Move along, not much to see here

The Rays rewarded my late night with another ho-hum performance losing to the Seattle Mariners 4-2.  This game featured much of what we've already seen this season.  We saw the Rays make a lefty look like the 2nd coming of Steve Carlton (see my new side bar). We saw the Rays unable to get guys in with runners in scoring position. We saw plenty of strike outs. We saw both Gabes.  We saw a shallow center field.  I could probably go on forever with this list.

Here's what I noticed tonight:

• I'm going to start calling the Rays problems with lefties... the Steve Carlton Syndrome. It struck again tonight in the form of Jarrod Washburn. The guy absolutely owns the Rays. He got into a little trouble in the 1st inning, but after that was pretty much spot on. Pitched his way out of a jam in the 4th.  Then his team put some runs on the board to reward him. Struck out 9... including Carlos Pena 3 times. He made CC/Pena/Aki look horrible. The Rays are going to continue to see a steady diet of lefties until they prove they can hit them.

• Andy Sonnanstine looked good for the most part. He struck out seven and kept the game close. He had a rough 4th inning which pretty much accounted for all but 1 of the Seattle runs.  

• Once again, the Rays let role players get the best of them.  Seattle's 4th inning rally was all about the bottom of the Mariner's order.  I'm not sure what was going on when Rob Johnson was up to bat, but it looked like Kaplar was playing the "girl at the plate in Little League" center field.  I'll have to hear the post game, but it sure looked like some more of that Maddon defensive "aggressiveness."  Then Yuniesky Betancourt does the same thing 2 batters later and that was followed by a Gabe Kaplar catch in center that could've very easily been another over-the-center fielder's head shot.  

• It looked like the Seattle Mariners were more pumped up to play the Rays than the Rays were pumped up to play the Mariners.  The last decent emotion I've seen out of this team was the first game of the Yankees series. Since then, nothing.  I saw plenty of emotion from Washburn and the rest of the Mariners.

• Props to Pat the Bat and Gabe Kaplar. Both did their part against Washburn. Pat the Bat had an RBI and a couple of hits.  Gabe Kaplar made that nice play in center field and was 1 for 2 with a walk.