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You have to give this to Joe Maddon: he's certainly trying to get the Rays turned around. He's keeping the clubhouse loose, and telling players not to show up until close to game time. He's showing clips of the 2008 ALCS, trying to get the Rays fired up and in the playoff mindset. He has made some potentially questionable decisions over the past few weeks -- nobody is perfect -- but as a manager, there's not a lot else you can do when your team is only getting a handful of hits a game.
And he's seemingly just as mystified as all of us about the lack of solid play over the past week:
"We normally thrive in these moments and we're playing kind of tight," he said. "We're playing uptight. We're jonesing a little bit out there and I don't understand why." (Tampa Bay Times)
At this point, there's not much else that can be done except sit back and hope for a miracle. Because it'd arguably be even more improbable for the Rays to reach the postseason than it was at this point last year.
- David Price was awarded the team's Clemente Award yesterday, an honor given to one player on each team in recognition of their charitable work, and he's now in contention for the MLB-wide award. In case you weren't aware, Price founded the Project One Four foundation, which supports youth organizations and sports teams through Tennessee and Tampa Bay. You can vote for Price in the Clemente Award balloting here.
- The Mets have made Ike Davis available on the trade block -- or at least, that's the word going around. Eno Sarris fleshes out the case of what the Mets would need to get in return to make it worthwhile. Goodness, I know it's really improbable, but couldn't the Mets use some pitching? And don't the Rays badly need a first baseman?
- If you are interested in touring some of the stadiums around the country, check out Stadium Journey
- Just to keep everyone in the loop, there's going to be a large change in SB Nation's design coming in about a week or two. That means DRaysBay is going to look quite different then, but nothing is changing behind the scenes for us; we're still the same group of writers, and we'll still be providing you guys with daily coverage of the Rays. It's an exciting change, so get pumped.