RAYS POSTCAST: The Tampa Bay Rays GET SWEPT by the Cincinnati Reds

RAYS POSTCAST: The Tampa Bay Rays GET SWEPT by the Cincinnati Reds

This is the Rays Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Tampa Bay Rays, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to Tampa Bay Rays Postcast, your spot for instant raise reaction after every single game. My name is Jonathan Shields. Make sure you guys go follow me on Twitter, Johnny10 Shields. And guys, I mean, I I I just don’t even know what to say. I mean, they lose the same way basically every single game. I mean, the the offense gets absolutely dominated and embarrassed by the worst starting pitcher that the Reds have. Coming off an outing where he gave up seven runs and two to third versus the Nationals, who are one of the three worst teams in baseball. There’s no there’s no nice way to say this. There’s no optimistic way to put this loss. It is embarrassing in a game that the Rays needed to win. And you know, you look ahead, you’re gonna go into New York at the very best pro. I mean, the the do the the the Red Sox are winning right now. I mean, you’re probably going to be three and a half out of a playoff spot. And, you know, you don’t really give the the front office much hope. I mean, it’s been, you know, embarrassing to to put it frank, but, you know, we’re going to talk about the offense. We’re going to talk about Shane Bos and you know, we’re going to talk about how I’m no I’m not really sure what else there is to say. It’s been rinse and repeat for the past three weeks. And we’re going to talk about is what is this what this race team is? Because you know there people love to overreact just like people love to overreact or overreact when they’re bad and overreact in a good way when they’re good. And there’s going to be people saying, “Oh, this is what the race were all along.” I mean, not necessarily. I mean, the Rays were the best team in baseball in June and now they’re the worst team in baseball in July. Like, they’re not the worst team in baseball. They’re not the best team either. Where’s the middle ground? It’s something that the Rays haven’t found this season. And it’s something that is frustrating also, but you know, you guys got to kind of weave through all the anger and all the stuff you’re going to see on Twitter and the comments or and all that stuff. But be because it’s, you know, this race team isn’t some this race team isn’t the worst team in baseball that they’ve shown this month. So, you know, what is this race team is something we’re going to talk a lot about. But first, we have to talk about the most polarizing topic of this entire series, which was the offense. This is what you’ll be talking about. The Rays offense in the biggest game of the season. Yand Diaz, Jonathan Ronda, Junior Caminero, Josh Low, Jake Mangum, a combined, you don’t just have to be combined. They didn’t get a hit. A lot of their bats weren’t competitive. And you know, I sent out a tweet. I said, you know, here we go. Um, top of the ninth, biggest half inning the Rays have had in a very long time. You have your three best hitters up. Let’s see what the Rays can do. The answer was absolutely nothing. And it was it it it just piled on to the embarrassing effort put forward by this offense. Brady Singer, I’m a Florida fan. I watched him at University of Florida. Very good there. First round pick. Struggle with the Royals. Have struggled for most of this season. Almost have has a five RA just seven and a third one run. You know what? I mean, what else do you expect at this point? I also sent out a tweet and and this is and this is really really what I feel is it is so difficult for the Rays. It’s difficult for the Rays to stack hits. It’s difficult for the Rays to get out of innings. How many times do we see with two outs the Reds threaten with two hits? Granted, a lot of them were bloop singles or whatever or walks or whatever throughout this series. How many times have we seen the Reds attack with two outs and it makes it difficult for the Rays to get out those innings. The Rays just make it look so hard. Like it literally looks like they’re walking in quicksand with no way out. As a fan, you’re almost just like the Raids go down two nothing. It’s like, oh, you know, the game’s over. That’s what you feel in the first inning. And that’s literally what it feels like. It’s that you’re sinking and then you don’t really have a way out. And that’s what this month feels like for the Rays is that there’s no way out. That they’re just going to keep sinking sinking and sinking until they sell off anyone that’s good or fall too far out of a wild card that no one really even cares. And you know, it’s it’s frustrating because this team is better than this. this team is better than being, you know, the the it’s better than the what they’ve shown this month. I don’t know if they’re as