The New What Next: Rays vs Tigers, A Series Preview of Sorts

"Wow R.A really had it working today. Felt like I was chasing a wiffle ball on a windy day!" - Evan Longoria, via Twitter (Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times)
“Wow R.A really had it working today. Felt like I was chasing a wiffle ball on a windy day!” – Evan Longoria, via Twitter (Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times)

There isn’t much that can be said about Wednesday’s series finale against the Blue Jays. In short, RA Dickey returned to his 2012 Cy Young Award winning form, pitching a two-hit — two hour and ten minute — complete game shutout. Dickey was outstanding, allowing only three base runners while walking one and striking six.

Tampa Bay was incapable of mounting a rally on this fateful day. Dickey induced weak contact with his knuckle-ball that fluttered all over the zone, while Desmond Jennings was the only Ray to get into scoring position on his ninth stolen base of the year, following a seventh inning walk.

Roberto Hernandez, by all accounts, had a solid outing. He pitched well enough to get a win on any other day, just not this one. Going eight strong innings, Robo allowed six hits overall (including two home runs) while walking one and striking out five. As we’ve grown uncomfortably accustomed to, Hernandez was masterful much of the time, but was hurt by a few mistakes. This time he left two off-speed pitches up and in the middle of the zone, consequently resulting in a pair of home runs. You’ve got to hand it to him though, Hernandez did a good job of eating innings and sparing the bullpen. Robo has now lost three consecutive starts and five of his last seven. Ouch. Hey, at least the Rays took the series!

Moving Forward.

The Rays will welcome the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers into the Trop for a three game set Friday, following their last off-day before the All-Star break. Le Tigre has cooled down somewhat following the last meeting between the two teams, at the beginning of June. As of June 27th, the Tigers have lost eight of their last 15 games while averaging just under three runs per game. The Rays haven’t fared much better. Tampa Bay has lost nine of their last 15 games, though they’ve averaged over three runs per game in that stretch.

Rays and Tigers series starters.
Rays and Tigers series starters.
Rays and Tigers offensive production at home, away, and over the last 14 days.
Rays and Tigers offensive production at home, away, and over the last 14 days.
Rays and Tigers by the numbers.
Rays and Tigers by the numbers.

Max Scherzer: Per Rotowire, “Scherzer became the majors’ first 11-game winner Saturday after holding the Red Sox to two runs on six hits over seven innings.” Scherzer is looking for his major league-leading 12th win and fifth in as many starts on Friday. Scherzer allowed two earned runs in seven innings to defeat the Red Sox on Saturday and has struck out 122 batters in 102 1/3 total innings. Scherzer held Tampa Bay to one run in seven innings to earn a win on June 6 and is 2-2 with a 2.64 ERA against them in his career. Key match-ups: Yunel Escobar (11-28, 3 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB), Kelly Johnson (4-13, 2 2B), James Loney (5-17, 2B, HR, 5 RBI, BB).

Justin Verlander: Per Rotowire, “Verlander took a no-decision Sunday against the Red Sox after throwing five innings and allowing four runs on seven hits and three walks, raising his ERA to 3.90 on the year.” The Rays have yet to face Verlander (2-3, 4.14 ERA against Tampa Bay since 2010) this season, though that will change Saturday. Verlander hasn’t been nearly as consistent in 2013 as he has in the past. The Tigers ace has gone six or fewer innings seven times while throwing a lot pitches in the process. What’s more, he’s given up four or more runs on four different occasions, relying on the offense to bail him out twice. Key match-ups: Desmond Jennings (3-7, 2 HR, 2 RBI), Matt Joyce (2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, BB), Evan Longoria (7-25, 2B, 3B, HR, 4 RBI, BB), Sean Rodriguez (2-7, 2 2B).

Rick Porcello: Per Rotowire, “Porcello got hit around Tuesday, giving up seven earned runs on 10 hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 4.1 innings against the Halos.” Porcello has been very good against the Rays over 21-1/3 innings of work, posting a 1-1 record and a 2.53 ERA in that span. Then again, Porcello has given up four earned runs or more in five starts this season, including the seven run game referenced above. Key match-ups: Yunel Escobar (1-3), Desmond Jennings (3-7, RBI).

