This extended trip on the west coast is like an inverted nightmare. Every morning I wake up feeling good. Well rested, not drenched in sweat, breathing slowly and calmly. Then I roll over and pick up my phone to check the final score, and I'm jolted by the reality that we're still out west, still losing, and in real danger of falling out of the wild card if the ship isn't righted soon. Erik has a recap coming, but here's the short of it: Delmon Young homered and doubled, but Joel Peralta gave up the tie in the eighth.
I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but the Red Sox beat the Yankees, and the Orioles beat the White Sox.
Rays Links
Marc Hulet at FanGraphs is reviewing prospects from the recently announced AFL rosters Rosters, and he has a section on Ryan Brett.
. . . he’s the type of gritty baseball player who’ll do anything asked of him to win… You know, the type of player that the Rays are made of.
My first thought was to argue that this was a dumb characterization of the Rays, but you know, I don't actually have a problem with it. Moving between multiple defensive positions well (which Brett can allegedly do) is as good a definition of grittiness as I can come up with.
Sam Miller at Baseball Prospectus breaks down with charts and video the recent matchups between David Price and Mike Trout (pay wall).
AL East
The Yankees shut down David Robertson and have sent Boon Logan for an MRI.
Other Links
Stuart Wallace at Beyond the Box Score examines pitch selection tendencies over the past decade.
Also from Beyond the Box Score, Andrew Shen notes that Koji Uehara is pretty good. Like, he has the best strikeout to walk ration of any pitcher to reach 100 innings, ever, and the lowest WHIP of all time.