good as what they’ve shown in June, but there’s a middle ground somewhere. And I firmly believe that middle ground is good enough to be a playoff team, but the offense scores five runs in three games against the Reds. Two of which against below average major league starters, just just obliterated. If if a if a pitcher needs a get back day right now, like a get back on track start, it should it’s against the Rays right now. They don’t put any pressure on you. They don’t stack together hits when they do somehow get two people on base in a row. Simpson gets thrown out at second, which you know happens once in a blue moon, but of course it happened in this game in that moment back in, you know, the first inning. And you know, as Tristan Gray has two horrific at bats, the third one he battles through a 10 pitch at bat, should have been ball four. And the very next place, Taylor Shit’s home run. You know, it’s just those things that just keep stacking and stacking and stacking and stacking and stacking. And it literally feels like you’re walking through quicksand. And with this race team, they just can’t get out of their own way. And you know, it it’s as it’s as simple as that right now. And it’s been I use the word embarrassing a lot because that’s what it was. And you see the frustration. You see Aronda after he strikes out chuck his helmet down, throw his bat down. That’s great and all, but the a lot of the time the Rays don’t even put up a fight in the box. Like it’s like eight pitch inning, seven pitch inning, 12 pitching, strike out on four pitches, popup, weak contact. It’s just, you know, there’s just not a lot of optimism that you can pull from this Rays offense over the past three days. And you know, the Yankees series sets up more advantageously than any series the Rays have had against the Yankees in a very long time. You know, when you look at the exit velocity for the the Rays today, there were out of the 1, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine top exit velocities, three of them belong to the Rays. One of them was Taylor Wall’s home run and the other two was Josh Lo at 100 on the ground out and Yand 98 on the ground out. The rays only hit one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight balls above 90 miles per hour and one of them and only two of them resulted in hits. It’s as simple as that. They’re not getting good contact in the ball and they’re just getting ran through by medioc mediocre pitchers and it’s and it’s been very very frustrating to watch. But uh we’re going to talk about Shane Bos and how I was actually impressed with him. And we’re going to talk about is this what this race team is even more today and you know a little bit of how the bullpen session makes my government man looks really really good right after this. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. 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Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Day and so is this hat that I’m wearing for the Rays. Fans like me and for you guys, this one is perfect. Game Day Hugh makes a clean no logo gear with team inspired colorways for every pro and college fan base. It’s about letting your color speak for you. No giant logos, just smart, versatile hats that work on game day, on the course, or anywhere in between. For example, I wore this hat. I went on the boat this morning with my family. Wore this hat. It was perfect. It was breathable. Didn’t feel like it was too heavy and it felt with I I think I think it reached 100 today in Tampa. Whatever breeze was out there got through through the hat because you guys can see how breathable it is. Again, it’s not just the hats. They also have golf clubs. So again, if you guys are into golf, I know Florida you can golf year round, not like some other places. It’s the perfect perfect site for you. 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And you know, BA said something on the broadcast that was pretty I agreed with. is I you tell the kind of person Shane Bos is in that fifth inning when he’s running on fumes and he just paints 99 on the corner and I will stand by it. Shane Bos has the best pure stuff out of any race starter on this team. I think the way he can elevate his fast ball and getting triple digits, his knuckle curve being disgusting, the change up utilizing it like he can and obviously that cutter that he’s used and just the nonchalant um delivery that he throws with. I mean, I that’s just to me that I think his power and stuff is just super super good. So, I mean, when you put up when you only allow two runs of the pitching staff, you should win that game 93% of the time. Again, really encouraged by Seymour and Montgomery having bounce back out. Montgomery especially dominant. That’s the kind of Montgomery I thought we’re going to get more often going into the season. So, you know, nothing but