TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES RH Alex Cobb Vs
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TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015 AT PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES RH Alex Cobb vs. RH Jerome Williams First Pitch: 1:05 p.m. | Location: Bright House Field, Clearwater, Fla. | TV: None | Radio: None Game No: 13 (5-6-1) | vs. AL: 4-3-0 | vs. NL: 1-3-1 | Home: 3-3-0 | Road: 2-3-1 Day 23 of Spring Training | 20 Days Until Opening Day—Monday, April 6 vs. BAL (3:10 p.m.) HOT STOVE THURSDAY—OF Kevin Kiermaier and hitting coach Derek SUNDAY’S ACTION—The Rays cruised TODAY’S STARTING LINEUP Shelton will be guests on this week’s edition of the Hot Stove radio show, to an 8-4 win over the Mets after grabbing 39 Kevin Kiermaier (L) CF airing on WDAE 620 AM from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday live from Hooters (1360 a 5-0 lead through 2 innings…in the 7th, 21 James Loney (L) 1B Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte, FL 33948)…hosts Dave Wills and Andy PH Allan Dykstra and 3B Juan Francis- 13 Asdrubal Cabrera (S) SS Freed will be joined by Neil Solondz. co connected for back-to-back homers… 3 Evan Longoria (R) 3B starter RH Matt Andriese threw 3 score- 8 Desmond Jennings (R) LF BASEBALL GALA—This Friday, the BaseBALL Gala, benefiting the Boys less innings (4-H, 1-BB, 1-SO, 42 pitches) 20 Steven Souza Jr. (R) RF 44 Rene Rivera (R) C and Girls Clubs of Charlotte County, will be held at the Charlotte Harbor to pick up the win…DH John Jaso hit a 11 Logan Forsythe (R) DH Event and Conference Center…Rays in attendance will include Manager 2-run double…SS Nick Franklin went 83 Jake Elmore (R) 2B Kevin Cash and the coaching staff, LH Jake McGee, RH Kevin Jepsen, 2-for-3 with 1 RBI, 2 runs scored and 1 53 Alex Cobb RHP OF Steven Souza Jr. and LH Jeff Beliveau…the event starts at 5:30 p.m. SB…3B Evan Longoria went 2-for-2 with 2 RBI…CF Steven Souza Jr. recorded 2 RAYS IN COMING MONDAY TO CLEARWATER—“Pitch,” a new speaker series for outfield assists in only 4 innings: one at SPRING TRAINING baseball lovers, is coming to Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday, March 23…the the plate, and one at 2B. 2015 5-6-1 31,007 all spring training edition features panels on the Rays, Phillies, Yankees and Ê Yesterday, RH Jake Odorizzi threw 2014 16-7-4 78,264 Blue Jays, including Andy Freed and Dewayne Staats on the Rays side… in a minor league intrasquad game 2013 15-17-2 90,935 2012 10-16-6 87,916 visit rutheckerdhall.com for tickets, and pitchtalksbaseball.com for more info. and recorded 13 outs over 4 innings 2011 15-14-2 95,859 of work…totaled 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2010 20-8-2 97,971 CLEARWATER TURNS 100—The Rays are wearing a patch to celebrate 2 BB, 3 SO, 61 pitches, 37 strikes. 2009 15-16-1 103,255 the Clearwater centennial (1915–2015) for all three of their games in Clear- 2008 18-8-2 54,960 water this spring…the Phillies are wearing the same patch all spring. LONGO THE LEADER—The longest-ten- 2007 10-19-2 79,044 ured current member of the Rays, 3B Evan 2006 13-16-1 70,756 SURGE OF OFFENSE—The Rays have won 4 of their last 5 games, af- Longoria, is the franchise’s career leader 2005 13-16 61,261 ter beginning the spring 1-5-1…during these 5 games—which began with with 184 HR, 635 RBI, .494 SLG and 48 2004 11-8 43,916 Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the Twins in Fort Myers—the Rays offense has sac flies…entering 2015, he needs only 2003 8-19-3 51,324 2002 10-16-1 49,043 come to life, batting .287 (50-for-174) with 27 runs scored (5.4 per game) 4 2B to break Ben Zobrist’s club record 2001 12-15-1 57,081 and 6 HR…prior to that, the Rays offense had hit only .188 (42-for-224) with (229) and 3 extra-base hits to pass Carl 2000 14-17 67,089 2 HR and 16 runs scored in 7 games (2.3 R/G)…these 5 games have raised Crawford’s team mark (424)…he needs 1999 14-14-1 59,230 the team’s spring batting avg. from .188 to .231. 