Game #87 Preview: Ray vs Hill

The Blue Jays wrap up the series and the first half of the season trying to salvage a win against the Rays in their trip to Tropicana Field. The game gets underway this afternoon at 1:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

The Blue Jays will turn to Robbie Ray to try and salvage the series, probably their best bet at getting a win. Ray brings his 6-4 record and 3.36 ERA into action, looking to to put a bow on one of the best half seasons of his career. Through 16 starts and 93.2 innings, he has 119 strikeouts against just 24 walks, a ratio of pretty much 5, and a ratio that is about twice as good as his career average before this season. And while the home run rate has been rough this year, he has turned that around as well. Entering play on June 1, he had allowed 14 home runs in 52 innings (2.42 per 9 innings), but since then he has allowed just 6 in 41.2 innings (1.30 per 9 innings).

This will be Ray’s fourth start against the Rays already this season, and his first 3 have all been good. He has thrown a total of 20 innings, going 6 in the first game and 7 innings the last two times. In total, he has allowed 6 runs on 16 hits and 2 walks. He has struck out 22 batters, and allowed 4 home runs - 1 to Franco, 1 to Brosseau and 2 to Zunino.

Rays’ Starter

Veteran Rich Hill will make his 18th start of the season for the Rays, coming into play with a 6-3 record and a 3.65 ERA. Through 86.1 innings, he has struck out 85 batters against 31 walks. He has allowed 13 home runs. Surprisingly for Hill, this is the first time he is facing the Blue Jays, having just missed his spot in the rotation every other times the two teams met. We’ll see how the young Jays’ hitter fare facing the 41 year old soft tossing lefty.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Rays’ Lineup

Yesterday’s Heroes

A.J. Pollock went 4-4 with 2 home runs, 2 singles and 2 walks to pick up the Monster Bat award. It was a night of happy hitting for his Dodgers, as they walked all over the Diamondbacks 22-1.

Gerrit Cole got his season back on track yesterday, pitching the biggest game of his season. Taking on his former Astros, Cole went 9 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 12. That gave him Pitcher of the Day honours, but because the final score was 1-0, he racked up a lot of WPA, making him the WPA King as well with a .820 mark.

Find the Link

Find the link between Rich Hill and Carlos Delgado.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant