X-Rays Spex, Green Bench Brewing Co., and The Brewery Bay are teaming up to host a Tampa Bay Rays Watch Party on Friday, July 3, 2015 when the Tampa Bay Rays take on the New York Yankees in the Bronx. We’re bringing all of the camaraderie of the game, and some delicious foodstuffs, all just a stones throw from Tropicana Field.
Enjoy the game on the two flat screen televisions in the tasting room, then make your way to the beer garden after sunset, where the game will also be projected outdoors.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm, but be sure to get down to Green Bench early to enjoy some family friendly pre-game activities including (but not limited to) giant Jenga and corn hole. While away the time with your friends before the first pitch, by sipping on some ice cold craft beers, and consuming some delicious foodstuffs.
Green Bench will be offering $1.00 off beers to folks wearing Tampa Bay Rays gear throughout the evening – including our own Rays inspired designs. We’ll also offer raffle off some great Rays swag between the innings.
David DeJesus reacts coming into third base after hitting an RBI triple in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals on Thursday. (Photo Credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
The Tampa Bay Rays have gotten very comfortable on the road this season, and they’ll look to improve upon their impressive 19-11 record away from the Trop when they visit Cleveland on Friday, for a three-game series against the Indians.
At 38-30, the AL East leading Rays are eight games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2013 season after winning six of their last seven and seven of their last 10. Joey Butler continues to be a big factor for the Rays with 10 multi-hit games since May 24th, while Evan Longoria has quietly put together a seven game hitting streak. Meanwhile Kevin Kiermaier has raised his batting average 16 points (to .252) after going 9-24 over his last seven games.
The Indians (31-34, 4-6 in their last 10 games) rebounded from a humbling 17-0 defeat to edge the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Thursday. Cleveland is led by Jason Kipnis, who has hit safely in 13 straight games overall and 22 consecutive home contests, while Michael Brantley has at least a hit in 14 of his last 15 games. Expect Michael Bourn in the lineup this weekend, as he has appealed his one-game suspension — announced Thursday — for making contact with an umpire on Tuesday.
The Rays will start Nathan Karns, Erasmo Ramirez, and Alex Colome in the series. Karns (3-3, 3.67 ERA) is winless in his last five starts, although he allowed just one run over six innings last Sunday. The 27 year-old righty, who boasts a 1-0 record and 2.38 ERA in four road starts, has limited opponents to two or fewer runs in nine of his 13 starts this season. Ramirez (6-2, 4.45 ERA) continued his recent strong work, shutting out the Nationals over six innings to earn his sixth win in seven starts. However, Colome (3-3, 5.14 ERA) lasted just two innings in an ugly loss to the Nationals, where he gave up six runs on seven hits and three walks.
Boding in the favor of the Rays, Cleveland is 6-15 in series openers this season with five of those victories coming on the road.
Rays and Indians series starters over the last 14 days.Rays and Indians offensive numbers over the last 14 days.Rays and Indians by the numbers.
Carlos Carrasco: Carrasco (8-5, 4.38 ERA) has won four of his last five starts, although he yielded eight runs over 9-2/3 innings in the past two outings. His next win will set a career high after recording eight victories from 2011 and again in 2014, and he has walked only 18 in 74 innings this season with 85 strikeouts. Carrasco leans heavily on a 96 mph four-seam fastball that boasts natural sinking action, and an 89 mph slider generates a good number of ground balls. He also features a worm-killer of an 89 mph change-up that generates an extreme number of ground balls, a 95 mph sinker, and a hard 83 mph curveball that also generates an extreme number of grounders. The 28 year-old righty is 1-2 with a 3.10 ERA in four games (three starts) against the Rays. Key matchup: David DeJesus (2-8, 2B).
Corey Kluber: Per Rotowire, Kluber (3-7) allowed two runs on seven hits and three walks over seven innings in Tuesday’s loss to Seattle. He also struck out four. The reigning Cy Young Award winner isn’t going to blow you away with his fastball, rather he pounds all quadrants of the zone and tries force weak contact. A new weapon, Kluber has started to throw his fastball at the top of the zone for whiffs (ala Brad Boxberger, Jake Odorizzi, and Jake McGee).
The green circles are swinging strikes, and the red are caught looking strikes. Look at the number of strikes at the top of the zone. (GIF Credit: FanGraphs)
Key matchups: David DeJesus (3-9, 2 2B, RBI), Logan Forsythe (1-3), Kevin Kiermaier (1-2, 3B, BB), Evan Longoria (3-8).
Noteworthiness
— Only three teams have more wins than the Rays — Cardinals (43), Astros (40), Pirates (39).
Logan Forsythe hits an RBI single in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)The Tampa Bay Rays made it eight wins in their last 10 road-games Wednesday night, as former National Steven Souza Jr. led his current team to a 5-0 win over Washington. Souza wracked up three hits, including a solo blast off Jordan Zimmerman, as Tampa Bay rolled to victory. At 37-30 on the season, the Rays maintained a one-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East.
They say in baseball, you’re only as good as the next starting pitcher…and for the Rays, that pitcher was Steve Geltz.
— Brian Anderson
Playing in a National League park, and knowing the pitching spot in the lineup would come up no later than the third inning, Kevin Cash gave relief pitcher Steve Geltz the start. In turn, Geltz threw two perfect innings, retiring all six batters he faced while fanning one — the best hitter in baseball, Bryce Harper. The pitching sequence was beautiful.
Geltz started Harper with an inside slider for a ball. Yet the righty came back with another slider, this time at the bottom of the zone for a strike. Assuming Bryce was expecting another slider, Geltz threw a filthy splitter and Harper couldn’t hold up — he swung wildly over the top for strike two. The coup de gras, a front-door fastball over the inner third of the plate that caught the best hitter in baseball looking.
Geltz has now retired the last 19 hitters he has faced.
Matt Andriese, who was slated to start the game, followed Geltz in the third inning and was gifted a 2-0 lead two frames later. Souza, playing in his first game in Nationals Park as a visitor, destroyed a hanging slider Zimmerman left over the heart of the plate. The errant pitch found its rightful home in deep left-center field.
Andriese got into a bit of a spot in the fifth after he allowed a base hit up the middle to Ian Desmond. Former Ray Jose Lobaton moved Desmond to second on a weakly hit grounder to Jake Elmore at first. But after intentionally walking Michael Taylor, bringing Zimmerman to the plate, the Rays righty forced a weak grounder to third to end the inning.
Tampa Bay tacked on a run in the sixth. Evan Longoria and David DeJesus came up with back-to-back one-out singles, putting runners at the corners and bringing Logan Forsythe to the plate. Ian Desmond almost got the Nationals out of the inning unscathed, yet he bobbled a potential double-play ball off Forsythe’s bat, plating Longoria for a three run lead. The run scored gave the Rays second baseman a team-best 31 RBI.
Andriese was pinch-hit for in the seventh, after throwing four scoreless innings and allowing just two hits (one on the infield) and an intentional walk, while fanning two. Andriese needed just 53 pitches (64% K%) in his outing. Kevin Jepsen took the hill in the bottom of the inning and threw a 1-2-3 seventh
The Rays were able to extend the lead in the eighth. Souza laid down a two-out bunt single against Blake Treinen with DeJesus at first. Treinen sailed his throw over the head of first baseman Danny Espinosa in the rain, scoring DeJesus in the process. Then Bryce Harper’s throw home went awry, allowing Souza to score for a 5-0 lead on the “little league” homer (also seen above in the Souza highlight video).
After a 27-minute rain delay, the recently activated Ronald Belisario pitched two hitless innings in his Tampa Bay debut to finish the game. Per Rays Radio’s Neil Solondz, Belisario became the 26th pitcher to work an inning for the Rays this year, setting a team record. In addition, he was the 44th player to appear in a game, surpassing last year’s total.
The Rays collected 12 hits, three from Souza and Casali, and two apiece from Elmore and DeJesus.
The New What Next
Chris Archer (7-4, 2.00 ERA) will make his Major League-leading 15th start opposite of RHP Doug Fister, who takes the mound for the first time since mid-May. Fister rejoined the team on Monday after suffering a right flexor strain against the Padres. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 6/18/15 Starting Lineup
Kiermaier CF
Butler LF
Longoria 3B
Forsythe 2B
Souza RF
Cabrera SS
Elmore 1B
Rivera C
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
— James Loney’s three week checkup reportedly went well, and he should start swinging the bat at some point next week:
Checkup went well, got okay to start range of motion work, maybe another week to start swinging a bat https://t.co/PVuCh6cJ08
Infielder Jake Elmore pitches during the eighth inning last night. (Photo Credit: Brian Blanco/Getty Images)Alex Colome had the toughest start of any Tampa Bay starter, as the Rays suffered their most lopsided loss on Tuesday night — a 16-4 shellacking at the hands of the Washington Nationals. In spite of the loss, Tampa Bay will hit the road a five-game jaunt with a 36-30 record, maintaining a one-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East.
