|
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays' 2007 season, the 10th season in franchise history, involved the Devil Rays trying to improve on their 2006 season, where they finished last in the American League East Division, and managed to finish the season with a league-worst record of 61-101. During the offseason they signed Japanese infielder Akinori Iwamura to a three-year deal. Their manager was Joe Maddon who entered his 2nd season with the Devil Rays. Although the Rays again finished last in the division, they improved their record by five games, to 66-96. Their season attendance increased by 18,653 to 1,387,603. This marks the first time home attendance has increased in consecutive seasons. Joe Maddon's option years through 2009 were picked up by the club on September 8, 2007. The season was marked by incredible pitching performances by club ace Scott Kazmir and rookie James Shields, and the bats of club standby Carl Crawford; rookies Delmon Young, B.J. Upton and Brendan Harris; and free agents Akinori Iwamura and Carlos Peña. Several club single-season records fell during the course of the season. This was also the last season with the team being named the Devil Rays. The team dropped the "Devil" from the name. Out of nowhere, the following year the team would win the AL East, beating the usual contenders, the Yankees and the Red Sox. The team would win the pennant, but lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. ==Regular season== The Devil Rays opened their 2007 season April 2, on the road against the defending division champion New York Yankees. The bullpen blew a lead and Tampa Bay lost, 9-5,〔(The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Game Wrapup )〕 but came back to win the third game, 7-6 (the second of the opening series was rained out). They suffered a setback in the middle of April when new third baseman Iwamura, off to a hot start with a .339 batting average to that point, suffered an oblique strain and went on the disabled list.〔(The Official Site of The Tampa Bay Rays: Official Info: Rays place Iwamura on DL, recall Cantu )〕 However, the team continued to play better than in past years, and on May 4 moved into a tie for second place, the latest that Tampa Bay had been that high in the standings since the 1999 season.〔(The Official Site of The Tampa Bay Rays: News: Notes: Rays rising in standings )〕 The Rays trailed off going into May, falling eventually back into last place, but surged into their series in Orlando, Florida, against the Texas Rangers, which they swept. After the series with the Rangers, they won only one of the next seven games, skidding to a then season low, nine games below .500. After a 9-4 win against the Dodgers to improve their record to 33-40 on June 24, the Devil Rays went on to lose 11 straight games and went on to lose 13 of 14 games since the Dodgers series and went into the All-Star Break 34-53. After the break it wasn't much better losing 3 games out of 4 against the Yankees in their 1st series after the break and went on to lose 8 straight games between July 21 to 28. The low point of that Losing streak were two dismal losses to the Yankees. One game losing 17-5 and the other 21-4. The Rays' lack of pitching between their two aces and closer Al Reyes led to the coining of the idiom, "Kazmir and Shields, then off come the wheels." For the Devil Rays it was a July to forget but things were getting better in August. Improvements made to the bullpen at the trade deadline led to shorter losing streaks and, eventually, more series wins. On August 11, Starting pitcher Edwin Jackson pitched the Devil Rays 1st complete game shutout of the year in a 3-0 win against the Rangers. On August 25, Pitcher Scott Kazmir went 8 innings with a career high 13 strikeouts in a 14-3 win against the Oakland Athletics and in that series the Rays took 3 of 4 games out scoring the A's 33 to 9 in the last three games of that series. The hot streak continued with a sweep of the tailspinning Baltimore Orioles and series wins at the Yankees and home against the Orioles and the Blue Jays before finally losing 2 of 3 at the Boston Red Sox and splitting a 4-game series at the Seattle Mariners. Their September upswing ensured that they would finish the 2007 season with a better record than the 2006 season. They did, however, hobble into the end of the season, with Carl Crawford's season-ending groin pull in late-September contributing to a 5-13 finish. They did win their final game of the season, though, giving hope for next year. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|