Once again the Rays took 2 out of 3 but in a twist they didn't lose ground to the Yankees; in fact they picked up a game as the seemingly-unbeatable New York club dropped 2 of 3 to Texas, so they're only a game back now (albeit two in the loss column).
But first a trade:
The back end of the rotation (Prosecky and Little) has been shaky and while this team is likely headed to the playoffs the Yankees are a tough foe in the division, which I'd really like to win rather than play a best-of-3 wild card round. So to that end upgrading the rotation to tune of 2-3 extra wins could be critical, and righty starter Morales is hopefully that guy. He's rated 65/60/50 and was 3-3, 3.09 with the Wreckers, formerly the Pittsburgh Pirates, and on pace for 3.6 WAR. Not sure yet whose spot he'll take but Little with his good stuff seems more likely to be impactful in the pen than the soft-tossing Prosecky.
Jon Post will likely head down once we activate Morales which won't be until the weekend since he pitched the night before the trade.
As for what we gave up, neither of the minor leaguers sent El Paso's way are real prospects as this deal was all about getting rid of money obligations given the Wreckers' dire financial situation as shown above.
One rotation spot we're not worrying about anymore is
Wes Mendes' as the lefty was brilliant yet again in a 5-1 win in the opener over the Angels. He improved to 6-2 after going 7 5 1 1 1 5 and he was supported by three solo homers:
Nate Strickland (#5) in the 2nd, and
Arturo Gutierrez (#14) and
Wander Franco (#6), who went back-to-back in the 6th.
Michael Prosecky wasn't horrible tonight, but he wasn't great either and the bullpen was worse in a 9-6 loss in the second game. Prosecky was 5 5 4 3 1 2 with the damage against him primarily a 3-run homer from former Rays fixture Andrew Greckel. He left a 4-4 game and then the bullpen imploded with
John Swanda (2-1),
Mason Feole and
Jon Post combining to let LA score 5 times in the 7th. Feole was the worst offender of the lot, allowing 3 of the runs and Swanda's lone man to score. The bats did their best to keep the home team in the game with
Orlando Tosado (#9) and
Joshua Baez (#6) homering. Baez was 3-5 with 2 RBI.
Christian Little made his claim to stay in the rotation with five scoreless innings as the Rays took the rubber match 6-2 from the Angels. Little (4-3) was an excellent 5 2 0 0 1 7 but it did take him 91 pitches to get through five and his low stamina is another argument for moving him to the pen.
Orlando Tosado and
Cristian Hernandez were a two-man offense with the former drilling a 3-run homer (#10) in the 2nd to get them on the board and the latter going back-to-back with Tosado in the 2nd and adding a 2-run shot in the 6th to give him 9 on the season.
Team record: 38-17. Next up: An off-day then our long homestand concludes with 3 against Kansas City.