1/3 of an inning, Stokes allowed 4 runs, and destroyed a career performance by James Shields. It was a tough loss to watch, but it's got to be more tough to experience. Stokes (pictured at the top) was very distraught after the game, but you have to feel bad for the guy considering he had no business being put in the game with that much pressure in the first place.

Joe Maddon made a terrible mistake. One that Lou Pinella would have never made. I doubt Hal McRae would have made that mistake, and i'm almost willing to say Larry Rothschild would have been smart enough to bring in Reyes. It was almost excusable for the former Rays managers to lose, considering the lack of depth they were forced to put out on the field day after day. But when you have a bunch of hot players, and pitchers throwing gems, and you still can't manage to pull out a win, there's definitely something wrong. One things for sure, I'm sure the fans would love to see the Devil Rays come into a home series against the Yankees with a better record, and I'm sure the players would play with a much higher level of confidence if they had a game or two on them. Unfortunately we won't know what thats like today, or tomorrow, and as sad as it is to say, I don't believe we will get that chance as long as Maddon is the manager of the ball club.

MLB 2007

We're almost a month into another MLB season and we've already seen some pretty amazing things. Lou Pinella going nuts about managing another losing team. Albert Pujols putting up Pat Burrell type numbers. Mark Buehrle tossing a no-hitter against Texas, Alex Rodriguez putting up numbers only seen in video games. He's currently on pace for 129 home runs, and had a pair of them last night in Boston. But one thing remains the same. The Devil Rays bullpen sucks, and managing mistakes cost them another game.

Last night I watched pitch by pitch as the D-Rays battled Cleveland at Tropicana Field. C.C. Sabathia was on the hill, and usually that means no offense with a minimal amount of hits, and youngin' Edwin Jackson was on the bump for Tampa Bay. Jackson looked really strong in his effort, really only throwing a few bad pitches, one being a pitch that landed a few rows deep in the left field seats after Indians DH Travis Hafner got a piece of it for a two run shot, his 3rd round tripper on the young season. "E.J." ended up striking out 5 in six solid innings of work. It was a surprising twist in expectations.

Offensively, the Rays also managed to over achieve. 2B B.J. Upton slammed a solo home run right over the 404 mark in straightaway center off of Sabathia, which was a rare display of power for Upton and a rare miscue by C.C. The Rays continued to scrap, down 3-1, with a RBI single in the 6th inning by Carl Crawford, that scored Brendan Harris, and again when aggressive baserunning brought in a run on the legs of Delmon Young (pictured above) in the seventh. So entering the top of the 8th inning, coach Maddon called on reliever Juan Salas. Salas is a great one inning pitcher who has done very well in his short assignments, and set down all three Indians he faced in the 8th. After the Rays were retired in the bottom of the eighth it seemed strange to not see closer Al Reyes come on in the 9th. He was warming up in the bullpen, but instead Salas came up out of the dugout and returned to work. Reyes has only allowed 2 hits and no runs in his 6 innings of work this season. Salas on the other hand has given up runs the only other two times he pitched for two innings as opposed to one, which came April 10th against Texas, and just this past monday against Baltimore. So defying logic, Salas put the first two batters in the 9th on, and Maddon then put the game in the hands of Reyes, who allowed a one out hit to Hafner that scored the go ahead run.

Its a mistake that Maddon shouldn't have made. Looking at the Indians on deck in the ninth, and seeing 1-3: 3B Andy Marte (who was hitting below .200), CF Grady Sizemore, LF David Delucci, and Hafner lurking in the #4 spot, the decision should have been made to pitch Reyes to minimize the chance on facing Hafner. Instead he went with the unproven Salas, who squandered the opportunity and earned the loss. Had the Rays retired the Indians in the ninth, they could have taken a more laid back approach to facing Indians closer Joe Borowski, who just the night before had tossed the pitch that Yankee Alex Rodriguez hit for a walk off home run. Instead the pressure was turned up and the Rays hit three straight pop ups to end the game.

The Rays aren't known for having a successful bullpen, so when your bullpen is doing well, you don't take chances, you go with what is proven. That is the difference between a record of 7-9 and 6-10. Its the difference between starting a series strong and falling behind.