The funeral procession that is the Rays’ season will conclude this weekend in Cleveland, where Tampa Bay is slated to take on the Indians in a three-game set. Any hopes of a positive outcome to the season came to pass days ago, and we’re left with an overwhelming desire to just nail the coffin shut. Thursday night’s 11-1 loss to the Red Sox certainly didn’t help.
In a bout of déjà vu, the Indians still have a mathematical chance of making the playoffs for the second consecutive season. You’d better believe that Francona and company will be fired up when they take the field Friday night. If I may, it’s sad when you consider that both teams battled one another in the AL Wildcard game a little more than a year ago — a fact that isn’t lost on the Rays or Joe Maddon.
Tampa Bay dropped two of three back in May, and if anything, there’s a hope to end the season series with a win. In that series, David DeJesus and Evan Longoria went a combined 11-for-24 (.458). However, Longoria is a .175 hitter in 17 career games at Progressive Field, his lowest average at an American League ballpark. Cleveland’s pitchers have accumulated 1,419 strikeouts this season — nine shy of the Major League record set by Detroit last year. Yan Gomes is batting .316 with 10 home runs, 13 doubles and 41 RBI in his last 54 games — he has 20 RBI in 21 September games, while Carlos Santana’s 112 walks are the most by a switch hitter since Lance Berkman’s 127 for the Astros in 2004.
Chris Archer, Alex Colome, and Alex Cobb are the scheduled starters for Tampa Bay. Cobb is 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA in three career starts against the Indians (that doesn’t include his 6-2/3 shutout innings in last year’s AL Wild Card Game). He has a 1.49 ERA in 13 starts since the All-Star break. Colome (2-1, 1.59 ERA as a starter) will take the hill Saturday in his third start of the season and sixth of his career.
Corey Kluber: Kluber (17-9, 2.53 ERA) will get the start Friday night, not House. The presumptive Cy Young Award Winner is among the league’s leaders in wins, strikeouts, ERA and virtually all other metrics used by those who look much deeper than win-loss record. Per the Associated Press, Kluber has recorded 14 strikeouts in back-to-back starts, becoming the first pitcher since Randy Johnson in 2004 to do so. The right-hander has a 1.39 ERA while winning his last four starts, and his 258 strikeouts are the most for a Cleveland pitcher since “Sudden” Sam McDowell’s 304 in 1970.” He struck out nine while allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 6-3 win over Tampa Bay on May 9. Key matchups: David DeJesus (3-5, 2 2B, RBI), Logan Forsythe (1-3), Ryan Hanigan (1-3), Matt Joyce (1-4), James Loney (1-3, RBI), Evan Longoria (2-4).
Carlos Carrasco: Carrasco (5-2, 1.32 ERA) has been very good in his nine starts since rejoining the Indians rotation. While Carrasco is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA against the Rays in his previous 11 innings of work, the 27 year-old RHP held the Rays hit-less in 1-2/3 innings of work out of the pen in the aforementioned May series at The Trop. Key matchups: David DeJesus (1-4, 2B), Evan Longoria (2-6, HR, RBI), Sean Rodriguez (1-3, RBI), Ben Zobrist (1-4, RBI, BB).
Danny Salazar: Salazar has struck out 24 and walked five in his last three starts, covering 17 2/3 innings. He is 5-4 with a 3.50 ERA in his last 12 starts. This will be the first appearance by the 24 year-old RHP. Per his scouting report Salazar is said to have, “plenty of arm strength, clocked as high as 100 MPH and working regularly in the mid-90s. He’s always had good velocity, but he came back stronger after surgery. He has a very good changeup, but the real key has been improvement of his breaking ball. This was poor early in his career (reflected in his weak strikeout rates in A-ball), but he’s made great strides with it over the last year. It is variously described as a slider or power curve, but it is effective when he’s on, and he’s usually been on in ’13.”
Noteworthiness
- Indians reliever Bryan Shaw has made 79 appearances this season, tying the club record set by Bobby Howry in 2005.
- Per Marc Topkin, “With no other catchers on the 40-man roster, the Rays will stick with just veterans Ryan Hanigan and Jose Molina over the final days of the season even though neither is at 100 percent. INF Sean Rodriguez is the third catcher, though likely would be used only in an emergency.”