David Price dealt last night in a big way leading his resurgent Tampa Bay Rays squad to a 2-1 victory over the Yankees in the Bronx. David went seven, gave up four hits, one earned run (questionable that it was even charged to him), with three walks and nine strikeouts. David was one strikeout short of 10 K’s, which would have been his sixth consecutive game of 10 K’s or more. That would have made him the fourth pitcher in MLB history to accomplish that feat. Nolan Ryan was one of those four.
Dave threw 119 pitches. Seventy five were strikes and 44 were balls. Not his tremendous ratio that he usually has, but he executed 21 of 28 first pitch strikes. He relied mainly on his fastball, which he was bringing @94-95 the entire night even in his last inning, the seventh. His fastball was very good. He just battled against a lineup that can grind you down with Derek Jeter, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mark Texiera, Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano hitting in the 2 through 6 holes. Brett Gardner, the leadoff hitter, is dangerous too, and Brian Roberts, the second baseman, hit a game tying home run Monday Night against the Rays in the bottom of the ninth, a game the Rays won in the 12th, 3-2. Roberts hit eighth. It’s a challenging lineup.
The only run David gave up came in the bottom of the fourth with the Rays leading 1-0. Jeter doubled to deep center to lead off the inning. Then Ellsbury singled to center to move Jeter to third. But Price got Texiera to fly out to right. Right fielder Kevin Kiermaier, a young 24-year old who is a stud and has a cannon for an arm, caught it and fired home. Jeter was not going anywhere. Then Price, pitching to Carlos Beltran, had Ellsbury picked off first. His throw to first baseman James Loney caught Ellsbury leaning to second. Ellsbury took off for second. Loney threw the ball to shortstop Ben Zobrist. Ellsbury started running back to first and Zobrist threw it back to Loney, but his throw hit Ellsbury in the back and bounced away allowing Jeter to score and Ellsbury to advance to second. Price got out of it without any further damage.
In the top of the sixth, the awesome Loney, who won the game for the Rays along with Price, hit a shot into the Rays bullpen in right field. Price battled hard through seven and the bullpen held the Yankees in check the rest of the way to capture the 2-1 victory. There’s been a lot of talk that the Rays are going to trade David for prospects or some other first rate players; but I believe Andrew Friedman, the Rays’ executive Vice President, is seeing a Rays team that is hot right now and only 9.5 back of the Blue Jays, and there is life back in this team. Price would be key to getting this team back in the playoffs and going from there, so I hope Friedman realizes that. Last week, a trade looked like an almostcertainty, but after the Rays took three of four from the Orioles @ Baltimore and now have taken the first two in New York with a chance to sweep today, things have changed. Hopefully, the Rays can keep winning so Price, who wants to stay as a Ray this year, will be leading his team to another division championship and a hopeful deep run in the postseason. The team is built for October. David certainly is.
