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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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Rays 9, Jays 1: Look at that O

Posted Aug 4, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 3, 2011 at 11:52 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG Maybe Joe Maddon should talk about the Rays inability to score at the Trop more often before home games.

That was the topic Wednesday afternoon before the Rays-Blue Jays game.

The Rays have scored a major league-high 294 runs on the road this season and only 161 at home, which is 29th out of 30 teams.

That’s 5.06 runs per game on the road, and 3.22 runs per game at home.

That’s, well, horrible.

“How does that happen.? Often times you think it’s the opposite because you’re cheating at home. Light bulbs flashing in center field tipping off fastballs or breaking balls, but we’re just proving to everyone we’re not cheating,” Maddon said.

So, with that, the Rays went out and rolled over the Jays 9-1.

They hit three home runs.

They had three straight runners reach base in the second inning with bunts.

The offered winning pitcher James Shields something he rarely receives – run support.

Here are some notes from the un-Ray-like victory:

—The nine runs tied a season-high, also July 15 vs. the Red Sox, while the eight runs was the largest margin of victory this season for a home game.

—Those three home runs – Ben Zobrist, Casey Kotchman and Robinson Chirinos – tied a season-high for homers in one game.

—Sean Rodriguez, the first of the three bunters, was charged with a sacrifice bunt. It was the 10th time the Rays bunted with runners on first and third and less than two outs this season and the ninth time it produced a run. The only time it didn’t work was when Reid Brignac popped up.

—The nine runs were the most run support Shields has received this season. The previous high was five, which he’s received on two occasions.

Shields entered the game received just 2.75 runs per nine innings, which is the third-lowest support in the majors.

Shields joins David Price as the only Rays pitchers to have 10 wins and a sub-3.00 ERA on this date. Price was 14-5 with a 2.90 ERA in 2010.

Shields has allowed seven earned runs in 83 1/3 innings (0.76 ERA) in his 10 wins. He has pitched at least seven innings in 18 starts, and has 14 starts with at least seven innings pitched and less than two earned runs allowed.

—Zobrist has six home runs in his last 21 games. He has hit safely in 19 of his last 23 games, batting .379 over that stretch.

—Kotchman has hit four of his five home runs at home.

—Chirinos has career highs in RBIS (4), times on base (4). He hit his first career home run and drove in his first career runs.

—Evan Longoria is batting .091 (3-for-33) in his last 10 games. He’s hitting .145 (11-for-76) in his last 21 home games.

—Wednesday’s game was the first of 10 against the Jays that was not decided by two runs or less.

—The crowd of 11,803 pushed the Rays past the million mark for the season. They are the last AL team to do that.