This story was excerpted from Adam Berry¡¯s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PHOENIX -- In the eighth inning Tuesday night, Yandy Díaz had a chance to hit the Rays back into the game. Granted an ideal matchup against left-hander Jalen Beeks with two runners on and Tampa Bay down by two, D¨ªaz wound up hitting into an inning-ending double play, continuing what has been a frustrating start to the season.
Afterward, D¨ªaz admitted he wasn¡¯t feeling good at the plate. He acknowledged the obvious frustration. He vowed to stay positive and work through it. And manager Kevin Cash reiterated the Rays¡¯ confidence in their muscular mainstay.
¡°If we could hand-pick somebody to come up, that's him,¡± Cash said after the 5-1 loss at Chase Field. ¡°And we would do it again tomorrow night, and have confidence that he'll get it going.¡±
Sure enough, D¨ªaz came up in a similar spot Wednesday night. With two outs in the seventh, two runners on and the Rays down a run, the leadoff man came to the plate against right-hander Shelby Miller. This time, D¨ªaz delivered a go-ahead two-run single to center that flew off his bat at 113.4 mph -- his hardest-hit ball of the season.
And he came through again in the 11th inning of a wild 7-6 win, driving in what turned out to be the winning run on a double to right off reliever Drey Jameson to cap a three-hit, three-RBI night.
¡°I don't feel quite there yet, but I'm just helping the team -- and thank God it was my turn today to do that,¡± D¨ªaz said through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. ¡°I'm trying very hard, and hopefully the rest of the nights that are coming are going to be better than this one.¡±
For all that¡¯s taken place over the first four weeks of the season, one of the most perplexing issues has been the source of the Rays¡¯ offensive production. Players like Jonathan Aranda, Kameron Misner, Jake Mangum and Chandler Simpson have immediately stepped into big roles. But it¡¯s been less of a smooth road for two of Tampa Bay¡¯s most important hitters: D¨ªaz and Brandon Lowe.
Entering Thursday¡¯s series finale against the D-backs, D¨ªaz was hitting .230/.271/.380 -- good for just an 88 OPS+, well below his 130 mark with the Rays from 2019-24. And Lowe was batting just .217/.241/.325 (64 OPS+) with no extra-base hits since his last homer on April 5 in Texas.
The Rays don¡¯t expect those numbers to look that way for much longer.
¡°There¡¯s some underneath information saying that they're swinging the bats pretty well. They're hitting the ball hard, and both of them, they're not getting the results,¡± Cash said Wednesday. ¡°Trust what they're doing. They're both very good hitters, proven hitters with a track record. I just don't want to see them getting too frustrated on themselves.
¡°They're as big a key as anybody to our lineup. Being leaders on the club, leaders in the lineup, you watch how they go about their business -- it's pretty meaningful. And I know that they want to come through, just as bad as I want them to come through.¡±
Indeed, there are some underlying metrics that suggest D¨ªaz and Lowe are due for better luck. D¨ªaz¡¯s expected batting average (.267) and slugging percentage (.428) are noticeably higher than his actual statistics, according to Statcast. And Lowe¡¯s expected average (.291) and slugging percentage (.549) are significantly better than the results he¡¯s produced.
As Lowe put it, ¡°I've caught a really bad case of the at-'em balls.¡± That was particularly evident against the Yankees on Saturday, when he hit into a pair of outs with exit velocities of 103.1 mph and 104.5 mph after smashing a low, opposite-field line drive ¡ right at third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera.
At one point that day, Lowe sat down in the dugout and said, ¡°I don't know what to do. I can't really do anything else.¡±
And it wasn¡¯t lost on him that his ¡°worst¡±-hit ball of the game was the team¡¯s biggest hit: a two-run, 80.9 mph single to center that capped the Rays¡¯ game-tying rally off closer Devin Williams.
¡°You don't get to this level unless you're willing to work your tail off to try to be better. And for someone to come up to you and look at you and be like, 'Well, you're doing everything right.' The results aren't there, so that's wrong,¡± Lowe said. ¡°It's a really crappy game sometimes, because I truly believe it's the only game in the world where you can do everything right and be wrong, or you can do everything wrong and be right. It's an extremely difficult game in that aspect.¡±
But the Rays aren¡¯t worried. They think it¡¯ll turn around for both veterans based not only on what they¡¯ve done before, but how they¡¯ve looked this season.