Stiles in Tampa - Day THREE

Geez, how do I put a positive spin on today? Well, I had fun... does THAT count?


The Tampa Bay Devil Rays wrapped up their 3 game series against the Cleveland Indians with a punch to the groin in the ninth inning. Ryan Garko hit a three-run homer in the top of the inning off of Brian Stokes to give the Indians the two run winning difference, 6-4 and a series victory.


Multiple Choice


Q. How can I possibly put a positive spin on today's game?



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A. I could pretend that baseball games are really only 8 innings long and how the ninth inning is "just for fun"


B. I could cover my ears and rock back and forth while chanting "nah-na-na-na-na-na-na..." or click my heels and repeat "there's no place like home" over and over until my world went back to black and white...


C. I could go on and on about how Joe Maddon is just an all around fun guy to be around. About how accomodating and polite he is. About how he is a positive and uplifting being. About how I asked him if his antacid supply was running low after 6 straight games decided by two runs or less (seven after today's game), then realizing how stupid a question it was, hearing it come out of my mouth before he answered it... he's just too chill and amazingly patient to suffer at the hands of heartburn.


D. I could focus on how I think this franchise is NOTHING like you heard it is. To quote the motto on the predominant T-shirt worn in the lockerroom - "No regurgitation! Tell me what you think, not what you heard."


E. I could focus on the amazing efforts taken by the franchise to make the fans feel welcomed, entertained and how unbelievably kid friendly they are. About how today's "Superheroes Day" promotion gave away 7,500 kids size Rays hats (7,498 after I got two for 'Bubbas' and 'Pookie' Stiles) and how many thousands of them got to run the bases after the game (very entertaining and heart-touching, too - see inset on the right)

photo by Manny Stiles - If you can watch kids rounding second, looking to make the turn at third and score and it DOESN'T make you feel something, you're basically dead on the inside aren't you? (click on the photo to enlarge and look closer - that's not a stroller)

F. I could talk about all the things I forgot to mention about Saturday night's game (a win), like how the sizable crowd maintained a decent "Wave" for a little over 11 rotations around the stadium... Wait, is this a good thing? I'm not a fan of the "wave" per se (It's still better than the Tomahawk Chop) but I wish there was more variety in it... at the very least I want to see a super-fast wave just once)

G. I could talk about much fight the team has, how they never give up, how tight they are together, how they are growing together, how they are sharing the enthusiasm and diminishing the blame, how good they can be, how they are going to take games on their ability one night and how getting the growing pains out of the way is part of the process... sometimes you need to swim behind a rock in order to make it upstream. It seems like it's a step backward, but that's the only way you can get to move forward. You can tell they are headed toward bountiful waters.

H. I could talk about how the bullpen blowing games is actually helpful to the long-term well being of the team. Hey, the more the bullpen sucks, the more the need to "fix it" will make itself apparent and the more positive changes can occur.

I. I could focus on the absolutely dominating display put on by Rays starter James Shields. About his franchise record tying 12 K's (matching Dan Wheeler's 12 K's against Oakland on Sept 12, 1999)...About his control, about his command of three oitches and hitting his spots, about his change up hitting 72 miles and hour after his fastball was popping at 93-95, or about his winning ticket holders free Papa John's pizzas for getting at least 10 K's (hey, free is free). Shields broke through tonight. He is a clubhouse leader and he took responsibility tonight. He should have gotten two wins for tonight's efforts but he's gonna come back and try to be even better next outing.

J. I could say that Brian Stokes will look back on his career years from now with more "Ha ha! Gotchya!"s than "Ha ha, We got you!" and how he's gonna keep his head up and take the rookie lesson, learn from it and get better to benefit positively from it...

K. I could talk about how Travis Hafner got shut down today. How he actually looked pretty overmatched in his first two at bat's against Shields, K-ing twice. By the way, dude is a massive chunk of WOW. He is huge and thick to where you think, "Yes. Donkey strong, I get it." Or how Pronk felt the wrath of 6-6-6... Six straight games with a home run - Six straight games with a homer against the Devil Rays (in Cleveland and Tampa Bay, dating back to last year) - Six straight games with a home run at Tropicana Field. All of it came to a dull thud when he got pitched around for a walk in the ninth and finished with an 0-3 on the day.

