In front of two sell out crowds at Tropicana Field this weekend, the Rays and the Yankees went back and forth with the Yankees taking two of three from the Rays to move to within a half game of the first place Rays in the AL East.
Blake Snell started for the Rays Sunday and was outstanding through 52/3innings giving up two runs while striking 12. Its a shame that the Rays could never get anything going offensively except for a solo home run by Austin Meadows.
Meadows who was activated off the DL on Friday picked right up where he left off before his trip to to the DL hitting two homers and driving in three runs.
The Rays got off to a great start and were the surprise team of baseball early in the season. But since the Rays have seen an uptick in competition, playing five against the Red Sox and three against the Yankees the Rays are 3-5 against those clubs.
The Rays will play three more giants the Yankees next weekend after a brief two game set in Miami.
These are the games that the Rays are going to need to win to be taken as a serious contender in the AL East.
The Rays had their chances in Friday nights game with the bases loaded in the seventh inning with no outs and couldn’t get a run across. On Sunday afternoon the Rays had chances in the sixth inning and couldn’t get anything going.
Now the Rays have another hurdle to get over as Tyler Glasnow was placed on the DL with a strained forearm. Glasnow was taken out of the game on Friday night, and after further examination on Saturday it was determined that Glasnow had a forearm strain and will be out four to six weeks.
Manager Kevin Cash is not sure if the Rays will go with a traditional starter in Glasnow’s absence or go with an opener.
Glasnow was leading the AL in ERA with a 1.87 ERA and won’t be back until Mid June at the earliest.
The Rays did add a catcher to the roster picking up Troy D’Arnaud from the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash and a player to be named later.
With Michael Perez and Mike Zunino both ailing, the Rays needed to pick up a quality catcher and did that with the trade for D’Arnaud. Anthony Benboom was also called up from Durham to platoon with D’Arnaud.
The 29 year old Benboom made his MLB debut today going 0-2.
Zunino will be out about three weeks and Perez about 10 days.
