A disappointing series in the Bronx as the Rays dropped 2 of 3 to New York. In the jumble that is the AL East they are now in second, a game behind Toronto and 1/2 up on Baltimore.
They did come back to take the opener 7-5. After tying it up in the 7th on a
Joe Stack RBI single, they went ahead to stay in the 8th thanks to
Wander Franco's RBI double. Earlier
Art Bing, who has been very productive in the backup catcher role, blasted a 3-run homer (#5) and
Danny Charlton went solo (#12).
Mario Urizar had a rough start at 4.2 6 5 5 2 3 but the bullpen came through big for a change, shutting down the Yankees the rest of the way with
Branden Gammage (2-2) getting the win and
Jadon Smith pitching an uneventful 9th for save #20.
Transaction: Unfortunately
Danny Arroyave is hurt again, having suffered a high ankle sprain in the series opener and will be out 3-4 weeks. It's been a season of injuries and underachievement for Arroyave, who's only hit 223/271/386 while healthy and had been a 30-homer, 3-WAR guy the last two seasons. Earlier this year he missed 6-7 weeks with an ab strain, and as we did then we called up veteran 3B
Cristian Hernandez from Durham to platoon with
Luis Cisneros, who's actually outproduced Arroyave this year while filling in for him.
The second game was a tough loss as after being shut down for most of the game they came back to tie it up at 2 in the 8th only to lose in the 9th when
Ruben Abeyta (2-5) gave up a 2-out double to let the Yankees walk it off 3-2.
Gabe Bryant pitched well again at 6 4 2 2 1 5 and
Alex Rivas was 3-5 with a steal and run scored.
Pitching let them down in the finale as a 2-homer game from
Luis Berumen was wasted in an 8-6 loss to New York.
Leo Gutierrez (5-3) had his struggles, finishing 4.1 4 5 5 2 6 although
Jake Bridgewater allowed a couple of his men to score. Berumen meanwhile kept getting the Rays back into the game with the first of his pair of 2-run homers cutting the deficit to 6-4 in the 6th and the second (#26) making it 8-6 in the 8th.
Danny Charlton also had a 2-run homer, his 13th but those two were pretty much the offense getting 4 of the team's 6 hits.
Team record: 54-49. Next up: An off-day then another daunting road series with 3 in Texas against the 57-45 Rangers.
We have a trade! One last deal before the deadline in an effort to beef up our defense:
Price is a 60-rated CF with a +3.6 ZR this year, which is in stark contrast to incumbent
Alex Rivas, who sits at an abysmal -10.5 ZR in 95 games this season. In fairness to Rivas he's much better suited to the corners but was playing there out of necessity as until now we didn't have a legit CF. Price is a similar hitter to Rivas, hitting 275/341/401 so far for the Twins and is a free agent at year's end. He'll take over and sit some against lefties with Rivas going to the bench except against tough lefties. As far as the price for Price, Riddick has been oft-injured and we already have three lefties in the pen. We would have to make a decision on him anyway as his second rehab assignment was almost up (he didn't make it through the first and had to be ILed again).