What a difference four days make. The Boston Red Sox left the Trop Sunday with their bravado, urm…tails between their legs, after the Rays mounted a three-game sweep against the defending World series champions. I think there may have been a contentious play in the series finale, though my memory is a bit foggy.
Author Archives: Schmitty
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Third Straight, 3-2
The Tampa Bay Rays dropped the final game against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 3-2, Wednesday night. Despite a disastrous two-run first inning, Chris Archer put things together, posting five consecutive innings of scoreless ball. Tampa Bay fell back to eight games under .500 thanks to the loss (and the series sweep). The Rays will resume play Friday in Boston, where they’ll start a three-game weekend series against the Red Sox. Having lost almost all they gained prior to this, their most recent series, the Rays will try to bury the Red Sox once again.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Second Straight, 9-6
The Rays dropped their second consecutive game to the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday, this time by a score of 9-6, in what could be described as a slugfest by both teams. It just so happens that the Blue Jays, who are playing with a metric butt-ton of confidence at the moment (the series is in Canada after all), out slugged the Rays. Alex Cobb got the start and watched as his scoreless steak came to pass at 25-1/3 innings (just two innings shy of the club record of 27-1/3 innings set by JP Howell in 2012), after the righty gave up back-to-back homers for the first time in his career — relinquishing six runs on nine hits overall. For only only the fifth time in 27 starts, Cobb gave up up more than three runs.
Rays Call Up Ali Solis, Ryan Hanigan Lands On DL (Updated)
Some light has been shed on the Rays’ motivation in calling up catcher Ali Solis from Triple-A Durham, as opposed to a position player like Kevin Kiermaier or Vince Belnome. It seems there’s a good chance Ryan Hanigan could spend some time on the 15-day disabled list, due to complications extending from a tight hamstring.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Fall to Blue Jays, 10-5
Despite scoring five runs on ten hits — including three home runs by David DeJesus, Desmond Jennings, and James Loney — the Tampa Bay Rays dropped the first game of their current three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 10-5. Simply put, Erik Bedard couldn’t string together another good outing and the Blue Jays made him pay, tagging the lefty for eight runs on 12 hits. With a pitching duel between Alex Cobb and Mark Buehrle slated for Tuesday evening, Tampa Bay really needed to win this game — yet they failed to do so after running into the home run hitting buzz-saw that is the Blue Jays.