good things to say about the pitching staff is nothing. The pitching staff has been good for the most part. I mean, there’s been a handful of games, you know, though obviously the two against the two against the White Socks and yesterday against the Reds where you really kind of look at, but you know, for the most part, I thought I think the pitching staff has been fairly solid um going uh kind of going forward. So, you know, let’s talk about it. Let me guys know is this what this Rays team is? because, you know, obviously they’ve been tied with the worst record in baseball during the month of July, but obviously the Rays aren’t the worst team in baseball and they’re not the best team in baseball like they were in June. So, where is that middle ground and when are they going to hit that middle ground is the million-dollar question. There’s 55 games left. The Razers had a bad month. The Rays can turn around and have a good last two months and make the playoffs. like like yes, if if the Red Sox win today and they’re up right now, then the Rays are going to be three and a half out of a playoff spot. That that is that is true. But the the Rays have seen they’ve lost three and a half game leads in a week, much less a month. So, there are still things to be optimistic about, but it’s hard to voice those optimistic views with how horrific the Rays have been. And I think that’s kind of the only word. They haven’t been decent. They definitely haven’t been good. They haven’t been bad. They’ve been horrific for the most part. And even the one win they got against the White Socks was one that’s just just happy you won. And again, it really just feels like you’re just trudging along through quicksand. It’s like no breaks can fall the Ray’s way. And when they do fall, they immediately hurt themselves again. It’s just over and over and over again. It’s just super super frustrating. But let’s look ahead to the game tomorrow and the series against New York. And it’s three really winnable games for the Rays. You know, they avoid Carlo Carlos Rodon. They see three righties that, you know, two of which they’ve had success against in previously. And then you face, you know, Ma Max uh Max Freed, who’s obviously one of the best pitchers in the American League. So, the game tomorrow, it’s Drew Raspton, need all-star Drew Ras tomorrow in the worst way versus Cam Sler. I looked up how to say his name before and for some reason it just really trips me up. So, he he is making his third start of the season against the race tomorrow. He’s given him at least two runs in each of his last two starts. Uh his first outing against Seattle, five and a third, four hits, three runs. Last year against Toronto, five five innings, seven hits, two earned. Uh you know, the walks have been there at least two walks each of his first two outings. You know, there’s some film on him. Um you know, we the Rays can kind of look at him and see how they can attack him. And you know, it’s going to be interesting to see how the lineup shakes out tomorrow. How are they the thing I’m really looking forward to, how are they going to rotate Juca and Magnum? That’s what I’m looking at because Chandler is going to play almost every day and as as bad as Josh Low as he probably is, he’s going to play every single time against a righty. So, you know, it’s going to be interesting to see how that lineup shakes out tomorrow. And so, now we’re going to head to the comments as we love Legos first. He’s the only optimistic person. Anyway, he says, “Really wish we could have done more with this series. Boss is amazing, but the offense still very weak.” Yeah, just reiterating stuff we talked about. I 100% agree. Gary talked about how it’s definitely the low point of the season right now. Nothing much going right. When they get a well- pitched game, they don’t hit. And when they do hit, they don’t pitch well. I mean, that’s a perfect synopsis, Gary, of the last kind of 12 games for the Rays. 100%. As we go to Rainman, it says, “As much as people want to complain about the two two things was who had another kind of iffy play in the field today, he’s been the he was the best offensive player today in the bullpen was also fantastic where the Rays were this offense been less than average most of the season than not. I don’t know about most of the season, but but but definitely this month. you know, the offense wasn’t as good as they were in July, but they’re also not as bad as they are now. Again, they’re somewhere in the middle and you don’t win a lot of playoff games with a mediocre offense. So, you know, it it it is definitely definitely tough. If we go to Skyler might be a first- time Connor, he goes, “I don’t know if you can call this if you call could call this a trap series, Jonathan, but that’s what I’ve seen. I don’t think it’s a trap series because the Reds were the same exact team that the Rays