This week my family went to two ball games.  Monday and Saturday.  Monday's game was a complete disaster as far as Sonnanstine was concerned.  It was complete home run derby with every pitch resulting in a Yankee Home Run.

Tonight against the White Sox it was night and day.  Sonnanstine was awesome!  He blanked the White Sox for a complete game shutout.  This is what I think he is capable of.  I don't know what happened with New York.  It seems like the Rays always lose the first game of the year my family goes to.   Andy must have known that.  Tonight he was beyond belief.  Why can't we get someone who is consistently that good? Night after night, appearance after appearance....well I shouldn't complain -- we did win :)

Tonight the Rays made some more goofs on the basepaths.  Carl getting picked of? BJ making some kind of wacked out mistake at third base.  In this season of bad defensive plays and baserunning goofs, it is pretty annoying for all of these stupid outs to be made. 

Well tomorrow we have Rays and a Magic playoff game at the same time. Hmmm......

I do not know what I waste my time for the last two weeks checking out the power rankings.  In my mind, anyone who puts together a list like this whether it is FOX, ESPN or MLB is totally ridiculous.  In my mind it shows one of the things that is glaringly wrong with baseball.

Here's this week's top 5

Red Sox

Diamondbacks

Yankees

Indians

Dodgers

I don't deny the Red Sox are great, Manny is great yada yada.  But there are 10 teams with better winning percentages at this point.  TEN.  Guess where the Tigers are in the power rankings?  The Tigers, with the worst record in the major leagues?  #13  So not only are there 10 teams that are better than #1, All 30 teams are better than #13.  The Orioles are leading the American League East a half game ahead of #1 --  Ranked #27.  The East...top to bottom..is separated by 2 games.   The closest division right now in baseball. Here are the standings.

#27  in baseball     1st place

#1   in baseball      1/2 game back

#6  in baseball        1 game back

#3  in baseball        1 1/2 games

# 21 in baseball      2 games out

Wait a minute, Ryan, it's early in the season.  We know that Detroit is better than it's record, we know eventually the Yankees won't be only one game over .500.   Then what in the world are these rankings based on? 

Runs scored?  Nine teams have scored more runs than #1  Nineteen have fewer runs scored against them.  I don't mean to pick primarily on the BoSox, but shouldn't the power rankings be based on more than "I know they are going to be good?"

But that is baseball.  Red Sox. Yankees. Red Sox. Yankees. Indians. Dodgers. Mets. Yankees.  that's about it...wait, did I forget to mention Red Sox?  The same teams are on Saturday baseball week after week.  No wonder Yankee and Red Sox nation is all over the place, there are states that never see any other teams. The Red Sox will have plenty of time to be at the top of the power rankings.. How about putting them there when they are truly superior to everyone else - not just in the minds of the media and RSNATION but in the standings?

I know how my team is doing.  I don't think they should be #1 in the power rankings or favorites to win the series, but I do think while the Rays are playing better than the Tigers (and who isn't? at this point) they should be ranked a little higher.

I am on spring break vacation this week with my family in Houston, so I've piled this series all together.  With my XM radio, and of course Yanks on national television, it was easy to stay up with the series.

Game 1.
Sonnanstine was great.  This is a pitcher I've always had a good feeling about.  Last year, I thought was a pretty good year for him even if the record didn't show it.  This year a great outing against the Yanks for his first win.  TB 13 NY 4

Game 2
I've not always had a good feeling about our 4 and 5 starters.  In my mind, they just aren't reliable. Jackson is good, but not great, and totally beatable.  I was tentative thinking the Yanks would want some revenge for the drubbing yestersday.  He pitched very well, even though you never had the feeling the Yanks were out of it, and a 6-1 lead isn't rock solid against this lineup.  Jackson had some high pitch counts but did a great job. TB 6 NY 3

I have to say a word about the Yanks radio team.  XM carries every game and they default to the home team's broadcast team.  I found them very enjoyable to listen to, and they were never condescending.  Of course it is hard to look down on a team that is currently winning the game.  Listening to a woman color commentator was interesting, she definitely knew more about the game than the guy and corrected him repeatedly.  They were fun.

Game 3
Out all day so I missed Shield's gem.  The only mistake,  a two run homer to Matsui.  Otherwise a great outing.  This puts a serious hole in my 20 win goal for Shields, but against Wang you are going to have to pitch perfectly. One mistake was all it took to lose the game. Hats off to their starting pitcher.  NY 2 TB 1

Game 4
This game was on national televsion, so I was able to watch.  I was impressed with Hammel through the first five innings.  As I said before, I'm not comfortable with our 4 and 5 guys, but he did all right.  Mussina was in his "good" phase, setting down almost everyone on our teamOf course in the latter innings, even though we were down by 1 run, you didn't have the feel that the Rays were going to come back from this one.  When the Yanks piled on more, you knew it was over.  NY 6 TB 1

3-3 is not a horrible road trip.  It's not that great, but splitting a four game series in NY isn't something to be ashamed about.  Home opener tonight, wish I could be there.