Noteworthiness

  • Surprise surprise, Miguel Cabrera has hit safely in 12 straight games.
  • Miguel Cabrera is 13 for 25 in his last seven games against the Rays, while Fielder is 8 for 15 in his last four.
  • Max Scherzer has benefited from the best run-support average in baseball at 7.84.
  • It’s safe to say that the Tigers’ offense can be overwhelming, led by the quartet of Miguel Cabrera (who leads the majors with 112 hits and 78 RBIs), Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez.
  • Detroit leads the American League in average and on-base percentage.
  • Former Ray Joaquin Benoit is the unofficial replacement for Jose Valverde, who was dumped again last week.
  • Similar to Tampa Bay, Detroit has lost nine games when leading in the seventh inning or later.
  • David Price is slated to throw a bullpen session Friday and if all goes well, he may be back in the rotation next week in Houston according to a Jim Hickey interview on 620 WDAE.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Moore, Rays Win Second Consecutive Game 5-1

Matt Moore ties his career highs with 11 strikeouts and six walks and throws a career-high 120 pitches in his second straight win. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times)
Matt Moore ties his career highs with 11 strikeouts and six walks and throws a career-high 120 pitches in his second straight win. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times)

The Rays took the second game of a three game set against the Blue Jays Tuesday, on a very stormy night in St. Petersburg. With the sound of thunder echoing inside a 2/3 empty Tropicana Field, the Rays — led by Matt Moore — lowered a 5-1 boom of their own on the hottest team in baseball, scoring runs in the second, fourth, and seventh innings, while stifling a Blue Jays team who could get runners on, but couldn’t get them over and home.

Prior to Tuesday night’s game, Rays’ starters hadn’t posted (at least) three consecutive quality starts since April. And as of the third inning, it looked as though Matt Moore wouldn’t even make it to the fourth inning, after he loaded the bases with only one out. Moore faced a growth moment. The Rays lefty not only got out of the inning unscathed after striking out Rajai Davis and Colby Rasmus, he also went on to pitch three more innings while wringing up five more Jays along the way.

Moore’s control was awful at times, however he was dominant when he was able to regain it. Allowing seven base runners on two singles and five walks in the front three innings alone, Moore walked six Jays overall. He also struck out 11 and made big pitches in the third and sixth innings, when Toronto was threatening with runners in scoring position.

Moore varied his velocity, throwing fastballs as slow as 90 mph — though with a lot of movement — and the Blue Jays simply couldn’t hit them. He ultimately mixed his pitches well — hitting his spots — and the rest is history. Moore’s breakout: two-seam fastball (38 total/23 for strikes/4 whiffs), four-seam fastball (42 total/23 for strikes/9 whiffs), Change-up (15 total/eight for strikes/2 whiffs), slider (25 total/16 for strikes/7 whiffs).

Offensively speaking, Tampa Bay seemed perfectly comfortable against Mark Buehrle, tagging him for four runs on eight hits (seven singles) and four walks.

James Loney singled with one out in the second inning, ultimately advancing to second on a wild pitch. Jose Molina followed that up by walking. With two on and two outs, Desmond Jennings hit a well struck single to left field, plating Loney and knotting the game at one apiece. The Rays would go on to score three more runs fourth inning.

Jose Molina walked to open the inning, while Kelly Johnson was hit by a pitch to put a runner in scoring position with no outs. Jennings followed that with another single, consequently loading the bases and setting the stage for a special play at the plate. Sean Rodriguez hit a fly ball fairly deep to right field and Molina tagged, running as though a bear was chasing him from behind. Jose Bautista fired a strike home, by all accounts beating Molina to the plate. At this point things got a bit cloudy — after all, the outfield isn’t necessarily the most conducive location to see the intricacies of a play at the plate. I’ll leave this part to Ian Malinowski of DRaysBay,

“Molina is apparently trickier than he looks. He ran to the outside of the baseline, kept his left side back, and reached over the tag with his right arm to touch the base, safe.

John Gibbons came out to argue, but the call was correct, and Bautista looked decidedly unamused. Both runners were able to advance on his ambitious throw, and both would come around to score, on a sacrifice and a single.”

