Rays leave 'em loaded

There is a guy sitting in the stands in front of the press box wearing a Brooks Robinson jersey, and now I wonder if the Orioles hall of fame third baseman ever played at Al Lang, since Baltimore trained in Miami during his years in the league.

Remember Brooks and the 1970 World Series?

This guy looks like he’s old enough to remember those highlights.

Anyway …

Jackson is perfect through three innings. He has three strikeouts and hasn’t come close to allowing a hit.

Of course, this wind today will keep every ball in the air long enough for a Rays outfielder to get under it.

What he needs to avoid are the slow rollers like the one Jason Bartlett just dribbled down the third base line. Wind or no wind, that’s a tough play, and Phillies third baseman Pedro Feliz couldn’t make it.

Would Brooks have made that play?

Probably not.

The Rays have the leadoff hitter aboard and the top of the order coming to the plate.

Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer keeps throwing over to first, incurring the wrath of the wind blown fans, who boo every time he chases Bartlett back to first.

The PA plays a clip of Yosemite Sam yelling at Bug Bunny to hurry up. I believe it’s from the cartoon where Sam stuffs a piano with dynamite, and it will explode when Bugs hits the right key, which he doesn’t, but Sam does and, BANG!!!!!

Classic.

Moyer finally comes home, and Aki drops a line drive in front of right fielder Geoff Jenkins. All that throwing over to first didn’t help, because Bartlett was able to make it to third ahead of the throw, which was off-line anyway.

After fouling the ball all over the park, C.C. draws a walk on a 3-2 count to load the bases.

Upton strikes out swinging.

That brings Cliff Floyd to the plate with one out. You get the feeling this is what Moyer wanted, because he gets Floyd to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

OK, it took a good play by Phillies shortstop Ray Olmedo to dig the ball out of the infield dirt, but Floyd came up small again.

Of all the Rays offseason pick-ups, I think Floyd is going to have the smallest impact.

It’s 0-0 after three.