Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Battle for first

After earning a split with a rare one-run getaway day victory on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Rays head off to The Big Apple for yet another series with the Yankees that will determine first place in the AL East. It’s only mid-June, and it feels like we’ve already had a half dozen of these series.

On Monday, the Rays will send out Yonny Chirinos, Starting Pitcher (7-2, 2.88/4.08/4.08 ERA/FIP/xFIP, 1.0 fWAR) to face off with Masahiro Tanaka (4-5, 3.58/4.04/4.00, 1.8).

Tuesday will likely see the Rays pair an Opener and a Headliner (I know we’ve been using the word headliner, but I saw Eno Sarris use the term “yeoman” for that role recently and I loved it...) while the Yankees will counter with J.A. Happ (6-3, 4.66/5.37/4.93, 0.6)

In the series finale, Blake Snell (4-5, 3.70/3.05/2.96, 2.1) will square off with noted random-Rays-hater CC Sabathia (3-4, 4.42, 6.01, 5.03, 0.1) in an afternoon affair.

Two more lefties... If only the Rays had a big, slugging righty with a parrot on his shoulders to help handle to load against lefties... Instead of having to go against him... Oh well. Two out of three would give the Rays first again.

Rays News and Links

• 3 positives, 3 negatives from the Rays homestand — Toribio with his latest takeaways.
• Jose Alvarado returns from personal leave — Hopefully all is well with our lovable closer. He’ll shake off a bit of rust in the minors and hopefully be back in the bigs before we know it.
• Rays’s boss Stuart Sternberg has a place, plans to spend more time in the Tampa Bay area — Cool!
• If you close your eyes, this 6-5 Rays victory actually looks pretty good — Yeah, that was a massive W to finish off the homestand.
• Building the perfect beast: The Tampa Bay Rays are baseball’s best team (so far) — Rays getting the Tony Blengino and Forbes treatment!
• Heredia fulfills dream for himself, and father — Father’s Day brings out these articles, and they are all amazing.
• Fangraphs Sunday Notes — The always excellent column touches on Emilio Pagan this week.
• Tampa Bay try: Rays expand roles for 2-way players in minors — The Rays innovating again; le gasp!
• Rays Tales: Could this be their best team ever? — This is a very fun question to ask.
• Tampa Bay Rays celebrate their dog friendly game with a lot of cuteness and pets — As if you haven’t already clicked that yet.

Tweet of the Weekend

Hope all the dads out there had an awesome weekend!