The Rays come home riding a huge surge of momentum following the (cumulative) 21-6 shellacking of the Toronto Blue Jays over the last two days. Minnesota will enter the Trop for a three game set following a disappointing loss to the Yankees Thursday. There’s a lot to be excited about.
First, BJ Upton is is scheduled to return to the roster tonight, offering the Rays more speed, power, and defensive prowess. In order to make room on the roster for his imminent return, Steven Vogt will presumably be sent back to triple-A. No official word has come out on that yet. Upton stands to return to a team on an offensive upswing, after scoring 21 runs over the course of the last two games following a shift in the lineup, of sorts. Where BJ fits in the lineup at the moment is unknown.
If you’ll recall, Upton has lead off in the past with some success. In 2009 with 98 games under his belt in the number one spot, BJ had a slash line of .214 BA/.316 OBP/.372 SLG/.688 OPS/7 HR/33 SB/10 CS in 43 attempts. In 2010, Upton returned to that spot in the lineup 37 times and performed well, with a slash line of .262 BA/.367 OBP/.440 SLG/.807 OPS/5 HR/10 SB/3 CS in 15 attempts. Therein lies a big worry: BJ struck out 162 times last year, and is projected to follow the same trajectory this year. Because of the propensity to not have good at bats, I really don’t see him in the lead off spot. Could he be better suited at the bottom of the lineup, especially after the amount of damage the one-through-five hitters did to the Jays the last two days? Probably. I’d have to assume that Joe wouldn’t thrust him in a higher leverage spot this quickly after a tepid, injury filled spring and rehab stint. Nevertheless, it’ll be nice to have some stability in the OF and a bit more wiggle room on the bench with his return. We’ll just have to wait and see where Maddon lines him up when the starting lineup is released.
The acquisition of 1B/OF Brandon Allen is also quite exciting. Over the course of the last two years Allen has hit .299 with 21 homers, 72 RBIs and a .991 on-base plus slugging percentage in 93 games last season, and .261/25/86 with a .933 OPS in 107 games in 2010. Since he was acquired on waivers, he must be on kept on a major league team, or he could be snatched up by another team. How will the Rays fit him on the bench? Possibly by sending Reid Brignac back down to Durham.
Brignac has only two hits in his last 17 plate appearances, and has only played sporadically this season, coming on in the late innings at short-stop so Sean Rodriguez could take over for Jeff Keppinger at second. Plus, Elliot Johnson is a more versatile player where as Brignac is only suited for the middle infield. And with the return of Upton, we’re likely to see Ben Zobrist splitting his time at second and in right-field. That is to say there are too many hands in the infield honey pot. Plus, Johnson is out of options and the Rays would risk losing him if they sent Elliot back to triple-A on waivers. They’re not going to risk losing depth.
The possibility for Tampa Bay to come up big tonight is there. That too is a very good, and exciting. The Rays will be facing second year pitcher, Liam Hendricks. Hendricks is primarily a fastball pitcher, leaning on it 61% of the time. He has a slash line of 5.22 ERA/6.14 K per 9/1.84 BB per 9/3.33 K per BB/1.23 HR per 9. Over the course of 29 innings over five starts, Hendricks has given up 17 runs (all earned) with four home runs, including one in this young season. He has struck out 20 hitters in that time. If the Rays can get to him early, in kind with what they’ve done the last two nights, they can knock him out of the game and force the Twinkies to rely on their pen to early. Tampa Bay will need to use all of the offensive momentum accrued the last couple of nights if they’re going to continue their nine game winning streak in regular season games at home.
Young Matt Moore looks to get his first win of the year following a decent for start where he received a no-decision, and a lackluster start last week against the Red Sox. Though he denies it, word has spread of the possibility that he was tipping his pitches in that less than stellar performance. Here’s to hope that Hickey and he have worked on that prior to today. The bullpen has started to stabilize, which is wonderful. JP Howell is returning to 2008/09 form, and Joel Peralta has had some really strong performances is his last three outings. Yet with the exception of James Shields, who’s had two great consecutive starts, the rest of the starting rotation has been anything but exceptional. Moore stands to rectify things both for himself and the rotation. And it all starts tonight at 7:05.
I’d love to see Tampa Bay take at least two from the Twins, and enter next weeks series against Albert Pujols and the Angels with the momentum and confidence that it’s going to take to defeat a strong, albeit it slumping Angels team. The starting lineup will be included once it’s released. As always, Let’s Go Rays!
4/20/12 Starting Lineup:
Jennings LF
Zobrist 2B
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Joyce RF
Upton CF
Gimenez C
Rodriguez SS
Moore LHP