Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 11, 2007
Looking to the Future

Joe Maddon gave Scott Kazmir a good pep talk last night:

What did surprise Kazmir was what Maddon told him. The skipper wanted Kazmir to treat this like a playoff game. Given that the Devil Rays have no shot at the postseason, Maddon wanted him to practice what a playoff situation could feel like. The result? Ellsbury struck out swinging and Alex Cora grounded into a force play. Kazmir was out of the inning, and his bullpen held off the Sox for a 1-0 victory.

"It jacked me up," said Kazmir, referring to the pep talk. "It really did. It pumped me up. I was going on adrenaline to begin with. That intensified it, I guess you could say.

I like what Maddon did there. The Devil Rays suffered through a poor season, but they're playing well to finish, and Joe is putting the idea into their heads that this can be a playoff team, too. Nice work.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:00 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

how Francona leaves Cora hitting in that situation? he has Brandon Moss, Royce Clayton, David Ortiz, for Christ's sake, even J.D. Drew is better than Cora and i don't care that they are lefties, Francona lost the game right there.

Posted by: Jc at September 11, 2007 11:08 AM

I like what he's trying to do, but they will never be a playoff team in that division until they get out of Tropicana Field. Look at their home/road splits throughout their existence...including this year. Look at their artificial surface/grass splits too.

Posted by: Devon Young at September 11, 2007 12:49 PM

Kazmir looked absolutely exhausted when he came off the mount in the 7th. Looks like he was treating the game, mentally and physically, as a playoff game.

Agreed with one other commenter. Cora? Really Tito? What, Kevin Cash wasn't available?

Posted by: Jay at September 11, 2007 01:20 PM

There will be humans living on Mars before the Rays make the playoffs, while playing in the AL East.

Posted by: SS at September 11, 2007 01:55 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?