The road trip that will not end continues for the Tampa Bay Rays, as they travel to Boston for Friday afternoon's Game 1 of their American League Division Series (ALDS) against the Red Sox.
Tampa Bay's path to the postseason has taken them to Toronto, where they forced a tiebreaker for the second wild-card spot in the American League (AL) playoffs beating the Blue Jays; Texas where they defeated the Rangers 5-2 to get into the wild-card round; and Cleveland, where they shut out Cleveland 4-0 to earn a trip to Boston for a five-game series against the American League East champions.
"It's quite an accomplishment," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "And, moving forward, I want to believe it's going to create some kind of different form of momentum going into this series because we've been playing. We've been playing under duress and we're not tired."
The Rays will start left-hander Matt Moore (17-4 with 3.29 ERA in 27 starts) against the Red Sox, who is 9-1 in his last 13 starts, 14-2 when he starts on the road. Moore is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA against Boston in 15 innings, throwing his first career shut out on July 22 at Fenway Park.
"For me going into a game on the road, I try to take that as a little bit more of a challenge than when you're at home," said Moore. "There's nothing better than winning on the road in an environment like this."
The Red Sox, who beat out the Rays for the AL East title, will send Jon Lester (15-8 with a 3.75 ERA) to the mound, who is 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA in his last eight starts and 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA since the All-Star break.
Lester has rebounded nicely after going 9-14 record with a 4.82 ERA last season - a 2012 season many Red Sox fans and players alike would just like to forget altogether. The Red Sox, who fired Bobby Valentine after one season, had a 28-game turnaround around under John Farrell, finishing 97-65 - second most wins for the team since 1978.
"This was part of the mindset at the end of last year, a strong desire to rewrite what took place," said Red Sox manager John Farrell.
TV Schedule
You can catch Game 1 of the Tampa Bay Rays - Boston Red Sox American League Division Series Friday at 3:07 p.m EST on TBS.
Live Stream (video)
Live stream coverage can be seen on MLB.tv (subscription required).
Live Stream (audio)
Live stream coverage can be heard MLB.com Gameday Audio.
Live Score
Live scores could be followed by clicking here.
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