AL East Round Up- “As Pitching Goes” Edition

Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays have ridden a familiar horse this week- starting pitching. If they are going to compete this year, that horse will get a lot of work. The Rays are sitting in first spot in the AL East. Yet, they are 3-3 coming into play on Sunday having lost the final game of their series against the Texas Rangers, then dropping 2 of 3 in Kansas City against the Royals. They have won the first two games in Cincinnati against the Reds. Chris Archer pitched 7 innings of shutout ball against KC. David Price struck out 10 Reds on Friday. Alex Cobb added 7 scoreless innings on Saturday against the Reds. Perhaps the only blemish on the Rays staff this week was Jake Odorizzi‘s implosion on Wednesday where he gave up 7 ER in 5 innings.

NOTES:

-The Rays are trying to avoid Matt Moore going under the knife for Tommy John surgery. According to this piece by Bill Chastain at MLB.com, Moore has been to see the increasingly busy Dr Andrews and an MRI discovered a tear of his UCL. The Rays are waiting on their own physician to take a second look at the MRI results. They do not feel confident in the opinion of Dr Andrews, and who can blame them? Moore won 17 games for the Rays last year. Not to mention that his replacement could end up being Erik Bedard.

-Rays owner, Stu Sternberg, is on MLB On-Field Diversity Task Force. Bill Chastain tells us that this group will be responsible for trying to engage urban youth, families and communities in baseball. Celebratory butt pat for Sternberg!