GAME REVIEW: Slugfest in Arlington

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
TB		4	0	1	2	0	1	0	0	0		8	16	2
TEX		1	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0		4	13	1

Click here for expanded Box Score.

Longo hits one out — Courtesy: Sun Sports

TGIF! It's time to celebrate the arrival of the weekend with a little Rays baseball. The Rays are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area tonight to face off with the red hot Rangers. Tonight is a rematch of one the ALDS the past two years. Rays will send "Complete Game" James Shields to the mound and the Rangers will counter with Matt Harrison. Tonight will be another early challenge for our Rays. How will they do? Let's find out. Play ball!

Jennings is first pitch swinging to lead off the game and leads off with a single. Pena then reaches on an error by Rangers' 2B Ian Kinsler. Longo follows by teeing off to dead center for a home run to put the Rays up early, all before an out is made. Zobrist then walks and Keppinger singles. Harrison who has been dominate early this season isn't fooling anyone tonight. Upton follow with a line drive single to left, scoring Zobrist. Sean Rodriguez then bunts, Harrison picked up the ball and threw to third to force Keppinger for the first out. Geminez flies out to left and Upton tagged up and gambled and tried to take third but was easily thrown out for the double play and that ends the inning.

ESPN's Schoenfield takes notice of Rays bats

by Aaron Giddens

Rays walk it off — Courtesy: DRaysBay

In his latest blog on ESPN.com, David Schoenfield takes a look at the Rays offense and how it's surprising many so far. The bulk of the article focuses on Allen's walk off heroics yesterday against the Angels, but it also touches on the rest of the offense.

GAME REVIEW: All hail, King David!

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
LAA		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	5	0
TB		1	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	x		5	8	0

Click here for expanded Box Score.

David Price — Courtesy: Getty Images via Zimbio

Tuesday night! It's time for baseball. Tonight the Rays welcome the Albert Pujols and the Angels to the Trop for the second and last series of this homestand. Rays send David Price to the mound who will be continuing to look for his 2010 self. Angels will counter with Ervin Santana. It's time for Rays baseball, here we go!

Evan Longoria is....Sparticus?

by Aaron Giddens

I've never heard of Halloween in April before today however, now I'm laughing my butt off. Evan and his girlfriend hosted a Halloween in April party last night and shared the following picture:



O...K. Next game please.

Rays 'expected' to sign Hideki Matsui

by Aaron Giddens

Hieki Matsui — Courtesy: Flickr

The big news of the day for the Rays appears that the Rays are expected to sign former Yankees and A's DH "Godzilla" Hideki Matsui to a minor league contract.

I'm quite confused at the moment, I thought Luke Scott was our DH and if Hideki is being signed for depth at the DH position why not just resign Damon who wanted to come back in the first place?

Very confused. Here's hoping we hear some answers shortly.

Fan interferes with fly ball, apparently ejected [UPDATED]

by Aaron Giddens

[Update, 9:50pm]: Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports via Twitter that the fan, now identified as former NBA center Matt Geiger, was not ejected but relocated. Still don't agree, he was fine.

The moment of Interference. — Courtesy: Sun Sports via @CorkGaines

[Original story]: During today's 6-2 win over the Twins, it was in the top of the 8th and a fan interfered with a foul ball that Carlos Pena was attempting to catch. He was rightly met with boos from the crowd after words and then when he was (apparently) ejected, the crowd cheered.

I disagree with his ejection if that's what happened. The ball was out of the field of play as Rays Radio's Dave Wills points out. The ball was fair game.

GAME REVIEW: BJ Upton, our hero

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
MIN		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	5	3
TB		0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	x		4	8	0

Click here for expanded Box Score.

BJ Upton celebrating in the 6th. — Courtesy: Sun Sports via @CorkGaines

Good evening, Rays fans. After the excitement of this afternoon, the Rays take on the Twins in game 2 of 3 at the Trop. James Shields is on the mound and he is opposed by Carl Pavano. Here we go.

FUNNY: Todd Kalas being Todd Kalas

by Aaron Giddens

So, during Friday night's game Todd Kalas got in to the Rays touch take at the Trop for an interview with one of the handlers, and I mean IN the Rays tank. After the interview completed, good ol' Todd did this:




Congratulations, Todd, you're a prankster, and it's funny as heck. Keep it up, Todd.

GAME REVIEW: The quest for offense hits Toronto

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
TB		0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0		3	10	3
TOR		1	0	3	0	0	1	1	1	x		7	7	1

Click here for expanded Box Score.

The story of the night: Leaving runners.
Courtesy: Sun Sports via @CorkGaines

Good evening, Rays fans. It's Tuesday night and time to start a new week of game reviews and a new series. Tonight, the boys from St. Pete are in Toronto, Ontario, Canada facing the Blue Jays. After a anemic offensive series in Boston, the Rays will be looking to get their bats flying with fury tonight. On the mound is Jeff Neimann his Blue Jays counter part in Ricky Romero. So settle in, it should be a good game and here's your game review.