M. I could talk about all of the great conversations I had today with some of the more nicely tattooed players. Afterall, I have many tattoos (and Manny tattoos, too!) I am a burgeoning tatoo artist (hey, I said burgeoning, not bludgeoning!) And however you feel about skin altering, self-mutilation, skin as canvas and "ink work", that's fine. I'm not hear to change people's preferences. I understand the art of it, I understand the personal meaning in them and I am fascinated hearing about other's artwork and the stories.

Jonny Gomes is not only one of the cooler dudes you'll come across (his locker is next to Brian Stokes', so I entertained him while Stokes got the vulturous onslaught/coal raking of the media throng), or just one of the more loved people in Western Florida (I can't even explain the crowd's "Gomes Special" but I thoroughly enjoy it) but the man has as many beautiful tattoos as I have run-on sentences... ok, no one has that many tattoos. He's had some very high quality work done. It was a general concensus in the clubhouse, or of the five or so dudes hanging out at that moment that Gomes' has the nicest collection.

Edwin Jackson has a pretty sweet and sizable inscribed cross on his back that rivals Gomes' back work in detail but had it all done straight through in one 5 1/2 hour session!!! Elijah Dukes has pretty sweet coverage. Among Delmon Young's tats are flames on his right arm and if you seen his throws (like his gundown of Kelly Shoppach on Saturday) you start to wonder if it's a tattoo or real flame! I'm also a big fan of Carl Crawford's classical Leo sign on his neck. If I didn't already have a Libra sign on my back, I'd have it as a neck tattoo.

There's tattoos everywhere you look in society today and it's represented well by this thin cross section of males ages 21-whatever and called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

But all the inked agree, there's more to come. Like anyone with one tattoo can tell you... wait; There is no one with just one tattoo, they're addictive like potato chips, you can't have just one!

N. I could tell you that C.C. is a fun guy to watch SportsCenter with. While the media throng was twiddling thumbs and talking about college football waiting for Coach Maddon's pregame interview session there wasn't much to do except watch one of the pretty TV's in the middle of the locker room. It was a Sunday day game after a night game, so the team takes swings in the cage but no on-field BP (otherwise they'd just be better off sleeping in the stadium to be there in time to get BP in). So normally we'd all be standing around on the field twiddling our thumbs and watching guys take their hacks (well, I do)...

Crawford's insightful color commentary on the highlights were damn near hernia-inducing - but his diatribe on guys getting airtime for homers in the bandbox NL stadiums like Cincy was classic. "Let us play in Cincinnati" he deadpanned. And I thought he was dead on. The Trop is a cavernous gape compared to Cincy and look at the Rays' offensive statistics sometime. His thoughts on tennis were almost worthy of paying an admission price.

Tomorrow: Manny throws "Tupac or Biggie" out there for conversation to see what happens!!! Although 10 bucks says (and I'm not a gambler...) Crawford turns it into a why H-town (that's his hometown Houston, y'all) is the better anyway... He says the Houston Rockets will win the NBA Finals and when I pointed to the logo on my T-Shirt (Phoenix Suns) he said "they're gonna get slowed down in the playoffs" - I got the can of worms out, opened it up about 1/4 and we all agreed no one from the East can possibly win.

Seriously though, C.C.'s got a good grasp on his stardom, he's a natural team leader (sarcasm alert - Hmmm... a Leo in a leadership role?) but is just plain as real as real is PLUS he's a pretty funny guy before games and after wins... (do the math)

O. I could explain how Ben Zobrist opened my mind to something I never even bothered to contemplate. I was talking with him about how some accounts of the game last night had Akinori Iwamura going into leftfield on the The_Pronk_Shift when it was really Zo. I swore it was him, so I wanted to confirm that I'm not COMPLETELY nuts. We got into talking about general things other than baseball (media vs. bloggers, how I quit my job to be a Stay at Home Dad to my kids, advatages and disadvantages of life in the minors and majors) and he brought up how he doesn't even have a TV and doesn't follow other sports because he's basically doing something baseball related for the majority of his time or travelling because of baseball. He just doesn't have time to live a liesurely life right now like a schlub like I can.

It struck me squarely in the key of "Duh!". A lot of these young bucks are trying to secure their rung on the ladder and climb it at the same time. They are working hard. They see what the big boys get and they want it too. They have crazy drive and consuming passion.

