ST. PETERSBURG
E.J. Gaines Jersey , Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays continue to win games they perhaps shouldn’t, and they’ll have an opportunity for more of that Saturday against Houston’s Justin Verlander.
The Rays (40-41) hit the midway point of their 2018 season with a 3-2 win over Houston, giving them six wins in their last seven games. Their pitching has led the way — three times in the last four games, they have held their opponent to three hits or less, this after doing so only three times in the first 77 games of this season.
“If we are going to win a lot of game and we are going to string a bunch together, we have to have good pitching,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “The timely hitting is great, but we have to stay in the ballgame. For us to have allowed three runs in 18 innings against arguably the best team in baseball, we should find a way to win one.”
Houston will send Verlander, who has been dominant (9-3, 1.82 ERA) but has gotten surprisingly little run support from a potent Astros lineup.
Houston is just 11-7 in games he starts, and the Astros have scored a total of two runs in five of those losses.
So Saturday could look like Thursday’s 1-0 Astros win
Jeremy Kerley Jersey , or could look like Friday’s 3-2 loss, which saw two errors factor in Tampa Bay’s scoring.
Verlander faced the Rays just 11 days ago in Houston, again pitching well, allowing one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings, but ultimately taking a no-decision in a 2-1 loss. He has 136 strikeouts in 113 innings this season and a ridiculous 0.81 WHIP.
Against the Rays for his career, Verlander is 8-3 with a 3.18 ERA, but since 2010, he’s just 4-3, despite a 1.72 ERA in his last five starts against the Rays. At Tropicana Field, he’s 5-2 all-time with a 2.53 ERA, including a 1.20 ERA in his last two outings.
The Rays counter with reliever-turned-starter Ryne Stanek, who has thrived in the “opener” role that Tampa Bay has essentially created in the past six weeks. He’s starting for the second time in three days against the Astros having thrown 1 2/3 innings of scoreless
Todd Gurley Jersey , hitless baseball Thursday night. For the month of June, he’s pitched in 11 games and 14 2/3 innings without allowing a run.
He’s held opponents to just four hits, lowering his season ERA to 1.85, just barely above Verlander’s.
The Astros know they have to be careful with the white ceiling of Tropicana Field — the Rays’ three-run fourth inning got a spark Friday when center fielder Jake Marisnick couldn’t hold onto a pop at the warning track, allowing a run to score.
“When you play here, you try to not take your eye off the ball,” Marisnick said. “With the ceiling, I kind of glanced quickly at the ball, then looked back up and lost track. I wasn’t able to come up with it. That’s a play I need to make 10 out of 10 times.”
Lou Lamoriello moved quickly to shake up the New York Islanders by firing coach Doug Weight and general manager Garth Snow and naming himself the team’s new GM just two weeks after taking over as president of hockey operations.
Lamoriello made the moves Tuesday that begin to reshape the organization in his image, two weeks to the day ownership said he’d have ”full authority over all hockey matters.” Lamoriello left the Toronto Maple Leafs to run the Islanders and will begin the search for a new coach immediately.
”It’s my opinion that at this point there’s a culture change that’s needed and there’s new voices needed in different areas and because of that, the changes (were) made,” Lamoriello said on a conference call with reporters. ”There’s been a lot of changes for different reasons
Darren Woodson Jersey , and right now is just trying to stabilize anything, start off with a fresh face, start off with a fresh mind, a fresh coach and just go forward.”
The end of Snow’s tenure seemed inevitable after owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin brought in Lamoriello to oversee the hockey operations department. Snow was previous owner Charles Wang’s hire.
The Islanders missed the playoffs eight times in Snow’s 12 years as general manager, including the past two seasons. He has four years left on the contract he signed when Wang still owned the team.
”Both Garth, who is a personal friend and one who I’ve known for a long time and also Dougie who played for me in `96 and `98, I have tremendous respect for,” Lamoriello said.
This latest front-office development comes with the Islanders at a crossroads this summer. The face of the franchise, John Tavares, can become a free agent July 1. The team took one step toward making Tavares feel comfortable about re-signing by planning a permanent home at Belmont Park after spending the last three seasons playing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but the direction of the organization still threatens to push the superstar center to leave.
Lamoriello said Tavares’ situation ”certainly has not and did not enter into any of the decisions that are made.”
Tavares, who would be the top free agent on the market
Dalton Schultz Jersey , had a good relationship with Weight, who was his teammate for two seasons and assistant coach and GM from 2011 until he replaced Jack Capuano as head coach in January 2017. Weight just finished his first full season as Islanders coach.
The Islanders now have the only coaching vacancy in the NHL. Asked what kind of coach he’d like to hire, Lamoriello essentially only alluded to the fact that Weight was not the guy he wants behind the bench.
”Not every coach is for every team and not every team is for every coach,” Lamoriello said. ”If we had that coach, he would be in place.”
In a statement, Lamoriello thanked Snow and Weight and the team said they would remain with the organization. Specific roles and responsibilities for them have yet to be determined, though Lamoriello said, ”I feel they can be valuable in me picking their brain, asking their opinion in certain areas.”
—
Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno at
Troy Brown Jr. Jersey ,
