As the Toronto Blue Jays warm up, the Boston Red Sox shake off their slow start, and the New York Yankees continue their amazing momentum......the Tampa Bay Rays are also here.
The injury issues that have plagued this team since the start of the season are still keeping this team from true dominance, and has held them to third. With Wander Franco, Mike Zunino, Brandon Lowe and J.P. Feyereisen injured, and now closer Andrew Kittredge out for the rest of the season, it is hard for this team to find something to hang onto. Hell, Shane Baz just got activated from the IL earlier today and got killed by the Twins, still hot from the Yanks series. We all held onto the belief that this team would be fine once the starters got back from the IL, but with Yarbrough already back in the minors and now Baz getting rocked, maybe the Rays really do need to hang onto Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Corey Kluber as tightly as they can.
As for the replacements, they're doing alright. Francisco Mejia is now the full time starting catcher, and while he's been strong as a backup, now he's hitting around the .220s and underwhelming in general. Vidal Brujan and Taylor Walls, two former Franco backups, are taking the infield, and while their defense is excellent, they're not doing crap at the plate. Brujan just hit his first ever homer last night, but I don't expect it to become a habit. And with Kittredge and Feyereisen on the mend, it's down to Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks and Ryan Thompson to do much of the relief work, and after their recent stand against, of all things, pride month, I'm not exactly itching for that to happen. I mean, you play for the Rays, that's one letter off from gays, so you should probably be okay with gays, then. Then again, I know a guy named Max who isn't too keen on getting the vax, but that was last week's post.
It sucks, because right now, Kiermaier-Arozarena-Margot is looking like an excellent outfield, and they're all pretty much hitting. Manny Margot's having the best season of his career, and he's finally figured out a place to stick around in, while Randy Arozarena is slowly heating up. Again, I wish this team was more of a power-hitting team than they were, but they can certainly hit for contact, and they can certainly stifle opposing defenses. They just need to figure out how to outlast their competition, and with the amount of great players injured right now, I don't know if they can.
Coming Tomorrow- A guy named Zack that would have a Cy Young by now if the world was just.
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