Thank god someone manned up tonight. The Rays, DESPERATELY needing a jolt in the backside got one from the fiery Matt Garza tonight. Garza who loves pitching against the Red Sox.; had a perfect game going into the 7th. If it wasn’t for a dinky shot up the middle that was slow enough to land in no where land between shortstop and the pitchers mound, Garza might have gone for perfection. Oh well, maybe another time and another place. Mr. MVP Garza was just plain dominant, just toying with hitters.
Every start like this just makes the Delmon Young trade just look more and more ridiculous. The Rays traded Delmon Young who can still can turn out to be a star; along with Brendan Harris (solid utility infielder) and Jason Pridie who is a mid to low level prospect who isn’t exactly tuning heads in the minors.
In return, the Rays got a dominant starter (hopefully consistently dominant!); their team MVP from 2008 in Jason Bartlett and the big wild card in this deal is Eduardo Morlan. Morlan was injured most of last year. However, Morlan has such amazing closer material that if he regains his form, this deal will be almost completely one sided. We all know how the Rays desperately need someone to be the backstop in the pen. If the Rays only had someone like a Rivera or Papelbon, this team would be fierce. Morlan right now is in Montgomery (AA), and if he keeps it up, he’ll be in Durham soon enough.
So overall… great start to the series.. but the Rays really need to win this one 3 out of 4 to make a dent in their AL east deficit. The rest of the series favors the Rays in the starting pitching department. Masterson, Wakefield and Penny don’t really put to much fear into my body as opposed to someone like Jon Lester who always plays the Rays hard. Rays counter with Sonnanstine (needs to rebound this year QUICKLY), Shields and Neiman who has really impressed a lot of people and seems to just get better and better with each start.
Every start like this just makes the Delmon Young trade just look more and more ridiculous. The Rays traded Delmon Young who can still can turn out to be a star; along with Brendan Harris (solid utility infielder) and Jason Pridie who is a mid to low level prospect who isn’t exactly tuning heads in the minors.
In return, the Rays got a dominant starter (hopefully consistently dominant!); their team MVP from 2008 in Jason Bartlett and the big wild card in this deal is Eduardo Morlan. Morlan was injured most of last year. However, Morlan has such amazing closer material that if he regains his form, this deal will be almost completely one sided. We all know how the Rays desperately need someone to be the backstop in the pen. If the Rays only had someone like a Rivera or Papelbon, this team would be fierce. Morlan right now is in Montgomery (AA), and if he keeps it up, he’ll be in Durham soon enough.
So overall… great start to the series.. but the Rays really need to win this one 3 out of 4 to make a dent in their AL east deficit. The rest of the series favors the Rays in the starting pitching department. Masterson, Wakefield and Penny don’t really put to much fear into my body as opposed to someone like Jon Lester who always plays the Rays hard. Rays counter with Sonnanstine (needs to rebound this year QUICKLY), Shields and Neiman who has really impressed a lot of people and seems to just get better and better with each start.