Bleacher Report - Articles by Brandon Lopez

Tuesday in the MLB: News and Notes

Brandon Lopez — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:13:54 -0400

Josh Hamilton Hits Grand Slam Against Former Team

The Texas Rangers jumped all over the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays and Andy Sonnanstine (6-3) with seven runs in the first two innings, but didn't score again until the eighth inning. Vicente Padilla (7-2) had a seven-run cushion, which over time got smaller as Cliff Floyd and Eric Hinske each hit a two-run homer. In the eighth, the Rangers broke the game open again as Josh Hamilton, who was held hit-less in his return to Tampa Bay, hit a grand slam to give him five RBI on the night.

Dice-K Suffers Back Injury

Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-0) was pulled in the fifth inning today with an apparent back injury. He gave up three runs on four hits before the injury. He was trying to improve to 9-0 on the season, like teamate Josh Becket did last season. The Seattle Mariners went on to win 4-3 in the ninth inning on Jose Lopez's RBI single. The win ended the Mariners seven-game losing streak.

Orioles Top Yanks in 11

This game was a crazy one, which featured nine home runs, six of which were hit back-to-back, and five errors. Both teams hit two home runs each in the first, scoring four runs. The New York Yankees scored four again in the fourth, and the Baltimore Orioles followed with four of their own in the fifth. The Yankees then took the lead in the 11th on a Hideki Matsui single. In the bottom half of the inning, Aubrey Huff doubled in the tying run, and Alex Cintron scored him with a single to win the game 10-9.

Santana Pitches Mets past Marlins

Considering the recent drama going on with the New York Mets, Johan Santana (6-3) was the right person to be on the mound to get them back on track. Santana pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts. Billy Wagner went on to pitch a perfect ninth inning for his tenth save. Cody Ross had a nice game for the Florida Marlins, going two for four with a home run and two RBI. Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez is expected to return to the rotation next week in San Francisco.

Tampa Bay Rays-Florida Marlins: the New Interstate Rivalry

Brandon Lopez — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:13:46 -0400

Before this year, the main interleague rivalries were the: Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs, Angels-Dodgers, and even the Indians-Reds. But this year, for the first time, people might actually be interested in the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins series.

This year, the series features two of the most surprising teams this season. The Marlins sit atop of the NL East with a 30-20 record, and have a 2.5 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. They feature great young hitters such as Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Jeremy Hermida, Mike Jacobs, and Josh Willingham. The Marlins have hit 71 home runs, which is second in the majors behind division rival Philadelphia.

They are coming off of a three-game sweep of the Arizona D-backs, and handed Brandon Webb his first loss of the season. They then took two of three from the San Francisco Giants and gave Barry Zito his first win of the season.

The schedule leading up to their first game against the Rays isn't an easy one. They play the Phillies six times, the Braves in Atlanta, then a four-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, who swept them earlier this month.

On the west coast of the state, in St. Petersburg, stays the team with the best record in the majors at this point. The Rays are 31-20, with a home record of 20-8. They currently have a .5 game lead over the Red Sox, who were swept by the Oakland A's. The Rays took two of three from the A's the series before. They are also coming off of a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, which pushes their record against the AL East to 21-12.

The Rays are just as young and exciting as the Marlins, and showcase great hitters and pitchers such as B.J Upton, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, Akinori Iwamora, Carlos Pena, Scott Kazmir, and James Shields.

The Rays are second in the majors in steals with 51. They use that speed wisely, and produce a lot of runs. In their last 10 games, they scored 51 runs on 106 hits.

The Rays' schedule leading up to the Marlins isn't that easy either. They play a four-game series at home against the White Sox, then three in Boston, three in Texas, and three in Los Angeles.

The first game of the series is in St. Petersburg, starting on June 13. The second series is in Miami on June 24.

The pitching matchup I would like to see is between Scott Kazmir (4-1, 1.50 ERA, 32 SO) and Scott Olsen (4-2, 3.37 ERA, 29 SO). I predict that the Rays will take four of the six games because of their better pitching. But the Marlins' hitting is scary, so we will see what happens.

So during a season of many firsts, here's another one: The Sunshine Series featuring the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and first-place Florida Marlins.

Tampa Bay Rays: Was the Road Trip a Success?

