Rays Look to Finish Road Trip Strong; Braves Continue To Fall Mightily

The Tampa Bay Rays did not start their 10 game road trip the way they wanted. They dropped the first four games, but now they have won their fourth game in a row with the help of ace Chris Archer. As for the Atlanta Braves, they continue to be the worst team in Major League Baseball.

The Rays reached their fourth consecutive victory with a 6-4 win last night over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Archer had a solid start for Tampa, allowing three runs in six innings of work while tying a season high of 12 strikeouts. The young righty wasn’t able to keep his pitch count down as he reached 115 pitches, but he felt like his stuff was on point from the beginning.

Tampa faced an early deficit, but a four-run fifth inning got them ahead for good. Second baseman Tim Beckham got a go ahead two-run home run in the fifth inning that guided his team to victory. Ultimately, he was pleased with how the team has joined together in the past several games.  The Rays are now 26-30 on the season and are last in the American League East.

The series against the Diamondbacks will continue tonight and you can hear all the action on ESPN Gainesville 95.3 FM starting at 9:00 PM.

The Atlanta Braves on the other hand are trending in a different direction. After a so-so finish to their home stand in late May and early June, they have not fared well on the road recently.  They fell to the San Diego Padres last night 7-2 and have been outscored 27-10 over the past four games.

They started off on the right foot yesterday by getting a run via an RBI groundout from Jeff Francoeur. The early lead didn’t hold for long as the Padres tied it up in the next half inning and scored multiple runs in the third and fifth innings. The Braves continue to have the worst record in the majors with no signs of revitalizing their season in sight.

The Braves and Padres will play again tonight.  Atlanta is now 16-41 on the season.

Meantime the Miami Marlins begin a series with the Minnesota Twins.  The Twins have a 16-40 record, the second worst record in baseball while the Marlins are 30-27 and four games back of Washington in the National League East.