Matt Garza was awesome.
He allowed two hits. He didn’t buckle when the pressure was on several times throughout his outing.
The Rays were on life supports coming in to tonight’s game. They needed seven plus innings of near perfect baseball. And they got it.
Nothing has been decided, but we can say Garza is an MVP candidate [...]
Yes, it’s true.
Rays manager Joe Maddon is staying with his starter, Matt Garza, who has thrown 116 pitches through seven full innings.
What does it tell you about Maddon? He trusts Garza, who was all but demanding to stay in the game when Maddon went out for a visit in the seventh inning.
After Alex Cora got [...]
With the count 3-and-2, Dustin Pedroia on first and David Ortiz at the plate, Pedroia took off with the pitch.
The problem was Ortiz swung and missed, and Rays catcher Dioner Navarro threw out Pedroia easily.
It was only the second time Pedroia was caught this year. He was caught only once out of 21 attempts.
He was [...]
It was probably the most important at bat Rocco Baldelli has ever had as a Ray.
With two on and no outs in the fifth inning, the score tied 1-1, the Rhode Island native ripped a single through the hole at short and third, scoring Willy Aybar (double).
Baldelli nearly hit a 3-run homer, but it went [...]
Matt Garza gets an A-plus. And Jon Lester gets his standard A.
The duo have made it a duel.
Through four innings, Garza has allowed one hit, a Dustin Pedroia homer and Lester allowed a run-scoring double on a good bit of hitting by Evan Longoria, who stuck out the bat and hit it down the right [...]
I don’t know what I’d infer from the above — that the Rays aren’t as loose as they’ve been for the entire series — but it tells me they are taking this game serious.
Is that their personality, being serious?
Hell, no.
This team has fun before and after games. As for the serious part, I’d say during [...]
Today’s games
BUFFALO 27, San Diego 20 … I see holes in Chargers
CAROLINA 31, New Orleans 27 … NFC title practice game?
CHICAGO 31, Minnesota 20 … Or are Bears best in NFC?
Pittsburgh 26, CINCINNATI 17 … I would take Pinkerton over Bengals
Tennessee 23, KANSAS CITY 13 … No Larry Johnson, no chance
MIAMI 16, Baltimore 10 … [...]
1. The Rays are “almost” dead.
It’s not over. But it will take somebody doing something special if the Rays are going to beat the Sox later tonight. The key, as Kevin Youkilis (more on him later) said after the game, in Game 7 is get the lead. Just get the damn lead. Other than B.J. [...]
Eagle-Tribune Executive Sports Editor Bill Burt has been synonymous with the local and Boston sports scene for the past 24 years.
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