Game 91 Preview: Banking on the Matt’s

Matt Joyce is back. Joyce returned from the DL today and is in right field and batting cleanup. The Rays desperately need him to be sharp in his return to the big leagues. He has been out sine June 19th with an oblique injury. Joyce is tops among Rays qualifiers in OPS by quite a while, posting a .899 OPS with a .279/.387/.512 line and 8 doubles, 11 homers, and 34 RBI. Joyce even has a nice .764 OPS against lefties this season compared to his .649 career mark. Joyce has become a big-time player for the Rays, and they need him to be as good as ever in the middle of their lineup.

The other pivotal Matt for the Rays on Tuesday and moving forward is lefty starting pitcher Matt Moore, who has been inconsistent all year as he has gone 5-6 with a 4.42 ERA, an 8.7 K/9, a 4.5 BB/9, and a 1.2 HR/9 in 17 starts and 99.2 IP. Moore has shown flashes and we know that he has the ability to be an ace someday. But they need him to take steps towards that immediately to continuously keep the team in games and hopefully show more signs of dominance. Hopefully that can start tonight.