were just in the National League. Same record coming into this series. kind of same position in the wild card and they outplayed the the Rays for the mo most part. Um this next comment I vely disagree with and this is kind of overreacting and Craig I don’t want to call you out but you know this is the kind of um overreacting that you’re going to see a lot of times is like that he says this team has quit managers quit cast never stands up for his players when up screws him over sell them all. So, I mean, you know, I’m not gonna question too much a two-time manager of the year, not going to go out there and get ejected. Like, yes, the umpire was horrific for a lot of the day, but I the manager has not quit. Cash has not quit. The players are still playing hard for the most part. It’s just not producing right now. You know, I wonder what the energy is going to be if the Rays go, you know, they play 25 games next month. You know, if they start next month, you know, 13 and seven, for example, you know, like you just you just never really know. So, you know, it’s definitely not an effort thing. Like, the effort is not fantastic, but it’s not like the guys are out there trying and out there trying to lose. Yes, they’re demoralized. They’re just like us. They want us to win. They want to win more than we want them to win. So, that’s always stuff to kind of keep in mind. As we go to Gary again, he says, “The Rays are still in the wild card chase, but the cushion they’ve lost is once had is now gone.” Um, you know, they Yes. And they are chasing a lot of teams and some Gary’s right, but now Cleveland, Kansas City, and Texas. Texas already passed them. Cleveland, if they win today, will tie the Rays and Kansas City still a few games back. So, yeah, I mean, it’s just more clustered than it was before. As we go to Ray Man again, he says, “Unless they win a bunch of games, not supposed to to now realize they’re in trouble this season and it’s a fire sale and but as well, but I hope they just realize they’re only 70s something team.” Again, I don’t agree with that. You know, the Rays won what 80 some games last year. I think this team’s better than last year. Not by a ton, but better. And that’s why I’m so hesitant to trade pieces like, you know, Brandon Low or Yandi because I think the race could be even better next year. So, you know, it’s gonna be really interesting to see what’s going to happen there. As we go to Gary says, “Do you think there’s a possibility we see Carson Williams in Tampa this season?” I do not unless they break him up as a um September cop as good as Tio. He says 55 games left, plenty of balls, just been a tough stretch. I agree. Hopefully um they can kind of bounce bounce back from this. And you know, again, they’re probably going to be three and a half back going into the game tomorrow from a playoff spot. But again, you take three out of four against the Yankees. You come back, you play the Dodgers, that’s brutal. And then you put go on the two week stretch out west. So, you know, I don’t it’s a tough time for the Rays to struggle and a point of the schedule I thought was advantageous for them. Now, they’re going to their hardest part of the schedule coming up. So, I think that will also move into the um the decision-m, but again, I think if the Rays are within kind of four games of the wild card after the deadline, they’re not going to buy obviously, but I don’t think they’re going to sell like all their people unless they get an insane offer. So again guys, I appreciate you guys sticking through the postcast while they have been um losing postcast for a majority of them as you know the Rays get swept as they continue and continue to lose games that you know the other team isn’t going out there and taking. It’s just they’re playing a little bit better than the Rays are right now. But beautiful thing about baseball, the Rays have an opportunity tomorrow to get back on the winning side of things. And with that, you know, moods ta change very quickly. You go have a good series in New York and you just kind of see what happens from there. So, I appreciate all you guys for joining. We’ll see you guys tomorrow night.

The Tampa Bay Rays lose again to the Cincinnati Reds 2-1. The story of this game was Reds starter Brady Singer. He dominated the Rays going 7.1 IP only giving up 3 hits and 1 run. The Rays offense was shut down this entire series. They combined for just 5 runs over the 3 games. Shane Baz showed some great flashes for the Rays. The pitch count got the best of him limiting him to just 5 IP. He gave up 2 runs in the 1st but did not allow anything after. He finished striking out 5 and just giving up the 2 runs. The Rays fall to .500 or worst for the first time since May and will head to the Bronx for a massive series vs the Yankees starting tomorrow night.

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