Brandon Lopez — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:20:17 -0400

The Tampa Bay Rays were seven games over .500 as they headed to St. Louis, and they left Oakland still seven games over .500. On the road trip, the Rays showed flashes of their old selves (forgive me for saying), the Devil Rays.

They made several mistakes on the basepaths, and pitching wasn't as great as it has been this season. After losing two straight one-run games to the Cardinals, they came back with two one-run victories of their own.

The St. Louis Cardinals were coming into the series on a bit of a slide, losing seven of their last ten. They still held an impressive record, and were only a couple games out of first place behind the Chicago Cubs.

In this first game, the Rays started Andy Sonnanstine (6-2, 5.09 ERA). Sonnanstine has been hot as of late, winning four straight decisions, and continued that with a great all-around performance. He gave up one run on eight innings of work, while walking none and striking out four.

Sonnanstine also had a great day at the plate, earning his second career two-hit game going 2-3 with a run. The only run for the Cardinals was a solo shot from Chris Duncan.

The Rays continued their great hitting, scattering 12 hits, three of which were doubles. Akinori Iwamura was the hot bat of the day going 3-5 with an RBI.

In the second game of the series, the Rays showed that they weren't completely over the "Devil" Rays. They made approximately six mental errors on the basepaths, which would have led to bigger innings, and possibly an easy win.

The Cardinals offense had nine runs on 13 hits, and got two home runs from Ryan Ludwick, who hit the game-winning dagger in the 10th inning off of Rays pitcher Dan Wheeler.

The Rays, however, had 18 hits and only eight runs, thanks to all of the base-running errors. They did show some resilience, erasing two, four-run deficits.

In the rubber game of the series, the Rays got off to a hot start, scoring three runs in the first five innings while holding the Cards to zero. After that, the Rays couldn't stop the Cardinals offense, which scored in every inning from the sixth on.

The Cards got another game-winning hit, this time from Skip Schumaker, who scored Jason LaRue in the ninth inning. Gary Glover (0-2, 3.95 ERA) picked up his second loss of the season for the Rays.

The Rays looked to get back to their winning ways in Oakland, who just got off of a 2-7 road trip. James Shields (4-3, 3.37 ERA) got the start and gave up two home runs in the first two innings to Emile Brown and Frank Thomas. Thomas ended up with two home runs that game. The Rays offense stayed hot, and came back to take the lead, but lost it in the eighth as the A's tied it.

In the 13th inning, someone finally scored as Evan Longoria hit a two-run shot to give the Rays the lead. The A's came back in the bottom half of the inning and scored on a triple from Daric Barton, but Troy Percival (2.84 ERA, 12 SV) closed out the game getting Kurt Suzuki to foul out for his 12th save.

Game two of the series was a pitchers duel between Scott Kazmir (3-1, 1.57 ERA) and rookie Greg Brown (2-4, 3.18 ERA). Kazmir pitched great, looking more and more like the pitcher he was before his injury. He gave up one run on four hits, while recording eight strikeouts in seven innings.

The Rays offense was shut down, but got some luck in the eighth as Emile Brown lost Dioner Navarro's fly ball in the lights with the bases loaded, which scored all three base runners. Troy Percival gave up another run in the ninth on another home run to Frank Thomas, who is looking good in the A's uniform again.

As the road trip was coming to a close, the Rays looked to sweep the A's, which the A's weren't about to let happen.

Sonnanstine got the start again, but the game had different results than his last start against the Cardinals. He gave up seven runs on nine hits in only six innings. On the other side, A's starter Dana Eveland (4-3, 2.90 ERA) pitched a complete game, giving up one run on three hits. The only run came on a solo home run by Jonny Gomes. The A's ended up winning that game 9-1.

The Rays are now in second place to the Boston Red Sox (30-19), and look to keep pace with them as they have been winning games often. The Rays now come back home for a 10-game homestand against the Baltimore Orioles (24-21), Texas Rangers (23-25), and the Chicago White Sox (25-20).

This is a key homestand for them, for afterwards they go to Boston and Los Angeles, and then continue a difficult Interleague schedule.

I saw more good than bad in this road trip, and would say it was a successful one. They hit well, and for the most part pitched well. With Kazmir getting back into form, the Rays will continue to have a winning season.