MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rays All Stars Shine Late in All Star Game

For Dioner Navarro, Scott Kazmir and Evan Longoria the first seven innings of the All Star game were pretty boring. The National League took a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning and were cruising. Dioner Navarro came up to pinch hit and struck out in the bottom of the inning, and that’s when things got exciting. The next batter and game MVP, J.D. Drew, hit a two run home run to tie the game at two.

In the top of the eighth a Dioner Navarro errant throw lead to a NL run to put the senior circuit back on top 3-2. Navarro said he “felt really bad” after the throw, but his Rays teammate, Evan Longoria, had his back. Longoria came in the game as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning and tied the game with an RBI ground rule double.  Navarro then made up for his error by throwing a runner out in the 9th inning.

The game should’ve been over in the 11th inning when Dioner Navarro looked to be safe on a slide at home, but was called out at the plate. Replays showed that Navarro slide in under the tag, but nonetheless was still called out. Evan Longoria had two chances to win the game in extra innings, but couldn’t deliver and he wasn’t happy about that.

“I figured it was over each time I came to bat,” he said. “I had two friggin’ chances to win it.”

Scott Kazmir was the final pitcher for the AL, and before the game AL Manager Terry Francona said the he wouldn’t use the lefty unless the game went into extra innings. True to his word Francona didn’t use Kazmir until he had no choice in the 15th inning. Kazmir worked a scoreless 15th inning on only 14 pitches.  After Justin Morneau reached base in the bottom of the inning, he moved into scoring position on a Dioner Navarro single.  Morneau later scored the game winning run on a Michael Young Sac-Fly, giving Kazmir and the AL the victory after four hours and 50 minutes.

“Everyone played their part,” Kazmir said. “How about that — it’s something we’ll never forget.”

 OPS Notebook:

• Prosecutors have dropped charges against Rays pitcher Al Reyes. Reyes was arrested on his 38th birthday after a bar fight. Police had to use a taser to get Reyes under control. In another positive story about Reyes, he should be activated from the DL on Friday.
• Rocco Baldelli will continue his rehab assignment. However, he will now be playing for Double-A Montgomery. Rocco started the rehab assignment with Class-A Vero Beach, but hadn’t played a game in two weeks before rejoining Vero Beach for Sunday and Monday’s game. He was 2-8 in those games. He is scheduled to join the Biscuits today.

“The goal is for Rocco to get fairly regular at-bats to get his timing back,” Rays general manager Andrew Friedman said in an e-mail. “During that time, we will continue to monitor how his body is responding and we are optimistic that he will be able to contribute at the major-league level before the end of the season.”

Trade Rumors

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post breaks down the right handed hitters market including Rays targets Jason Bay and Xavier Nady. Sherman says the Pirates are asking for two premium prospects in return for Nady. He mentions that so far teams are not “biting” on the Pirates deal:

 An executive from an interested team said, “I guarantee if the prices do not change, the Pirates are going to wake up on Aug. 1 with both players.”

• Buster Olney adds more of the same about Nady in his blog today.

The asking price for Xavier Nady is considered to be extraordinarily high right now, and rival executives have a sense that the Pirates are not going to lower their demands for the corner outfielder before the trade deadline. Nady will be arbitration-eligible this winter.

• A few weeks ago I jumped aboard the Xavier Nady bandwagon, but for two premium prospects I’ll be glad to get off at the next stop.
• In a seperate post, Joel Sherman says that Andrew Friedman believes Baldelli could be the Rays “wild card” in the situation:

Tampa has what its GM Andrew Friedman termed “a wild card” to solve the Rays’ righty-bat shortcoming: Injury-devastated Rocco Baldelli began a 20-game rehab stint over the weekend in Single-A and now moves to Double-A Montgomery. If the Rays are comfortable with Baldelli’s rehab from both a groin injury and chronic muscle fatigue, they plan to use him as a DH against lefties and a bat off the bench. However, Baldelli has played just 127 games the past two seasons, and none in the majors this year.

• I have a hard time believing that the Rays are seriously counting on Rocco to have an impact unless there is something they aren’t telling us. The fact that he was moved up to Double-A is encouraging at least.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 8:45 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.