Two strike struggles have come up from time to time with Rays pitchers. It first came up with Scott Kazmir who would struggle with high pitch counts as he was seemingly unable to put batters away but the numbers don't show that same story. It was not until Kazmir's last season with the Rays that he became below league average in two-strike counts against batters. From 2005 to 2008, his sOPS+ in those counts was 84, 85,69, and 82 but 2009 saw that metric spike up to 114 and it never recovered.

More recently, the same issue was noticed with Wade Davis. He was called up in 2009 and had no issue at all putting guys away with a 32 sOPS+ and a .356 OPS in two-strike counts. In 2010 and 2011, he was 16 and 23 percent below league average as that OPS jumped up to .569 and then .579. The move to the bullpen has put Davis back on the right track so far as opponents have just a .377 OPS against him in two-strike counts which gives Davis a 48 sOPS+ this season.

How are the healthy starting pitchers doing so far in 2012? It is a mixed bag of results.

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It was published late last night that Hideki Matsui is on his way to Tampa Bay for the game tonight as the team has deemed him ready to join the big leagues. It does not appear to be in reaction to the Rays striking out 69 times yesterday against the White Sox, but rather an extension of the rumors he was going to join the team in Boston this past weekend. The likely roster move seems to be demoting Stephen Vogt which is somewhat unfortunate as he is still searching for his first major league hit after 17 hitless plate appearances to start the season.

The outcome of the game was unfortunate, but watching Chris Sale and Matt Moore duel yesterday was both an enjoyable and frustrating baseball experience. Two talented young left-handed pitchers that both struck out at least 10. According to Elias, the last time opposing starters age 23 or younger combined for at least 25 strikeouts in a game was on July 31, 1901 when Tom Hughes of the Cubs and Noodles Hahn of the Red did so in a 14 inning game. The last time two pitchers of the same age had at least 10 strikeouts in a game was July 21st, 1971 when Cleveland's Steve Dunning and Oakland's Vida Blue had 10 and 11 respectively. The last time two lefties of any age had double digit strikeout totals in the same game was 9/16/92 when Randy Johnson struck out 15 in nine innings and Mark Langston struck out 12 in 10 innings. If you knock the requirement down to nine innings, then that takes us back to 7/23/85 when Frank Tanana and Britt Burns both struck out 11.

Joe Maddon on Matt Moore yesterday:

I thought he had great tempo the entire game. He never really was in a hurry or in a rush. He had great command of all his pitches. His breaking ball was really good and his change-up was good. He really settled in after he hit that first hitter. The fastball was pretty much right where he wanted it to be all night and I thought [Jose Molina] did a nice job calling the game for him all night. He just looked a lot more comfortable and it was a great game to build off of, emotionally more than anything else.

Other news you can use:

• Craig Glaser looks at the probability of a no-hitter
• MLB's new Collective Bargaining Agreement is out. Maury Brown has all of the details ($).
• Freaky baseball injuries happen to everyone and anywhere.
• Spell chek is ur friand
• Jim Leyland wasn't happy yesterday
• RaysProspects breaks down the pitching prospects on the farm
• Theo Epstein says nobody is untouchable. So, Cobb + Fleming for Castro is still on the table.....
• Baseball players that paid the ultimate sacrifice
• Chris Archer breaks down his arsenal

Let's do it, boys

via upload.wikimedia.org

Small sample sizes can lead to false bravado or fear. Coming into the game tonight, Josh Beckett had been nothing short of dominant against the Rays since the team entered its contending phase. Beckett had faced the Rays since the start of the 2008 season and had struck out 101 batters while walking just 18 in 102 innings of work. Additionally, he had only allowed three earned runs against the Rays in his last five starts against them including a win against them the last time out.

Through the first six innings of the game tonight, it looked like more of the same as only Jose Molina was able to hit a baseball safely into play while others mostly hit fly balls to Marlon Byrd who was all over the place in center field while the corner outfielders barely had to move. Then came the seventh inning.

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It was mentioned in yesterday's game day thread by someone that it seems as if the Rays give up more two out runs than other teams. Sometimes perception is not reality when you spend most of your time watching one team and who they are playing, but in 2012, perception is reality. The Rays are indeed giving up more two out runs than most teams. In fact, they are giving up more two out runs than any other team in the American League and are only one off the pace for the overall "lead" in major league baseball.

What gives?

