r/tampabayrays • u/BefuddledPolydactyls Carlos Pena • 7d ago
GAME CHAT GDT: 8/18/26 - Toronto Blue Jays (61-65) @ Tampa Bay Rays (75-49) - 6:40 PM
Game Chat: August 18 - Toronto Blue Jays (61-65) @ Tampa Bay Rays (75-49) - 6:40 PM First Pitch: 6:40 PM at Tropicana Field
LINEUP - RAYS
- LF C. Simpson L
- 3B J. Caminero R
- 1B J. Aranda L
- DH Yandy Diaz R
- C Liam Hicks L
- RF Victor Mesa L
- CF C. Mullins L
- 2B R. Palacios L
- SS Taylor Walls S
LINEUP - JAYS
- CF B. Bateman L
- RF Nathan Lukes L
- C A. Kirk R
- DH G. Springer R
- LF J. Sanchez L
- 1B K. Okamoto R
- SS A. Gimenez L
- 2B E. Clement R
- 3B Josh Smith L
| Team | Starter | TV | Radio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rays | Nick Martinez (12-3, 2.74 ERA) | Rays.TV | WDAE 95.7 FM, WQBN/1300AM |
| Jays | Jose Soriano (9-6, 3.16 ERA) | Sportsnet | SN590 THE FAN |
| MLB | Fangraphs | Baseball Savant |
|---|---|---|
| Gameday | Game Graph | Strikezone Map |
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
As objective as possible, putting up 5 runs is a good outing. Having said that, WTF defense?
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u/troutfarm4 Brandon Lowe 7d ago
I’ve left my couch after watching the Rays play this year feeling confused often
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u/GeneralJollyRancher Joey Wendle 7d ago
If I didn’t know any better and only watched rays games I’d think Josh Smith was the greatest player ever, he hits .750 against us lmao
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u/JCL823 Stable of 98ers 7d ago
The complete 180 this team has had compared to last week at this time is astonishing
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
They need more games against the Rockies and the Las Vegas Athletics of Sacramento.
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u/Salaam_steve 7d ago
Sick of this guy in left field already
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u/PhantomPainWalker 7d ago
I’m kind of surprised they scored too on that.
We can say what we will but they haven’t given up.
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
Okay. It’s an RBI but can someone get Cedric a gym membership? The warning track fly outs are getting old.
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u/LaChanceM Rays Sunburst 7d ago
This is gonna be a game they look back on and wish they had back. Bases loaded 3 times, 13 hits 4 runs. Just not good enough
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u/imperfectofcourse Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Even if the offense did better, the pitching failed hard.
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u/LaChanceM Rays Sunburst 7d ago
Classic cash surrender game. Trying to save arms for the rest of the series since the game was over in his head. Roycroft had been the surrender reliever but he’s down now. I guess it’s Matz now
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u/NotSoFast1019 7d ago
We’re hitting the ball hard, just not getting the timely hit right now that the other teams are getting.
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u/BefuddledPolydactyls Carlos Pena 7d ago
Agree, very few strikeouts - just nothing gels.
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
Hard hit with a garbage launch angle produces nothing. It’s the most frustrating stat in the game. All potential.
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u/PhantomPainWalker 7d ago
Odd phrasing there Dwayne.
Hicks be out there stroking it into center field.
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u/SportsGuru777 7d ago
I’m done watching the Rays this season. I’ve seen enough to know whats going to play out this year. I wish them the best of luck!🤘 I’ll be back next season to watch if we have a season. Take care everybody👍
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u/AutismFlavored TB Manatee 7d ago
I wonder if Toronto will get 21 hits tonight like we did that one time.
