Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: One week till All-Star Break

After dropping a lackluster opener against the Rangers on Friday, the Rays bounced back with key victories on Saturday and Sunday to win their series over fellow Wild Card contender, Texas.

Now, the team will look ahead to one, final week of baseball (all at the Trop) before getting a deserved break for the All-Star Game. On Sunday, the Rays had a pair of players named as 2019 All-Stars: Charlie Morton and Austin Meadows. Tommy Pham and Brandon Lowe (among some others) carried decent cases, but overall the voting wasn’t as heinous as it has been in past years. I honestly don’t mind most of the team getting a nice five-day break.

Baltimore comes to town on Monday, with a couple of pitching matchups that are still being ironed out (welcome to modern baseball).

Rays News and Links

• A conversation with Brendan McKay — McKay was undoubtedly the big news of the weekend, and David Laurila got to talk with him one-on-one a few days beforehand.
• Tampa Bay’s Brendan McKay provides the two-way player template Shohei Ohtani never could — Michael Baumann may still be on the Rays public enemy list, but this is an interesting take on McKay.
• Former Louisville star Brendan McKay keeps his cool with the Tampa Bay Rays — The local (college) angle of McKay’s debut.
• Ernest Hooper’s takeaways from Sunday’s Rays-Rangers game — Interesting analysis of the Rays attendance gambit.
• Sweet Snell of success back into Rays season — Snell looked about as good as he has looked all season on Sunday, and that will indeed be key, given headlines like this...
• Glasnow: ‘Good chance’ of return this season — The fact that that headline needs to be phrased that way just made my butthole tighten up.
• Brujan ready to stir up Biscuits offense — All right, there’s an article (and a promotion) that should help calm the nerves a bit.
• FanGraphs Sunday Notes — Brief Rays shout in relation to the manner in which the Rays handle the back end of the bullpen.
• It is designed to break your heart: Thoughts on the Rays two-city solution — Listen, this story isn’t going anywhere, so we’ll end with a trio of stories in this realm.
• Three mayors. One owner. No deal. St. Pete’s futile history with the Rays
• A Rays fan’s plea: ‘They owe us honesty’

Tweet of the Weekend