Tag Archives: Ben Zobrist

The New What Next: Rays Head to the Bronx For Three — A Series Preview of Sorts

The end is nigh. The Tampa Bay Rays will follow their recent 4-6 home stand with their penultimate road trip of the season. First stop New York, where the Rays are set to start a three game series against the Bronx Bummers.

Tampa Bay has been relegated to two roles for the remainder of the 2014 season:

1. Spoilers
2. A team that can finish the final month of play strongly

As it relates to task number one, the Rays took two-of-three from the Orioles this weekend past. However, at 3-4 with a -10 run differential, the Rays haven’t really played that well in September. To be fair, at 3-3 over their last six games, neither have the Yankees — a team who is struggling to stay relevant down the final stretch.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Post 19th Shutout of the Season

At this point in the season, when it – as a whole — has been largely conceived as a waste, the best a fan can do is look for the little things to celebrate; a good pitching performance, setting a franchise record, watching a team shutout one of the best teams in baseball. As a fan, I’ve resolved myself to do just that, while also look at the Rays in the future context with the simple question in mind: What are the Rays doing in the present tense, that may carry over into Spring Training and the 2015 season? If the last two games are indicative of anything, the pitching staff looks like it will be solid once more, while the offense is going to need some offseason work on situational hitting.

The New What Next: Baltimore Vs. Tampa Bay Part Six — A Series Preview of Sorts

The Rays welcome the Orioles for the sixth and final series of the season. For Tampa Bay, the wanton desire to finish off the season on a high note hasn’t translated to tallies in the win column. Rather, it feels like a slow dragging grind to game 162 — akin to a funeral procession. The Rays, coming off their 17th shutout of the year, have fallen short in 13 of their last 19.

The New What Next: The Blue Jays Are In For a Three-Game Set

A day after they closed out the series with a split against those dastardly Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays will welcome the Toronto Blue Jays into The Trop for a three game set. For the Rays, they’ll attempt to use their Labor Day win as a springboard for a run in the final month of play. With all reasonable expectations of a postseason berth off the table, there is the running hope they can end the season on a high note.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Strike Back, 7-0

For those of you pining for the acerbity of the Rays and Red Sox games of yore, the acrimonious linkage returned to The Trop Saturday night, in what would go down as one of the more truly bizarre games in recent history. A power outage to start the game, five hit batsmen, and a TKO of Dustin Pedroia later, the Tampa Bay Rays walked away with a combined 7-0, one hit shutout of the Boston Red Sox.