The Red Sox had a nice and easy victory in St. Petersburg tonight over the team with the best record in baseball, 6-1.
Disappointing crowd at the Trop tonight, just over 21,000 in the house. And there were many Red Sox fans on hand as well. What does it take to get people to watch a baseball game in Tampa? They have an exciting young team that has the best record in MLB. And they can't fill the building when one of their main rivals are in town? A real disgrace.
Clay Buchholz was terrific after struggling the first two innings. He kept the Rays off the board, and David Ortiz hit a line shot into the right field seats to put the Sox up in the second. They added three in the third, and two more in the fourth on Youk's 10th blast.
Buch went six, and the bullpen was perfect. Hideki Okajima retired all six men he faced, and Daniel Bard got the Rays 1-2-3 in the ninth. Sox pitchers retired the final 14 men they faced.
The Red Sox have now won 6 of 7 since Papelbon's meltdown in the Bronx. So much for that game sending the Red Sox into a tailspin.
The Sox also DFA'd Darnell McDonald after the game to make room for Mike Cameron. I hope he goes back to Pawtucket. But whatever happens, I wish Darnell all the best. He's a baseball lifer and it was a pleasure to meet him last week at the BLOHARDS meeting.
Listening to Aaron Boone and Chris Singleton endlessly swoon on ESPN tonight about the "model franchise" that the Rays have become got a bit hard to take. The real story with the Rays is the staggering ineptitude that allowed them to average about 100 losses per season for 10 years. Over a ten year period they were allowed to select the best high school or college ballplayer in the country four times ! They chose second twice and third twice ! They then had these players locked into low end contracts for their first six years in the majors. Why is it considered either a miracle or the product of front office genius that the Rays have become a contender ? With that access to low cost talent they should have turned it around years ago. Mcgriff, Canseco, Greg Vaugn. Castilla, Pat Burrell. Every big free agent signing has been a bust. They complain about their low payroll but their stadium is empty even for the Sox and Yankees. And they have the best record in baseball. Why didn't the ESPN commentators ask the Rays GM about all the empty seats when he visited the booth for a very long half inning. It was a glaring omission. Maybe the subject was off limits. And didn't they only win 84 games last year ? I'm not buying the "model franchise" label yet.
ReplyDeleteThey are no model franchise, CL. The years of bad baseball paid off when they drafted well and brought those young players to the bigs. But now the real test for the Rays begins. Being a small market team, they will have to make the right decisions on who to keep and who to move. We will see if they are smart like the Twins have been for years.
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