Friday MLB: Tampa Bay Rays (44-36) at Texas Rangers (42-35)
The Tampa Bay Rays have been arguably the best team in baseball for the past two weeks, but they enter off a loss, with Toronto ending the Rays’ seven-game winning streak on Wednesday.
The Rays really took off when B.J. Upton started hitting, and he has hit safely in 31 of the past 38 games. Upton and No. 2 hitter Carl Crawford are on the verge of becoming just the third set of teammates in AL history to each reach 30 steals by the All-Star break; Crawford’s 40 lead the majors, Upton’s 29 are third.
Their aggressiveness changes everything throughout the lineup and is a big reason the Rays lead the majors in runs.
“It makes it a lot easier as a hitter when you know that pitchers are more worried about the guy that’s on base than you,” said Evan Longoria, who has 63 RBIs hitting behind the two. “You get a lot more fastballs and a lot more balls over the plate.”
The Rays’ all-Gabe right field platoon also is working of late. Gabe Gross is batting .282 with a.393 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .437. Gabe Kapler struggled in April and May, hitting only .178 and slugging .274, but took off in June, batting .400 in 14 games.
Tampa Bay has opened as a -131 money line favorite on WagerWeb.com for tonight’s game behind Scott Kazmir (4-4, 7.28). The lefty was awful earlier this year, allowing at least six runs in five of his nine starts.
But a stint on the DL seems to have worked, and he limited the Marlins to two runs in five innings in his first start back last weekend.
Kazmir, who is from Texas, is 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA in seven career starts against Texas, all Tampa Bay wins. He is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in three career starts in Arlington.
The Rangers counter with Tommy Hunter (0-1, 3.86). He has made two spots starts this year, both OK, but is 0-3 with a 9.93 ERA in five total starts in the big leagues. He has never faced Tampa Bay, which went 6-3 against Texas in 2008.
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