Cleveland @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( May 28, 2009 ) Tampa Bay 1, Cleveland 2
The Tampa Bay Rays are built to slug their way through baseball’s best division, but have been winning lately with pitching and defense.
Tampa Bay scored just eight runs in a weekend series against the Seattle Mariners and hit less than .200 as a team, but still managed to take two of three because of its incredible pitching.
The Rays hope that continues Monday with Jeff Niemann, who has failed to get through the seventh in just two starts this year. He left his debut in the second with an injury and worked 6 2/3 in the other.
Niemann has won his last two starts - both on the road - by allowing two runs over his last 14 1/3 innings. The Rays continue to need dominant pitching performances because their high-octane offense needs an oil change.
Carlos Pena took Sunday off after a dreadful 3-for-49 slump dropped his average to .180. Jason Bartlett and Ben Zobrist, a year removed from breakout seasons, have yet to homer. Bartlett is batting just .236 and Zobrist isn’t much better at .269.
Veteran Pat Burrell was so bad, he was designated for assignment over the weekend and the Rays recalled Hank Blalock, the former Rangers top prospect who has some pop, but never manages to stay healthy.
Despite all their offensive woes, the Rays remain the best team in baseball. They open a brief two-game homestand Monday against a Cleveland Indians team groping in the dark, but beginning to find its way.
The Indians have taken consecutive series for the first time this season and are again five games within .500. After getting a win Sunday from Mitch Talbot – a former Rays pitching prospect – they get Fausto Carmona on the mound Monday. Talbot and Carmona have combined for nine of Cleveland’s 15 victories this season.
First baseman/outfielder Matt LaPorta hit his first home run of the season on Sunday, a welcome sign for one of the top prospects in the organization. LaPorta’s average has hovered around .200 and he has shown little pop, disturbing trends for the key figure in the CC Sabathia deal two summers ago.
Russell Branyan also homered on Sunday, his fourth in six games on the Indians’ current trip. Branyan’s addition to a team in full rebuilding mode was sharply criticized, since he is taking at-bats away from LaPorta and outfielder Michael Brantley, who is back at Triple-A because of the numbers crunch.
But he is providing some much-needed pop to one of the weakest lineups in the league. The Indians begin the series in Tampa second-to-last in the American League in homers with 22. Branyan now has four of them. Now the trick will be doing it against one of the hottest pitching staffs in the league.