First up: the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Cincinnati Reds have just 6 games remaining before the July 31st trade deadline rolls around. All 6 of those games will be played in Great American Ball Park, where the Reds – who sit at 53-50 overall on the season – have gone 28-22 so far on the season.
Those 6 games, though, will come against some premier competition. The Los Angeles Dodgers and superstars Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman will be in town after the Tampa Bay Rays roll in for a 3-game set first, with Tampa sitting on a mirror-image 53-50 record of their own.
Tampa is reeling, to an extent. They closed the first half of their season by dropping 11 of their final 14 games, including a 4-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox right before the All-Star break. They also just dropped 2 of 3 against the lowly Chicago White Sox at home in their most recent series, though they – like the Reds – had Thursday off to regroup.
The Rays rely on a pretty well-tuned offense, their team’s collective .258 batting average the 3rd best of all teams in the game. Their .318 wOBA (13th) and 103 wRC+ (12th) also rank higher than those of the Reds, while their 136 total steals is hands down the most of any team in baseball this season. Slugger Junior Caminero paces the club with 26 dingers so far this season, while each of Yandy Diaz (17) and Brandon Lowe (19) would make a lineup like Cincinnati’s look a lot more formidable, too.
On the pitching side, the Rays collective 3.85 ERA this year also ranks just about in the middle of the pack (12th), and they’ve achieved that overall mark through a remarkable bit of consistency – their collective ERA from their starting pitchers is 3.85, and their collective bullpen ERA is exactly 3.85, too.
Nick Martinez will start Friday’s series opener against Tampa, with Andrew Abbott and Brady Singer scheduled to follow. How these two clubs come out of this series may well determine how aggressive – or not – they are ahead of next Thursday’s trade deadline, as the Reds currently sit 2 games back of the final National League Wild Card spot while Tampa is just 1.5 games back of the final American League Wild Card position.
It’s a huge week for the Reds in GABP. It’d be that much more huge if their front office would finally commit to giving them some help.