Jeremy Hellickson is seeking his second win of the year, as he and the Tampa Bay Rays start a four game set against Mark Buehrle and the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night at the Trop. Though Tampa Bay went 4-5 on their most recent road trip, there is a lot to be excited about following their 8-3 victory against the Colorado Rockies Sunday.
Alex Cobb bounced back after the great unraveling, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk. Granted he gave up three home runs, they were all solo shots. Cobb did a great job mixing up his pitches, throwing 51 fastballs for 32 strikes, 31 changeups for 21 strikes and 25 curveballs for 18 strikes. As DRaysBay pointed out,
Compared to his last start in Kansas City, Cobb kept more of his pitches down in the zone, and some of them were downright filthy. There were really only three blaring mistakes with Cobb’s pitches today and they all wound up as solo homeruns. Aside from that, Cobb was pretty dominant and he was getting really good movement on his offspeed pitches throughout the day.
Similar to their series against the Oakland A’s, the Rays were able to walk away with a series victory against one of the better teams in Major League Baseball. Not bad for a team that’s two games below .500, and five-and-a-half games out of first place in the AL East.
Moving Forward.
Rays 5/6/13 Starting Lineup
1. Desmond Jennings CF
2. Kelly Johnson LF
3. Ryan Roberts 2B
4. Evan Longoria 3B
5. James Loney 1B
6. Sean Rodriguez SS
7. Luke Scott DH
8. Jose Molina C
9. Sam Fuld RF
Noteworthiness
- Don’t expect to see Ben Zobrist or Yunel Escobar in the lineup tonight. Zobrist is expected to return to the fold tomorrow following a family related break from play, while Escobar is expected to pick up where he left off at some point during the week after getting hit by a pitch Saturday.
- Luke Scott is back in the lineup at DH and hitting seventh.
- Read more on tonight’s match-up here.