Tony-OH

Nice job by Mateo on the bunt!

Guess they just didn't have Bautista in the bullpen since they are in play and near the crowd.

Nice job by Cano. Guess Coulombe in the 9th?

Not when you know Mountcastle would have to face the Rays righties later in the game. I think the only time you make that move is in the 8th or 9th inning or a very key moment in the 6th or 7th.

I always thought that was one of the most impressive home runs I've ever seen.

You never know. Pitchers go into slumps like hitters do and while Wells has been good this year, he's still been homer prone and was out-performing his FIP significantly (4.76).

I would love to know the projected distance of that one with statcast.

Well you know it's a matter of time for the homerun with Wells. Unfortunately there was a man on.

Coulombe has a 5.68 ERA in July so it's not like he's pitching like he was either.

I think Cano can still be effective overall, just not that shutdown guy you want in the 8th if the league has really adjusted. Now maybe Cano makes some adjustments back, but I do think this team needs another top end reliever or two to make me feel good late in games.

The thing is, the numbers for movement and release don't show his stuff is different. Trust me, I was looking and while I don't have pitch plots per month (Maybe it's somewhere in baseball savant) but almost all of his hits on sinkers are when he's in the middle of the plate. Earlier in the year, he was getting some swing and miss there but no longer which suggest to me, they've seen him enough to make adjustments on the pitch movement.

Over his last 8 games, Cano has given up a hit in every appearance and only struck out 4 in 7.1 IP. Batters are slashing .345/.345/.655/1.000. The good news he's not walking anyone. Looking at his hard hit %, his sinker hard hit % has gone through the roof: April: 30.8% May: 40.6% June: 53.8% July: 54.5% His Groundball % on both his sinker and changeup has dropped badly in July: June Sinker: 73.3% July Sinker: 45.5% June Changeup: 75% July Changeup: 37.5% So batters are hitting him harder and hitting them less on the ground. That's not a good combination. The hard hit % getting worse each month is a bit of an indicator that the league has figured him out a bit especially with the fact that his sinker's vertical break has not gotten worse (avg 33 inches every month) so it's not sinking less. Ben McDonald has said he thinks Cano is dropping his arm down a little more and not getting the sink, but his vertical release on his sinker has been virtually the same all year going from 5.33 inches to 5.28 so a .05 inch difference. I think it all comes down to him missing too much in the middle of the plate. Cano has only walked 6 batters all year so it may be a case of him throwing too many pitches in the heart of the plate with the sinker. So I guess the good news is the numbers don't suggest he's throwing differently or getting different movement. The bad news is he's got to get back getting that sinker down where he get more of those ground balls. Either way, nobody expected him to be as unhittable as he was early in the year, but I do think the league has made some adjustments to him and he's going to need to be more precise in order to get those valuable ground balls that made him so good.

I would think if Hall was able to look effective on the mound they would have him out there to up his trade value. I hope Hall doesn't go the way of Hunter Harvey who they got tired of waiting on, DFA'd him, and watch him become a pretty good reliever with another team.

Ortiz is doing what good major leaguers do. He's proving he's too good for AAA. The best thing is he knows he belongs in the big leagues but he's not sulking, he's just tearing it up while playing great defense.

Nice oppo home run but that announcer might want to ease off the energy drinks.

I worry how the walk rate will translate to the majors though I 100% agree with you that he's old enough and has the quality of stuff to get a look in the bullpen. I really would like to see if it plays even more up in relief but he is a right handed DL Hall before Hall lost his velocity.

Sometimes you gotta tip the cap. They pitched a hell of a game and used the strike zone to their advantage.

Tell you what, the Rays pitching has just been outstanding tonight. I mean, they've been dealing and of course getting a low strike zone helps.

I like the stuff. I think he's going to be fine. Just should not have thrown a first pitch fastball to Siri when Siri can't anything moving away from him. Bad pitch call.

Well he's 48-years old now so I think he's probably done.

Not the best start for Fuji.

Why any pitcher would throw something straight to Siri is beyond me. The guy has never seen an outside slider he didn't want to swing through.

Bradish has good breaking stuff tonight in the first inning. Hopefully that bodes well.

Perhaps?? I don't know because other than seeing what people post here about his thoughts on Orioles prospects, I don't really follow him that closely. Here's the thing with Mayo defensively. I think he's got the tools to be a very good defensive 1st baseman although I do think he can play 3B if you willing to live with the errors a bit. If the bats plays the way it should, he'll be fine at 1B. Remember, Mayo would have been drafted this year had he gone to college. You can't tell me had he developed like he did with the O's that he would not have been a top 3 if not top overall player taken in this draft? Imagine drafting a guy out of college and be able to place him in AAA already?

Fabian needs to make some adjustments because the K's have been really bad of late. He's 2-for his last-22 with his only two hits being HRs, but he's struck out 11 times with just two walks. He' struck out at least once in 21 of his 22 AA games. I'm going to go back and see what they are mostly getting him on, but it has not been a good adjustment to AA pitching so far for him.