Great example: Other than when he's been dressing or eating, I don't think I've seen Delmon without a bat in his hand for more than 30 combined minutes in the past three days. B.J. Upton is a batting cage fixture. They are all pushing each other, trying to outwork each other and each other and it benefits everyone.

P. I could amazingly and courageously stupendify and terrifically enormalize the astonishing fun of a wonderful Superheroes Day. Ushers were dressed as comic book and science fiction superheros. Even Raymond, the whatever-the-hell-it-is-supposed-to-be mascot dressed up as Spider-Ray and saved the day for the Pepsi bottle when it was about to be beaten by the Aquafina bottle in the bottle races... (like the sausage race, but with giant Pepsi brand beverages) Raymond jumped out of nowhere to legwhip Aquafina and secure victory for Pepsi at the last minute. Sierra Mist never had a chance.

Q. I could rave about how Coach Joe Maddon was very quotable before the game today. He was rehashing Pronk's achievements from the two previous games and let us into his thought process. He said to his pitching staff before the series started "'Even if we walk him 12-14 times in the series, I don't care'" he paused, then reiterated to the throng "I don't care... he's that good."

He went on about Pronk. "Barry Bonds in the World Series in 2002 was the last guy I saw like 'that'..."

Maddon also clarified what he's looking for from his bullpen. He has certain roles he's trying to define and he wants guys to get work in particular situations. He also stated in his pre-game comments that "el assassanino" Al Reyes would be unavailable for the game because he'd pitched each of the 2 previous games.

After the game, the mood was somber, the quotes were shorter, the questions were fewer (it was a morgue in the locker room; afterall, it was a team that just got rochambeau'd) "It's something we've talked about ad nauseum... finishing games" shrugged Coach Maddon. "...we did the little things well, we just didn't finish"

He was extremely pleased with Shield's command and keeping his location down. And he complemented the toughness of his team once again and stressed the togetherness of the team "lose tough games, you lose them together. Win tough games, you win them together."

When asked if he considered using Reyes in the ninth he squashed the notion simply; "We had a plan. If you second guess yourself, you'll never know what to do."

Have I said how much I like this coach?

R. Does a Rick Sutcliffe sighting count as a positive spin? Hmmm... well how about Carlos Pena's Home Run in the sixth inning. The longball he hit won a lucky fan $1000.00 in a promotional contest.

S. The Bottom of the Eighth Inning. It was a fun inning. After Akinori Iwamura walked, he was taking a short lead when the pitcher snapped a pickoff throw. Aki wasn't far off the bag, so instead of stepping back or diving to the bag, he basically kept his right leg where it was and stepped on the bag with his left leg almost doing a pure split!

Aki is special. The crowd who was booing every pickoff throw chuckled when he did it. He just calmly cooly did a split to beat a pickoff. You don't see that every day.

T. Speaking of Aki. His footwork is amazing. Not just the split, but when he bats he moves around the box to where you want to frustratedly scream at him "you can't hit with your feet moving like that!". Obviously, he can. But it's HOW he does it. He gets himself into hitting position and gets the bat through the zone quite well. It's almost like he's Ichiro-lite. It's not something you can teach a person. He's a very physically gifted player.

You can see it in his fielding too. He's pretty fast, has swift yet... what's the word? hmm... graceful(?) feet, amazing balance and gets himself in great position to make sweet plays at the hot corner. I thought he had 3-4 plays tonight that could have been "Web Gems" easy. Plus he has a very accurate arm to boot. He's smooth. I even pulled up behind the grip of Asian reporters who follow him around like a Linus' dust cloud (from the comic strip Peanuts - don't know why I need to explain that, but I did) and even though I had no idea what was going on, it was easy to tell what they thought of him: 100% Aki Fever!

Another weird thing (to me, at least) After I wrote the "Aki Fever" article, an actual virus started spreading around the clubhouse (and around the media members, the clubhouse attendants and also touring the league) and guys were getting the Intestinal Revolution, etc. Aki got the virus himself earlier this week and had to be scratched for a start because of it. Sorry, dude!

U. More Bottom of the Eighth tales... Game was tied at 2 runs apiece. After Aki's pickoff split, Dioner Navarro came up to bat and tried to sacrifice bunt Iwamura to second. Except he didn't sac bunt him over. He laid a PERFECT bunt right down the 1st base foul line, not too far down the line and it was rolling towards foul territory and catcher Victor Martinez and 1st baseman Ryan Garko let it go as it appeared it was spinning foul. Then it spun to a stop right on the line. I mean RIGHT on the chalk. A thing of beauty.

