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Yesterday afternoon, the Rays made it interesting but just adds another tale to the sad story that is the 2015 season. For the Rays to succeed with the way their roster is structured, they have to have solid starting pitching, good defense, and timely hitting. The hitting was somewhat there yesterday but the defense and pitching fell short as the duel of the year turned into a slugfest.
Kevin Kiermaier and Asrubal Cabrera, two of the best defenders on the team, had lapses in the field that costed the team dearly. Meanwhile the bullpen was solid, with the exception of Kirby Yates who allowed his usual home run. He has now allowed 10 homers in under 20 innings on the mound, not what you want from a reliever. Today, the Rays will attempt to avoid a sweep at the hands of Toronto.
TODAY'S STARTING PITCHERS:
| PITCHER | W | L | ERA | FIP | AVG | HR | K% | BB% | GS/G | IP |
| Matt Andriese | 3 | 5 | 4.37 | 4.27 | .271 | 8 | 17.1% | 6.2% | 7/22 | 59.2 |
| Mark Buehrle | 14 | 7 | 3.69 | 4.12 | .271 | 19 | 10.9% | 3.9% | 29/29 | 185.1 |
Andriese has had a strange season as he began it in the Rays bullpen as a longman, due to the nature of the Rays staff and how they couldn't pitch deep into games. He eventually moved to the rotation and provided acceptable outings every fifth day. He was then demoted for a month, and came back up when Jake Odorizzi hit the DL. Then down again when Matt Moore was activated. Made one final start in July, then was demoted and converted to the pen in Durham.
The Rays brought him back up in August and he immediately gave up a walkoff hit in his first game back. He continued to struggle, but has since calmed down while be used more sparingly. It was announced that he'd start today, just to give Matt Moore a few extra days of rest.
Mark Buehrle Scouting Report:
Mark Buehrle carried the Blue Jays rotation during the first half of the season, but oddly as Toronto surged up the standings, Buehrle actually struggled. His ERA is a full point higher in the second half of the season, along with his FIP being half a point higher. His last time out was on the 20th against Boston where he earned a no-decision after going six innings and giving up three runs on eight hits, while he walked two and struck out one.
His arsenal:
| PITCH | VELOCITY | FREQUENCY | vs LHB | vs RHB |
| Fastball | Low 80's |
28% vs LHB *** 30% vs RHB |
Paints the outside corner | Paints either the inside corner or outside corner |
| Sinker | Low 80's |
19% vs LHB *** 22% vs RHB |
Paints the inside corner | Paints the outside corner |
| Cutter | High 70's |
23% vs LHB *** 13% vs RHB |
Low and away from the zone | Paints the inside corner |
| Change | High 70's |
17% vs LHB *** 28% vs RHB |
Sporadic | Low and away, occasionally out of the zone |
| Curve | Low 70's |
13% vs LHB *** 06% vs RHB |
Low and away from the zone | Anywhere below the zone |
His splits:
| TBF | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | K% | BB% | |
| vs LHB | 214 | .288 | .322 | .475 | 8 | 9.8% | 3.7% |
| vs RHB | 550 | .264 | .300 | .416 | 11 | 11.3% | 4.0% |
| HOME | 344 | .243 | .286 | .404 | 9 | 12.2% | 4.9% |
| AWAY | 420 | .293 | .323 | .457 | 10 | 9.8% | 3.1% |
September 27th in Rays History:
- They are 10-7 all-time on this date
- 2006 - The Devil Rays beat up on Josh Beckett and the Red Sox, as they tacked on 11 runs (nine in the seventh). Meanwhile Tim Corcoran and the Tampa Bay bullpen combined to shutout the Boston offense, with Corcoran going six plus scoreless innings as Tampa Bay defeated Boston, 11-0.
Greg Norton's HR [] Rocco Baldelli's HR [] Tim Corcoran's Outing
- 2009 - Trailing 5-0 heading into the top of the eighth, the Rays begin to mount a rally. They strike for three runs, but in the bottom half, Randy Choate surrendered a homer to Marlon Byrd to make it 3-6. In the ninth, the Rays managed to score four runs, despite not recording an extra base hit as they sandwiched three singles, two walks, two strikeouts, and a sac bunt to take the lead. They'd go on to win, 8-7.
- 2010 - Three Orioles' pitchers combine to shutout the Rays on only three hits, with Brian Matusz doing most of the heavy lifting as he went seven innings for Baltimore. If the Rays had won, they would have clinched the division in front of 12,000 fans. Following the game, Evan Longoria had some choice words to say about that, leading to the Rays giving out 20,000 tickets to a future game.
- 2011 - Another night, another must win game last in the 2011 season and this game was full of incredible, memorable moments. Jeremy Hellickson turned a dangerous not bases loaded situation into an inning ending triple play and displayed rare emotion following the fact. Later in the game, trailing by one, Matt Joyce blasted a three run homer off of the Rays elite closer from the previous season, Rafael Soriano. The Rays won, 5-3, and tied Boston for the wild card lead. Read more in-depth on it here.
- 2012 - Fernando Rodney breaks Rafael Soriano's team record for saves in a season when he secures his 46th save of the year to add to his historic season.
- 2014 - Alex Colome, along with three Rays relievers combine to shutout the Indians, 4-0, with Colome going six innings. The shutout was the 22nd time the Rays had held an opponent scoreless that season.