Comprehensive recap on last night's game
-It was nice to see Crawford break out of his slump with a four hit game. He even drew a walk, and while he still wasn’t taking many pitches he did manage to make Jakubauskas work to get him out.
-The lineup as a whole finally put it all together for one game as well. Every starter registered a hit besides Navarro, who went 0-5 and continues to struggle mightily at the plate. The offense collected 15 hits and scored 9 runs without hitting a homer, which is impressive considering the team came into the game having scored 32 of it’s 64 runs by the homer, the highest percentage in the majors.
-The offense was great last night, but the Rays still lost two outs due to a base running error. Carl Crawford was thrown out at second base after trying to tag up from first base on a sac fly, and Carlos Pena was picked off first base after Mariner pitcher Shaun White faked to third and threw to first. Those two just add to the Rays already league leading total of base running gaffes.
-Jeff Niemann pitched well, taking a perfect game into the 5th inning before Jason Bartlett made a throwing error that allowed the first base runner. By the time the 6th inning rolled around it was clear that Niemann had run out of gas, which has been a pattern with Niemann all season long. It seems like he pitches five innings then hits a wall. If he can’t get that problem corrected maybe he really is better suited for a bullpen role.
-The bullpen, which has been slightly shaky as of late, pitched the last 3.1IP and allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out four. J.P. Howell, Dan Wheeler and Lance Cormier each looked good in their outings, but I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that Mariners don’t exactly have one of the strongest of offenses.
-Congratulations to Evan Longoria on recording his 100th career RBI in his 135th game. Longoria became the third fastest among active players to collect their 100th RBI, behind Ryan Braun(118 games) and Albert Pujols(131 games). Pretty nice company to be in.