Rays 3, Dodgers 7
Record: 27-18
Attendance: 15,862
It isn't just that the Rays were red hot in April and that they have cooled off in May. That's just the superficial description of the obvious. It's more like they started the season knowing they were good and playing hard every day to prove it. And they did. Nobody wanted to see the Rays coming up on the schedule. They had good at bats, good defense, and good pitching. It was a thing of beauty. They willed themselves into being a good team.
But that takes an every day effort that has to extend over six months, and the Rays are showing that they don't have the inner strength of mind and body to do that. Injuries explain part of it, particularly the loss of Tyler Glasnow and Mike Zunino. But there's also the very mediocre play of Willy Adames, whom we have waited for as the SS savior for several years now, and is now "enjoying" a second season that shows he is over his head. He may yet prove to be worth the long buildup that we've heard about for so long. But increasingly it seems it'll be the sort of long term success that sees a player reach his potential long after his original team has finally called an end to the financial support of an underperforming player. Some other team will reap the benefits.
First base doesn't have a single player that can be counted on day after day. Manager Kevin Cash's musical chairs approach to the position has resulted in low numbers from all the candidates, Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe, Nate Lowe. Some of the players are okay with the bat, but their defense is shaky. No one has solved both parts of the equation.
Even third base looks shakier than it should, especially as the projected starter Matt Duffy has been on the IL since the beginning of the season and has just had a hamstring setback at Durham. Diaz and Robertson have been serviceable, not brilliant, but but that's about as good as its going to get for this edition of the Rays. Second base with Lowe there is as good as the third base situation, although the best player at just about every infield positions is injured Joey Wendle, who is still weeks away from returning to action--and the Rays can't afford to lose May and half of June waiting for him.
Catcher was beginning to look like a solved problem with Mike Zunino and Michael Perez covering the plate offensively and defensively just fine. And then within hours of each other they wound up on the IL together, which meant the Rays had to scavenge through major and minor league rosters just to put bodies behind the plate. They signed Travis d'Arnaud and Erik Kratz, both of whose careers had seemingly ended this year, as stop gaps who happen to have both the experience and the bats and gloves to be potentially equal to the very bad situation they find themselves in.
Pitching seemed fairly solid, with a somewhat shaky Blake Snell followed by Charlie Morton and Tyler Glasnow. With Glasnow out, the entire strategy of openers, bulkers, and finishers has been called into question. There are too many games for these middle men to manage at the level they need to be at. One bulker, Ryan Yarbrough, who had been heavily counted on, had to be sent down to AAA.
As to the outfield, Kevin Kiermaier has become the vocal post-game analyst every night. He's always ready for the camera and always willing to give a timely quote for the print media. The team needs him to shut up and hit. And run the bases better. His vaunted defense remains spectacular at times, but at other times he makes routine plays look spectacular with hot dog leaps and rolls. He defies gravity giving high fives to himself. Tommy Pham is the one sheer professional it is a pleasure to watch day in and day out. His base running too has been an adventure from time to time, but he is humble and hard working and low key. Right field has Austin Meadows who was out for three weeks and Avisail Garcia, not exactly platooning, because both of them are usually in the lineup either in RF or as DH, but neither one has claimed the position outright. Which would be fine as long as the team is winning. It's too bad neither one can play first base.
But April has become May and the Rays are no longer steamrollering their way through opposition lineups. It's time to take hard looks at the players who take the field every day. Changes in personnel or in attitudes and performances have to come soon if this team is to meet any of its preseason goals.
Yesterday's first game of a two-game set against the Dodgers is a case in point. The Dodgers scored solo runs in the first, third, and fourth, added three more in the seventh, and took a 6-0 lead before the Rays answered back with three of their own in the bottom of the seventh. The Dodgers tacked one on in the ninth to make the final score 7-3.
The Rays had ten hits and scored three runs, but it was too little too late. Hunter Wood was the opener and gave up one run in his two innings--and took the loss. Jalen Beeks followed him and pitched four and two-thirds and gave up five runs. All told, another mess.
Maybe the April Rays will show up tonight in the second game of a two-game set against the Dodgers. It would be a timely return to competitive baseball.
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