via www.mccutchanvillefire.org

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via 30.media.tumblr.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

sale.

via abcnews.go.com

Yeah, I'm Aiken.

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via i190.photobucket.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via epguides.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

That's how bad tonight's game was, I can't even think of a punny headline.

With seemingly the entire Rays offense on the DL, pitching and defense are paramount to this team's success. Well, the pitching did its part tonight in the performances of Jeremy Hellickson and the bullpen, but the defense was a huge fail, giving up three errors, and some sloppy, though technically-errorless, play.

Before we get to the hairy stuff, let's talk about HellBoy's night. The sophomore hurled 7.1 innings and allowed five runs (two earned) on eight hits, and one intentional walk while striking out three. He allowed some hard hits on some Rasmus doubles and one mammoth Yunel Escobar homer to left center, but also handled Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion effectively. One 3-2 strikeout pitch had Bautista so frustrated that he tried to break the bat over his knee and failed.

Kind of like the Rays defense tonight...

It all started in the second inning on a botched double play courtesy of Carlos Pena. I know the Official Scorer credited the error to Will Rhymes, but it wasn't his fault (this time). His throw to first was a scoch off the mark, but Pena just whiffed it and Arencibia advanced to second. He'd score on a Eric Thames single to right-center for the Jays first run.

The Jays second and third runs were on the level: a nice GTMI sequence of double, productive fly out, sac fly and the aforementioned bomb by Escobar.

Then things got out of hand in the eighth. With men on first and second and one out, Burke Badenhop relieved Hellickson and induced three straight could-be-a-double-play groundballs that resulted in a grand total of one out. The first error was his as he misplayed a Ynuel Escobar two-hopper to load the bases. Next, he looked like he'd be saved when Jose Bautista grounded to Sean Rodriguez at third, but instead of throwing the ball to second to start the double play, Rodriguez decided to throw the ball to right field and allow two runs to score. But, it's not over yet. Badenhop induced yet another grounder that looked like two, but this time Will Rhymes did make an errant throw to first, and the run scored. It was not an error because you "can't assume two," and if tonight is any indication, the Rays can't assume one anymore.

I know, I'm being a Bitter Beatrice. Tomorrow is another day.

Bullets after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via images4.fanpop.com

Wait, that's not Derek Zoolander?

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

Welcome back to This Week in Sun Sports, kids. As always, we'll be looking at the oddities of the Rays broadcasts from this past week. Anything from the announcing, to a crazy video segment, to the fans in the stands. If it's on Sun Sports, we see it. Because--like the Eye of Sauron--we're always watching.

This week covers Monday, May 14th - Sunday, May 20th. If you missed last week's, you can find it here.

I was shocked--SHOCKED, I say--by the reader submissions this week. Y'all went the extra distance this week, even if some were a little blue for our young, impressionable readers. It's OK though. Any submission is a good submission (except yours, you know who you are).

Monday, May 14th

We begin with a tip from the keen eyes of DRB utility-contributor FreeZorilla who spotted this in the fifth inning:

Just the tip we needed to get things started.

Clearly, "Baseball player grabs junk" isn't breaking news, but I find it interesting that FreeZo was the only one who caught this. I know we all have our favorite players, but I think it's significant that FreeZorilla called out Ben Zobrist "Freeing Zorilla" after he scored. I'd like to think that only FreeZo's mind was in the gutter on this scoring play, but Brian Anderson bailed him out when discussing the events in the next inning:

[Talking about Brandon Morrow] If you wanna be mad, be mad about the fact that you walked BJ, you know, with two outs, and then you start to complain about the call and allow Ben Zobrist a little back door action there.

And that completes the trifecta! Anyone who had BJ, "Backdoor action," and a crotch grab, please bring up your tickets. (h/t to the GDT for catching this.)

A new 'Face,' a face plant, and another edition of "What could he possibly be saying?" after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via blogs.reuters.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

The Cobb salad may have been invented in Los Angeles, but the Rays served one up this afternoon in the Trop. Alex Cobb salad tossed seven innings of two-run baseball on six hits and two walks in 113 pitches. He struck out six. Like Matt Moore two nights ago, he started off shaky, but hunkered down and put together a good outing. The trouble seemed to be an inability to locate the ball down in the zone. Cobb just couldn't finish pitches and left them up on his arm side.

He got away with it in the first after allowing a single and a walk to start off the game. He was able to escape the jam via a strikeout to Freddie Freeman and a Dan Uggla double play.

The second inning was the most Maddoning. Cobb got a bit BABIP'd by three straight groundball singles that gave the Braves their first run. Brian McCann hit yet another grounder through the shift. I don't know where he finds the holes. An Eric Hinske sac fly to left plated their second and final run, because also like Moore, Cobb finished off his night by retiring the last ten Braves he faced. By the end of his night, you could say he was on so much of a roll he was jelly. Or syrup. I prefer syrup.

