Despite the loss in Sunday’s series finale, the Tampa Bay Rays are still in a favorable position — relatively speaking, of course — as they ready themselves for a three-game set against the visiting Milwaukee Brewers. As the trade deadline looms, this will be an important series as it relates to the future of Ben Zobrist and David Price with the Rays this season.
The Brewers have led the NL Central every day since April 5 thanks to a solid offense. They are second in the league in runs (464) and home runs (108). Catcher Jonathan Lucroy is sixth in the league with a .310 batting average and leads the NL with a .349 road average, while Ryan Braun tops the league in RBI per at-bats, with one in every 5.5 at-bats. Closer Francisco Rodriguez is third in the NL in saves with 30 (in 34 save opportunities). Overall, Milwaukee is 9-6 in interleague games this year.
There is a caveat, however.
After winning 11 of 15 road games in June, the Brewers are 2-6 away from Milwaukee this month — having been outscored 34-21 on the road in July. To that end, when you look at the overall side by side comparison of the Rays and Brewers at home and away, (respectively; below) one thing becomes clearly obvious: Tampa Bay pairs well with the Brew Crew. What’s more, the Rays have been much more productive over the last 30 days, extending back to the end of June.
If the Rays can continue playing as they have since June 11, this could be a successful series for Tampa Bay. Just remember, series’ wins are the name of the game. Sweeps are the icing on the cake.
Kyle Lohse: It’s been some time since the Rays last faced Lohse (11-4, 3.07 ERA) — three years to be exact. However, in that last meeting, Tampa Bay tagged the 35 year-old RHP for five runs (four earned) in 5-1/3 innings of work. The Rays have put together a healthy combined .294 BA/.339 OBP/.431/.771 OPS slash line against Lohse, over a somewhat small sample size of 57 plate appearances. Averaging seven innings per start this season, the soft tossing sinker/slider/change up/curve ball throwing hurler has been beaten up for four or more runs only three times. Key matchups: Yunel Escobar (4-12, 2 BB), Logan Forsythe (1-2, HR, RBI), Matt Joyce (1-3, 2B), James Loney (5-18, 2B, 4 RBI, BB), Evan Longoria (1-3, 2B), Jose Molina (2-4, BB).
Matt Garza: Allow me to take you back to 2013, when Tampa Bay faced former Ray Matt Garza for the first time. The Rays absolutely crushed Garza to the tune of six runs on eight hits in the abbreviated, 4-1/3 IP start. Expect for Maddon to put into place the same game plan that was in place a little less than a year ago — attempt to exploit Garza’s weaknesses (specifically fielding). Whatever it takes to pressure the former Rays and force a meltdown. Incidentally, Alex Cobb toed the rubber opposite of Garza in that game. Cobb led the Rays to a 6-2 win over Texas, in an excellent eight inning outing. Key matchups: Matt Joyce (2-4, 2B), James Loney (1-3, RBI), Evan Longoria (2-3, RBI), Ben Zobrist (2-2, BB).
Yovani Gallarado: As a team, the Rays have never faced the right handed Gallarado (5-5, 3.57 ERA), though a handful of Rays’ players have faced him when they appeared on other rosters. Eno Saris of Fangraphs writes of the ground ball pitcher,
Only his curve ball rates above-average by both grounders and whiffs. The sinker gets 55% grounders, so that’s good, but no whiffs (3.7%). Same for the four-seamer (45% and 3.4% respectively). The change gets ground balls (58%) but no whiffs (7.4%, 15% is average). Same on the slider (48% but only 11% whiffs). The cutter is probably his slider, but has the same numbers as his slider too. That’s how a pitcher reworks his arsenal to work after losing stuff — Gallardo has the best ground-ball rate of his career. With one pitch that’s all-around good. The arsenal seems to suggest that he can keep up the ground-ball work, for what it’s worth.
Key matchups: James Loney (4-14, 2B, 3 RBI, BB).
Noteworthiness
- The Rays lead the series overall at 4-2, and are 2-1 at Tropicana Field.
- The Rays had their second-longest win streak in franchise history snapped at nine Sunday with a 3-2 home loss to Boston. Rays pitchers posted a 1.33 ERA and the club outscored opponents 48-15 during the streak. “Listen, like I said, this has been a great run we’ve been on. Now we’ve got to start another one-game winning streak tomorrow and try to win another series. We’ve got two really good teams coming in in Milwaukee and the Angels.” — Rays manager, Joe Maddon
- The Rays, expectedly, designated Erik Bedard for assignment in order to clear roster space for right-hander Joel Peralta, who has been reactivated from the disabled list, the team announced.
- Does anyone else hope Hank, the Brewers team dog, joins the Brew Crew at the Trop this week?
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