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A win is a win is a win, but this one didn't have to be this way. Discuss

This morning, Darren Viola, better known at @RRepoz on Twitter and Repoz at Baseball Think Factory, offered this tweet this morning:

Enuff with RISP! In 2003 *1* team batted below .240 with RISP. This year there are *13*. That's what a MLB wide 15 point BA drop will do.

— Darren Viola (@RRepoz) May 23, 2012

That got me thinking about how that particular split is trending over the years and how the Rays have performed against the league average throughout franchise history. The results: the league is definitely trending down but the Rays have been all over the place including hitting .285 in 2005!

Other news you can use:

• Roy Halladay is (not) broken!
• Wait, other players do this too?
• Chris Lund reviews the tragedy of baseball expectations. When the feelings gone and you can't go on...
• Bill Petti reviews how the league adjust to hitters over time.
• RaysProspects reviews the hitting prospects down on the farm
• Can anyone explain why Brett Lawrie was sliding into second last night on a flyball to centerfield? The ump made the right call on him last night but Lawrie should have been out on the sheer stupidity of sliding into second on a ball he apparently read as one heading into the gap. It appears Lawrie has more faith in Upton's arm than Upton himself and that's saying something.

Durham lost 7-1:

• Jesus Feliciano: 1-4, R
• Matt Mangini: 2-4, K
• Leslie Anderson: 1-4, RBI (14), still hitting .333 on the year
• Hideki Matsui: 0-4, 2 K, .111
• Henry Wrigley: 1-4
• Cole Figueroa: 0-3, .220
• Alex Torres: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Montgomery won 1-0 in 11 innings:

Last night, Will Rhymes was plunked on the arm with a fastball from Franklin Morales that had a rather sickening sound to it. The way 2012 has gone so far for the Rays, it would not have been unreasonable to expect Rhymes to have a broken bone in his forearm especially after he fainted trying to walk off the field. Thankfully, he just has a very nasty bruise and apparently has forearms made of titanium. So far, it appears he will avoid becoming the tenth Rays player to hit the disabled list in 2012. The Rays are certainly not enjoying the kind of health fortunes that they did in 2011.

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Wins are good, players passing out on the field in pain are not. Let's hope for the best for Busta Rhymes

via www.fangraphs.com

He has a degree rather than medicine, but the closest thing baseball has to the fictional Moonlight Graham character in Field of Dreams is now a part of the Rays 25-man roster. Earlier today, the Rays traded Durham Bulls outfielder Kyle Hudson to the Phillies for veteran minor league outfielder Rich Thompson and have added him to the 25 man roster as his name appears on tonight's lineup card per Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.

Thompson was drafted in the 2000 draft by Toronto and has but one major league plate appearance in his professional career and that came in 2004 as a Rule 5 player with the Royals. One of our readers pointed out that the plate appearance came against former Devil Rays catcher Tim Laker in a game whose winning pitcher was current television color analyst Brian Anderson.

He was returned to the Pirates a few days after that plate appearance and has remained in the minor leagues since that time. It has been a very long career for Thompson who is known for his baserunning as he has had quite a successful conversion rate throughout his career.

Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer had a great story on Thompson over the weekend that is a must read and helps put a nice framing on how special this roster move is for a player who has persevered in the minors a very long time waiting for another chance. In that story, he highlights this anecdote:

"It (a callup) would give a lot of validation to my rationale," Thompson said. "It obviously doesn't look like it's that realistic. It would give me some affirmation. But if you were to tell me I won't make it to the big leagues again, it's not like I would just leave. That doesn't drive it at all. By no means is anything I do in the big leagues from this point on going to change my life financially. You get called up for a month, it would be nice. Maybe I could buy a new car."

Who knows what the move will bring for the Rays, but a guy with 5,680 minor league plate appearances is back in the major leagues hoping to get his second career plate appearances and that elusive first major league hit at the young age of 33.

Jeff Niemann's injury last night resulted in the eighth different member of the team hitting the disabled list. It isn't $67M in payroll, but it is still 20 percent of the 40 man roster and it eats at the depth and the thin margins the Rays have to work with and against as they compete with the bigger payrolls in the league.

The pitching depth that was not traded away for hitting is now available and it is likely Alex Cobb slides into Niemann's spot in the rotation as Cobb pitched (very well) last night and is on a schedule that makes his slotting rather easy. Chris Archer has looked better of late but such a move would come as a surprise to most and whoever gets the nod will get to face a red hot Atlanta Braves team this weekend.

