Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox Series Preview

My Zimbio
KudoSurf Me!

Tuesday, 7:10 PM: Tim Wakefield (4.88 FIP) vs. James Shields (3.50 FIP)
Wednesday, 7:10 PM: Josh Beckett (3.13 FIP) vs. Jeremy Hellickson (4.03 FIP)
Thursday, 7:10 PM: Clay Buchholz (4.38 FIP) vs. David Price (2.92 FIP)

The Red Sox enter St. Petersburg with a nine game winning streak and a 4.5 game lead over the Rays in the AL East. The Red Sox have put their early season slump behind them and are playing the best ball in the majors. If the Rays have any hope they might need to get feisty!


The Red Sox’s offense is nothing short of spectacular right now. The Red Sox’s are sporting an incredible .353 wOBA and bring numerous hot hitters such as “The Greatest Ray of All Time”, Carl Crawford. On paper, the only advantage the Rays hold is their pitching. By chance or maybe Maddons design the Rays have their three best starters for the series. If the Rays are going to win the series they will heav

This series also marks the beginning of a dreadfully hard schedule. They will face the Soxs or Yankees 14 times in the next 33 games. The Rays are a competitive bunch but I’m not sure if any team would look forward to that schedule. If your looking at the glass half full, then the Rays will definitively find out if they are buyers or sellers well before the trade deadline (aka move Upton).




As mentioned earlier, Carl Crawford is returning to the “Trop” for the first time since free agency. The twitter world has many of the Rays players encouraging the fans to cheer Crawford when he approaches the plate. I’m sure they will but in my opinion you won’t here them over the cheers from Red Sox fans. ☹

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