The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
RAYS 8, Marlins 5 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: Nathan Karns pitched a hell of a game on Sunday, giving up just 2 runs (1 earned) on 2 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings…Anybody upset the Rays haven’t traded Davis DeJesus yet? His latest gem included a 3-run home run, 2 hits, and a great diving catch in the outfield…Kevin Kiermaier was at it again turning two singles into doubles with some head’s up base running and pure hustle. He is now second among all MLB players with 7 extra-base hits. I love the aggressiveness. But at the same time, Outlaw needs to be careful. The second came when he rounded hard at first base and kept going when Giancarlo Stanton was undecided about throwing home. Other teams are going to see that and it won’t be long before right fielders are faking throws home just to get Kiermaier going too hard around first base and he will be a sitting duck…Chris Archer allowed just 1 hit on 7 innings on Saturday. It’s almost as if Archer pitches better on normal rest. Weird.
THE BAD: Kevin Kiermaier nearly decapitated Rocco Baldelli on the first pitch of the game. Rocco’s reaction was priceless…Matt Andriese will start Tuesday’s game. Wednesday’s starter is still undecided…Nathan Karns squared to bunt and nearly got decapitated himself. Luckily he went full Matrix. Still, he wasn’t happy…
THE TELLING: Tim Beckham will be in the starting lineup tonight…The Rays now have 9 players on the DL. The Texas Rangers (10) are the only team with more…After starting the season with high-cuffed pants at home, third base coach Charlie Montoyo went pajama pants on the road in Miami…Alex Colome has started a rehab assignment with single-A Charlotte. He pitched 3 scoreless innings on Saturday. He will pitch again on Thursday…Drew Smyly will make his next rehab start for Charlotte tomorrow.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Marc Topkin caught up with Kelly Nash about her new gig with the MLB Network. [TampaBay.com]
- DOWN ON THE FARM [boxscores] Hak-Ju Lee went 1-4 with a strikeout for Durham…In Montgomery, Daniel Robertson was 1-4 and Richie Shaffer was 0-4…Andrew Velazquez went 2-4 with an RBI for Charlotte. Willy Adames was 2-4 with a double…Casey Gillaspie was 2-4 with a home run for Bowling Green. Justin Williams and Nick Ciuffo both went 0-4.
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9 Comments
Speaking of reactions... I loved Rivera pretending to sign a baseball after he (finally) got his first hit... Dewayne & BA seemed to think it was as if he was getting the 1st hit of his career. Fun is good.
"It's almost as if Archer pitches better on normal rest"... really? Are you still going down that road just to get a rise out of your readers? Ugh.
BA made an incredible point during the broadcast yesterday that as blazing hot as K2 is right now he is "only" hitting .400... imagine what it must have looked like to see Williams do that ALL SEASON LONG!!! It's almost unfathomable.
This team is starting to look like they're really gonna grind at the plate more than in the past, where they watched too many pitches go by and went quietly into the night... now they rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Re: Cork's obsession with Archer's rest. It's not like Archer's opening day start was terrible. He went 5 2/3 with 6 hits, 1 walk, 5 strike outs, and 3 earned runs. Remove ONE hanging change up from that line and it's a good start. I guess Archer never hangs a change up or gives up a run on normal rest. I guess we'll find out. My money says Archer has more than one normal rest start worse than his opening day start against Baltimore. Kind of like his two normal rest starts against Baltimore last year when he went a total of 10 innings and gave up 10 earned runs on 19 hits.
Sure was better to have Archer get a win in Miami in game 4 and be ready to compete in the final game of the Toronto series than to through anybody else out there in the home opener.
This is a nice team and will be better offensively than the offensively fatally flawed 2013 and 2014 models. Just have to survive until the starters return.
And major congratulations to Tim Beckham, who looked overmatched against the O's but had a sweet weekend in Miami. Finding something in his career would be a major positive development for the Rays.
I think that what Mr. Gaines is saying is that starting pitchers are creatures of habit. They have a routine acquired through the years and are more conservative in that regard than a NRA spokesman about guns.
Of course, some starters can go around that, like Bumgarner, but no one is saying yet that Archer today is the Bumgarner of the 2014 WS.
Only one change I would have made in the bullpen game because of that. I would have had it as Geltz, Andriese and then Ramirez. To give Ramirez the time to go through his routine. Andriese didn't matter. He had more experience as a reliever.
Lack of rest didn't make Archer throw the ball into right field on opening day.
Post of the day.
Archer admitted in an interview that, for that moment, he forgot all about the Victoria's Secret catalog.
It's what happens when you lose concentration.
Don't knock it, he also forgot the instructions he got when playing T-Ball. "Don't throw the ball---just walk over there and hand it over. You have time, the hitter will probably be running to 3rd base."