Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Red Sox eliminate Rays

The Boston Red Sox took the lead with a two-run seventh and eliminated the Tampa Bay Rays from the American League playoffs with a 3-1 victory Tuesday.

The Rays used nine pitchers, including Jake McGee, who gave up two runs and recorded two outs in the seventh. Starter Jeremy Hellickson exited after facing three hitters in the second.

Yunel Escobar, who 3-for-3, doubled and scored in the sixth on a David DeJesus single for the Rays.

Romero ranks 12th in Baseball America's Southern League list

The Biscuits had just one player make Baseball America's annual list of the top 20 Southern League prospects.

Left-handed pitcher Enny Romero ranked 12th.

Outfielder Yasiel Puig, who began the season with Chattanooga before jumping to the Dodgers is No. 1. The Mississippi Braves sported a league-high four on the list.

4: Mississippi Braves
3: Chattanooga Lookouts, Jackson Generals
2: Tennessee Smokies, Jacksonville Suns, Birmingham Barons
1: Huntsville Stars, Mobile BayBears, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Biscuits

Monday, October 07, 2013

Rays stave off sweep, force Game 4

Jose Lobaton homered in the ninth inning to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 5-4 win over Boston on Monday and avoid an American League Division Series sweep.

Game 4 will be Tuesday at Tampa Bay.

The Red Sox had tied it in the top of the ninth on a groundout before Lobaton ended it with a two-out blast in the bottom of the inning.

Delmon Young's grounder brought in Sam Fuld to put Tampa Bay up 4-3 in the eighth. Evan Longoria hit a three-run home run in the fifth to erase a 3-0 Boston lead.

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Rays drop Game 2 to Red Sox

David Price gave up seven runs in seven-plus innings and the Tampa Bay Rays moved within one loss of being eliminated with Saturday's 7-4 loss to Boston.

The Red Sox can finish an American League Division Series sweep Monday at Tampa Bay.

David Ortiz homered twice off Price, hitting solo shots in the first and eighth innings.

Friday, October 04, 2013

Red Sox rip Rays in ALDS opener

The Boston Red Sox pelted Matt Moore with eight runs over 4 1/3 innings, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 12-2 on Friday in the opening game of an American League Division Series.

Game 2 is Saturday.

Sean Rodriguez homered in the second inning and Ben Zobrist homered in the fourth inning for the Rays, who totaled just four hits.

11 former Biscuits, but not Kiermaier, on Rays' ALDS roster

Kevin Kiermaier, not surprisingly didn't make the cut for Tampa Bay's American League Division Series roster.

The list is festooned with 11 former Biscuits and reliever Wesley Wright, who is from Grady and graduated from Goshen High.

The Rays start their best-of-5 playoff series with Boston tonight at Fenway Park.

PITCHERS (11): Chris Archer*, Alex Cobb*, Jeremy Hellickson*, Jake McGee*, Matt Moore*, Joel Peralta, David Price*, Fernando Rodney, Alex Torres*, Jamey Wright, Wesley Wright

CATCHERS (2): Jose Lobaton*, Jose Molina

INFIELDERS (4): Yunel Escobar, James Loney, Evan Longoria*, Ben Zobrist

OUTFIELDERS (7): David DeJesus, Sam Fuld, Desmond Jennings*, Kelly Johnson, Matt Joyce, Wil Myers, Sean Rodriguez

DESIGNATED HITTER (1): Delmon Young*

*--Former Biscuit.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Rays announce ticket plan for ALDS

The Rays have already announced their ticket plans for the American League Division Series against Boston. Tampa Bay will host Game 3 on Monday and Game 4, if necessary, on Tuesday.

Fans can buy tickets now IF they make a deposit toward a 2014 Rays ticket plan at raysbaseball.com/ALDSpack.

Single-game tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday at raysbaseball.com.

Cobb leads Rays to AL wild-card win

Alex Cobb fired 6 2/3 innings in his postseason debut to lift the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-0 win over Cleveland in Wednesday's American League wild-card game.

Cobb gave up just eight hits with a walk and five strikeouts.

Delmon Young homered to lead off the third inning, while Desmond Jennings doubled home James Loney and Evan Longoria in the fourth. In the ninth, Yunel Escobar singled in Ben Zobrist.

The Rays will open a best-of-5 AL division series Friday at Boston.

Kiermaier on Rays' wild-card roster

Kevin Kiermaier, a Game 163 addition to Tampa Bay's roster, is on the roster for tonight's American League wild card game at Cleveland, too.

Alex Cobb will start tonight for the Rays, who have 10 former Biscuits and one other native Montgomerian (pitcher Wesley Wright) on their list.

Since David Price threw a complete game Monday and wouldn't be available tonight anyway, he's not on Tampa Bay's wild-card roster.

PITCHERS (9): Chris Archer*, Alex Cobb*, Jake McGee*, Matt Moore*, Joel Peralta, Fernando Rodney, Alex Torres*, Jamey Wright, Wesley Wright
CATCHERS (3): Chris Gimenez, Jose Lobaton*, Jose Molina
INFIELDERS (4): Yunel Escobar, James Loney, Evan Longoria*, Ben Zobrist
OUTFIELDERS (8): David DeJesus, Sam Fuld, Desmond Jennings*, Kelly Johnson, Matt Joyce, Kevin Kiermaier*, Wil Myers, Sean Rodriguez
DESIGNATED HITTER (1): Delmon Young*

*--former Biscuit.