As a wise man once said, sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you. It’s your guess who or what ate who or what last night. Perhaps a FanGraphs WPA graph will help clarify things:
— The Rays optioned LHP C.J. Riefenhauser back to Triple-A Durham after the game, and selected the contract of RHP Ronald Belisario, who will join the team in D.C. As you may recall, Belisario notified the team Monday he would use the opt-out clause in his contract. They had until Wednesday to make a decision on whether to activate the 32 year-old righty, or let him hit the free-agent market. Belisario posted a 3.26 ERA and 17 saves in 19 opportunities in 27 Durham appearances.
— Jake Elmore and Nick Franklin took the bump for the Rays in the eighth and ninth innings. It was just the fourth time a position player has pitched for Tampa Bay (Sam Fuld was the last on 9/2/13 vs Anaheim).
— Enny Romero departed the game with back tightness, but he should be good to go in a couple days.
— Matt Moore worked 4-2/3 innings on Tuesday, allowing two runs on four hits (2 2B, 3B, a HR on an errant change-up) for the Stone Crabs in the third of five rehab starts. He fanned three on 78 pitches (49 strikes, 63% K%).
I think I built from the last one, Moore said after his outing. We were kind of able to lose ourselves in the competition, which is what these rehab starts are for, to kind of forget about the rehab and just get into the competition.
Moore will move his rehab assignment to Triple-A Durham and likely make two starts.
— James Loney has a three-week checkup Wednesday on his broken left middle finger. If all goes as planned, he could begin strengthening activities. A caveat, he is still several weeks from returning.
— Righties Jake Odorizzi and Andrew Bellattiplayed catch again, this time at a distance of 90 feet. Both could start throwing off the mound early next week.
— Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg spoke with Marc Topkin on the subject of attendance on Tuesday. Sternberg acknowledged the Rays’ attendance has been worse than projected:
In the offseason I expected it to be down a bit, but it’s down more than I anticipated, he told Topkin.
He went on to say the decline was “nobody’s fault,” and while several games conflicted with the Lightning’s Stanley Cup run, he didn’t think that “had a dramatic effect on it,” though maybe it will now increase.
If I may, the Lightning hosted a watch party that attracted between 17,000 and 20,000 fans at Amalie Arena on Monday — the same night only 10,216 people attended a game at the Trop. The Lightning and Rays fan bases are not mutually exclusive. Sure, there are a few people here or there who like one sport over the other. However, it’s a glib assumption that one does not effect the other. C’mon Stu, you’re smarter than that!
Still, Sternberg is deserving of some credit, after all he didn’t assign blame for the problem — something he was all to willing to do in the past.
In the end, as I wrote yesterday, it’s up to everyone to focus on that scrappy baseball team…you know the Tampa Bay Rays, who happen to be in first place? This lack of fan support is draining. No more excuses, get out to the Trop and support your damn team!
The New What Next
The Rays announced this afternoon that Steve Geltz will stat tonight tonight instead of Matt Andriese (1-1, 3.76 ERA), in what will be a bullpen day. Cash employed a similar strategy in Miami — by starting a reliever, the idea is that the Rays can use National League rules in their favor by pinch hitting early. Andriese, who earned his first Major League win on Friday when he pitched a career long 5-2/3 innings, is still expected to pitch at some point during the contest. Jordan Zimmermann (5-4, 3.74 ERA) will face the Rays for the first time since his rookie season. He tossed five innings of one-run ball (solo home run) in an 8-3 loss, in his most recent start. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 6/17/15 Starting Lineup
Kiermaier CF
Elmore 1B
Longoria 3B
DeJesus LF
Forsythe 2B
Souza RF
Cabrera SS
Casali C
Geltz RHP
Jake Elmore waits on-deck during the fifth inning. (Photo Credit: X-Rays Spex)The Tampa Bay Rays start the day with sole possession of first place in the AL East, after taking down Bryce Harper and the Washington Nationals by a score of 6-1. Erasmo Ramirez threw a season-high 103 pitches over six scoreless innings. While he hasn’t been impeccable, Ramirez has allowed just three runs over his last four starts, spanning 23-1/3 innings. At 36-29, the Rays are a season high seven games over .500.
