“Not again (groans).” I’m sure my reaction to the start of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Saturday night game in Cleveland was similar to that of many Rays fans. Not another loss in Cleveland. Not another bad start from pitching ace David Price. Fortunately, as the evening progressed, we all learned that it was indeed not the case. While Price was tagged for three runs in the first two innings, he battled back to throw a pretty good game and keep his team in it. Ben Zobrist and Carlos Pena used their big boy bats to start the sluggish offense.
Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach – who factored into this win offensively – came to Tampa Bay from Cleveland for a player later to be named. Well that man was named Mitch Talbot. The former Tampa Bay minor-leaguer took the hill in his first outing since being traded by Tampa Bay and looked to show the Rays what a mistake they’d made. After getting Zobrist to line out to lead off, he tied an Indians record by striking out six consecutive batters. Shoppach’s third-inning ground out prevented Talbot from taking sole possession of that statistic. He looked good in his bid for revenge but came up short.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.