What a difference four days make. The Boston Red Sox left the Trop Sunday with their bravado, urm…tails between their legs, after the Rays mounted a three-game sweep against the defending World series champions. I think there may have been a contentious play in the series finale, though my memory is a bit foggy.
I digress.
Since the culmination of that series, the Rays dropped three games to the first place Toronto Blue Jays, while the Red Sox put together a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves — two at home, and two in Atlanta. Now eight games under .500 once again, the Rays will try to replace the Red Sox as the fourth best team in the AL East.
The Rays are 5-1 against the Red Sox this season, having outscored Boston 27-22. In fact, Tampa Bay has had greater success (record wise) against those Massholes than anyone else. Yet those five victories been close, and I’d imagine the Sox, bolstered by the series win, will enter the series with a giant chip on their collective shoulders. The Rays? They’ll attempt to change their fortune, once more, against the Red Sox.
Brandon Workman: The Rays put their collective spikes on the throat of Brandon Workman last Sunday, knocking the 25 year-old out of the game after only five innings, and tagging the righty for three runs on five hits. Overall, Tampa Bay has slashed .350 BA/.413 OBP/.550 SLG/.963 OPS against Workman, with a pair of homers and two doubles in 40 at-bats. Key match ups: David DeJesus (1-3, 2B), Yunel Escobar (1-4, BB), Logan Forsythe (1-2, RBI), Desmond Jennings (1-3), James Loney (2-6, HR, 3 RBI), Evan Longoria (4-7, 2B, HR, 2 RBI), Ben Zobrist (3-3, BB).
Ruby De La Rosa: De La Rosa will get the start over Allen Webster, Saturday. The 25 year-old RHP features a 94-97 MPH fastball with sharp downward movement and an ability to miss bats. Yet he is characterized having fringe-average command of his fastball with an inconsistent delivery. He also has a plus 84-87 MPH change up with strong depth and fade, and an average low-to-mid 80s slider.
Jon Lester: The Rays, historically, have been able to handle Boston’s 30 year-old lefty — tagging him with a 3-6 record and a 5.10 ERA in his last 10 starts. Then again he is a lefty, and we all know how the Rays have fared against left handed pitching this season. Whatever the case, Lester has given up four runs or more in four of his 11 starts, and the Rays hope to make that five times out of 12 starts. Key match ups: Yunel Escobar (9-33, 2B, RBI, 5 BB), Desmond Jennings (9-25, 2 2B, 3B, HR, 2 RBI, BB), Matt Joyce (4-11, 2 HR, 6 RBI, BB), James Loney (2-8, RBI, BB), Evan Longoria (11-50, 3 2B, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 7 BB), Jose Molina (9-26, 2B, RBI, 3 BB), Wil Myers (2-3, 2B, HR, RBI).
Noteworthiness
- The Rays were apparently convinced that Ben Zobrist was ready to return, and didn’t play another rehab game with the Stone Crabs. He will return to the fold in Boston. “It’s a little sore, but it’s definitely playable,” Zobrist told reporters in Port Charlotte after the game. “I didn’t notice it while I was playing. If you are starting to notice it, it could start to hinder your play, but I didn’t notice it out there. I felt pretty comfortable when the ball was in play. Catching the ball, I didn’t have to wear a brace.” INF Cole Figueroa has been optioned back to Triple-A Durham to make room on the roster for Zo.
- The Rays feel that Molina is okay, and there are no residual issues from Tuesday night.
- Going into the series, Boston is missing starters LHP Felix Doubront and RHP Clay Buchholz to the DL, and have recalled reliever Alex Wilson to bolster their ‘pen.
- Per Marc Topkin, Red Sox batters went into Thursday leading the majors in reaching base 300 times on two-strike counts, and leading the AL with 185 two-strike hits.
- Tim Britton of the Providence Journal put together a quick and unexplained ranking of Rays/Red Sox dust-ups:
- Coco Crisp v. James Shields and Jonny Gomes
- Pedro Martinez v. Gerald Williams
- Jonny Gomes v. Yunel Escobar
- John Lackey v. Matt Joyce
- Franklin Morales v. Luke Scott, when all the Boston coaches were weirdly involved.
- My fifth grade students and I finished working on some basic sabermetric number crunching yesterday. We found that though the general trend for the Tampa Bay Rays is upward, (by way of their winning percentage over the last month), the increase is so gradual that it will take them 11 weeks (or, until the middle of August) to get back to .500. Too, their Pythagorean Expectation has, for all intents and purposes, flat-lined at .471. That is, even a fifth grader can see that our boys are going nowhere if they continue to lose games like last night’s, or if the pitching continues to give up 22 runs over the course of three games.