Gomes pinch hit and the crowd gave him the 'Gomes Special' ("wuuuuuuh-wooooh" I have to find out more about that tomorrow), but he struck out. (He absolutely tries to CRUSH the ball with bat when he swings. Serious bat speed gets generated.)

B.J. got up and nearly decapitated the pitcher with a liner back through the middle getting a base knock and a ribbie. B.J. is a unique athletic talent and is going to be a monster as he fills out more with age, because he is sleek. Tools, tools, tools!

Then a strikeout/Wild Pitch, another Wild Pitch and some heady baserunning and Navarro scored to give the Rays a 4-2 lead into the ninth. They battled hard and I enjoyed it.

V. I could reiterate the Tampa Bay Lightning lost, getting knocked out of the playoffs and it didn't even make me fake a shrug. (Afterall, the Suns won.) It's just more attention in the Bay area that can now be directed at the Rays. A win-win situation! (sorry, Lightning fans... deal with it)

W. It could be considered a miracle. It only took me two games and 8.1 innings, but for the first time a dramatic play happened and I didn't make a peep. I sat there stoically and maintained a professional demeanor when I normally would have at least dropped a few dozen F-bomb infused malproprieties. (Guess when this happened)

X. What could and what will be. Here's a positive spin. The Rays get to take out their frustrations on the New York Yankees tomorrow! Don't forget to join in the running blog of the game (also on ESPN Monday Night baseball) that I'll be hosting (assuming all goes as planned) LIVE from the Dome Sweet Dome.

Y. Yes, I know there was no L in my list. Because I could be focusing on the positive stuff, remember.

Zzzzz... I could stop right here and say it's "All of the Above and MORE"

.....as in it's MORE THAN just a game!

Stiles in Tampa - Day TWO

Smell that? Yeah, that's the smell of victory...

The Game Recap
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays snatched victory away from the clutches of the dastardly Cleveland Indians, 6-5 on "Superheroes Night" despite Pronk's attempt to smash the roof off Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, FL on Saturday evening. Travis Hafner absolutely crushed a first pitch offering in the 5th inning, driving in three runs and tying the game at 5 runs apiece. There is no doubt that it would still be in flight if hit in an open air stadium.

When Rays Manager was told after the game that the ball travelled an estimated 442 feet, his response was simply "that's only because something stopped it". The bomb rattled off the overhanging catwalk or else it may have unprettied the spanking new scorebard a bit. Only fred McGriff and Jason Giambi had hit that catwalk previously. OR maybe the people who estimate the distance of home runs forgot to carry the 1 and it was really 542 feet. It certainly seemed like it. Hafner has now hit a homer in each of his last six games, just two from the record of eight straight games held by three players (Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Tino Martinez).

See the catwalk up there on the left? That's what Pronk hit! Picture of the new scoreboard taken by Manny Stiles just minutes before the Monster HR

But on "Superheroes Night" it was the Rays who brought their super powers to the park to be the heroes this day.

After the Indians jumped to a 2-0 lead, "Fabulous" Ty Wigginton opened the Rays scoring in the second inning by going yard and went 3-4 on the day.

In the sixth inning and the score tied 5-5, Delmon Young picked himself up after an over-aggressive throwing error that allowed Kelly Shoppach to advance to third base when the next batter, Josh Barfield lined out to right and Shoppach tagged up. Young fired an absolute laser-guided missile to the plate to easily gun Shoppach out at the plate. Delmon also helped the cause with two hits, one an RBI double and two runs scored.

Carl Crawford came swooping in, full extension to save the day in the seventh inning on a terrific diving catch from (guess who?) Travis Hafner's thundering line drive for a huge out with the tying run already on base. It was also Carl crawford replica stolen base tonight as the first 12,000 fans recieved the miniature base commemorating his three AL Stolen Base crowns.

B.J. Upton flexed his super abilities in the sixth inning, ripping a single then stealing second and advancing to third on Shoppach's throwing error on the steal. He scored the winning run on a ground out to short by Ben Zobrist and it proved to be the difference.

