Going into last night’s contest, I thought if the Rays were going to drop any game in the series, it would be the one with Jon Lester on the mound. After all — prior to the first pitch — Lester put up insanely good numbers, to the tune of 0.23 ERA over the last 30-days. He also hadn’t lost a game to Tampa Bay in his last three starts. “As long as the Rays could walk away with the series,” I thought to myself, “they will still be in good shape.” Much to my surprise — and Boston’s chagrin — Tampa Bay was able to tag Lester, Miller, and Tazawa for six runs en route to a big 6-4 win. The Rays start the day 7.5 games out of first in the East, 3.5 games behind the third place Blue Jays, and 4.5 out in the Wildcard race (just 1.0 behind the Indians). Per Fangraphs, they were also able to increase their playoff odds to 13.4%, decreasing Boston’s odds to 3.4% in the process. One game down, two more to go.
Category Archives: Lineups
Rays 7/25/14 Starting Lineup, Etc
Rays 7/25/14 Starting Lineup Jennings CF Zobrist RF Guyer LF Longoria 3B Rodriguez DH Escobar SS Loney 1B Molina C Forsythe 2B Price LHP Noteworthiness David Price is 5-0 with a 0.90 ERA in his last five starts. He can tie the franchise record for consecutive wins, shared by Matt Moore (2X) and Scott Kazmir. …
Rays 7/22/14 Starting Lineup, Etc
Rays 7/22/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Joyce LF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Escobar SS
Molina C
Odorizzi RHP
Kiermaier RF
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Price, Rays Take the Series Following 5-1 Win
Amidst the trade speculation and rumors, the Tampa Bay Rays have quietly put together a run. Winners of their last four, including a 5-1 victory last night against the Minnesota Twins, the Rays have gone 23-12 since June 11. David Price put together another excellent bid to keep Tampa Bay in the thick of things, tossing an eight-plus inning gem for his fifth consecutive victory.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Maintain Their Momentum, Top Twins 6-2
A big question preceded the start of the All-Star Break: Could the Rays maintain their momentum in the (symbolic) second half of the season? After all, Tampa Bay went 21-12 — extending back to June 11 — while a cloud of uncertainty, over the future of David Price and Ben Zobrist with the team, lingered overhead. If their 6-2 victory against the Minnesota Twins did only one thing, it’s answer the question to an extent — yes they can. The victory also found them 4-1/2 games out of third in the AL East, and 7-1/2 out in the Wildcard race.