The Tampa Bay Rays are playing their best baseball of the season. They just completed a 9-1 home stand and swept the Toronto Blue Jays out of Tampa.
The Rays have now won six of the last seven and are on a five game winning streak as they begin a seven game road trip on Tuesday night.
You just can’t say enough good things about Tommy Pham. He joined the Rays 20-20 club over the weekend joining BJ Upton as only the second Rays player with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in a season.
Pham has been a constant throughout the season with his timely hitting and smart base running and has helped the Rays to their 86-59 record. You could make a good argument that Pham has been the Rays most consistent hitter along with Austin Meadows
Tyler Glasnow seeing his first action since mid-May pitched two innings giving up two runs, struck out five, and even hit 100 MPH on the radar gun.
The plan going forward is to use Glasnow in the opener role and have him pitch one to two innings before turning it over to the bullpen.
Not only is Glasnow back, but the Rays are starting to get some of the pieces healthy to add some depth to the pitching that will be needed down the stretch.
Anthony Banda pitched in his first game this season on Sunday for the Rays. Banda has been recovering from Tommy John surgery and gave up one run in one inning of work.
We have already had a look at Jose DeLeon in a Rays uniform as he has made a few appearances in a Rays uniform this season. DeLeon had Tommy John surgery in May of 2017.
Both DeLeon and Banda will add bullpen depth.
Blake Snell pitched an inning in a rehab session at Durham and after the one inning outing felt pretty good. Snell will get another rehab start at Durham later this week before a decision is made on when he will re-join the big league club.
Yonny Chrirnos is starting to throw again as he threw a bullpen session over the weekend. The plan is to have Chirinos make a start or two at Durham before re-joining the Rays.
The Rays still lead Oakland by one game in the wild card race and they have a 2.5 game in Cleveland.
The Rays will begin an eight game road trip in Texas Tuesday night against the Rangers, and then spend five days in LA where they will play three games against the Angels and two games against the Dodgers.
Ryan Yarbrough will start for the Rays on Tuesday night.