Lotsa Links:

• Some Rays prospects picking up some hardware this week (RaysProspects)
• Chris Sale - is he a reliever or a starter (HardballTimes)
• Have you checked out the mickopedia yet? (BaseballProspectus)
• Remember all of that pitching depth the Royals had in their system? Yea, about that (HardballTalk)
• UZR leaders from 2002-2012 (The Book)
• A model for explaining the home field advantage in sports (Sabermetric Research)
• Fastball velocity increases and its effects on performance and DL time (FanGraphs)
• How the Rays are molding the pitching staff (The Ray Area)

Toronto has mainly been a one-man show this season, but it is not the man that we are used to seeing carry the load. Jose Bautista has heated up of late, but the offensive MVP of the club has easily been Edwin Encarnacion. Encarnacion leads the team with 11 home runs, leads them with 29 runs driven in, and leads them with six stolen bases.

Toronto is in a weird spot on their schedule as they play a series of four and two game series with this one being the fourth consecutive series of that kind. Toronto has split the previous three series against Los Angeles, Oakland, and Minnesota. This will be the second time the Rays have traveled to Toronto this young season while the Rays have yet to host the spring residents of Dunedin this season and this series will have a similar feel to the one in April.

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There were only three affiliates in action yesterday and Bowling Green was the only one that was victorious.

• Cole Figueroa: 1-5, K
• Leslie Anderson: 2-5, 1 RBI, K, HR (1), now hitting .347/.409/.441 in 132 PA
• Henry Wrigley: 3-5, R, HR (1)
• Stephen Vogt: 2-4, 2 K
• Romulo Sanchez: 3 IP, H, 3 K
• Josh Lueke: 1.2 IP, 2 H, ER
• Jose Lobaton: 0-2, BB
• Mikie Mahtook: 2-4, 2B
• Derek Dietrich: 2-4
• Hector Guevara: 2-4
• Wilking Rodriguez: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
• C.J. Riefenhauser: 2 IP, H, 2 K
• Jake Hager: 2-4, CS, out of the leadoff spot
• Drew Vettleson: 1-4, R
• Todd Glaesmann: 1-2
• Jeff Malm: 1-2, 2B (11), RBI (16), K
• Josh Sale: 1-3, R, 3 RBI (6), HR (2)
• Tyler Goeddel: 1-3
• Jake Floethe: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K. Now 5-1 on the season. 41.1 IP, 33 H, 1 HR, 10 BB, 29 K

via backcourtbetty.com

Your rants and vents here while we await the post-game wrap up. What a disappointing road trip....maybe the Rays have run out of toes to shoot off their own feet.

The post-game write-up is still in the trainer's room being checked for a strained tendon, but if you told me before last night's game that the Rays would lose because of Nick Johnson and that he would homer and steal a base in the same contest, I would have laughed at you. Those Fightin' Showalters continued their power trip of late banging three home runs last evening while the Rays failed to take full advantage of the 12 runners they put on base in the first six innings and lost their fifth game in the last six contests. Playing without Evan Longoria is one thing, but having to be without he and Desmond Jennings at the same time is no bueno.

Links for the day:

• I will be on 620 AM today at 10am talking Rays with Ronnie Nightrain Lane
• Viva El Birdos takes a look at how players react after errors
• Seattle feels bad about how the trade with the Yankees worked out
• Brandon Inge is destroying everything in his way this week
• Box scores from the affiliates last night. Glaesmann and Malm with big nights, and Buschmann was dominating on the mound.

Last night was not much fun without Desmond Jennings, Matt Joyce, and Luke Scott sitting due to either injuries or matchup issues. The team now heads to Baltimore for their first games of the 2012 season against the Fightin' Showalters who have become a home run factory (more on that in the series preview later today). The downside is that the Rays will have to deal with two more lefties this weekend in Dana Eveland tonight and Brian Matusz on Sunday, but neither are to the level of what the Rays had to deal with last evening.

News you can use:

• Bullpen Banter has a nice report on Hak-Ju Lee that includes video
• Former pitcher C.J. Nitkowski weighs in on how to properly value the loss of Mariano Rivera.
• The Hardball Times looks at the best swing and miss pitches in baseball right now. No Fernando Rodney??
• Yesterday was the sixth time that CC Sabathia and David Price have squared off. STATS looks at how the previous matchups went.
• The Angels and Nationals are discussing a Peter Bourjos trade?
• Tom Tango weighs in on the changes to WAR that were made at Baseball-Reference a few days ago and the discussion below the post is worth the read as well.