Record: 29-25 (12-16 for the month)
2nd place AL East, 3 behind Boston; First Wild Card
As you can see from the record it's been a tough month and it ended on a tough note with the Rays in the throes of a 6-game losing streak after going through a 5-game skid earlier in May. Most of the losses on the streak have been one-run games and/or games they've blown in the late innings, making it even more frustrating. The bullpen was good in April but has been terrible this month and with the exception of a couple of hot hitters the offense has struggled as well. Also this team probably needs one more starting pitcher. Onto the gory details:
Just barely clinging to the top wild card.
This team is really hard to figure out. On the one hand, we're 4 games behind out Pythagorean record which makes sense given the close games and blown games of late. On the other, I have no idea how we're first in the league in runs scored despite being 12th in AVG and OBP and only 7th in SLG. 5th in HR and 1st in SB helps but it still doesn't seem to add up. And the starting pitching has been brutal while the bullpen ERA is a bit deceiving considering some of the games lost. Throw in some highly mediocre defense and that's how you get a 12-16 month.
These are not pretty numbers. I knew Basallo was slumping but didn't realize it was this bad (7 for 78). Schmidt has been a zero as well and even top-hitting regular Tatis didn't get going until the second half of the month when he hit 5 of his 6 homers. You'll notice no regular hit higher than .267, which is kind of tough to do with the short sample of a month.
Ashby got hurt early in the month so Ellis moved into the rotation where his results were mixed at best. Kim has been so bad that when Ashby came back at the end of the month it was he who lost his rotation spot. At least Lambert bounced back from a brutal April. The middle relievers were great this month but back-end guys Crochet and Vera struggled mightily and cost us a couple of games at least.
We'll update the prospect rankings next month since little has changed since last time but
Dean Moss continues to rake at Durham: 333/409/799 with 26 HR and 56 RBI in 52 games. The way things are going it may not be long before he gets a recall. Also our 2029 first-rounder had a nice month at AA:
