TUESDAY GAME NOTES

After a series over the weekend the captured everything wrong about the Rays season so far, they played a game yesterday that contained everything needed for them to be successful. They busted out for nine runs, with the big blow being a three run homer from Tim Beckham, who also committed two errors on the day. Erasmo Ramirez pitched into the sixth inning and only allowed two runs, which is pretty much the result everyone expects from him now. Asdrubal Cabrera continued his hot hitting going 2-4 with three runs batted in on the day.

The victory has brought some much needed confidence after the team had lost three straight games. The victory was also very nice due to almost every team ahead of them in the wild card chase winning with the exception of the Twins. Heading into play tonight, the Rays are two and half games back of the second wild card team, the Baltimore Orioles. If the season were to end today, the AL East (the weakest division is baseball supposedly) would have three of the five American League postseason spots.

The Astros meanwhile continued their recent slide, yet they still maintain a two and half game lead over the Angles for the AL West.

Today's Starting Pitchers:

Jake Odorizzi vs Scott Feldman

Jake Odorizzi was awesome before going down with an injury in early June and looked to be on his way towards a breakout season. Since his return, Odorizzi has been solid although he has had a couple of bad outings. He has made seven starts since returning from the DL, in five of those starts he has held the opponent to three runs or less, but during the other two starts he allowed six runs in each.

The amind difference between Odorizzi during the beginning of the season and Odorizzi now, is his control, or lack thereof. During the 12 starts before he hit the DL, Odorizzi had a 4.9 BB% averaging a little more than six innings a game. Since then, he has an 8.3 BB% and is averaging just over five innings a game. His last time out was one of that bad ones as he gave up six runs to Atlanta, but was still able to pitch six innings as struck out six, walked one, and allowed nine hits during a game that Tampa Bay would actually comeback to win.

Scott Feldman Scouting Report:

Feldman has struggled with consistency this year as he has mixed great outings with awful outings, then added in decent performances. He went down towards the end of May with injury that would sideline him almost two months as he returned near the end of July. He's made five starts since returning from the injury and has been solid for the Astros, having allowed three runs or less in his past four starts.His last time out was possibly his best start of the season as he pitched six shutout innings against the Giants, only allowing four hits, while he struck out four, and walked only one.

His arsenal:

Feldman's pitches usually generate ground balls as they have been 48.7% of the time off him, meanwhile flies have been hit 26.5% of the time and the remaining 24.8% have been line drives.

His splits:

Other Rays Notes:

- August 18th in team history, of which they are 9-5 all-time

• Only one former Devil Rays player was born on this date, as Albie Lopez (1971) celebrates his 44th birthday this year. Lopez spent 11 years in the majors (1993-2003), the majority of which coming with the Cleveland Indians of whom he spent five season with. He spent 1998-2001 with Tampa Bay before being traded. Over his career Lopez split time between starting and relieving, accumulating a record of 47-58 with a 4.94 ERA and a 4.78 FIP over 841 innings pitched and 297 games (92 starts)
• 1999 - Wilson Alvarez and Albie Lopez combine to shutout the Detroit Tigers on only one hit. Alvarez went six innings and gave up a lone triple to Gabe Kapler, walking seven and striking out six before being relieved by Lopez, who threw three perfect innings striking out four.
• 2003 - Trailing 3-2 heading into the top of the 8th, Julio Lugo would connect of Indians set-up man Danys Baez for his second homer of the day to tie the game. The two teams would go into extra innings and traded runs in the 11th, before the Devil Rays broke the game open in the 13th scoring three times. They'd win the game by the score of 7-4.
• 2006 - Trailing the Indians by the score of 6-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th, the Devil Rays would ignite a rally. Travis Lee got it started when he hit a solo homer off of CC Sabathia that made it 6-2. Three pitches into the bottom of the 8th, Tampa Bay would score again as Ben Zobrist and Jonny Gomes doubled to make it a 6-3 game. In the bottom of the 9th, the Devil Rays would complete the rally as they scored four times with Carl Crawford singling home Rocco Baldelli and Dioner Navarro for the thrilling walkoff victory.

Crawford's Walkoff Hit

• 2007 - During an 8-1 rout of the Devil Rays by the Indians, current Rays player, Asdrubal Cabrera lifts his first career home run.

Cabrera's first career HR

• 2012 - During a game vs the Angels, Los Angeles jumped ahead early and had an eight run lead by the fifth innings. However, the Rays would score seven times during that frame, tie it the next inning, then in the eighth Carlos Pena lifted a two run homer off of Kevin Jepsen to give the Rays a 10-8 lead, which would be the final score.

• 2013 - During a pitching duel between Chris Archer and Todd Redmond, Archer took a 1-0 lead into the 7th. Unfortunately Edwin Encarnacion would hit a solo homer off him that inning to tie the game. The two teams would head into extras, but one only need the 10th inning to finish the game as Jose Lobaton lifted a walkoff homer to initiate what was sure to be an insane ice cream party.