April 15, 2025 • 55 mins
One of the longest, if not the longest homestand for the Rays this season is underway and coming off a series win against Atlanta, things are trending upward in Tampa. We discuss that and more on this latest episode of the pod!
Thanks so much for listening! You can follow RTR on social media @RaysTheRoofTB and be sure subscribe to the podcast!
A big shout out to our partners, SeatGeek, In The Clutch and JKS Prints! Use code RAYSTHEROOF for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase, 10% off anytime with In The Clutch & $5 off at JKSprints.com!
As always, Rays Up!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular season
episode. Welcome back 1:00 and all to
this latest episode of the pod. I'm host Alex Murphy with me.
As always. The boys are back together.
Evan and Gibby, how we doing today?
Doing pretty good Alex. Doing pretty good.
Yesterday I got to witness baseball.
(00:34):
Not history, not really history,but an ass kicking history for
sure. When the Rays put sixteen runs
on the Red Sox, the Red Sox measly won, measly won run.
Alex, it it was. It was a great day yesterday.
I had a great time, very enjoyable.
Evan, did you? I'm guessing you.
(00:55):
Watched the game in some capacity, right?
I yes, I watched the first like 5 innings and then I kind of
just followed it because it was like.
I was like pretty much where allthe action happened, so it's not
like you missed much. Yeah, for Inning, I was like,
this game's over. Yeah, but I think you did see, I
think MOB tweeted out for the second time in franchise
history. Each player in the Rays starting
(01:16):
lineup recorded a run and an RBI.
So that is history. Even Taylor walls that.
He he's been. Doing good.
He's been doing good. Listen, that defense, it was
it's, it's really good. And he's been, he's been getting
walks, drawing walks, all that. And he beat out that that fueler
choice in the third inning that kind of like kept if it was a
(01:39):
double play in the lap. Yeah, it was very the Red Sox.
The Red Sox defense was also really, really.
Bad. Oh yeah, didn't story.
Story made at least one error. There was another error that
was. Was he?
Well, he plays shortstop, so he was one who made the error at
shortstop. Then someone else made the error
at 3rd. They somehow they had one error.
They only had one error. Yeah, I don't know.
(02:00):
I thought that. I thought that story made an
error and someone else made an error.
No. Bregman, I thought, didn't
Bregman? Yeah, I thought that.
I I thought they both bobbled. I guess.
I guess that was a hit. I.
Clearly don't know anything. Apparently.
Definitely should have been an error though.
But well, yes, if anyone didn't see the the Rays won 16 to 1
yesterday against the Red Sox. This comes after the Rays took a
series at home to start a 13 game homestand against the
(02:24):
Braves. They took two out of three.
I think it was. Friday win, Saturday lost,
Friday win. So good times there again.
The win yesterday continues to keep the line moving.
The Razor back at 500, which is a mark that we've seen so many
times last year. Let's hope that we don't have to
hit as. Much, Yeah, Hopefully we're not
(02:45):
chasing mid like last season, you know, Yeah, that was just
posting that graphic every day. That was a dubious distinction.
I'll say that I would. I would prefer us to not try to
hit it like 30 plus times in a year.
It'd be nice. Yeah, I'm OK with like 20.
It's also like everybody else inAL East, just hovering around
the 500. Yeah, yeah, the AL East has
(03:05):
been. Very the AL East this year, and
I had a bold prediction that three of us would make the
playoffs. I don't know about that.
I don't know about that. Where are we at with the
standings right now? It's still early.
It's still early. Yeah.
Wow 2. Games.
This is horrible. I mean, it's not like there's
any team in the AL in general other than like the Tigers,
(03:27):
who's like above and beyond everyone cuz the Yankees are
nine and seven, the Jays are 9 and 8, the Guardians are 8 and
seven, the Rangers are nine and seven, the Angels are nine and
six. Don't know where that came from.
I guess Logano Hoppes. And they kicked our ass.
That is true. And then like I said, the Tigers
are 10 and six so like the old, they're the only team that's
(03:49):
like above and beyond the rest, which is weird 'cause like then
you go over to the NL and like 3teams in the NL W have are 12:00
and 6:00 or better. Hey, even the Dodgers, they got
sick. The Cubs are pretty good.
Yeah, Cubs are 11 and eight. Yeah, the Dodgers are 12 and
six, the Giants are 12 and four,and the Padres are 14 and 3.
(04:09):
Geez. How about those Marlins?
Marlins are 8. 500 They're frisky.
They're poor Rockies. Can somebody I feel so bad for
the Rockies? 3 and 13.
Yikes. In that division too.
Oh my goodness. White Sox have more wins than
the than the Rockies this year. Let it be known.
Let it be known to the cultural zeitgeist of this this country.
(04:29):
Yeah. So we got plenty of things to
talk about. Like I said, we'll talk about
the race series. We will talk about the upcoming
series, whatever the rest of theseries against the Red Sox.
We also have a series coming up against the Yankees, which I'm
sure that we'll talk about to anextent and plenty of other
things. A couple things I wanted to
touch upon before we really got into or get into the meat and
(04:51):
bones of this podcast. I just saw that Trey Morgan is
going to be making his AAA debutcoming up.
He's been activated off the IO, so great news to see there.
It's cool to say friends slash former podcast.
Yes, Trey Morgan. That's pretty cool.
Also, today as of this recordingis April 15th, which is Jackie
(05:12):
Robinson Day. Again.
On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson officially broke the
color barrier in Major League Baseball, making his Major
League debut with the then Brooklyn Dodgers.
Of course, we know about what hedid in his career.
MVP, Gold Glove Award winner, pretty much did everything under
the sun. Hall of Famer so and as a result
(05:33):
of it being Jack Robinson Day, every team and every player in
Major League Baseball will wear the number 42 tonight for their
game. So expect to see a lot of race
players and or every race playerand Red Sox player wearing 42
amongst the rest of the crowd. Probably one of the most
influential sports figures of all time.
(05:54):
I think that's pretty fair to say.
I think that is more. Than fair to say, if not the
most or I mean yeah you could easily make the argument that he
is the most influential not baseball player and sports
figure of all time but. He that is more more than fair
to say one other thing I saw during the broadcast yesterday
(06:15):
that there was a kid wearing a junior Caminero jersey with 15
on it, which I don't even know like so someone was like, and I
forgot about this because I literally I was at AI was at a
biscuits game and I saw I was inthe dugout and I saw junior
caminero wear 15. That's the only other time that
I've ever seen him wear 15. Like he's never won in the Major
(06:37):
League. So either the kid like whoever.
They must have been on the trainreally early.
Yeah, I was going to say either this kid is like an elite ball
knower or he just got gypped andgot a horrible jersey.
Yeah, it was a raised jersey. Though yeah, it was.
Like a It wasn't a biscuit. It wasn't a biscuits jersey.
Was not a Biscuits jersey. And again, I posted below it
(06:58):
because someone said did a little digging.
He wore 15 in Montgomery. I'm afraid this kid may be a
huge ball knower. And then I said, we can confirm
this to be true. And it was just a video of me
like in the dugout taking a video of Junior Caminero.
So that is the only other time that I've ever seen him that I
can remember where he's worn 15 at any level with the race.
(07:19):
So either that kid got screwed over of a jersey or he's an
elite ball know or. He's been on the train a while.
I was going to say, where are weat with this?
Is the kid an elite ball know oris he not?
I think he knows Ball. He knows.
Ball, he's got a no ball. I mean, if he like, how does
that even exist? You have to know ball for that
(07:40):
jersey to for you to pick out that jersey.
Man, that came like. You're.
The Montgomery biscuits. Fan he might have had to do one
of the custom jerseys where you pick the where like the name
might have not even been available yet and then he was
just predicting the future. Poor guy, kind of crazy kind.
Of crazy. That stinks that he didn't stick
(08:00):
with 15. He didn't I.
Mean he only asked to replace one number you.
Can't take it off. I mean he.
Can't, but it'll look bad. Yeah, they don't know.
But let's go into talking about the Rays.
So as I mentioned, the Rays won two out of three over the
weekend against the Braves. One of those games, not
necessarily the greatest thing in the world.
(08:20):
The other two games, very good. And then we go into what they
did last night. The Rays, I don't know how many
men went, went up to bat in the third.
The Rays scored nine runs against the Boston Red Sox,
specifically Tanner Houck, who posted a triple double, meaning
he gave up ten plus runs, 10 plus earned runs, and ten plus
(08:41):
hits. I guess that's a new way of
doing it. So he got absolutely just
destroyed on the mound. On the other side, Shane Baz
continues to be absolutely electric to start the season
out. He put Christian Campbell on on
a knee after he blew 100 by him,which was incredible to see, and
(09:02):
the Rays end up winning 16 to 1.Improved back to 500 on the
year. Let's start off with the Braves
series. Thoughts about the Braves
series. What the Braves were able to do
again, they had a chance of sweeping.
Came up just short of that, but two out of three.
Still 2 out of 3. Yeah, in that in that second
game, you definitely wanted to win that one because you were
up. I mean like four runs
(09:24):
practically the whole game untilthe 7th, 8th and 9th inning,
which usually are the high leverage bullpen guys.
They're not giving up runs like that.
But was not the case that day. Hunter Beige got biggie, got
blown up. Cole Salser got blown up.
(09:45):
Edwin, you say that had a littlebit of a shaky start or shake,
not shaky start, shaky inning. He's had a few shaky innings in
a row. I hope you say they can get it
back on track. But yeah, I mean, just kind of
the bullpen fellas on Saturday, really.
The offense was really good the entire series, especially on
(10:08):
Sunday. Caminero with another home run.
And I mean, there's so many guyswho are doing really good on
this team. Miranda, Caminero, Not Caminero.
Caballero and Caminero, obviously, but Kim and Caballero
is jumping off the page right now and Aranda is too, and
(10:29):
Meisner is too. So I mean, there's just so many
guys who are just producing so much for this roster.
But yeah, it was it was good to beat the Braves.
I think the Braves are in a little bit, a little bit.
I don't know, it's I expected this team to wait, be way
better. And I mean, I know it's the
beginning of the year, but they're not really showing it so
(10:50):
far. That's all for me.
Yeah, Evan, what? Yeah.
What were your thoughts about the series?
That series at home against the Braves, definitely something
that we needed. Like if you said the the Braves
are, they had, they've had a really slow start to the season.
Obviously we all know how good the Braves can be.
They had, they still have all the talent in the world, but
(11:11):
they are definitely struggling. So we have to we had to take
advantage of that. Luckily we did.
We were a few pitches away from sweeping, which is always
unfortunate, but you can't ever just win series.
That's all. You're what you're striving to
do, always win series and season's going to go well for
you. But yeah, that Saturday game was
frustrating just because we seemto have you under control,
(11:35):
whoever. Was it Rasmussen who pitched on
Saturday? Yeah.
Yes, he, I mean he pitched unbelievable again.
Gave up four hits, zero and runs, seven K's, one walk like
he pitched. He looked really good again.
And the bullpen once again, cash.
No idea really what he's doing. I get that the bullpens kind of
(11:55):
tax right now, but Cole Sir, Soul Sir coming in the game
there makes no sense and it backfired.
Gave up two around home run alsoin the bottom of the ninth.
Was frustrating considering B Lau and Manga both like hit
their balls pretty pretty hard and they went right that
defender. Then Aranda follows that up with
(12:15):
a home run that would have tied it if one of those fell in for a
hit. Just one of those frustrating
games. Probably should have won it, but
that's OK. We bounced back Sunday with one
of the more impressive wins of the season so far.
Just because it was against Sale.
We kind of I wouldn't say dominated him, but he gave up
three runs. He only went four and a third
the reigning Sai Young winner inthe NL, NL last year.
(12:38):
So we were able to have him makehim work for his during his
start. Four and a third 98 pitchers
like that's not not great numbers.
Three walks, 7 KS pretty good job.
And yeah, Caminero has been sick.
That was a huge home run considering we were at 4 O and
then the Braves kind of cut it 43 and we were able to put him
away with that. So did did what we needed to do
(13:01):
and luckily we were back at 500 now after that.
