Three games into the young 2022 season the Rays of Tampa Bay have a couple TIGHT victories thanks to a couple clutch hits and the late inning heroics of draft pick Joba Chamberlain. Things did not get off to a good start as 1st round pick Fausto Carmona got the Rays in an early hole against Utley’s Twins thanks to some serious control issues early in the game. Fausto walked the 1st two batters in the 2nd and then as Twin Kubel sacrificed we got the infamous “1st baseman comes over to make the tag and…NO he missed the tag!! Everyone is safe!” Horrific. So bases loaded no out and Fausto uncorks a wild pitch to give the Twins a freebie. An RBI ground-out by Bartlett made it 2-0 and a 2-out single by Castillo made it 3-0. Things stayed that way until the 6th when Hairy-hater Cuddyer showed he hates the Rays too with a solo blast. It should be noted that Cuddyer has near Jeter-esque “average” power. I hate that guy. Meanwhile, Twin starter Chris Young was making things just BLEAK for Tampa as he allowed only 2 hits through the 1st 5 innings. Finally, however, Young’s control began to waver in the 7th. Tampa shortstop Velandia reached on an infield single then advanced to 2nd on a Young WP. With 1 out, Young then plunked Wigginton and pinch-hitter Harris came up with a HUGE double that scored Velandia and left 2 in scoring position. Both those 2 came in on a Crawford single but it was still 4-3 Minnesota and their pen is SICK, so the Hairys still had serious work. A parade of relievers kept the Twins off the board and then Carlos Pena gave Tampa hope with a lead-off double in the 8th off Neshek and advanced to 3rd on a sac fly. Cassanova was walked intentionally to bring up the pitcher’s spot with 2 gone and Ockey was wincing hard as the best option on his bench was .220 hitting Dioner Navarro to face new pitcher Joe Nathan. Apparantly, however, that .220 avg was enough to put a scare in Nathan as he threw one to the screen and Pena rumbled home to tie us up.
Enter the Joba. Ockey thought long and hard about this draft pick since Chamberlain’s real-life experience was minimal. His numbers were too tantalizing, though and at least so far those numbers are paying off. Joba entered and pitched the 8th and 9th allowing no hits and 3 K’s. We go to extras and again it’s Carlos Pena with an inning opening double. Ockey brings in burner Baldelli to run and he trots home on a HUGE double by Delmon Young. Chamberlain’s spot in the order comes up, but Ockey doesn’t even think about pulling him. It works out as Joba faces Prince, Morneau and Torii in the bottom of the 10th and goes K, fly-out, K for the win.
After getting sawed in half by Johann in Game 2 vs Minnesota, the Rays faced off against division foe Cincinnati and newly acquired pitcher Cole Hamels. Ockey sent Kazmir to the hill and this was an all-out battle of the lefties. I honestly thought I’d tee off on Hamels as my team has power vs lefties, we were in Cincy’s bandbox of a park with a 20mph wind blowing OUT and Hamels gives up 1.2 HR/9. Not so. At all. The Reds strike early on doubles by Keppinger and Hopper to go up 1-0. Carl Crawford does go yard in the 3rd to tie it, though. From then on, Hamels and Kazmir are straight mowing people down. Kazmir tires after throwing 111 pitches through 6 innings allowing only one run and K’ing 9. Hamels, meanwhile, is even more impressive as he goes 7 CRAZY good innings, allowing 3 hits and a run while K’ing 11, including 7 of the last 9 batters he faced. Cripes! That means in the last 2 games the Rays have struck out 23 times against the opposing starter. YIKES. Mercifully, Hamels was finally pulled for a pinch hitter as the Reds threatened hard in the 7th. Griffey opened with an infield single off Kazmir who was then pulled for reliever Dohmann. Who proceeded to give up another single to pinch-hitting Granderson. That was it for him. Switzer comes in and K’s pinch-hitter Votto, but then uncorks a wild-pitch to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Ockey walked Keppinger to load the bases and set up the force at any base and brought in Joba to save him in this most dire of situations. 2 pitches later the threat is neutralized as Joba induces the 4-6-3 double play. So huge and so clutch. Still tied in the 9th and Carlos Pena continues his late-inning heroics with a lead-off walk. He’s pulled for pinch-runner Baldelli who steals 2nd with one out then scores on a huge double by Brendan Harris. After striking out 2 of 3 in the 8th, Joba strikes out 2 more in the 9th, but gives up a double to Junior and then came a 34 minute rain delay. Decision time for Ockey as pinch-hitter Josh Hamilton awaits. Ockey is feeling Joba’s done all he can so brings in closer Reyes who induces a grounder for the ballgame and a 2-1 win.
So Joba moves to 2-0 on the year giving up no runs, 1 hit and no walks in 5.1 innings while striking out 8. That is sick, gentlemen. I love it. Almost as much as the pbp when Brandon Phillips came up having struck out his 1st three at bats - “He’s wishing he would have stayed in bed this morning” (he then proceeded to K for a 4th time and the illustrious Golden Sombrero. Hilarious)
