Rays pitching seriously suppressed the Blue Jays offense

Rays pitching did their job during the four game Opening Series against the high powered Toronto Blue Jays offense. Last year their lineup put up a .269/.340/.457 117 wRC+ line while only striking out 18.5% of the time, leading to 5.5 runs per game.

By contrast, this year's iteration of the Blue Jays were held in check by the Rays pitching staff who allowed a .213/.275/.353, .276 wOBA, 79 wRC+ line.

The Rays struck out 30.9% of Blue Jays who would enter the batter's box, a 67% increase over their rate last year.

Rays starters in particular would throw 22.1 innings while allowing a 4.43 ERA and a 3.78 FIP, but included a 33.7% strikeout rate.

The bullpen was near perfect in relief, as the only damage would be allowed by Ryan Webb in Game 1 when he allowed a 2 run home run to Troy Tulowitzki. Those would be the only runs allowed by the bullpen over 13.2 innings. The bullpen struck out 25.5% of batters while only walking 5.9%.

As it turns out, the Rays can still pitch.