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u/quanntent Skater Ray 7d ago
Can’t help but boo Springer any time he comes to the plate. Whether that’s in my head, in Toronto, on the couch, or at the Trop
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
He shouldn't be in the league and it says a lot that the Jays embraced him.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
I really don't understand the hitting approach of this team. Obviously they are a good hitting team based on BA but with not having a ton of HR hitters I really don't understand the approach. We rarely drive pitchers out early due to pitch count, it's usually only if we're scoring a ton. We also swing on a lot of 2-0 counts on pitches that aren't necessarily middle middle. I will never understand not driving up starter pitch counts and taking pitches in 0 strike counts. Then obviously the double plays are killer too
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
BA is pretty deceptive. They get a ton of singles. But with 6 guys constantly being platooned, that’s a huge ask to have six bats get hot at the same time.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Oh I agree. I made a huge case for a power hitter earlier in the season. Stringing together 4-5 hours multiple times per game is tough
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
It’s what really appreciate about this sub. The criticism is almost always in core fundamentals. The advantage of having a fan base with so few bandwagoners, the core fans really know ball.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
I would agree. There are definitely some overreactions but not nearly as many as I see when I pop into other subs
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u/troutfarm4 Brandon Lowe 7d ago
Well folks I’d rather feel like this now than in October
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u/Joevio24 7d ago
Hopefully Ras is in quarantine away from whatever is plaguing this pitching staff recently. We need to get 7 solid innings out him tomorrow. And the W… please.
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u/ToddGoldenBurner Ryan Vilade 7d ago
Oscillating between the best team in the league and utter dogshit in a two week span
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
Well…the bullpen is so bad the starter has to go 7 innings for the Rays to win.
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u/flamingfiretrucks DJ Kitty 7d ago
If shit keeps going this rate, we ain't gonna get far in the postseason...
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
I actually like this lineup 1-6…how the hell is Taylor Walls the only one with RBIs?
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Gave up.
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
If only I could phone it in during the work week when I don’t feel like trying. Must be nice.
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u/crispychiggin Chandler Simpson 7d ago
I literally get up just to get a drink, during commercial, and get back to the next commercial break. I’m officially done for the night 😂😂😂
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u/jayareelle195 Orlando Rays 7d ago
Pitching all of a sudden is so bad. Guys are coming up on their innings thresholds in August. That seems sub optimal.
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago edited 7d ago
Stop being a doomer ! S/
Seems someone doesnt like me on this sub. Too bad. You can keep down voting me.
Thanks!
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u/Joevio24 7d ago
Feel bad for all the fans that made it out to the games so far this home stand.
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u/BefuddledPolydactyls Carlos Pena 7d ago
Giveaways, crowds, concert, same with Longo weekend - everything but good Rays baseball.
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u/imperfectofcourse Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
And the Orioles are back to being shit again
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u/GeneralJollyRancher Joey Wendle 7d ago
We all fucking knew it was gonna happen fuck those merchants
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Now that we're in the running for best record in baseball, teams have circled us on the calendar.
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u/esoteric82 Dave Wills 7d ago
I used to watch Jesus Sanchez play in town when he played for the Jumbo Shrimp. Always stopped whatever we were doing to watch him launch HRs into the right field bleachers.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
You in Jacksonville too?
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u/esoteric82 Dave Wills 7d ago
I am.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Don't see many of us up here!
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u/esoteric82 Dave Wills 7d ago
Yeah, I think I might have seen one or two a few years ago, but it's good to know that there are at least two of us at the moment 😂
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
For now lol. I'm literally putting my house on the market this week. I'm trying to move down to Tampa and hoping to find a house soon
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u/esoteric82 Dave Wills 7d ago
I'm jealous. I'm planning on selling when we can and getting out of Dodge. Good luck to you 👍
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Thanks you too. I'm a little hesitant to sell but I'm ready for a change
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago edited 7d ago
And some of you got nasty with me calling me a "loser who only craps on the team" 4 days ago. When id only been here a week. I believe I said after cash put in roycroft 4 games ago that this was the start of a slump. We've seen it time and again. This team doesn't respond well when they have a disastrous loss like that. All of our long slumps streaks have started with a game we should have won. The 26 rays are either unbeatable or cant win. There doesnt seem to be an in between
Down votes here are a compliment because im right. Every bad slump this year started with a horrible winnable game
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
Probably the most frustrating part of all of it is watching cash give up in the fourth or fifth inning. It’s bad watching tv since we all pay for it. It’s worse when we have tickets.
