Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays Drop Game One, 2-0

It’s been said you can’t win games if you don’t score runs. And if the Rays 2 – 0 loss (the eighth shutout of the year) to Boston Tuesday night did anything, its confirm that theory to a T. Tampa Bay wasted an outstanding 8 IP/3 H/2 R/2 ER/0 BB/9 K outing by David Price, dropping their seventh of 10 games and falling to 8.5 games behind the AL East leading Red Sox. At least you can’t blame Rays for not doing anything with RISP this time — only two runners reached second safely; James Loney in the second inning and Yunel Escobar in the eighth.

The New What Next: Enter the Diamondbacks

Back to interleague play. The second place Diamondbacks will come into the Trop Tuesday for a two game set against the Rays. Arizona took two out of three from Tampa Bay the last time the two teams met in 2010, though the Rays lead the series, 8-4 overall and 4-2 at the Trop. The Diamondbacks have stumbled to a 4-6 record following the All-Star break, while dropping two-and-a-half games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. The Rays, on the other hand, are coming off a franchise best 8-2 post All-Star Break road trip, winning 22 of their last 26.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Hernandez, Rays Roll to 8-3 Victory Over the Sox

Despite tossing 117 pitches, Joe Maddon elected send Hernandez back onto the mound in the eighth inning. What followed was a thing of beauty. After getting ahead of Dustin Pedroia, Robo plunked the Chris Elliot lookalike on a 1-2 pitch, feigning a reaction as the ball connected with Pedroia.

The New What Next: Enter the Red Sox – A Series Preview of Sorts

The Rays will welcome the Red Sox into the Trop Monday, starting a three game set against their AL East rivals. This series, as with the previous series against the Orioles, promises to be an important one — Tampa Bay stands to make up at least a game against the AL East leading Red Sox. Just a few notes on Sunday’s game before we focus our attention on the upcoming series.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Price Headed to the DL

The Rays will take on the Boston Red Sox Thursday night, in the rubber match the current three-game set. There really wasn’t much to like about the previous game. Tampa Bay gave up nine runs over the course of two innings, while the bats — though alive — couldn’t score more than two runs off Jon Lester — who was more lucky than dominant.