The Rays Tank: What Happened to GTMI?

Well, there were back-to-back-to-back shutouts with the Rays this weekend. Unfortunately, yesterday’s game was a 13-0 blowout at the hands of Justin Masterson and the Cleveland Indians. Masterson is now 2-0 on the season. His other win was against the Toronto Blue Jays and R.A. Dickey, the other reigning Cy Young award winner.

The GTMI (Get The Man In) philosophy really seemed to escape the Rays this weekend as they left entirely too many runners stranded on base throughout the series. Yesterday, the Rays left eight men on base. Saturday, there were 12 men stranded. Between both of those games, the Rays left the bases loaded a total of SIX times.

In addition to lining into a double play to end an inning, Yunel Escobar also struck out twice with the bases loaded. In 2012, Escobar had nine plate appearances with the bases loaded in which he went 3-for-9 with nine RBI’s and only one strikeout.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, in 2012 the Rays were 44-for-117 when the bases were loaded. The team struckout 16 times, walked 14 times and drove in 116 RBI’s in those situations.

Perhaps Derek Shelton needs to break out these GTMI shirts again soon!

The Rays begin their first roadtrip of the season today as they head to Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers where we’ll see Jeremy Hellickson, Roberto Hernandez and Matt Moore take the mound at RBiA.

Around the league:

David Price wasn’t the only ace to get rocked during their starts on Sunday. According to MLB Tonight, R. A. Dickey went 4.2 innings allowing seven earned runs, Matt Cain lasted only 3.2 innings allowing 9 earned runs, Stephen Strasburg went 5.1 innings giving up six earned runs, and Justin Verlander lasted 7.1 innings allowing three earned runs.

Atlanta’s first baseman, Freddie Freeman, was placed on the 15-day DL with a strained oblique and was not happy at all. Freeman told reporters, "They [Braves management] didn’t even tell me anything. I don’t even know what’s going on. I’m pretty angry right now." In Saturday’s game against the Cubs, Freeman was wincing and grabbing his right oblique while running the bases. He was examined after the game and showed up to Turner Field on Sunday unaware of the team’s decision to place him on the DL.

In the AL East, the Red Sox crushed the Blue Jays 13-0 as Will Middlebrooks had a three-almost-four-homer game, the Yankees beat up on the Tigers 7-0 with CC Sabathia dealing seven shutout innings, and the Orioles lost 4-3 as Twins rookie Aaron Hicks drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. After the first week, Boston leads the division at 4-2, the Rays and Baltimore own 3-3 records, and New York and Toronto are 2-4.

Links:

- After the San Fransisco Giants received their World Series rings, the team participated in a ceremonial first pitch by tossing baseballs out to the fans.

- Marlins prospect Jose Fernandez threw eight strikeouts in his Major League debut yesterday against the Mets.

- Matthew Leach of MLB.com writes about how smart it is to have a top-hitter in the number two spot of the lineup. This must apply to teams who don’t use 151 different lineups in a year, but I do like the Rays 1-2-3-4 combination of Jennings, Fuld, Zobrist and Longoria so far.