{"id":18093,"date":"2011-09-30T09:23:28","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T14:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18093"},"modified":"2011-09-30T09:23:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T14:23:28","slug":"mlb-playoffs-tampa-bay-rays-at-texas-rangers-free-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-playoffs-tampa-bay-rays-at-texas-rangers-free-picks-predictions-18093\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Playoffs: Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers Free Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers will open up a five-game American League division series Friday night inside Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Texas Rangers SP C.J. Wilson gets the call in Game 1 of the ALDS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tampa Bay finished off an improbable regular season by erasing a nine-game deficit to capture the AL Wild Card spot.\u00a0 The Rays weren\u2019t expected to make the playoffs after watching key players leave the roster, including Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Matt Garza and Rafael Soriano.\u00a0 Offensively, the team will be looking to score more runs than it did against the Rangers in last year\u2019s series, plating just 13 runs and 37 hits in five games.\u00a0 \u201cEvery night we take the field, we believe we have a chance based on our starting pitching,\u201d commented Rays manager Joe Maddon.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than taking the field knowing you have a great disadvantage on the mound.\u201d Tampa Bay is 44-37 on the road this season.<\/p>\n

Rays starting pitcher Matt Moore will be making just his fourth appearance (second start) in a Major League uniform Friday, coming in with a 1-0 record and 2.89 ERA.\u00a0 The left-hander can be dominating, registering 15 strikeouts in 9 1\/3 innings of work.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think we have qualms about doing anything,\u201d commented Maddon about starting a rookie in the opener.\u00a0 \u201cIf we don\u2019t utilize everybody within our rosters here, or within the organization, we\u2019re missing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas enters having won consecutive AL West crowns and simply wants to go a step farther after losing last year\u2019s World Series to the San Francisco Giants.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, absolutely,\u201d Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler stated.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt the goal is to win the World Series.\u00a0 That\u2019s what everybody is pushing for.\u201d\u00a0 The Rangers beat the Rays in five games in the ALDS last year and won five of nine meetings during the regular season in 2011.\u00a0 Texas enters as one of the hottest teams in baseball, winning six straight and 14 of 16.\u00a0 During the regular season, the team was 19-6 on Friday and 26-22 versus left-handed starters.<\/p>\n

Rangers starting pitcher C.J. Wilson finished the 2011 regular season with a 16-7 record and 2.94 ERA, leading the team to wins in five of his last six outings.\u00a0 The left-hander registered an 8-2 record and 3.69 ERA in 16 home starts, compiling 94 strikeouts in 102 1\/3 frames.\u00a0 Wilson has made 17 career appearance (four starts) versus the Rays, posting a 4-0 record and 2.25 ERA, limiting them to a .172 batting average.\u00a0 He tossed 6 1\/3 shutout innings against Tampa Bay during Game 2 of last year\u2019s series.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Rangers due to their 36-15 record in Wilson\u2019s last 51 starts as a favorite, while the Rays are 2-6 in their last eight playoff games.<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out the latest baseball playoff odds at Bookmaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers will open up a five-game American League division series Friday night inside Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers Tampa Bay finished off an improbable regular season by erasing a nine-game deficit to capture the AL Wild Card spot.\u00a0 The Rays weren\u2019t expected to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1396,3006,1749,150,771],"class_list":["post-18093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-c-j-wilson","tag-matt-moore","tag-rangers-ballpark","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18094,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18093\/revisions\/18094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}