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The Rays improved to 3-1 this spring with a victory over the Red Sox yesterday afternoon. Alex Cobb, making his spring debut, worked two innings giving up four hits and two runs, though sounded generally pleased after the game:
"Obviously the results weren't great, but this time of year I'm looking to feel good, and I did," Cobb said. "The home run isn't very good, and the RBI double wasn't very good, but I got a lot of ground balls, which is what I'm looking for."
The bullpen was excellent, with notables Jamey Wright, Cesar Ramos and Jake McGee combining to throw four innings, giving up just a walk and striking out three.
Offensively the Rays were lead by Yunel Escobar and Ryan Roberts who each contributed two-run doubles.
David Price makes his debut today at 1:05 against the Astros.
In former Rays news, Johnny Damon still seems like the most bitter man on the planet. Speaking with the New York Daily News the 39-year-old outfielder said he'd re-join the Yankees if they asked (they won't), and that he's better than "70-80 percent of the guys out there." As for his poor 2012 season -- .222/.281/.329 -- he blames that on not getting regular playing time. I think it's the other way around, Johnny. Then Damon took a shot at the Rays and Luke Scott, saying...
"I guess if you have a bad year and get hurt, you get re-signed," Damon told Feinsand. "I had a good year there and they didn't want me back."
Classy move.
Links:
-FanGraphs takes a look at whether outfield alignments actually matter, concluding with "There's enough extra opportunities that your best guy should go in center field, but if it isn't patently obvious who the best guy is, don't stress about it too much. In the end, just put them side by side in some fashion and the results won't be drastically different."
-At Baseball Prospectus, R.J. Anderson takes a look at how Aaron Hill changed his approach at the plate.
-Dontrelle Willis' comeback attempt was halted after just seven pitches yesterday, as he left the game with shoulder tightness. It's sad to see a pitcher who was once so much fun to watch degrade to nothing. Baseball, man.