Ouch. The day after the Tampa Bay Rays doled out a convincing ass-kicking to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Halos returned the favor to the tune of 12-3. It was a day of mostly flat bats and worse pitching for the Bay area boys, which saw them fall half a game back of the New York Yankees as of this writing. New York faces the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday night.
The Rays came out swinging, at least lead-off man John Jaso did. Mikey took a 1-0 fastball into the seats in right field, giving the Rays an early 1-0 lead (Ben Zobrist came out swinging as well but that ended in a strikeout swinging). Three consecutive outs followed to retire the side.
Perhaps the Anaheim Angels had a wee bit o’ frustration brewin’ after consecutive losses to the Rays; they decided to let off some steam at Rays starting pitcher Jeff Niemann, recently returned from the Disabled List. Niemann had serious problems with his command throughout his performance, evident from his four-pitch, lead-off walk to Bobby Abreu; Abreu would later score, along with Howie Kendrick and Torii Hunter, when Hideki Matsui cracked a bases-clearing double. Rays RF Matt Joyce may have had a play on Hunter but inexplicably went to second base with his throw. That would prove to be meaningless; Mike Napoli doubled to score Matsui for four runs in the bottom fo the first.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.