After Robinson Cano, who had singled off Price to begin the inning, stole second base, Rodney intentionally walked pinch-hitter Travis Hafner to bring Lyle Overbay to the plate. Back after getting ahead of Overbay 1-2, Rodney could not put Overbay away, eventually walking him on a 3-2 changeup that had no bite to load the bases. Rodney and the Rays had a brief reprieve after Chris Stewart popped out on a nice catch by James Loney in foul ground. However, Rodney paid dearly for all the baserunners just one pitch later as Ichiro Suzuki lined a go-ahead 2-run single in front of Desmond Jennings in centerfield to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. Evan Longoria homered off Mariano Rivera to begin the 9th, but that’s all the Rays could manage as they fell to the Yankees by a 4-3 score. It was a great game and certainly a hard-fought one, but it was tough for the Rays to come away on the losing side.

David Price and Phil Hughes delivered fans with quite a pitchers’ duel. Early on, though, it didn’t seem that way. The Rays had Hughes on the ropes from the very start of the game as Desmond Jennings walked before Ryan Roberts doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Ben Zobrist followed with a long flyball to centerfield for a sac fly to put the Rays up 1-0. But Hughes buckled down from there, striking out Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce to end the inning, and he cruised from there. Hughes tossed shutout ball for the next 5 innings before the Rays finally got to him again in the 7th, with Jose Molina delivering an unlikely go-ahead single. But that didn’t take the luster off a great outing from Hughes as he went 7 innings allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6 while walking 2.

David Price breezed through the first 3 innings, throwing just 31 pitches. In the 4th inning, though, his own dominance cost him. Price began the inning by striking out Eduardo Nunez on a nasty curveball, but it was so dynamic that Jose Molina couldn’t catch it, leading to a wild pitch that allowed Nunez to reach. Robinson Cano and Vernon Wells followed with singles through the right side to tie the game at 1. From there, however, Price got right back into a groove, retiring the next 12 batters he faced taking him through 1 out in the 8th. Through 7 innings, Price had thrown just 79 pitches as he had been incredibly economical. Price wasn’t blowing by hitters in this game, striking out just 5 in 8+ innings of work, but he threw a ton of strikes, 71 of his 99 pitches to be exact, and didn’t walk a batter. He certainly had the pitch count to pitch the entire 9th inning and maybe even the 10th if he had pitched well and the game had gotten that far. But complicating Joe Maddon’s decision in the 9th was the events that took place in the 8th.

The Rays were clinging to a 2-1 lead in the 8th, but they had to feel confident with ace David Price on the mound. However, while the Yankees didn’t hit it hard against Price, they couldn’t have hit it in better spots. Ichiro came up with a single through the right side before Jayson Nix came up with a huge hit-and-run single that sent Ichiro to third base on a soft groundball placed perfectly between Evan Longoria at third base and Yunel Escobar at shortstop. The extra base taken by Ichiro made all the difference as Brett Gardner followed with a groundball to second base, and Ryan Roberts’ only play was at first base as the Yankees tied the game at 2 runs apiece.

Price was at 92 pitches through 8 innings and it was obvious that he would return to the mound to begin the 9th with a low pitch count, a tie game and obviously not a save situation, and a lefty batter, Robinson Cano coming to the plate. But Cano absolutely wore Price out with a 7-pitch at-bat to begin the inning, coming back from an 0-2 count to lace an opposite-field single to give the Yankees a great start to their 9th inning. Price was pitching well, but he appeared to be letting up, allowing the tying run in the 8th before failing to retire Cano. But Price’s state on the mound wasn’t the only factor. Batting next was the right-hand hitting Vernon Wells, who had gotten the RBI single off Price in the 4th, but after him it would be seemingly easy going for the lefty Price. The slumping Ben Francisco was due up after him with the Yankees’ best pinch-hitters all left-handed, and after him was lefty Lyle Overbay. However, with Price showing the early signs of coming apart even if his pitch count was fine and Wells having looked good against Price early in the game, Joe Maddon decided to overlook the batters scheduled to come up after Wells and put his trust in Fernando Rodney. If Rodney had pitched the way he’s capable of pitching, we wouldn’t be discussing whether Joe Maddon made the right move. But Rodney faltered and the result was a Rays defeat. Improbably, the Rays are now 0-5 in David Price’s starts. Price took the loss as Cano was the runner he allowed, but you certainly can’t blame him.

The Rays fall to 9-11 with the loss and hope to rebound on Wednesday for the series win with Alex Cobb taking the hill against Andy Pettitte. Baseball fans everywhere watching Tuesday’s game got themselves quite an exciting contest–but Rays fans were left stunned by Rodney’s implosion and hope for better results next time around.

