Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

The Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 21-16
Last Week: @ Toronto (2-1), LA Angels (3-0)
This Week: NY Yankees, @ St Louis

Roughly a month into the season, and the Rays appear to be legit. They have the fifth best runs difference (runs scored minus runs against) in the American League. Like any stat, runs difference does not tell the whole story, but it does a good job of eliminating the wheat from the chaff.

Oakland: +42
Boston: +31
Cleveland: +23
Chicago Sox: +20
Tampa Bay: +16
NY Yankees: +3

I would not place the Rays in the top tier of the AL with Boston and Oakland just yet, but they are firmly in the second tier with Cleveland and Chicago. Which means they should be competing for a playoff spot well past the All Star break.

Boston………….24—16 __ .600
Tampa Bay…..21—16 __ .568
New York……..19—19 __ .500
Baltimore…….19—19 __ .500
Toronto……….17—21 __ .447

RAYS POST OF THE WEEK
This week’s honor goes to DRays Bay for their post documenting Jamie Shields dominance in a one hitter against the Angels. Amazingly, Shields threw 92 pitches through 9 innings, which included 61 strikes and no walks. With Kazmir back in the rotation, the Rays have one of the more dangerous 1-2 punches in baseball.

RAYS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Jamie Shields - 1 Win, 0.00 ERA for the week

We hope all you moms, stepmoms, and grandmas had a great day yesterday!