1. Five pitchers have started all of the Devil Rays’ games this season.
2. Edwin Jackson has a 7.78 ERA in 8 starts for Tampa.
3. Jackson’s ERA is the third-best on the staff. (Jae Seo and Casey Fossum are both at 7.80).
The sad part is, you have a team that has some exciting young players (Tampa is still 10th in the league in scoring; not great but they’ve finished a season that high only once in their history, in 2005), Scott Kazmir and James Shields in the rotation (Shields is having a tremendous breakout year, with a 62/13 K/BB ratio and the lowest baserunners/innings ratio of any major league pitcher) and a rejuvenated Al Reyes ringing up a 1.31 ERA in the closer role. But between the back of the rotation and the middle of the bullpen, Tampa is just getting knocked out of the box too often to move up in the fluid (behind Boston) AL East. And that may end up costing them a last chance to bring fans to the Trop before ownership decides to hit the road.