Rays-Mets: Tampa Takes Two from Mets for Road Trip Split

The Tampa Bay Rays split their six-game road trip through interleague play and return to the Trop exactly where they were when they left: three games above the mediocre line.

Tampa Bay used its power offense, some timely pitching, and solid bullpen work to take two out of three from the Mets. This followed a lost series to the red-hot Colorado Rockies. Tampa Bay did manage to stop Colorado's 11-game winning streak and had their own balloon to six before dropping the last two games of the series to the Rockies. By the way, I have no idea what's going on in this picture (actually I do, both Crawford and Upton were ducking a throw to the plate, get your minds out of the gutter, you sickos!).

BJ Upton had a big week at the plate for Tampa Bay, batting .413 while blasting two home runs, driving in nine runs, and scoring six times. Ben Zobrist added another two home runs to push his total to 15 while Carlos Pena belted his league leading 22nd.

Pitching wise, the Tampa Bay bullpen continued to pitch well while some of the starters got deeper into games. David Price, Andy Sonnanstine, and James Shields each worked over six innings to earn quality starts (although Price and Sonnanstine ended up with losses). Matt Garza and Jeff Neimann struggled to make it past five innings. The bullpen was solid, giving up only two runs in five games before giving up four in the rubber match against the Mets.

After an off day on Monday, the Rays wrap up interleague play by hosting the team that beat them in the World Series, the Champion Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game set, followed by a weekend series against the cross-state rival Florida Marlins.

Tampa Bay still finds themselves in fourth place in the AL East, but only a game behind third place Toronto, three behind the NY Yankees, and six behind Boston. The Rays have now won eight of their last 11.