Reminder To Yankees: Rays Are Still For Real

RAYS 15

YANKEES 5

Anyone thinking that the Tampa Bay Rays were phony last season, better think twice. The Rays went to the World Series for a reason, and they are a good young team for a reason as well. That was on display and more, as the Rays bombed the Bronx Bombers 15-5 on Monday night.

Chien Ming Wang got blasted for the second straight start. Wang lasted only a single inning, surrending six hits, eight runs and walking three on the evening. His ERA is now 28.23. Maybe it is time for Wang to consider working on his pitches a tad more. Maybe now is a good time to have a pow wow with pitching coach Dave Island and manager Joe Girardi about his work thus far this season.

Wang opened the evening the way any pitcher at any level of baseball would NOT want to start a game: walking the lead off man and hitting the second batter of the game before anyone got a chance to bite into a lukewarm hot dog. After Evan Longoria struck out, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton advanced on steals of third and second, putting more pressure on Wang. Wang, then, served up a grapefruit to Carlos Pena, who blasted the ball as big as the Ritz off the right center field wall, giving the Rays a quick 2-0 lead. Pat Burrell, who made his career beating up the New York Mets, started a new career in beating up the New York Yankees, by doubling to center to allow Pena to score. 3-0 Rays.

Duaner Navaro followed with a single to center to move Burrell to third, and finally, Gabe Gross singled to left to drive in Burrell to make it 4-0 Rays.

In the second inning, Giraridi gave Wang one last chance to not screw things up, but he did. Jason Bartlett singled to center to open the inning. B.J. Upton recorded a bunt single to move Bartlett to third, Crawford then walked, and Wang walked Longoria to drive in Bartlett and re-load the bases. That was it for Wang. At least he got a chance to have an early dinner. Jonathan Albaladejo played the role of guinea pig, serving up a beach ball to Carlos Pena, who blasted the ball out of the ball park, this time for a grand slam home run.

The Yankees never got any closer to the Rays. It was just too big a deficit for the Yankees to recover. The Bombers now fall to 3-4 on the season. BOX SCORE.