Rays knock around Halladay as Pena swings his way towards an AL record

August 25, 1:03 PMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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The Rays don't mind facing Halladay AP/Darren Calabrese

The Rays are officially Roy Halladay’s arch-nemesis. They moved their record to 4-1 against the Jays’ ace this season by hanging eight runs on him in six innings of a 12-7 win last night in Toronto. It was a big bounce-back game for the Rays’ offense after a disappointing shutout by Texas’ Scott Feldman at home on Sunday.

Carlos Pena hit the go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning as he continued his quest for the record book. His bomb to right field off Halladay was his American League-leading 35th of the season. Carlos is now four home runs clear of New York’s Mark Teixeira for the league lead and if he can hold it he will almost certainly break Harmon Killebrew’s AL record for lowest batting average by a home run champion. It may not be a record Carlos is necessarily proud of, but it’s not all bad.

Lowest Batting Averages, AL Home Run Champions:

1. .242 – Harmon Killebrew, 1959 (42 HR)
2. .243 – Harmon Killebrew, 1962 (48 HR)
3. .244 – Gorman Thomas, 1979 (45 HR)
4. .245 – Gorman Thomas, 1982 (39 HR)
5. .248 – Darrell Evans, 1985 (40 HR)

Carlos has a great chance at the AL Record, but the Major League record of .204 set by the Mets’ Dave Kingman in 1982 when he led the NL with 37 homers is hopefully out of reach.

Pena wasn’t the only offensive star on Monday as all nine starters either scored or drove in a run in a true team effort. Ben Zobrist homered and scored four runs, continuing his amazing breakthrough season. Unfortunately for Ben, Major League Baseball does not have a Most Improved Player award like the NBA. He’d be facing pretty stiff competition from Toronto’s Aaron Hill, but Zobrist would be one of the frontrunners for the award, were it to exist.

Jason Bartlett continued his march toward the franchise batting average record with three hits to give him a .343 mark for the year. Pat Burrell had two hits and he’s actually starting to heat up with a .423 batting average over his last seven games.

This wasn’t a banner game for Jeff Niemann, but you have to give him credit for staying mentally strong and getting into the seventh inning. Admittedly, it’s pretty hard to lose a game when you get 12 runs behind you, but Niemann recovered from a Rod Barajas grand slam in the second inning to pick up his team-leading 12th win of the season. He retired 12 of the last 13 hitters he faced. Niemann’s temperament serves him well in situations like last night. Not only did he give up a grand slam, but his defense let him down, allowing an unearned run to score in the third inning. Still, Niemann remained even-keeled in an impressive recovery.

The bad news of the night came when Carl Crawford was forced to leave the game with lower back stiffness. He will be out for today’s game and he’ll be listed as day-to-day for the time being. Obviously it would be a crushing blow for the Rays if Carl is forced to miss significant time.

The series will continue with a non-televised game tonight in Toronto as James Shields faces off against rookie lefthander Brett Cecil of the Blue Jays. Get to your nearest sports bar with MLB Extra Innings to catch this one.

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How upset are you about tonight’s game not being televised? Let me know in a comment.

Jason Bartlett hits: 129

Jason Bartlett groundball singles between short and third: 27

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Have a great Rays' story idea for me? Texas is now facing the Yankees at the new house of homers, which means we have to continue to root for the Yankees. How long must this go on? E-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com