Tampa Bay would tack on an insurance run in the seventh inning, following a James Loney and Yunel Escobar double steal to move into scoring position. It should be noted that this wiped the slate clean of a triple-play threat with Molina at the plate. Malinowski went on to mention in his account of the game,

“Molina grounded straight to Encarnacion at third. Brian Anderson revealed that Rick Odioso, the statistician in the booth for the broadcast, pointed out that the double steal may have kept the Rays out of a triple play. He was absolutely right. With Loney at first and Molina running, I’ll go so far as to call it a probably triple play.”

Escobar would score on a softly hit Kelly Johnson ground-out to second.

The New What Next

The Rays will go for the sweep with Roberto Hernandez on the mound. Robo will share the rubber with knuckle-baller RA Dickey. You can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/26/13 Starting Lineup

Joyce LF
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers RF
Scott DH
Molina C
Escobar SS
Hernandez RHP

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays, Hellickson Snap Jays 11-Game Winning Streak

Wil Myers is congratulated at the entrance of the dugout after hitting the second in a series of historic back-to-back-to-back homers Monday night.
Wil Myers is congratulated at the entrance of the dugout after hitting the second in a series of historic back-to-back-to-back homers Monday night. (Photo Courtesy of Edmund D. Fountain/Tampa Bay Times)

Jeremy Hellickson worked into the seventh inning for the first time since May 22nd, in the Rays 4-1 handling of the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night, snapping Toronto’s 11-game winning streak. Don’t look now, but the Rays are starting to look toasty once more. Not only have they strung together back-to-back victories, they’ve also won four out-of-their last six games. The game also went down in the annals of Rays history and lore, after James Loney, Wil Myers, and Sam Fuld hit back-to-back-to-back solo shots for the first time ever in the Trop. More on the game below, in a segment that we like to call The Good, The Bad, and The Argyle: A Bulleted Summary of the Game.

The Good

  • I suppose that Jeremy Hellickson’s outstanding outing is a good place to start. Prior to last night, the Blue Jays averaged 6.7 runs per game over the span of their 11-game winning streak, while the pitching staff held opponents to 2.21 runs per game over the same span of time. In short, the Jays were scoring — on average — four runs per game more than their opponents. Enter Helly. The Rays needed a good start out of Jeremy Hellickson going into this series, and a good start they got in spades. Relying heavily on his four seam fastball (45 total/26 for strikes) and his change-up (32 total/22 for strikes/4 swinging), Hellickson posted seven solid innings of one hit/four walk ball, keeping a powerful Blue Jays team off-balance all night. Toronto had an incredibly hard time of making solid contact, while Colby Rasmus seemed to be the only Jay that was able to get anything started after walking three times and seeing almost a quarter of Helly’s total 96 pitches.
  • A historic second inning… Suffice to say, Esmil Rogers has been very good this season, only allowing five runs in a span of 30-1/3 innings dating back to May 14th. Rogers has also been incredibly tough against righties this season — so tough, I made the errant assumption that Myers wouldn’t hit his first homer at the Trop last night. Because of this, I neglected to purchase tickets to his home debut, choosing to attend tonight’s game instead. Whoops! Little did I know (going into last night’s game) that Tampa Bay would make history. It all started with one out in the bottom of the second. James Loney saw two pitches — a ball and a strike (on a foul) — before Rogers left a meatball in the heart of the zone, consequently finding a home 402 feet away in the right-center stands. Wil Myers followed Loney, crushing a massive 428 foot blast to dead center in his first at-bat under the big top. Then Sam Fuld, the last person that you’d assume would go yard, hit a 356 foot line drive shot to right-field, giving the Rays an early 3-0 lead. Loney, Myers, and Fuld made history, hitting three consecutive homers under the dome for the first time in franchise history.
Must See TV! Click this to be redirected to video of the historic back-to-back-to-back homers.
Must See TV! Click this to be redirected to video of the historic back-to-back-to-back homers.
  • More on Myers. Myers became the third Rays player to homer in his first plate appearance at the Trop. He is also the first player in franchise history with seven runs batted in his first eight career games. Furthermore, Myers is currently in the throes of a seven game hitting streak. Both Joe Maddon and Sam Fuld seemed to be in awe of the Rays rookie, saying,

“That’s right up there. To see a young man come in like that and do that on his first at-bat, I thought it was outstanding…The crowd reaction was really wonderful also, and Wil responded. Like I said, he’s not really impressed with this whole thing yet.”

