RAYS POSTCAST: The Tampa Bay Rays OFFENSE DISAPPOINTS vs the Toronto Blue Jays

RAYS POSTCAST: The Tampa Bay Rays OFFENSE DISAPPOINTS vs the Toronto Blue Jays

[Music] This is the Rays Postcast, your instant game reaction for the Tampa Bay Rays, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. And welcome to the Tampa Bay Race Post Cast, your spot for instant race reaction after every song game. My name is Jonathan Shields. Sorry for the audio mixup. Hopefully you guys can find this link. For some reason, my uh the the stream just did not work. I don’t know what happened. It was kind of like the Rays offense tonight having kind of no answers and uh nothing going right. So, that was the precursor for what we’re going to talk about because like my audio, the Rays offense was non-existent in in this game and frustrating. The reason why the Rays are not a playoff team is a microcosm of this game. It’s either the pitching was solid and this is one of the best pitch games I’ve seen from the Rays this year and it was tough to lose that other stream because there’s a lot of really good comments in it. Uh but hopefully, you know, we can get to those uh people can come back in here and drop some comments in once you guys get back in here. Again, if you guys are just joining, sorry for the audio problems uh in that last live. I don’t know what happened, but like I said, like the Rays offense was just kind of non-existent. So, if you guys are just now rolling back in here, make sure you guys drop those same comments that you had on the last drive uh live uh back in here. So, in this one, we’re talking about how good Joe Bole was. I mean, when Joe Bole doesn’t like people, he is scary, scary, scary, good. Um, and Gary just asked, are you are you able to see comments posted? Should we repost them? Please uh repost the comments. Unfortunately, I had to make a whole new link because for some reason, the last link, my audio did not transfer over and I just restarted. I had to make a new one and it was fine. So again, sorry everyone for that um for for that. But we’re going to talk all about it. Uh I’m super high on the Wolfpin for next year. So we’re going to talk about some more positive things toward the end as we look ahead to the rest of the series. But first uh we have to talk about just how ridiculously awful this Rays offense was tonight. This is what you’ll be talking about. Ray score a run two batters into the game. That’s it. That’s That’s the end of the sentence. That’s the last time the Rays scored any runs. Not good enough. The Rays from there on get retired. One, two, three. Diaz Diaz gets hit. Do not get a hit. Still going until the sixth inning. Yanni Diaz had had two of the three hits. Just not good enough. The Rays tonight struck out. I felt like all they did was strike out. The Rays tonight struck out 18 times. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a number that high. That is unbelievable. Brandon Laauo playing the worst baseball of his season right now. 0 for five, four strikeouts. Junior, 0 for four, two strikeouts. Josh Low, who was awful once again, 0 for five, three strikeouts. Nick Forez, thought he was turned a corner. 0 for four, three strikeouts. Carson Williams, he’s striking out over 50% rate, 0 for three, another strikeout. Richie Plasio comes in, runner on third chance to win the game. Doesn’t matter. Strikes out. Disgusting. Yeah, just a disgusting offensive performance uh to today. It was it it was one of the worst I’ve seen by by the Rays this season. And you have a chance with the fastest guy in baseball on second base. Get him to third base. Fastest runner on baseball on third base. You’re three of your four best hitters coming up and you can’t get him in. It’s the turning point. Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It’s the turning point. Just ridiculous. Brandon Loud comes up, swings out a fast ball at his eyebrows, strike three. We go to Junior, who is okay, got hosed on two calls, but again, swings out a fast ball at his chin, strike three. And then Josh Low, there is not a single Ray that I’m more disappointed this year than Josh Low. Besides June or May, besides about half of May and a stretch in the end of August, early September, he has been awful this season for the Rays. Awful. And this was guy the Rays depended on. And I still like Josh Logon next year. In his last one, two, three, four, five, six games, he has one hit and he has struck out, let me do this quick math, 10 times. Unbelievable. Not good enough. And I hate dissecting this stuff when the Rays aren’t in a playoff spot, but the reason why the Rays aren’t in a playoff spot is because this stuff happened way too often. We’ve talked about the offense that the Rays have put up. And they’re so good against the Cubs, consistently putting up pressure offensively. But we talked about the reason why the Rays are not a playoff team. In 162 games, the offense was only good for 55 to 60 of them. They I asked the question after the Rays went on their winning streak