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The Rays lost yesterday in their most evenly matched game of the series as both teams sent their aces to the hill. The Blue Jays came away with the victory, as their ace delivered a better game, but the Rays hold the better chance in the series as they'll send arguably the best 2-3-4 in baseball against one of the worst 2-3-4.
For more, check out the complete series preview
The Starting Pitchers:
Drew Smyly vs R.A. Dickey
| 2015 Season | W | L | ERA | FIP | K% | BB% | AVG | HR | GS/G | IP | fWAR |
| R.A. Dickey | 11 | 11 | 3.91 | 4.48 | 14.3% | 6.9% | .240 | 25 | 33 | 214.1 | 2.0 |
| Drew Smyly | 5 | 2 | 3.11 | 3.91 | 28.0% | 7.3% | .228 | 11 | 12 | 66.2 | 0.9 |
Drew Smyly will be making his season debut after a stellar spring hoping to build onto his tremendous success since joining the Rays organization. He missed the bulk of the 2015 season due to a shoulder injury that he chose to rehab and pitch through, rather than undergo the knife.
R.A. Dickey Scouting Report:
Dickey is embarking on his 13th year in the majors, and his 21st in professional baseball as he was drafted in 1996 by the Rangers. However, for much of that time he was your average Quad-A pitcher attempting to make it to the majors with a high 80's fastball and average-to-below average secondary pitches. One of those secondary pitches happened to be a hard knuckle ball, a pitch that took him over a decade to perfect while in organized baseball.
Finally, in 2010 his career saw a renaissance as he put up 2.7 fWAR in 2010, eventually culminating in a Cy Young award in 2012. He would then be traded to the Blue Jays following that season and has been a solid workhorse for them these past three seasons atop their rotation. Dickey will turn 42 in October, and is currently in the final year of his contract, so this may very well be the beginning of the final year of his career.
His arsenal:
| PITCH | VELOCITY | FREQUENCY | vs LHB | vs RHB |
| Knuckleball | High 70's |
92.3% vs LHB *** 86.6% vs RHB |
Anywhere in the zone | Anywhere in the zone |
| Fastball | Low 80's |
3.1% vs LHB *** 8.5% vs RHB |
Anywhere in the zone | Attempts to keep it on the inner half |
| Sinker | Low 80's |
3.9% vs LHB *** 4.6% vs RHB |
Paints the outside corner | Sporadic |
| Change-up | Low 70's |
0.8% vs LHB *** 0.3% vs RHB |
Below the zone | Below the zone |
His splits:
| 2015 | TBF | wOBA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | K% | BB% |
| vs LHB | 417 | .290 | .225 | .288 | .378 | 11 | 11.5% | 7.7% |
| vs RHB | 467 | .322 | .254 | .317 | .429 | 14 | 16.7% | 6.2% |
| HOME | 461 | .271 | .196 | .269 | .346 | 13 | 16.1% | 8.5% |
| AWAY | 423 | .346 | .288 | .340 | .469 | 12 | 12.3% | 5.2% |