Rays Series III

[foxfield]

27 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So if the O’s lose, should we write off the rest of the season?

Folks are going to have to get used to being out front. Every game feels big. Today is a chance to win a series, against a Div rival, at their place. But it’s still one of about 60 games to go just in the regular season. 
 

Hyde is doing a great job at keeping them plugging. 

[Jim'sKid26]

25 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So if the O’s lose, should we write off the rest of the season?

Something tells me you are being facetious....but you do you. I'm in it for the long haul, as I'm sure you know. 

My point is that if you let up for even a minute when you have a team like the Rays at a small disadvantage you miss an opportunity to make an important statement that might impact future games. Get 'em while they're down. 

[e16bball]

Wasn’t exactly sure where to post this, because it hasn’t been an issue with Fairbanks specifically this year, but I didn’t love the chin music on the McCann bunt. Felt a little aggressive, but he probably didn’t even know for sure that McCann would be squaring around, so it’s not really an issue for me.

However, I did notice that Jason Adam has hit 9 batters in 40 innings and Kevin Kelly has hit 7 in 43 innings. Sparing all the math involved, that’s a rate 4 times higher than league average (1.71 HBP per 9 innings!). Maybe they’re just prone to wildness — and I’m sure with Adam it’s partly related to that frisbee slider — but their combined walk rate is lower than league average and neither has uncorked a single wild pitch. 

We’ve got 5 more high stakes games against these guys. After we lost Markakis to his broken hamate at the hands of the Great Hambino, I feel like I’ve been really wary of fools trying to be aggressive and bust our good hitters inside, and in the process knocking one of our best out for an extended period. I will be hoping we can avoid both of those jokers as much as possible. Especially if the Rays’ collective frustration continues to grow.