The Tampa Bay Rays look to make it two straight over the Boston Red Sox when the American League East rivals clash in the second of a three-game series on Wednesday. Tampa Bay took the opener on Tuesday night, 6-5, to win their second straight and fourth in five games. It was Boston’s second straight loss.
Looking To Improve
Tampa Bay is currently sitting in second place in the AL East, 7.5 games back from the New York Yankees as the trade deadline approaches. The Rays are just a half of a game back from the second Wild Card spot, so they will most likely be looking to round out their roster at the deadline to hopefully seal up their spot for October.
The Rays are playing this series on the road where they are 33-22 this season. They currently carry a team batting average of .253 with 139 home runs and an ERA of 3.55. Tampa Bay has five different players on its IL right now, including one of the team’s home-run leaders, centerfielder Tommy Pham. Pham is a 31-year-old who came to the team from St. Louis at the trade deadline last season and is currently listed as day-to-day with a lingering hand issue.
While Pham leads the team with 16 home runs, the Rays’ dangerous outfielder Austin Meadows is leading with a .287 batting average and also has 15 home runs this year. Brandon Lowe is Tampa Bay’s current RBI leader with 49, and he is also tied with Pham with 16 home runs. While Tampa Bay doesn’t have a single player with a high home run total, they do have a group of guys sitting close to 15, making their entire lineup hard to get through.
Starting To Impress
The Red Sox are coming off another solid series against the Yankees where they took three of four games at home and outscored New York 44-22. Boston seemed to have everything going in the right direction aside from starting pitcher Chris Sale playing well below what they expect out of him and what he expects from himself. They will need to keep everything rolling if they want to do some damage in August as they are currently in third place in the AL East, nine games back from the Yankees and two games back from a Wild Card spot.
Veteran starter Rick Porcello will get the start for Boston in this game. Porcello is 9-7 this season after picking up a win in his last outing against the Yankees where he held them to just three runs over six innings. He now carries a 5.55 ERA on the season with 92 strikeouts. Porcello has had an outstanding July, with four starts and four wins, and he would love to close out the month 5 for 5 with a win in this game.
Boston is currently batting .276 as a team this year with 163 home runs. They will have to be solid to compete with the Rays pitching in this series. They are led in home runs by their star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who has 23 home runs, a .316 batting average and 81 runs batted in. Rafael Devers has just one more RBI than Bogaerts with 82 and leads the team with an impressive .329 batting average.
What to Expect
This should be a good game to watch, with two very good teams that can both do damage. I like the Red Sox to take this behind another strong July start for Rick Porcello.
