Good Seats Still Available: Rays Visit Pirates

The Tampa Bay Rays lead by

recently star struck manager Joe Maddon will play the Pittsburgh Pirates today. Maddon was able to hang out with his boyhood idol Joe Namath on Tuesday and said “he’s a genuine good guy.”  It’s a pretty cool story if you missed it.

Now back to the Bucs, let’s trust that Pirates starter Jeff Karstens can have another strong outing.   Karstens has pitched well this spring.   He has  allowed one run on just five hits over eight innings.  The cool numbers for us are that he has six strike outs.  Will it carry over?  Probably not the strikeouts, or the hits allowed being below the number of innings pitched.  But we trust he can continue his effectiveness.   He has pitched out of some jams thus far as he has allowed three walks.

The Rays have been called the best team in Florida by some of my friends that have been making the rounds. It is literally insane how much pitching this team has. James Shields goes today for the Rays and well, here is the rest of their lineup.

Carlos Pena and Desmond Jennings are on the travel list for the Rays.

For more on the Rays, check out the season preview from BabesLoveBaseball

Pitching after Karstens today is scheduled to be Jason Grilli, Tony Watson, and Daniel Moskos.   Grilli has only given up one hit in six innings this spring.