Tampa Bay Rays: Most Important Stretches of 2020 Schedule
The Tampa Bay Rays’ schedule for the 2020 season was released last night. We break down all of the important stretches.
The Tampa Bay Rays and the AL East will face off in 10 intradivisional games per team. Then, they will face off against the NL East in interdivisional games.
The total 2019 wins and losses for the Rays NL east opposition is 1,603-1,637. That’s a winning percentage of less than .500.
Here’s the breakdown of their NL East opponents.
- Atlanta Braves: 4 times (97-65)
- Washington Nationals: 4 times (93-69)
- New York Mets: 3 times (86-76)
- Philadelphia Phillies: 3 times (81-81)
- Miami Marlins: 7 times (57-105)
Geography clearly helps the Rays out this season as they will play the Marlins more than any other team in the NL East. The Marlins were the only team to finish below .500 last season in that division. Not only that, but they also finished way below .500.
While they have a nice group of young talent, they are in no way ready to compete with the top tier teams in these two divisions.
Adding seven games against the Marlins means the Rays will face teams that finished below .500 last season in 45% of their games this season. The Blue Jays and Orioles both finished well below .500 last season.
Tampa Bay Rays – Important Stretches in 2020 Schedule
The Rays will open the season with a three-game stretch against the Blue Jays at home. Then they welcome the defending NL East champion Atlanta Braves to St. Pete for two games on July 27 and Jul 28, then travel to Atlanta for two more games on July 29 and 30.
Tampa Bay Rays matching up with Braves
The Atlanta Braves are similar to the Tampa Bay Rays in that they have a loaded offense with multi-positional players all over the roster, with a lot of pitching depth. The Braves signed veteran Cole Hamels this offseason to add to blossoming stars Mike Soroka and Max Fried at the top of the rotation.
The Braves also boast a lot of depth in the bullpen with five players who were closers last season, including Mark Melancon, Luke Jackson, Chris Martin, Shane Greene, and newly signed Will Smith. While they may not have the MLB’s best returning bullpen like the Rays, their offense has more powerful weapons than the Rays were able to piece together last season.
Tampa Bay Rays – August 4-13
They will follow up the extended four-game set against the Braves with three games in Baltimore and then two more against the Red Sox. The stretch between August 4-August 13 consists of six games against the Red Sox and four games against the Yankees.
The Rays and the Yankees are expected to be the top contenders in the AL East again this season, it will be imperative for the team to win the games they are expected to win and to take more than they lose against the Yankees.
It will be interesting to see how the pitching rotations are coming along, how deep starters can go into games, and who will be available to make an impact out of the bullpen when the Rays and Yankees face off for that four-game set in New York in early August.
Tampa Bay Rays – August 14- September 6
This is 3/4 of a month of important games. With exception to two three-game sets against the Yankees, these are all games the Rays are supposed to win. Between these dates the Rays will face the weakest stretch of their schedule, starting with the Blue Jays on August 14-17, three games against the Yankees in New York, then they host the Blue Jays for four games at home.
That is followed up by three games in Tampa against the lowly Orioles with six of the following nine games against the Marlins.
Winning the games they are supposed to win against weak opponents can narrow this down to a two-horse race between Tampa Bay and the Yankees.
Tampa Bay Rays – September 7-16, Defending Champs
The Nationals are the defending champs and they will face the Rays in four of the eight games during this stretch. While the Nationals boast a great top of the rotation, they lost superstar Anthony Rendon to free agency and didn’t even win their division last season. The NL East has a lot of teams like the Nationals, Mets, and Phillies that hung around the 80-90 win range last season.
The Rays need to make a statement against the defending champs during this stretch.
Tampa Bay Rays – September 21-27, Finish Strong
Those quality teams on the cusp of success last season will stand in the way of the Rays at the finish line. The Rays face the Mets and the Phillies in the final six games of the season. The final stretch of this short season will involve hurdles like two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, the rookie home run champs Pete Alonso, Bryce Harper, J.T Realmuto, Zack Wheeler, and more.
It’s not an easy road, but the Rays have one of the best pitchings staffs in the league. The microscope will be on the offense, as we recently covered, the Rays were below average after the top two spots in the lineup and they lost their primary number two-hitter this offseason in Tommy Pham.
What do you think of the Rays 2020 schedule?