Wait, you didn’t catch the game last night?! Worry not, you didn’t miss much. Here’s a brief rundown:
- Beb Zobrist started the game by uncorking his 19th homer of the year in the first inning. Things looked on the up and up…
- Then the rest of the game happened. Oof.
- Gavin Floyd allowed seven base runners on five walks and two hits, but the Rays were only able to plate one run. The Rays weren’t without scoring opportunities, yet they ended the night 0-6 wRISP, stranding eight men on base.
- As BA put it, Floyd was able to make that big pitch when he needed to. You can say that again. His line wasn’t too impressive, yet it’s almost like he mimicked Shields’ mediocre outing the night before, posting a 5 IP/2 H/1 ER/5 BB/6 K line, on 105 pitches. (57 for strikes) By the way, you read that right, Floyd had six strikeouts, yet only threw 57 strikes. (54% K/BB percentage) Remember how the Rays had been working better at-bats over the course of their eight game winning streak? Yeah well, at least someone did, because they certainly couldn’t remember.
- Jeremy Hellickson wasn’t horrible, yet he wasn’t able to make it to the seventh innings for the 13th time this season. Ugh. Helly posted a 5.2 IP/9 H/3 R/2 ER/1 BB/2 K line, on 93 pitches. (61 for strikes)
- The pen looked good though, working 2-1/3 innings, giving up only one hit while striking out five.
- Oh yeah, the A’s, O’s, and Angels won last night. The Rays start the day three games back in the wildcard race, and four games behind the O’s.
Moving Forward
Matt Moore will face Chris Sale in the third game of this four game series. I hoped that the Rays could have two consecutive wins against the White Sox prior to facing Sale. Face it, his stats speak for themselves, and it seemed reasonable to assume that Tampa Bay wouldn’t have won this game. Even though Sale is winless in his last two starts, he was able to pitch through his mistakes against Cleveland on Monday, allowing three runs and 10 hits (matching a season high) in seven innings. It should be noted that Sale is 9-2 with a 1.89 ERA at home. He allowed one run and three hits while striking out a career-high 15 in 7 1/3 innings of a 2-1 victory against the Rays back in May.
Matt Moore is 0-4 with a 5.72 ERA in his last six starts with Tampa Bay winning just one of them. Though he contends that he doesn’t feel fatigued, asserting that fatigue is “definitely not the issue,” I have to feel that he’s running out of gas. A quick peak at his fastball velocity chart (below) shows a fairly dramatic drop in his velocity.
Joe Maddon pulled Moore early in his last start, and I’d imagine that he’ll be on a very short leash today as well. The question begs, who will fill the long relief roll if he gets the old heave-ho early? Cesar Ramos? Chris Archer?
We’ll post the starting lineup when it becomes available.
Rays 9/29/12 Starting Lineup
TBA