Have They No Shane?

 

Well, there ya go. Thanks to the Orioles and Yankees, the Rays reached double-digit losses before the A's could reach double-digit wins.

I wanna say definitively that the rest of the MLB has figured out the Rays, but I don't think I can say that. Even the losses we've seen from the Rays this week have been close losses. Nobody's blowing these guys out. The Reds were somehow able to limit the Rays to 1 point while scoring 8, but I've become convinced that pretty much every Reds win is just an act of defiance. Even these two Yankee wins they've had against the Rays have had those one point deficits, and very nearly turned around again. 

Look, even if the Yankees split a series with the Rays, I call that a win. We found a crack. Maybe not the unraveling of the entire team or anything, but we were able to get past them on two occasions and keep them mostly in place. For a team that looked so impenetrable to this point, it's a good start.

What's also illuminating the cracks in this team is the growing parade of injuries. Wander Franco's neck seemed to be alright, but Drew Rasmussen's gonna be out for a while, Yandy Diaz left yesterday with a groin issue, and Garrett Cleavinger just went on the 60, alongside the already-there-by-tempting-a-deity-he-forgets-occasionally-has-a-sense-of-humor Jeffrey Springs. The IL is beginning to build, and the big pieces of this team may not be safe, judging by some of the pitching injuries.

This means the Rays are down to 3 starters, including the always-reliable Shane McClanahan, Zach Eflin, who's really found himself in the last few weeks, and already-beloved rookie Taj Bradley. Instead of actually using their auxiliary guys like Yonny Chirinos and Josh Fleming as starters, as they have before, the Rays are instead going back to their 2018 playbook and using about 20 openers, including Calvin Faucher, Trevor Kelley, Javy Guerra and Jalen Beeks. I...don't think is the BEST plan of action, but it does show that the Rays are more confident in the durability of their relievers than the durability of their starters, and I can sort of see that. Jason Adam seems to be doing alright in the ninth, but seeing what's happened to Ryan Thompson and Jalen Beeks' ERAs, he'd best be careful out there, especially as we head into June.

The Rays still have enough versatility to infuriate me. Now that Taylor Walls has figured out how to hit I hate him even more than I did when he couldn't hit. Josh Lowe is showing up out of nowhere and acting like it's not ridiculous to have a farm system produce multiple guys named Lowe in a five year span. Randy Arozarena already has 34 RBIs. There's still a lot of good in this team, and a lot that will keep them ahead for a while. But the best thing about this week is that it's established that this Rays team is human. Beatable. Please keep it up.

Coming Tonight: I did not expect, when this guy came up and subsequently was injured for multiple seasons, that he'd grow into one of my favorite hometown players.