Offensively, the Rays were able to take advantage of Braves starter Randall Delgado's wildness (kinda). Delgado only lasted four innings and walked five against a patient Rays lineup. I say the Rays 'kinda' took advantage of the walks because all the runs scored tonight came on the long ball. In the third inning, Elliot Johnson led off with a walk then moved to second on a Chris Gimenez single. Ben Zobrist (who did not have a good day at the plate) advanced the runners on a swinging bunt to the pitcher. B.J. Upton followed up with another walk to load the bases before Matthew "Barry" Joyce crushed a 2-0 DH-fastball over the wall in center for grand-slam. The swing just screamed, "Obvious fastball is obvious." If memory serves, that's the third Rays granny this year, and all of them have been from lefties (Joyce, Scott, Pena).

Bullets after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

It was a tale of two games for Matt Moore. He came out spitting hot fire and struck out the side in the first inning. Unfortunately, he also allowed two singles, a hit-by-pitch, and walked in a run to give the Red Sox an early lead. Things didn't get better to start the second inning, as Marlon Byrd timed up a 3-2 center-cut fastball and hit a homer to left.

After that, however, Moore started to turn things around. He got ahead of the Sox hitters and in the third inning looked downright dominant. Yes, he did give up a two-out solo homer to Cody Ross to dead center on an 0-2 change-up, but that one pitch more indicative of Ross timing up a bad pitch, than Moore's post-first-inning performance.

It was smooth sailing after that Ross homer as Moore retired the next ten Sox to finish the night with 6IP, 3ER, 5H, 1BB, and 8K. He induced twelve swinging strikes on 106 pitches, eight of them on the fastball. Hopefully this is the start of an upswing for the slow-starting rookie.

Here's his plot if you're interested:

via www.brooksbaseball.net

The deciding runs would of course come off the bat of Cody Ross. Full disclosure: I have a hard time taking anyone named 'Cody' seriously. It all stems from the time I was asked to take my (Devil) Rays hat off in a restaurant. Frankie Muniz (AKA Agent Cody Banks) and his 'posse' were seated a table away and he was wearing a beret . A frickin' beret. And I have to take off my hat? Come on! This America, man.

Sorry about that, I blacked out for a second. Anyhoo, In the eighth, Cody Ross came up with the big hit of the night on a 96-hop, Muniz-beret of a single up the middle that scored two and gave Ross his third and fourth RBI of the night. Elliot Johnson could have made a play on it, but he was playing towards the line in the shift and couldn't get back up the middle. Yes, shift happens, we know. God, I hate Frankie Muniz.

Bullets after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via fandomania.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

The Rays weren't able to generate much offense tonight, but thankfully, they didn't need to. Jeremy Hellickson and his 'pen of merry men held the always potent Red Sox lineup to just one run on seven scattered hits. Both Hellickson and his opponent, Clay Buchholz, got away with more than their fair share of stranded runners--Rays were 0-11 with RISP--but the Rays found ways to take advantage of some Sawks mistakes and cash in.

In this Hellickson/Buchholz staring contest, it was Buchholz who flinched first--literally. In the bottom of the second, with Carlos Pena on third and Will Rhymes on first, Buchholz made an egregious balk. (More like, like Clay Balkholz, am I right?) It looked as if he wanted to both make the pitch and pickoff to first at the same time. Whatever his thought process, it lead to the Rays first run of the night.

The Red Sox would tie the game in the fourth on a Daniel Nava Texas Leaguer to left that Matt Joyce was thisclose to making a sliding catch on. Closer than that play Carl Crawford missed to lose game 162 against the O's last year. (I didn't have to mention that, but, hey, that memory always makes me smile.) Tonight's play was a tough one, but that is where you miss Desmond Jennings.

Matt Joyce redeemed himself for not being Desmond Jennings in the bottom of the sixth. After singling on a hard grounder off the foot of Buchholz, Joyce advanced to third on a Pena single down the rightfield line. Buchholz was pulled in favor of Andrew Miller who coaxed Luke Scott into popping out to Cody Ross in shallow right. But wait, there's more! Ross had some trouble and made the catch with his momentum going backwards. Joyce broke for home and was quite safe, beating the weak throw from Ross. In the postgame interview, Joyce said that third base coach Tom 'Dave' Foley told him to 'fake it,' but when Joyce noticed Ross caught the ball off balance, he decided to go for it. Of course, this proved to be the deciding run of the game.

Bullets after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via cdn.sheknows.com

Ditto.

Cue "Brie Pottery Gif" in 3...2...1...

PS: She Knows! (.com)

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via www.dvdactive.com

Trust your heart.

New DRaysBay slogan?

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

Welcome back to This Week in Sun Sports, kids. As always, we'll be looking at the oddities of the Rays broadcasts from this past week. Anything from the announcing, to a crazy video segment, to the fans in the stands. If it's on Sun Sports, we see it. Because--like Shia LaBeouf in that movie based on a Rihanna song--we're always watching.

This week covers Tuesday, May 8th- Sunday, May 13th. If you missed last week's, you can find it here.

This week is the Danny DeVito Edition, not because I'm doing a "life and times" of our favorite momma-from-train-thrower, but because there's just not that much #TWSS to go around. Two series against divisional opponents will do that to you, especially now that the Orioles have decided to be good all of a sudden. Baseball can be so serious sometimes. How annoying. So, like Danny DeVito, This Week will be short and sweet... and hairy... and inappropriate towards the end.

Tuesday, May 8th

This week, the Rays faced many hard truths: Injuries suck, the AL East is good, and throwing ~50% strikes just ain't gon' cut it. Here at 'This Week in Sun Sports' we were faced with something else: Yeildsface: (h/t Paul Ellis)

In the fourth inning, James Shields surrendered a two-out, two-run rainmaker over the cuckoo's nest to Raul Ibanez and gave the above expression. I'm just going to add it to our growing list of 'faces.' Yeildsface, meet Lackeyface, Roddyface, Beavanface, and, of course, BAface. I'm sure you'll get along famously.

Yeildsface GIF after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via www.basementideasy.com

Now go upstairs and wish your mother a Happy Mothers Day...

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via www.jdmfilmreviews.com

Nothing really Matusz, to me...

Yikes, that was painful.

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via www.geekmom.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via images.wikia.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

via images.wikia.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

Disclaimer: I'm fighting the urge to spend 300 words talking about Carlos Pena's final at-bat of the night. Down by two, with the bases loaded and two-outs, Carlos Pena struck out to end the game. He never took the bat off his shoulder. Then again, he never saw a strike, but that didn't keep umpire Jim Joyce from calling three of them to assist David Robertson in slamming the door for his first save since taking over for an injured Mariano Rivera.

Eighty-two words down and I'm still debating whether I'm more disappointed in the umpire for expanding the strike zone in the most important at bat of the game, or in Carlos Pena for not recognizing that he needed to protect the outside of the zone. Like most things, it's a careful combination of both, but I'm going to lean towards Pena on this one, because, hey, it's his job to swing the bat. There's nothing more frustrating than "what could have been," and that's exactly what three balls taken for strikes will get you.

One-hundred and seventy-six words now and I haven't even shown a Pitch F/X plot of the at bat. Well, here it is:

via www.brooksbaseball.net

Yup, it's as clear as day, but you gotta go with the flow, right? After all, this might not have been Pena's worst AB of the night. In the eighth inning, Carlos K'd (swinging this time) with no outs and Ben Zobrist on third. Zobrist would score, but only on a Rafael Soriano wild pitch with two outs.

In the end, it looks like I only spent 256 words on that AB, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I know I feel crappy, but I also "hate to hate" on CP23. Oh well. Looks like that's 300 words.

Bullets after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

If you see something during the game that would fit "This Week in Sun Sports," please help us out and tag it (#TWSS) in the GDT or email to ThisWeekInSS@gmail.com. (Include inning and outs if possible.)

Welcome back to This Week in Sun Sports, kids. As always, we'll be looking at the oddities of the Rays broadcasts from this past week. Anything from the announcing, to a crazy video segment, to the fans in the stands. If it's on Sun Sports, we see it. Because--like Jerry Fletcher "protecting" Alice Sutton on the treadmill--we're always watching.

This week covers Monday, April 30th - Sunday, May 6th. If you missed last week's, you can find it here.

The real baseball week ended on a bit of a down note, but here at This Week in Sun Sports, we're always rocking a D7.

Monday, April 30th

Listen, Readers, we need to talk: Monday night I was watching the game at a local watering hole as I am wont to do. Unfortunately, the jukebox was playing so there was no sound. I didn't know what was being said, but I knew something was awry when this appeared on the screen.

This is the new camera angle in the booth. And it's certainly... intimate. I feel like I'm getting 'The Talk' right now. BA is explaining that "when a man and woman really really love each other..." and Dewayne is giving me a look that says, "If you get a girl pregnant, I'll cut it off myself."

In the top of the fifth, Eric Wedge gave us a Caddyshack flashback.

Twenty bucks the Wedge kid picks his ear!

All right, all right! Another twenty says he eats it...

Continue reading this post »