Colorado Rockies at Tampa Bay Rays: Game #5
Time: 7:10 pm Eastern Time
Location: The Best Ballpark in America
Broadcast/Streaming: SUN, ATRM
Opponent SBNation Site: Purple Row
Preview:
The Rays look to follow their excellent opening series against the Astros with more of the same against the Rockies. Winning three of four against a team coming off back-to-back deep playoff runs is an ideal start.
The Rockies did not get similar results in their first four games. They won two of those games, which doesn’t seem bad. Until you consider those games were against the Marlins. And then…it kind of seems bad. They were shut out 3-0 yesterday and will be looking for a bounce back game tonight in St. Pete.
The Rays will open with Ryne Stanek on the mound. Odds are he’ll fill the normal opener role and give way after a few innings. But after what Yonny Chirinos did yesterday, assume nothing. Anything is possible. Maybe he’ll throw a complete game.
Assuming that doesn’t happen, Ryan Yarborough will take over after Stanek. Even after switching sports, we haven’t escaped the multiple spellings of the same first name thing people love to do.
The Rockies will turn to Chad Bettis, a traditional starter, like a bunch of rubes. Not using an opener at the bottom of the rotation in 2019? Couldn’t be my team.
In the lineup, with Joey Wendle out following his injury on Sunday, Ji-Man Choi could return to the lineup to play first with the extremely muscular destroyer of baseballs Yandy Diaz moving back to third and Daniel Robertson playing second. Or something else could happen. I just started covering this sport today. Give me a break.
For the Rockies, they have Nolan Arenado playing third base. And he is very good at doing that. Trevor Story is also good at playing baseball. And so is Charlie Blackmon. But none of the three are off to particularly strong starts. For our sake, let’s hope they wait until next week to figure it out.
The Rays’ first series went about as well as could be reasonably hoped. The chance to build on that momentum starts tonight. So keep following along here at Ray Charge, your number one source for Tampa Bay Rays coverage.
P.S. Just In Case
If you came here looking for a preview of the Lightning game…which, why would you? This is a baseball site. But just in case, the Bolts play the Senators in Ottawa tonight at 7:30 pm. The game will be on the normal channels.
The Lightning are good. The Sens are not. Neither team has anything to play for other than Tampa still having an outside chance at the all-time wins record.
The Bolts will probably be conservative with their injured players meaning Victor Hedman probably sits. Maybe Anton Stralman returns but if not, look for Cameron Gaunce to play on the third pair with Braydon Coburn.
The coaches could also put Mathieu Joseph back in the lineup after the fourth line struggled with Ryan Callahan on Saturday.
The Sens will probably ice at least a handful of NHL players? Not sure what’s going on up there really.
But like I said, this is a baseball site so I’m not sure why anyone would be here looking for hockey coverage anyway.
