Fifty-nine games down, one-hundred three to go.
Fresh off of a series split with the Houston Astros, the Tampa Bay Rays travel back home to Tampa where they’ll take on the other team from the Lone Star State, the Texas Rangers in a three game set.
The Rays enter play on Tuesday with a 30-29 record and have won seven of their last 10; they are 6.5 games back of the New York Yankees for the division lead and 2 games back in the Wild Card chase.
Meanwhile, the Rangers are 29-31 and have lost six of their last 10 games but they did just take two of three against the St Louis Cardinals. Texas is now four games back of the Seattle Mariners in the AL West and are 3.5 games back in the Wild Card.
These two teams met up earlier this season for a three game series in Texas in which the Rangers swept the Rays. Since then, the trio of Josh Smith, Josh Jung, and Wyat Langford have emerged as the top players on the team with each player producing around 1.3 fWAR and 114 wRC+. The veterans have struggled with Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim, and Marcus Semien all performing well below league average and Joc Pederson (currently on the IL) looking like a disastrous free agent signing.
The starting pitching has been fantastic with a trio of arms, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, and Jacob deGrom, all providing ace-like results. In the bullpen, Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, and Robert Garcia have all been great as well. The Rays will miss deGrom and Eovaldi’s turn in the rotation fortunately, but do have to face Mahle.
Frivolities
- The top players by career WAR to have played for the Rays and Rangers:
- Julio Franco
- Nelson Cruz
- Jose Canseco
- Carlos Pena
- Corey Kluber
- The Rays best player offensively against the Rangers all-time (min. 25 PA):
Jose Canseco: .354/.466/.771 with 6 HR over 58 PA. - The Rays most previous transaction with the Rangers
- — 1/5/2021: Rays trade Nate Lowe and Jake Guenther to the Texas Rangers for Alexander Ovalles, Osleivis Basabe, and Heriberto Hernandez
- The Rays first transaction with the Rangers
- — 3/31/2012: Rays acquire Kyle Hudson from the Texas Rangers
Probable pitchers are projected by FanGraphs
GAME ONE
Tuesday, June 3rd
7:35 PM EDT
RHP Drew Rasmussen vs RHP Tyle Mahle
GAME TWO
Wednesday, June 4th
7:35 PM EDT
RHP Shane Baz vs RHP Kumar Rocker
GAME THREE
Thursday, June 5th
7:35 PM EDT
RHP Ryan Pepiot vs RHP Jack Leiter