Filed Under » Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays hit for the 19th imperfect game in baseball history on Sunday, failing to have a single batter reach base against Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden. It was the first imperfect game since last year when the Rays also achieved the feat against Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox.

"This is something I'll remember forever," said Rays first baseman Carlos Pena, who only saw seven pitches in going 0-for-3. "For us to do it once is pretty remarkable, but twice in back-to-back years? Wow. Just wow."

Rays manager Joe Maddon echoed Pena.

"I'm just … I'm at a loss for words," he said. "I don't know what to say. This team has the potential to do this on any given night. We can come out and put up 10 runs, or we can fail to reach base. It's amazing."

Oakland's Braden tipped his cap to the Rays.

"All credit to them," he said. "They were just terrible. Falling behind in counts, swinging at obvious balls, trying to pull everything. They deserved it. I could tell from the first time through the lineup that they were capable of doing this today. And they did."

A's manager Bob Geren said he hopes Braden's role in Tampa's imperfect game is not overlooked.

"I know this is an offensive-focused game," he said. "But I thought Dallas pitched pretty well. And, really, even if Tampa had been able to get a hit or two, it still would have been a pretty imperfect game on their part. Maybe we should consider honoring the pitcher instead for these kind of games."

All of the bats used in the game by the Rays are being sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

"It will make for a beautiful display," said Hall of Fame director Bruce Akers. "There's hardly a mark on any of them."

SportsPickle is previewing each MLB team in the lead up to Opening Day 2010. Today:Tampa Bay Rays (2009: 84-78, 3rd in AL East)

Carl Crawford won the MVP in the All-Star Game thanks to his catch in the seventh inning that prevented a home run. But as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, Crawford flies under the radar a bit.

Who is this guy? Here are some facts about Carl Crawford.

Crawford was a three-sport star in high school who received a scholarship offer to play point guard at UCLA, as well as scholarship offers to play quarterback at Nebraska, USC, Oklahoma, Florida and Tulsa. Tulsa's scholarship offer letter began: "Okay, come on now. Don't crumple this up and throw it in the trash before even reading it! Hear us out. Please. It will take you two minutes to read this letter, tops. Then you can be on your way. Deal? Deal."

His .301 batting average in 2005 made him just the third .300 hitter in Rays history at the time, joining Aubrey Huff and Fred McGriff, and his .315 average in 2007 is a franchise record. Crawford's career low batting average is .259 in his rookie year of 2002. That is good for 10th best average in Rays history, just above Greg Vaughn's .163 mark in 2002.

Crawford has stated that uses fantasy baseball as a motivation to work harder, and was one of the first players to openly talk about fantasy baseball. This admission rankled some retired stars, who said baseball players should be motivated by nothing more than the spirit of competition, booze, tail, gambling and amphetamines.

Thanks to hitting .305 with 18 home runs in 2006, Crawford joined Rogers Hornsby as the only players in major league history to increase their average and home runs total for five consecutive years. Crawford was the first non-Siamese twin to do so, however.

Crawford is the eighth player in history to record 1,000 hits and 250 steals before his 27th birthday. This, of course, does not include your stats from RBI Baseball or MLB The Show.