Friday evening was Throwback Night, where the Tampa Bay Rays dressed up in uniforms of the 1970s Tampa Tarpons and played like it was a Throwaway Game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a throwaway game, as the Rays still need to win in order to make it to the postseason. Performances like the 5-0 shutout at the hands of the league-losing Baltimore Orioles make one want to re-evaluate and say screw winning the East, the Rays need to worry about winning the wildcard race.
Rays starter James Shields took the loss (10-11), giving up four runs on 10 hits. Shields struck out two batters and walked three through five innings of work. He didn’t throw a bad game, per se, but seemed unable to get out of certain innings. O’s starter Jeremy Guthrie threw a pretty good game but not so great a performance that it should have shut down a team in the hunt for postseason play. The Rays managed just three hits on the evening, two of which were facing Guthrie. Just because Tampa Bay’s batters couldn’t hit their way aboard doesn’t mean they didn’t make it on base. They were spotted five bases on balls but went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, sounding like an all too familiar tale.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.