Yet another Bill Chastain story from MLB.com, with some of my thoughts at the end…leave some comments.
KANSAS CITY — Scott Kazmir will make his first start of the second half Saturday night, and the left-hander wants to get back on track after experiencing a first half that left him with a 7.11 ERA.
“Hopefully, it’s going to be a big second half for me,” Kazmir said. “I’m looking forward to it,” Kazmir said. 
Kazmir definitely is capable of producing a magic second half, which he did in 2007 when he posted an 8-3 mark with a 2.39 ERA over 15 second-half starts. Opposing hitters hit just .224 against him in that second half, and he struck out 124 over 94 1/3 innings en route to winning the American League strikeout crown.
Kazmir’s goal for the second half is just to “be efficient.”
“I want to be able to throw the ball where I want to throw the ball — have a little bit of life on it,” Kazmir said. “That’s what I’m shooting for.”
Kazmir feels like he’s on the verge of going on such a stretch.
“That’s what it feels like,” Kazmir said. “To be honest, I’m looking forward to just being able to be confident with all of my pitches. When everything was going good, all I had was fastball and a slider. And I’m just waiting to have all three pitches going and that’s when I’ll take off. It’s been a while.”
In Kazmir’s hot second half in 2007, he was pretty much a two pitch — fastball and slider — pither, since he wasn’t using his changeup much. Last year, his slider was ineffective, so he went with a fastball and a changeup and rarely threw his slider. Now he has all three pitches.
“That’s why I can’t wait to have all three of those [pitches],” Kazmir said. “I can give the hitters a lot of different looks.”
Standing in Kazmir and the Rays’ way for victory Saturday night will be Royals right-hander Zack Greinke.
Rays manager Joe Maddon complimented Greinke’s variety of pitches.
“He can throw a real slow curve to a plus-plus fastball,” Maddon said. “He’s got a devastating slider that’s good to righties and lefties. The big thing with him is you have to avoid chasing pitches outside the zone.
“The biggest thing with a guy like that is you want to really build up [the number of pitches he throws]. You can’t give him easy outs early in the game. You have to work good at-bats. You have to see a lot of pitches. The more pitches you see the better chance you’re going to have.”
My Thoughts:
I guess it can’t really get worse than the first half that Kazmir put together. A 4-5 record with a 7.11 ERA is by no means what we have come to expect from Kaz. The Rays got hot right before the All-Star Break, and my guess is Kazmir will heat up down the stretch. The offense has been strong, and will only get better–Pat Burrell is finally starting to some what resemble what we thought he would be, and I am predicting that Carlos Pena will lead the AL in home runs–that said, I think Kaz will ride those runs to some more victories and a lower ERA. We certainly need it if we are going to make another run at the playoffs.
What are your thoughts? Leave them below in the comment section!
Thomas Gemkow is the editor-in-chief of TampaBayRaysFan.com. Founded in January of 2009, TampaBayRaysFan.com is a compilation of all the best of the Rays, from across the web. The website can be followed on Twitter
