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The Colorado Rockies have been sizzling since Jim Tracy became manager and  with their 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, they are now 15-5 under Tracy at helm and have won 13 of their last 14 and are now .500 with a record of 33-33. Though, they are still in 3rd place in the NL West, you can’t count the Rockies out as contenders. 

Ubaldo Jimenez was dominant in his start as he went 6.2 IP and gave up just 6 hits and allowed just 1 earned run and had 7 strikeouts.  With the win, Jimenez is now 6-6 and he has lowered his E.R.A to 3.73.  Jimenez also won his 3rd straight start.

“Ubaldo is a guy who is beginning to find his niche,” Tracy said. “I still believe there’s still another step on the ladder that he aspires to take and that is to become a bona fide ace-stopper type starting pitcher in the Rockies rotation.”

Clint Barmes led the Rockies offense as he went 2 for 4 with a run scored, a walk and a go-ahead two-run homer in the 3rd that set the tone for the Rockies as they cruised to a 4-3 victory. Todd Helton also went 1 for 3 with a HR and an RBI, his 8th homer of the season. Helton is now hitting .307 on the season. 

Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett went 2 for 4 with a run scored to raise his average to .376 on the season and all-star thirdbaseman Evan Longoria went 1 for 4 and his average is at .307 on the season. 

  Well there is a new Big Three in the East and I am not talking about the Big Three of the Boston Celtics. I am talking about Baseball’s Beasts of the East in the AL East Division. I am talking about those upstart and flashy Rays, those gritty and champion Red Sox and the high-profiled and over-priced Yankees. All three are up and down the roster, the best teams in the Major Leagues.  They are the Beasts of the East, but who is the one Beast of the East?  I am going to breakdown each team by its Lineup and Rotation and Key Bullpen Arms. First up are the Tampa Bay Rays!

Tampa Bay Rays

Lineup:

1 Akinori Iwamura 2B

2 B.J. Upton CF

3 Carl Crawford LF

4 Evan Longoria 3B

5 Carlos Pena 1B

6 Pat Burrell DH

7 Matt Joyce RF

8 Dionner Navarro

9 Jason Bartlett SS

Rotation:

SP1 James Shields RHP

SP2 Scott Kazmir LHP

SP3 Matt Garza RHP

SP4 David Price LHP

SP5 Andy Sonnanstine

SU Grant Balfour

CL Dan Wheeler/Troy Percival

Boston Red Sox

Lineup:

1 Dustin Pedroia 2B

2 Rocco Baldelli or Jacobe Ellsbury CF

3 Kevin Youkliis 1B

4 David Ortiz DH

5 Mike Lowell 3B

6 J.D. Drew RF

7 Jason Bay LF

8 Jed Lowrie SS

9 Josh Bard C

Rotation:

SP1 Josh Beckett RHP

SP2 Jon Lester LHP

SP3 Daisuke Matsuzaka RHP

SP4 John Smoltz RHP

SP5 Brad Penny RHP

SU Hideki Okajima/ Justin Masterson

CL Jonathan Papelbon

New York Yankees

Lineup:

1 Johnny Damon LF

2 Derek Jeter SS

3 Mark Teixeira 1B

4 Alex Rodriguez 3B

5 Xavier Nady RF

6 Hideki Matsui DH

7 Jorge Posada C

8 Robinson Cano 2B

9 Brett Gardner/ Nick Swisher CF

Rotation:

SP1 C.C. Sabathia LHP

SP2 A.J. Burnett RHP

SP3 Chin-Mien Wang RHP

SP4 Joba Chamberlain RHP

SP4 Phil Hughes RHP

SU Damaso Marte LHP

CL Mariano Rivera RHP

Carlos Pena has hit .270 with 3 HR and 10 RBI’s in the postseason.

      The Tampa Bay Rays incredible journey and amazing storybook has almost come to an end in the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Rays are facing elimination as they trail the Phils 3-1.  The Phillies have outscored the Rays 20-12 in the series.  The Rays offensive woes are the main reason the Rays are down in this series.  As their team batting average is .187 so far in this series. And their go to guys and heart of the order: Upton, Pena, and Longoria haven’t done much in this series, no home runs or extra base hits in this series so far.  To be exact, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria are 0-fer the Series.  Pena is 0 for 13 with 6 strikeouts and 1 RBI and Longoria is 0 for 16 with 9 strikeouts and only 1 RBI.  That is why the Rays offense is struggling.  The Rays offense goes when Longoria and Upton are right and driving in runs and when Pena is hitting the long ball. The only guy doing much in this series is Carl Crawford, who has two home runs in this World Series and is hitting .267.   And their road to stay alive has to go through Phillies ace Cole Hamels in Game 5, who is 4-0 in the postseason and has a 1 plus E.R.A.  The Rays need Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena to find their stroke and get this offense going.  And their starter Scott Kazmir needs to keep them in the game and go deep as he can. If the Rays can keep it close and knock out Hamels early as they can, then the Rays can take this series back to Tampa Bay and make this World Series more interesting.

