Game 1: The Rays' bats were unusually quiet in a 3-2 loss to the Angels in the first game of the series. RJ Dabovich is not who comes to mind when thinking of shutdown pitchers, but he held the Rays to 1 run on 5 hits through his 5 innings and 3 relievers only allowed them 1 more over the final 4. Danny Ayala brought home both runs without a hit, one on a sac fly and the other by getting hit with the bases loaded. Jaiden Hardaway led off the 9th with a double, but was stranded there as the rally fizzled. As a result Nate Schultz went down to defeat for the first time this season (9-1) as it took him 110 pitches to get through 4 2/3, going 4.2 6 3 3 3 7. Ron Adams was brilliant in long relief, going 3.1 1 0 0 1 6 and Willie Bertone had a 1-2-3 9th in his return to the team as they kept it close to no avail.
Game 2: Go figure. After being shut down by RJ Dabovich & company yesterday, the Rays were up against their former longtime ace and still one of the better pitchers in baseball in Christian Little. So of course they bombed him for 7 runs, including 4 homers, in 1 2/3 innings as they topped the Angels 7-4. Jon Jimenez had a 3-run HR (#22) in the 1st (it could have been worse but Jaiden Hardaway was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double), Jeff Baez (#9) and Mike McKee (#4) went back-to-back in the 2nd, and later in the inning Victor de Jesus hit #16. The offense dried up from there against the LA pen but they built a big enough lead to withstand Josh Hanna's troubles in the 5th when he gave up 3 runs to finish 5 5 4 4 3 6 but still got the win and improved to 9-1. Mike Wherry, Edgar Rios and Tim Siqueiros got them through the 8th with varying degrees of difficulty before Kikuo Kawase retired three straight Angels after hitting the leadoff man in the 9th for save #17.
Game 3: It was time to face another former Rays ace turned LA Angel in Jon Hayes and although the Rays hit 3 homers off him, they were all solo jobs and the extent of the offense in a 5-3 loss. Dayle Jenkins (#5), Victor de Jesus (#17) and Eric Titcombe (#15) all took Hayes deep but it wasn't enough to offset Danny Medina's rough outing. He was more like Danny Mediniocre today going 5.2 9 4 4 3 4 in suffering his first loss of the year. Eric Riley gave up a run in his 2 2/3 innings of work before Bob Sirna got a quick double play to end the 9th as the Rays have now dropped 2 of 3 in this series.
Game 4: The Rays salvaged a split of the 4-game series with the Angels thanks to an 8-2 win today at Publix Park. Jaiden Hardaway offset his two errors in the field by going 4-5 with the bat, driving in a run, Bo Angeac had a key 2-run single to put them ahead to stay, Eric Titcombe drove in a pair and Danny Ayala capped the day with a 2-run homer, his 29th. All of this enabled Kevin Kerstetter to go 7-0, although it was a struggle for him today as it was for all the Rays' starters in this series, as he went 5 6 2 2 3 6. Willie Bertone had a clean 6th and after Edgar Rios pitched the 7th and the Rays turned a 5-2 game into an 8-2 one, he ended up staying in for the duration and got the 3-inning save, his 2nd of the season with 3 scoreless innings.
Team record: 54-17. Next up: 3 games at Yankee Stadium.
Some recognition for Omar:
