Monday, 3 a.m.
Here at the end of the season, it is as obvious as ever why the Tampa Bay Rays may succeed in the playoffs, and why they may not.
The Rays, leaders of the American League East, can pitch. With Ryan Yarbrough rounding into shape, their arms are at their strongest point of the season.
On the other hand, their bats are still made of sawdust.
The Rays dropped a 2-1 game to the Baltimore Orioles Sunday afternoon, managing only four hits. In their last three games (two of them wins), the Rays have scored just six runs. Sixteen Rays struck out.
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The Rays' only score came on a home run by Willy Adames off Orioles' starter John Means..
"The fastball was his pitch," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "He pitched off of it. He had plenty of life to it. We just couldn’t catch up to it for whatever reason. He threw a really good ballgame."
So, too, did Yarbrough, who gave up a two-run single by Renato Nunez in the first inning, but shut out the Orioles the rest of the way. Yarbrough threw seven innings and allowed just five hits.
“Yarbs was outstanding," Cash said. "That’s the frustration. It’s not that we didn’t hit. The frustration is that you spoiled a really tremendous pitching effort by Yarbrough. It was good to see him get that deep in a ballgame. and be really efficient. His stuff looked really good from the sideline. I think how he went through the lineup over and over. It was pretty (obvious) that he was featuring a lot of quality stuff."
The Rays now move to New York to face the Mets in a 7:10 p.m. game tonight. The Rays have not announced their starter, but the Mets will go with Jacob deGrom.