Hey, you guys look familiar…
The Rays and Guardians will meet for the second time in the span of a week, as both teams try to hang around on the edge of the AL Wildcard race.
The Guardians are 69-69 with a -54 run differential, 28th in team wRC+ at 84, 10th in baserunning runs above average at 5.6, seventh in Defense at -0.6, 23rd in starting pitcher FIP at 4.47, and fourth in bullpen FIP at 3.67.
The Rays are 70-69 with a +61 run differential, 18th in team wRC+ at 97, second in baserunning runs above
average at 11.5, 27th in Defense at 44.8, 22nd in starting pitcher FIP at 4.40, and 11th in bullpen FIP at 3.92.
Matchups:
Game One, Thursday, 7:35PM EDT: Logan Allen, LHP, 4.74 FIP vs. Ryan Pepiot, RHP, 4.46 FIP
Game Two, Friday, 7:35PM EDT: Gavin Williams, RHP, 4.54 FIP vs. Ian Seymour, LHP, 0.54 FIP
Game Three, Saturday, 7:05PM EDT: Tanner Bibee, RHP, 4.69 FIP vs. Shane Baz, RHP, 4.57 FIP
Game Four, Sunday, 12:10PM EDT: Parker Messick, LHP, 2.04 FIP vs. Drew Rasmussen, RHP, 3.69 FIP
The Guardians are led by slumping Jose Ramirez who is down to 126 wRC+ (sad face) but should be turning things around any minute, and Kyle Manzardo at 112 wRC+. However, I did want to shout out Brayan Rocchio who is at 99 wRC+ since returning in July.
The Rays are led by Yandy Diaz at 127 wRC+, Junior Caminero at 126 wRC+, and Brandon Lowe at 119 wRC+. Their offense isn’t good either, but still like 13 percentage points better than Cleveland’s!
Although the Mariners keep losing, I think anything less than three out of four in this series will make the Guardians’ very slim playoff hopes all but disappear. I am mainly watching for these things: 1. To see Jose pull out of his tailspin, 2. To see Parker Messick rebound from his first bad outing, 3. To see Bibee continue to take steps forward toward effectiveness, 4. To see young hitters like George Valera, CJ Kayfus, Brayan Rocchio and Jhonkensy Noel get reps and make the most of them. If most of those things happen, this will be a successful series regardless of the final scores.
