MVN - Most Valuable Network

Longoria Hits Homer in 3rd Straight; Kazmir Dominates A’s

“There’s times when you get that feeling where you’re just locked in”– Evan Longoria

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports

Rays 4, A’s 0 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)—Scott Kazmir and two relievers combined on a two-hitter, and Tampa Bay beat struggling Oakland 4-0 on Monday night.

Rookie Evan Longoria homered for the third consecutive game and drove in two runs, helping the AL East leaders win for the third time in four days following a season-worst seven-game losing streak.

The A’s have lost six straight, scoring nine runs during the slide.

Kazmir pitched a scoreless 15th inning on one day’s rest to get the win in last Tuesday’s All-Star game. The Rays gave him an extra day to get ready for his first start since July 13.

The A’s were limited to Ryan Sweeney’s one-out single in the first and Jack Cust’s two-out single in the fourth. Kazmir walked four and struck out nine in seven innings.

Longoria had two hits off Dana Eveland (7-7), an RBI single in the third and his 19th homer in the fifth. Willy Aybar also hit a solo homer off Eveland, who allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings.

Inside the Box Score

• Aki Iwamura: 2-4, RBI(29),2B(18), BB
• B.J. Upton: 2-3, 2BB, run scored, 2 SB(30) first 30 steal season
• Evan Longoria: 2-5, HR(19), 2 RBI(60), run scored, home run in three straight games.
• Willy Aybar: 1-3, HR(4), RBI(9), BB, run scored
• Carl Crawford: 1-5, 5-43 over last 10 games, 8 K’s, 1 BB during past 10 games.
• Scott Kazmir(W, 8-5): 7 IP, 2 H, O R, 4 BB, 9 K
• Howell & Balfour: 2 IP, O H, O BB, 1 K

Tommy’s take: That is how you pitch Scott Kazmir. Whatever game plan you took into last night’s game, do it every time out. Kazmir was dazzling last night. He never got in serious trouble, his delivery was smooth and effortless. He didn’t play around with his fastball when he got into two strike counts. He mixed in his change up and threw his slider more times than I can remember in recent history. He did have four walks, all to lead off innings, but worked around them. If he could’ve cut those out he could’ve toyed with a complete game shutout.

Adjectives can’t describe what Evan Longoria is doing right now. The kid is more than impressive. At age 22 he is leading this team in HR, RBI, 2B, SLG, and OPS. Oh and did I mention he’s playing gold glove caliber third base. Call off the rookie of the year award voting, it belongs to Evan.

B.J. Upton sucks again. All he did was get on base four times and swipe two bags. Meanwhile, Carl Crawford continues to get a pass and hit in the top three in the order. CC is batting .120 over his past 10 games and has one walk in those games. CC needs to be batting 7th or 8th right now.

Erik’s Take:  That’s the Scott Kazmir we expect to see every time out.  Hopefully he’s back on track now after a number of unimpressive outings.  The Rays need him pitch like that if they’re going to be deep in the playoff hunt come September. 

I agree with Tommy, Crawford needs to be moved down in the order for a few games.  I know it will injure his fragile sensibilities, but he needs to take the B.J. Upton approach and own up to his recent slump.  He’s a much better player than he’s shown this season and a drop in the order might be the cure to what ailes him. 

That homerun by Willy Aybar may have been the hardest ball I’ve ever seen hit.  I’m surprised the foul pole didn’t fall over after he hit it. 

Not much else to say about Longoria except…he’s good.

Rays Next Game:

The Rays leader in W’s, Andy Sonnanstine(10-4,4.58 ERA), makes his first post all star break start. He is opposed by yet another LHP in Dallas Braden(1-0, 4.80 ERA).  In three career starts against Oakland, Sonny is 1-1 with a 7.36 ERA. The Rays are 7-1 in his last eight starts and 14-5 overall this season.

OPS Notebook:

• Rays Record: 58-40, 1.5 games ahead in the AL East
• The Rays have the 2nd best record in baseball.
• At 39-15 the Rays have the third best home record.
• The pitching staff owns the best home ERA and BAA.
• It was the 9th shutout of the season for the Rays staff. That is tied for 3rd most in the Majors.

Player Notes:

• Jason Bartlett declared himself “close to 100 percent.” After working out on Monday the Rays feel that Bartlett will be ready to return on Thursday. The only Rays player with options is Ben Zobrist, but he is also the only true backup to Bartlett so the Rays will have to make a decision there.

Trade Rumors:

• Nothing really new on the rumor front. Here are a few notes from Will Caroll’s chat.

Greg (San Diego): Any chance that Nady and Grabow could bring back Niemann and Brignac?

Will Carroll: I supposed Andrew Friedman could be drunk at some point between now and the deadline.

kvillerays (knoxville): The Rays have been talked about a lot in trades for relievers. How much internal promotion to the MLB Bullpen do you think we will see from guys such as Wade Davis, Jake McGee, Ryan Reid and especially David Price if they hope to stay in it this year?

Will Carroll: None from McGee, since he’s out and has a year of TJ rehab ahead of him. Davis and Price? That’s more interesting. If the Rays don’t find trade help, I think they have to be options, especially in September. I’m sure we’ll see the Rays make their roster flexible just in case. Reid, I’ll admit to knowing nothing about aside from his stat line.

Brother O’Dell, Pass the Biscuits (D.C.): What do the Rays need more? Right Handed Bat? or Reliever?

Will Carroll: Equal, I think, and enough resources to get both if the right deal comes along.

• Baseball Prospectus is hosting an event at the Trop that includes Will Carroll. For more info click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 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.