Recap: 1-0, Longoria is a beast.

by P Brady on Oct 2, 2008 6:16 PM EDT

First things first:

Longoria = Amazing

Now, Shields may not have had the prettiest statline for the playoffs, but he had a typical effective James Shields start. Gave up the big home run early, but his changeup was dominant with two strikes as always. He gave 6.1 solid innings and you can't argue with that in the playoffs.

Balfour has one dominant pitch. The kind of pitch that you can throw to get out of a bases loaded 1 out situation. And telling Cabrera to sit down was awesome.

Howell's fastball is deadly to righties, looks like a future relief ace if he's not there already.

Wheeler was a flyball reliever that scares me. But a 3 run lead meant that his antics couldn't hurt us too bad,.

Carl Crawford and BJ Upton looked like hackers early, but both calmed down and became contributers. Hopefully Pena can play tomorrow, I'd almost hit Longo 3rd and Pena 4th since Ozzie looked to be walk-happy with Evan in the end.

Also: RAYS JUST WON A POSTSEASON GAME!

Road to 11 chart:

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Comments

First...post ever

I wanted to stick my nose in and mention how much fun this board has added to my Rays season. Thanks!

by Hinch on Oct 2, 2008 6:26 PM EDT reply actions

OMG WE'VE NEVER BEEN IN THE POSTEASON WERE NEVER GONNA BE ABLE TO WIN AT THIS LEVEL!!!!

oh wait…

Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and Gabe Gross coming through in the ninth

by JMB on Oct 2, 2008 6:32 PM EDT reply actions

BTW

Longo = God

CAN I HAZ 10 MOAR WINZ AND A PRETTY TROPHY?!?!

Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and Gabe Gross coming through in the ninth

by JMB on Oct 2, 2008 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Good win hopefully Kaz/Price can have a good outing tomorrow.

by Dbullsfan on Oct 2, 2008 6:37 PM EDT reply actions

A good Kaz would nullify the need for Price

by kurby on Oct 2, 2008 7:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Maybe he steps up for October?

7 strong innings would show me why he is their supposed ace and then we can use our awesome pen for 2 innings.

However, if he looks like fail, I really hope his leash is very short and we try to have Price keep us in the game.

by joeybw on Oct 2, 2008 7:51 PM EDT up reply actions

That was so fucking awesome

Wise gave us one of those old fashioned “wtf a HR to that guy, seriously?” moments but we wasted NO TIME coming back to take the lead and we never looked back.

Shields threw 1 bad pitch in his start and our bullpen was incredible, once again.

All that being said, if we are up 1 going to the 9th, I think we should use The K machine Aussie, ground ball machine Bradford or just Captain Awesome in Howell. Personally, I already would feel safe using Price to close out the game but I know it wont happen and we need him to be a long reliever.

by joeybw on Oct 2, 2008 6:54 PM EDT reply actions

pen is key

and Longo had an amazing day

by Underdogs on Oct 2, 2008 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Shields threw 2 bad pitches. Dye hammered a groved fastball right after Wise hammered a grooved fastball.

Tools Whore

Sign Bonds!

by Tyler on Oct 3, 2008 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions

Just got back from the Trop

Great crowd. Great game. If you’re going tomorrow, get there at least two hours early unless you want to park far away. Aside from the HR off Wheeler, my only other real complaint about the Rays’ performance was BJ taking a borderline called strike three with the bases juiced in his last AB. I don’t know exactly where the ball was located, but it sure looked like the same pitch that was being called for a strike all game long. Swing the damn bat BJ.

by rayweaver on Oct 2, 2008 8:35 PM EDT reply actions