The bullpen avoided the kryptonite and shut the door despite a tense moment in the eighth when reliever Juan Salas hit two consecutive batters with pitches. Courageous Shawn Camp got out of bases loaded situation and closed the door on the inning. That allowed "el assassanino", a.k.a. Al Reyes to earn his 6th Save on the season putting the evil doers down 1-2-3 in the ninth. (meaningless trivia - the other relievers in Rays history to record at least 5 saves in April went on to be All-Stars in that same season (Roberto Hernandez '99 and Lance Carter '03. See? Meaningless, just like I said)

Credit Manager Joe Maddon on some creative defensive adjustments in dealing with the torrid Hafner (Is this a Hafner or Devil Rays article?). Both games this series the Rays played Pronk seriously to pull, having Third Baseman Akinori Iwamura basically playing shortstop and all the other fielders to the right side of the infield. Maddon's superpower tonight came in the ninth inning in the form of running Shortstop Ben Zobrist to left field, Iwamura to behind second and Upton in short rightfield whilst shifting the outfield deep and to the right (see picture at right) to combat Hafner.

The Pronk shift; photo by Manny Stiles

It worked perfectly when he crushed a liner right to Crawford in deep left center. Apparently, the Joe Maddon suggested "higher league Hafner should be in" has four outfielders, not three!
At first when I looked up to see them shift I thought Aki forgot to run out onto the field! There was no one near third base. I couldn't help but think... "Jeez, push a bunt to third and you'd get at least a double, Pronk!"

After last night's tough loss, tonight's victory was a bit sweeter. Coach Maddon says his team is "like those little red rubber balls. These guys just keep bouncing back."

Guys were lounging, smiling and enjoying the post game spread and beverages; Hip-hop was pumping in the locker room (I was probably the only media thronger who enjoyed that, too). The guys seem tightknit. They seem to actually like each other and they came out and had fun tonight. I'm having a lot of fun too!

Go Devil Rays!

Manny's Wiles
-Paul Byrd stepped out of the time machine to start for the Indians. With his old timey windup (which warms the cochals of mine heart) and classic uniform stylings I could almost forgive him for bringing Lillith to his new show after he left Cheers for Seattle.
-Announced attendance was 22,805 (almost 10,000 more than Friday's game), so some people went home without their replica C.C. stolen base. Carl had himself a healthy supply to take home (to autograph for charitable causes I suppose). Even star MLBers get homework too!
-I said it before, I'll say it again - the stadium is really not a bad baseball stadium and the field surface is awesome. After seeing the new FieldTurf II on the field for himself, HOFer Eddie Murray seeked out a friend from their Orioles days, P.R. wunderkind Rick Vaughn and asked who he needed to contact to have it put on his yard. (I said the same thing when I first stepped on it, but then realized I'm not rich being currently unemployed and I'd end up with crabgrass either way...)
-Longest-ever tenured Umpire Bruce Froemming was behind the plate tonight. I think he plans on umping until he dies on the field. Five bucks says he gets a home plate instead of a headstone on his grave when it happens. And he'll still be better than a decent percentage of umpires.
-During Cleveland's BP, I was mulling about in front of the Rays dugout when a ball ricocheted off a protective screen and came to a rest at my feet. I picked it up and like a trained dog (or a guy with too many fundamental baseball drills wired into his DNA) threw it back toward the BP pitcher's ball bag. As I picked it up and tossed it, a guy hounding for autographs from the players was asking me for the ball like a nine year old. He was saddened by my habitual instinct and proclaimed "Come oooon, it's Cleve-land maaaan." It was pretty chuckleworthy.
-Media dining included Black Angus bacon mushroom burgers and "Sausage Hoagies" ('sausage and peppers sandwich' or 'Italian Sausage sandwich' to those who know the true definition of the term "hoagie") with steak fries and blueberry pie for dessert. And stadium hot dogs and popcorn in the press box. All washed down with non-diet soda. Did I mention my theory on why professional media members seem to average about 6-12 more inches of waistline than regular bloggers? If I don't go on a diet soon, I'll start getting paid to do this!
-To be fair, there IS a salad bar in the media dining area, but it did seem a little lonely over there.
-While eating in the media dining area, I sat near the TV and watched a tad of the Red Sox - Yankees game along with a total of ONE other person out of the 40 or so in the room. I get the feeling sometimes that many journalists aren't sports fans after all (or have just been completely deprogrammed from experiencing any level of enjoyment in life)
-Tonight's game was the Rays' 6th game in a row decide by two runs or less (I guess 'or less' means 'one').
-Jae Seo picked up the W which ended a personal 13-game losing streak.
-Kids, kids, kids... The youngest team in MLB is as kid friendly as any organization can possibly be. (Maybe it's just me missing my Bubbas and Pookie.) The players accomodate the youngsters with signatures and baseballs galore. The Starters ran out on the field for the National Anthem and each had a kid run out with them. Kids sang Take me out to the ballgame and I think every kid in the stadium was on the jumbotron at least twice. After afternoon games, they let kids run the bases. They got the right idea because the future of baseball is at risk unless kids learn and love the game.
-More needless trivia/curious tidbits courtesy of the pregame media notes:
--Only 11 players in MLB history have had more hits in their first 46 games than Delmon Young (59). Rocco Baldelli (65) is one of them.
--Delmon Young and Carl Crawford made their MLB debuts at the exact same age.
--Seven years ago today, Troy Glaus, Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon homered in the 4th inning AND did it again in the 9th inning. It was the first time three hitters homered in the same inning twice in one game.. oh yeah, against the Rays.
--Coming into tonight's game, #9 hitters were batting .373 against the Rays, highest of any spot in the order.
--The Rays are on pace (273) to tally the most steal attempts since the '96 Royals (280)
-Manny Stiles is making a TV appearance about how all of this charity blogging business came together along with Matt Silverman for a local station on Monday before the game. They failed to heed my "I have a face made for radio" advice.

