Boxscore Breakdown #59: Rookie mistakes – Rays 4, Angels 2

We’ve all heard of rookie mistakes, but seldom do we ever see them on display in such a grand and obvious manner. The modest amount of excitement for the debut of Kyle Kubitza quickly dissipated after the kid inexplicably decided to throw for the tag out at second base rather than the force out at first in the bottom of the second, thus allowing a runner to score. OK, fine, rookie jitters. It was a pretty colossal mental blunder, but these things happen. Every rookie gets one in their debut, right?

But two, now that’s a different story. Kubitza had seemingly atoned for his fielding faux pas by lacing a single in his first at-bat, but he then unatoned for it by idiotically trying to go first to third on a single to right on a ball he had no business trying to do so on. The hustle is nice, but when you don’t even get halfway to third when the ball arrives at the base, you might’ve made a boo boo. Assuming that this just wasn’t the latest misadventure of third base coach Gary DiSarcina, Kubitza cost the Angels another run and exceeded his rookie debut mistake quota.

Rays 4, Angels 2

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1TQus1q3BBaNcUopoO8Bt5ejOyAB0q5m4282N6x83Ivk/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] The good news for Kubitza is that he totally delivered with the bat, rapping out two line drive singles. C.J. Cron also had two hits, though he didn’t exactly knock the cover off the ball in so doing. On the flip side, Erick Aybar and Kole Calhoun got dinged hard to stranding runners in scoring position in key situations.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1TQus1q3BBaNcUopoO8Bt5ejOyAB0q5m4282N6x83Ivk/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] It wasn’t a big offensive outburst for the Rays as Longoria had the longball and Cabrera was the only guy with multiple hits. They just spread it out across the lineup and that is what helped generate the four runs.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1TQus1q3BBaNcUopoO8Bt5ejOyAB0q5m4282N6x83Ivk/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] It was a solid bounceback for Jered Weaver. He had to battle in this game, but he kept the Rays in check for the most part. It’d still be nice to see him missing some bats, but after the home run derby in New York, I’m not going to complain. For Tampa, Erasmo Ramirez pretty much did the minimum that he needed to do to give the Rays a shot at winning and it worked out.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1TQus1q3BBaNcUopoO8Bt5ejOyAB0q5m4282N6x83Ivk/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Fernando Salas just needed to get one out and he couldn’t even do that without coughing up the inherited runner first. That really hurt the Angels comeback chances. That ended up not mattering, but the Rays bullpen did look a bit shaky in this one as Kevin Jepsen nearly threw the game away earlier, like he do.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1TQus1q3BBaNcUopoO8Bt5ejOyAB0q5m4282N6x83Ivk/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] Clearly this wasn’t an action-packed game and no team ever made or even threatened major win probability swings. It was just a slow ride to defeat for the Halos.

Halo A-Hole

I hate doing it to the rookie, but those two mental mistakes might very well have been the difference in the game.