After some back-and-forth baseball over the last week, culminating in a big win by Matt Garza over the Rangers (and more free 10 strikeout pizza) and a series-opening loss to the Chicago White Sox, I attended last night's Rays-White Sox game at Tropicana Field.  James Shields pitched against a resurgent Jose Contreras, and as could be expected, it was a pitcher's duel to the very end.  Actually, both pitchers ran up high pitch counts and allowed runners on base in most of their innings pitched, but managed to escape with one earned run.  The Rays scored in the third inning on a two-out single by B.J. Upton; the White Sox tied it two innings later on a home run by, yes, ninth hitter Alexei Ramirez.  Both teams left runners on base one time after another, and only strong rebounds by relievers Al Reyes, J.P. Howell and Dan Wheeler left the score tied.  After all of the close calls, the game was tied going to the bottom of the ninth inning.  Cliff Floyd, who had been 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a double play, led off for the Rays against new White Sox pitcher Scott Linebrink.  After a called first strike, Floyd smashed a fastball deep into center field...back at the wall...and just barely out of the reach of Dewayne Wise.  Walk-off home run, Rays win 2-1.  I've never been in a more celebratory, adrenaline-rushed stadium atmosphere than that one.  It sounded like more than 14,679 people (though we really do need more fans at the games) and it was one giant party all the way out beyond the walls of Tropicana Field.  We all pointed up at the screens and celebrated as they showed the standings, complete with the Rays still on top and the Yankees at the very bottom.  The world is finally in order.

Some game notes: The guy on Fox Sports Radio doing the National Sports Report let "Devil Rays" slip out at least once last night, so somebody needs to inform him of his one dollar "donation".  At least they played the radio call from WHNZ Rays broadcaster Andy Freed, which I listened to several times on the way back home.  I finally got a new Rays mini-helmet with my Dipping Dots ice cream, which I highly recommend.  We had the best seats I think any of us have ever had at a Major League game--Section 131, Row G, which is the very first row right behind those party tables around the visitors' bullpen.  This made White Sox bullpen heckling an easy task--I took pride and enjoyment in telling Jose Contreras he couldn't cut it with the Yankees and graciously informing Scott Linebrink that he's past his prime.  This game was my dad's first Rays game since 2000, and it was well worth the drive and the money.  Finally, I have posted my load of MySpace pictures from the game, which can be viewed here.  My camera's batteries were dead at the end of the game, but there are still some good quality pictures.

Scott Kazmir returns to the mound after he gave me a free pizza last time out, going up against Javier Vazquez.  It's time to finish off the White Sox and knock them out of their first place spot while we keep our stranglehold on ours.  Then I don't really care what the White Sox do, but the Rays need to keep winning every time out.  We have to continue thinking victory every game and playing at this pace, and positive things will happen.  Maybe everyone in the national media will get our team and player names right.  That would be a great start.  Until next time, go first place Rays.

The Rays are right back on track upon their return home, beating the Orioles 2-0 and 11-4 in their first two games of this season-long 10 game homestand.  I, along with my friend Lori and one of her friends, made a last-minute decision to attend Friday night's game.  I have one picture of us all together in our seats, in Section 140, Row JJ, viewable in my MySpace Rays photo album.  For the first time this season, the Rays won a game that I saw in person.  I had fun screaming at Aubrey Huff ("Hey Aubrey, if you did that (get thrown out at home) less often here, you would be here right now"..."Go back to Bubba (the Love Sponge) and tell him how badly your team sucks!") and cheering the Rays on to a close victory.  Matt Garza pitched very well, and the Rays capitalized on a stolen base thanks to a bad throw and a dropped running catch by Nick Markakis to score their first run in the sixth inning.  On an extra base hit-turned-sacrifice fly by Carlos Pena, who got robbed on a diving catch by Luke Scott, the Rays doubled the lead in the eighth inning, leading to the save from Troy Percival.  Overall, it was a fun game to be at, with an energetic, albeit small, live crowd.

