The Rays head to New York to start a season ending six game road trip on the heels of a huge momentum building four game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. Tampa Bay is finally looking like the team we all thought it would back at the beginning of the season. The pitching and defense have been outstanding, while the offense has been able to get those all important timely hits. To that end, the pitching staff has combined to post a 3.00 ERA and a .211 OBA over a span of their last seven games.
Tampa Bay starts the day with sole ownership of the top Wildcard spot in the AL, with a one-game lead over Cleveland. The Rays have a magic number of five to reach the playoffs. The Yankees, on the other hand, are five games behind Tampa Bay and four behind Cleveland with six games left. New York has dropped six of nine, falling 2-1 at home to San Francisco on Sunday.
Hiroki Kuroda: The Rays royally had their way with the Yankees 38 year-old righty back in August, tagging Kuroda for seven runs on nine hits, including four home runs. Kuroda hasn’t fared much better in his subsequent outings — lasting just under six innings (on average) per start, while giving up three or more runs in four of his last six starts. Key match-ups: David DeJesus (1-3, 2B), Yunel Escobar (4-15, BB), Sam Fuld (1-4, BB), Desmond Jennings (3-11, RBI, BB), Kelly Johnson (8-22, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB), Matt Joyce (4-11, 2 HR, 2 RBI, BB), Jose Lobaton (4-9, 2 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB), Evan Longoria (3-12, HR, 4 RBI), Luke Scott (4-8, 2B, HR, 4 RBI), Delmon Young (1-3), Ben Zobrist (5-10, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB).
TBA:
Ivan Nova: Per Rotowire, “Nova tossed a shutout against the Giants on Saturday. He gave up six hits and one walk, while striking out seven.” Nova, historically, has been tough on Tampa Bay — this season being no exception. Nova held the Rays to two runs on six hits in a 3-2 loss back in August. He has been hammered a couple of times since that last outing against the Rays, so a win is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Key match-ups: David DeJesus (3-4), Desmond Jennings (6-22, 2B, 3B, BB), James Loney (4-8, 2 BB), Evan Longoria (7-25, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB), Sean Rodriguez (5-12, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI), Delmon Young (3-6).
Noteworthiness
- On the injury front, CC Sabathia’s season is over after incurring a hamstring injury, presumably from reaching for a Big Mac.
- According to Scott David of the Pinstripe Bible, “While he had a stellar August, Nova struggled for much of September before turning in a complete game shutout against the offensively challenged San Francisco Giants. In his other three starts in September, Nova gave up 11 earned runs in just 14 innings, and only lasted more than four innings once. Sure, his 2.08 ERA in August was never going to be sustainable, but we all had hopes that he’d be better than the 4.30 ERA and 1.39 WHIP he’s produced in September. He’ll have to be closer to the Nova from last Saturday than the one from the rest of the month if he’s going to beat the Rays’ Alex Cobb (10-3, 2.90 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) on Thursday.”