That was a thing of beauty.

Matt Garza’s outing tonight was just about as good as it gets.  One hit in 7 2/3 innings with 1o strikeouts against Boston. 

It’s amazing that when the Rays offense is good, they’re VERY good.  I’m not sure why, but just once, I’d like to see them win 2-1.  Just to prove they can still do it.

Wasn’t Nick Green awful when he played for the Rays?  Why does it seem like the Red Sox and Yankees have a lot of ex-Rays?

The Rays are 1-0 when Michel Hernandez homers.

Grant Balfour might just be coming around.  It’s great to see the bullpen pitching well.  Once the starters get their act together, things should look pretty good for the Rays.

Where was everyone?  Just what local sports radio dorks need is a low attendance Red Sox game to fill four hours of mindless babble.  Blah blah blah.

One down, three to go.  See ya tomorrow night at the Trop!

Alright, let’s make this a good series. The Rays need to win at least two this series, hopefully more.

EDIT: My bad on the pictures under the wrong names. Don’t hate me for this.

Desmond Jennings has started out this season better than most in the Rays organization. He has started the season with a .337 average and has hit three home runs thus far. He has 15 RBI’s, 6 stolen bases, and a .378 OBP. Not that bad to start the season.

Jennings is coming off an injury plagued season, yet another in a career that has seen its fair share of injuries. This is the first time Jennings has been as high as double-A and he is definitely performing like he deserves it.

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The Rays face Josh Beckett for the second time this season.  The first time out, Beckett owned Rays hitters, allowing two hits and one run while striking out 10 as the Red Sox won 5-3. 

For his career, Beckett is 6-3 in 11 starts against the Rays with a 2.93 ERA and has struck out 85 Rays hitters in 73 2/3 innings.  At the Trop, he has made four starts, going 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA. 

Aki is 8-24  with one HR against Beckett to lead the Rays lineup.  Jason Bartlett is 6-19, while Carl Crawford is 7-25 with 3 SB.  On the other side of the coin, Dionner Navarro is 3-22 and Carlos Pena 3-20.  And, in the right field guessing game, Gabe Gross is 1-15 with the lone hit being a HR, while Ben Zobrist has no regular season AB’s against Beckett.  Any money on Gross getting the start?

For the Rays, Matt Garza tries to turn things around.  He’s had a pretty good early career against the Red Sox, after being last season’s ALCS MVP.  And, in his first start against the Sox this season, he went 7 innings and allowed only one run as the Rays beat the Sox 4-3. 

Jacoby Ellsbury leads the Red Sox when facing Garza, going 7-16 in his career.  Otherwise, many of their big bats have struggled against Garza.  Specifically, Dustin Pedroia is 3-18, Mike Lowell 2-15, Kevin Youkilis 3-14 and David Ortiz 2-12. 

Not much else to say.  The Rays need this one.

Let’s break down this Joe Maddon quote from a Yahoo! Sports recap of last night’s Rays/Twins game posted by AP Sports Writer Jon Krawczynski:

“We’re not really pleased with what’s going on, there’s no question about that.  We should have been able to win more than one series to this point.”

Oh boy!  Joe is ready to explode!  I wouldn’t want to be on the plane ride home from Minneapolis.  This thing is about to get turned around!

“But it’s early. It truly is early and I’m very optimistic that we can turn this around. I have a lot of faith in our guys, it’s just not working right now.”

Nooo!  Joe, you almost had me!  I thought you were about to get frustrated with your team’s last place, 8-14 performance.  I sensed that you might, just might, raise your voice.   

Does anyone else want to see Maddon go Lou Piniella on these guys?   There, I said it.  I miss Lou.  How do you think Lou would react to an 8-14 start after going to the World Series with essentially the same core group of guys? 

The big question is, when is it not “early”?  The Red Sox are in town for a 4-game series at the Trop.  They’re in first, we’re in last.   Dream about a series sweep and we immediately go from 6 1/2 games back to 2 1/2 games back.  Poor start, forgotten. 

Let the Red Sox Nation idiots converge….

AAA – After scoring 14 runs last night, the Durham Bulls could only manage one run in getting hammered by the Charlotte Knights 9-1 this afternoon.  Carlos Hernandez was lit up for seven runs in 3 2/3 innings to get the loss.  Reid Brignac had a pair of doubles for the Bulls.  On a positive note, Dale Thayer ran his scoreless innings streak to 11 1/3 out the bullpen for Durham.

AA – The Jacksonville Suns rocked starting pitcher Jason Cromer for 7 runs in 3 2/3 innings en route to beating Montgomery 13-7. Cromer allowed 10 hits and two walks in the start.  Mike Wlodarcyk was next to the mound and gave up four runs in 2 1/3 innings.  Wlodarcyk’s ERA is now 11.32 in 10 1/3 innings out of the ‘pen in Montgomery.  Offensively, Rhyne Hughes smacked his 8th HR for the Biscuits and 2B Drew Anderson went 3-4 with two doubles.