Bad strike zone irks national media, for once

by Aaron Giddens

The final strike of yesterday's game.
Courtesy: Rays Index

The Rays are often on the bad end of it. The horribly elastic strike zones. The ones that give favorable calls to the opposing team, usually the Red Sox or Yankees. But yesterday, the Rays found themselves on the "good" side of a bad strike zone and the bad calls went their way for once. And it didn't please the national sports media.

No, the national media was in an outrage over the Cody Ross at-bat that ended the game yesterday. Was it a horrible strike zone? Absolutely. But that's not the point. The point is that the horrible strike zones are hardly ever, if ever, mentioned by the sports media when it goes the Red Sox way.

The Rays are hurting

by Aaron Giddens

Joe Maddon showing frustration — Courtesy: @CorkGaines

So far this season, we've had 8 games and 5 of them on the road. At home, we're 3-0. However, on the road we're 1-4. The one win being a miracle come from behind victory against Verlander and the Tigers.

This team is in trouble right now. The bullpen can't get an out to save their lives. The offense starts out promising in the first couple of innings only to go cold and never score another run. The defense isn't good either, to many botched defensive plays this team almost always makes. And probably most scary is the DEEP rotation isn't doing to hot either.

SERIES RECAP: Cold offense buries Rays

by Aaron Giddens

Jose Molina confers with Matt Moore on Wednesday — Courtesy: CBS Tampa

Well that was a telling series. This series proves to us our offensive problems with runners in scoring position is continuing. While I'm not sounding the alarm, it is alarming for a team looking to win a championship and predicted by many to do so.

RAYS HISTORY: One year ago, ManRam retired

by Aaron Giddens

ManRam before the temporary retirement. — Courtesy: NBC Sports

It's now been 367 days (one extra for the leap year and one for me being one day late on the exact date) since Manny Ramirez shocked the Rays Republic when he failed a drug test and immediately retired to avoid the consequences. This left the Rays in a spot where they had to plug Johnny Damon in to the DH role that Manny was supposed to hold down.

One year later, I'm still confused and angry that Manny blew it again. That betrayal feeling is horrible. What angers me however is that he then UN-retired and is now an Oakland Athletic and serving his (reduced) suspension.

Is there no justice?

SERIES RECAP: How's that winless start taste, Yankees?

by Aaron Giddens

Hellickson is greeted by Shields and the team.
Courtesy: AP/Brian Blanco

We wake up this morning to the sound of Rays fans still cheering about the Easter present of the "Yankees Stomp". That's right, in our opening series we swept the Yankees. (Box Scores below.)

Our opening series this season just filled this Rays fan with confidence for the year. It doesn't hurt that BOTH the Yankees and the Red Sox are 0-3 to start their season, the second time this has ever happened and the first since 1966. What were you doing in 1966? Personally, I was a twinkle in my Mom's eye. That season the Red Sox and Yankees finished 9th and 10th respectively. Is history about to repeat?

GAME REVIEW: Identity crisis

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY		0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	4		6	9	1
TB		2	1	1	0	0	2	2	0	x		8	10	1

Click here for expanded Box Score.

The Ray-Yankee Fan — Courtesy: SunSports via @CorkGaines

Good evening, Rays fans. It's Day 2! After yesterday's amazing walk off courtesy of Carlos Pena, the Rays go for their sixth straight win over the AL East rivals, the Yankees. David Price was on the mound these evening for the Rays. Did he do better than James Shields yesterday? Let's jump in to the "Star Digest".

GAME REVIEW: Play Ball!!

by Aaron Giddens

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY		0	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0		6	9	0
TB		4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2		7	12	1

Click here for expanded Box Score.

Curtain Call by Pena — Courtesy: Sun Sports

Good Afternoon, Rays fans. It's finally happened: the first game that counts of 2012. Along with today we are debuting our new game review format. I've named it the "Star Digest". In the Star Digest, I break down each general position and tell you how I think it performed on a given day and rate it on a five star system (five obviously being the best, and 1 being the worst). With that let's break down today's game against the Yanks.

PIC: Topicana Field

by Aaron Giddens

We're a little less than 2 hours from first pitch, and @RaysAddiction tweeted this picture from outside the Trop. I love it. Baseball is back and the Trop looks good. Looks like I see some tailgating in the background.

It's time....

by Aaron Giddens

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" (Rock version)

It's been a around 15,984,000 seconds since the Rays last took the field at Tropicana Field. In that time, we've lost players and gained new ones. We've reminisced constantly about "Game 162". We've watched our Bucs stink up the joint. We've also watched our Lighting fail to capitalize on last years momentum. But finally, after 185 days, it's time to play ball again!

The bats are ready and at the moment warm. "Complete Game" James is ready. The Hot Dogs are ready to be put on the grill. Tail gating is ready to get underway.

Today starts a fight, a 162 game fight, for October. This years Rays are primed for greatness. With our catching problem addressed (though some will still say it's unsolved) and Pena back. A new DH. A young, early Rookie of the Year favorite.

The paint on the turf is still drying. But it's time to play ball.

What can we expect from the boys in blue this year? I personally have doubts of a consistently good offense. However, don't this fact tarnish this team. They are still very good.

So suit up, boys! There's a Commissioner's Trophy to bring to sunny Tampa Bay.

PLAY BALL!!!