The Conservative Cave
The Bar => Sports => Topic started by: franksolich on June 05, 2009, 07:41:12 AM
-
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/article1007453.ece
The descent before the ascent:
Tampa Bay Rays sweep Kansas City Royals 3-2
ST. PETERSBURG — Throughout B.J. Upton's early season struggles in the leadoff spot, manager Joe Maddon never wavered in his support, saying he believed in him, and that the centerfielder would "catch fire."
Maddon may have caught criticism for that, but Upton said the vote of confidence helped him relax.
And now, Upton is beginning to reward his manager's faith.
Upton delivered in the big moment Thursday, hitting a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth to lift the Rays to a 3-2 sweep-clinching victory over the Royals in front of 16,103 at Tropicana Field.
The homer extended Upton's season-high hitting streak to eight games, and he now has back-to-back multi-RBI games after having zero in the first 46.
"I think he's really starting to turn it around," starting pitcher James Shields said. "He's the type of guy that thrives in a situation like that. You can tell in last year's playoffs, no matter how bad he's doing all season long, he thrives in that moment."
Said Maddon: "He can get very hot, when he gets hot."
And so can the Rays (28-28), who bounced back from a season-high five-game losing streak to win five of six on their homeÂstand, including their first sweep of the year, as they head to New York to face the first-place Yankees (32-22), whom they trail by five games in the AL East.....
-
Upton has SUCKED(can I say that?) all season. Sorry he had to find it against your beloved Royals.
-
Upton has SUCKED(can I say that?) all season. Sorry he had to find it against your beloved Royals.
It's the nature of the sport.
I'm copacetic about it, because my confidence in the Kansas City Royals remains undiminished.
-
Greinke didn't do so well last night. Means that he's human.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090605&content_id=5158894&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc
He'll recover. 'Course, he's not Johan Santana. :tongue:
But, Greinke got about as much support from his team as Santana did in Johan's last start . . . on a thrice-larger scale all around (Santana lost 3-1, Greinke lost 9-3).
-
With the way the Rays played last year, it gives hope to all the "small" teams.
-
Greinke didn't do so well last night. Means that he's human.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090605&content_id=5158894&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc
He'll recover. 'Course, he's not Johan Santana. :tongue:
But, Greinke got about as much support from his team as Santana did in Johan's last start . . . on a thrice-larger scale all around (Santana lost 3-1, Greinke lost 9-3).
For some reason, Greinke has struggled against the Blue Jays this year. Was kind of surprised that they got him last night, simply because the Jays have been having their own little slump lately too.
-
I am not going to say anything bad about the Royals because the Rangers are actually doing pretty well, for the first time in recorded history... they unearthed a cave and the cave drawings at first seemed indecent but the translation was "Rangers suck"