A – Charlotte scored eight runs in the first four innings and held on to beat Sarasota 8-6.  Starter Jeremy Hall improved his record to 3-1, allowing four runs in five innings.  Austin Hinkle pitched the final two innings to earn his fourth save, allowing no runs and hits while striking out four.  Offensively, the Stone Crabs were led by C Mark Thomas who went 3-4 with two doubles and an RBI.  This was Thomas’ debut with the Stone Crabs after being called up from the Rays’ minor league camp.  3B Greg Sexton hit his first HR of the season for Charlotte.  With the win, the Stone Crabs pull within a game of first place in the FSL South division. 

A – The Bowling Green Hot Rods were shut out by Augusta, 7-0.  Frank De Los Santos was the starter and loser for the Hot Rods, although he didn’t pitch all that bad.  He scattered six hits and two runs over five innings work.  Bowling Green managed only three singles in the game.  First-round draft pick Tim Beckham was the DH today, going 0-4 with three strikeouts.

The Rays need a good start from Kaz tonight. Let’s get a series win.

The Rays will face right-handed pitcher Nick Blackburn to wrap up this three-game series at the Metrodome.  Blackburn is 1-1 in four starts this season and has a 4.44 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.  He has made one career start against the Rays, and it was a start he’d rather forget.  Tampa Bay clubbed him for six runs in just 1 1/3 innings last season. 

In that game, Jason Bartlett had a pair of RBI, Aki had a triple and Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena had run-scoring doubles. 

Scott Kazmir gets the start for the Rays, making his fifth start of the season.  He is 3-1 so far with a 3.97 ERA.  In his career, Kaz has made five starts against the Twins, going 2-3 with a 3.18 ERA against them.  Three of these starts have been at the Metrodome, where he is 1-2. 

The regular Twins lineup has not recorded much success against Kazmir.  Justin Morneau is 3-12 with 2 HR against him lifetime.  Joe Crede is 2-7.  But, look for Michael Cuddyer to possibly get the night off.  He is a career 0-10 against Kaz.

Eventhough it’s getaway day, game time is 8:10 ET.  This means that the Rays will have a quick turnaround to play the Red Sox on Thursday night.  Boston will be about an hour ahead of them, coming in from Cleveland.

The numbers tell it all…

Overall record of 8-13.

The Rays have not won two in a row since April 12-13.  Over two weeks ago.

They are 2-5 in one-run games.  Last year, they were 29-18.

They are now 1-8 against left-handed pitching. 

If you discount Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria and Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist has MORE home runs than the rest of the entire active roster, combined.  Remind me again why we can’t get his switch-hitting bat in the lineup every day.

Rays face a right-handed pitcher tonight.  Coming out of Minnesota winning the series would be big.  Then, we’ll try to win two in a row.

AAA – The Durham Bulls put on an offensive display Tuesday night, beating the Charlotte Knights  14-7.  Wade Davis started, pitching five innings.  He allowed three runs on a three-run HR by Knights’ first baseman Andy Phillips.  The Bulls got home runs from Justin Ruggiano, John Jaso and Elliot Johnson. 

Side note – Chad Orvella had his first bad outing of the spring, allowing three runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief.  After seeing him pitch this spring, I still have my doubts that he can make it back to the Rays.

AA – The Montgomery Biscuits beat Jacksonville 7-2.  Starter Ryan Morse was outstanding allowing one hit and no runs in five innings.  He did walk three.  Desmond Jennings did it again with the bat, getting three singles in five at bats.  SS Brandon Chaves was also 3-5 and Rhyne Hughes clubbed his 7th HR of the season.  3B Jason Bowers hit his first HR of the season for the Biscuits.  The win improves Montgomery’s record to 8-11

A – The Charlotte Stone Crabs scored six in the 8th inning to beat Sarasota 8-1.  CF Pedro Powell had a pair of doubles and two RBI for Charlotte, while Ryan Royster and Greg Sexton also had a couple of hits.  C Nevin Ashley hit his 2nd HR of the season.  Starter David Newmann had his second solid outing in a row, allowing only one run on three hits while striking out 9. 

A – As was the case throughout the Rays organization tonight, the Bowling Green Hot Rods got a good start from Shane Dyer, who pitched six shutout innings, allowing only three hits.  Offensively, RF Jason Corder hit a game-tying solo HR in the 8th to knot up the score at 2.  In the 9th, Jason Tweedy drew a one-out walk and was able to work his way around the bases to score the winning run on an Isaias Velasquez single as Bowling Green improved their record to 10-9.   Josh Satow pitched the final 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to get the victory.