The Rays Tank: Wide Turn Cuts Rays Rally Short

The Rays lost 6-3 yesterday against the Orioles as a ninth-inning rally was cut short due to a controversial call. As Evan Longoria hit this RBI double, first base umpire James Hoye ruled that Longo passed Ben Zobrist on his way into second.

During the Rays Live post game show on SunSports, Todd Kalas stated that Hoye had raised his arm while running towards the mound to signal Longoria passing Zobrist and then waited to call him out until after the play was completed. There aren’t any angles on the replay that give a clear shot as to whether Longoria actually DID pass Zobrist. Ben gives his account of the play and doesn’t think that Longo passed him, video courtesy of Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Tribune.

Joe Maddon came out to argue the call, but it fell on deaf ears. In his postgame press conference, Joe Maddon told reporters, "I was just looking for the guy with the best angle in the building to become more involved," referring to homeplate umpire Jim Reynolds. Maddon went on to explain that Hoye was adamant that he made the right call so he would not convene with the other umpires.

After Longoria returned to the dugout, Shelley Duncan popped out, Yunel Escobar walked, and James Loney popped out, stranding Zobrist on third. The Rays were 3-for-7 with RISP yesterday and left four men on base. Their first hit of the game came on a Longoria single in the bottom of the fifth. The team's seven total hits were a disappointment after the team had managed 14 the night before.

Just a sidenote, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune mentioned that yesterday wasn’t the first time that Longo has passed Zobrist while running the bases. The other game was on 6/27/11 against the Reds. Twice is enough Longo!

The real highlight of this series was Orioles First-baseman, Chris Davis. Davis went 7-for-11 with 1 K, 3 HR and 11 RBI’s. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Davis became only the 2nd player in MLB history with 3+ HR and 11+ RBI through the team's 1st 3 games. Dolph Camilli in 1935 is other. Davis is the first player to record three or more RBIs in the first three games of a season since records became available in 1916. Safe to say that we will not miss him at the Trop anytime soon!

You can check out Gareth's full recap of the game here!

In other MLB news...

- Chris Davis wasn’t the only one hitting homeruns around the league. Seattle’s Michael Morse had four homeruns and six RBI’s in the Mariners' three games against the Oakland Athletics.

- The Yankees game was not broadcasted on the History Channel last night; however. it certainly looked like old times for NY as Andy Pettitte threw eight solid innings allowing only 1 ER on 8 hits with 1 BB and 3 K’s. Mariano Rivera closed the game, earning his first save of the season as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1. According to B-R, Pettitte and Rivera were the first pair of 40 year olds to earn a Win/Save combo since 2008. Greg Maddux and Trevor Hoffman did this five times that year, Kenny Rogers and Tom Jones got the W/S combo three times and Jamie Moyer and Tom Gordon teamed up once.

- Papa Grande couldn’t stay away from the Tigers. Jose Valverde signed a minor league contract yesterday with no guarantees that he’ll be a part of the closing committee for Detroit. Jim Leyland is calling the Tigers’ closer by committee approach "a second-guesser’s delight".

- Elvis will be in the building for at least eight more years for Texas. The Rangers and Andrus have officially finalized an eight-year extension yesterday worth approximately $120 million.

Links:

- Christina Kahrl of ESPN.com writes that it’s time for the National League to adopt the DH. I quite enjoy watching pitchers hit, and I know that our Rays pitchers love having their own homerun hitting contests during BP when they prepare for interleague play (See Price's homerun trot here!). Kahrl points out, "in the past 12 years, out of a possible 168 player-seasons for the guys we'll call full-time DHs -- say, those who spent at least 75 percent of their playing time in a given year batting as a DH -- there have been just 47 regular DH seasons worth a win or more via Baseball-Reference.com's Batting Runs stat."

- Elliot Johnson was used to driving in traffic with snowbirds here in Florida, but now that he’s in Kansas City, he has to deal with these kinds of drivers…

- *NSYNC is tearin’ up my heart as this picture of them dressed in Phillies uniforms surfaced yesterday.