Rays Invade Canada

Most notes from Rays team communications

• BusinessWeek rated the Rays as the smartest spenders in baseball. Thankfully, they grade on a curve and not how the team spent its dollars at first base and DH this off-season.
• 22 of the next 25 games are against AL East opponents. The Rays are a division best 27-20 within the AL East.
• Longoria became the first player to hit multiple home runs while hitting into multiple double plays in the same game since Luis Gonzalez on May 19th, 2004.
• The Rays are 9-2 against Toronto and have won the last five games between the two teams.
• The bullpen's ERA since the All-Star break is now down to an amazing 1.21 as they have held hitters to a .153 average while striking out 112 hitters and walking just 26.
• J.P. Howell's scoreless streak is now a marathon at 26.2 innings.
• The last five teams to finish the season with an ERA as low as the Rays currently have (3.27) all made it to the World Series and won the series twice.
• The Rays pitching staff is going for the dominance triple crown and currently lead baseball in strikeouts, ERA, and opponents batting average. The last team to do that was the 1999 Best Team Ever Sox
• Matt Moore has gone 9-2 with a 2.89 ERA since June 1st and has allowed just seven earned runs in his last six starts.
• Edwin Encarnacion, David Cooper, and Moises Sierra are the only Jays' regulars with wOBAs over .300 in the past 30 days. To say this team is struggling these days would be an understatement. The Jays were 51-51 on July 30th and have hit just .218/.270/.340 since that date losing 20 of their past 27 games.

Matchups:

• Thursday 7:07pm - Matt Moore vs Carlos Villanueva
• Friday 7:07pm - Jeremy Hellickson vs Brandon Morrow (2nd start since coming off the DL)
• Saturday 1:07pm - Jeff Niemann (1st start back) vs Henderson Alvarez). 1st game with expanded rosters
• Sunday 1:07pm - David Price vs Ricky Romero