Rays vs Jays 4/19/12 (Starting lineup included), Upton, and Brandon Allen Acquisition

The Rays will attempt to wrap up their 10-game road trip in style tonight, at the Rogers Center in Toronto. Coming off a 12-2 shellacking of the Blue Jays last night, Tampa Bay will try to end their first road trip of this young season on a high note, and return home to face the Twinkies with a 6-5 record. Jeremy Hellickson (1-0, 3.29 ERA) will go up against Henderson Alvarez (0-0, 2.77 ERA) as he tries to recover from a less than stellar outing against the Sox.

Tampa Bay will need to disrupt Alvarez early in the same way they disrupted Brandon Morrow last night. His current numbers are below. On average, Alvarez has given up two runs and five hits over the course of two games, and 23 runs on 64 hits in 63.2 innings in 2011. He’s only struck out four this year, and a toal of 40 last season. That is to say, he’s not going to get a lot of K’s tonight, but he will induce weak hits.

As Starter AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB HBP SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
48 4 10 2 0 2 4 2 2 4 0 0 .208 .269 .375 .644
Joe Maddon had a lot of luck with his lineup last night, so much so that he’s throwing the same basic lineup out there again tonight with the exception of a Jeff Keppinger/Matt Joyce flip flop. Tampa Bay was able to get to a very good Brandon Morrow, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they’ll be able to get to young Henderson Alvarez as well.
Bits o’ information before the starting lineup:
BJ Upton should be rejoining the team tomorrow following a rehab stint in Port Charlotte and Montgomery. It was speculated that he may appear tonight in Toronto, but that would have been a bit counter intuitive since he’s coming of playing in a double header yesterday. The Rays also acquired 26 year-old OF/1B, Brandon Allen, off of waivers. According to Marc Topkin of the Times,

Allen, 26, is a lefty hitting first baseman/outfielder, seemingly a  more experienced player to fill the role held by rookie Stephen Vogt.

Allen has played parts of four seasons with the Diamondbacks (2009-11) and A’s (11-12), with a .205 average and 11 homers and 38 RBIs (in 374 plate apperances). He has played in 109 big-league games, 52 last season, when he was traded July 31 in a deal for Brad Ziegler.

If Allen takes Vogt’s place, the Rays would be looking at another roster move on Friday to make room for CF B.J. Upton, which most likely would involve either INF Reid Brignac, who could be sent to the minors, or INF/OF Elliot Johnson, who is out of options and would have to first be exposed to waivers.

Allen does have some pop in his bat. Click here to see a video clip of Allen blasting a Bartolo Colon pitch 428 feet in the opposite direction last season.

Rays (6-6) Starting Lineup 4/19/12:

Jennings CF
Zobrist RF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Joyce LF
Keppinger 2B
Molina C
Rodriguez SS
Hellickson RHP (1-0)

Rays Shellac the Jays, 12-2 AKA A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

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Tonight's graph (courtesy of Fangraphs) is telling. The Blue Jays held their own until the fifth when the bottom fell out. Kiddies, this is what it looks like when the Rays own a team. Now, they just have to win tomorrow and come home on a high note, with a 7-6 record after 13 games.

 I’ll post a synopsis of the game later. Until then, relish the graph above.

Tampa Bay Rays Starting Lineup, 4/18/12

The Rays will take on the Jays for game two of this three game set tonight at 7:00. David Price will take the hill against Brandon “I came within one out of no hitting the Rays in 2010, and I also struck out 29 Rays batters in two consecutive appearance against the Rays” Morrow. That is to say, Morrow is a very good pitcher and, by and large, has Tampa Bay’s number. Joe Maddon is so aware of this fact, that he’s assembled one of his more odd lineups (below) in recent history. Tonight’s lineup has Ben Zobrist batting second, Carlos Pena batting third, and Evan Longoria batting fourth. It’s not often that Longo is fourth. And II must admit, ‘m not really comfortable with Luke Scott following Longoria in the lineup, especially after the two double plays that he grounded into last night. Nevertheless, it is what it is.

One dogma pervades David Price tonight: don’t give Joey Bats anything he can hit. Jose Bautista is 9 for 27 lifetime against Price, including four home runs. To put in another way, though Bautista is a Ray killer, with 1/4 of all of his home runs against the Rays coming off of Price, he’s more so a Price killer. If Price is as confident in his stuff as he says he is, then he’d better come out of the barn on fire. It’s safe to say that this 80 pitches or more in three to four innings of work mess won’t cut it. Hell, that wouldn’t even cut it in the pen.

Tampa Bay Rays (5-6) starting lineup, 4/18/12:

Jennings CF
Zobrist RF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Keppinger 2B
Joyce LF
Molina C
Rodriguez SS
Price LHP

You’re Kidding, Right? Blue Jays 7-3 Over Rays (Now including Video from Longoria on three error day)

I’ve nothing nice to say. Longoria’s three errors directly contributed to four Jays runs. The Rays left six on base. Luke Scott grounds into not one, but two double plays. Matt Joyce lets a 91 MPH meatball in the zone blow right by him, striking out looking with two on in the eighth. Tampa Bay let’s a struggling Joey Bats hit a homer and a sac fly. And the only mildly effective pitchers were Niemann, who only went five innings and was pulled after throwing only 87 pitches (I’ve my theories on that one), and Jake McGee. Box scores are below; there’s always tomorrow.

Line score, courtesy of Yahoo Sports
Offensive box score, courtesy of Yahoo Sports
Pitching box score, courtesy of Yahoo Sports

Fun facts:

BJ Upton DL replacement, Stephen Vogt, is now 0-13 on the season after his one AB on Tuesday. Vogt has easily gotten off to the worst start of any of the Rays on the roster…even worse than Elliot Johnson or Reid Brignac. Why he was even called up in the first place could, and should, be called into question, especially when you consider that there are suitable bats on the farm in Salazar or Feliciano. Fear not, his time here is limited.

According to Rays Prospects,  B.J. Upton is scheduled to play in both games on Wednesday, in the outfield in game 1 and at DH in game 2. If all goes well he should be finished with his rehab assignment with the Biscuits. This news follows his Mongomery Biscuits debut where he was 2-4 with a walk for the game. BJ made his Montgomery debut in style, singling home the tying run in the 9th. I’d ascertain that he could be on the Rays roster as early as tomorrow if his his double duty performances today go smoothly.

In other news, Longoria’s three error game tied a team record, making him the seventh Ray in franchise history to have a three error game. Longo joins the ranks of Sean Rodriguez, Dioner Navarro, Josh Wilson, Alex Gonzalez, Jason Smith, and Kevin Stocker.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvtKUb0zjQY]

Tampa Bay vs. Toronto, 4/17/12 (Lineup included)

The Rays find themselves (just barely) north of the border tonight for the first game in a three game set. This is also only the second night game of this very young season. Though this game stands to throw the Rays into a more, uhh…normal schedule, after what seemed to be such a weird mostly day schedule starting way back (ha) on April 6th.

Jeff Niemann continues the hunt for his first victory of the year, as he take the hill against Ricky Romero. Niemann has had okay numbers against the Jays in seasons past. He also has the games start time on his side: “The Big Nyquil” traditionally performs better in night games than he does in day games.

Also boding well for Niemann; the bigger bats on the Jays have not woken up just yet. That’s not to say that the Jays aren’t a dangerous team. At an average of five plus runs per game, even with J.P. Arencibia (.071 BA in 28 AB), Colby Rasmus (.088 BA in 32 AB), Jose Bautista (.206 BA in 34 AB), and Eric Thames (.250 BA in 28 AB) hitting well below where they typically should be hitting, lord knows that they’re still capable of breaking out of any slump they may be in. Cough, just look at “Youseless”. Niemann needs to drive his fastball down in the zone, and throw quality pitches overall. If he can lean on a well placed fastball and that killer spiked curveball, Niemann will be dangerous. If he can’t, at least Wade Davis is well rested.

On the other hand, Ricky Romero is a tough lefty, and the Rays starting lineup (below) reflects just that, with a lineup that includes only four lefties. Though Tampa Bay won the season series against the Blue Jays in 2011 by a record of 11-7, I wouldn’t say they owned the Jays by any stretch of the imagination. And, the Blue Jays have only gotten better since the 2011 All-Star break and the off season. In the end, I’ll be content with the Rays taking two out-of three, returning home with a 7-6 record Friday. But it all starts tonight in about an hour or so. As always, Let’s Go Rays!

Tampa Bay Rays (5-5 overall, 2-4 on this road trip) starting lineup:

Jennings CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Zobrist RF
Joyce LF
Rodriguez 2B
Brignac SS
Gimenez C
Niemann P

Side Notes: According to Marc Topkin, “Maddon says Upton doing so well “it’s not out of the question” he could join team in Toronto, if not “probably” Friday.”