The homestand started out just great, but soon went all to hell. What this team needs is a road trip! Bring it on! Let's go to...
The Trop? That infernal house of horrors? No one needs that.
The Jays have been visiting Tropicana Field long enough to know they don't like it. They've played 217 games there, and won just 87, which is .401 ball. Which is not excellent. And we should remember that Tampa Bay fielded historically awful teams for the first decade of their existence, even if they have smartly mended their ways since. The Rays are still almost 100 games below .500 since being dreamed into existence (over the same period, the Blue Jays are 25 games better than breaking even.)
Still, it's pretty normal to have a losing record in the other fellow's park. The Blue Jays have a winning record in just three other AL parks (beside their own, of course.) Those three would be Baltimore's Camden Yards (132-122, .520), Detroit's Comerica Field (40-34, .541), and Minnesota's Target Field (27-16, .628).
And there are actually road parks that have been even less hospitable that the damned Trop. Cleveland's Progressive Field has been a nasty place to visit (43-67, .391) - they did much better at old Cleveland Stadium (57-52.) And all those Canadians trekking down to Seattle don't seem to have helped very much - the Jays are 31-49, .388 at T-Mobile and long for the good old days at the Kingdome (70-56.) The current version of Yankee Stadium (48-76, .387) has been even worse - they weren't very good at the old ballpark either (100-124, .446) but they were better than that. The very worst of them all is Enron Memorial in Houston - the Jays have only played 33 games there, but they've gone a grisly 11-22.
The Rays have been pretty good at home this year (if 21-4 is your idea of pretty good.) As you will recall, they burst from the starting blocks as if they were on fire and as Richard Pryor once observed, when you're on fire people will get out of your way. They've cooled off a little since then - they've gone 21-14 since that insane start, which is pretty decent (if .600 ball is your idea of pretty decent.) They still lead the league in home runs, even if they're no longer threatening to hit 400 of the damn things (they're now on pace for 310 of them.) They don't even lead the league in offense any more, averaging a measly 6.09 runs per game and having been overtaken by Texas. But no team in the majors gives up fewer runs.
Tough sledding, no doubt. Well, got to play 'em. Might as well win 'em.
Matchups
Mon 22 May - Bassitt (5-2, 3.05) vs Kelley (0-1, 7.50)
Tue 23 May - Berrios (3-4, 4.61) vs Bradley (3-0, 3.54)
Wed 24 May - Kikuchi (5-1, 4.08) vs McClanahan (7-0, 2.05)
Thu 25 May - Manoah (1-4, 5.15) vs Elfin (6-1, 3.45)
The Trop? That infernal house of horrors? No one needs that.
The Jays have been visiting Tropicana Field long enough to know they don't like it. They've played 217 games there, and won just 87, which is .401 ball. Which is not excellent. And we should remember that Tampa Bay fielded historically awful teams for the first decade of their existence, even if they have smartly mended their ways since. The Rays are still almost 100 games below .500 since being dreamed into existence (over the same period, the Blue Jays are 25 games better than breaking even.)
Still, it's pretty normal to have a losing record in the other fellow's park. The Blue Jays have a winning record in just three other AL parks (beside their own, of course.) Those three would be Baltimore's Camden Yards (132-122, .520), Detroit's Comerica Field (40-34, .541), and Minnesota's Target Field (27-16, .628).
And there are actually road parks that have been even less hospitable that the damned Trop. Cleveland's Progressive Field has been a nasty place to visit (43-67, .391) - they did much better at old Cleveland Stadium (57-52.) And all those Canadians trekking down to Seattle don't seem to have helped very much - the Jays are 31-49, .388 at T-Mobile and long for the good old days at the Kingdome (70-56.) The current version of Yankee Stadium (48-76, .387) has been even worse - they weren't very good at the old ballpark either (100-124, .446) but they were better than that. The very worst of them all is Enron Memorial in Houston - the Jays have only played 33 games there, but they've gone a grisly 11-22.
The Rays have been pretty good at home this year (if 21-4 is your idea of pretty good.) As you will recall, they burst from the starting blocks as if they were on fire and as Richard Pryor once observed, when you're on fire people will get out of your way. They've cooled off a little since then - they've gone 21-14 since that insane start, which is pretty decent (if .600 ball is your idea of pretty decent.) They still lead the league in home runs, even if they're no longer threatening to hit 400 of the damn things (they're now on pace for 310 of them.) They don't even lead the league in offense any more, averaging a measly 6.09 runs per game and having been overtaken by Texas. But no team in the majors gives up fewer runs.
Tough sledding, no doubt. Well, got to play 'em. Might as well win 'em.
Matchups
Mon 22 May - Bassitt (5-2, 3.05) vs Kelley (0-1, 7.50)
Tue 23 May - Berrios (3-4, 4.61) vs Bradley (3-0, 3.54)
Wed 24 May - Kikuchi (5-1, 4.08) vs McClanahan (7-0, 2.05)
Thu 25 May - Manoah (1-4, 5.15) vs Elfin (6-1, 3.45)