Today was a little different, as this afternoon, I actually got to watch a Braves game as they hosted the Diamondbacks on FOX.  One night after being on the losing end of the triumphant return of Doug Davis, the Braves put Jorge Campillo up against the legendary Randy Johnson.  Johnson struck out ten Braves in just six innings, but was down 1-0 thanks to an RBI single by Yunel Escobar.  Jorge Campillo had a great game before departing early with a blister.  In the seventh inning, with Jeff Bennett on the mound, the umpires bought Arizona a run.  Justin Upton (B.J.'s brother) was ruled safe on a close play at second base, when replays showed him to be out by a narrow margin.  With two outs, pinch hitter Augie Ojeda drove Upton home with the tying run.  In the bottom of the ninth inning, however, the Braves would strike last, and best.  Chipper Jones singled off Doug Slaten to lead things off, and after an out by Mark Teixeira, the Diamondbacks went to right hander Chad Qualls to deal with Jeff Francoeur.  Qualls hung an 0-1 slider inside, which Francoeur blasted high, deep, and over the left field wall for a walk-off home run and a 3-1 victory.  They desperately needed that rebound on the day that the Mets finally won, and right before having to face Micah Owings and Brandon Webb.  The Braves are now just one game out of first place in their division.

The Rays also stayed in second place, manhandling Steve Trachsel as if he were a 37-year-old has been...wait, that's exactly what he is.  He pitched less than two innings and got teed off for nine runs, including two home runs by rookie Evan Longoria, who finished the night with six RBI.  Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, and Carlos Pena (2-3-4 hitters) all had three hits--Upton actually had four--and Crawford stole his 13th base.  Edwin Jackson had an average performance, three runs in five innings, but finally got the run support to earn a victory.  The Rays rolled to an 11-4 win to knock the Orioles back to .500 (24-24) and send themselves to 29-20, nine games over .500 for the first time in franchise history.  They reach new highs by the week, and this isn't the end of it the way they're playing now.  And next Friday night, I'll be in Section 131, Row G to see the Rays take on the White Sox.  I'll see you all there.

The Braves win on national TV and give Chipper Jones the exposure he needs to get All Star votes, and the Rays once again dismantle the Orioles.  It's a perfect day for baseball.  Until next time, go Rays.

I'm back once again to jinx the team raise support for our Tampa Bay Rays.  Sure enough, right after I posted about the Rays getting walk-off hits, the Cardinals got two consecutive walk-off victories over the Rays.  Scott Kazmir and James Shields won in Oakland, but of course the Red Sox have a seven-game winning streak, leading to very little divisional advancement.  This can easily be remedied by a home series with the Baltimore Orioles, who just traveled here from New York.  Tonight's series opener puts Matt Garza up against Jeremy Guthrie.  And we'll see if Troy Percival can turn it around after giving up a run, yet still winning by a run and earning a save, in each of his last two appearances.  Can Evan Longoria hit yet another game winning home run?  We'll find out soon...and by the way, I'm going to next Friday's game, another one against the White Sox.  I'll see you there, and go Rays.

The Tampa Bay Rays took over first place by way of three exciting and dramatic wins out of four games against the Yankees this week at Tropicana Field.  Now read the beginning of this statement again just to verify that it was said and that it's true.  The early success is happening and could pay big dividends later on.  The starting rotation has pitched extremely well during these last two weeks, as well as the bullpen (though they did away with two possible Edwin Jackson wins, which the team won anyway).  Jackson now has 15 scoreless innings in his last two starts.  Scott Kazmir is back strong, and James Shields is as great as he has ever been.  They have won games that, in 2007 or before, they absolutely would have lost.  Even Derek Jeter, who should have some knowledge on this subject, said the Rays play differently now and have a new attitude of confidence.  Hank Steinbrenner saw this, too--he told his Yankees to play like the Rays, so clearly they're doing a lot of things right.  Looking at the current standings further reveals this to be true.  They recovered from a game-tying ninth inning home run by Hideki Matsui to beat New York.  They have held on to slim leads to win games, regardless of the score or game situation.  The Rays have started getting the walk-off hits that other teams have become accustomed to getting against them.  It's a winning formula that should only be improved upon for years to come.  They swept the Angels right back to Los Angeles of Anaheim, then won that critical Yankees series while Boston faltered against Baltimore.  Now they have gone and taken the first interleague game of the year, beating the Cardinals behind Andy Sonnanstine (8 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 4 K; 2-3, R).  And so the trend continues.

