The Rays find themselves in Toronto, a day after Brad Boxberger and Jake McGee allowed a one-hit gem by Alex Cobb to collapse into a 5-4 walk-off loss to the Yankees. I — like most rational minded Rays fans — am shocked by the culprits of this, their most recent loss at the hands of the bullpen.
While the Rays are officially out of AL East postseason contention, they’re raison d’être over the next three days is two-fold; play strongly and play the role of spoilers — ahem…despite what the outcome of the previous series might suggest. Toronto is coming off four consecutive wins, including a three-game sweep against the Chicago Cubs. The Blue Jays outscored the Cubs 28-3, for a run differential of 25 runs. Yeesh.
In all honesty, the most exciting thing to come out of this series will be Nate Karns’ debut with the Rays. After all, the two AL East (almost) rivals faced one another a little more than a week ago in the Trop. The Rays acquired Karns from the Washington Nationals on February 13 in a four-player deal that included catcher Jose Lobaton. Karns, a 12th-round pick by the Nats in June 2009, made his MLB debut on May 28, 2013 vs. the O’s and was 0-1 with a 7.50 ERA in three starts. This year, he went 9-9 with a 5.08 ERA for Triple-A Durham in the Rays system.
Karns features a mid 90’s fastball with strong rise and decent run. He also has a good change-up that averages 85 MPH with good downward movement. What really jumps out though is his plus-plus power curve that averages over 84 MPH. It’s been written, if there’s anyone on the pitching staff who Karns compares with, it’s Chris Archer. Both have good fastballs with sporadic command issues, both have promising, yet underdeveloped change-ups, and both have good power breaking pitches.
JA Happ: The Rays faced Happ (9-9, 4.44 ERA) just one time this season, in a 2/3 of an inning appearance out of the bullpen. They tagged him for two runs on three hits in that appearance. Overall, a good number of Rays have posted good numbers against Happ. Key matchups: Matt Joyce (1-1, 2 RBI), Kevin Kiermaier (1-1, 2 RBI), James Loney (6-13, 2 2B, RBI, BB), Evan Longoria (4-11, 2 2B, RBI, BB), Sean Rodriguez (2-8, 2B, RBI, 3 BB), Ben Zobrist (6-10, 3 2B, 4 RBI, 3 BB).
RA Dickey: I wrote this a year ago, and it still holds true today, I’m sick of seeing the Rays hit against Dickey. Key Matchups: Logan Forsythe (3-11, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Ryan Hanigan (2-6, 2B, 2 RBI).
Marcus Stroman: After being touched for six runs (five earned) on 10 hits against the Rays on August 22nd, Stroman (10-5, 3.61 ERA) held the Rays to two runs on seven hits in six innings of work on September 3. Key matchups: Curt Casali (2-3), David DeJesus (1-2), Yunel Escobar (2-6), Matt Joyce (2-5, 2B, BB), Kevin Kiermaier (2-5, 2B, RBI), Evan Longoria (3-5, HR, 2 RBI, BB), Ben Zobrist (2-5, BB).
Noteworthiness
- Best:
Full crew of #Rays rookies and others (including Archer and Myers) on dress up day pic.twitter.com/iO2kTh428O
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) September 12, 2014
- Per Joe Maddon, the priority from here on out is to play Ryan Hanigan and Curt Casali most of the time, while getting Jose Molina some time here and there. Could this be a sign of things to come next season?
- Marc Topkin writes, “The Jays are making one more push for their first playoff appearance since 1993. They have won four straight and nine of 11, outscoring opponents 64-26 over that stretch. OF Jose Bautista, C Dioner Navarro and 1B/DH Adam Lind have been hot. Starters have gone six or more innings in 17 straight games with an ERA of 2.44 over that span, and the bullpen is finding a way. Key stat: The Jays have scored seven or more runs six times in their first nine September games; they did so only twice in 26 August games.”