The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
RAYS 5, Cleveland 1 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: After the Rays got a first-inning single from Evan Longoria, Corey Kluber settled down, retiring 16 out of the next 18 batters he faced. And the 2 batters who did get on base were thrown out trying to go to second (1 on a steal and 1 on a double-play). But then, with 2 outs in the 7th inning the Rays got back-to-back hits to tie the game 1-1. And with 2 outs in the 8th inning Logan Forythe went deep to take a 3-1 lead. Two batters later, it was Longoria hitting his second home run of the season, something he did not do until May 6 last year.
THE BAD: Hank Conger is not off to a good start at the plate. He had the horrendous strikeout on a pitch that missed the strikezone by a couple of yards in an earlier game and now he is killing rallies with his no-out double-play.
And then there is this swing by Corey Dickerson, in which he fouled off a pitch that bounced in front of the plate. That’s hard to do.
Not cool, dudes.
Who’s laughing now, @Indians?@RaysRaymond, probably. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/GaavXNxNdJ — Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 13, 2016
THE TELLING: The Rays have now homered in 21-straight games, a team record and the longest streak in the majors since 2013…In the first five innings of games this season, the Rays have been out-scored by their opponents 24-9. In innings 6-9, they have outscored other teams 14-3…The Rays are now 3-4, a whopping 4.0 games behind the 7-0 Orioles.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Alex Cobb and Chase Whitley, both recovering from Tommy John surgery, threw off a mound on Tuesday. Cobb’s target for a return to the Rays is now late-July. [TBO.com]
- The Rays are baseball’s most aggressive team. [Fangraphs.com]
- Even though he was cut by the Rays, Dan Johnson is not giving up his quest to become a knuckleball pitcher as he has signed with an Independent League team. [TampaBay.com]
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Longo, Dickerson, Logan F., Dez and Souza Jr. off to encouraging starts. Still, we haven't scored more than 5 runs in any game. We have a long list of underachievers thus far. Shelton needs to get to work. If not, how long will it be before fans start the annual "off with his head" clamor. You'd better believe Hickey is already at it with the starters. Time's a wasting Derek.
Conger, Miller, and especially LoMo have all been duds so far. I know it's early, but LoMo is absolutely lost at the plate. Not only is he hitting below .050, but he isn't having any encouraging at bats or even making productive outs.
Matty Moore, eff-ing brilliant. Jennings, clutch. Rays offense looked like a rerun of the last several years until things got fun late in the game. Lots of promise, but when you have three starters who cannot sniff the "Mendoza line," it's gonna be really tough. Well.....it's early.
Conger is the reincarnation of Molina...pitchers love him for his framing, but can't hit his weight... we have to get used to it...he is not going anywhere.
Conger is in his 7th year and his lifetime avg. is .224. Only once has he hit above .229. Unfortunately, we cannot expect much from him. I wish we still had Dioner Navarro. He seems to have learned how to hit. "Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." What is wrong with Curt Casali? Is he no good defensively? Any help down on the farm?
Matt Moore's spring and early season starts are BY FAR the biggest news of the season. If he gets back to 2013 levels, then this team has a top of the rotation stud from the left side. I actually also like the work of the top half of the bullpen. Dickerson looks great, Des maybe getting back to his pre-injury status. So some very good developments.
Yes, the new batters stink out loud so far. But its only 7 games in, and even if they just revert to somewhere near the mean they owe us so much that it will be a nice payback.
This team is hard to watch compared to other seasons, our core players seems to be going ok, but the trade for castoffs in Morrison & Miller including Congo isnt working. If only we had Loney & TimmyB in place, and traded Karns for a (good) catcher...