The end is nigh. Six road games separate the Tampa Bay Rays from a long off-season – the death knell of their first non-winning season in six years. First stop Boston, where they’ll take on the Red Sox in the sixth and final series against the two AL East foes.
Tag Archives: Jake Odorizzi
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 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.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Red Sox Rip Rays, 8-4
It didn’t feel like a Rays/Red Sox game Friday night. It also didn’t feel like a contest that was relevant or important — and let’s be honest, it wasn’t. From the half empty stands to the hushed crowd, the atmosphere at The Trop felt stale. And despite what Joe Maddon said, about the Rays still having a shot at the playoffs, the good guys are playing as though they’ve resigned themselves to mediocrity. The first and second innings epitomized that feeling to a T. If only the Rays could be credited with a win based on their play in segments, not as a whole — they easily would have won the game from the third through ninth innings.
Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Rays, Odorizzi Crushed By Orioles, 9-1
Friends, I’d put myself into category number three. I willingly watched as Jake Odorizzi gave up for homers in four plus innings. I willing watched as the Orioles put together their 49th multi-homer game of the season — they’re now 39-10 in those games. And I willingly watched as the Rays hitters did nothing with the scoring opportunities they put together against Chris Tillman. Four plus innings (and eight runs) later, I regretted my decision and turned on Bizarre Foods as penance.