The Rays Tank: Spark in the Offense Provides Hope

Frustrated. That’s exactly how I feel as I sit to type this, as I’m sure many of you feel the same. The Rays went 2-7 on their first road trip of the season, ending it with a 10-6 loss against the Orioles thanks to a walk-off grand slam by Matt Wieters.

The Rays jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over the Orioles in the first inning last night as Desmond Jennings and Evan Longoria both hit solo homeruns. David Price looked dominant in the bottom of the first, striking out the side on just 12 pitches.

The Rays tacked on another run in the top of the second with a one-out, bases loaded sacrifice fly by Desmond Jennings. Kelly Johnson walked in the next at-bat and Ben Zobrist flied out to end the inning. That brings the Rays to a whopping 0-for-13 with the bases loaded on the season.

Seriously? Are baserunners that intimidating to our batters? In the Rays’ ten losses on the season, they are 6-for-63 with runners in scoring position.

Price went on to throw six innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits. He was yanked after allowing a lead-off double to JJ Hardy in the top of the seventh. His pitch count was only at 86, which left many fans confused as to why he was being taken out so early. Per Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune, Price discusses his frustrations about his start in this video of his postgame press conference. While talking to reporters, Price also stated, "I don’t want to go six or seven innings, I want to go nine every time im out there."

You can catch Erik’s recap of the game here.

Highlights from the series against the Orioles include plenty of homeruns from Desmond Jennings, Evan Longoria, Kelly Johnson, Jose Molina, James Loney, and Shelley Duncan. The offense finally got into the groove of things, getting 28 hits and scoring 16 runs in the three games against the Orioles. Although we lost two of the three, it was still nice to see the bats start to come alive.

The Rays host the Oakland Athletics this weekend at the Trop, with Alex Cobb on the mound tonight.

Around the League: In his first start after being arrested for a DUI on Tuesday morning, Yovani Gallardo not only hit a homerun, but also got his first win of the season as the Brewers defeated the Giants 7-2. CT Scan reveals a fracture in Jeter’s bionic ankle, so he’ll be out until after the All-Star break now. David Ortiz will be in the lineup for the Red Sox today for the first time this season.The Red Sox return to Fenway for the first time since Monday’s tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon and are currently on a six-game winning streak. R.A. Dickey threw six shutout innings before being removed from the Blue Jays game last night with back and neck stiffness. The Rangers are setting up several relief efforts to aid victims of Wednesday’s explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas.

Links:

-District K-9 tickets are available once again for Price’s next start at the Trop on Tuesday, April 23^rd against the Yankees. In Price’s two previous starts at the Trop, he is 0-1 allowing 10 earned runs over 11 innings, striking out only seven batters.

-Jose Canseco hosted an ‘AMA’ on Reddit yesterday to promote his new podcast. Many commenters used this as an opportunity to voice their frustrations about how Canseco treated them when they were kids seeking his autograph.

-Jose Reyes apparently loves to use emojis on twitter. He also enjoys instagramming pictures of the Blue Jays clubhouse while Melky Cabrera shows off his abs of steel.