and started losing a lot in July. What is this team more of? Is it because they’re not as good as they were in Jul in in June and they’re not as bad as they were in July? What is the middle ground? If it falls close to the top, they’re gonna make the playoffs. If it’s closer to the bottom, they’re gonna miss the playoffs. It is way closer to the bottom than I ever would have thought. And the Rays had that stretch where they won seven in a row. But for three of those seven games, they didn’t even play well. And it took sweeping the Nationals and then getting the Mariners when they’re on their lowest point of the season for the Rays to do that. And I don’t want to discredit anything that he’s done, but man, when you have your best player or your best your speediest player on third base, Yandi runs as fast as I’ve ever seen him run. I need to see Yandi sprint speed on from home to first on that on the infield single. He was moving. And then you had Brandon Laauo who was an all-star this year. Junior Commonro started the All-Star game this year. Josh Low who at 290 2022 two years ago. And you strike out three times. You don’t put the ball in play. You strike out three times. It’s embarrassing. embarrassing kind of start to this series. What has been an embarrassing kind of stretch outside of a week stretch since July and it’s been a while since I’ve been this negative and I don’t like to do it. But man, when you have four opportunities with a runner on on third base with less than two outs or three opportunities and you don’t get that runner home, you have in extra innings five opportunities with a runner on third base and you don’t get him home. I mean, that is just that’s minor league stuff, man. Ju just minor minor league stuff. And I hate picking on one game when, for example, Brandon Law has been so good this year, but when Brandon Laauo is on, he’s on. When Brandon Laauo is off, he is he’s the streakiest hitter I I mean, really, I’ve ever seen. And he’s coming off a three-game hit streak to to kind of end his stretch in Chicago. But hitting 213 in September, that number is going to go way down. He already has, if you count this game, 23 strikeouts and 50 at bats in in se September. He’s striking at almost a 50% clip in the month of September. It I it is rough rough rough rough. But um I don’t want to dwell on this offense anymore. Just just frustrating because I personally don’t think the Blue Jays are very good. Like when I fill out my MLB postseason bracket, the Blue Jays will be losing the first round. I like the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Mariners, and the Astros, and the Tigers all in a series over the Blue Jays. And that’s no hitting against the Blue Jays. The Raiders play the Blue Jays very well. They put up that they put up that graphic that said they’re like nine and one the last 10 match ups against the Blue Jays. It’s just not good enough today. It’s frustrating. Thank god the Bucks won or else we’d be in utter shambles. So, we’ll talk about Joe Bole and be more positive. Sorry I was so negative. Part of that frustration was uh we didn’t have any audio for for that first postcast which sucks because you guys had a lot of really good comments in there and I was really excited to read them. So part of that frustration comes from this but from that but um and I hate being hard on players because I know how hard it is to baseball and I know how much work that they put in. I know there’s no one that I know no one is angrier than Brandon L himself at himself if that makes sense. So, I very much dislike criticizing players, but when they warrant it, like they did today, uh, you know, I can’t stay quiet. You know, like I said, there’s a fan in me and then there’s the the person that covers the the team that like kind of that neutral person. And, uh, as a fan, sometimes, you know, you as a person covers the team, sometimes you just got to point the facts. As fact, the race offense, not even close to good enough tonight. But, we’ll be more positive. We’ll talk about Joe Boy, man, he was good. Uh, and why I’m super high in this bullpin going the next year right after this. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. And thank goodness the NFL season’s here. FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. If you guys thought Baker Mayfield was going to drive 80 yards in 10 plays on that final drive, you could have bet it with FanDuel because they have a live in-game parlay. Live betting live. You can bet anything live. If you thought Mike Evans was going to catch a pass on that drive, you could have bet it live. That’s what makes FanDo the best. So, are you ready to play? 