Yeah, Joe Boyle that day. Yeah, Joe Boyle, talk about a
start spot. Start for him.
My God. Yeah, that was crazy.
And I mean, what a weird line. What is it?
5 innings pitch, zero runs, two earned runs.
But I know there was two runs scored on him.
(13:23):
I thought, I thought he had two earned runs.
No, it wasn't earned because it was a miss, because it was an
overthrow. And then he just got home with a
round ball. OK.
So that's interesting. Yeah, at one point the race had
a no hitter going when it was like 3-1 or four one.
Yeah. Which I mean, he was, I was.
(13:44):
I was watching it was. He went five no hit innings so.
He did. He did.
He looks sharp. He looks sharp.
And again, he has like this wasn't this was his first start
with or the his first appearancewith the Rays, But it's not like
he didn't start previously. He's he's pitched in what, 16
games before this? Yeah, he's made 13 starts.
(14:04):
This is with Oakland over the last two years.
Last year, definitely a year to forget, especially with the walk
did. He he got sent back down, right?
He he got something like that after this game.
Yeah. But I mean, if you look at it
last year, he had forty walks and and 56 strikeouts and 47
innings. So he had like just over a walk
(14:25):
to strikeout to walk, which is, I mean, that's that's horrible
to walk that many guys. Yeah, but then he didn't do that
today. I mean, he walked a few that
day, but he he walked a few people, but he didn't, he didn't
walk too many so. No, he looked, he looked very
sharp. It was a very impressive
performance from him and I thinkthat we're all very happy about
(14:46):
that. As a result of that move, Cole
Solzer did go down to Durham andthen as a result of the of the
Boyle move back to Durham, Eric,Eric, Orza Orze, the guy that
they got in the Jose Siri trade from the Mets ended up being
called up and he actually threw 2 innings last night.
(15:06):
I believe it was 2 innings afterBaz pitched 6, Shane.
Shane went 6 looked Oh my God, looked absolutely incredible on
the mound. Biggie had an ending lesson as
well. Also, I forgot to say during the
Friday game against the Braves, Danny Jansen had a little bit of
a coming out party. He went three for four.
He had a Homer. Hit that kind of hit that bomb
(15:28):
to kind of like break the game open to 551.
So and then he had a ground withdouble that scored another run
in the eighth. So he he needed that
desperately. He had really struggled at the
beginning of this season. He kind of is still struggling.
But hopefully you can. Hopefully you can build on that.
Yeah. And then with that, Morale had
(15:49):
another Homer. He's looked really good to start
the season out. Like very impressed by what I've
seen out of him. Nothing like he hasn't been like
it hasn't been anything crazy, but he's hitting over 300 right
now, which is a stark contrast from what he was doing last
year, which was barely like he was hovering around the 200 mark
was was was below the 200 mark was definitely not anywhere
(16:12):
close to being a a serviceable hitter, but he's definitely at
least in the short term, has turned things around
significantly over the 1st 1520 games of the year.
So very impressed by what I've seen out of him.
As you mentioned about Danny Janssen, he went through for
four in that game. He hit his first home run of the
season. This is going back to Friday.
Taj looks pretty solid on the mound. 6 innings, 1 earned run,
(16:35):
7 strikeouts, gave up five hits.The Rays ended up the Braves
scored two in the eighth, but bythat point, the Rays were up
6th, one at that point or five. One scored 1/6 in the bottom
half of the inning to win that game.
Unfortunately, that Saturday game definitely hurts the Rays
significantly. They had a, what was it, a 3-1
(16:57):
lead going into the 8th inning. Give up two in the eighth, two
in the ninth, and then Aranda's Homer.
And Aranda continues to be red hot for the Rays, mind you, with
that. But yeah, ends up being 54.
They're really impressed by Aranda going into oh, I believe
(17:17):
that was also the start of Junior's now three Homer streak.
He's hit a Homer in three straight games.
So awesome to see that Yanni Diaz also is starting to get
back on track. I believe he's had a he's had a
lead off Homer in two straight games.
Do I have that right? Yes, yes he did.
Yeah, so he's starting to see the ball a lot better, which is
(17:39):
good. He's starting to get bad on
ball. He's getting his average up
again. It's not anything crazy, but
remember how last year when he had that slump and it took a
while? It seems like it's not like the
slump still happened, but it seems like he's getting back on
track a lot quicker and is getting used to things a lot
quicker, which I think is reallygood.
(18:00):
Yeah, I mean, yada, Diaz is likehugely important to his team.
But I mean in his somewhat, you know, absence, I mean, we found
literal gold in like Meisner Aranda.
I mean, Caviaro is has above A1 OPS still.
(18:23):
So I mean it, it it's great. And I mean, we're like the
offense is not the same as not even it's not even what we
thought it would be at the beginning of the season.
And I mean, it's just these rookies making, I mean, life
hard for Kevin Cash. I mean, what is he going to do
when Josh Lowe is back? What's he going to do when?
(18:46):
I mean, we know what's going to happen when Hassan Kim comes
back. But Richie, too.
But Richie, Yeah, Richie Palaciois coming back.
And I mean, you got all these pictures.
They're doing incredible. And I mean, Joe Boyle kind of
gave you a reason to maybe keep him up.
And yeah, I mean, there's, there's just so many new faces
(19:08):
doing so well for this team. And that is?
That is kind of a team for this year.
Yeah, Adam. So the the the Coco Montez guy,
I feel like I got to mention himreal quick.
He's made some incredible plays in the field.
Oh yeah, USF guy, USF. Like he's made he's he's looked
like a natural. I think he's played third base
(19:29):
and second so far this year. So I mean, just another guy who
can provide some versatility through in the field.
And I mean, I think he's been decent at the plate.
I mean, yeah, I remember he had an RBI 250.
He's betting 250. So like still putting up decent
at bats. But yeah, you're right though,
Gibby Cash is going to have someinteresting moves to make.
(19:51):
Like Mangum's one of those guys where it's it's like, I get that
he's probably the first guy to be sent down when either Richie,
when Richie comes back because he's probably coming back before
before Lois. But yeah, that's.
Crazy because he's still hitting300.
Yeah. And it's it's like he's making a
case where it's like, how can you send this guy down?
Just I. Think that his.
Play and his his passion too. I mean, he's it's like he plays
(20:13):
every play like it's his last. Play and he's.
Lost. And it's incredible.
Like I love to watch it, love watching it.
Same thing with Kay Monaro. His home run on Sunday was.
It kind of reminded me of the Dr. Home run, the one in Oh yeah
where he just went absolutely bonkers and it was awesome.
Well, I was going to I was goingto ask you guys a question
because again, the race have a number of guys who are either
(20:36):
fringe guys on the roster, guys that are going to get moved,
whatever it might be. And as you mentioned, a lot of
guys have, you know, played their way to on to what should
be staying on the roster, if notstarting, whatever it might be.
I think that of the list, I think Coco Montez and and Curtis
(20:59):
Mead are probably the two guys that are on the chopping block.
If you're going to have guys move, which which sucks because
I know that Mead, you know, you,you want to get him consistent
playing time, but he hasn't really unfortunately done much
so far. So I guess if you're looking at
that with the with the three Outfitters that they have, like
do you move? And it also with this, Richie
(21:19):
can play infield position so he doesn't have to immediately play
outfield positions. If you want to get rid of
Montez, you can move Richie intoan infield position.
But then what do you start doingafter that point?
Because Lowe's going to need to come back and Deluca's going to
need to come back. Do you move Morrell to an
infield position and get rid of Mead and then keep Meisner and
(21:40):
Mangum out there and find a way to keep them plus DeLuca?
Like that's the those are the questions that you need to start
asking is because these guys have played so well to start the
season out. Where do you move guys?
How do you maneuver the roster? How do you change different
things? Like, I mean it, do you get rid
of Mangum? I I don't think like he would be
the only guy, I guess you could say that of those guys you would
(22:03):
get rid of because Meisner has played his way on the staying on
this roster and being a starter on this team.
Morel's had a really solid startto the season out.
Like a a number of these guys have played well.
So like, who is the odd man out?It's tough to.
I think it's especially with Thething is the guys who are coming
back, like they don't really turn the needle for me that much
(22:26):
either. It's not like they're like
Lowe's different. Lowe's in a different category
just because he's we've seen himdeliver time to time.
At his back, that is. Really right when he's healthy.
But like Palacios and DeLuca, I get that they're good fielders
and I get the Palacios is, is like very versatile in the
field. I mean, he's not great at the
plate. I mean, he batted 223 last year
(22:49):
and I guess decent, like a decent WAR.
But like I, I, he's just, it's not like he like he's going to
have a lot of pressure when he comes back because he knows
there's several guys down in Durham who are ready to take
that spot and he's going to, he's going to have to perform.
And Deluca's maybe a little bit different just because center
fielder center field is harder to play.
He plays that extremely well. So he's harder to replace.
(23:12):
Like I think he's more solidified in the lineup just
because of his defense and how good he is in the field.
But I think Richie's one of those guys where, I mean, he
could maybe be moved and just because it's like, I, I, I don't
know if that's a crazy thing to say, but.
No, I mean, the roster crunch iscrazy.
I mean, and at the beginning of the year we were talking about
how like Palacios might be a might be a good breakout year
(23:35):
for him, but now it's just like,where do we even fit him on this
team of incredibly, incredibly hot hitters?
So I don't, I mean, it's just it's going to be hard.
I mean, obviously Coco Montez and Curtis mean, like Alex said,
they're on the bottom, but I don't even know who you would
(23:58):
put after that. It's like, who do you get rid?
Like Morrell has is hitting near300, I think above 300.
Yeah. And that was one guy we were
talking about maybe at the beginning, it's like if he has a
season like last season where he's only hitting like 200,
might be time to get rid of him.But that's not the case here.
(24:21):
So I mean, our at the beginning,our outfield death, death was
not there. And then all of a sudden, like 2
weeks into the season, it's our most, it's our, it's our most
depth. And then we're talking about
more infield depth, yeah. Well, I I think that's because
(24:43):
of guys like Meisner, who yeah, if you didn't see Meisner hit
two bombs yesterday, it can continues to continues his
toward paced. He's out 1.217 OPS right now.
Yeah, like these guys have played their way like we went
from BE. Stupid not to start them.
I mean, but like we went from being very sceptical about what
(25:05):
the hell is going to go on to the outfield to being like, wow,
these guys have really surprisedus.
These guys have looked really good.
Like who do we move now? Which?
Is I guess. A good thing it's a, you know,
it's a. It's a Trying to think of the
right word for it. It's funny what it's it's just
funny how before the season we were like, oh, we're going to be
so thin in the outfield. And then two weeks in, we're
(25:28):
like, oh wait, who do we trade? Yeah, yeah.
Success and abundance. Now, it's the same thing, you
know, I know that. I know that Lattel hasn't been
amazing, but it's the same thingwith with the starting rotation.
Imagine if you got rid of one ofthose guys knowing that both
Fayedo and Mcclanahan were goingto go down with injuries.
Start the season out. You like now.
The fact that the race kept all the starters that they kept is
(25:51):
such a massive advantage for this team because of the fact
that they need it now because Shane's not going to be back
anytime soon and or hopefully he'll be back soon, but you
know, not right now. And same thing with Fiedo.
So like it's, you know, success and abundance, I guess is
because you have, you know, more, more people that are doing
things that you didn't expect more or less at the start of the
(26:12):
year. And and I like I'm saying this
totally kind of not the hesitantkind of but just, yeah, I guess
it is hesitant, but Richie also coming back like it's tough to
cuz one Mangum has been unbelievable in right field as
well. Like, he's made an incredible
play. Like, incredible play after
incredible play. Yeah, he's, I mean, as you
(26:33):
mentioned, he's a guy who is playing every game like it's his
last game and everything, like it's his last play.
And, and I mean, I love that. And that's probably the position
that Richie would play the most.And it's like, well, Mangum's
also played the field like probably better than Richie has
with us. And then and he also Mangum also
gives us that switch hitting capability to where he could
(26:54):
play against either starting pitcher.
And then Richie in the infield, he primarily plays second base,
which he's also a lefty, but so is B Lau.
So it's like you can't really, you can't really platoon him
with B Lau either. And it's, I don't know.
It just seems like at this moment, and I understand Mangum
Meisner, it's a relief. They could they could kind of
come back down to to earth a little bit.
(27:17):
So like, I'm not saying like move him at this moment.
I totally am not like making rash decisions like that.
But it it just at this current moment, it does seem like
Palacios is kind of the odd man out.
Yeah, I I can see it, Yeah. But yeah, I mean, this is not a
problem we've ever had. I mean, I've never talked about,
Oh my God, which one of these stars do we eat?
(27:39):
Do we eat have to keep, you know, it's like usually it's
like who can hit above 225 and you can be on the Ray's roster
and now it's like, hey, do you have a 1.1 OPS?
I don't think so, buddy. I'm not get get the hell out of.
Here. Get out of here if you're not.
(28:00):
We got to keep the standards up.We got to keep.
The standards up now it's it's gone up really, really fast.
I mean half of our line up last year was below 200.
So yeah, yeah, this is. A This is a stark contrast from
what's happening in pictures. Still, I'm a bit concerned about
the bullpen. They they've shown some.
There's definitely been some weaknesses early on.
(28:22):
Maybe that's because the guys were taxed, whatever it might
be. So that'll be some.
Shada got the got the Tompkins curse because I asked Tompkins
if you say that would be as goodas he was last year.
Do you think that's what happened?
I don't know, I don't think that's probably, but before we
go into the break, I do want to talk about the Red Sox game a
(28:42):
little bit more. That was the most belt to ass
game that we've had so far this year.
Probably in a while, to be fullyhonest, 'cause I would need to
go back and remember the last time that the Rays beat A-Team
like that and not really with home runs.
Like. I think, I think what did they
have three solo homers in the game?
That was it. Yeah, just they were so or.
(29:05):
Or yeah, because hit one and Meisner hit two and then Yadi.
And yadi but like. Other than that, I mean the
other twelve runs were manufactured in a bunch of
different ways, whether it be run scoring, hits, errors,
whatever it is. And it was I like, I could like
watching that as a Red Sox fan. It was just one of those games
where it was like they were getting every unlucky break.
(29:25):
They didn't make the plays defensively.
So like, that's on them. Yeah.
However, we were finding every single hole like our like the
slow grounders were finding literally any crevice in the
infield. So like, it was one of those
games that we kind of caught a lot of breaks.
So I acknowledge that. But at the same time, we also
scored sixteen runs. So like that doesn't happen on
accident either. And yeah, I mean the the line up
(29:47):
was incredible. Aranda is continuing his extreme
success this year. And Baz, I think Baz, I kind of
feel a little, I don't feel bad for Baz, but like team scored
sixteen runs and I feel like Bazput a performance that should
get a ton more attention. And I understand it's not
probably not going to, but I mean 11 KS, zero walks, 6
(30:08):
innings, 2 two hits and one run.Like pretty it's hard to do
better than that. So I love seeing it out of that.
I love seeing that out of him. And I think reoccurring guest
Ryan Bass tweeted last night that I don't think we scored
more than thirteen runs in a game last year.
So it's nice that we've already kind of surpassed which broken
that barrier isn't surprising atall considering how horrible the
(30:30):
offense was last year. But yeah, you're right, it's
kind of nice breaking that barrier early.
Yeah, it's a good day to break barriers, I'll say that.
Yeah. Yeah, I was a little.
Hey. Go back to the star.
Baby call back to Jackie Robinson.
Day Hell yeah, I do. One last thing.
I do think that Jackie Robinson Day is one of the coolest things
(30:51):
that happens in any sports league cuz it is really cool
that every team and every playerwears the same uniform because
of this guy who so influential. Like, I think that's so dope.
And I, I don't know like what other guys they would like.
Maybe Roberto Clemente if he doesn't get his logo on the
outfield wall replaced by a what?
What was it? Surfside, Cam, Whatever the hell
(31:13):
that happened in Pittsburgh. But I mean, yeah, I think that
that's really, really cool. So kudos, Jackie.
And and, you know, definitely a day that I hope, I hope Major
League Baseball continues to do moving forward.
But we do have more to talk about.
We have the rest of this Red Soxseries and the Yankees series
coming up this weekend. So we're going to take a quick
break. We're going to run our C Geek
(31:33):
ad. If you guys haven't used that
perfect time to use it with the baseball season going on, it's
code. Raise the roof in all caps for
$20 off your first C Geek purchase.
Use it for Ray's tickets. Use it for any other Major
League Baseball team. We get the NBA player, the UPS
coming out the. Bolts.
Are once again in the playoffs. They'll be hosting in round one
if you guys want to use that forany NHL playoff tickets.
Any. Concert Season 2 right around
(31:56):
the corner concerts as well. Yeah, yeah, Summer concert
series coming out, everything like that.
Be sure to you see geek. So we're going to run our Siki
Gad and we'll be right back in this latest episode of Razor.
Hi everyone. Alex here with a quick word from
our sponsor Seegeek. Seegeek is your one stop shop
(32:16):
for tickets for everything from live theater and concerts to
sporting events like Ray's games.
Seegeek uses a color-coded scaleto show you where the best deals
are with green being good and red being bad.
If you haven't used Seegeek before, we have a special deal
just for you. Use code raise the roof, that's
Ray's spelled RAYS at checkout for $20 off your first purchase
(32:37):
with Seegeek. Again, that's code Raise the
Roof for 20 dollars off your first SeatGeek purchase.
Thanks so much to SeatGeek for sponsoring us.
And let's get back to this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. And we're back on this latest
episode of Raise the Roof. Like I said before the break,
(32:58):
we're going to be talking Red Sox, we're going to be talking
Yankees. This is quote UN quote hate week
if you're a race fan. I don't really know if it is,
honestly, the Yankees are kind of in my good graces right now
with everything going on with Steinbrenner.
But the race have two more gamesagainst the Red Sox and then I
believe A4 game set against the Yankees, if if memory serves me
right, concluding this weekend. So six more games of baseball
(33:21):
gone. We'll probably talk more about
the Yankee series as we get intothe week or later into the week.
But as of right now, First off, pitching probables.
One of the pitching probables, at least for the rest of the Red
Sox series that's gonna happen this week.
It's Pepio versus Bueller. We're recording this on Tuesday.
So Pepio versus Bueller tonight and then Mattel and you come
(33:42):
tomorrow and they're all night games too, which I guess that
division, that divisional aspectmaybe.
And then if we even want to. What about the Yankees series?
What are the? Problems.
Yeah. Then 4 gamer at home, Taj versus
versus Will Warren and then Rasmussen versus Rodon on
Friday, Baz versus Carlos Carrasco on Saturday, and Pepio
(34:05):
again versus Max Freed on Sunday.
It's kind of AI mean other than the freed Pepio matchup, it's
kind of under woman considering all entries that the Yankees
have had. Correct.
I mean, Rasmussen versus Rodon could be interesting,
definitely. But yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's
insane how much like magnitude Cole has in a, in a rotation.
(34:28):
Like you add him in there and it's, I know it's only one out
of five, but still. Yeah, it's.
Still. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I forgot. He was out.
Yeah. I mean, that's that's that's
you. You lost your rookie of the year
and you lost a Cy Young candidate all at once.
I understand you got one back in, or at least you signed 1 and
Freed, but still, that's a lot that you're that you're missing.
(34:52):
One thing that we didn't mentiongoing into the series because we
didn't have the opportunity to is the Rays avoided crochet
completely. I don't know what's going to
happen upcoming, but the Rays definitely dodged the bullet by
not having to face crochet in the series.
I mean, he went on Sunday, he went like 7, no hit innings I
think, didn't he? Yeah, I thought he was pushing a
perfecto at one point, no. He went, oh, he, he went seven
(35:16):
and a third one hit one and run.Yeah. 1111 strikeouts.
One walk, though, I. Mean it's pretty good.
Pretty good. Yeah, he was.
I think he was no hit. I think he was thrown no hitter
in the 7th inning, yeah. Yeah, no, I know that he had a
perfecto going into the 6th, if I'm not mistaken, and then that
got broken up. But definitely, I mean, the Rays
will find a way to face Crochet at some point later this season.
(35:40):
So I'm not expecting them to avoid him completely, but at
least for this series, they definitely did.
Gibby, starting with you, we're going to go into our keys to the
series. Then we're going to talk about
our pick a player, as we always do.
But for for for either of these series, for both of these
series, whatever. What are your keys for the Rays?
Well, I think for this first series, I would just want to see
(36:01):
Lattell have a more competent start than these last two starts
he's had. So he's gonna be playing the
last game of this Red Sox series.
So hopefully maybe the sweep's on the table so he has a little
bit more motivation to do that. I feel like if if we do win the
(36:21):
game tonight, he might get blownup on what is that, Wednesday?
Yeah, Wednesday. So hopefully that doesn't
happen. But yeah, I'm gonna, one of the
keys is definitely lattell. Just our starting pitching in
general is going to be the key. I mean, Rasmussen's go lock it
down. I mean, he's got the he's got
(36:42):
the best ERA in the league as a starter, as a qualified starter
right now. He's got like, and his three
starts, I don't think he's givenup a run.
Maybe he gave it one. But yeah, I mean, Rasmussen's
been literally incredible. So having him pitch and then
Pepio is pitching twice in this in these next five games.
(37:05):
So Pepeo is going to be super important as well.
So just getting the pitching back on track and doing what,
you know, we've always done thatway.
And then of course, bullpen's going to be super important.
Just get in our guys more confident.
Mixon Montgomery's been looking kind of shaky, you say to and
(37:27):
all like Rodriguez hasn't lookedthe best.
So I mean, it's really, which isweird to say, it's really just
the pitching I'm more worried about.
I mean, it seems like our guys can really hit well in the new
ballpark at home. So hopefully that just
continues. I think they really feed off the
(37:49):
energy of the crowd because it feels like it's a little bit
louder and a little bit more involved.
So won't worry about the offenseas much.
I think the key's really going to be just locked down pitching.
And then obviously for the Yankees too, just keeping them
in the ballpark and playing great defense like we have been.
(38:12):
So Jake Mangum out there making plays in right field, Taylor
Walls. I mean, say what you want about
the hitting, but I mean he's been incredible on the defensive
side. I mean, he's made like plays
that I don't think I've really seen defensively from a
shortstop. I mean, just like balls hit
(38:33):
directly to him going like scorching speeds and he's
somehow coming up with it every time.
So yeah, definitely very important.
Defense is going to be the key for the next 5 days.
Agreed, Evan, your thoughts about the keys to any of these
upcoming series? Yeah, just, I mean, I know it's
(38:54):
easy to say it after last night,but just continue to.
It's amazing what happens when you score a run around third
base with less than two outs. That's a novel concept for the
rays, if you. Have yeah, it's we've lost,
we've already lost probably two or three games this season
because of our failure to do that.
(39:16):
So it's it's as simple as that, like just I mean, hitting with,
I mean, not even hitting, just getting the ball in play with
runners in scoring position and running runners on 3rd with less
than two outs. So continue to do that.
I mean, that's that's what kind of killed this team last year is
that we just could not get the big hit.
And it's nice that we were able to do that last night, but try
(39:37):
to just continue to do that. Obviously Walker Buehler, not
sure how he's done so far this season.
He's one-on-one with a 574 ERA 1.28 WHIP.
So not a great start to the season, but we all know he's he
has the potential to be incredible.
Sure, he's a little bit older and coming off a couple
injuries, but yeah, I mean, and,and yeah, I agree, I agree with
(40:01):
Gibby. Just our bullpen has to be a
little bit more steady and more reliable just because it within
the last week we've gone up big and then we've kind of let the
other team back in in the game. And luckily, I think, yeah,
Friday and Sunday, Sunday's games against the Braves, it
didn't cost us, but it did cost us Saturday.
So if we get a little bit more consistent production of the
(40:23):
bullpen to be be nice to see. Yeah, 100% agree.
Let's go into our pick a player sponsored by In the Clutch.
If you guys haven't gotten your In the Clutch merchandise,
plenty of that, some more raisedmerchandise coming your way.
It's code raise the roof at checkout.
Saves you 10% off any order anytime.
Evan, starting with you, who areyour pickup players?
(40:44):
You can go just for the Red Sox series for the whole week.
It's it's, it's your, it's your choice.
I'll just go with the red, the Red Sox series.
Gibby kind of mentioned him, butMason Montgomery, he's like he's
young and I understand that there's going to be some growing
pains moving from AAA to the majors, but he's shown
incredible, incredible potential.
(41:05):
I mean, he's thrown 100 from theleft side.
So I mean, and he didn't, I don't, he did not pitch last
night. So I assume we'll see him either
today or tomorrow. And I just, I look for him to
have a clean and then just give us 123 and he hasn't.
I don't think he's had that in awhile.
So hopefully you can kind of just continue to build and
continue to grow. And then I'll go with Morrell.
(41:30):
I'll go with Morrell. We've talked a lot about him, a
lot about his his success so farthis season and see if he
continues continues to sit this week.
All right, Gibby, who you got? For my hitter, I'm going to pick
Junior Caminero just because I mean, he's a sort of electric,
electric guy. I mean, and once he's he he
(41:55):
really like in the Sunday game, he really just came in with the
the Wrecking Ball that just opened up the floodgates of the
game with that home run. And then I mean he just builds
on whatever pressure is in the moment.
So if he if he gets up at the right time in the line up like
(42:16):
where we can score some more runs to really put the game
away, he usually comes through. And same thing for Aranda too.
But I picked Aranda last week. So Kim and Arrow will be this
week. And then as a pitcher, I'll pick
Litell because I mean, just him having a non shaky start would
(42:40):
be really good. Obviously there's some help
coming in in terms of like Clanahan coming back soon.
So not sure about what Lattel's going to be doing in the future,
but I'd still like to see him. You know which he's had a good
he had a good start the his first start.
If he had a good start just likethat where he just keeps the
(43:02):
ball. Not a lot of strikeout stuff.
He doesn't have a lot of strikeout stuff, but he just
keeps the ball on the ground. Let's Taylor Walls sweep it up,
you know, wouldn't be too bad. So definitely going to pick
Lattelle for the pitcher. For me, Bilau, it continues to
be a constant. He's actually not really played
(43:24):
as well in recent days. So yeah, so hoping for a little
bit of a bounce back. Also, the birthday boy, Danny
Jansen. Today is his birthday.
Shout out to you, Danny. Hopefully we can get you on the
pod at some point. Oh, Danny Boy.
I would love it. Though interesting.
Yeah, I would love to see a little bit more success out of
Ham just because I know I mean in the grand scheme of things,
(43:46):
eight and a half million isn't alot, but for the Rays it is.
Would love to see more out of hand.
And then on the pitching side, give me Pep if he's going to be
starting two games this week, a little bit concerned so far by
the yeah upon its average and also his WHIP.
He's walking a lot more guys than I would like.
He's walked seven guys in 16 innings, which is the most of
(44:06):
anyone on the staff. And in terms of starters, he's
pitched the second fewest innings of anyone on the staff
and has walked the most guys. So a little bit concerning there
and would love to see and, and also the hits.
He's given up the second most hits of anyone outside of Zach
Litell, but Litell doesn't really walk many guys.
So definitely a little bit more concerned about what I'm seeing
(44:29):
out of Pep with would love to see him bounce back, have a
couple quality starts against some good teams, teams that
coming into the season we expected to be playoff caliber
teams, if not more than that. So would love to see that out of
him. The last thing I wanted to talk
about before we and the podcast is Team USA for the 2026 World
(44:53):
Baseball Classic has a new team captain that is noted postseason
choke artist Aaron Judge. So let's hope it doesn't
continue. Yeah.
I mean, I like it, obviously. I mean, you know.
No, no, it was. It was like.
It was expecting. Because he sucks and when the
(45:15):
brightest. Yeah, I hope maybe his
postseason antics don't apply topreseason antics.
Maybe so. Hopefully he has a good run when
he is playing in the Classic. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty
good. I mean, you see, I saw Mike
(45:39):
Trout last week, by the way, remember when we said he would
only score two home runs and then he didn't do it for the
first two games and then two home runs in the last like 3
innings? He waited until the last.
Day he waited to fill his quota.He was like, all right, it's
time. We're right, though.
We were right. I mean, I think I could have hit
(45:59):
a home run that last game. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was
pretty. That was some brutal vibes
there, but no trout. Definitely.
It just took him a little bit, but he hit the homers.
Yeah, so he was the captain before, right?
Yes, he was the captain for the 2023.
Yeah, so I mean, I saw that coming.
Mike Trout getting a little bit up there in age still.
(46:20):
He's still Mike Trout, as we, asI just said.
But I mean, he's not even the reason the angels are kind of
winning right now. That Joe Adele kid.
Oh my God. Joe, Adele, Caron, Paris, Logan.
Tyron Paris. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I it's expected.
It's expected. Yeah.
Have any of your thoughts about Mr. Judge?
Yeah, I agree. You can't.
(46:41):
I mean, who else would you have gone with?
I mean, he's coming off MVP. Brandon Lau, he's our new
captain. You imagine.
What about? What about Cameron Meisner?
Sneaky, sneaky Team USA captain.Maybe in two years, maybe next
classic. It's also crazy how it's already
(47:02):
coming up next year. I feel like the last one was not
that long ago and I feel it's. Because it's not, it's not four
years, it's three years. So it feels like it's like
there's only like really one gapyear before we're talking.
And the other issue was that, sothe last one before that was
2017, before 23. COVID happened in 20.
(47:23):
So that prevented that and then just kept getting pushed back to
23. So now it's going again.
And I doubt that there's going to be, hopefully there's going
to be nothing that will stop it from from continuing to go.
But yeah. Also, it's kind of crazy that
Judge is only a year younger than Trout.
It's kind of crazy to think about.
But yeah, I don't know who else you would have seriously gone
(47:44):
with, but it very expected coming off an MVP led the
Yankees to their first Pennant and over a decade.
So like, yeah, it it had to be Judge.
He's the best hitter in the AL at least.
I mean, obviously Otani's probably the best hitter in the
game, but. Otani's on Japan, though he
doesn't count. Yeah, yeah.
(48:06):
So you can't go wrong with picking Judge.
I like, I think the fact that the more that we get, cuz last
year I feel like was the first. Now again, this is from our
perspective, this isn't from theworld's perspective.
Because if we remember going back to 2006, 2009, 2013, there
were guys that were on those teams for Japan, for South
(48:29):
Korea, for the Dr. for Cuba thatwere like superstars there, if
not superstars in the, you know,in the Major League ranks here
in the US. So there it was already
considered legitimate. Here, not as much, I think,
especially on the pitching side.And hopefully we actually get
pitchers in 20 in 26 because there were not pitchers in 20-3.
(48:53):
And that's kind of been like thestory of the US.
But 2017 was really the first year that I think we saw guys
from Team USA or that were on Team USA start to take it
seriously. And of course that was the year
that that Team USA won. And since that point, I think
it's grown in terms of importance that, hey, this isn't
some sideshow event that happensbefore the season.
(49:16):
This is an important event that's going to grow baseball
that people care about. And 2023 was really the first
time that I think everyone took it seriously.
It wasn't just a couple people. Everyone took it seriously
because everyone took it seriously.
I think that it made for a much better product.
And now that Judge is going to be the captain, he is the guy
(49:37):
who's a potential Hall of Famer.He's on pace to hit 45600 home
runs. He's already got 2 MVPS under
his belt. Now we're getting to the point
where it's like it's more than serious and it's still like now
we're getting to a good, a good spot moving forward.
And hopefully this will resume talks of potentially getting
(49:57):
baseball back in the Olympics permanently.
Because we can see that other countries care about baseball in
the same way that we do, in the same way that a lot of these
Eastern, you know, Eastern Asian, Asian countries like like
Japan and South Korea and Taiwanand and China, like these people
care about baseball. And I, I just like the, the, the
(50:18):
legitimacy of the event continues to rise, which I think
is really important. I mean, I saw today that Tatis
is going to be on the, is going to be on the Dominican Republic
team. I would assume the junior's
going to be on it. I know in 23 we had Randy and
Pereiras and Aranda on Team Mexico.
I would expect Aranda to be backon Team Mexico.
Like, I like, I'm excited about it and it's happening in a year.
(50:43):
Pereiras has been really good sofar in the Astros as well.
But and and I mean, you're seeing it across all the sports.
Like, yeah, I mean, 2023 was, that was kind of the first year
I at least took the WBC. Like not, I mean, not seriously,
but the first time I was like invested every single pitch in
every single game that I was watching.
(51:03):
I couldn't get enough of it. And then you see the Four
Nations Classic in the NHL have so much.
Success as well, 100%. Excuse me?
So you're seeing just these these international sporting
events that had to get such a huge draw and people love it.
And it's, and you're right, because I mean, other countries
are, I mean, I wouldn't even saylike they have caught up.
(51:25):
I mean, they're better than we are at this point.
I mean, Japan is better than us.They beat us in the in the gold
medal match. Obviously the US didn't win the
the Four Nations Classic. And and it kind of is a nice
little pump up for the Olympics because everybody can't wait for
hockey in the Olympics. What is is that next year I
always get? 26 is the winner is the winner
(51:46):
Olympic and then 28, I mean, we're still, we're like 4 years
away from the, well, actually no, we're like so hopefully
years away from the Summer Olympics right in the US.
So I just hope baseball can kindof learn from hockey and be
like, hey, this is a really, really good tune up and way to
get people in invested in your sport when it comes to the
(52:07):
Olympics. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully
you're right. Hopefully baseball can make a
reappearance to the Olympics. Yeah, Gibby, Gibby.
Final thoughts. Man, I'm just, I want it back.
Just like what Evan said, it's probably the best baseball
television you could watch otherthan the MLB playoffs.
(52:28):
So I mean, it's it's huge. I definitely got into it in
2023. I was watching every game and
yeah, I mean, and also there were so many race players last
time with Randy going off or Ronda on Mexico.
Every team, I feel like every team had like some sort of race
representation. Yeah, and now the race could
(52:50):
have Hassan Kim. Oh yeah.
That's true. Like a new country in South
Korea. We already have Mexico.
Jason Adam was on Team USA, so it's probably gonna be a Team
USA guy. Like the race could have more
representation internationally. Yeah.
And I think, and I think in a way, Korea, Korea really wants
to run it back against Japan. So I mean, see how that goes.
(53:12):
But I mean, Japan's just been incredible.
But I definitely want to see theUSA really pull it out and, you
know, do what we're supposed to and win.
So that that'd be huge. Yeah, for sure.
Well, I think with that being said, that's going to conclude
things on this latest episode ofRaise the Roof.
We appreciate you guys as alwaysfor your support.
(53:33):
We can't thank you enough. If you guys want to follow us on
social media, we are at Raise the Roof TB across our social
media platforms. That is Twitter slash X
Instagram and Blue sky. We also have our YouTube channel
of which we're posting game highlights, podcast highlights,
hopefully more videos at the ballpark either on the either at
(53:54):
home or on the road. So stay tuned for that.
Be sure to subscribe and like our videos there for this
podcast continue to support us as you guys have been.
Be sure to like, be sure to subscribe.
Be sure to leave us a review, hopefully a five star review and
share this with your family or friends.
Anyone you know is a baseball fan or a race fan that wants to
add a podcast and their podcast feed.
(54:15):
We would love to be part of that.
One final shout out to our sponsors In the Clutch, Sea Geek
and JKS prints, that is our friend Jack who prints the Mini
Trops. If you guys want to get your own
Mini Trop, it's that same raise the roof code in all caps.
We already talked about it, but Sea Geek and In the Clutch, but
it's $5 off your purchase using code Raise the Roof in all caps
(54:37):
at checkout to get yourself a Mini Trop.
There's different sizes and morestadiums will be added to the
mix. Maybe more football stadiums in
the future, maybe more hockey arenas, you never know.
So be sure to use that and be sure to use all of our sponsor
codes to help us out, help you guys out in the process.
With all that being said, thanksso much for listening and as
(54:58):
always, raise up. Raise up baby.
Raise up baby.
It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular season
episode. Welcome back 1:00 and all to
this latest episode of the pod. I'm host Alex Murphy with me.
As always. The boys are back together.
Evan and Gibby, how we doing today?
Doing pretty good Alex. Doing pretty good.
Yesterday I got to witness baseball.
(00:34):
Not history, not really history,but an ass kicking history for
sure. When the Rays put sixteen runs
on the Red Sox, the Red Sox measly won, measly won run.
Alex, it it was. It was a great day yesterday.
I had a great time, very enjoyable.
Evan, did you? I'm guessing you.
(00:55):
Watched the game in some capacity, right?
I yes, I watched the first like 5 innings and then I kind of
just followed it because it was like.
I was like pretty much where allthe action happened, so it's not
like you missed much. Yeah, for Inning, I was like,
this game's over. Yeah, but I think you did see, I
think MOB tweeted out for the second time in franchise
history. Each player in the Rays starting
(01:16):
lineup recorded a run and an RBI.
So that is history. Even Taylor walls that.
He he's been. Doing good.
He's been doing good. Listen, that defense, it was
it's, it's really good. And he's been, he's been getting
walks, drawing walks, all that. And he beat out that that fueler
choice in the third inning that kind of like kept if it was a
(01:39):
double play in the lap. Yeah, it was very the Red Sox.
The Red Sox defense was also really, really.
Bad. Oh yeah, didn't story.
Story made at least one error. There was another error that
was. Was he?
Well, he plays shortstop, so he was one who made the error at
shortstop. Then someone else made the error
at 3rd. They somehow they had one error.
They only had one error. Yeah, I don't know.
(02:00):
I thought that. I thought that story made an
error and someone else made an error.
No. Bregman, I thought, didn't
Bregman? Yeah, I thought that.
I I thought they both bobbled. I guess.
I guess that was a hit. I.
Clearly don't know anything. Apparently.
Definitely should have been an error though.
But well, yes, if anyone didn't see the the Rays won 16 to 1
yesterday against the Red Sox. This comes after the Rays took a
series at home to start a 13 game homestand against the
(02:24):
Braves. They took two out of three.
I think it was. Friday win, Saturday lost,
Friday win. So good times there again.
The win yesterday continues to keep the line moving.
The Razor back at 500, which is a mark that we've seen so many
times last year. Let's hope that we don't have to
hit as. Much, Yeah, Hopefully we're not
(02:45):
chasing mid like last season, you know, Yeah, that was just
posting that graphic every day. That was a dubious distinction.
I'll say that I would. I would prefer us to not try to
hit it like 30 plus times in a year.
It'd be nice. Yeah, I'm OK with like 20.
It's also like everybody else inAL East, just hovering around
the 500. Yeah, yeah, the AL East has
(03:05):
been. Very the AL East this year, and
I had a bold prediction that three of us would make the
playoffs. I don't know about that.
I don't know about that. Where are we at with the
standings right now? It's still early.
It's still early. Yeah.
Wow 2. Games.
This is horrible. I mean, it's not like there's
any team in the AL in general other than like the Tigers,
(03:27):
who's like above and beyond everyone cuz the Yankees are
nine and seven, the Jays are 9 and 8, the Guardians are 8 and
seven, the Rangers are nine and seven, the Angels are nine and
six. Don't know where that came from.
I guess Logano Hoppes. And they kicked our ass.
That is true. And then like I said, the Tigers
are 10 and six so like the old, they're the only team that's
(03:49):
like above and beyond the rest, which is weird 'cause like then
you go over to the NL and like 3teams in the NL W have are 12:00
and 6:00 or better. Hey, even the Dodgers, they got
sick. The Cubs are pretty good.
Yeah, Cubs are 11 and eight. Yeah, the Dodgers are 12 and
six, the Giants are 12 and four,and the Padres are 14 and 3.
(04:09):
Geez. How about those Marlins?
Marlins are 8. 500 They're frisky.
They're poor Rockies. Can somebody I feel so bad for
the Rockies? 3 and 13.
Yikes. In that division too.
Oh my goodness. White Sox have more wins than
the than the Rockies this year. Let it be known.
Let it be known to the cultural zeitgeist of this this country.
(04:29):
Yeah. So we got plenty of things to
talk about. Like I said, we'll talk about
the race series. We will talk about the upcoming
series, whatever the rest of theseries against the Red Sox.
We also have a series coming up against the Yankees, which I'm
sure that we'll talk about to anextent and plenty of other
things. A couple things I wanted to
touch upon before we really got into or get into the meat and
(04:51):
bones of this podcast. I just saw that Trey Morgan is
going to be making his AAA debutcoming up.
He's been activated off the IO, so great news to see there.
It's cool to say friends slash former podcast.
Yes, Trey Morgan. That's pretty cool.
Also, today as of this recordingis April 15th, which is Jackie
(05:12):
Robinson Day. Again.
On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson officially broke the
color barrier in Major League Baseball, making his Major
League debut with the then Brooklyn Dodgers.
Of course, we know about what hedid in his career.
MVP, Gold Glove Award winner, pretty much did everything under
the sun. Hall of Famer so and as a result
(05:33):
of it being Jack Robinson Day, every team and every player in
Major League Baseball will wear the number 42 tonight for their
game. So expect to see a lot of race
players and or every race playerand Red Sox player wearing 42
amongst the rest of the crowd. Probably one of the most
influential sports figures of all time.
(05:54):
I think that's pretty fair to say.
I think that is more. Than fair to say, if not the
most or I mean yeah you could easily make the argument that he
is the most influential not baseball player and sports
figure of all time but. He that is more more than fair
to say one other thing I saw during the broadcast yesterday
(06:15):
that there was a kid wearing a junior Caminero jersey with 15
on it, which I don't even know like so someone was like, and I
forgot about this because I literally I was at AI was at a
biscuits game and I saw I was inthe dugout and I saw junior
caminero wear 15. That's the only other time that
I've ever seen him wear 15. Like he's never won in the Major
(06:37):
League. So either the kid like whoever.
They must have been on the trainreally early.
Yeah, I was going to say either this kid is like an elite ball
knower or he just got gypped andgot a horrible jersey.
Yeah, it was a raised jersey. Though yeah, it was.
Like a It wasn't a biscuit. It wasn't a biscuits jersey.
Was not a Biscuits jersey. And again, I posted below it
(06:58):
because someone said did a little digging.
He wore 15 in Montgomery. I'm afraid this kid may be a
huge ball knower. And then I said, we can confirm
this to be true. And it was just a video of me
like in the dugout taking a video of Junior Caminero.
So that is the only other time that I've ever seen him that I
can remember where he's worn 15 at any level with the race.
(07:19):
So either that kid got screwed over of a jersey or he's an
elite ball know or. He's been on the train a while.
I was going to say, where are weat with this?
Is the kid an elite ball know oris he not?
I think he knows Ball. He knows.
Ball, he's got a no ball. I mean, if he like, how does
that even exist? You have to know ball for that
(07:40):
jersey to for you to pick out that jersey.
Man, that came like. You're.
The Montgomery biscuits. Fan he might have had to do one
of the custom jerseys where you pick the where like the name
might have not even been available yet and then he was
just predicting the future. Poor guy, kind of crazy kind.
Of crazy. That stinks that he didn't stick
(08:00):
with 15. He didn't I.
Mean he only asked to replace one number you.
Can't take it off. I mean he.
Can't, but it'll look bad. Yeah, they don't know.
But let's go into talking about the Rays.
So as I mentioned, the Rays won two out of three over the
weekend against the Braves. One of those games, not
necessarily the greatest thing in the world.
(08:20):
The other two games, very good. And then we go into what they
did last night. The Rays, I don't know how many
men went, went up to bat in the third.
The Rays scored nine runs against the Boston Red Sox,
specifically Tanner Houck, who posted a triple double, meaning
he gave up ten plus runs, 10 plus earned runs, and ten plus
(08:41):
hits. I guess that's a new way of
doing it. So he got absolutely just
destroyed on the mound. On the other side, Shane Baz
continues to be absolutely electric to start the season
out. He put Christian Campbell on on
a knee after he blew 100 by him,which was incredible to see, and
(09:02):
the Rays end up winning 16 to 1.Improved back to 500 on the
year. Let's start off with the Braves
series. Thoughts about the Braves
series. What the Braves were able to do
again, they had a chance of sweeping.
Came up just short of that, but two out of three.
Still 2 out of 3. Yeah, in that in that second
game, you definitely wanted to win that one because you were
up. I mean like four runs
(09:24):
practically the whole game untilthe 7th, 8th and 9th inning,
which usually are the high leverage bullpen guys.
They're not giving up runs like that.
But was not the case that day. Hunter Beige got biggie, got
blown up. Cole Salser got blown up.
(09:45):
Edwin, you say that had a littlebit of a shaky start or shake,
not shaky start, shaky inning. He's had a few shaky innings in
a row. I hope you say they can get it
back on track. But yeah, I mean, just kind of
the bullpen fellas on Saturday, really.
The offense was really good the entire series, especially on
(10:08):
Sunday. Caminero with another home run.
And I mean, there's so many guyswho are doing really good on
this team. Miranda, Caminero, Not Caminero.
Caballero and Caminero, obviously, but Kim and Caballero
is jumping off the page right now and Aranda is too, and
(10:29):
Meisner is too. So I mean, there's just so many
guys who are just producing so much for this roster.
But yeah, it was it was good to beat the Braves.
I think the Braves are in a little bit, a little bit.
I don't know, it's I expected this team to wait, be way
better. And I mean, I know it's the
beginning of the year, but they're not really showing it so
(10:50):
far. That's all for me.
Yeah, Evan, what? Yeah.
What were your thoughts about the series?
That series at home against the Braves, definitely something
that we needed. Like if you said the the Braves
are, they had, they've had a really slow start to the season.
Obviously we all know how good the Braves can be.
They had, they still have all the talent in the world, but
(11:11):
they are definitely struggling. So we have to we had to take
advantage of that. Luckily we did.
We were a few pitches away from sweeping, which is always
unfortunate, but you can't ever just win series.
That's all. You're what you're striving to
do, always win series and season's going to go well for
you. But yeah, that Saturday game was
frustrating just because we seemto have you under control,
(11:35):
whoever. Was it Rasmussen who pitched on
Saturday? Yeah.
Yes, he, I mean he pitched unbelievable again.
Gave up four hits, zero and runs, seven K's, one walk like
he pitched. He looked really good again.
And the bullpen once again, cash.
No idea really what he's doing. I get that the bullpens kind of
(11:55):
tax right now, but Cole Sir, Soul Sir coming in the game
there makes no sense and it backfired.
Gave up two around home run alsoin the bottom of the ninth.
Was frustrating considering B Lau and Manga both like hit
their balls pretty pretty hard and they went right that
defender. Then Aranda follows that up with
(12:15):
a home run that would have tied it if one of those fell in for a
hit. Just one of those frustrating
games. Probably should have won it, but
that's OK. We bounced back Sunday with one
of the more impressive wins of the season so far.
Just because it was against Sale.
We kind of I wouldn't say dominated him, but he gave up
three runs. He only went four and a third
the reigning Sai Young winner inthe NL, NL last year.
(12:38):
So we were able to have him makehim work for his during his
start. Four and a third 98 pitchers
like that's not not great numbers.
Three walks, 7 KS pretty good job.
And yeah, Caminero has been sick.
That was a huge home run considering we were at 4 O and
then the Braves kind of cut it 43 and we were able to put him
away with that. So did did what we needed to do
(13:01):
and luckily we were back at 500 now after that.
Yeah, Joe Boyle that day. Yeah, Joe Boyle, talk about a
start spot. Start for him.
My God. Yeah, that was crazy.
And I mean, what a weird line. What is it?
5 innings pitch, zero runs, two earned runs.
But I know there was two runs scored on him.
(13:23):
I thought, I thought he had two earned runs.
No, it wasn't earned because it was a miss, because it was an
overthrow. And then he just got home with a
round ball. OK.
So that's interesting. Yeah, at one point the race had
a no hitter going when it was like 3-1 or four one.
Yeah. Which I mean, he was, I was.
(13:44):
I was watching it was. He went five no hit innings so.
He did. He did.
He looks sharp. He looks sharp.
And again, he has like this wasn't this was his first start
with or the his first appearancewith the Rays, But it's not like
he didn't start previously. He's he's pitched in what, 16
games before this? Yeah, he's made 13 starts.
(14:04):
This is with Oakland over the last two years.
Last year, definitely a year to forget, especially with the walk
did. He he got sent back down, right?
He he got something like that after this game.
Yeah. But I mean, if you look at it
last year, he had forty walks and and 56 strikeouts and 47
innings. So he had like just over a walk
(14:25):
to strikeout to walk, which is, I mean, that's that's horrible
to walk that many guys. Yeah, but then he didn't do that
today. I mean, he walked a few that
day, but he he walked a few people, but he didn't, he didn't
walk too many so. No, he looked, he looked very
sharp. It was a very impressive
performance from him and I thinkthat we're all very happy about
(14:46):
that. As a result of that move, Cole
Solzer did go down to Durham andthen as a result of the of the
Boyle move back to Durham, Eric,Eric, Orza Orze, the guy that
they got in the Jose Siri trade from the Mets ended up being
called up and he actually threw 2 innings last night.
(15:06):
I believe it was 2 innings afterBaz pitched 6, Shane.
Shane went 6 looked Oh my God, looked absolutely incredible on
the mound. Biggie had an ending lesson as
well. Also, I forgot to say during the
Friday game against the Braves, Danny Jansen had a little bit of
a coming out party. He went three for four.
He had a Homer. Hit that kind of hit that bomb
(15:28):
to kind of like break the game open to 551.
So and then he had a ground withdouble that scored another run
in the eighth. So he he needed that
desperately. He had really struggled at the
beginning of this season. He kind of is still struggling.
But hopefully you can. Hopefully you can build on that.
Yeah. And then with that, Morale had
(15:49):
another Homer. He's looked really good to start
the season out. Like very impressed by what I've
seen out of him. Nothing like he hasn't been like
it hasn't been anything crazy, but he's hitting over 300 right
now, which is a stark contrast from what he was doing last
year, which was barely like he was hovering around the 200 mark
was was was below the 200 mark was definitely not anywhere
(16:12):
close to being a a serviceable hitter, but he's definitely at
least in the short term, has turned things around
significantly over the 1st 1520 games of the year.
So very impressed by what I've seen out of him.
As you mentioned about Danny Janssen, he went through for
four in that game. He hit his first home run of the
season. This is going back to Friday.
Taj looks pretty solid on the mound. 6 innings, 1 earned run,
(16:35):
7 strikeouts, gave up five hits.The Rays ended up the Braves
scored two in the eighth, but bythat point, the Rays were up
6th, one at that point or five. One scored 1/6 in the bottom
half of the inning to win that game.
Unfortunately, that Saturday game definitely hurts the Rays
significantly. They had a, what was it, a 3-1
(16:57):
lead going into the 8th inning. Give up two in the eighth, two
in the ninth, and then Aranda's Homer.
And Aranda continues to be red hot for the Rays, mind you, with
that. But yeah, ends up being 54.
They're really impressed by Aranda going into oh, I believe
(17:17):
that was also the start of Junior's now three Homer streak.
He's hit a Homer in three straight games.
So awesome to see that Yanni Diaz also is starting to get
back on track. I believe he's had a he's had a
lead off Homer in two straight games.
Do I have that right? Yes, yes he did.
Yeah, so he's starting to see the ball a lot better, which is
(17:39):
good. He's starting to get bad on
ball. He's getting his average up
again. It's not anything crazy, but
remember how last year when he had that slump and it took a
while? It seems like it's not like the
slump still happened, but it seems like he's getting back on
track a lot quicker and is getting used to things a lot
quicker, which I think is reallygood.
(18:00):
Yeah, I mean, yada, Diaz is likehugely important to his team.
But I mean in his somewhat, you know, absence, I mean, we found
literal gold in like Meisner Aranda.
I mean, Caviaro is has above A1 OPS still.
(18:23):
So I mean it, it it's great. And I mean, we're like the
offense is not the same as not even it's not even what we
thought it would be at the beginning of the season.
And I mean, it's just these rookies making, I mean, life
hard for Kevin Cash. I mean, what is he going to do
when Josh Lowe is back? What's he going to do when?
(18:46):
I mean, we know what's going to happen when Hassan Kim comes
back. But Richie, too.
But Richie, Yeah, Richie Palaciois coming back.
And I mean, you got all these pictures.
They're doing incredible. And I mean, Joe Boyle kind of
gave you a reason to maybe keep him up.
And yeah, I mean, there's, there's just so many new faces
(19:08):
doing so well for this team. And that is?
That is kind of a team for this year.
Yeah, Adam. So the the the Coco Montez guy,
I feel like I got to mention himreal quick.
He's made some incredible plays in the field.
Oh yeah, USF guy, USF. Like he's made he's he's looked
like a natural. I think he's played third base
(19:29):
and second so far this year. So I mean, just another guy who
can provide some versatility through in the field.
And I mean, I think he's been decent at the plate.
I mean, yeah, I remember he had an RBI 250.
He's betting 250. So like still putting up decent
at bats. But yeah, you're right though,
Gibby Cash is going to have someinteresting moves to make.
(19:51):
Like Mangum's one of those guys where it's it's like, I get that
he's probably the first guy to be sent down when either Richie,
when Richie comes back because he's probably coming back before
before Lois. But yeah, that's.
Crazy because he's still hitting300.
Yeah. And it's it's like he's making a
case where it's like, how can you send this guy down?
Just I. Think that his.
Play and his his passion too. I mean, he's it's like he plays
(20:13):
every play like it's his last. Play and he's.
Lost. And it's incredible.
Like I love to watch it, love watching it.
Same thing with Kay Monaro. His home run on Sunday was.
It kind of reminded me of the Dr. Home run, the one in Oh yeah
where he just went absolutely bonkers and it was awesome.
Well, I was going to I was goingto ask you guys a question
because again, the race have a number of guys who are either
(20:36):
fringe guys on the roster, guys that are going to get moved,
whatever it might be. And as you mentioned, a lot of
guys have, you know, played their way to on to what should
be staying on the roster, if notstarting, whatever it might be.
I think that of the list, I think Coco Montez and and Curtis
(20:59):
Mead are probably the two guys that are on the chopping block.
If you're going to have guys move, which which sucks because
I know that Mead, you know, you,you want to get him consistent
playing time, but he hasn't really unfortunately done much
so far. So I guess if you're looking at
that with the with the three Outfitters that they have, like
do you move? And it also with this, Richie
(21:19):
can play infield position so he doesn't have to immediately play
outfield positions. If you want to get rid of
Montez, you can move Richie intoan infield position.
But then what do you start doingafter that point?
Because Lowe's going to need to come back and Deluca's going to
need to come back. Do you move Morrell to an
infield position and get rid of Mead and then keep Meisner and
(21:40):
Mangum out there and find a way to keep them plus DeLuca?
Like that's the those are the questions that you need to start
asking is because these guys have played so well to start the
season out. Where do you move guys?
How do you maneuver the roster? How do you change different
things? Like, I mean it, do you get rid
of Mangum? I I don't think like he would be
the only guy, I guess you could say that of those guys you would
(22:03):
get rid of because Meisner has played his way on the staying on
this roster and being a starter on this team.
Morel's had a really solid startto the season out.
Like a a number of these guys have played well.
So like, who is the odd man out?It's tough to.
I think it's especially with Thething is the guys who are coming
back, like they don't really turn the needle for me that much
(22:26):
either. It's not like they're like
Lowe's different. Lowe's in a different category
just because he's we've seen himdeliver time to time.
At his back, that is. Really right when he's healthy.
But like Palacios and DeLuca, I get that they're good fielders
and I get the Palacios is, is like very versatile in the
field. I mean, he's not great at the
plate. I mean, he batted 223 last year
(22:49):
and I guess decent, like a decent WAR.
But like I, I, he's just, it's not like he like he's going to
have a lot of pressure when he comes back because he knows
there's several guys down in Durham who are ready to take
that spot and he's going to, he's going to have to perform.
And Deluca's maybe a little bit different just because center
fielder center field is harder to play.
He plays that extremely well. So he's harder to replace.
(23:12):
Like I think he's more solidified in the lineup just
because of his defense and how good he is in the field.
But I think Richie's one of those guys where, I mean, he
could maybe be moved and just because it's like, I, I, I don't
know if that's a crazy thing to say, but.
No, I mean, the roster crunch iscrazy.
I mean, and at the beginning of the year we were talking about
how like Palacios might be a might be a good breakout year
(23:35):
for him, but now it's just like,where do we even fit him on this
team of incredibly, incredibly hot hitters?
So I don't, I mean, it's just it's going to be hard.
I mean, obviously Coco Montez and Curtis mean, like Alex said,
they're on the bottom, but I don't even know who you would
(23:58):
put after that. It's like, who do you get rid?
Like Morrell has is hitting near300, I think above 300.
Yeah. And that was one guy we were
talking about maybe at the beginning, it's like if he has a
season like last season where he's only hitting like 200,
might be time to get rid of him.But that's not the case here.
(24:21):
So I mean, our at the beginning,our outfield death, death was
not there. And then all of a sudden, like 2
weeks into the season, it's our most, it's our, it's our most
depth. And then we're talking about
more infield depth, yeah. Well, I I think that's because
(24:43):
of guys like Meisner, who yeah, if you didn't see Meisner hit
two bombs yesterday, it can continues to continues his
toward paced. He's out 1.217 OPS right now.
Yeah, like these guys have played their way like we went
from BE. Stupid not to start them.
I mean, but like we went from being very sceptical about what
(25:05):
the hell is going to go on to the outfield to being like, wow,
these guys have really surprisedus.
These guys have looked really good.
Like who do we move now? Which?
Is I guess. A good thing it's a, you know,
it's a. It's a Trying to think of the
right word for it. It's funny what it's it's just
funny how before the season we were like, oh, we're going to be
so thin in the outfield. And then two weeks in, we're
(25:28):
like, oh wait, who do we trade? Yeah, yeah.
Success and abundance. Now, it's the same thing, you
know, I know that. I know that Lattel hasn't been
amazing, but it's the same thingwith with the starting rotation.
Imagine if you got rid of one ofthose guys knowing that both
Fayedo and Mcclanahan were goingto go down with injuries.
Start the season out. You like now.
The fact that the race kept all the starters that they kept is
(25:51):
such a massive advantage for this team because of the fact
that they need it now because Shane's not going to be back
anytime soon and or hopefully he'll be back soon, but you
know, not right now. And same thing with Fiedo.
So like it's, you know, success and abundance, I guess is
because you have, you know, more, more people that are doing
things that you didn't expect more or less at the start of the
(26:12):
year. And and I like I'm saying this
totally kind of not the hesitantkind of but just, yeah, I guess
it is hesitant, but Richie also coming back like it's tough to
cuz one Mangum has been unbelievable in right field as
well. Like, he's made an incredible
play. Like, incredible play after
incredible play. Yeah, he's, I mean, as you
(26:33):
mentioned, he's a guy who is playing every game like it's his
last game and everything, like it's his last play.
And, and I mean, I love that. And that's probably the position
that Richie would play the most.And it's like, well, Mangum's
also played the field like probably better than Richie has
with us. And then and he also Mangum also
gives us that switch hitting capability to where he could
(26:54):
play against either starting pitcher.
And then Richie in the infield, he primarily plays second base,
which he's also a lefty, but so is B Lau.
So it's like you can't really, you can't really platoon him
with B Lau either. And it's, I don't know.
It just seems like at this moment, and I understand Mangum
Meisner, it's a relief. They could they could kind of
come back down to to earth a little bit.
(27:17):
So like, I'm not saying like move him at this moment.
I totally am not like making rash decisions like that.
But it it just at this current moment, it does seem like
Palacios is kind of the odd man out.
Yeah, I I can see it, Yeah. But yeah, I mean, this is not a
problem we've ever had. I mean, I've never talked about,
Oh my God, which one of these stars do we eat?
(27:39):
Do we eat have to keep, you know, it's like usually it's
like who can hit above 225 and you can be on the Ray's roster
and now it's like, hey, do you have a 1.1 OPS?
I don't think so, buddy. I'm not get get the hell out of.
Here. Get out of here if you're not.
(28:00):
We got to keep the standards up.We got to keep.
The standards up now it's it's gone up really, really fast.
I mean half of our line up last year was below 200.
So yeah, yeah, this is. A This is a stark contrast from
what's happening in pictures. Still, I'm a bit concerned about
the bullpen. They they've shown some.
There's definitely been some weaknesses early on.
(28:22):
Maybe that's because the guys were taxed, whatever it might
be. So that'll be some.
Shada got the got the Tompkins curse because I asked Tompkins
if you say that would be as goodas he was last year.
Do you think that's what happened?
I don't know, I don't think that's probably, but before we
go into the break, I do want to talk about the Red Sox game a
(28:42):
little bit more. That was the most belt to ass
game that we've had so far this year.
Probably in a while, to be fullyhonest, 'cause I would need to
go back and remember the last time that the Rays beat A-Team
like that and not really with home runs.
Like. I think, I think what did they
have three solo homers in the game?
That was it. Yeah, just they were so or.
(29:05):
Or yeah, because hit one and Meisner hit two and then Yadi.
And yadi but like. Other than that, I mean the
other twelve runs were manufactured in a bunch of
different ways, whether it be run scoring, hits, errors,
whatever it is. And it was I like, I could like
watching that as a Red Sox fan. It was just one of those games
where it was like they were getting every unlucky break.
(29:25):
They didn't make the plays defensively.
So like, that's on them. Yeah.
However, we were finding every single hole like our like the
slow grounders were finding literally any crevice in the
infield. So like, it was one of those
games that we kind of caught a lot of breaks.
So I acknowledge that. But at the same time, we also
scored sixteen runs. So like that doesn't happen on
accident either. And yeah, I mean the the line up
(29:47):
was incredible. Aranda is continuing his extreme
success this year. And Baz, I think Baz, I kind of
feel a little, I don't feel bad for Baz, but like team scored
sixteen runs and I feel like Bazput a performance that should
get a ton more attention. And I understand it's not
probably not going to, but I mean 11 KS, zero walks, 6
(30:08):
innings, 2 two hits and one run.Like pretty it's hard to do
better than that. So I love seeing it out of that.
I love seeing that out of him. And I think reoccurring guest
Ryan Bass tweeted last night that I don't think we scored
more than thirteen runs in a game last year.
So it's nice that we've already kind of surpassed which broken
that barrier isn't surprising atall considering how horrible the
(30:30):
offense was last year. But yeah, you're right, it's
kind of nice breaking that barrier early.
Yeah, it's a good day to break barriers, I'll say that.
Yeah. Yeah, I was a little.
Hey. Go back to the star.
Baby call back to Jackie Robinson.
Day Hell yeah, I do. One last thing.
I do think that Jackie Robinson Day is one of the coolest things
(30:51):
that happens in any sports league cuz it is really cool
that every team and every playerwears the same uniform because
of this guy who so influential. Like, I think that's so dope.
And I, I don't know like what other guys they would like.
Maybe Roberto Clemente if he doesn't get his logo on the
outfield wall replaced by a what?
What was it? Surfside, Cam, Whatever the hell
(31:13):
that happened in Pittsburgh. But I mean, yeah, I think that
that's really, really cool. So kudos, Jackie.
And and, you know, definitely a day that I hope, I hope Major
League Baseball continues to do moving forward.
But we do have more to talk about.
We have the rest of this Red Soxseries and the Yankees series
coming up this weekend. So we're going to take a quick
break. We're going to run our C Geek
(31:33):
ad. If you guys haven't used that
perfect time to use it with the baseball season going on, it's
code. Raise the roof in all caps for
$20 off your first C Geek purchase.
Use it for Ray's tickets. Use it for any other Major
League Baseball team. We get the NBA player, the UPS
coming out the. Bolts.
Are once again in the playoffs. They'll be hosting in round one
if you guys want to use that forany NHL playoff tickets.
Any. Concert Season 2 right around
(31:56):
the corner concerts as well. Yeah, yeah, Summer concert
series coming out, everything like that.
Be sure to you see geek. So we're going to run our Siki
Gad and we'll be right back in this latest episode of Razor.
Hi everyone. Alex here with a quick word from
our sponsor Seegeek. Seegeek is your one stop shop
(32:16):
for tickets for everything from live theater and concerts to
sporting events like Ray's games.
Seegeek uses a color-coded scaleto show you where the best deals
are with green being good and red being bad.
If you haven't used Seegeek before, we have a special deal
just for you. Use code raise the roof, that's
Ray's spelled RAYS at checkout for $20 off your first purchase
(32:37):
with Seegeek. Again, that's code Raise the
Roof for 20 dollars off your first SeatGeek purchase.
Thanks so much to SeatGeek for sponsoring us.
And let's get back to this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. And we're back on this latest
episode of Raise the Roof. Like I said before the break,
(32:58):
we're going to be talking Red Sox, we're going to be talking
Yankees. This is quote UN quote hate week
if you're a race fan. I don't really know if it is,
honestly, the Yankees are kind of in my good graces right now
with everything going on with Steinbrenner.
But the race have two more gamesagainst the Red Sox and then I
believe A4 game set against the Yankees, if if memory serves me
right, concluding this weekend. So six more games of baseball
(33:21):
gone. We'll probably talk more about
the Yankee series as we get intothe week or later into the week.
But as of right now, First off, pitching probables.
One of the pitching probables, at least for the rest of the Red
Sox series that's gonna happen this week.
It's Pepio versus Bueller. We're recording this on Tuesday.
So Pepio versus Bueller tonight and then Mattel and you come
(33:42):
tomorrow and they're all night games too, which I guess that
division, that divisional aspectmaybe.
And then if we even want to. What about the Yankees series?
What are the? Problems.
Yeah. Then 4 gamer at home, Taj versus
versus Will Warren and then Rasmussen versus Rodon on
Friday, Baz versus Carlos Carrasco on Saturday, and Pepio
(34:05):
again versus Max Freed on Sunday.
It's kind of AI mean other than the freed Pepio matchup, it's
kind of under woman considering all entries that the Yankees
have had. Correct.
I mean, Rasmussen versus Rodon could be interesting,
definitely. But yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's
insane how much like magnitude Cole has in a, in a rotation.
(34:28):
Like you add him in there and it's, I know it's only one out
of five, but still. Yeah, it's.
Still. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I forgot. He was out.
Yeah. I mean, that's that's that's
you. You lost your rookie of the year
and you lost a Cy Young candidate all at once.
I understand you got one back in, or at least you signed 1 and
Freed, but still, that's a lot that you're that you're missing.
(34:52):
One thing that we didn't mentiongoing into the series because we
didn't have the opportunity to is the Rays avoided crochet
completely. I don't know what's going to
happen upcoming, but the Rays definitely dodged the bullet by
not having to face crochet in the series.
I mean, he went on Sunday, he went like 7, no hit innings I
think, didn't he? Yeah, I thought he was pushing a
perfecto at one point, no. He went, oh, he, he went seven
(35:16):
and a third one hit one and run.Yeah. 1111 strikeouts.
One walk, though, I. Mean it's pretty good.
Pretty good. Yeah, he was.
I think he was no hit. I think he was thrown no hitter
in the 7th inning, yeah. Yeah, no, I know that he had a
perfecto going into the 6th, if I'm not mistaken, and then that
got broken up. But definitely, I mean, the Rays
will find a way to face Crochet at some point later this season.
(35:40):
So I'm not expecting them to avoid him completely, but at
least for this series, they definitely did.
Gibby, starting with you, we're going to go into our keys to the
series. Then we're going to talk about
our pick a player, as we always do.
But for for for either of these series, for both of these
series, whatever. What are your keys for the Rays?
Well, I think for this first series, I would just want to see
(36:01):
Lattell have a more competent start than these last two starts
he's had. So he's gonna be playing the
last game of this Red Sox series.
So hopefully maybe the sweep's on the table so he has a little
bit more motivation to do that. I feel like if if we do win the
(36:21):
game tonight, he might get blownup on what is that, Wednesday?
Yeah, Wednesday. So hopefully that doesn't
happen. But yeah, I'm gonna, one of the
keys is definitely lattell. Just our starting pitching in
general is going to be the key. I mean, Rasmussen's go lock it
down. I mean, he's got the he's got
(36:42):
the best ERA in the league as a starter, as a qualified starter
right now. He's got like, and his three
starts, I don't think he's givenup a run.
Maybe he gave it one. But yeah, I mean, Rasmussen's
been literally incredible. So having him pitch and then
Pepio is pitching twice in this in these next five games.
(37:05):
So Pepeo is going to be super important as well.
So just getting the pitching back on track and doing what,
you know, we've always done thatway.
And then of course, bullpen's going to be super important.
Just get in our guys more confident.
Mixon Montgomery's been looking kind of shaky, you say to and
(37:27):
all like Rodriguez hasn't lookedthe best.
So I mean, it's really, which isweird to say, it's really just
the pitching I'm more worried about.
I mean, it seems like our guys can really hit well in the new
ballpark at home. So hopefully that just
continues. I think they really feed off the
(37:49):
energy of the crowd because it feels like it's a little bit
louder and a little bit more involved.
So won't worry about the offenseas much.
I think the key's really going to be just locked down pitching.
And then obviously for the Yankees too, just keeping them
in the ballpark and playing great defense like we have been.
(38:12):
So Jake Mangum out there making plays in right field, Taylor
Walls. I mean, say what you want about
the hitting, but I mean he's been incredible on the defensive
side. I mean, he's made like plays
that I don't think I've really seen defensively from a
shortstop. I mean, just like balls hit
(38:33):
directly to him going like scorching speeds and he's
somehow coming up with it every time.
So yeah, definitely very important.
Defense is going to be the key for the next 5 days.
Agreed, Evan, your thoughts about the keys to any of these
upcoming series? Yeah, just, I mean, I know it's
(38:54):
easy to say it after last night,but just continue to.
It's amazing what happens when you score a run around third
base with less than two outs. That's a novel concept for the
rays, if you. Have yeah, it's we've lost,
we've already lost probably two or three games this season
because of our failure to do that.
(39:16):
So it's it's as simple as that, like just I mean, hitting with,
I mean, not even hitting, just getting the ball in play with
runners in scoring position and running runners on 3rd with less
than two outs. So continue to do that.
I mean, that's that's what kind of killed this team last year is
that we just could not get the big hit.
And it's nice that we were able to do that last night, but try
(39:37):
to just continue to do that. Obviously Walker Buehler, not
sure how he's done so far this season.
He's one-on-one with a 574 ERA 1.28 WHIP.
So not a great start to the season, but we all know he's he
has the potential to be incredible.
Sure, he's a little bit older and coming off a couple
injuries, but yeah, I mean, and,and yeah, I agree, I agree with
(40:01):
Gibby. Just our bullpen has to be a
little bit more steady and more reliable just because it within
the last week we've gone up big and then we've kind of let the
other team back in in the game. And luckily, I think, yeah,
Friday and Sunday, Sunday's games against the Braves, it
didn't cost us, but it did cost us Saturday.
So if we get a little bit more consistent production of the
(40:23):
bullpen to be be nice to see. Yeah, 100% agree.
Let's go into our pick a player sponsored by In the Clutch.
If you guys haven't gotten your In the Clutch merchandise,
plenty of that, some more raisedmerchandise coming your way.
It's code raise the roof at checkout.
Saves you 10% off any order anytime.
Evan, starting with you, who areyour pickup players?
(40:44):
You can go just for the Red Sox series for the whole week.
It's it's, it's your, it's your choice.
I'll just go with the red, the Red Sox series.
Gibby kind of mentioned him, butMason Montgomery, he's like he's
young and I understand that there's going to be some growing
pains moving from AAA to the majors, but he's shown
incredible, incredible potential.
(41:05):
I mean, he's thrown 100 from theleft side.
So I mean, and he didn't, I don't, he did not pitch last
night. So I assume we'll see him either
today or tomorrow. And I just, I look for him to
have a clean and then just give us 123 and he hasn't.
I don't think he's had that in awhile.
So hopefully you can kind of just continue to build and
continue to grow. And then I'll go with Morrell.
(41:30):
I'll go with Morrell. We've talked a lot about him, a
lot about his his success so farthis season and see if he
continues continues to sit this week.
All right, Gibby, who you got? For my hitter, I'm going to pick
Junior Caminero just because I mean, he's a sort of electric,
electric guy. I mean, and once he's he he
(41:55):
really like in the Sunday game, he really just came in with the
the Wrecking Ball that just opened up the floodgates of the
game with that home run. And then I mean he just builds
on whatever pressure is in the moment.
So if he if he gets up at the right time in the line up like
(42:16):
where we can score some more runs to really put the game
away, he usually comes through. And same thing for Aranda too.
But I picked Aranda last week. So Kim and Arrow will be this
week. And then as a pitcher, I'll pick
Litell because I mean, just him having a non shaky start would
(42:40):
be really good. Obviously there's some help
coming in in terms of like Clanahan coming back soon.
So not sure about what Lattel's going to be doing in the future,
but I'd still like to see him. You know which he's had a good
he had a good start the his first start.
If he had a good start just likethat where he just keeps the
(43:02):
ball. Not a lot of strikeout stuff.
He doesn't have a lot of strikeout stuff, but he just
keeps the ball on the ground. Let's Taylor Walls sweep it up,
you know, wouldn't be too bad. So definitely going to pick
Lattelle for the pitcher. For me, Bilau, it continues to
be a constant. He's actually not really played
(43:24):
as well in recent days. So yeah, so hoping for a little
bit of a bounce back. Also, the birthday boy, Danny
Jansen. Today is his birthday.
Shout out to you, Danny. Hopefully we can get you on the
pod at some point. Oh, Danny Boy.
I would love it. Though interesting.
Yeah, I would love to see a little bit more success out of
Ham just because I know I mean in the grand scheme of things,
(43:46):
eight and a half million isn't alot, but for the Rays it is.
Would love to see more out of hand.
And then on the pitching side, give me Pep if he's going to be
starting two games this week, a little bit concerned so far by
the yeah upon its average and also his WHIP.
He's walking a lot more guys than I would like.
He's walked seven guys in 16 innings, which is the most of
(44:06):
anyone on the staff. And in terms of starters, he's
pitched the second fewest innings of anyone on the staff
and has walked the most guys. So a little bit concerning there
and would love to see and, and also the hits.
He's given up the second most hits of anyone outside of Zach
Litell, but Litell doesn't really walk many guys.
So definitely a little bit more concerned about what I'm seeing
(44:29):
out of Pep with would love to see him bounce back, have a
couple quality starts against some good teams, teams that
coming into the season we expected to be playoff caliber
teams, if not more than that. So would love to see that out of
him. The last thing I wanted to talk
about before we and the podcast is Team USA for the 2026 World
(44:53):
Baseball Classic has a new team captain that is noted postseason
choke artist Aaron Judge. So let's hope it doesn't
continue. Yeah.
I mean, I like it, obviously. I mean, you know.
No, no, it was. It was like.
It was expecting. Because he sucks and when the
(45:15):
brightest. Yeah, I hope maybe his
postseason antics don't apply topreseason antics.
Maybe so. Hopefully he has a good run when
he is playing in the Classic. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty
good. I mean, you see, I saw Mike
(45:39):
Trout last week, by the way, remember when we said he would
only score two home runs and then he didn't do it for the
first two games and then two home runs in the last like 3
innings? He waited until the last.
Day he waited to fill his quota.He was like, all right, it's
time. We're right, though.
We were right. I mean, I think I could have hit
(45:59):
a home run that last game. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was
pretty. That was some brutal vibes
there, but no trout. Definitely.
It just took him a little bit, but he hit the homers.
Yeah, so he was the captain before, right?
Yes, he was the captain for the 2023.
Yeah, so I mean, I saw that coming.
Mike Trout getting a little bit up there in age still.
(46:20):
He's still Mike Trout, as we, asI just said.
But I mean, he's not even the reason the angels are kind of
winning right now. That Joe Adele kid.
Oh my God. Joe, Adele, Caron, Paris, Logan.
Tyron Paris. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I it's expected.
It's expected. Yeah.
Have any of your thoughts about Mr. Judge?
Yeah, I agree. You can't.
(46:41):
I mean, who else would you have gone with?
I mean, he's coming off MVP. Brandon Lau, he's our new
captain. You imagine.
What about? What about Cameron Meisner?
Sneaky, sneaky Team USA captain.Maybe in two years, maybe next
classic. It's also crazy how it's already
(47:02):
coming up next year. I feel like the last one was not
that long ago and I feel it's. Because it's not, it's not four
years, it's three years. So it feels like it's like
there's only like really one gapyear before we're talking.
And the other issue was that, sothe last one before that was
2017, before 23. COVID happened in 20.
(47:23):
So that prevented that and then just kept getting pushed back to
23. So now it's going again.
And I doubt that there's going to be, hopefully there's going
to be nothing that will stop it from from continuing to go.
But yeah. Also, it's kind of crazy that
Judge is only a year younger than Trout.
It's kind of crazy to think about.
But yeah, I don't know who else you would have seriously gone
(47:44):
with, but it very expected coming off an MVP led the
Yankees to their first Pennant and over a decade.
So like, yeah, it it had to be Judge.
He's the best hitter in the AL at least.
I mean, obviously Otani's probably the best hitter in the
game, but. Otani's on Japan, though he
doesn't count. Yeah, yeah.
(48:06):
So you can't go wrong with picking Judge.
I like, I think the fact that the more that we get, cuz last
year I feel like was the first. Now again, this is from our
perspective, this isn't from theworld's perspective.
Because if we remember going back to 2006, 2009, 2013, there
were guys that were on those teams for Japan, for South
(48:29):
Korea, for the Dr. for Cuba thatwere like superstars there, if
not superstars in the, you know,in the Major League ranks here
in the US. So there it was already
considered legitimate. Here, not as much, I think,
especially on the pitching side.And hopefully we actually get
pitchers in 20 in 26 because there were not pitchers in 20-3.
(48:53):
And that's kind of been like thestory of the US.
But 2017 was really the first year that I think we saw guys
from Team USA or that were on Team USA start to take it
seriously. And of course that was the year
that that Team USA won. And since that point, I think
it's grown in terms of importance that, hey, this isn't
some sideshow event that happensbefore the season.
(49:16):
This is an important event that's going to grow baseball
that people care about. And 2023 was really the first
time that I think everyone took it seriously.
It wasn't just a couple people. Everyone took it seriously
because everyone took it seriously.
I think that it made for a much better product.
And now that Judge is going to be the captain, he is the guy
(49:37):
who's a potential Hall of Famer.He's on pace to hit 45600 home
runs. He's already got 2 MVPS under
his belt. Now we're getting to the point
where it's like it's more than serious and it's still like now
we're getting to a good, a good spot moving forward.
And hopefully this will resume talks of potentially getting
(49:57):
baseball back in the Olympics permanently.
Because we can see that other countries care about baseball in
the same way that we do, in the same way that a lot of these
Eastern, you know, Eastern Asian, Asian countries like like
Japan and South Korea and Taiwanand and China, like these people
care about baseball. And I, I just like the, the, the
(50:18):
legitimacy of the event continues to rise, which I think
is really important. I mean, I saw today that Tatis
is going to be on the, is going to be on the Dominican Republic
team. I would assume the junior's
going to be on it. I know in 23 we had Randy and
Pereiras and Aranda on Team Mexico.
I would expect Aranda to be backon Team Mexico.
Like, I like, I'm excited about it and it's happening in a year.
(50:43):
Pereiras has been really good sofar in the Astros as well.
But and and I mean, you're seeing it across all the sports.
Like, yeah, I mean, 2023 was, that was kind of the first year
I at least took the WBC. Like not, I mean, not seriously,
but the first time I was like invested every single pitch in
every single game that I was watching.
(51:03):
I couldn't get enough of it. And then you see the Four
Nations Classic in the NHL have so much.
Success as well, 100%. Excuse me?
So you're seeing just these these international sporting
events that had to get such a huge draw and people love it.
And it's, and you're right, because I mean, other countries
are, I mean, I wouldn't even saylike they have caught up.
(51:25):
I mean, they're better than we are at this point.
I mean, Japan is better than us.They beat us in the in the gold
medal match. Obviously the US didn't win the
the Four Nations Classic. And and it kind of is a nice
little pump up for the Olympics because everybody can't wait for
hockey in the Olympics. What is is that next year I
always get? 26 is the winner is the winner
(51:46):
Olympic and then 28, I mean, we're still, we're like 4 years
away from the, well, actually no, we're like so hopefully
years away from the Summer Olympics right in the US.
So I just hope baseball can kindof learn from hockey and be
like, hey, this is a really, really good tune up and way to
get people in invested in your sport when it comes to the
(52:07):
Olympics. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully
you're right. Hopefully baseball can make a
reappearance to the Olympics. Yeah, Gibby, Gibby.
Final thoughts. Man, I'm just, I want it back.
Just like what Evan said, it's probably the best baseball
television you could watch otherthan the MLB playoffs.
(52:28):
So I mean, it's it's huge. I definitely got into it in
2023. I was watching every game and
yeah, I mean, and also there were so many race players last
time with Randy going off or Ronda on Mexico.
Every team, I feel like every team had like some sort of race
representation. Yeah, and now the race could
(52:50):
have Hassan Kim. Oh yeah.
That's true. Like a new country in South
Korea. We already have Mexico.
Jason Adam was on Team USA, so it's probably gonna be a Team
USA guy. Like the race could have more
representation internationally. Yeah.
And I think, and I think in a way, Korea, Korea really wants
to run it back against Japan. So I mean, see how that goes.
(53:12):
But I mean, Japan's just been incredible.
But I definitely want to see theUSA really pull it out and, you
know, do what we're supposed to and win.
So that that'd be huge. Yeah, for sure.
Well, I think with that being said, that's going to conclude
things on this latest episode ofRaise the Roof.
We appreciate you guys as alwaysfor your support.
(53:33):
We can't thank you enough. If you guys want to follow us on
social media, we are at Raise the Roof TB across our social
media platforms. That is Twitter slash X
Instagram and Blue sky. We also have our YouTube channel
of which we're posting game highlights, podcast highlights,
hopefully more videos at the ballpark either on the either at
(53:54):
home or on the road. So stay tuned for that.
Be sure to subscribe and like our videos there for this
podcast continue to support us as you guys have been.
Be sure to like, be sure to subscribe.
Be sure to leave us a review, hopefully a five star review and
share this with your family or friends.
Anyone you know is a baseball fan or a race fan that wants to
add a podcast and their podcast feed.
(54:15):
We would love to be part of that.
One final shout out to our sponsors In the Clutch, Sea Geek
and JKS prints, that is our friend Jack who prints the Mini
Trops. If you guys want to get your own
Mini Trop, it's that same raise the roof code in all caps.
We already talked about it, but Sea Geek and In the Clutch, but
it's $5 off your purchase using code Raise the Roof in all caps
(54:37):
at checkout to get yourself a Mini Trop.
There's different sizes and morestadiums will be added to the
mix. Maybe more football stadiums in
the future, maybe more hockey arenas, you never know.
So be sure to use that and be sure to use all of our sponsor
codes to help us out, help you guys out in the process.
With all that being said, thanksso much for listening and as
(54:58):
always, raise up. Raise up baby.
Raise up baby.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.