Game of the Week: May 2: TB @ NYY

[Commissioner Erick]

Tampa Bay Rays (11-8) @ New York Yankees (9-10)


TB: N. Kingham (0-0, 3.86)
NYY: M. Baumann (1-1, 3.38)


Tampa Bay has lost a lot of pitching talent, and their hitters aren't hitting for average. Nonetheless, the team has been talented enough to get off to an 11-8 start. They'll face a Yankees team that has struggled against a pretty easy schedule to start the year. This will be a big series for each team to iron out its issues against a talented opponent.


Players to Watch


Rays:


RF—Jake Bauers:

Tampa Bay has become an upper-echelon team the past few seasons, mostly behind a great pitching staff, but also helped by the emergence of Bauers as a quality, patient, powerful corner outfield bat. Bauers hasn't hit this year, and it's now been revealed that he's dealing with a bit of a back problem. It's unsure whether he even plays today, which would be a pretty sizeable loss for a team that's 12th in batting average. Joe McCarthy is a quality bat who could step into the lineup, and Tampa Bay will need stronger hitting from the corner spot to beat an explosive lineup in New York.


LF—Christian Yelich:

Yelich's career trajectory has seen his batting average drop from .286, to .272, to .244 last year, and .207 early this year. Yelich has still been a run producer, and his five home runs this year is fifth in the league. If Tampa Bay had an ace on the hill, Yelich's ability to slug a solo homer to fuel a 2-1 win would be key. With Nick Kingham on the hill, it'll be fascinating to see how Yelich plays, and if an inability to get on base leads to a Tampa Bay defeat.


SP—Nick Kingham:

The Rays lost two Cy Young candidates in the offseason, filling one of the voids with Kingham. There's a lot of pressure on the youngster, but so far, he's delivered. Two of his three starts have been Quality Starts, and he's yielded just a single homer all year. He's not an especially ground-ball oriented pitcher, but Tropicana Field's spacious outfield has helped Kingham's home runs stay in the park. Today will be a huge test to see if Kingham really has escaped his extremely homer prone past. He won't be pitching in Tampa Bay or San Francisco today, but in New York against a slugging juggernaut in the Yankees. In the past, Tampa Bay had the horses to carve that offense up. This will be a big test to see if a less-heralded arm like Kingham can also prove effective.


Yankees:


RP—Jorge Guzman:

Guzman had a crazy season last year with the Yankees, with 108 strikeouts in 73 innings. He also walked 40 batters and allowed a .336 BABIP against. The strikeouts have ticked down in the early going of 2022, and the Yankees' best relief arms have all struggled early in the year. Tampa will draw its walks, so if Guzman isn't sharp, the Rays can wait him out and do some damage.


RP—Tyrell Jenkins:

Jenkins has underperformed his FIP the past two seasons, as his below-average command and mediocre strikeout rate has led to a lot of damage on balls-in-play. He's been fine as the sixth man of a rotation, making 36 starts the past two years. He had a nice week last week, showing his versatility. He struck out three Tigers in 1.1 innings, taking a loss when an inherited runner scored. He came in on Thursday and rebounded by striking out three Tigers again in an inning. He worked well as a long-man Saturday against the Mets by going 2 innings allowing just a run. He followed that up by bailing out Guzman by stranding the bases loaded on Sunday by getting an inning-ending double play in an extra-inning win over the Mets. He's a little fatigued, but the Yankees have to be confident they can rely on Jenkins if they need him.


2B—Jorge Polanco:

A postseason hero last year, Polanco may get into today's game as Gleybar Torres may need a day off. Polanco's four home runs last postseason were instrumental in the Yankees winning the American League, especially considering they needed his walkoff blast to beat the A's in the 10th inning of last year's Wild Card Game. Polanco already has two homers and a double in 26 Plate Appearances, and has a dangerous bat off the bench. If the Yankees need to pinch hit or make a substitution, they're in good hands with him coming off the bench.



TRIVIA: What pitcher has the most shutouts in Tampa Bay history?

[Commissioner Erick]

Rays 5 - Yankees 0


WP: N. Kingham (1-0)
LP: M. Baumann (1-2)

The Rays got a gem from Nick Kingham, who has breally allowed Tampa's rotation to remain a dominant force despite two superstars going elsewhere. Chad Spangenberger had three hits, J.P. Crawford knocked in two, and Tampa Bay's bullpen worked three shutout frames as Tampa Bay showed the league they're still the class of the AL East, and the Yankees aren't close.


How They Fared


Rays:


RF—Jake Bauers: 0-5, 1 K

Hobbled with a bad back, Bauers continued his struggles on Monday, going 0-5. He struck out with a man on in the first, flew out in the third, hit into a double play with men on the corners in the fifth, grounded out sharply to first in the seventh, and grounded out to second base in the eighth. He hit the ball harder his last two times up, indicating that his back was loosening up a little, but he couldn't elevate the ball. Defensively, he made one of two plays on short fly balls to right, and tracked down a medium fly ball to right to end the game. Limited defensively, the Yankees didn't hit too many ball in his direction.

For the week, Bauers only went 3-23 with no extra base hits. The hope is that as his back heals, he'll heat up, but his .390 OPS last week was ghastly.


LF—Christian Yelich: 2-4, 1 R, 1 BB

Yelich didn't homer, and was able to get on base three times for just the second time all year. After grounding out with two on to end the first, Yelich smashed a laser beam double to center field. He was stranded, but it was a good sign of using the whole field. Yelich led off the sixth with a walk, coming around to score to make it 3-0. In the seventh he went the other way, singling on a ground ball with two outs, before he ended his day with a grounder to first. With Tampa's pitching so well, Yelich's all-around game didn't mean too much—a solo home run would have worked, and he only scored once. Still, it was good to see Yelich perform well without needing to homer. Defensively, he made a couple of nice early plays charging in on balls, including one off the bat of Greg Bird that he snared just within the left field line in short left. His best play was a diving snare of a Mark Payton ball to left. When the runner on second tagged to try to get to third, Yelich rolled over, got up, and fired a strike to third to nail the advancing runner. All-in-all, a very solid game.

Yelich ended up hitting .333 last week, with a homer and a pair of doubles. We know he has the power in the bag, so seeing the .333 average was a nice sign for the Rays.


SP—Nick Kingham: 6 IP, 0 R, 6 H, 0 BB, 4 K

Kingham was splendid against the Yankees, limiting walks and extra base hits. Despite a powerful lineup like New York's, Kingham allowed just one double, no homers, and no free passes. Kingham allowed some hard-hit singles, and his defense took care of some other mistakes, but Kingham's ability to limit homers was paramount. Considering the competition, this was one of the most important games for Tampa Bay to prove to themselves that Kingham is someone they can rely on going forward.

Kingham followed his strong game with another gem against Baltimore. He worked 6 innings again, allowing just one run, on a solo homer. He walked one and fanned five. Baltimore doesn't have the greatest offense, but Kingham coaxed 11 ground balls and lowered his ERA to 2.54, as he continues a terrific May.


Yankees:


RP—Jorge Guzman: DNP

With the Yankees down 5-0 after 6, and Guzman a little tired, the Yankees gave him the game off.

He did work the next two days, getting two ground balls from two batters faced on Tuesday, and working around a hit to strike out a batter and get a ground out on Wednesday. Sunday was his other day of work and he pitched a scoreless inning. The key to his very strong week—no walks. When Guzman has decent control, his overwhelming stuff is able to overwhelm all but the best hitters.


RP—Tyrell Jenkins: DNP

The Yanks went with Seth Lamando as a middle-man over Jenkins, as Jenkins had worked the last two games. He still worked four games over the week, and showed signs of fatigue.

On Tuesday, after a strong fifth inning, he gave up three straight hard-hits to Tampa's lefties, including a two-run home run to Jesus. B. Sanchez. On Wednesday he worked a scoreless inning with no incidents. On Saturday he came on with two on and one out and allowed a three-run home run to Bradley Zimmer of the Red Sox. On Sunday, he worked a tie-game in the ninth, getting three ground balls, but having one thrown away for an error. While the inning should have been over, Jenkins couldn't rebound and issued a walk-off home run to J.J. Matijevic. It was an awful week for Jenkins to see the home runs return, and perhaps a sign that he had been seeing too much work compared to the rest of New York's pen.


2B—Jorge Polanco: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 K

Polanco got the spot start with Gleyber Torres needing a day off, and Polanco delivered. He struck out to begin the third, but laced a double into the left-center field gap, going the other way and ending up on second base. He aggressively challenged Sanchez' arm on a medium-depth fly to center, making it to third with two outs, but he was stranded when Yeison Corredera grounded out. In the seventh, with a man on first, he ripped a grounder through the left side to put two on with nobody out. He finally struck out again in the ninth. Defensively, in the fifth, he hung in nicely completing a double play on a slow-developing grounder to the pitcher. The two other easy chances in his area, he handled without an issue.

He started two other games during the week, also doubling each game, while going 6-9 to bring his weekly batting line to 8-13. He's simply crushing the ball, and with so many Yankees struggling to get on base, making a case for more at bats.


TRIVIA: Who are the only two Diamondbacks ahead of Christian Yelich on their all-time home runs and RBI's leaderboard?

[Commissioner Erick]

Trivia 1: Jake Odorizzi

Trivia 2: Joey Gallo and Brandon Drury