The New What Next: Goodbye Cleveland, Hello Motor City

The Tampa Bay Rays take their talents to Detroit for a three game set starting Tuesday. Though Tampa Bay and Detroit have — essentially — the same W/L record, one thing bears mentioning: With a combined overall .279 BA/.346 OBP/.431 SLG/.778 slash line, the Tigers are a team that many would consider to be an offensive juggernaut. Their pitching staff isn’t too shabby either. That, however, isn’t to sell the Rays short.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Thump the Indians, Take Series

And just when you petulant little whiners wanted to send Fernando Rodney packing, he put together a six pitch outing, peacefully putting the final three batters out of their misery. Look I get it it, Rodney still hasn’t fully regained my trust either. However before you find a new closer on your fantasy roster, there’s a little saying that the Rays abide by: Respect the process. They are being mindful of the process, and guess what? Rodney seems to be coming around. Rodney’s now strung together 5-1/3 consecutive innings of no hit baseball, while walking only one batter along the way. Will he be the Rodney of 2012? That’s highly improbable. Besides, it’d be foolish to assume that he could be that at this point. However that doesn’t negate his effectiveness from this point forward.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Archer Gives Up Five Runs In Rays Loss

If I had to sum up Saturday’s Rays and Indians game in a sentence, it’d go something like this: The Rays 5-0 loss to the Indians was a tale of pitching, both good and not so good. On the side of good pitching lies the Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez and the Rays long reliever Alex Torres. On the other side of the coin lies Chris Archer, who couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning cleanly.

A tale of two seasons: A comparison Rays offensive production after the first two months of the 2012 and 2013 seasons

I thought that it might be interesting to compare the Rays offensive production in the first couple of months of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. All things equal, the Rays had a markedly better May 2013 than the other months compared below — including April 2012 when the Rays were healthy and prior to being bitten …

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays One-Hit the Indians in Marathon Game

I’m going to be honest with you, it’s insanely hard to summarize last night’s marathon between the Rays and Indians. One thing is certain though: Both the Rays offense and bullpen stepped up and throttled the Tribe Friday night/Saturday morning, handing the Tribe a 9-2 shellacking. The much maligned bullpen absolutely dealt, putting together a two-run (both unearned), one hit, two walk outing that should — if anything — show how deadly the Rays are when both the pitching and hitting are (close to) firing on all cylinders. It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, take a gander at the handful of screenshots below for a summary of last night’s game.