Watching your favorite team lose to one of your least favorite teams is never truly enjoyable, but it goes down a bit easier when the regular season prize is already in the bag. The only downside to this loss is the Rays must now win out to get to 100 wins on the season, but that was always a stretch goal. They have already exceeded their projected win quota by plenty and were granted the bonus of home field advantage in the playoffs while sitting out the wildcard round, so the priority the rest of this week is keeping the roster healthy. The Yankees, meanwhile, were able to pad their precious run differential a bit more in this meaningless contest, so they have got that going for them, which is nice.
To that point, organizational solider Mason Englert was asked to out there and soak up some innings before handing the ball off to whomever was in the best shape in the pen after last night’s celebration. Englert labored into the 4th inning allowing 8 earned runs which included a grand slam to Ryan McMahon and three solo homers, two from Ben Rice before giving way to the pen to record the final 12 outs.
Kevin Cash got creative with the lineup putting Victor Mesa Jr in the leadoff spot to provide Yandy Diaz with a much-needed game off as the two 2-RBI hits in the division-winning victory Tuesday evening were his first two in quite some time. Chandler Simpson and Taylor Walls were also granted the evening off. Simpson still hold a three-steal lead on Bobby Witt Jr for the American League stolen base title, but came into today one steal behind Nasim Nunez for the overall lead. It is doubtful the Rays want Simpson risking anything these final few games, so he and the fans may just have to be happy with the AL title. It would not be surprising to see both Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero to get a day or two off over these final four games unless Caminero has a goal to match the 162-game totals posted by Aubrey Huff in 2003, Delmon Young in 2007, and Evan Longoria in 2014. It was nice to see Cedric Mullins break out of a slump and hit a home run as he had not homered since August 28th and had hit just .159/.284/.222 in his previous 75 plate appearances coming into this contest.
Gerrit Cole was not exactly sharp as the Rays still forced him to use over 90 pitches to get through five innings. Despite the six-run lead, Aaron Boone allowed Cole to come back out in the 6th inning. The Yankees bullpen was rather well-rested coming into this game, so it was a bit suprising to see Cole put in the unnecessary work. Boone did finally take the ball from Cole at 105 pitches after a two-out four pitch walk to Liam Hicks, who was left stranded on second. Boone would end up using the entirety of his A-bullpen in this blowout, which could lead to Cam Schlitter putting a bow onto his AL Cy Young Award in tomorrow’s contest.
The highlight for the Rays, aside from the Mullins homer, was the inning by Brody Hopkins. He led off the inning getting the impatient Ali Sanchez to line out to center and then chose to walk Ben Rice after watching how he treated Englert in this context. That brought George Lombard Jr to the plate who was late on a 102-mph heater, fouled off a 101-mph fastball, and then swung over an 89-mph breaking ball for a three-pitch strikeout. Hopkins then proceeded to dispose of Luis Garcia Jr, but needed seven pitches to do so. Hopkins generated four whiffs on seven swingsHopkins is going to be a weapon in the postseason when Cash is looking for someone to come in and get the strikeout as long as Hopkins can get ahead with the heat and put hitters on the defensive with the breaking stuff.
Fans can expect more maintenance efforts such as this game with the club simply trying to stay healthy and sharp before a long layoff watching the wildcard round play itself out. The Rays could play spoiler to the Phillies to exact some revenge for 2008 this weekned if Philadelphia drops their series to Milwaukee and Arizona sweeps the Rockies before heading to San Diego. Just enjoy watching these games for what they are and save your stress levels for Troptober.
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