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So, if you guys are in the live, make sure you guys leave a like and comment. We’ll be getting those momentarily. But let’s talk about some positives. How good was Joe Bole tonight? I’ll tell you how good he was. Six innings, three hits, five strikeouts. And the biggest biggest biggest biggest thing for Joe Bole. No walks. When he doesn’t walk anyone, he’s basically untouchable. And good for Joe Bole, man, because he went back to the miners. He needed to work on stuff. In August, he had almost a 10 RA. And you know why? He had 12 walks in 14 innings. Not good enough. If you go to July, that number started creeping up more. uh in and his and in his last four starts he walked at least two guys in the walks were always just came around to hurt him. So when he doesn’t walk anyone he’s basically unh hitable and that’s what you saw tonight. No free passes from excuse me from from Joe Bole as he continues to maybe prove why he should be in the rotation next season. He’s going to be super interested. I mean the Rays when you look at it just guys um ju just guys that are going to be here next year. You’re gonna have Mlanahan, Pepio, and uh I’m already forgetting someone. Mlanahan, Pepio, and those are and Raspersonson. I don’t know how I could forget to Rasperson. Those are the three. No, no matter what, they will be in the rotation barring injury. And prayers for Shane Mlan that he’s back. Will Shane Bahas be in the rotation? I lean yes because the staff’s super high on him. Are you going Ian Seymour? Are you going Joe Bole? Are you ready signing Adrien Hower? are you bringing in another uh starter from free agency? You know, that’s kind of four options for that technically fourth or fifth last spot. Joe Bole’s really thrown his hat into the rank for why one of those spots should belong to him. So, shout out to Joe Bole really stepping back up. And let’s talk about this bullpen. Clevenger, Baker, Fairbanks, Jax throwing you set in there. That is five guys that are gonna be on this team next year that I trust all in big spots. Now, Baker got touched up for the run, but when the offense gives you one run of support, you’re gonna give up a run eventually. So, uh, that’s why I’m not even mad at at um at Kevin Kelly for giving up his run. Like, you know, you you can’t do anything. Made a good pitch. George Springer just made a better swing. But when you look at what the the core of the Rays bullpen for next year. I think Leger is the single most underrated reliever in baseball. Pete besides everyone crucifying him, it has like 26 saves and he’s going to end the season with a sub3 RA. I mean, I don’t know how much better you want Pete to be. Uh Brian Baker has been stellar since uh since his first few blowup outings in Griffin Jacks. I believe this is like his fourth straight outing without giving up a run. Even longer now. One, two, three, four, five. His last six outings he has not given up a run since September second. He hasn’t given up a run. This is the Griffin Jacks without getting super high on this bullpen going into next year. Let’s look ahead at the game tomorrow because Ryan Pepio, happy to see him back on the mound for the Rays. He’ll be going up against Jos Barios who’s 11 and 10 35 ERA. Um when you’re looking at who’s going to be the game one starter for for the Blue Jays in the playoffs. Uh I would give the ball like now they’re probably going to give it to Gossman but Jose Bariels is that good to where you could give him the ball. His last time out against Houston five and a third two earned but his time before that that in Cincinnati he gave up six earned in just two innings. His worst start of the year. He did pitch against the race earlier this year in a loss. Uh he went six inn. He’s given up three earned runs against the Rays. In that game, the Rays got on him with he’s pitched against the Rays twice in in his most recent one. Uh the Rays got a big home run from junior in the first inning and that kind of led them to victory. Shane Bos was pretty good in that one for the Rays. Uh he pitched against the Rays twice this year. The other time he went five and a third, gave up five earned runs. So the Rays have hit him twice very well twice uh this year. Brandon Laauo and Jonathan Aronda got on him in that game. That was a game where Junior hit the go ahead home run which was just electric. But um yeah, let’s go ahead and look at the comments. See what you guys thought as we go. Jack Hick says really felt feels like the Rays got robbed whenever they give themselves a chance. Yeah, I mean it was the Rays just didn’t do anything good enough to win this game offensively tonight. as go to Doug Batist says brutal. Chandler on third, no outs, three straight Ks. Yeah, I mean that is just as about as brutal as you can get. As he Douglas against says, “We all knew the bullpin was depleted. Kelly was the only option. We knew he was going to give up a hit. Can’t hang. You can’t hang on him.” And he didn’t even throw that bad of a pitch. I mean, Springer made a great swing. You get to 02, throw a slider. Um this pretty fine location spot and Springer made a good swing. Um let’s go to Gary says, “We’ll miss the Rays and the postcast once the season end.” So why? Um you you guys are all of us are going to uh eventually miss uh we’re all going to miss the Rays and miss these frustrating losses