Rewind / Fast Forward

Looking backwards and looking forwards

• The Rays finished 3-3 on their road trip to Denver and New York
• They scored 22 runs and had 34 hits combined in the first and last game of the road trip. In the other 4 games: 17 runs and 29 hits. 3 of those 4 games were losses.
• On Saturday, the Mets went 3 hours and 2 minutes without having a runner on base. Carlos Beltran ended that streak with a 2 out single in the bottom of the 9th. This included the rain delay.
• 3 of the Mets 4 hits Saturday were doubles.
• Ben Zobrist hit his 15th home run of the season. He had 15 total in the first 3 years of his career.
• Shields gave up just 3 hits Saturday, in 7 innings pitched. He retired the final 14 batters he faced
• Carl Crawford was hitless in the first 2 games at New York before collecting 3 hits in the rubber game Sunday. Still, he was just 6-27 (.222) on the road trip.
• On the other end of the spectrum, Bossman Jr went 12-28 (.429) on the trip. BJ finished 4-6 Sunday, missing out on the cycle by a triple. He said after the game that his home run off Bobby Parnell in the 7th was the hardest he has hit a ball all season. The 4 RBIs were also a career high for him.
• Joe Nelson pitched 0.1 innings on Sunday, giving up a 3 run home run to Brian Schneider (his 2nd of the series and of the season). Nelson got the win. What is wrong with this?
• Upton, Crawford, and Longoria combined to go 11-16 and 7 RBI on Sunday.
• The Rays are now 3-7 in rubber games this year.

Tampa Bay return to The Trop for a World Series rematch against the Phillies.

Philly has been swept in it's past 2 series, against Toronto and Baltimore.....yes, that Baltimore. They have lost 8 of the last 10 games.

Let's take a look at how the Rays match up against Philadelphia.

Record:

Rays - 37-34, 4th in AL East

Phillies - 36-31, 1st in NL East -

Advantage - Push - Phillies play in the NL, Rays play in the hardest division in baseball.

Runs Scored:

Rays - 401

Phillies - 356

Advantage: Rays, 401>356. Runs win games.

Home Runs Hit:

Rays - 95

Phillies - 98

Advantage: Phillies - Tough to out homer a team that has Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez

On Base plus Slugging:

Rays - .819

Phillies - .791

Advantage: Rays - Thank you Ben Zobrist.

Championships won by cheating:

Rays - 0

Phillies - 1

Advantage: Phillies - J.C. Romero single handedly carries Philly to the win in this category.

Illegitimate Children on the Team:

Rays - 0

Phillies - 1

Advantage: Phillies - Congrats Antonio BASTARDo. (too easy?)

Players that may have Swine Flu:

Rays - 0 again

Phillies: 1

Advantage: Ryan Howard FTW

Big Off-Season Acquisition:

Rays: Pat "where's the bat?" Burrell

Phillies: Raul Ibanez

Advantage: Rays - Ibanez is on the DL and won't play in this series. By default the win goes to the Rays. But we wont even get started on the season comparison between the two.

Hit by Pitch:

Rays - 24 times

Phillies - 33 times

Advantage: Rays - Opposing pitchers hate the Phillies.

Stolen Bases:

Rays - 110

Phillies - 49

Advantage: Rays - Stolen bases gets you closer to home plate. The closer you are to home, the more likely you are to score. The more times you score, the better chance you have to win. winning is good.

Let's hope we can keep up the tradition of AL East teams sweeping the Phillies.