Tampa Bay Rays news and links: The bloody pinky game

Okay, so that was dramatic.

Trevor Bauer started but couldn’t make it out of the first inning, because the stitches on his pinky opened up.

That turned it into a bullpen game, and the Indians bullpen was wholly up to the challenge. Only two runs in eight and a third innings against them. Eight strikeouts, seven hits, one walk.

Oh, and Jose Bautista thinks it’s all rigged, uses odd circuitous language to say so. Craig Edwards investigates, finds that the Jays haven’t been treated that unfairly by the refs.

From the Rays, quick video with fifth-round pick Joe McCarthy.

They seem not to have asked him about whether or not there are Reds in Cincinnati.

Links:

• Chris Anders at Beyond the Box Score wrote about who gained and who lost exit velocity this past season. I don’t think we really know what that means at this point, but it’s interesting. Among the most changed are three former-Rays who now play for the Pirates. Conclusions?
• Russell Carleton does work on helping us know what that means.
• Before diving into the prospect lists that’ll be coming out of FanGraphs, read Eric Longenhagen’s discussion of “Future Value.” Basically, it’s useful, but it’s also dangerous. Don’t take it as more precise than it’s intended.
• It’s hard to keep up with The Sanford, but I’ll up my game and start including trivia next Tank.

And finally, this is embarrassingly several days late, and it takes a retweet from @RaysBaseball for me to notice, but we see your socks, Stephanie, and we like them.

Congrats.