1-2-3. 1-2-3. 1-2-3. Sensing a pattern here? That’s the sound of Tampa Bay Rays rookie sensation Jeremy Hellickson mowing down the Minnesota Twins’ entire line up Monday night in his major league debut, putting up three consecutive three-up, three-down innings to open a 4-2 win. Hellickson threw 107 pitches, 64 of which were strikes, yielding two runs on three hits and walking two batters while striking out six through seven innings of work. Mind you, this is against the hottest team in MLB, coming off what was an eight-game win streak. I’ll do this cheap play on his name all day long: Hell-ickson yeah! And I kid you not, right before I was about to drop some Pearl Jam lyrics, “Jeremy” came on Pandora. Twins batter will surely try to erase this game from the blackboard, when Jeremy smoked on (artificial) grass today… Yeah? Anyone? Crickets?
The Rays scored early against Minnesota starter Carl Pavano, getting on the board in the third inning with some small ball. Reid Brignac singled to open it up and moved to second on Jason Bartlett’s sacrifice bunt. After C John Jaso walked, Carl Crawford struck out; that brought Evan Longoria up to bat with two away. The Rays’ golden boy singled home Brignac before Willy Aybar grounded out to first to close the frame.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.