Rays post second straight shutout

Kazmir, pen, give up nothing beating Angels 2-0.

Scott Kazmir looked much better in his second start of the season, posting 6 strong innings of shutout ball. The bull pen picked up the last 3 innings with Troy Percival nabbing his 8th save of the season. The Rays offense again looked weak, but they managed to get one run off a strong Angels starter(Saunders) and another off the Angels pen. The Rays have an 8 game home win streak, and have thrown 22 consecutive scoreless innings at home. What has been more impressive is that they have faced some top teams within that span, including the Angels and the Red Sox. Andy Sonnanstine looks to continue the streak today but faces another undefeated Angels hurler in Ervin Santana.

The Daily Turn:

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The Rays have relied heavily on their pitching and defense, which have both been spectacular, but they will need to get their bats going if they want to stay nestled atop the AL East. The lineup can't seem to get going at the same time, with different people getting hot at different times. Last night Aki was 3-4 and Bartlett was 2-3, but the rest of the lineup was relatively quiet with only Hinske and Crawford hitting safely as well.

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Rays starters have allowed only 1 run in their last 29.2 innings, and the bullpen has been  almost as good. Garza went 6.2 last Wednesday, Jackson posted 8 scoreless on Thursday, Shields dazzled for 9 on Friday and Kazmir went 6 last night

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Happy Mother's Day. The Rays will be using special pink bats provided to all of MLB by Louisville Slugger in honor of Mother's Day and to promote breast cancer awareness. All bats will be auctioned off, proceeds going to the Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation. And happy Mother's Day to my mom and my two sisters!

Quote of the Day:

"I noticed it. I took a moment to take it all in."

-Carlos Pena on hearing the crowd of near 25,000 cheering like crazy for the Rays last night, in a place where historically most of the cheering is done for the other team.