The Tampa Bay Rays are back at it Sunday afternoon following the postponement of Saturday night’s game due to inclement, wintery weather. For the Rays, they’ll try to split the weather shortened series, and get back to .500 on the season.
Because of the postponement, the Rays had to rework their rotation that was already set to be adjusted this week. Jake Odorizzi will make his scheduled start this afternoon. After off-day on Monday, Matt Moore, Drew Smyly and Chris Archer will start against Cleveland. As Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) opined, “It makes sense to give Smyly a few days before starting him. Smyly made just 12 starts last year because of shoulder problems, and he went through a full warm-up in the cold last night.”
The initial plan was to drop in a fifth starter on Wednesday, since the team is slated to play six consecutive games in the upcoming week, with Matt Andriese lined up to be called up from Triple-A. Kevin Cash now will wait until Friday or Saturday to add the fifth starter be it Andriese, LHP prospect Blake Snell or Erasmo Ramirez ― in which case an extra arm would need to be added to the bullpen.
#Rays Archer, player rep, says nothing official but most likely makeup with #Orioles is a DH during June 24-26 return
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 10, 2016
As for the rescheduling of Saturday’s postponed game, a makeup date hasn’t been announced, though a doubleheader during the Rays’ June 24-26 visit to Baltimore seems to be the most likely option. A cursory warning, both teams have a common off-day in advance of the aforementioned series, however, playing then would make for 27 consecutive days of play leading up to the All-Star Break.
The New What Next
Jake Odorizzi (today’s starter) has had difficulty against Baltimore over his career, especially at Camden Yards where he is 1-2 with a 7.20 ERA. Even so, Jake went 2-0 with a 3.93 ERA against the O’s last season. He’ll toe the rubber opposite of Tyler Wilson. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 4/10/16 Starting Lineup
Forsythe 2B
Morrison DH
Longoria 3B
Dickerson LF
Pearce 1B
Miller SS
Souza RF
Kiermaier CF
Casali C
Odorizzi RHP
Noteworthiness
― Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the Rays pitchers’ 52 strikeouts are their most ever through five games.
― Going into the series finale, the Rays bullpen has collected a minuscule 1.08 ERA.
― At least the series finale will be played:
Okay …. #Rays and #Orioles at 1:35 today pic.twitter.com/GeLHLz3q1Y
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 10, 2016