Rays Round-up: Zorilla vs Gabes

Judging Rays' fandom reaction to last night's game, one of the biggest concerns is why Friday night's hero Zorilla didn't get the start.  There's really not much positive to take away this game. At least Pena, Bartlett, and Longo are still hitting. Tonight, Matt Garza will get the chance to give the Rays a split against the White Sox.  This is an important game. If the Rays are going to be contenders, they're going to need their big 3 to get at least 2 wins each time through the rotation. So far, so good. But, tonight Garza has to pick up Kazmir.

Here's today's Rays Round-up. As always, my comments are in italics.

- For those of you concerned about Gabe Kaplar's start of Zorilla, TBO got some answers from Maddon. Basically, he's trying to get Kaplar going and he can't do that from the bench. Kaplar and Pat the Bat were both brought in to help the Rays against lefties. So far, it's not working out so great. The Rays still look like they did last year against the Rays. I'm not too concerned, these guys will come along. For those of you who hate the Gabe, I wrote a little trivia contest for you to play. It's called Gabe or Gabe.

- Busy day in Chicago sports, so not much coverage from Chicago rags.  In case you're wondering, the Chicago Bulls beat the Celtics in their NBA Playoff Game, the Blackhawks won their playoff game and both the Cubs and White Sox won.  As for the Rays/White Sox game, they provided your basic Chicago-skewed look at the game.  It's good to see Chicago sports fan is on cloud 9 this morning.  Hopefully, they don't forget how both the Sox and the Cubs made early exits from the playoffs last night.

- The Southside Bronx blog breaks down Ozzie Guillen's decision to start Brent Lillbridge as a right handed bat against lefty Scott Kazmir.  He drew 3 walks and scored 2 runs. This guy has .067 batting average and he was walked 3 times. Unacceptable. To quote the Rays radio team, "they were pitching him like he was the second coming of Ricky Henderson."

- Marc Topkin of the Times has a little blurb on the added shifts this year.  I still say Maddon's getting a little too cute with these shifts. Sometimes you have to play to prevent doubles instead of trying to turn a single into an out.