Garza Throws History For Rays

For the first time in history the Rays seen the other side of a no-hitter. Matt Garza was only one walk away from a perfect game but did only face the minimum 27 batters in his no-hitter against the Tigers last night. The Rays also made history by being involved in three official no-hitters in one season since 1917.

"“It’s the first no-hitter I’ve ever had,” Garza said. “It’s great I was the first one to do it [in Rays history]. It’s a young franchise and I have a feeling they’re going to have many more to come. But I can’t put enough emphasis on it how big the win was. We are trying to win the [American League] East, we’re not just trying to win a couple games — we’re trying to win the East and make it known. It was a great way to start the homestand.”"

I must say Garza pitched a hell of a game, he attacked the strike zone and didn’t care if they hit the ball or not. I mean, why would you care when your team makes unbeleivable plays all night including a catch by Ben “stretch armstrong” Zobrist in the 3rd inning when he pulled his arm out of socket and then brought it back in to make an tremendous catch in right field to rob Danny Worth from an extra base hit. And if you didn’t think Carl Crawford was cross eyed before, he definitely was in the 8th inning when Miggy Cabrera hit a screamer right at Crawford’s face and caught the ball at the last second before almost being knocked out. When a team makes tremendous plays like these two, you have to know something special is going to happen in the night.

On the other hand Tigers pitcher Matt Scherzer was also hitless through almost 5 innings until Matt Joyce came up with the bases loaded and hit his 2nd grand salami of the season putting the Rays up 4-0. This was only Joyce’s 3rd homerun of the season and two of them have been grand slams. The other run came from a solo shot to center in the 8th by Carl “Im crossed eyed now for real” Crawford.

"“Coming up, obviously the bases were loaded, and I think both teams had a no-hitter going — so, no pressure,” Joyce said. “You’re facing your old team and kind of want to prove something. I honestly had the approach to where I was just going to hit a hard ground ball up the middle. The count ran to 3-1 and I really wanted to get out there and get something out front and kind of drive it, and it ended up hitting off the bat. So I was like, ‘OK, well, let’s try to hit a ground ball up the middle again’ — 3-2 fastball, and I just put a good one on it.”"

The Rays are 15-6 in the month of July and if they have this spark going into the series this weekend against the Yanks, they could be atop of the divisoin starting next week.