Rays 4, Angels 6
Record: 89-62
Attendance: 36,709. Angel Stadium
The Rays lost 6-4 on Sunday afternoon to the LA Angels, but they have a 7-3 record over the last ten games, which sounds pretty good--and is except that the Oakland A's are 8-2 and widening the gap between themselves and the Rays. As of Monday, the Rays are a game and a half behind the Athletics for the wild card spot, and they are a game and a half ahead of the Indians for the second wild card spot.
They need to step up their play over the last 11 games, which they have to win at least six of to remain in competition. But they've got the Dodgers coming up for two games in LA, the Red Sox for four games in Tampa, two games against the Yankees in Tampa and three final games against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Let's hope it doesn't depend on sweeping the very spunky Jays. All in all, the Rays need to play their best baseball over the next nine games.
Which means they can't play the way they did on Sunday against the Angels. Ryan Yarbrough wasn't sharp, giving up 10 hits, two walks, and six runs in five innings (93 pitches). The big blow was Albert Pujols three-run homer, his 23rd of the year, in the fifth, but he also had an RBI double, giving him four on the day.
It's right to pause for a moment to pay our respects to the great Albert Pujols, who at age 39 and a veteran of 19 big league seasons, won't be around much longer. His numbers: 656 home runs (6th all time); 1,332 extra base hits (5th); 2,071 RBIs (5th); 3,194 hits (15th); .300 B.A. (203rd); 311 intentional walks (2nd). It's no disgrace to be beaten by future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols.
And yet Pujols magic notwithstanding, the loss could not have come at a worse time.
The Rays offense which has played well over the year, at least when it wasn't in one of its comatose stretches, managed a first inning run on a Jesus Aguilar sac fly, but then put up goose eggs for the next six innings. Then in the eighth, all-star Austin Meadows launched a three-run homer (his 31st) to center, cutting the Angel lead to 6-4, the final score.
Rays pitching after Yarbrough was good, especially the performance of Anthony Banda, trying to work his way back into the Rays already deep relief corps. He pitched a perfect sixth and seventh with two strikeouts.
Monday the players and staff will enjoy Los Angeles on an off day, but Tuesday they will get back to work against the Dodgers.
These are hard days to live through as a fan, but they are also the meaningful games we all wanted the Rays to be playing in September. Enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment