Although, the Tampa Bay Rays have had trouble drawing a number of fans to their stadium that would satisfy them, they have continued to play on. The Rays made history and have won their second American League East title in their short history. The Rays won the division in hand once the Yankees lost to the Red Sox but would’ve won regardless by defeating Kansas City.
Now the Rays prepare for the Texas Rangers on this afternoon. The Rays drew what many consider the worst start time, a mid afternoon first pitch. The Rangers clinched the AL West Division Championship back on September 25th. This season will mark their fourth trip to the postseason. Prior to this season they had the sixth longest playoff drought in the majors with the 11 year gap since their 1999 AL West title. They closed out the regular season 6-4 in their last 10 games.
David Price will be on the mound for the mound for the Rays in game one. In his last 10 appearances, Price is 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA and 55 strikeouts. He also has averaged close to seven innings per start this season. It will be important for him to have a great start since the Rays are 84-13 when tied or leading after six innings in 2010.
Cliff Lee has yet to win a game against the Tampa Bay Rays this season going 0-3. The key for the Rays in all three games was scoring critical runs in the eighth inning. Lee has given up eight 
earned runs to Tampa Bay in the eighth inning this season.
In all three games Lee’s team was either in the lead or tied going into the eighth. If the Rays can either jump out ahead early or take advantage of Lee again late they will be poised to face the winner of the Twins-Yankees series.
The Rangers power hitting team has a .276 batting average for the season. However, they are only hitting .227 in Tropicana Field. Also, Josh Hamilton is bringing in a miserable .100 batting average for the season in Tampa Bay.
These factors combined setup game one to be a close game that the Rays will probably find a way to squeeze out late. If the Rays get into a position for Rafael Soriano to get a save opportunity in game one, they will likely take the game and eventually the series. Also just a side note on Game 1 it has already sold out, and the only way to get at ticket is through a ticket service of some sort. How man fans will come out, we will see in a few hours.
