MVN - Most Valuable Network

Pena Lifts Rays Over Royals; Rocco Baldelli Stepping Up Rehab

 ”We kept getting each other’s back. That’s key. That shows a good team.”–J.P. Howell

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports

Rays 5, Royals 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Edwin Jackson surpassed his victory total for last season and Tampa Bay snapped a seven-game road losing streak.

The Rays, who moved one game in front of Boston in the AL East, won on the road for the first time since June 29, at Pittsburgh.

Jackson (6-7), who was 5-15 last season, did not yield a hit until Billy Butler homered to center with two outs in the fifth. John Buck led off the sixth with a homer, the only other hit Jackson allowed.

Jackson, who went five-plus innings, and four relievers held the Royals to four hits.

Carlos Pena’s 16th homer with two outs in the ninth gave the Rays a 5-2 lead.

Troy Percival worked the ninth for his 21st save, but gave up a homer to Ross Gload.

Top Three Performers:

• Carlos Pena: 2-4, 2B(11), HR(16), 2 RBI(52), 28th straight game on base
• Evan Longoria: 1-3, RBI(61), two out RBI single, .937 OPS over last 20
• Balfour/Howell/Wheeler: 3 IP, 1 H, O R, 3 BB, 4 K

Rays Next Game:

Scott Kazmir(8-5, 2.80 ERA) will be on the mound tonight for the Rays. Kazmir was magnificent in his last start giving up just two hits in seven innings. He is 1-2 with a 5.90 ERA in five career starts vs. KC. The 5.90 ERA is his highest against any AL Opponent. John Buck will almost certainly be in the lineup again for the Royals. Buck owns a career .961 OPS vs the Rays in 76 ABs. His next highest vs an AL team is .807. Luke Hochevar(6-8, 5.47 REA) will go for the Royals.

OPS Notebook

• Rays Record: 60-42, 1 game ahead in the AL East
• The Rays are just six victories away from tying their win total from last season.
• The Rays have the second best record in baseball behind the LA Angels of Anaheim.
• The team is 32-15 in games decided by two runs or less, best in the Majors.
• The win broke a seven game losing streak on the road. The Rays are now 20-26 on the road.
• The Rays went 2-13 with RISP last night. In the past 15 games they are 15-112(.134)

Player Notes

• Very positive news out of Montgomery on Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli went 3-4 last night with a HR and 3 RBI. He walked and was also caught stealing. The fact that he even attempted a steal in good. Rocco played DH last night, but the St. Petersburg Times is reporting Rocco will step up his rehab and play five innings in the outfield today. He was also clocked in at 4.19 from home to first which is very nice.
• Wade Davis earned his second victory in AAA last night. Davis gave up three runs off four hits and three walks. He did strike out six in six innings of work. In 21 total starts this year he is 11-6 with a 3.65 ERA.

Trade Rumors

• With Xavier Nady being traded to the Yankees, you can expect the Rays to turn their efforts to Casey Blake.  Even though the Yankees didn’t give up that much for Nady and Damaso Marte, the price for Blake should be considerably less.
• The Rays have seen both Marte and Jon Rauch go off the market leaving Brian Fuentes and Huston Street as trade possibilities. One rumor yesterday from The Star Ledger had the Rays possibly in on George Sherill talks. However, a trade within the divison for Sherrill is unlikely unless the Rays would be willing to overpay which they are not.
• Rays Manager Joe Maddon puts the odds of the Rays making a deal before the deadline at “50-50 at best.” Here are some quotes from Maddon.

“I’m not absolutely cognizant something will happen, so I’d say 50-50 at best,” Maddon said. “I can’t sit here and say this sounds like it’s going to happen any day here.”

• Maddon also said the Rays would only make a move to improve the team and players feelings would not be an issue

“I’ve often said that all our players would accept the move if they know whoever this player is would make us better,” he said, “But if it’s more a lateral move, then at that point, it could do more harm than good. That’s what you have to be careful with and balance out.

“I would be fully for it, again, if this person was somebody we really thought gave us a much better chance of making it to the last game of the season.”

“We’re not worried about hurting anyone’s feelings right now,” Maddon said. “This is a legit opportunity right now and it’s a chance to do something that the word special doesn’t even come close to describing.”

• Andrew Friedman had this to say in this morning’s St. Petersburg Times

“We will continue to be very active in conversations over the next six days, and it remains to be seen whether something will line up or not.”

• In the same article Maddon hinted that certain prospects(probably Price, Davis, Hellickson) were off limits.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 9:57 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.