Ramirez walked the tightrope all night, yet he used the Nationals aggressiveness to his advantage, enabling him to earn his career-high sixth win. The righty stranded nine men on base (while holding Washington to 1-5 wRISP) over the first five frames, including a pair of high leverage, bases loaded situations the third and fifth innings. Despite the mounting pitch count, Kevin Cash let Ramirez take the hill in the sixth with 93 pitches under his belt. The smiley guy put down the Nationals in order on 10 pitches, including a pair of swinging strikeouts of Danny Espinosa and Ian Desmond.
Erasmo spoke about his third scoreless start of the season after the game:
After Ramirez, the lefty tandem of CJ Riefenhauser and Enny Romero followed with a pair of scoreless innings. Riefenhauser allowed one batter to reach — Denard Span on a leadoff walk — yet put down the next three batters (Anthony Rendon, Yunel Escobar and Bryce Harper) to shut the door on the Nats in the seventh.
Cash called upon Xavier Cedeno in the ninth. Cedeno made things a little too interesting by walking the leadoff batter, Michael Taylor, then loading the bases on a pair of one-out singles to Dan Uggla and Rendon. The LOOGY allowed a run to cross the plate before Bryce Harper lined to Nick Franklin, resulting in a game-ending double play.
Offensively, the Rays were able to knock lefty Gio Gonzalez out of the game in the fourth, his shortest outing of the season.
Kevin Kiermaier started the scoring in the second, reaching on a hustle double in front of center fielder Denard Span. The Outlaw then swiped third, and scored on a Rene Rivera sac-fly.
Tampa Bay added to the lead with a pair of runs in the third. Joey Butler, Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe went back-to-back-to-back with base hits, with the last hit scoring a run. Steven Souza Jr. walked, and Jake Elmore celebrated his 28th birthday by hitting a sac-fly for the three-run advantage. Souza walked five times, tying a Rays record set last season by Matt Joyce.
The Rays chased Gonzalez the very next inning after Rivera singled to left, Brandon Guyer was hit by a pitch, and Joey Butler singled to load the bases. Longoria followed with a sacrifice-fly to — the third sac-fly of the night for the Rays, and the first time Tampa Bay had that many in nearly two years. Forsythe gave the good guys a five run lead on his third hit of the night.
They added one last run in the fifth after Guyer tripled off reliever Taylor Hill. Guyer’s hit scored Kiermaier from second, after he reached on a leadoff double to right.
All told, the rays had 11 hits: three by Forsythe, and two each by Kiermaier and Butler.
Longoria left the game in the fifth after being hit by a pitch on the left wrist. X-Rays on his wrist came back negative and Longoria is listed as day-to-day after suffering a contusion on that wrist:
The New What Next
Alex Colome (3-2, 4.21 ERA) will make his 10th start of the season, opposite of RHP Tanner Roark. Of Colome’s 15 career starts, he has allowed two earned runs or fewer 11 times and has yielded no earned runs six times. Roark has done okay since joining the rotation, going 2-2 with a 4.64 ERA in four starts. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 6/16/15 Starting Lineup
Kiermaier CF
Butler DH
Longoria 3B
DeJesus LF
Forsythe 2B
Souza RF
Cabrera SS
Elmore 1B
Rivera C
Colome RHP
Noteworthiness
— Ramirez is 6-1 with a 2.36 ERA in his past 14 appearances (eight starts) since April 19. Prior to that, he had a 25.31 ERA.
— Tampa Bay won against a lefty starter for the ninth straight time.
— Only three teams in majors have more wins than the Rays: Cardinals (42), Dodgers (37), Astros (37).
— The Rays are deciding whether to promote Ronald Belisario, who has 17 saves at Triple-A Durham, or let him hit the free-agent. Belisario notified the team Monday he would use his opt-out clause. They have until Wednesday to decide.
Belisario, 32, has a 3.26 ERA and 17 saves in 19 opportunities in 27 Durham appearances.
— After being rained out in Port Charlotte, Matt Moore will try to make his third rehab start for the Stone Crabs this afternoon. DH/OF John Jaso is expected to join the team on their upcoming road trip to start taking full batting practice. He, however, will need a rehab assignment and is several weeks from being activated from the DL. Righties Jake Odorizzi and Andrew Bellatti played catch Monday afternoon, 35 throws at 75 feet, and reportedly felt good. LHP Drew Smyly played catch as well.
— Congratulations to the Lightning for an excellent season! That said, can everyone PLEASE focus on that scrappy baseball team…you know the Tampa Bay Rays, who happen to be in first place? This lack of fan support is draining. No more excuses, get out to the Trop and support your damn team!