25 hits to reach 1,000 for his career…he 1998 12-18 66,781 Ê Despite the improvement, the Rays still have the majors’ 2nd-lowest also enters 2015 with the majors’ longest Total 231-250-29 1,246,052 batting avg. (.231) and OBP (.284), leading only the Phillies in each active streak of games started, at 169. category (.226 avg., .281 OBP)…their 43 runs scored are 2nd fewest in the majors to the Pirates (35). THAT TIME OF THE SPRING—On Sunday, the Rays made their second Ê In Sunday’s 8-4 win over the Mets, the Rays scored 6 runs in the first wave of cuts to the spring training roster…they optioned INF Ryan Brett, 4 innings…prior to that, they had scored only 4 runs all spring in the RH Jose Dominguez, LH Grayson Garvin, INF Hak-Ju Lee and C Jus- first 4 innings in 11 games. tin O’Conner to the minor leagues, and reassigned RH Dylan Floro, C Ê Seven of the Rays first 12 games have been decided by one run Luke Maile and LH Robert Zarate to minor league camp…this trimmed the (2-5), and one ended in a tie (March 7 at PIT)…the Rays are 4-6-1 spring roster to 54 players (28-P, 5-C, 12-INF, 9-OF)…32 of the 40 players despite outscoring their opponents, 43-36. on the current roster made their Rays debut in 2012 or later. RUN PREVENTION—The Rays lead all major league teams with a 2.38 ERA SEVEN YEARS AS THE RAYS (2008-14)—Since changing their name (106-IP, 28-ER)—33 points better than any other club (Yankees, 2.71)…only to the Rays in 2008, the Rays are 627-508 (.552) in the regular season, one staff has yielded fewer home runs than the Rays (5): the Cardinals (4). fourth-best record in the majors after the Yankees (.571), Angels (.554) and Ê The Rays have committed 17 errors this spring, most in the Grape- Cardinals (.554)…the Rays have won 90-plus games five times, most in the fruit League…they’ve erred only once in the last 4 games, after com- majors in this span…they have advanced to the postseason four times; only mitting 16 in their first 8 games. the Cardinals (five) have been more often. Ê The Rays pitching staff has allowed only 4,536 runs, fewest by an SLICE OF GRAPEFRUIT—Today is the seventh of 16 road games this AL team over a span of seven full seasons since 1974-80 (Orioles spring…the Rays also play 14 home games at Charlotte Sports Park and one 4,271; Yankees 4,353)…they have thrown 96 shutouts, most by an home game at Tropicana Field (April 4 vs. DET)…this is the Rays 18th spring AL team over a seven-year span since the 1975-81 Yankees (also in the Grapefruit League and seventh calling Charlotte Sports Park home… 96)…they achieved all this while starting a pitcher under the age of the 2014 Rays recorded the best spring record in the majors at 16-7-4 (.696), 30 in 93.5 pct. of their games (1,062 of 1,135). their third Grapefruit League title in a span of 7 seasons (also 2008, 2010). Ê Since becoming the Rays in 2008, CLEAN SLATE—The Rays enter their first season under Manager Kevin the team has recorded at least 15 BEST RECORDS, MLB, Cash, and also with Matt Silverman at the head of the Baseball Opera- wins in six out of seven spring train- SPRING TRAINING, 2008-15 tions department…Silverman assumed his role of President, Baseball Op- ings—something they never did in 10 Kansas City 132-93 .587 erations on Oct 14, and he hired Cash as the fifth manager in Rays history springs as the Devil Rays…the Rays LA Angels 130-96 .575 on Dec 5…they succeeded Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman, whose have compiled a 114-92 (.553) spring Detroit 128-101 .559 nine years together made them the longest-tenured manager/GM pairing in record during this span, 4th best in Tampa Bay 114-92 .553 baseball…Cash is the youngest current manager or head coach in the ma- NY Yankees 122-99 .552 the majors (see chart). jor four sports; Celtics head coach Brad Stevens (38) is the runner-up…on Opening Day, Cash (at 37 years, 120 days) will be the youngest manager COMEBACK CORNER—LH Jake McGee (offseason left shoulder sur- in MLB since ARI A.J. Hinch, who debuted on May 8, 2009 (34y, 358d). gery) is expected to throw his first bullpen today…RH Grant Balfour is expected to throw to hitters today, including OF Brandon Guyer (oblique)… UPCOMING PROBABLES—Today at PHI LH Drew Smyly (left shoulder tendinitis) threw from 90 feet yesterday, is off Ê TB—RH Alex Cobb (start), LH Mike Montgomery, LH C.J. Riefen- today and will throw again tomorrow.