The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
Braves 2, RAYS 1 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: James Loney continues to hit the ball well. He went 1-2 with a walk last night and has a hit in 7 straight games. Over that span he is 11-24 with 4 walks and no strikeouts…Players off the bench are now 25-78 (.373) with a crazy-good .440 OBP and 1.134 OPS. They are also hitting a home run once every 12.5 at bats which is Mark McGwirian.
THE BAD: Meanwhile, starters are hitting .235 with a .304 OBP, a .673 OPS and are hitting home runs once every 41.6 at bats…The Rays’ best chances to take the lead last night came in the 4th and 5th innings and slow runners doomed the Rays. In the 4th, with James Loney on second, David DeJesus hit a single to right field that he hit a little too hard as Loney had to stop at third. Asdrubal Cabrera followed with an inning-ending double-play. In the 5th with the score tied 1-1. Rene Rivera, who seemingly strikes out every at bat, got a single. Ironically, this may have hurt the Rays. After Jake Odorizzi struck out, Kevin Kiermaier had a hit down the left field line that would have likely been a double for him on most nights but the Molina-like Rivera was in front of him and had to stop at second. Now, instead of first and third with one out or Kiermaier on second, the Rays had a runner on second who is probably not scoring unless the Rays can get a double or home run. Instead, Steven Souza and Evan Longoria struck out back-to-back.
THE TELLING: Matt Moore will have a bullpen session today. It sounds like a rehab assignment could start as early as late next week. That assignment would likely last the full 3 weeks…Pitchers for the Oakland series: Alex Colome, Chris Archer, Nathan Karns, and Erasmo Ramirez in that order…PECOTA gives the Rays a 47.3% chance to make the playoffs…The Rays are 22-19 and still tied for first place with the Yankees who have lost 3 in a row.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- It’s official, Drew Smyly will attempt to rehab his torn labrum and return later in the year, “sometime in August.” [TampaBay.com]
- There are a lot of ex-Rays on the A’s roster, and that does not include Ben Zobrist who is still on a rehab assignment. [TampaBay.com]
- Major League Baseball is the third-highest paying sports league in the world. [BI Sports]
- Jameis Winston was at the Lightning game hanging with Michelle Wie. [JoeBucsFan]
- DOWN ON THE FARM [boxscores] The Bulls lost 8-7 in 10 innings. Matt Andriese gave up 3 runs on 7 hits in 3.1 innings. Grant Balfour tossed 2 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts. Curt Casali went 3-4 with his 2nd home run. Mikie Mahtook had a double and 3 strikeouts…Montgomery lost 11-5. RF Johnny Field hit his 6th home run and drove in 3. He also had a double. Daniel Robertson went 1-5 and is hitting .307…Charlotte lost 2-1 with Willy Adames going 0-4 with 3 Ks…Casey Gillaspie and Justin Williams each drove in 3 during Bowling Green’s 9-2 win. Williams had 3 hits.
(1)Dislikes
(0)
7 Comments
Go Bolts!
Maybe Rivera gets a torn left roster spot and Casali comes up for a week while Rivera goes down to rehab his bad bat?
Yes because Curt Casali and his .197 average in AAA would be an upgrade...
It's not about Casali being better, it's about Rivera needing to fix his swing, toolbox.
I think if its late in a close game and Rivera manages to blind pig/acorn his way on to first, they should pinch run for him. He and Loney are absolute base cloggers.
Maybe the 5th inning is too early, but the 7th definitely and maybe earlier in some cases
And neither catcher should be batting in the 9th inning of ANY 1 run game, and in some cases the 8th as well. Rivera has too many complete games already in my opinion. We have 2 catchers and Rivera isn't markedly better a backstop than use them and our hot bench. Remember all of those hot bench hitters also get a fair share of starts as well. If that hurts his confidence to be treated like a offensively like a pitcher then stop hitting like one.
I want to see more Wilson and less Rivera starting a little more and finishing games alot more. Maybe it will help Rivera to rest him a little. Im not saying Wilson will be better mind you. Its strategic. That will lead to both of them hitting and running less as more pinching by the other guys on the bench.
Rays are tops in the AL in caught stealing (14) and only 9th in Steals (20) which puts us 12th in SB%. Plus throw in some of the base running blunders and they need all the speedy runners they can get.
They are second in FB/GB ratio to the Astros which is great for the Astros since so many are leaving the yard (61) but not so great for the Rays as they are 9th (37) in HR as well as 9th in extra base hits. That leads to being 2nd best in the AL in GDP our catchers being so rarely on base doesn't hurt us in that category.
I thunk the catcher/pinch runner idea would be fine if Jaso is on the club to take over duties in an emergency. Unfortunately dude got hurt after his first at bat.
They actually have been doing what I suggested quite a bit, I am just hoping they to do it more and earlier. Wilson has finished 6 of Rene's games. And Rivera's ended 3 of Bobby's game. They were all close games. Last night was Rene's earliest exit after getting his rare hit as he caught the next two innings Bobby came in for the last 3 innings.
So maybe they are starting to pull him earlier already.