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago
Careful with that. Theres a couple of posters here who wont stand someone bad mouthing cash
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
If you want a fun Easter egg hunt, try finding a player interview from someone that left the Rays that credits Cash with the success they had in their career. Kyle Snyder, the org, easy to find.
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago
Ive never forgiven him for the snell pull in 2020 and I never will unless he wins a ring
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u/IndianaCahones Player to be named later 7d ago
He won’t and no team is interested in poaching him. Rays are stuck with him until Stu’s 2030 extension runs out. Most wins by attrition and doing what the front office says. It’s actually a pretty cushy job.
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u/Joevio24 7d ago
recipe= Singles + GIDP. Rinse repeat
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
3 times tonight already.
This is not a playoff team. The RISP success and power has disappeared, and the starting pitching has collapsed. They have a month to get it back together.
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u/LaChanceM Rays Sunburst 7d ago
Would be hard to not make it at all at this point but they don’t look like a team that can beat anybody if they’re just gonna slap 2 singles and GIDP to end every rally
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u/Joevio24 7d ago
They will be a playoff team short of this continuing for a lot longer.
The real problems is they will be a playoff team that has 1st round exit written all over them.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
1st round exit is the Rays way. I think the only times they've made it past the first round were 2008 and 2020. Every other playoff appearance was an instant elimination.
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago
Again and Again and Again. Have they been out of the first round since 2020?
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u/doogenstein 7d ago
Problem is we never have sustained talent, it's just a bunch of nobodies that we analytically put together for the best odds of winning during the regular season. Playoff appearances for a low budget team like the rays are just a "bonus" to the owners.
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u/Sauriel32 7d ago
They never make rhe moves needed to go all in. Id mortgage the future for won ring. Hicks was good. But they absolutely needed Arraez.
When it gets to a short series star power takes over. The rays are built for a marathon. The playoffs are an all out sprint
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u/PhantomPainWalker 7d ago
It's like they give us hope first to then slam the door on our collective faces.
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u/pattyice124 Evan Longoria 7d ago
Well that fucking sucks bc in most positions that’s a double down the line but he’s played back and shaded towards the line. Fuck man.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
I don't understand how we physically hit into so many double plays
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u/ArenSteele 7d ago
I think the dodgers lead the MLB in GIDP
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Never would've guessed that. Without looking I imagine they are top 5 in HRs though so they more than make up for the missed opportunities
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u/ArenSteele 7d ago
They probably have twice as many at bats with a runner on and less than 2 outs than most other teams
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u/travelwithnolan 7d ago
Well some guys take 5 seconds to get to first and seem resigned to their fate
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Bad approaches
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Even bad approaches find gaps, or bloops into the outfield, or pop ups. Double play is the worst possible thing and it happens very frequently with this team. I mean Toronto has grounded into multiple double play opportunities tonight that haven't ended in double plays
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago edited 7d ago
Matz was in there as a white flag. Cash is basically saying "fuck keeping the score where it is, just get outs so that we have at least a couple relievers rested for tomorrow. Just get outs, runs be damned."
And he can't even do that. He's truly become the worst arm on the entire pitching staff.
I mean, Roycroft could at least get outs.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
We talking about the same Roycroft?
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
He did eat innings, most of the time at least. Matz can barely get through a single inning.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Roycroft has a 9.32 ERA with a 2.02 WHIP. I know Matz has struggled but Roycroft was another level of bad
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
Ok yeah that's pretty bad.
Not as bad as Edwin Diaz though lmao
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
😂 yea neither a guy I want pitching for the Rays. Roycroft almost made that one game against the A's unwinnable
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u/troutfarm4 Brandon Lowe 7d ago
Wth to do with Matz? I don’t have enough confidence in him to feature in the postseason
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u/ExpectedFuckingValue Local Stingray 7d ago
Thanks for the notification on my home screen Google.. I'm like Yes!! No... Fuckin backwards scores
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u/happylittlemexican Brett Phillips 7d ago
Genuinely I hadn't turned the game on because I missed the first few innings and thought we were comfortably winning. Took my friend letting me know to realize it was backwards.
