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Grand Slammed:Rays Beat Cubs 8-3, Sweep Series

“We got the bases loaded where I could just try and put the ball in play, because we just needed the one run, so I was just trying to put the ball in play. “–Carl Crawford

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports:

TAMPA BAY 8, CHI CUBS 3

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker)—Carl Crawford belted a grand slam in a seven-run seventh inning, rallying the Tampa Bay Rays to an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

After Chicago took a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh, Tampa Bay cut its deficit in half when Akinori Iwamura was hit by a pitch from Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol (1-2) with the bases loaded. Crawford then hit an 0-1 fastball from Scott Eyre over the right field wall to give the Rays a 6-3 lead.

Tampa Bay, which swept the three-game set from Chicago, scored two more runs in the frame on an RBI double by Eric Hinske and a sacrifice fly by rookie Evan Longoria.

Mike Fontenot, Kosuke Fukudomeand Ryan Theriot each drove in a run in the top of the seventh for the Cubs, who became the last team in the majors to lose three straight games.

Inside The Box Score:

• Carl Crawford: 3-5, 1HR(5) Grand Slam, 4RBI(37), only Ray with multiple hits
• B.J Upton: 1-5, 3B(2)
• Eric Hinske: 1-4, 1RBI(37), 2B(12), SB(7)
• James Shields: 6.1IP, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 9K
• Grant Balfour: 1.2IP, 1H, 3K
• Rays only struck out 3 times all game

Tommy’s Take: That is how you finish off a series. We’ve been talking about the Rays lack of a killer instinct in sweeping teams and winning the get away games, and they took a big step forward yesterday. James Shields pitched excellent over the front six innings before running into trouble in the 7th and with out J.P. Howell to save the day, Grant Balfour stepped up to limit the damage and then shut the door on the Cubs in the 8th inning. Far too often the Rays have let the other team creep back in after a big inning so it was great to see Balfour make quick work of Chicago in the 8th.

Maybe that suspension for Crawford was really a blessing in disguise. In his first two games back he is 4-8, with a double and of course the grand slam. The Rays started the 7th inning with two walks and two hit batters. There was only one swing in the inning before Carl Crawford’s grand slam. The rays lineup produced top to bottom with only Gabe Gross, the 9th hitter, failing to register a hit.

Going into the series I would’ve been ecstatic with 2 out of 3, but a sweep, and a convincing one at that, is just incredible. One thing I’d like to point out is this stupid unbalanced interleague schedule. If you haven’t noticed, the Yankees are charging and charging hard. We all knew that would happen, but I happened to notice they are playing some weak NL teams. I don’t blame the Yankees for feasting on the lesser teams, but it just doesn’t make sense for MLB to have an unbalanced interleague schedule. Of the five interleague series for the Rays and Yanks, only two are common opponent series(Pittsburgh & Houston). The other three series are pretty unbalanced. The average winning percentage of the Yankees’ other three opponents(Padres, Reds, Mets) is .455. The average for the Rays three foes(Cubs, Cardinals, Marlins) is .575. That is a huge difference for 12 games, especially when the AL East is largely bunched up. Luckily the Rays are 6-3 so far against those three teams, with the final three to come against the Marlins next week.

Erik’s Take:  Welcome back Mr. Crawford.  His Grand Slam in the 7th inning last night was the most exciting moment of the season for me.  I’m not shy about it, Crawford is my favorite player.  So to see him get a hit in that situation, after struggling for much of the season, was great.  Also, a thanks goes out to Carlos Marmol for helping the Rays get into such an advantageous situation.

Shields was filthy for six innings, striking out 9.  I wish he could have made it into the 8th inning so the Rays bullpen could have gotten some rest, but I’ll take it.  Trevor Miller came in to face Fukudome and didn’t do his job, allowing a run scoring bloop single.  Balfour has really been fantastic since coming up from Durham.  Also it was nice to see Howell, Wheeler and Percival get the night off in what turned out to be an easy last two innings.

Cliff Floyd talked before the game about finishing strong, not letting off the gas after winning the first two games.  Uncle Cliffy must have a lot of influence in that club house, cause the Rays came out and looked great.  The struggling Astros are in town next, hopefully the Rays can keep it going.

Rays Next Game:

Matt Garza(5-3, 4.06 ERA) is coming off one of his best starts as a Rays pitcher. Tonight, the task will be tough against Roy Oswalt(5-7, 5.04 ERA) who is having a bad year, but is still one of the games better pitchers. Garza has never faced the Astros and is 1-0 with a 5.56 ERA in interleague play for his career.

OPS Notebook:

• Rays Record: 43-29, 2nd place in AL East, 1.5 GB
• Franchise Record 14 games over .500
• Swept the best team in baseball for the 1st time in franchise history.
• 3rd best record in the Major Leagues overall also 3rd best home record in the Majors. Behind Boston & Cubs in both categories.
• 43 victories are a record for the Rays before the All Star Break. The previous best was 42-45 in 2004.
• 3rd sweep this season of a 1st place team(Red Sox, Angels, Cubs)
• By going 5-1 to start this 9 game home stand, the Rays clinched their 5th straight winning home stand.
• 25 wins for the Rays in last 29 home games
• Rocco Baldelli will DH today for Vero Beach. He will be re-evaluated after the game.
• Carlos Pena will also be re-evaluated this weekend. There is no set date for his return.
• Evan Longoria made his first career start at short stop filling in for Jason Barlett, who bruised his foot in batting practice. Bartlett should be fine and felt better after the game. Longoria should see more action at short stop soon as Barlett is expecting the birh of his first child.
• Signed, sealed and delivered, Tim Beckham, was in attendance at last nights game. He participated in practice before the game. Some quotes from Raysbaseball.com on the signing

“This is what I’ve been wishing for my whole life; this is like a dream come true,” said Beckham, who said he was happy to have the deal done. “… Oh yeah, more than happy, just play, get all the business out of the way and do what I want to do. … This is what I love to do.”

“We are thrilled to add an athlete of Tim’s talent and character to our organization,” said Andrew Friedman, Rays executive vice president of baseball operations. “That we were able to conclude the signing process just two weeks after the Draft is a testament both to the relationship that our scouting staff formed with Tim and his family, and of course, to Tim’s enthusiasm for the game. He has true five-tool potential, and we look forward to helping him develop his unique abilities.”

• Bud Selig hates the Trop even though he’s only been down here once, which was four years ago, way before the new ownership had taken over and made improvements.

Look, they’re really pushing on a new ballpark. I think if they can get it done, it will really help them, no question about it. They’ve got a good club. They’ve done a great job scouting and drafting. Their attendance is up 4,500, but it’s not enough. They can’t make it in that ballpark. Have you been there?

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 7:43 am and is filed under MVN Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.