A little side project I took upon myself
I "interviewed" about a dozen and a half people who are 'on the clock' during the games - R.A.Y.S. (Ready At Your Service) employees, Elevator jockeys, door attendants, security folk, credential checkers, etc. I asked them where they were from (since like Arizona, everyone in Florida is from somewhere else), how long they've been with the organization, who their favorite Ray player is and when they think a World Series would come to Tampa Bay.

Where they are from originally
A few are from New York, 3 people from SouthEast PA (like myself), Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan and one from Minnesota. (Apparently east coasters go to Florida to live, while midwest and west coasters go to Arizona)

Tenures
Years of service ranged from 2 months to one gentleman who voted FOR the stadium and worked at the dome since it's opening (years before the Rays were concieved) and he even was one of 25 finalists in the "Name the Dome" contest - he suggested "Sun Dome"

Favorite Rays
-Ty Wigginton was the high vote getter with one voter swayed because he delivered his second child, Cannon when his wife went into sudden labor (He IS a superhero!)
-Other favorites - the usual suspects, Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford and Scott Kazmir but some of the long-timers listed others such as Wade Boggs and Travis Lee (apparently he is really nice?).
-My favorite media credential checker, Dan likes all of the Rays, but chose Rocco as his favorite and stated Willie Mays as his favorite All-Time player because he grew up a Giants fan in the Bronx who would spend the nickel to take the subway to the Polo Grounds. He even played stickball in the street with the 'Sey Hey Kid' when he was a kid himself. But he summed it up when he said Ted Williams was the greatest player he ever saw play.
-One employee, Chris who started in '98 said it was unfair to pick just one but then said Toby Hall was the nicest person she ever met. I asked her if Hall was nicer than Fred McGriff and she admitted "No one else on earth is as nice as Fred".
-I concurred...

Crime Dog
This user demands Fred McGriff be voted into the Hall of Fame.

When will the World Series come to Tampa Bay?
-Most answered '08 or '09, one said '07 (is he reading my articles too intently?), most agreed this is the year to get the growing pains out of the way. One answered "maybe 2012" and believe it or not, only one person answered "you're kidding, right?", but he's really a Tigers fan.
-All in all, the longtimers are thrilled and optimistic about the direction of the franchise. They've seen a lot of positive changes in the past year and a half since Stu Sternberg took over as owner.

It really IS more than just a game.

Coming Up
The Cleveland series wraps up tomorrow with a early afternoon contest pitting Jamie Shields against Jake Westbrook.

Don't forget! Monday vs. the New York Yankees, a live running game blog on www.ArmchairGM.com hosted by Manny Stiles from the game!!! You can watch from home on ESPN. Join in and comment away!