The Tampa Bay Rays have had an up-and-down road west coast swing thus far as they’ve sandwiched a series sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners between a couple of series victories over the Los Angeles Angels and Athletics; now, the Rays will complete their journey out west with a three game series in San Francisco.
By taking two of three over the Athletics, the Rays improved to 59-63 on the season and sit 5.5 games back of the Yankees in the Wild Card chase; the Rays will need to go 28-12 the rest of the way to reach 87 wins which is what it’ll likely take to reach the postseason.
The Giants meanwhile are in a similar spot. After teetering around .500 over the first three months of the season, the team struggled in July (notably after acquring Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox). This has dropped them to 59-62, 5 games back of the New York Mets for the 3rd Wild Card spot.
The Giants are not a bad team and have a roster filled with solid players.
Matt Chapman has 3 fWAR, and is hitting .229/.337/.423 with 16 HR, registering a 118 wRC+ while being among the top defensive third baseman in baseball. Patrick Bailey leads all catchers with 15 DRS and 16 FRV; but he is among the worst hitters in the game (65 wRC+), despite this, he has 2.2 fWAR.
Then there is Willy Adames. The former Rays shortstop is in the first year of a $182M contract that he signed this past offseason. After struggling early on, Adames has found his footing in San Francisco; if you ignore his first two weeks, he has been an above average offensive player. Overall, Adames is hitting .223/.309/.393 with 18 HR, registering a 99 wRC+ and accruing 2.3 fWAR over 120 games.
Rafael Devers has been a solid offensive player for the Giants, but his defense is still a major detriment to his game.
On the pitching side, Logan Webb should receive some Cy Young votes while Robbie Ray has bounced back following a couple of tough years. Randy Rodriguez is one of the top relievers in baseball.
The top players to have played for the Rays and Giants according to Baseball-Reference.
Probable pitchers are projected by MLB
Friday, August 15th
10:15 pm EDT
RHP Joe Boyle vs RHP Landen Roupp
Saturday, August 16th
9:05 pm EDT
RHP Adrian Houser vs Justin Verlander
Sunday, August 17th
4:05 pm EDT
RHP Ryan Pepiot vs RHP Logan Webb