The Rays finish the Cardinals series Sunday, then go out to Oakland to face what's left of the A's once the Braves are finished with them.  Actually, the A's have had one of the few surprisingly good starts this season.  Let's just see that it takes a brief detour.  So until next time, go first place Rays.

The Rays have managed to capture yet another exciting sweep at Tropicana Field, wrapping it up with an 8-5 victory in today's game, in which Rays hitters joined many others by using pink bats for breast cancer awareness.  Andy Sonnanstine had a merely average pitching performance, but the offense jumped from mediocrity to excellence, scoring three times in the first inning and later taking the lead for good on Carl Crawford's three run home run to right field.  This blast topped off a two stolen base performance, and Cliff Floyd returned with two singles and two RBI in his first Rays home game.  Troy Percival shut down his former team twice, once dodging a scare from an error caused by Crawford colliding with Jason Bartlett, to earn a pair of saves over the weekend.  By consecutive 2-0 scores behind Shields and Kazmir, then 8-5 today, the Rays picked up their third sweep of the season.  And what a time to hit this streak--the Yankees come to Tampa Bay tomorrow to begin a four game series that will test the Rays' durability and fighting spirit.  If they sweep that series on top of everything else, they will unquestionably be the top story in the baseball world.  Let's see to it that it happens and that the Yankees and all their bandwagon fans get run out of here like Joe Torre got run out of New York.

I would also suggest, on top of going to Rays games to drown out visiting fans in support of our team, voting for the 79th All Star Game, which takes place on July 15th.  I've been voting, and I encourage every fan to vote all 25 alloted times on MLB.com and at stadiums whenever possible.  I would especially like it if people voted for Rays players across the board in the American League.  (You can write in Evan Longoria and/or Eric Hinske, like I have.)  And while you're at it, pick some Braves in the National League, they deserve it too.  There are unheralded Rays (and Braves) who need support for a trip to New York to participate in this historic event.  We have the power to let them go, so we should use it.  Until next time, go All Star Rays.

Perhaps one of the single greatest games in Rays history went down last night at Tropicana Field.  James Shields was one hit away from absolute perfection against the Angels, with eight strikeouts and no walks allowed on just 92 pitches.  Only one hit by Brandon Wood kept this game out of the MLB record books, though were it not for Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton, Gary Matthews, Jr. and Mike Napoli probably would have had hits as well.  Their phenomenal early inning diving catches kept the game scoreless--all the way into the ninth inning.  Just when it looked like this could turn into a repeat of the Shields-Erik Bedard duel that Tampa Bay lost in 2007, the Rays got a runner on base with one out on an Upton hit, and in stepped rookie Evan Longoria.  Coming into this game having spiraled down to a .225 batting average, he, like Shields, had something to prove to the team and the fanbase.  And he most certainly did it, answering the world with a walk-off home run off Justin Speier to give the Rays a 2-0 victory.  Jon Garland pitched well, but Shields was once again in domination mode and finally did get the support he needed to win.  More of this and maybe we'll see first place again, especially after the Red Sox lost in walk-off fashion to the Minnesota Twins to push the Rays one game up.  And the Yankees lost to the Tigers to top that off.

Tonight, Scott Kazmir looks to find a win for the first time this season against the Angels' Joe Saunders.  If he can bump it all the way up to 6-7 very good innings and he gets what he needs to win, I'll call it substantial progress.  We need more fans--Rays fans--at these games to support Kazmir and friends.  So go out to Tropicana Field at every possible opportunity and show the Rays and the rest of the league that there is a true Rays fanbase out there that only grows larger by the day.  If you can afford to travel, then cheer on the Rays at road games.  Galvanize a nationwide fanbase, get Rays fans to infiltrate everyone else's stadiums.  We certainly should after the last ten years of it happening to us.  So after that rant, until next time, go Scott Kazmir and the Rays.

