Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Dim the Lights

Rays Links:

• The Rays were eliminated officially from playoff contention, and while that is bittersweet, it’s a good day to reflect on what a hell of a ride this has been:

• Kevin cash spoke to the media after the game, with more retrospective look towards the year instead of the game for once:

• Joey “literally better ROY case than Andujar and Torres” Wendle spoke with the media postgame on being eliminated from the playoff chase:

• There are a lot of storylines left for Rays fans to keep following and rooting for. One of the more outside ones is for AL ROY honors for Joey Wendle. He almost certainly won’t win it. Shohei Ohtani will and should win it (and he should run away with it). But Joey Wendle has absolutely made the case for making himself runner up and beating both of New York’s rookie middle infielders.
• Blake Snell has one more start to make his case for the Cy Young this season. He shared one of the keys to how he’s keeping focused: block your momma’s phone!
• Carlos Gomez was apparently fined $10K for his multi-media disagreements with Umpire Andy Fletcher.
• Peter Gammons at The Athletic ($) has an interesting read pondering the way baseball develops young pitchers, with the Rays and the Opener at front and center.

Around the League:

• With the Rays loss, the Oakland A’s officially clinched the postseason.
• San Francisco Giants have dismissed Bobby Evans as GM. For a brief moment, the hot rumor was Ned Colletti was potentially coming in to replace him, but that appears to be incorrect.
• The Brewers used an Opener yesterday against the Cardinals, calling upon ex-Rays LHP Dan Jennings to start the game. Milwaukie went to a new form though: the LOOGY Opener. Jennings got Carpenter to ground out to start the game, and his night was done (20 other times has a starter gone just 3 pitches or fewer, and I love ruining these stats forever).
• Congrats to King Felix: he passed his citizenship test and was sworn in a naturalization ceremony yesterday.
• The Phillies are a pretty terrible defensive team. Jeff Sullivan breaks down just how horrifically bad they have been.
• Here’s Shohei Ohtani singing Despacito. It’s everything you want it to be.
• Finally, this fun fact seems fitting for a year of defied expectations: