Tampa Bay enters Arlington for a short road trip tonight. Rays ace, James Shields (3-0, 2.76 ERA) will take the bump against the tough lefty, Matt Harrison (3-0, 1.66 ERA). Tampa bay went 4-5 against Texas in 2011 regular season play, and 1-3 in the post-season. Texas is red hot, and are quite good at the plate with a team .296 BA. Then again, the Rays are coming off of a three game sweep of the Angels, and are on a five-game winning streak. They’re pretty red hot themselves.
Below is a table of the usual suspects; that is the pitches Harrison likes to throw, and how many (by percent) of those pitches he throws for balls and strikes. I’ve also included a table of how the Rays batters, historically, have fared against the tough lefty. I crossed off the players that are no longer in the Rays organization, or are currently in triple-A. Why Damon, Baldelli, and Aybar are still listed in the first place is beyond me! Nevertheless, when you adjust the team batting average, taking the four players in question (including Rhymes) out of the equation, the Rays have a .294 BA against Harrison, with one homer, five walks, and 13 strikeouts. That said, the Rays are lukewarm at the plate against Harrison. Tampa Bay is coming off of a huge win, and one wonders how much their momentum from that may come into play tonight.
Rays 4/27/12 Starting Lineup:
Jennings LF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Zobrist RF
Keppinger DH
Upton CF
Rodriguez SS
Gimenez C
Johnson 2B
Shields RHP