Matt Garza went 2-0 with a 1.38 E.R.A in the ALCS. 

The Tampa Bay Rays in front of 40,000 plus fans beat the Red Sox 3-1 and paved their way to the franchise’s first World Series Appearance.  Now this franchise is 4 wins away from their first World Series. There were so many players who could have got MVP this series, from Evan Longoria with his clutch RBI and longballs throughout the series,  to B.J. Upton to Carl Crawford, to David Price, and to even Willy Aybar.  But one guy stoodout in this series and pitched the biggest game of his career.  That guy was Matt Garza who went seven plus dominating innings of one-run ball and added nine strikeouts and only gave up two hits.  Garza was fantastic tonight and left everything out there like he was pitching his last start of the season.  For the series, Garza went 2-0 with a 1.38 E.R.A and gave up only 2 earned runs in his two starts.  He garnered the ALCS MVP award and sent the crowd at Tropicana Field into a frenzy. 

And who would have thought unheralded rookie David Price would get the opportunity to close the game out. Indeed, Maddon went with his young lefty, who recorded the final 4 outs for the save and helped the Rays clinch a berth to the World Series and won them an AL Pennant.  Price could’ve won MVP too in his clutch relief pitching, picking up a victory and a save in the series.  But Garza was the story and showed poise for a young 24 year old righty and threw a gem for the victory and 4-3 series win for the Rays.

This year has been an incredible year for this young franchise full of youth and energy up and down the organization.  But this year isn’t over yet as they still have one more piece of unfinished business to do and that is win their town and franchise a World Series Trophy, but they have to go through the NL Pennant winners’ Philadelphia Phillies. This should be an exciting series and I expect it to go at least 7 this World Series unlike the last four World Series which all have resulted in sweeps by the winning team. 

It is the Tampa Bay Rays (9=2), a Cinderella Story, to be continued for one last hurrah…

     One thing interesting, but scary about Evan Longoria is he is only 22 and in his first major league season.  Longoria was overlooked in Southern California and went undrafted out of high school and had no scholarship offers. After playing at Long Beach State, Longoria went third overall in the draft in 2006 to the Rays and he was the guy that everyone missed.  Now look at him, cleanup hitter and starting third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.  Longoria has already had a stellar start to his career in clubbing 27 homers as a rookie, getting an All-Star nomination, participated in the All Star Homerun Derby, and has now set a rookie record in homeruns in the postseason with 5.  And he is also the youngest player to do so.  And he has helped to setup his Tampa Bay Rays for a World Series title, as they are one win away from going to the World Series and square off in game 5 against the defending World Series Champs’ Boston Red Sox.  All I can say about Evan Longoria and the Rays is ‘Wow!’  This team never ceases to amaze me. And I can’t believe guys like B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria are only 22 and 23, around my age, and doing the things they are doing.  I think professional baseball is entering a new ERA where the young kids dominate the game of baseball and the experienced veterans are moving for these young rising stars. 

Now Longoria, the presumptive AL rookie of the year, a franchise player who – just six days after being called up to the big leagues in April – signed a six-year, $17.5 million contract that includes three option years that could add $30 million to the deal.

But Longoria did not reach the big leagues with a chip on his shoulder.

“I don’t hold any resentment against anybody,” said Longoria, now 6-2 and 215 pounds. “I’d be the first to tell you that coming out of high school, even junior college, I wasn’t ready. … I was skinnier, and as I grew physically, I grew baseball-wise.”

In addition to his compact, powerful swing and Gold Glove-caliber defensive skills, Longoria has impressed the Rays with his maturity, character and leadership. And that is the kind of player that the Rays need to take them all the way and Longoria has almost completed that mission and fulfilled that need for them. Only time will tell if they get a chance to contend for the title in the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. If they get chance, you better believe it Longoria will have something to say with his bat, arm, and glove in that series.

Rookie Jed Lowrie has filled in nicely at short stop for the Red Sox in 2008.

