The Tampa Bay Rays return home Thursday following a 3-0 loss to the Orioles, and an abysmal 3-5 road trip. Suffice it to say, after going a combined 11-for-52 wRISP (21%), the Rays bats may have been in the dugout, but they certainly weren’t in the batters box. Tampa Bay has now dropped three in a row, while averaging under two runs per game over a ten-game span. Look at the bright side: The Rays are 7-8 after the first 15 games. Compare that to last season when Tampa Bay went 5-10 in the first two weeks of the season.
Author Archives: Schmitty
Stu Sternberg Makes A Comment, and the Media Goes Bananas
A verifiable statement isn’t an unsubstantiated rumor; not in the least. In the case of Stu Sternberg, his tells are quite obvious. Sternberg isn’t happy in Tropicana Field (for a few reasons), and he wants his team to have a new facility. I can’t blame him. Furthermore, he would like the opportunity to vet a few different locations, throughout the region, for a new facility — not just, as many would have you believe, Tampa. I can’t blame him for that either.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: O’s Handcuff Rays 7-1, Matt Moore to Receive Tommy John Surgery
Perhaps you could blame it on his inability to throw quality strikes. Or, maybe you could blame it his lack of command, leaving fastball after fastball up, and over the plate, in very hittable locations. Then again, it could have been his seeming inability to keep batters off balance by not throwing his change-up often. I’d argue it was choice D, all of the above. Whatever the case, Chris Archer did the Rays no favors Monday night, tossing the Orioles hitters meatball after meatball in his less than stellar 5 IP/12 H/7 R outing. The Rays fell to the Orioles — a team who hit five doubles off Archer — by a score of 7-1
Rays 4/14/14 Starting Lineup, Etc
Zobrist 2B, Jennings CF, Forsythe DH, Longoria 3B, Myers RF, Loney 1B, Guyer LF, Escobar SS, Hanigan C, Archer LHP
The New What Next: Rays vs. Orioles — A Series Preview of Sorts
So far, this has been an odd road trip…to say the least. Tampa Bay has gone 7-for-30 wRISP, tagging the opposing pitchers for only 13 runs. Though Tampa Bay took two of three from the Reds, they still ended the series with a -6 run differential. Yet the Rays have a 3-3 record — six games into their nine-game road trip — and are about to face a scuffling Orioles squad who, if I may, don’t look so hot themselves. There is a very realistic possibility that the Rays could come home with a winning record on this wonky trip — which they’ll need going into the upcoming Yankees series, when they throw their B-starters on the mound.