Don't think I've ever had a team in any of my saves suffer as many injuries as this year's Rays squad has had with two more key players hitting the IL. And unsurprisingly this skeleton crew dropped 2 of 3 over the weekend.
Our team defense is pretty terrible and that doesn't bode well for a groundballer like
Joe Scheu, who was hit hard today in a 7-6 loss to the Guardians. Scheu went 5.1 10 6 4 0 2 and the Rays fought all the way back from 5-1 down to tie the game at 6 before
Alden Segui (1-1), whom I'm no longer wondering why he was on waivers, gave up the winner in the 8th. A couple of homers figured large in the ill-fated comeback: a 2-run poke from former Guardian
Danny Charlton (#10) and a 3-run pinch-hit blast from another former Guardian
Mal Stephens (#5), who's slugging a cool .727 since being called up.
Transaction: The latest Rays star to hit the IL is
Wander Franco, who was injured a few games ago but it was thought to be a 3-day "moderate" injury. He sat out but still had a setback and now he'll miss a couple of weeks. To take his place we had to purchase the contract of another rookie, SS
Adan Chavarria who was our 4th-round pick in 2033. The 24-year-old boasts excellent contact (60) and is a defensive whiz at short, something our lousy defense could use. He'll take over SS and
Justin Blackwell will move to 2B while Franco is out.
Rookie
David Marin got the start today and helped pitch the Rays to a 6-1 win over Cleveland in his MLB debut. He didn't last long enough to get the win but was effective at 4 3 1 1 2 5 on 84 pitches before giving way to
Jeff Coblentz (1-0), who picked up the win. Tampa Bay scored all its runs in the 5th, keyed by a bases-clearing Danny Arroyave double. Speaking of MLB debuts
Adan Chavarria had an impressive one, going 2-3 with a walk and a run scored.
Nick Wallerstedt continues to struggle in the rotation and his terrible outing today helped doom the Rays to a 5-2 loss in the series finale. Wallerstedt (1-1) went 3 7 5 5 0 2 with a pair of homers allowed and saw his ERA rise to 6.85. While the bullpen held Cleveland scoreless the rest of the way the offense struggled with men on base, hitting into 3 double plays and leaving 11 men on. And one of the two runs came via the homer as
Duk-yoon Ko hit his 3rd as part of a game in which he reached base all 4 times up. And the injuries continued as closer
Eric Lewis, getting in some work in the 9th, of course got hurt as he herniated a disc and will miss close to two weeks.
Team record: 23-16, now 2 1/2 behind Toronto and clinging to the second wild card. Next up: Philadelphia visits for 3 in our first interleague action of the season.
Just to give an idea of how many guys we have hurt, this is our current major league IL:
2/5 of our rotation, 2/3 of our outfield, our starting catcher, closer, superstar IF and top lefty reliever, all on the IL. Unbelievable. At least Gutierrez is coming back shortly having just started a rehab assignment at Durham.