    The Boston Red Sox and Defending 2007 World Series Champions have advanced to the American League Championship Series after beating the Angels 3-2 in walk-off fashion.  This year’s Red Sox looks pretty much like last year’s team with a few more new faces and young blood, but the same old dominant pitching and clutch hitting.  The new faces for the Red Sox this time around is left-fielder Jason Bay, who had a wonderful series, and scored the winning run in the game to knock out the top-seeded Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Bay went 7 for 17 and hit .412 with 2HR’s and 5RBI”s in the division series.  Not bad for a guy getting his first taste of the playoffs.  Another unlikely hero and new face to the Red Sox and getting his first taste of the playoffs as well, is short stop Jed Lowrie.  Rookie Jed Lowrie who has took over as the everyday short stop with Lugo going down with injury during the season, has filled in well with his slick glove and solid hitting from both sides of the plate. Lowrie went 4 for 11 and hit .346 with 0HR and a big RBI in this division series.  Lowrie hit a walk-off single to drive in Jason Bay and punch the Red Sox’s ticket to the American League Championship Series.  I am impressed with this kid in only his first big league season. 

  The story of this season and in the playoffs has been the young kids, from B.J. Upton to Evan Longoria, to Dustin Pedroia and now Jed Lowrie.  Speaking of these four young kids, the Red Sox face off against a bunch of these young kids, as they face their AL East foe, the Tampa Bay Rays led by Evan Longoria and Co.  This ALCS looks to be an interesting series and should be exciting as the Rays won the season series between these two teams 10-8.  My prediction is this series should go to 7 and it can go either way. I would like to see the Cinderella story, Tampa Bay Rays go to the World Series and go for their franchise’s first title.  On the other hand, I also would like to see the Red Sox, moving toward ‘Dynasty Status’, try and defend their title against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who has Manny Ramirez and ex-Yankees skipper Joe Torre. Either way, the playoffs is going to be even more exciting as the Championship Series for both leagues begins in the next few days. 

Evan Longoria hit .273 with 27HR and 85 RBI’s in 2008 as a rookie.

    Evan Longoria is pretty much the unanimous Rookie of the Year out of all candidates in the American League. He has accomplished so much as a rookie and being only 22. This young phenom has made the All-Star team, hit 27HR as a rookie, played stellar defense at the hot corner (third base), and has pretty much locked down the AL Rookie of the Year.  In the Rays first postseason game ever in franchise history, Longoria continued to be the guy that he has been all season and has been the Rays MVP all season. He had a perfect day, playing solid defense, and going 3 for 3 with 2HR’s 3RBI’s, 2 runs scored, a walk, and a stolen base to cap off his night. This guy is a stud and can flat out play.  He almost single-handedly carried the Rays on his back to their 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Longoria, in only his first season, has a bright, bright future ahead of him and it is a Ray of Sunshine for these Tampa Bay Rays and their fans to know that they have him part of this organization and team for awhile.  I really hope the Rays continue to win their way to the World Series and continue this amazing journey. Nonetheless, it has been an incredible story for Evan Longoria and the Rays!

Evan Longoria is hitting .281 with 25HR and 81 RBI as a rookie in 2008.

         Evan Longoria is starting to heat back up again as the Rays continue their winning ways.  The Rays missed much of Longoria in August and parts of September, but his return has sparked this Rays team as they are one win away or a Yankees loss of clinching a playoff spot.  They beat up on the Twins last night in a 11-1 victory. Longoria with 1 for 3 with 3 RBI’s and a walk and a couple nights before hit three home runs in one game.  Longoria is pretty much the unanimous Rookie of the Year and if weren’t for injuries, he might be considered for MVP. On the other side of things, Edwin Jackson picked up his 12th victory of the season in the 11-1 win as the fifth starter, which is a pretty good accomplishment. Other bright spots for the Rays is Carlos Pena swatted his 31st homer of the season and has 96 RBI’s, 4 away from the century mark.  Cliff Floyd’s bat has started to heat up, too.  He has battled injuries all season, but has hit a respectable .275 avg. with 10HR and 37 RBI’s.  Sonnanstine and Garza have had pretty solid seasons on the pitching side.   Garza is 11-9 with a 3.66 E.R.A and Sonnanstine is

On Tap for Tonight: The Rays take on the Twins in Game 2 of the three game set. Scott Kazmir (11-7, 3.50 E.R.A) takes the ball for the Rays.  There is no other guy you would want on the mound than the ace of the staff.  Kazmir is that ace and has a chance to clinch a playoff spot for Tampa Bay!