Derek Shelton and Tampa Bay Rays (Rays series review)
No doubt MLB Network has improved the lives of baseball fans. And there is a regular commercial on the station about a guy selling a hitting device to help young and old. Fine, but I’m not buying it.
However, this Derek Shelton fellow is more than the hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. Closer to home, he was a three-sport star at Warren High School where his dad, Ron, coached baseball. Yes, after I left the Orioles organization in 1987, I landed in the Northwest suburbs of Illinois. My sportswriting career was too late for Derek but it worked for his Dad and younger brother Craig. I promise to stop this but Craig’s football team started the season at 1-1 and then the coaching staff threw out the game plan. They put Craig in the shot gun and won 10 straight games. It was the most exciting football team I ever covered.
OK, Sheltons what happened in the brief two-game series with our Birds? Yes, rain dampened part of the series. However, it kicked off on Monday and it didn’t look good on paper. Chris Archer was tough for the visiting Rays. And frankly, Wei-Yin Chen was less tough. And it wasn’t close on the field. We spanked Archer on the way to a 7-1 romp.
It was the equivalent of a first-round knockout. Mr. Chen must have been in shock to find himself six runs up in the third inning. J.J. Hardy had a pair of doubles by the third inning and that’s a good sign. Hardy and hot-hitting catcher Matt Wieters each had 3 hits in the 7-1 romp. The bottom three hitters went 9 for 12. That threesome included Hardy, Steve Lombardozzi and Ryan Flaherty.
Miguel Gonzalez got the nod for the second and final game of the series. And he was like the Gonzalez of old. That is getting hitters out. However, our offense wasn’t as hot as the game before. It took to the fourth inning for the Birds to dent the scoreboard. We had three runs to brag about when Buck Showalter reached for the suddenly lights-out Zach Britton. He did run into some trouble in the seventh before fanning Will Myers with runners on to preserve the shutout. Tommy Hunter closed the game out and gave us a .500 mark after 14 games.
