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Sonnanstine Showed Flashes of Brilliance

I watched the game last night between the Rays and Jays (albeit on TiVo at 1:30am) and Devil Rays rookie Andy Sonnanstine looked a lot better than the 6 runs he gave up on 8 hits in 7 innings in his major league debut.

First off, it is very rare to give up 6 runs on 8 base runners (actually 7 because Lind was caught stealing). Three of those runs were on a 3-run homer by Lind too. Sonnanstine threw ten of his first 11 pitches for strikes and he had 4 strikeouts through the first 3 innings. He also gave the Rays their third straight start of at least seven innings. He didn’t walk a single batter while striking out 5. He threw only 90 pitches and 67 of them were strikes.

Sonnanstine threw from about 3-4 different arm alots. He does need to keep the ball down more to be successful. He may not over power you but he throws so many pitches, he’ll throw them in any count, and from different arm slots. Ask Alex Rios who struck out in both of his first two at-bats on 3 pitches each!

I like what the Rays are doing by giving the kids a chance to join th rotation. The rotation of Kazmir, Shields, Howell, Sonnanstine, and Jackson looks good. It could use another name change but that might have to wait. Anyway, look for Sonnanstine to build off of his performance and be a very good major league pitcher.

 
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