And The Slump Continues Out West

The Rays have continued their hitting slump and their longest losing streak of the season last night, in an extra inning 4-5 loss against the Angels. The Rays went 23 innings without scoring a run until an 8th inning homerun by Willy Aybar and a 3 run 9th, including a 2 run double by Evan Longoria to take the game to extras .”Great comeback in the end, we just could not get that extra run in,” Maddon said. “… I just liked the battle. As the season is in progress, you’re going to go through some tough moments. As a team, whether the offense struggles or the pitching struggles, that’s always going to happen, so you have to expect that almost. My philosophy is as long as I see effort, I can accept all of that.”

The Pitching as of late hasn’t been up to par either. Matt Garza who was consisdered to be a candidate for the Cy Young at the start of the season, has fell off in his last 2 starts. Garza did not recieve the loss but he did give up 2 homeruns and 4 earned runs in 7.2 innings. All of the runs coming in the first 4 innings. “I hung a slider to Torii,” right-hander Matt Garza said. “I know him really well, and I know what he does, so as soon as he hit it I went for another ball, and Napoli the same thing. It’s the big leagues, you make a mistake and you leave a hanger up there and you’re lucky if it comes back. So they took advantage of my mistakes, and that’s what real good teams do. They’re a real good team.”

The bullpen is struggling to keep the game in tact as it showed last night. I understand Joe Maddon was waiting for a lead to bring in Rafael Soriano but what’s the point if the pitchers he uses just blow it anyways. Grant Balfour, I know is a fan favorite to some with his accent and different culture but damn he only throws one pitch and is not reliable. Its the bottom of the 11th and Juan Rivera, who is purely a fastball hitter is facing a purely fastball pitcher, what the hell do you think is going to happen? The same thing I was thinking… he’s going to make contact and score the winning run from 3rd. GAME OVER!!!

One highlight that was just insane,  was the unbelievable catch by Carl Crawford, robbing Torii Hunter of an extra base hit. This guy amazes me everytime I see him fly and make a catch that I have never seen. He proves himself every game that he deserves every penny he is about to get. Check out this catch!!!  Carl Crawford robbing Torii Hunter