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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Rays need to take care of business against bottom feeders

Posted Sep 24, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 24, 2010 at 09:26 AM

Better starting pitching and the Rays will be doing a lot more of this in the coming weeks

By ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG—Sean Rodriguez said the Rays spent the hours leading up to Thursday’s showdown with the Yankees in the Bronx talking about how it was the biggest game of the big four-game series.

“That’s why they wanted me in there,” joked Rodriguez, who didn’t get any hits but drew a bases-loaded walk in the Rays seven-run sixth inning that propelled them to a 10-3 win.
Rodriguez said he knew he and his teammates would give the Yankees and their 20-game winner CC Sabathia all they could handle.

“We play big in big games,” he said.

With Thursday’s wins, the Rays cut the Yankees to a half-game in the AL East and also clinched the season series against the Yankees. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head matchups, so should the two tie for the division lead at the end of the regular season, the Rays would be declared the AL East champs.

Also, with one more game to play than the Yankees, the Rays have the inside edge for the division title since all they have to do is win as many games as the Yankees over the final 10 days of the season.

It victory reduced the Rays magic number of clinching a postseason berth to four and also pushed David Price into the forefront of the Cy Young Award race in the minds of some voters who watched Price go toe-to-toe with Sabathia on Sept. 13, when they traded eight scoreless innings at the Trop, then out-pitch Sabathia on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.

The good news: The Yankees finish with six games against the Red Sox (three in New Yokr, three in Boston) and three in Toronto.

The Rays begin a three-game series tonight with the visiting Mariners, play three with the visiting Orioles beginning Monday and finish the regular season with four in Kansas City.

That’s two last-place teams and one, the Royals, who are in second-to-last in a weaker division.

These are 10 big games against three little teams.

The Rays proved they can get up for the big games – Yankees, Red Sox, Twins, Rangers. In fact, they are the only AL playoff contender with a winning record against the other AL playoff contenders.

Problem is, the Rays tend to play down to their competition, as well. They lost two of three to the Angels last weekend after winning two of three from the Yankees.

When that was mentioned to Rodriguez after Thursday’s win, he shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, “We’ll see.”

The Rays also have to straighten out their starting pitching.

Jeff Niemann, who starts tonight, is still looking for his first win since coming off the disabled list. He needs to command his fastball if he hopes to earn a spot on the postseason roster.

Matt Garza and James Shields have to get their respective acts together.

Manager Joe Maddon has been saying for weeks he expects the rotation to return to the form that moved the Rays to the top of the standings earlier this season and placed them in the position that are in today.

Be nice if Garza, Shields and Niemann returned some of that confidence, especially Niemann, who was the Rays steadiest pitcher since the start of his rookie year in 2009 until the time he strained his pitching shoulder and missed three August starts.

“Of course results do matter, but I’m looking at mound presence, mound demeanor, where’s the fastball going? How’s he reacting in bad situations?” Maddon said. “Of course, if his confidence comes back, all that other stuff is going to be just fine, and it’s going to work.”

What better time to pitch yourself out of a rut and back into playoff form than a couple of starts against three of the worst teams in baseball. Yes, the Orioles have played better under new manager Buck Showalter, but no one is confusing them with the 1927 Yankees.

On paper, the Rays have the easiest path to the division title than the Yankees.

“I know how the scheduled lines up and everything, and I know on paper it looks good, but from my perspective I don’t take anybody for granted, I don’t assume anything,” Maddon said after Thursday’s win. “I never bet on the come. We just have to keep playing the kind of game we played the last two nights. I’ve been an anti-assumptionist the last couple of years, and I don’t want to start now. So you just go out and you play and you want to make things work. I just want us to play that game, that game.”

And by “that game,” Maddon meant the one the Rays just played, the one where they beat Sabathia and gained a split in the four-game series.

The pitching carried them to the two victories.

The pitching has to carry them in these last 10 games against a trio of bottom feeders.