I guess the answer to the above question, at least at this point in the season, is a surprisingly resounding "yes."  The Rays, coming off an embarrassing sweep by the Red Sox at Fenway Park that not even James Shields and the returning Scott Kazmir could prevent, have now won two out of three games at Toronto's Rogers Centre.  Last night's win was one they deserved, then didn't deserve, then pulled out rather easily.

Edwin Jackson pitched eight shutout innings in the rubber match and, thanks to home runs from Gabe Gross and Carlos Pena, went into the ninth inning with a 3-0 lead.  Now here's Troy Percival with the save.  But wait--Vernon Wells hit a two-run home run before Aaron Hill drove in Lyle Overbay with the tying run.  More like a blown save.  Not to mention totally cheating Edwin Jackson out of an easy win.  So much for Percival's 0.00 ERA.  So the game moves on past a 10th inning Blue Jays threat against Dan Wheeler, and all the way into the 13th inning.  In comes Toronto's own 0.00 ERA reliever, and it's quite the surprise--former Tampa Bay pitcher Shawn Camp, whose ERA was about two gallons of gas last year when he played here.  I once again figured out why the Rays let him go.  After surrendering a sacrifice fly to Carl Crawford that scored Jason Bartlett, Dioner Navarro came up with two outs and the bases loaded following an Evan Longoria fly out.  On 3-2 against Camp, Navarro pulled a sinkerball that didn't really drop deep into right center field for a surprising grand slam, the second of his career, to nail the coffin on an unconventional 8-3 victory.  They win yet another series to go home on a high note and stay above .500 at second place in the division.

Tonight, the Rays face the Angels in the first of a three-game series.  James Shields pitches against Jon Garland as Shields looks to regain the dominance he saw against the Red Sox two weekends ago in his last home start.  As long as Kazmir can go longer than four innings this weekend, it's all good for him.  I would like to briefly point out that the Atlanta Braves, who I don't see too much anymore thanks to lack of TV coverage, have now won six games in a row and are finally turning around their early underachievement.  Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres of all teams lead the league at 23 losses.  The Rays need to make sure they don't fall into that trap for yet another season, and so far they haven't.  Let's keep it that way by showing the West Coast that the Rays are a legitimate force to be taken at the value of the hype.  So until next time, go Rays.

The Rays are back in a first place tie with the Boston Red Sox after exacting some just vengeance on the Orioles.  After Baltimore took the opener 8-1 (I blame jetlag and Aubrey Huff), the undying Tampa Bay team used Andy Sonnanstine and Matt Garza, whose very jobs are at stake, to send the Orioles tumbling back towards their proper place in the standings.  The game today was lowlighted by B.J. Upton's recurring shoulder injury and an Adam Jones home run off Garza, but was made up for in spades and highlighted by Carl Crawford and a winning attitude.  Well, that, Jonny Gomes blasting a home run off of Ray hater Brian Burres (who has never beaten us), and Upton only being sidelined for a few days.  Good series minus the first game, and we have now taken three straight series and won eight out of nine games.  Here we come, baseball world.

The next step in proving the Rays' worth may be more important than every other test combined.  The Rays now go to Fenway Park for a weekend series with the Red Sox in a battle for supremacy.  On Sunday, we'll have the grand return of one of our Generals, Scott Kazmir, to help strengthen the lines of defense and win this war.  The way they handled the defending champions last weekend, they really could do it all again.  I will throw parties if we keep seeing wins like this.  This team is only getting better with the maturation of Evan Longoria, the surprise play of Eric Hinske, and the impending returns of Kazmir and Cliff Floyd.

So, in short, a great job by the Rays over the last week and a half, and at least a little more of this (or beyond that, we can only hope) will push us over the top and through the glass ceiling.  The optimism is paying dividends.  So until next time, go first place Rays.