The Rays play the Yankees in an afternoon matinee today at 1:07 PM ET/12:07 CT with young stud Jake Odorizzi on the hill for the Rays and Vidal Nuno getting the call for the Bombers. Odorizzi is 3-7 with a 4.14 ERA, but has pitched very well lately going 7.1 innings against Houston on June 21st and shutting them out on one hit with two walks and 10 K’s. Then last Friday against the Orioles, Jake went five and allowed only one run on six hits with four walks and five K’s. The Rays bullpen couldn’t hold the 1-0 lead that Jake staked them to and lost 4-1. Of course, the Rays didn’t hit in the ball either. Nuno is 2-4 with a 5.42 ERA. His last outing was good though against Boston as he went 5.2 innings, gave up two hits, no runs with two walks and five K’s. Rays go to Detroit for games tomorrow (Thursday) through Sunday in a four game set. Detroit playing well right now at 46-34 after taking the first two from the A’s, which have the best record in baseball at 51-32. The Tigers beat the A’s Monday Night on a walk off grand slam in the ninth by left fielder Rajai Davis. Incredible stuff. The Tigers were down 4-2 until Davis’s grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Last night, Rick Porcello pitched a complete game shutout over the A’s giving up only four hits, but amazingly had no walks and no strikeouts. He threw only 95 pitches, 68 for strikes with 27 balls. Porcello is good at 11-4 with a 3.12 ERA. His previous start against Texas on June 26th, he pitched a complete game shutout giving up three hits with three walks and six strikeouts. The interesting thing about that is Porcello is going against Dave Sunday night on Sunday Night baseball on ESPN. Game time @ 8 PM ET/7 CT. Should be an epic. David now 7-7 on the season with a 3.50 ERA with this astonishing, other worldly ratio of walks to strikeouts. It’s 17 walks to 153 K’s. This is a Hall of Fame career in the making. but there is also a lot of career left for the 28-year old Price out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and of course, Tim Corbin’s Vanderbilt University program, where, as a junior, he may have been on one of the better college baseball teams of all time, our 2007 team. We should have won it all that year, just ran into a tough break that year with a fluke Michigan home run off Price in the regional, but I still thought we had the best team. It happens all the time in baseball. LSU looked really good coming out of the SEC tournament, they were crushing the ball, pitching well and doing everything well really, and they lost in their regional. They looked to me after the conference tourneys to be the best team in the country. But we became the hot team along with Virginia; things went our way and we also earned it. What a year. What a team.
I watched a replay of Game three Monday night and realized how big of a play Rhett Wiseman made in right field when he snagged that hot shot to the right field corner by the first Virginia batter in the bottom of the ninth. If Weismann doesn’t make that catch, that Virginia player is at least at third, and he possibly has an inside the park home run. I accidentally erased the game after I watched it Monday night, but will have it taped tonight as it comes on @ 8:30 PM ET/7:30 CT on duh U, so will rewatch. But that catch was almost, if not as important, as Norwood’s epic blast in the top of the eighth. Rhett had to run to his left and catch the ball halfway down his body. It was an outstanding play that saved the game for us. Can’t watch John’s homer and Rhett’s catch enough. This should stay with the Vandy nation forever. So proud of the guys and Corbs. They earned every bit of the national championship trophy and the prestige of winning it all. Beautiful season. Finished 51-21.
Mike Minor didn’t have his best stuff last night against the Mets going only 4.1 and giving up nine hits, four runs with one walk and five K’s. Mike gave up two long balls. That’s been his nemesis the last two years. Mike has now given up 13 homers in 12 starts. His walk to strikeout ratio is still good at 21 to 70, but he’s having trouble keeping it in the park. He’s now 2-5 with a 4.71 ERA. Braves still beat the Mets 5-4 and are a half game ahead of a surging Washington Nationals team, though the Braves are playing well now too. Braves are now 46-38 and the Nationals are 45-38. Braves host the Mets for one more tonight, have Thursday off, then the Dbacks come to town for the weekend. MIke’s next outing will be Saturday, July 12th, @ the Cubs, right before the All-Star break. Fredi Gonzalez is giving Mike some extra time to hopefully get it together. The team is playing well though. After the Dbacks at home this weekend, the Braves are at the Mets next Monday through Thursday, then finish out the first half next Friday through Sunday @Chicago. Then the All-Star break. It’s been an interesting first half of baseball in the major leagues and the second half should be electric with division titles and wild card spots up for grabs.
Sonny goes tomorrow night against the Blue Jays at Oakland. Sonny now 7-3 with a 3.20 ERA. Sonny now has allowed 37 walks to go along with his 90 K’s. Facing R.A. Dickey tomorrow night at 9:05 PM ET/8:05 CT. Dickey 6-7 with a 4.24 ERA with 43 walks and 88 strikeouts. A’s want to get back to their winning ways today @ Detroit with game time slated for 1:08 PM ET/12:08 CT.