Ouch!  That one hurt.  As we went into the seventh inning up 6 to 5, I kept thinking this will be a great taste for our new bullpen.  And there you go.  4 runs in the bottom of the 8th.  I think our bullpen is better, but Reyes and Percival in my opinion are not locks.  I don't think they are 100% reliable.  Maybe tonight was a bad night, but we'll see.

Aubrey Huff once again giving us grief.  Well, I guess if you give him pitches to hit, what's he supposed to do?

Tomorrow we have Sonnanstine against Trachsel.  I like our chances...well with the starting pitching.  We just have to score enough runs not to worry about it.  Like we did with the first game.

Before I comment on the Rays game.  I saw on ESPN tonight at the restaurant.  Headline: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE TIGERS AND CUBS?

Good grief.  I realize there are high hopes in Tiger town, but they lost two games.  News flash, there's 160 to go.  ESPN does nothing but make news to make news. I've never been a fan of ESPN because the RAYS have always stunk. I remember being in Massachusetts and watching Baseball tonight just to see Rays highlights.  I waited and waited only to see the blue screen with the score up for 10 seconds. If you are not a big market team. ESPN doesn't care.  But they are willing to talk Josh Beckett's back to death.   MLB.com is the same way. the Marquee news items are what the red sox or yankees have done that evening.

well, here it is in the 3rd inning and we are ahead.  It's definitely a nice feeling.  If the Rays want to improve they have to beat up teams that they are better than. The game definitely isn't over, but we have to beat the birds everytime.

Matt Garza is looking good.  He has a lot of positive press here. I groaned when I watched Brian Roberts knock one out of the park.  Maybe it is just against us but he is unstoppable. On base every AB.  He's impressed me more in the second getting a bunch of ground ball outs.

Top of the 6th

Is that Navarro 2 for 2 today?  That's a huge positive since we got almost no production from the catcher last year.  We just chased the starter.  Oh look.at that commercial..the Rays care, because they don't smoke. The question is...does tobacco count?

Why in the world would you send navarro on a double steal with Carl at the plate? Especially if Carl pounds one in the 7th?

Side Note...My father asked me about Miguel Cabrera.  He's a big Tiger's fan.  I told him they traded up on offense and down on defense from their previous third baseman.  Cabrera gets an error and a home run in his first game.

Nice defensive gem for another leadoff hit turned double play.  With Aki on 2nd up the middle defense just got twice as good.  Much better than Zobrist and Harris from last year.

7th inning

Shields 5 pitches for the inning.  He had been saying he wanted to pitch all 9....I say let him go.

8th inning

Well, now it's time to see if the Rays are better than last year.  The final six outs go to the bullpen.  Soooo many Shields wins were changed to losses last year by this bullpen.

you know...we should just let Roberts go to 1st base every time he comes to the plate.

whoa...what a huge break.  Mora steps in front of the catcher after he strikes out do a wack double play.  You could tell Mora knew it too right after he did it.  Well...I'll take it. Still  TB 6 BAL 2

9th inning

Navarro 3 for 3...where has he been?

Here we go...bottom of the 9th with Dan Wheeler

Crawford amazing catch  1 out  Millar pops up 2 pitches 2 outs

well can't breath easy yet.  Pena makes a great stop, but Wheeler bobbles the ball to get Huff on first

The RAYS WIN! Good news..Rays are in first place.  Shields with a great outing, totally impressed by the way he came back after 2 runs in the first.  Shields 20 wins this year...hey didn't I say something about begining of the year predictions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top of the 5th.

This Orioles have caught some quick line drives.   1-2-3 down for the Rays.  The telecast is sure playing some dramatic music.  I think the community is starting to get behind the Rays, but there's always some hesitation.  "Well, they are good, but probably 78 wins this year, fourth place."  "great young team! Let's go for .500"

Now I've watched this team since 1998.  I know their potential, and I know the history of the team.  Why not be cautious the other way with predictions?  I wish our newspaper guys would say third place, contending for a wild card!  90 wins!  Why not?  What does it matter if they are wrong?  Who ever remembers preseason picks?  How hard is it to pick the Sox or the Yankees every dang year?

Roberts just keeps getting on base!  He is sooo pesky.  I was hoping the Orioles would trade him along with Bedard and Tejada, but as of this point, he's still here, annoying the Rays.  He's a great hitter.

Carl played the second out of the fifth much better than the first inning. He probably has some pregame jitters too.  Nice throw by Navarro for out 3    BAL 2 TB 4

My kids and I scooted out of school as quick as possible to get home for the 3:05 start. 

 I have watched every opening day, and the last four that we have lost seemed to be because the pitcher was so amped up. Again, Shields seemed to follow the same pattern, giving up two runs in the first.  It's now TB 4 BAL 2.  Nice HR by Hinske, would love to see him follow the Carlos Pena plan this year.

Bottom of the fourth.

Huff leads off with a single.  He was a pretty good player for us, but now that he's a bird, seems like he saves his hits just for us.  Nice DP to get out of that.  Aki did some nice work there at 2nd.