Saturday night represented the official halfway point of the season. Sitting fourth in a division that’s a bit tighter than most predicted it would be, it’s safe to say that Tampa Bay has excelled in some respects while leaving a lot to be desired in others.
The Rays have had an interesting first half of the season. Filled with exceeded expectations and dashed hopes, Tampa Bay has played the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde well. They’ve been both dominant and anemic offensively, have had good starting pitching no starting pitching whatsoever, and the same can be said about the bullpen. In this edition of This Week in Rays Baseball, we’ll take a brief look at the first 81 games of the season, and see how the 2013 Rays compare to the Rays of the previous two seasons.
First, let’s take a look at the Rays pitching and offensive production numbers in the first half of the last three seasons:
Record wise, the Rays are about where they were last season, though they had a better record going into the 2011 All-Star break. Their pitching numbers (in many critical areas) have adversely increased from 2011. We can look at this a few ways. The pessimist would note the ultimate outcome of the 2012 season. The realist would remind everyone that the pitching is largely holding Tampa Bay back. The optimist would make mention of the all-time records set by the pitching staff last season, and that those records were set by a staff that had a higher ERA, BAA, BABIP, HR/FB, BB/9, and HR/9 than the previous season. One thing holds true: if the Rays are going to make a run in the second half, the pitching numbers are going to need to stabilize. Thankfully, that seems to be the trend.
Jeremy Hellickson has put things back together — his five wins in June speak to that. After a few a shaky starts, Matt Moore continues to rack up the wins, and David Price’s imminent return Tuesday will give the team a jolt if he returns closer to his 2012 form. To that end, the bullpen has turned a corner. Fernando Rodney, Jake McGee, and Joel Peralta look like they did in 2012, and the additions of Alex Torres and Jamey Wright have greatly benefitted the Rays.
The offense is much more productive, especially with runners in scoring position. But a productive offense is ultimately meaningless if they can’t consistently drive in runs, especially against teams like the Red Sox, Royals, or Tigers. Nevertheless, Yunel Escobar and Jose Lobaton have added life to the bottom of the order, there is plenty of life in James Loney’s bat, and the addition of Wil Myers has made Tampa Bay a better team. Then there’s Longo.
It goes without saying, a healthy Evan Longoria is critical to the organization. Longo is going to battle injuries, the plantar fasciitis in his right foot being the latest in a long line of leg and foot injuries that have plagued him over the years. Kelly Johnson has been solid at third in his absence, however the effect on the offense will be the true test. Thankfully he’s not expected to spend any time on the DL, at least as of Sunday.
As Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune put it,
“Every so often it all comes together and this team looks like one that can eventually catch the Red Sox. Of course, it would help if they could beat the Red Sox – three wins in 12 games with seven remaining.”
Moving into the second half of the season, there are a couple of pressing issues that need to be addressed if the Rays are going to be relevant in September: 1) They need to stay healthy, and 2) They need to have more days when the offense, starting pitching and bullpen work in sync.
The good news, Tampa Bay begins a stretch Monday where they play 14 games against teams that are at or below .500. That’s certainly not a bad way to gain some ground on the division. If anything, three consecutive series wins will give Tampa Bay a large buffer between the win and loss columns. It will also give them a huge surge of momentum going into a post All-Star break 10-game road trip against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Yankees. Joe Maddon was once quoted as saying, “If we take care of our own business, then the seconds, the minutes, the hours and the days take care of themselves.” I’d reckon there’s no time like the present for the Rays to do as much.