-Joe Maddon

“Mine’s more like a thud,” Fuld said. “His is like, ‘Whack.’ It’s true.” … “I guess, in some respects, hitting a grand slam [at Yankee Stadium] and then hitting a ball 1,000 feet to center field, it’s pretty impressive.”

-Sam Fuld

  • If I must… It’s only fair to acknowledge Luke Scott’s contribution to the game. Mister .243 BA blooped an RBI double into short left-field, scoring Matt Joyce from second.
  • Fernando Rodney put together his second consecutive save. It wasn’t as pretty or dominant at the preceding save, however Rodney’s 22-pitch outing was much more impressive than many of his earlier appearances. Rodney allowed only one base runner on a JP Arencibia come-backer that Rodney couldn’t snag, while striking out two and inducing the game ending Maicer Izturis ground-out to second.

The Bad

  • How refreshing, I’ve nothing to report!

The Argyle

  • Alex Torres’ scoreless streak comes to an end. Let’s be realistic, the scoreless streak had to come to an end at some point. However, that he was able to get out of a bases loaded mess with minimal damage, while also getting Bautista and Encarnacion to ground out and pop out, was HUGE. Though Torres was visibly upset with himself as he made his way back to the dugout, he can be confident that he did an outstanding job of making the big pitches that ultimately quelled the Jays uprising.

The New What Next

Matt Moore will attempt to follow a solid 6-1/3 IP/4 H/3 ER outing against the Yankees, with another quality start against Mark Buehrle and the Blue Jays Tuesday night at the Trop. You can read about the pitching match-up here.

Rays 6/25/13 Starting Lineup

Jennings CF
Rodriguez LF
Zobrist DH
Longoria 3B
Myers RF
Escobar SS
Loney 1B
Molina C
Johnson 2B
Moore LHP

Noteworthiness

  • Zobrist is tonight’s DH, while Kelly Johnson gets the start at second base.
  • David Price will make another rehab start in Port Charlotte Wednesday. Price mentioned that things could hopefully move in the right direction if he felt good on Thursday. Joe Maddon was a bit cautious to conclusions about Price’s forthcoming activation from the DL, stressing that nothing would be decided until Price was re-evaluated after this start.
  • Peter Gammons tweeted, “Wil Myers makes Trop debut and they can’t draw 12,000?” We, in turn, wrote a response.
  • Cough, an 11-game win streak isn’t always indicative of how good a team is.

 

Rays 6/24/13 Starting Lineup, Alex Cobb Presser

20130624-154549.jpg
Alex Cobb post injury-press conference Monday, June 23. (Photo courtesy of WDAE)

Rays 6/24/13 Starting Lineup

1. Matt Joyce LF
2. Ben Zobrist 2B
3. Luke Scott DH
4. Evan Longoria 3B
5. James Loney 1B
6. Wil Myers RF
7. Sam Fuld CF
8. Jose Lobaton C
9. Yunel Escobar SS
SP Jeremy Hellickson RHP

Noteworthiness

The quotes (below) are from from the Alex Cobb post-injury press conference, held Monday afternoon. All of the quotes come courtesy of WDAE (via Twitter) unless otherwise noted:

“Cobb says he remembers seeing the ball coming back, then laying on the field.”

“Cobb says he’s had nightmares about being hit again, doesn’t know about fear of getting back on mound.”

“Cobb says today has been best day by far. Says headaches had led to vertigo and nausea.”

“Cobb says reports that he won’t pitch this year are not accurate, says he’ll pitch again when his body is ready.”

“Every day I wake up happier that I feel better than the day before.” — Alex Cobb

“Cobb says having his father’s calming reaction with him helped.”

“Alex Cobb says he’ll pitch again this season. I hope so. Sounds like he needs to overcome a huge hurdle mentally as well as physically.” — Tom Krasniqi/WDAE