The Tampa Bay Rays are in salvage mode after dropping the first two games in New York against the Yankees. Tampa Bay enters play at 2-6 against the Yankees this season and has lost 14 of the last 15 road series with the Yankees (the Rays are 12-33 in New York 2014).

The 6-3 loss yesterday was all the more disappointing since the pitching staff (minus Ryan Yarbrough, who was excellent) could not contain the Yankees, not to mention Yandy Diaz (left hamstring tightness) was not in the lineup. Diaz has been placed on the Injured List retroactive to Monday, while INF Daniel Robertson has been recalled to take his place on the active roster.

Diaz left Sunday’s game in the ninth inning, and hasn’t played since. Rays manager Kevin Cash spoke about the potential loss of Diaz prior to the roster move.

We’re trying to take it as a day-to-day thing. The last thing you want to do is put him out there when he’s not feeling right and something maybe a little more severe possibly could happen. He’s been such a big part of the offense lately, even on the homestand he was really swinging the bat well. We don’t want to lose him for an extended period of time.

— Kevin Cash

Speaking of poor pitching, Rays skipper Kevin Cash said that pulling Yarbrough for Chaz Roe — who allowed three runs in 2/3 of an inning on Tuesday, and eight runs across 5-2/3 innings extending back to June 2 — was a “difficult decision,” however, he wanted the matchup against all the Yankees right-handed hitters. Cash went on to say that even though Oliver Drake was warming up in the bullpen, he wanted to stay with Roe through the frame.

For his part, Roe said, “I felt good. I threw some pitches that were out of the zone and they were just able to get enough wood on it for it to fall in. Things just didn’t go my way tonight.”

Personally, I would love to stop seeing Chaz Roe in any high leverage situations, as would most Rays fans.

Over the life of this series, Tampa Bay has been outscored 9-3 and out homered 4-0. The Rays have now allowed 16 homers in the last 15 days, while New York has homered in 21 consecutive games — four shy of the franchise record. Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) the Rays are 8-8 in their stretch of 21 games in 20 days from June 4-23 and are 16-13 in their stretch of 34 games in 34 days.

The New What Next

Left-hander Blake Snell (4-5, 3.70 ERA) will get the start for the Rays, pitching opposite of Grimace lookalike C.C. Sabathia (3-4, 4.42 ERA).

Blake Snell allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits and four walks across 3-1/3 against the Angels on Friday. He struck out three. That start marked Snell’s shortest outing since May 1, although he was able to avoid a loss because the Rays offense scored nine runs against the Angels bullpen. Snell has been a little hot and cold of late, yielding just one run in three of his last seven starts, but more than three runs in under five frames in his other two. Overall, Snell is 4-5 with a 3.70 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and 101 punch outs across 75-1/3 innings this season, and is 3-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 13 career starts against the Yankees (59.0 innings of work).

C.C. Sabathia coughed up six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and three walks while striking out three over 4-2/3 innings against the White Sox. Sabathia was tagged for four first-inning runs, including a three-run blast by Eloy Jimenez, and things went downhill from there. The left-hander had been taken deep at least once in nine straight starts, and as a result, he carries a 4.42 ERA and 2.38 K/BB through 57 into his next outing against Tampa Bay, on Wednesday. Over his career against the Rays, Sabathia is 17-16 with a 3.63 ERA and is 0-0 with a 2.45 ERA in two starts against the Rays this season ― although he averaged 5.5 IP in each of those starts. Key Matchups: Willy Adames (3-12, HR, 2 RBI, BB), Travis d’Arnaud (3-9, 2 BB), Kevin Kiermaier (5-16, 2 HR, 2 RBI), Brandon Lowe (1-4, BB), Austin Meadows (1-4, BB), Joey Wendle (1-2), Mike Zunino (5-11, HR, RBI, BB)

You can read about the series in our preview, while the starting lineup and Noteworthiness are below.

Rays 6/19/19 Starting Lineup

  1. d’Arnaud C
  2. Pham LF
  3. Meadows RF
  4. Garcia DH
  5. Adames SS
  6. Lowe 2B
  7. Heredia CF
  8. Choi 1B
  9. Robertson 3B

Noteworthiness

― Tyler Glasnow was happy with his 15 pitch bullpen session (all fastballs) and lines up to throw another on Friday.

First time throwing off the mound in a long time, but it felt like I hadn’t taken any time off, so that’s good.

― Tyler Glasnow

The right-hander hasn’t thrown any breaking balls yet but said working on his lower-half mechanics will make it easier to spin the ball, which he will likely start next week.

I’m a big believer, for me anyway, the more consistent I am and strong in the low half, like if my hips are in the right spot and I’m not cross firing and I feel strong with my legs and everything comes out in the right spot. So I know if my fastball feels good, my curveball is going to feel good. It’s basically like the exact same thing, it’s just over and under. But the consistency as far as pitch location was extremely good, so I know my curveball will come along.

― Tyler Glasnow

― 3B Matt Duffy (hamstring, back) took batting practice with the Gulf Coast League Rays yesterday, and logged at-bats in a simulated game in Port Charlotte. The Rays manager said Duffy told him this is “probably the best he’s felt where he has not felt anything in his hamstring, which is a great sign.”

We’ll start this back up, the buildup, the playing time. He’s still got a ways to go. Everything’s been interrupted so far. Hopefully, we can get it to go with no interruptions.

— Kevin Cash

Leave a comment