The Rays face Josh Beckett for the second time this season. The first time out, Beckett owned Rays hitters, allowing two hits and one run while striking out 10 as the Red Sox won 5-3.
For his career, Beckett is 6-3 in 11 starts against the Rays with a 2.93 ERA and has struck out 85 Rays hitters in 73 2/3 innings. At the Trop, he has made four starts, going 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA.
Aki is 8-24 with one HR against Beckett to lead the Rays lineup. Jason Bartlett is 6-19, while Carl Crawford is 7-25 with 3 SB. On the other side of the coin, Dionner Navarro is 3-22 and Carlos Pena 3-20. And, in the right field guessing game, Gabe Gross is 1-15 with the lone hit being a HR, while Ben Zobrist has no regular season AB’s against Beckett. Any money on Gross getting the start?
For the Rays, Matt Garza tries to turn things around. He’s had a pretty good early career against the Red Sox, after being last season’s ALCS MVP. And, in his first start against the Sox this season, he went 7 innings and allowed only one run as the Rays beat the Sox 4-3.
Jacoby Ellsbury leads the Red Sox when facing Garza, going 7-16 in his career. Otherwise, many of their big bats have struggled against Garza. Specifically, Dustin Pedroia is 3-18, Mike Lowell 2-15, Kevin Youkilis 3-14 and David Ortiz 2-12.
Not much else to say. The Rays need this one.
Oh god no more Gabe Gross please, last season it was fun to see him come up because they were winning now I want a guy like Zobrist out there getting more at bats. And I’d really want Perez out there with his speed, but I’m not really sure he’d do so well in right field. But the Rays really do need this one, if they lose they’d have to win every other game in the series to gain any ground and any confidence in them.