Monday, April 8. Game 11: More ho than hum

Rays 5, White Sox 1

Record:     8-3

Attendance:     11,734


Some games play out according to script, like today's contest between the Rays and White Sox in Chicago.  Blake Snell was dominant again, striking out eleven in six innings, not walking a batter, and limiting the White Sox to a single run, Jose Rondon's homer in the 5th.  He improved his record to 2-1, lowered his ERA to 2.84, and his WHIP to 0.89.  Just-promoted Hunter Wood pitched the last three shut-out innings for the save.  Ho hum.

But brilliance shouldn't be made light of.  Snell got into trouble in the sixth putting two men on with no one out and facing the tying run at the plate, the 3, 4, and 5 men in the lineup.  He struck them all out.  Sox manager Rick Renteria was duly impressed.  "He's got really good stuff," he said after the game.  "His breaking ball falls off the table.  He can throw it short, make you chase, it has a hard bite and it's kind of late.  It gets swings out there."  And then there was the fast ball:  "He does have a different gear, gets up to 97 (mph) and he can pretty much elevate it out of the zone.  It looks like it's going to stay in there and it ends up rising.  This guy's an excellent pitcher."


Offensively, the Rays managed four early runs, two in the first on a bases loaded walk and a sac fly, and two in the second on a squeeze bunt and a ground ball single to center.  The fifth and final run came in the eighth on another bases loaded walk.  Not exactly a blistering attack, but plenty  good enough when Blake Snell can carry the team into the late innings and when Hunter Wood can impress the team with three solid innings only hours after his promotion to the big leagues--Christian Arroyo being sent down to Durham in a corresponding roster move.

Overall though, more ho, more hum.


Tommy Pham reached base for the 43d consecutive game.  He makes it look so easy that it hardly seems worth mentioning.  This could go on for a very long time.  And it will have to if he is to threaten Ted Williams' 1949 record of 84.

Willy Adames collected three hits and is 6 for his last 11.  His horrid 1 for 27 start seems a thing of the past at this point.

Avasail Garcia, who spent the last five-plus years with the South Side Sox, made a triumphant return with two hits and an RBI, but the right hand batter flails away at sweeping breaking balls from right handers that wind up way out of the strike zone.  He has the same sort of pathetic swings C. J. Cron had on similar pitches during his long slump last summer.  It's painful to watch.  Who is responsible for teaching plate discipline?  At this point it's hard to justify giving Garcia playing time that keeps Austin Meadows on the bench.

Tomorrow Charlie Morton (1-0, 1.64 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) takes the mound in the Rays' fifth day game in a row with one more on tap in Chicago before one night game in Toronto--followed by two more day games.  It's a strange stretch.