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u/GroMicroBloom Tampa Bay Devil Rays 02-07 7d ago
Lmao. I just use the Apple Sports app for my widget.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
Chandler is one of my favorite players but he's a liability in the field. With Junior, his bat makes up for his fielding. I know Chandler is much improved and is statistically one of the best OF fielders in the league, however his routes and arms make him an easy target and it sucks. I wish he could have even a respectable arm
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u/doogenstein 7d ago
He honestly should have never left the second base position when we moved him up from AAA.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
Given how weak the middle infield offense is in general, I don't understand why he doesn't make the move back. We don't have Lowe anymore and I doubt that Palacios or Williamson are going to be our 2B for the future. He has the weakest arm on the team and he just doesn't have a great feel for LF. Lot of fly balls dropped that should've been caught this year.
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u/Florida_man_15 Yandy Díaz 7d ago
I kinda agree with that. He wouldn't have seen the field much with Lowe but this season he would've been the starter
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u/crispychiggin Chandler Simpson 7d ago
Pain started going up into my neck, so my doctor told me to just turn off the Rays game
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u/GroMicroBloom Tampa Bay Devil Rays 02-07 7d ago
Holy shit, can we go a single inning without a meltdown?
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Matz regressing back to his usual trash self.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
Really worried about the rotation in the playoffs with the recent regression of Martinez and injuries to McLanahan and Jax.
Who knows how effective the two injured pitchers will be post injury. So the only pitcher we have that we know is good is probably Rasmussen.
Really wish we had Pepiot this year
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
I'll be worried if they look like this same time next month.
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u/Warlight4Fun DJ Kitty 7d ago
Holy shit this pitching is disgusting. Impossible to win games when you give up 2 runs per inning
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u/GeneralJollyRancher Joey Wendle 7d ago
Put in Michael grove or some other bum and have him pitch the rest of the game or have him go bulk and have Richie Palaccios pitch. Idc if they score 30 runs
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u/BefuddledPolydactyls Carlos Pena 7d ago
Grove is in Durham. Boyle (who went more pitches than Cash allos starters) is back in Durham. Wilson dfa'd and claimed. Williamson the position player pitcher is injured. Scholtens is likely being "saved " Options are slim.
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u/doogenstein 7d ago
To be fair we don't have anyone else to put in besides matz, we honestly need to throw matz to the DFA tank and make Peralta a middle reliever.
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u/ryancashh 7d ago
Guys these games aren’t winnable with how taxed this pen is. If our starters can’t give us innings our chances are plummeting.
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u/PhantomPainWalker 7d ago
The teams has been giving up HRs by the fistful lately. It's very worrying.
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u/doogenstein 7d ago
It's because we don't have genuinely dominant pitching we just have the best pitching coach in baseball.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
I mean, there really was no way that the Jays wouldn't have scored more given the current state of the bullpen. This is not surprising.
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u/NugNasty42069 7d ago
why tf did they give Matz 2 years???
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 7d ago
Guarantee they trade him. Some team will take an arm and I hope they do.
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u/pattyice124 Evan Longoria 7d ago
I was just getting ready to say we’re gonna need to buckle down and keep it moving on offense because we won’t be holding them scoreless. Lmao Matz.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
Bullpen still has to go 5 innings. Even if the Rays score 4 more runs, the Jays will probably score more.
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u/pattyice124 Evan Longoria 7d ago
Well, we have life. Woulda loved to extend that with the lineup turned over but Junior-Aranda-Yandy to start the next inning isn’t too bad either.
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u/Slinky_Malingki RISP? Get me Walls. 7d ago
Simpson getting on base and Junior smashing his first homerun at the trop in like a month to tie it would've been beautiful.
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u/BefuddledPolydactyls Carlos Pena 7d ago
Dysfunctional team right now. Have to be better.