And the Pirates are playing excellent baseball right now. Pedro 0 for 3 last night with a couple of strikeouts, but Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley was dominating the Bucs all the way to the bottom of the ninth. Going into the ninth he was pitching a two hit shutout with no walks and 10 strikeouts. The Dbacks led 2-0 and Miley was headed for a complete game when Neil Walker and Gregory Polanco hit consecutive singles to open the inning . With runners on first and second, Dbacks manager Kirk “Gibby” Gibson decided to pull Miley. Miley had thrown 111 pitches and looked out of gas. Addison Reed, the Dbacks closer, came in. He had 19 saves on the season, but also had a 4.15 ERA. He got to an 0-2 count on the first batter he faced, left fielder Starling Marte, but Marte crushed the third pitch to deep center that cleared the center fielder’s head. Walker and Polanco, who can fly, scored with the speedster Polanco scoring from first base on a bang bang play at the plate. Marte moved to third on the throw to the plate. Reed then had to walk Andrew McCutchen–there was no doubt that would happen– so Ike Davis came up to pinch hit for first baseman Gabby Sanchez. Davis lined a pitch to right for a base hit, Marte scored from third, and the Pirates claimed an improbable comeback victory over Arizona, 3-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The Bucs are now 43-40 and seven back of Milwaukee, which is 51-34. The Brewers play another day game in Toronto today and the Bucs host the Dbacks tonight and tomorrow night, then the Phillies come to PNC this weekend. The Bucs are playing stellar baseball right now. Pedro was crushing the ball coming into last night, but all the Pirates had trouble with Miley until the bottom of the ninth. Pedro now hitting .239 with 13 home runs and 42 RBIs. Bucs facing Brandon McCarthy of the Dbacks tonight. McCarthy, a right hander, is 2-10 with a 5.11 ERA, but in his last outing against the Padres @ San Diego, he allowed only one run on six hits in seven innings with no walks and seven K’s. The start before that he lost 6-4 to the Giants, giving up 10 hits and five runs in five innings.Vance Worley on the hill for the Bucs. He’s been great at 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA. His last outing against the Mets, he want seven, gave up seven hits, with one earned, two walks, three K’s and a homer given up. The Dbacks are fighting, but if you look at their injury list there must be 20 guys on the DL. Feel sorry for them in that regard, but want to win tonight and tomorrow night.
Rod Odom will be playing summer league ball for the Golden State Warriors as he tries to make their squad as an undrafted free agent. Jeff Taylor coming back well for the Charlotte Hornets after suffering a bad Achilles injury last season; Charlotte a team on the rise, so Taylor will have to work hard to crack that rotation; Festus Ezeli is coming back from a knee injury and will be a part of the Golden State Warriors club this year as he is under contract. He’s another guy that needs to bring his lunch pale or he’ll be riding the pine. John Jenkins trying to make it back with the Hawks. Playing summer league ball for them. John is under contract. He, Jeff and Festus need to do something this year. Rod Odom is playing summer league ball for the Golden State Warriors. Hopeful that Rod, an excellent shooter and pretty good defender, can make it with the Warriors. Really like Steve Kerr, the new coach of the Warriors, and I’m sure Kerr, a sharp-shooter in college at Arizona, and in the pros, particularly with the Chicago Bulls, loves shooters. No word on Kyle Fuller. Will check into Kyle’s status. May be overseas.
No commits as of today, but a lot of guys who are on our top shelf list. No.1 may be four-star inside linebacker Josh Smith out of Murfreesboro. He’s 6’3″, 218 and outstanding. Thought we might get a wide receiver out of Florida, who is 6’4″, and 200. His name is Kalif Jackson and he is a solid three-star by 247 sports. He was supposed to announce yesterday, but didn’t. Watched his film. He’s excellent. Love the size too. Will keep you posted on Kalif, Josh and anybody else who pulls the trigger. Looks like we’re after a pretty good number of linebackers in this class, an O lineman or two along with the two we have in this class so far, along with a running back, and maybe a cornerback and safety. Should be interesting as summer develops.
For those of you in Birmingham, Derek Mason will be in the Magic City on Sunday, July 13th, f0r a reception at the Rogue Tavern on 2313 2nd Avenue North. Derek will be there from 5-7 PM. The cost is $20 per person. I’ll forward the email with registration info if anyone in B’ham wants to see Derek. Will be in touch. Thanks.
