Roger Mooney
Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.
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Maddon not pleased with winning effort
Posted Jun 25, 2008 by Marc Lancaster
Updated Jun 24, 2008 at 11:20 PM
MIAMI—Based on Joe Maddon’s mood after the game, you might have assumed the Rays lost tonight’s hideous affair at Dolphin Stadium.
While acknowledging that even the ugly ones count, Maddon described the game as “mentally exhausting to the point that it becomes physically exhausting” and went on from there.
“We did not play well at all tonight,” he said. “We made way too many mistakes. If we’re going to get to the promised land, we cannot make those kind of mistakes. We cannot. We have to be more aware in situations and we have to react to situations better, pure and simple. We’re not going to beat the Red Sox and the Yankees, they’re coming on, etc. – all these really good teams – if we continue to make the same kind of mistakes. They’ve got to go away.”
He was not, by the way, upset about Longoria’s case of the pop-up yips in the fourth inning—“I’m not even concerned about that”—but was not pleased about the run that gave the Marlins a lead in the seventh. That’d be the one that Carl Crawford muffed and B.J. Upton mishandled twice.
“We can’t permit Hermida to score from first base on a single to left field, basically,” said Maddon. “We just can’t.”
He also seemed sort of frustratingly bemused about what it took for the Rays to get back on top in the eighth—the two bases-loaded walks following the two groundouts.
“We had 3-1 counts three hitters in a row with the bases loaded and we had to rely on a full-count walk to get that first run in,” said Maddon. “Probably an unprecedented situation. I would bet if you went back in the annals of baseball lore, you would never find that situation had occurred in the past.”
As for Troy Percival’s situation, the closer told his skipper he was fine during the ninth inning and Maddon left him in even though he was “very uncomfortable” with Percival’s highly uncharacteristic inability to throw strikes. Was not able to check in with Percival because I had to race back upstairs to finish up my game story for the Trib’s new earlier deadlines. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow…
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Reader Comments
Por (Bryce) on June 25, 2008 (Suggest removal)
I’m glad Maddon’s not pleased, tonights effort was pathetic. Will this team ever hit another sac fly? When was the last time Upton had an RBI or a big hit?
Suggest removalUpton is to busy looking cool and glaring at umps, I would rather have his brother Justin. Maybe it’s time for another lecture from hitting coach Steve Henderson, or maybe a new hitting coach. From the high of the Cubs sweep
to this low. The Rays better start hitting and scoring more runs, oh wait,
here comes Zobrist, forget more hits.
Too bad they are playing in the NL park, I would have Sonnestine DH for Zobrist and let the starting pitcher hit.
Por (Johnson) on June 25, 2008 (Suggest removal)
Yeah Bryce, that’s a smart comment to make when you have a guy like B.J. consistently hitting around .300, he also has 22 stolen bases vs. Justin’s 1. Only catagory little bro is beating big bro in is 4 more home runs. Wow, compared to B.J.‘s 39 RBI’s, Justin has 28. Baseball is all on paper. Read the stats before opening your mouth.
Suggest removalPor (Paul Varney) on June 25, 2008 (Suggest removal)
To be kind Percival’s best days are long past. When was the last time:
Suggest removalPercival didn’t give up a run in the 9th; and Bartlett got a hit with the base loaded, and a Ray’s outfielder ran back to the fence to catch a deep fly ball?
They ray’s need a new thrid base coach and an outfileder coach.
Por (Bryce) on June 25, 2008 (Suggest removal)
Hey Mr. Johnson, sounds as if you have a man-crush on Upton. Maybe you should work on your comprehension skills. I was
Suggest removalreferring to Upton’s recent slump and his attitude compared to his brother.
But since you brought up stats, Upton is hitting .283, that is not hovering .300, he has struck out 63 times in 265 bats, not a very good ratio with only 5 hr’s. Yes he does have 22 sb’s, but he has been caught 9 times, once again not a very good ratio, plus all the baserunning blunders he has made. I hope B.J. gets out of his funk because the Rays need him to play bettter. Games are not played on paper, but maybe if you understood that you would understand the game better and a little criticism of your favorite player.