MLB Baseball Free Pick – Rays vs Rangers – ALDS Game 4
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Tampa Bay Rays (96-66) vs. Texas Rangers (90-72)
Sunday, October 10, 1 PM ET on TBS
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Starting Pitchers
TEX: Tommy Hunter 13-4, 3.73 Regular Season
TAM: Wade Davis, 12-10, 4.07 Regular Season
On the verge of elimination, the Tampa Bay Rays found the mojo they needed to stay alive for one more playoff game after beating the Texas Rangers 6-3 on Saturday.
Matt Garza pitched six strong innings for Tampa, giving up two hits and one earned run. He out dueled Colby Lewis who was wild, giving up five walks in five innings, but held the Rays from scoring.
Carlos Pena got his first hit of the series in the eighth off Darren Oliver, driving in the pinch running Desmond Jennings to tie the score at two. Jason Jaso then drove in Pena off Rangers’ closer Neftali Feliz to take the lead for good.
Taking the mound for Texas will be Tommy Hunter who has yet to pitch in the series. For the season, he won 13 games in 128 innings of work. He is not a strikeout pitcher, as he only had 68 for the season, allowing nearly a hit per inning. He faced Tampa Bay back in August and took an ugly loss; he allowed six hits and four earned runs in three innings. He will have a good chance of closing out the series, as the Rangers will want to keep the rotation intact for the next round.
Team captain Josh Hamilton has been quiet in the series, and doesn’t seem to have regained his swing since his September injury, hitting .167 with four strikeouts in the series. He hit third in the lineup last night, and Washington may consider dropping him down and going with hot hands Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz in the 3-4 holes. Kinsler has four hits in 11 AB’s, but two of them are homeruns including the one last night. That has helped the cause with 3 RBI’s in the series.
Taking the mound for Tampa will be Wade Davis, who has also yet to pitch in the series. In his first full season, Davis won 12 games and pitched fairly well down the stretch. While he is a key piece of the future in Tampa’s rotation, I’m sure they wish they had an ace to rely on in this must win game. Davis averages less than six innings per start and will be on a short leash. Unless he is dominating, expect Madden to go to his bullpen for key matchups to shave off outs.
Tampa Bay needs a hero to provide key hits in today’s game. Last night the Hero was Carlos Pena with his 2-3, 3 RBI performance. But that was from the 7 spot; team icon Evan Longoria has been silent with a 1-12 showing thus far. BJ Upton can steal a base, but has watched his batting average drop four straight seasons, and now is 1-13 in the series. Madden may consider DH’ing Longoria to preserve enough energy in his recently healed quad for a big hit.
Matt’s Prediction: Tampa Bay gained a lot of fans (and enemies) when they became Yankee Killers to take the AL East crown, but they are on the verge of letting down those newly found fans. While the numbers edge goes to Tommy Hunter, Davis has better stuff and a chance to dominate. If he can hold under the pressure, Tampa can stay alive.
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Thanks for a great read!