Tag Archives: New York Yankees

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: .500

They didn’t win the World Series or clinch a playoff berth Friday night, but there was reason to celebrate — the Tampa Bay Rays became only the fourth team of the modern era to team to get back to .500 from 18 games below (joining the 1899 Louisville team, the 2004 Rays, and the 2006 Marlins). They did so by putting together their 15th shutout of the season, tagging the New York Yankees with a 5-0 loss in the series opener.

The New What Next: Rays vs. Yankees — A Series Preview of Sorts

I can distinctly recall the mantra of the 2011 season being “Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes.” The Tampa Bay Rays put themselves into a hole that no other team, historically, had been able to dig themselves out of — yet they did. Then last season, with their playoff hopes quickly slipping away, they put together a season ending run which found the Rays in the postseason for the fourth time in six years. This year is different, and I’d imagine that the lyrics, “All I know is that I don’t know, all I know is that I don’t know nothing,” would be an apt maxim for the remainder of the season.

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Bedard, Myers, and the Rays Beat the Yankees, 5-1

The Tampa Bay Rays took the getaway game from the Yankees by a score of 5-1. They finished their road trip at .500 over the 10 games, after starting the trip with a 1-4 record. The winning pitcher was Erik Bedard, who gave the team an excellent 6 IP/6 H/1 ER/1 BB/3 K/85 pitch (58 strikes) outing. The Rays have a well deserved off-day Monday, before resuming the schedule Tuesday against the Orioles at the Trop.