Perhaps they should build a moat around home plate.
Perhaps they should keep guard dogs around third.
Perhaps they should build speed bumps around second.
Whatever it takes, the Tampa Bay Rays need to slow down the traffic on the bases if they're going be a team that matters.
The Rays were drubbed by the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night, 9-2. In the 11 games the Rays have played this season, they've given up six runs or more in seven of them.
Perhaps the Rays had a slim chance when they had to scratch starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen. Rasmussen's wife is late in her pregnancy.
That left Mason Englert as the starter, and he gave up seven hits and four runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings. Relievers Cole Susler (one run in 2 13 innings) and Yoendrys Gomez (four runs in three innings) added to the implosion.
Cubs starter Javier Asasad, a fill-in starter himself, allowed just one hit and no runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Chandler Simpson got the first hit, a borderline call on a grounder the Cubs' fumbled. Simpson and Jonathan Aranda each had two of the Rays' six hits.
The Rays and Cubs play again tonight at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Joe Boyle will start for the Rays against Colin Rea.
Suddenly, the road looks dark and dangerous. No longer does the Tampa Bay Lightning look electric with a map in their hands.
The Bolts, one of the NHL's best teams away from home this year, were battered once again Tuesday night. A five-goal third period lifted the Ottawa Senators to a 6-2 victory.
The Bolts, who have won 23 times on the road this year, trailed by just one goal at 3-2 after Corey Perry scored 10:35 to play. But the Senators scored twice on the power play and twice on empty netters.
Also scoring for the Bolts was Nick Paul, his seventh of the year.
The Bolts play Thursday night in Montreal at 7 p.m. at the Bell Centre.
After 561 days away, the Tampa Bay Rays returned to Tropicana Field Monday afternoon. In a lot of ways, it was worth the wait.
The Rays beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4. It was their third straight victory. After a horrible start, the Rays' pitching has given up just 10 hits in the three games.
The biggest hit for the Rays was a two-run homer by Jonathan Aranda in the seventh inning to pad a 4-3 lead to 6-3.
Cedric Mullins also had a two-run homer in the second and Junior Caminero hit a solo shot in the third. Mullins, who entered the day hitting just .114, hit his first home run as a Ray.
In 10 games, the Rays have scored 51 runs on 95 hits.
The Rays started Shane McClanahan, but again, he lacked stamina. He gave up just one hit, and two earned runs, in his four innings of work.
The bullpen went five innings and allowed two earned runs. Bryan Baker earned his first save.
Yandy Diaz had two hits to improve his average to .415. Chandler Simpson also had two hits (he's at .395).
The Rays play Chicago again today at 6:40 p.m. at the Trop. Drew Rasmussen will start for Tampa Bay against Javier Assad.
These days, the Tampa Bay Lightning is having a little trouble keeping up with the Buffalo Sabres.
For the third straight meeting, the Sabres got the best of the Lightning 4-2 at the KeyBank Center. Buffalo, which tied the Lightning atop the NHL Atlantic Division, has totaled 18 goals in the three games.
The Lightning tied the game at 2-2 3:56 into the second period, but didn't score again. They had five power play opportunities but scored on just one of them.
Buffalo led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2.
Nikita Kucherov sfcored his 43rd goal and Jake Guentzel his 37th.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 28 goals.
The Bolts play at Ottawa tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre at 7 p.m.
Monday, 4 a.m. Turns out, it isn’t so hard to mount a winning streak. Even for the Tampa Bay Rays. All it takes is great starting pitching, strong relief pitching and timely hitting from an unlikely source. Just like that, and the Rays have won two in a row. The Rays, 4-5 on the season, […]
Sunday, 5 a.m. For the Tampa Bay Rays, the first seven days of the basball season was an uphill walk across broken glass. It was hard to look at, hard to find clues that anything will be different. Then came Saturday, and a welcome easy victory. The Rays, 3-5, had a day when everything worked […]
Sunday, 4 a.m. Even indoors, the Boston Bruins can’t keep the Lightning out of the passing lane. The Lightning capped off a successful home stand (5-1-1) with a 3-1 win over Boston at Benchmark International Arena. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as the Bolts 6-5 win over Boston in the outdoor game at Raymond James […]
Saturday, 4 a.m. It was cold. It was wet. Most of all, it was ugly. The Tampa Bay Rays spent another evening Friday embracing bad baseball. They were clobbered 10-4 by the Minnesota Twinw — who haven’t been very good, either. Along the way, they: — Blew a 3-0 lead. — The bullpen was rotten […]
Friday, 4 a.m. There are brighter stars in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s constellation. He lacks the vision of Nikita Kucherov. He lacks the reach of Andre Vasilevskiy. He isn’t as potent as Brandon Hagel or Jake Guentzel. All Anthony Cirelli does is provide the heart for his team. Cirelli registered the second hat trick of […]
Thursday, 4 a.m. No, that isn’t the Tampa Bay Rays’ bullpen. It’s the Towering Inferno. Once more, the relievers of the Rays were tossing batting practice Wednesday afternoon at American Family Life Field in an 8-2 loss to Milwaukee. Consider. In six games, Rays’ starters have given up 13 runs, an acceptable total. But the […]
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About Gary Shelton
• No one covers Tampa Bay like Gary Shelton.
• No one has seen as many moments, as many athletes, as many coaches as he has over the last quarter of a century.
• No one has won more awards, including two national Associated Press Sports Editors Best Columnist awards and eight top 10 finishes. He also just received his sixth Sportswriter of the Year award for Florida by the NSSA.
• No one has seen more big events, including 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics and 11 Final Fours. Gary still goes into the locker rooms to obtain his stories.
• No one has made you angrier, or laugh louder, or think harder about what he has written.
Now, he begins a website designed to keep him in touch with the readers who have grown up on his words.
