Series Snapshot: Tampa Bay Rays @ Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays (1-8) at Boston Red Sox (2-7)
Fenway Park
Boston, MA
A battle of AL East basement dwellers. Has a funny ring to it doesn’t it? For some reason the Red Sox just don’t deserve that title, but in reality they are only one game up on Tampa Bay who is in last place in the division. But, how about looking at it this way, the Red Sox are only 4 games out of first. And, the Rays are a struggling ball club so perhaps this series will help boost the Red Sox in the standings. The Red Sox are coming off an emotional series win against the Yankees, while the Rays dropped three of four in Chicago against the White Sox.
There is a lot of history between these two clubs, despite Tampa Bay only being in existence for just over a decade. There has always been a lot of emotion in the games when the Rays and Red Sox hook up and when Tampa Bay eliminated the Red Sox in the 2008 ALCS, it only added fuel to the fire. Let’s not forget that Carl Crawford has been an instrumental factor in that Red Sox/Rays rivalry in the past and now he’s playing for the Sox. It should be an emotional night for Crawford as he faces his old team for the first time when the games actually mean something. And then of course there’s old Johnny Damon who the Rays signed as a free agent this past off season. A once titled hero in the Boston franchise, Damon has since tarnished that image with Red Sox Nation when he signed with the Yankees in 2005 and just last season, when he vetoed a trade that would have brought him back to Boston. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of reaction he draws when he walks to the plate Monday night.
Tale of the Starter’s Tape:
Monday, April 11
Tampa Bay – Jeremy Hellickson (0-1, 4.76 ERA)
Boston – Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
Hellickson is one of the young pitchers that the Rays are hoping will be the future of the ball club. In his first start of the year he was impressive, going 5.2 innings, striking out 10 while surrendering 3 earned runs. A lack of run support gave him the loss.
Dice-K has looked pretty good in his only appearance this season. He gave up 6 hits and 3 earned runs over 5 innings of work, while striking out 2 batters. Similar to Hellickson, the lack of offense from the Red Sox gave Dice-K the loss. Lifetime against the Rays, he’s 2-6 with an ERA of 5.09. He has struck out 72 batters in 69.2 innings when facing the Rays.
Tuesday, April 12
Tampa Bay – David Price (0-2, 4.85 ERA)
Boston – Jon Lester (0-0, 3.65 ERA)
This will be a battle of two of the best young star pitchers in the game today. Two hard throwing lefties who are a threat to go deep into ballgames while controlling the strike zone. Look for David Price to have a strong outing on Wednesday and pitch much better than he has in his first two starts. He seems to elevate his game against the Red Sox, as evidenced by a lifetime record of 3-2, 3.38 ERA with 27 K’s in 32 innings pitched.
Lester was simply brilliant in his last start in Cleveland, 7.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 earned runs. Thanks to the offense not scoring a single run, Lester, left with a no decision and is still looking for his first win on the season.
Wednesday, April 13
Tampa Bay – James Shields (0-1, 4.73 ERA)
Boston – John Lackey (1-1, 15.58 ERA)
James Shields is proving to be a big game pitcher over the past couple of years. He’s been a reliable starter and if the Rays are going to have any type of success this year, Shields is going to be an integral part of that. He has struggled somewhat over his career against Boston, a 5-9 record with an ERA of 5.17 over 92 innings pitched.
The key for Lackey to having a solid outing is to keep it tidy. He needs a couple of quick innings to get the confidence going. Over the past two starts, he’s been in position to do that, but 2 out walks have proved costly and resulted in high pitch counts and runners scoring early. Here’s a promising stat, he’s 11-4 lifetime against the Rays with an ERA of 3.75
Red HOT Sox:
Dustin Pedroia – all he did was go 9 for 13, .692 avg, with 5 RBI in the series against New York. This nice weekend at the plate brings his overall batting average to .400, tops on the ball club.
JD Drew – the right fielder had a good weekend series, going 4 for 10, 2 RBI and 2 walks to boost his average to .304 on the season.
Jed Lowrie– despite only having 11 at bats so far this year, Lowrie has delivered nicely, collecting 4 hits and an average of .364.
Jonathan Papelbon – while he’s only 1 for 1 in save opportunities so far, his last 2 outings have been superb. On Friday and Sunday, he carved right through the top of the Yankees lineup, striking out 5. He’s managed to lower his ERA to 3.00 from that first series in Texas.
Cold as Ice:
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – Salty did manage 3 hits in the two games he played this past weekend, but still sits with an average below .200 and 9 strikeouts.
Carl Crawford – batting .132 and continues to struggle. He’s been all over the lineup and batting leadoff hasn’t been able to get him out of his funk.
Jacoby Ellsbury – a .156 average, Jacoby like Crawford, is trying to find his niche spot in the lineup. Batting leadoff is a good place I think.
Kevin Youkilis – batting .148, not much needs to be said. You know Youk will turn it around and I’ll bet money that he doesn’t finish the year with an average below .200.
John Lackey – despite getting the win Friday afternoon, Lackey continues to struggle, which in turn results in more pitches and early exits from ball games. He’s thrown 10 innings, 8 of which the opposition have scored at least one run. His ERA is still over 15.00 and he’s only struck out 5 while walking 4.
Who’s HOT for Tampa:
BJ Upton – he’s the only Rays hitter to have an average close to .300 (.290 for Upton) and he’s always a threat at the plate, especially in Fenway.
Kyle Farnsworth – the reliever has thrown 2.1 scoreless innings and only given up 1 hit.
Who’s Not for Tampa:
Dan Johnson – after going 2 for 5 in the opener against Chicago, Johnson then went 0 for 10 with a couple of walks and his average is now a dismal .088.
Ben Zobrist – 2 hits in the 4 game series this past weekend, saw Zobrist’s average fall to .147. He has also struck out a team high 10 times.
Johnny Damon – 4 hits in 32 at bats, 1 home run and 7 strikeouts, an average of .125 for the former Red Sox centerfielder.
David Price – the designated ace of the staff is 0-2 with an ERA of 4.85. He’s allowed 7 earned runs on 14 hits in 13 innings of work. These are hardly David Price numbers that we’ve been seeing the last couple of years.
Tampa Bay:
– JP Howell (P) – 15-day DL, Left Shoulder surgery – mid May return
– Evan Longoria (3B) – 15-day DL, Oblique strain – late April return
Boston:
– Matt Albers – 15-day DL, strained right lat muscle – Late April return
– Junichi Tazawa – 60-day DL, torn ulnar collateral ligament – July return
Bold Prediction Time:
After winning their first series of the year, the Red Sox will make it two in a row, while taking 2 of 3 against Tampa. I see the only falter will be with Lackey on the mound on Wednesday against Shields. Lackey has yet to prove he can dominate any lineup, evidenced by his lack of quick innings. This Rays lineup still has some pop in their bats, even without Longoria and they’ll get to Lackey early……again. The previous two games, the Red Sox will ride good pitching from Dice-K and Lester and the offense will lead the way.
The Stat Pack:
– Dustin Pedroia is 0 for 6 lifetime against David Price, while Mike Cameron is 3 for 3 against the lefty.
– David Ortiz has 3 home runs and 11 RBI in his last 33 at bats against James Shields.
For all the latest news and analysis from BoSox Injection, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or with our RSS feed.