Meaningless Revenge

The Rays exacted a small piece of revenge today against the World Champion Phillies @ Tropicana Field.

Both starting pitchers, Joe Blanton and Matt Garza were stellar.

Joe Blanton pitched 7 strong innings, allowing 2 runs, before his bullpen came in and let the game blow wide open in the bottom of the 8th. JC Romero and Chan Ho Park worked 1 inning for a combined 5 ER.

We have now won 9 out of our last 12 and are starting to look like the team that went to the World Series a year ago.  If we could start to get a little more consistency out of the starting rotation, we have a chance to make a real move up the standings.  BJ Upton, MLB’s Player of the Week last week, is finally starting to hit the ball, and with all of our regulars back from the DL except Akinori Iwamura (although he has been replaced by a more productive power hitter) we are continuing to hit the ball well.

The question still looms though, what are we going to do with David Price? After last night’s shelling by the Phils, are we going to continue to trot him out to the mound to start games, put him in the pen or send him back down to the minors once Scott Kazmir gets back from the DL.