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The Tampa Bay Rays have seemingly decided to drop the pedal to the metal and bring this sucker to 88 MPH, because we are in the future and the future is now. The Rays returned to 3rd place in the AL East beating the Blue Jays with a lineup that had Willy Adames penciled in at SS and Jake Bauers at 1B. If all goes well, those two will be manning positions 6 and 3 for many years to come and yesterday was just the start.
Willy Adames found a hole and drove in Jake Bauers on an RBI single, but it was his good friend Jake who had the big highlight of the two.
The future is here... and it's got a sweet lefty swing. pic.twitter.com/twp2qh6rTd
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 12, 2018
Rays Links:
- Jake Bauers is very young and very good:
At 22 years, 248 days, Jake Bauers became the youngest Ray to homer since Wil Myers on Aug 14, 2013 vs. SEA (22.247), and became the second Ray with a multi-XBH game within the first 5 games of his career, joining Evan Longoria in 2008.
— Rays Communications (@RaysPR) June 12, 2018
- Willy Adames seems destined to be a media darling already.
- Topkin has a great piece on Bauers and Adames, two incredibly close friends who are getting to realize their major league dream together.
- The Rays announced they were able to officially sign two more draft picks, this time 3rd round IF Ford Proctor and 5th round RHP Taj Bradley (who is the youngest player ever drafted, was born in 2001, and now I feel incredibly old).
- Sergio Romo shut the down in the 9th to secure the 30th win of the year, and he did so on the day celebrating his 10th year in the major leagues! Congrats to Sergio, who is one of the best, most enjoyable guys in the sport.
- In some less fun news, Chris Archer had a bit of a set back on his road back to health, and the rotation.
Around the League:
- After a rumor went around that Shohei Ohtani was going to need Tommy John Surgery, Angels GM Billy Eppler wanted to correct those reports. However, for all of us who hope to watch Ohtani play this year, the dreaded Tommy John Surgery is not off the table. Fingers (and toes) crossed that Ohtani can make it back healthy in 2018.
- A Florida Gator stole home in a tied game to help advance them to the College world series! And that was just a prelude to the wild walk off HR (with a bit of Canseco head bop HR flair to it).