Rays Blog

The Tampa Bay Rays are the only team in the playoffs who do not know who they are going to play.  Tampa Bay will take on the AL Central champ in the ALDS, with game one being on the Rays home field.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers today, which now forces the White Sox and Twins to play a one game playoff on Tuesday.

Either way the Rays will play their first ever playoff game on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 at Tropicana Field.

For the second consecutive day the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Detroit Tigers.  However, it looks like the Boston Red Sox will lose tonight which would make the Ray the American League East Champions.  The Rays 6-4 loss on Friday drops the Rays to 96-64.

Andy Sonnanstine started for the Rays and got hit hard early in the game.  Sonnanstine coughed up five runs in the first two innings and was hit with the loss.  Sonnanstine will wrap up the season with a record of 13-9.

BJ Upton led the Tampa Bay offense with three hits, including a solo home run.  Upton also drove in and scored two runs.  Evan Longoria went 2-5 but also struck out three times.

The Rays and Tigers will play again on Saturday.  Matt Garza will start for the Rays.

The Rays topped the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night to step closer to the American League East title.  The Rays won 5-2 to move their record to 94-62.

James Shields started for the Rays and pitched well enough to earn his 14th win of the season.  Shields threw seven innings and gave up only two earned runs.  He allowed eight hits but also struck out eight batters.  His ERA on the season is now 3.57.  Dan Wheeler worked the ninth inning to get his 13th save.

Jason Bartlett and Fernando Perez led the Rays with three hits each.  Perez also led the club with a pair of RBI.  Evan Longoria went 2-5 with a double to help anchor the middle of the Tampa Bay line up.

The Rays and Orioles will wrap up their series on Wednesday.

The Tampa Bay Rays are headed to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.  The Rays topped the Minnesota Twins on Saturday 7-2 to widen their AL East lead to 2.5 games.

Scott Kazmir started on the mound for the Rays and won his 12th game of the season.  Kazmir threw six shut out innings as he struck out five batters and allowed only five hits.  The bullpen pieced together the final three innings to get the Rays the win.

Tampa took the lead for good in the third inning when Carlos Pena smacked a two run double to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.  Dioner Navarro led the Rays with three hits while Pena drove in the two runs.  Cliff Floyd hit his 11th homer of the season.

The Rays and Twins will wrap up their series on Sunday afternoon.  Andy Sonnanstine will start for the Rays.

The Tampa Bay Rays were on their way to another win as they took an 8-6 lead into the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins.  However, the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead and the Rays lost 11-8.

James Shields started for the Rays and was less than spectacular.  Shields went 6.1 innings and gave up five earned runs.  However, the loss went to Dan Wheeler who was brought on to save the victory.  Wheeler couldn’t get an out and gave up four earned runs in the ninth inning.

Evan Longoria led the offense as he clubbed three homers.  He scored three runs and drove in four as he helped the Rays take an early lead.  Sadly, the rest of the team went only 6-31 on the game as they had a tough time putting more runs on the board.

The Rays and Twins will play again on Friday night with Edwin Jackson taking the mound for the Rays.

A night after getting blown out in their own building, the Tampa Bay Rays bounced back with  2-1 win on Tuesday night.  They now have a one game lead over the Red Sox in the AL East.

Andy Sonnanstine started for the Rays and matched Josh Beckett pitch for pitch.  Sonnanstine threw six innings and gave up an unearned run on only three hits.  He walked two batters and struck out five.  Dan Wheeler got an out in the top of the ninth to pick up the win.

The Rays tied the game at one in the seventh on a Carlos Pena solo homer.  The Rays loaded the bases in the ninth and won the game when Dioner Navarro singled in a run.  Evan Longoria went 0-4 with three strike outs.

The Rays will look to take a two game lead on Wednesday night when they send Matt Garza to the mound.

The Rays welcome the Boston Red Sox to town last night and got absolutely crushed, 13-5.  The Rays now are tied with the Red Sox for first place in the AL East.  The runner up will almost surely get the Wild Card.

Scott Kazmir started for the Rays and he got hit really hard.  Kazmir lasted only three innings and got hit with the loss.  Kazmir gave up nine runs and allowed four home runs.  The Rays were never really in the game.

Dan Johnson came in for Carlos Pena and hit a two run homer.  Akinori Iwamura and Justin Ruggiano also homered for the Rays.  Most of the damage came with the game already over since the Red Sox had a 13-1 lead.

The two teams will play again tonight with first place on the line.

The Tampa Bay Rays will take their slim one game lead over the Boston Red Sox up against Boston tonight in Florida.

The two teams have the same amount of wins but the Rays have lost two fewer games.  Scott Kazmir will start for the Rays against Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox.

This three game series will mark the final time these two teams meet unless they cross in the playoffs.

Jonathan Papelbon is one of the most dominant closers in baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays got to him on his home field on Tuesday night.  The Rays scored two runs in the ninth inning to beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4.  The win widens the Rays lead to 1.5 games over the Red Sox in the AL East.

Scott Kazmir started for the Rays and threw six innings.  In his six innings of work he gave up only two runs while striking out four.  Dan Wheeler got the win after he gave up two runs and the lead to the Red Sox in the bottom of the eighth.  Troy Percival worked a scoreless ninth to pick up his 28th save of the season.

The Rays tied the game at four in the top of the ninth when Dan Johnson hit a pinch hit solo home run off of Papelbon.  They ended up taking the lead in the ninth when Dioner Navarro singled in Fernando Perez.

The Rays got a much needed win tonight and will look for another one on Wednesday night.  Andy Sonnanstine is set to start against Josh Beckett.

The Tampa Bay Rays powerful offense was shut down today by David Purcey and the Toronto Blue Jays.  Purcey threw eight shutout innings as the Jays topped the Rays 1-0 on Sunday afternoon.  The Rays record is now 85-56.

Matt Garza had the bad luck of going up against Purcey this afternoon.  Garza pitched really well as he threw seven innings and allowed only one run.  Unfortunately for him, that was one too many.  Garza allowed only six hits and struck out seven and had his record fall to 11-9.

BJ Upton had three of the Rays six hits but no one else in the line up could really get it going.  All three of Upton’s hits were singles and the only Tampa Bay extra base hits were doubles by Jason Bartlett and Wily Aybar.

The Rays will start a huge series in Boston on Monday with first place on the line in the American League East.   Edwin Jackson is scheduled to start the opener.  Game time is 7:05pm.