Tampa Bay will butt heads one last time in their current series against their AL East nemesis, New York Yankees. The Rays are now 3-3 in their current home stand following a huge 7-4 win last night. They were also finally able to break through the seven hit, four run barrier that has plagued them for the last 10 games prior to last night. Tampa Bay has already won this series, while gaining two games on the dreaded first place Yankees. They now find themselves 5.5 game out of first, and a half game behind the second place Baltimore Orioles. The Rays look to sweep the Yankees at home for the third time in a row, going back to last season.
David Price (1-4, 2.92 ERA) will take the hill against David Phelps (1-3, 3.16) who’s filling Grimmace’s spot in the rotation while the swarthy left-hander is on the DL. Opposing hitters have posted a .250 BAA/.318 OBP/.429 SLG/.747 OPS line against the rookie, with Phelps giving up 13 extra base hits in 37 innings of work. Phelps averages 87 pitches per start, giving the Rays a great opportunity to knock the young righty around. If pictures are worth a thousand words, the chart (below) should speak volumes.
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- The New York Yankees have dropped nine straight at Tropicana Field, and 11 in a row on artificial turf.
- The Yankees are 0-5 at Tropicana field this season.
- The Yankees haven’t lost 10 straight in an opposing ballpark since a 15-game slide between July 20, 1989 and September 3, 1991 at the old Arlington Stadium in Texas
- The only four hitters with at least 40 at-bats against Price are all Yankees, with Derek Jeter hitting .289 within that group while Mark Teixeira (.214), Robinson Cano (.244) and Curtis Granderson (.195 with 15 strikeouts in 41 at-bats) have fared poorly.
- The Yankees matched a season high in the error column, committing three that led to three unearned runs for Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The Yankees entered the contest with the majors’ third-fewest errors with 36, but have now committed four errors in the first two games of this series, where as the Rays have committed none.
- On the subject of errors, when the Rays commit even one error in a game, they are 20-22. When they play errorless baseball, they are 23-16.
- The magic number is still five. If the Rays score at least five runs, they are 24-4; that drops to 17-34 when they score 4 or less runs.
Tampa Bay Rays July 4, 2012 Starting Lineup
Jennings LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Keppinger 3B
Zobrist RF
Scott DH
Lobaton C
Rodriguez 2B
Johnson SS
Price LHP