Rays Try To Gain Ground

If there is any life in this year’s Tampa Bay Rays, we have to see it at the “Trop” tonight. The door has been opened with Boston’s loss to the Yankees and the Rays have to take advantage. To do so, they’ll have to get their offense going. Other than a fifteen run outburst against the Yankees, Tampa has failed to score more than two runs in any other game this week.

They’ll also have to figure out Jays’ starter Ricky Romero, who is 4-0 against them this season. He also has won seven out of his last ten starts and has lost just once. In his last start in Tampa, he held the Rays to one run in eight innings of work and only one hit. That hit was a homer from Desmond Jennings to lead off the sixth inning.

The Rays are looking for another strong outing from Jeff Niemann, who also has seven wins in his last ten starts but was scratched from a start Thursday night in New York. Niemann has been battling back problems but is ready to go Saturday night. He gave up five runs in his last outing against Toronto but picked up a 6-5 win.

It comes down to the Tampa Bay offense and whether or not they can get some runs on the board. Maddon has kept his team loose and in games this season when the pressure was at its highest. He’ll have to do the same again tonight. The Rays will have to look to be aggressive on the base paths and manufacture something early to try and make things easier on Niemann.

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