AL East Rivals Meet in the Trop

The Tampa Bay Rays return to the Trop tonight for the first of three games against the Boston Red Sox. The AL East Rivals sit at third and fourth respectively in the division and both need a series win to keep any hope of a playoff berth alive.

Outlook on the Rays

The Rays have had an awful couple of months, racking up 25 losses to only 18 wins since the July 30 trade deadline. The Tampa team now finds themselves four games behind the third-place Red Sox and 14 games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East. Tampa is also six games behind the Twins for the final AL wildcard slot.

None of this should come as a surprise, however. The Rays traded start players Randy Arozarena (Mariners), Isaac Paredes (Cubs) and Zach Eflin (Orioles) at the deadline, citing a need to build for the future.

“We don’t want 2024 to be 2014, don’t want 2029 to be 2019,” Ray’s president of baseball operations, Erik Neander, said after the deadline. “Don’t want to go five years without a playoff appearance, so these decisions were made to make sure that we don’t fall off and it doesn’t take us five years to find our way back.”

Tampa is fighting for bragging rights at this point with Baseball Reference giving the club less than  0.1% chance to make the postseason.

https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1816705318765965664

Outlook on the Red Sox

Boston is currently fighting for it’s life, sitting 4.5 games out of the final wildcard slot. The only hope for the Sox, they have six games against the Rays left on their schedule. Boston swept the Tampa team in May when the teams last met and are 4-3 against the Rays this season.

Boston will trot out Nick Pivetta, who has posted a 4.24 ERA this season in 129.1 innings of work. The seventh-year pro has a 1-6 record against the Rays with that one win coming earlier this year when the righty allowed two runs in 5.2 innings.

Nick Pivetta will be back on the mound for the Red Sox tonight, looking to build on his impressive start to September.

His stats this month: 12 IP, 2 ER, 15 SO, 1.50 ERA pic.twitter.com/yssXWWGoT2

— Jamie Gatlin (@JamieGatlin17) September 17, 2024

Prediction

Boston currently has a slight edge on Tuesday according to ESPN’s Matchup predictor boasting a 51.4% chance to win.