Ben Zobrist doubled. Carlos Pena walked. With 2 outs, the Rays got another walk. But the Yankees pitchers worked out of trouble to hold the Rays scoreless. That happened in both the 1st and 5th innings for the Rays. David Phelps was the opposite of dominant, allowing 3 hits and 4 walks in 4.2 innings while striking out 3 in 4.2 innings. But with help from Boone Logan in the 5th, Phelps didn’t allow a run. Jeff Niemann pitched well for the Rays. He had a moderately rough first inning, allowing a Derek Jeter single to begin the game and a 2-out opposite field double to Robinson Cano to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Niemann went 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 5 while walking 1. He threw 69 of 102 pitches for strikes and forced 9 groundouts to 4 flyouts. It was his first start of the season in which he went 6 or more innings. Yet he left in line for the loss.

In the 8th, Rafael Soriano came for the Yankees. B.J. Upton greeted him with a single. Then the Rays got a break as a Robinson Cano error on a throw to second base for a force pulled Derek Jeter off the bag to give the Rays 1st and 2nd with nobody out. But Soriano came back to strike out Luke Scott and get Will Rhymes to ground into a force play before pinch-hitter Desmond Jennings flied out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 8th, Fernando Rodney came in for the Rays- partially to keep the Rays down 1-0 and also because he hadn’t pitched in three games. Rodney allowed 2 out singles to Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano, but Will Rhymes was able to corral Mark Teixeira‘s rocket groundball to turn it into a 4-6-3 double play to get the Rays out of trouble. The Rays would have to get something off David Robertson in the 9th.

One swing, and the night instantly changed. (Credit: Brad Penner-US PRESSWIRE)

The Rays wasted no time. Sean Rodriguez singled to left on the first pitch Robertson threw. Then Brandon Allen came out to pinch-hit for Chris Gimenez and came on swinging, hitting a line drive to right field. Rodriguez rounded second and went towards third and Nick Swisher came up throwing, but on the throw to third, Rodriguez slid in safely and Allen alertly took second on the play. ThE. Robertson walked Ben Zobrist on four pitches (definitely some intention involved there) to load the bases and bring up Carlos Pena. For the second consecutive night, Robertson struck out Pena looking. B.J. Upton came up to the plate, and the Yankees were a double play away from winning the gamE. Robertson fell behind Upton 2-1. And then he left a fastball up and away, and Upton went with it, hitting a flyball to right field, deep enough for Rodriguez to score to tie the game even though Swisher came through with an incredible throw to make it relatively close. Matt Joyce came to the platE. Robertson got ahead of Joyce 1-2. But thE. Robertson left a fastball up, and Joyce muscled it out to deep right. He lost his footing on the swing and fell down, twisting his ankle. But it didn’t matter. Joyce got enough of the pitch to drill it into the first row of the right field seats, and suddenly the Rays had a 4-1 lead. Joyce limped across the bases, but he was fine and remained in the game.Fernando Rodney worked around a single in the 9th to close out his own win, and the Rays won 4-1. Rodney (2-0) earned the win, while Robertson (0-1) took the tough loss, blowing the  save with the all eyes on him following the injury to Mariano Rivera.

The Rays finally came through. They went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position in this game. They left 11 men on base. But that was bound to end. Joyce saw an opportunity on the misplaced pitch from Robertson, and he took advantage. The Rays stole a game from the Yankees. And now, with David Price set to go up against CC Sabathia on Thursday night, the Rays have a chance to come up with a series win.

Catcher – Matt Wieters
First Base – Adrian Gonzalez
Second Base – Robinson Cano
Third Base – Evan Longoria
Shortstop – Derek Jeter
Outfield – Brett Gardner
Outfield – Carl Crawford
Outfield – Jose Bautista
DH – Manny Ramirez

Our pitching staff is set except for the #5 pitcher, and honestly, when we are debating which of these two guys is our 5th starter, it bodes well for how we’ll do as the competition moves forward. It comes down to Toronto’s Ricky Romero and Boston’s Josh Beckett.

Rays Colored Glasses is collaborating with the writers from BoSox Injection (Red Sox), Yanks Go Yard (Yankees), Birds Watcher (Orioles), and Jays Journal (Blue Jays) to select an AL East All-Star team, which will face off against the AL Central and AL West All-Star teams in a fan vote hosted by our MLB site Call to the Pen. The AL winner will then advance to face off against the NL division selected by the same method and another fan vote will be held. We have reached a general consensus of what pitchers should be on the AL East All-Star team, except for one. So, we need you, the readers to vote for who you feel should be the final piece for our AL East All-Star team.

Each candidate received two votes among our AL East writers. Romero obviously had the better 2010 season emerging as the Jays’ potential ace, but Beckett has a longer track record and studly post-season performance.
Thinking ahead and forgetting past performance, who is the better fit for a AL East All-Star team this season in 2011?

The voting is underway at Jays Journal so let your voice be heard. We’ll want to finalize our roster over the next couple of days and get ready to destroy the rest of the MLB divisions.