that the Rays always end up cultivating. Alex says 18 strikeouts is crazy. It’s insane and not good enough at all. Just simply not good enough. Let’s go to Gary says reasons to watch the Raiders these last two weeks. Junior attempting to pass Carlos Pñena sing home run record. Uh struggle to finish over 500 and additional experience for Carson Williams and Bob Seymour. Yeah, I would love to see Bob Seymour play more. I I really I really would as Alexander says, “If you could trade for one right-handed outfit next year to help boost the teams, who would you think of?” This is a fantastic question. Trade, it all depends on the price point available. Like, if I could trade for one right-handed outfit, I trade for Ronald Kuna Jr., you know, like, but obviously he’s not going to be available. Uh, there’s a few guys that that interest me and that are going to be free agents. There’s so the the guy on Cleveland, he was with the Nationals for a while, and I’m blanking on his name right now. I’m going to go see if I can find it. Here’s what the Nationals um got sent to the Guardians at the deadline last year and his name is maybe he’s not on the Nationals or on the Guardians. Maybe I’m blanking. Maybe he’s just her. Anyway, uh his name is escaping, but there are some that there are are a few right-handed outfielders that are going to be in the race price range that are going to be free for agents this year because John Duca was supposed to be that guy for the race and he Everson Pere has more bats than him this year. Just never thought I’d say that sentence. We go CTX. He says Joshua will never be that guy. Time to move on. He has one more year for me. Uh honestly, I think the Rays will give him one more year. I think he has one more year. Next year is going to be his make or break year. But I don’t blame you for for for thinking like that. as Lane Thomas. Thank you, Gary, for for saying that, for finding that for me. Let’s go. Alexander said, “I want to see Moral play more this last part of the season.” Unfortunately, he didn’t. I still I don’t know why they’re not playing Chris Moral. Like, yeah, I I would play him. I would play him over Josh Low right now. I’ll tell you that much. Their batting averages are pretty similar. Um, as we go to Gary says, “Trying to be optimist about Shane’s return, but worries me hasn’t pitched in game since.” Yeah, I I mean the one that should not be named has played in a race uniform most recently than Shane Mlanahan. Yeah, and it’s it is a very fair um reservation to have about Shane Mlanahan. But I believe in him. I believe in his willingness to um his willingness to get back and his will in his want to and his want to. So um if you guys have any more comments, make sure you get them in as we start to wrap up here. If you guys are in the live, please make sure you guys leave a like. Thank you guys for all these comments. At least the Bucks one. I don’t know if anyone in here is a I assume there is a few people watching, a lot of people watching that are Bucks fans because you guys are also Rays fans. But uh big bucks win uh today as well, saving us from complete uh just mental disparity because like all us sports completely control our emotions and everything. So uh no new comments rolling in here. I appreciate all your guys’ comments. One more from RWB says, “Hower has earned a shot in 2026 in my opinion?” I agree. I talked last post guys about how much I like Adrien Hower and I would love to see him get an extended look in 2026. But again, if you guys are in the live, make sure you guys leave a like before you get out of here. Same time tomorrow night, same time all week. The Rays play at 7 every single day. Um 7 to 7:30 every single day until Sunday. So, uh around 10 o’clock, 10:30 for postcast. Again, these guys, they’re running out two weeks left of the season. Only about what the Rays have 13 games, 12 games left now. So, yeah, you guys make sure to tune in for as many of these postcasts as you can. So, uh, we’ll get out of here. You guys leave a like and comment. I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.

The Tampa Bay Rays offense disappoints in a 2-1 loss vs the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays got on top just 2 batters in to the game. Yandy Diaz hit a RBI double to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. That would be the only run by either team for the next 7 innings as the Rays pitching staff put together one of their best performances of the year. It would also be the only Rays run of the game. The Blue Jays would eventually tie the game in the 8th inning on a sac fly. After neither team scored in the first inning of extra innings. George Springer would give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 11th inning. The Rays could not get it done in the bottom of the 11th despite having their best hitters at the plate. Joe Boyle started for the Rays and was fantastic. He went 6IP striking out 5 not allowing any runs or walks.

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