The New York Yankees are 4.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the best record in both the AL East and the American League writ large. This weekend, they have a golden chance to cut down that deficit, facing them in a three-game series in the Bronx. New York split a four-game set with […]
I decided to field some questions on X (Twitter) about the Rays and respond to them in a mailbag format article. This edition covers the improvements the Rays have made this season, the decisions facing the Rays in this year’s draft, and what the trade deadline could look like for the team. Jack McGovern (@jackmcgovern14): […]
Thursday saw the Yankees wrap up a four-game set against the Blue Jays with a loss, earning a series split. The last two games were especially frustrating, with the Yankees scoring just one total run between them. However, this would be a bad time for them to them to dwell on those woes. Now comes […]
Let’s go back. It’s August 1st, 2023. The Tampa Bay Rays just defeated the New York Yankees, 5-2, and improved to 66-44 on the season. It has been a golden season for Tampa Bay as they kicked off the campaign with a 13 game winning streak and took 20 of their first 23 games to […]
The Yankees dropped the third game of their series against the Blue Jays, losing a narrow pitchers’ duel between Cam Schlittler and Trey Yesavage. Schlittler matched Yesavage zero for zero on the scoreboard until the seventh inning, when the hits finally poured over and loaded the bases before he walked one in and was pulled. […]
Hello, friends. We now sit at the lowest point of the 2026 Orioles season so far. After yesterday’s loss to the Rays, where they blew a 3-1 lead with two outs in the eighth inning and went on to lose by a 5-3 margin, the Orioles are 21-29, a season-low eight games below .500. They […]
The Orioles were four outs away from staving off a sweep at the hands of the Rays and maybe fending off the feelings of impending doom around this team for a couple more days. They had a two-run lead, the tying run was only at the plate for the Rays, and then it all fell […]
On Wednesday afternoon, their last game at home before heading out on the road, the Rays were hoping to continue to widen their lead in the AL East by sweeping the Orioles in their three-game series. To get there, they had Steven Matz on the mound, up against Shane Baz for the Orioles, and if […]
Go Rays!
Some time recently on Bluesky, I saw someone make a comment that resonated with me. They said that the thing about the Orioles this year is that it feels like every loss is going to lead to a ten-game losing streak and every win is merely a temporary reprieve. I’ve forgotten who said it; if […]
It’s heart attack hotel with this Yankees relief corps, but the bullpen managed to survive another ninth inning comeback attempt to secure consecutive one-run victories over the Blue Jays. It’s made all the more important that they managed to win on a day when Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease was starting, Ryan McMahon and Ben […]
Good morning Birdland, This Orioles team is just not fun to watch right now. They lost again on Tuesday night, a 4-1 defeat to the AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays. At 21-28, the O’s are back in the division cellar, among the absolute worst teams in the entire sport. Once again, the offense was basically a […]
This game got off to an inauspicious start with a leadoff home run by Taylor Ward, but this was otherwise yet another persistent team effort to lead to the club’s 32nd win of the season as well as their eighth consecutive series win. Ward’s homer was no cheapy as it was a no-doubter that would […]
One night after the Orioles lost to the Rays because their pitching staff imploded, they lost again to the Rays because their offense failed to show up. Gotta hand it to the O’s — they might always lose, but they’re always keeping it fresh! The O’s suffered a 4-1 defeat at Tropicana Field in game […]
Go Rays!
Three weeks ago, the Orioles visited the first-place AL East team — the Yankees at the time — and got utterly destroyed, losing all four games by a combined total of 39-10. Last night, they again visited the first-place AL East team — which is now the Rays — and got utterly destroyed in the […]
You can’t really call a game in mid-May with the team still in comfortable playoff position and only two games behind the leaders a “must win,” but for vibes reasons, the Yankees sure could’ve used a victory on Monday. They got one, but it was quite the nerve-wracker. For one, they had to come from […]
Throughout their history, the Boston Red Sox have notoriously done damage at the plate. It’s pretty difficult to find an era in which they didn’t have mashers — or at least long, sustained periods where they ranked among the best in baseball at putting runs on the board. Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr were the […]
The Yankees’ 2-7 road trip left a sour taste in all our mouths, the club following up a stellar stretch of play with a frustrating week and a half that saw a number of bullpen blowups and close losses. New York now trails the Rays by three games in the AL East despite pacing the […]
To start off the evening, we had a patented dome field advantage at One Trop Drive. There was a thunderstorm that passed directly over Tropicana Field for about the first hour of tonight’s contest, and had it been 2025 we might not have got the ballgame in. Tampa Bay placed seven right-handed hitters in tonight’s […]
Imagine I told you that the Orioles went into Tropicana Field tonight and got to starting pitcher Shane McClanahan for four runs in five innings. You’d be excited, right? McClanahan is one of the best lefties in baseball this year, and the Orioles are terrible against lefties. He came into this game on a 21.2-inning […]
Go Rays!
The Orioles start a very tough stretch of baseball tonight. Six of their next nine games are against the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays, who have the most wins in the American League. You can check out details of the Rays’ season so far in our series preview, but suffice it to say they have […]
This was the 6th week of full minor league play (stats are entering play on Monday, May 18th). According to FanGraphs (which factors in age and proximity to the big leagues), 19-year old Caden Bodine has regained his spot as the top hitter spot in the Rays system. The backstop was recently added to Baseball […]
Back in March, if someone had said that the first Orioles-Rays series of 2026 would pit a 30-15 team against a 21-26 one, would you have correctly matched each team to its record? In most preseason prognostications of the AL East, pundits projected a tough, four-team race for the division title — and the Rays […]