Brown Bag Blues

June 1st, 2016
Drew Smyly tosses batting practice while Rays fans toss their dinner.

Drew Smyly tosses batting practice while Rays fans toss their dinner.

Put down the brown bag yet?

Welcome to the Murphy’s Law portion of the Rays’ season.

Brad Boxberger lasted all of 16 pitches in his “soft-landing spot” in the sixth inning yesterday during the latest freak show at Kauffman Stadium, a 10-5 beating. He experienced a muscle strain in the same left side where he had adductor surgery. Don’t be shocked to see him shelved again.

Isn’t this perfect?

Your Rays (22-28, last place) are sinking faster than a raft made of toilet paper, and there’s no relief in sight. They’ve lost nine of their past 11 games and look every bit the American League East also-ran that they are.

As Joe has written, Alex Colome is capable of handling the closer role. But the Boxberger development is another blow to the psyche, another footprint to the face.

There comes a time when you expect the worst and pray for the best. The Rays have reached that point.

The best thing for Tampa Bay will be to put Kansas City in the rearview mirror after today. Cripes, nothing good happens for the Rays there. In the land of quality barbecue, they’re grilled time after time there.

Your 2016 bullpen stats:

Player W L ERA G GS SV SVO IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG WHIP
 Colome 1 1 1.23 20 0 12 12 22.0 13 3 3 1 4 29 .171 0.77
 Marinez 0 0 2.45 3 0 0 0 3.2 2 1 1 1 0 3 .154 0.55
 Sturdevant 0 1 3.00 4 0 0 0 3.0 5 1 1 0 0 2 .417 1.67
 Cedeno 2 1 3.21 19 0 0 2 14.0 10 5 5 0 6 16 .189 1.14
 Ramirez 6 3 3.29 21 1 0 1 38.1 32 14 14 6 6 28 .230 0.99
 Webb 0 0 3.31 17 0 0 0 16.1 22 7 6 2 3 10 .338 1.53
 Farquhar 0 0 3.38 6 0 0 0 5.1 7 2 2 2 2 5 .304 1.69
 Romero 1 0 4.58 19 0 0 1 17.2 14 10 9 2 8 14 .215 1.25
 Geltz 0 2 6.06 17 0 0 1 16.1 14 11 11 7 6 12 .226 1.22
 Eveland 0 1 6.75 17 0 0 0 14.2 16 11 11 2 11 16 .271 1.84
 Garton 0 0 7.36 3 0 0 0 3.2 8 3 3 0 0 1 .444 2.18
 Boxberger 0 0 27.00 1 0 0 0 0.2 2 2 2 1 1 0 .500 4.50

2 Responses to “Brown Bag Blues”

  1. Darth Ray-der Says:

    We are watching them implode before our very eyes. The Rays are the “Oily Discharge” oozing out from under Kauffman Stadium. Where’s the EPA when you need them. Other teams are circling their calenders on when they play the team from Tampa. It’s time to make some hard choices. Time to rebuild. The trade deadline can’t come quick enough.

  2. Berdj Rassam Says:

    It’s not brown bag time yet – but it may be later this season.

 

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