Seventy-one games down, ninety-one to go.
The Tampa Bay Rays went from hitting a brick wall in Boston to obliterating the New York Mets.
Entering the series as the best team in baseball, the Mets were swept away by the Rays over the three game series. Now the Rays are 39-32 with the top wild card spot; the Rays are now just 3.5 games back of the Yankees for the division lead. The Rays will now travel back home to Tampa where they’ll take on the last place Baltimore Orioles.
To say the 2025 season has been a disappointment for the Orioles would be a massive understatement. Baltimore is currently 30-40 on the season, 12 games back in the division and 6 games back of the 3rd Wild Card spot.
Entering the year, the Orioles had an exciting young core of players that had helped propel them to consecutive playoff appearances. They did lose Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander in the offseason, both of whom have their own separate struggles this season, but most every player on the roster suffered through abysmal starts to the season and have only recently started to perform more like their career norms.
Since suffering a walk-off loss in the first game of a double-header on May 24th, the Orioles are 13-6; the Rays are 14-6 over the same time frame.
Statistically, Ryan O’Hearn is having the best year among Orioles position players as he is hitting .310/.391/.502 with 10 HR (156 wRC+ | 1.9 fWAR). However, Gunnar Henderson (123 wRC+ | 1.7 fWAR) has been surging lately and will likely claim that top spot over O’Hearn soon. Cedric Mullins (123 wRC+ | 1.2 fWAR is also having a solid season and enjoying one of the better offensive years of his career thus far. Adley Rutschman and Jackson Holiday have also rounded into form. It’s the lack of production from Ryan Mountcastle, Heston Kjerstad, and free agent signee Tyler O’Neill that have hampered the Orioles offensively.
Meanwhile, the pitching has been a mess. The Orioles were not able to re-sign Corbin Burnes in the offseason and failed to add any top of the rotation talent to their rotation and instead tried to fill their needs with Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano. Morton has been a disaster while Sugano has been a solid signing and is perhaps the ace of the staff. In the bulllpen, Gregory Soto has been the team’s top reliever, although Felix Bautista remains as Baltimore’s closer.
Frivolities
- The top players by career bWAR to have played for the Rays and Orioles:
- Nelson Cruz
- Jose Bautista
- Aubrey Huff
- Alex Cobb
- Erik Bedard
- The Rays best player offensively against the Orioles all-time (min. 25 PA):
Mike Brosseau: .322/.365/.729 with 8 HR over 63 PA
The next four are Rey Ordonez, Tommy Pham, Aaron Ledesma, & Logan Morrison - The Rays most previous transacation with the Orioles:
— 7/6/24: Rays trade Zach Eflin to the Baltimore Orioles for Jackson Baumeister, Matthew Etzel, & Mac Horvath - The Rays first transaction with the Mets
— 3/29/99: Rays trade Jason Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles for Danny Clyburn & Bolivar Volquez
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First trades in Tampa Bay Rays history: “With the Baltimore Orioles”
Probable pitchers are projected by FanGraphs
GAME ONE
Monday, June 16th
7:35 pm EDT
RHP Ryan Pepiot vs RHP Zach Eflin
GAME TWO
Tuesday, June 17th
7:35 pm EDT
RHP Zack Littell vs RHP Dean Kremer
GAME THREE
Wednesday, June 18th
7:35 pm EDT
RHP Taj Bradley vs LHP Trevor Rogers
GAME FOUR
Wednesday, June 19th
7:35 pm EDT
RHP Drew Rasmussen vs RHP Charlie Morton