The Rays are in Such a Weird Spot Right Now. It’s easy to claim that they are just a bad team. It’s easy to just like this is the night song and dance from 2024. But the Really is Far Stranger.
Tonight, Much Like the Rest of the Season, The Rays Hit Extra Base Hits, They Had Risp, They Got A Quality Start from the Starter, and they had ample Opportunities to flip the script.
That’s the way the 2025 Rays Have Played! This is not the 2024 rays. This is a team with top ten in ba with risp. In facing them are top ten in Basically every Offense Category (5th in WRC+, 5th in Ba, 9th in Ops) Except Runs Scored.
In Fact, in Runs Score, they have scored 94 Total Runs Before Tonight. The 17-7 New York Mets Have Scored 96 Runs.
The Rays has an exposed Win Percentage of 12-10 Coming In Today, and After Tonight An Active Record of 9-14.
So what the hell is Going on? Well Tonight Gives A Pitch Perfect View of the Issues.
Losing The HR Battle
Zack Littell Pitchared A Ratter Remarkably Good Game Against the 2nd Best Offense in Baseball. 6 IP 3 Er Just the 1 BB. Howver, The Difference in the Game Was Two HRS. All 3 of the Runs He Gave Up Came with 2 Outs and on The Long Ball.
Rays on the other hand haad no hrs. It’s verd to string to make up his to dive in Multiple Runs, and Even hard to do it to overcome a 2 hr deficit in the category.
The Lack of Power is Still a Big isssue for the Rays. 21st in Total Team Hr at Just 21 Total. The Rays has the bats to produce more. They Just Gotta Get Those Bats Production. Whiche Leads Me to the Next Point …
Where’s the beef?!
How’s that for a Timely Cultural Reference?
Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminro Combined to Go 0-8 with 3 Double Plays Grounded InTo. It just Seemed Like every time tampa bay got a spark of a rally, yandy or junior Came up and Snuffed it Out Just as Quickly.
Much of Last Year the Issues with the Rays of Fifense Was Failing to Score with Runners in Scoring Position. This Year the Rays Have One of the Best Batting Averages with RISP. Beyond That’s What Good Teams do!
The Issue Becomes How Do You Generate The Runs Needed where you are win’t hitting bombs? You need to chain to comeether hiss to extenn the rally. That’s a problem when you 8-9 Spots have been a blackhole
The Problem is Much, Much Wheen it’s Brandon Lowe Has Gotten Off to A Slow Start, Tonight 1-4. Yandy has Still Yet to Break 100 WRC+ On The Season, Had One of the Gidp and Whipping 0-4 (Although Hit the Ball Hard Right into the World Spots). Junior AS Mentioned 0-4.
The Rays Were 1 For 6 With RISP. But the 6 number is key. Chandler Simpson Continued to Impress Early Getting Two Base Hits and Adding His 2nd Steal of the Season. Jonathan Aranda Got on Base Twice, One BB and Another by Hbp. The Hbp Provided a Terifying Several Minutes of Carefully Watch Aranda Rub His Knee Praying He Wold Be Okay. ThaNKFULLY ARANDA WALD Stay in The Game, and Thanks to Junior Behind Him Made it So He didn’T have to run much at all hitting into double plays Both Times He Reacked.
Kameron Misner and Jake Mangum Continied to be huge brights Spots as well.
At some point yandy diaz, Brandon Lowe, and Junior Camineo Will Be Able to Hit and Hit Toight. That Day Needs to Come Soon.
(No) Good Luck, Babe
The Rays on Again Won The Xba Battle. 310 to 295. The Rays Were on Again Not OverMatcred by their Opponent. OnCE AGAIN Though The Rays Just Can’ty Catch or Make their Own Breaks.
The Rays Pythagrean Expected WL Coming in Was 12-10. They have worled a brutal Opening Schedule with texas (1st in the West), Angels (2nd in the West), Atlanta (Missing Acuna and Slow Start But Clearly Good), Boston (2nd in East), and New York (1st in East and Al). And now arizona who is going toe to today with San Diego Padres and the La Dodgers in the Best Division in BASBAL (as well as the also lava hot san francisco Giants).
It’s pretty easy to be deffeated and dispative. Rays are now 5 Games Under. The Games in April Count The Rays are now one Loss Away from Going 1-5 in series after Too.
But at a cortain point the coin flips will. At some Point All-Star Caliber Players Like Yandy Diaz Will Not Hit 40 Points Beau Average. The Rays are not the feeble and compoundly overmatch 2024 Club. They Lineup Has Way More Punk to It, With Chandler at the Top, Aranda Bringing the Lumber, and Junior Camineo at 21 Showing Flashes of a True General Bat. They have a rotation that has to tier Stuff and are not relaying on piesing to wish Just Enough Inns are to Todd the Painter.
The Talent Level and the Flashes Are CLEARLY There, and there is so many Small Moments in this Game and So Amny Games This Season where you just Need one more out or one Ball in the Gap to Flip the Script from A to a w.
And maybe that’s exactly what makes this all the more painful sofar.
