#Mike Zunino

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Tampa Bay Ray start a nine-game, 10-day road trip on Friday night, with Drew Rasmussen getting the start against the Minnesota Twins. Rasmussen was terrific in his last outing, pitching seven scoreless innings and allowing just three hits in a career performance. Here's how to watch Friday's game, with TV information and…

First shortstop Carlos Correa was going to leave the Minnesota Twins to sign a 13-year, $350 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. But concerns over Correa's earlier ankle injury prompted the Giants to back out of the deal after setting up the news conference to announce it. Awkward! That prompted billionaire fanboy Steve Cohen to swoop…

Rays officials couldn't have been much more pleased with how the 2019 season turned out. They made it to the playoffs for the first time in six seasons as the core of young players they cleared room for in previous roster reshaping developed into impact players, and they boasted openly about how well set up they were for the future. "There's so…

Believe it or not, Red Sox spring training opens in just about five weeks. The roster is not complete quite yet, but the large majority of the 2023 team has already been put together, and it looks quite different than the group that last took the field at Fenway Park in early October. Boston's chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom entered the winter…

CLEVELAND - Think about how much has changed in a year. Last January, baseball stood still, and we were left to talk ourselves into Bradley Zimmer, ponder José Ramírez trades and evaluate commissioner Rob Manfred's negotiating tactics. It was bleak. But the lockout ended, Ramírez signed a long-term deal, Zimmer lasted one day of the regular season…

If you want to know why the odds are against the Red Sox making the playoffs, forget about the trade deadline, injuries, or underperformance. Just check out the schedules. Playing in the AL East exacts a toll, and nowhere is that more acutely felt than in the race for the final wild card spot. The Blue Jays and Mariners currently hold the top two…

With MLB free agency winding down, the league is beginning to take shape. Some teams have drastically improved their chances of competing in 2023 based on swift offseason moves. The New York Mets just pulled off a stunner to land Carlos Correa after the shortstop had previously agreed to a deal with the San Francisco Giants. Other teams such as the…

The Houston Astros will look to complete a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay. With that said, it's a good time to check out our MLB odds series, which includes an Astros-Rays prediction and pick, laid out below. Houston has wrapped up the AL West division with a 98-51 record, including a 9-1…

Randy Arozarena has been one of the more vital players to the Tampa Bay Rays' operation of late. That narrative is furthered by the Rays trading Austin Meadows to the Detroit Tigers. One way or another, Tampa Bay traded away one of its best players and has to find a way to make up for his departure (the players they received from Detroit, Isaac…

Welcome to playoff baseball, where the "best" team wins the championship far less often than in other sports. To wit: According to Baseball Prospectus odds, no team in the 2021 playoff field has better than a 20 percent chance to win the World Series. With eight deserving teams ready to do battle, let's dive into the reasons each particular team…

With Gerrit Cole and Shane McClanahan on the mound for this inner-division series-opener, MLB odds are showing a tiny 6.5-run total. However, we're still backing the Under - find out why in our MLB betting picks and predictions. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays will meet for a three-game series with both sides looking to rebound after losses…

The Tampa Bay Rays remain in playoff position, despite a franchise-matching single-game 17 players on the injured list. That number, of course, does not include players now recovered from injury, like the team's top hitter Brandon Lowe, who is working with doctors to stave off stress fractures in his back. Overall, it's a precarious position for…

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at BCB After Dark: the swingin' spot for night owls, early-risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We're still open here for the evening if you want to have a bit of a break before the holiday. Come on in and relax for a while. Get out of the cold. Grab a table near the stage. Have a tasty beverage-which you…

It's finally here. After the grind of the 162 game season, 19 head-to-head matchup, and an epic Red Sox-Yankees upset in front of the home crowd at Fenway for the Wild Card, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox will meet for the American League Division Series, starting on Thursday. The series is a tale of two underdogs - the Rays lost their two…

The Tampa Bay Rays had a positive 2021 season in which they finished with a 100-62 record, which was the best in the AL East. They were knocked out of the playoffs in the AL Division Series to the Boston Red Sox, sending them home earlier than the team had hoped. The core of this unit has remained mostly intact and will be geared up for a run this…

I think there was probably a split second (or more) of fear in Royals fans hearts on Monday when it was announced the owners and players couldn't come to a deal on an international draft. Why the fear? It meant that the qualifying offer was back on the table for pending free agents. With that, combined with the Royals playing better baseball, I…

The Rays do a lot of things differently. And that includes how they are defending their first American League championship since 2008. Since losing to the Dodgers in the World Series, the Rays have parted ways with two of their top three starting pitchers, Blake Snell and Charlie Morton, along with a few other players, while making only moderate…

The Tampa Bay Rays don't think like you and me, or any other team in baseball for that matter. The Rays sit with the 24th-highest payroll in baseball, right in between the Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks at $88 million a year. As the kids would say, "they are built different," and the way they'll attack the deadline will undoubtedly be…

The annual MLB general manager meetings were held last week in Las Vegas, and the event is traditionally the rumor-filled calm before the storm. (It's also not to be confused with the winter meetings, which will take place in San Diego from Dec. 4-7 and is when a ton of wheeling and dealing goes down.) Free agents couldn't sign with new teams until…

Both teams come off of off days so the squads should be fully rested. After dropping four straight last week, the Rays appear to have started righting the ship, winning three of their past four. The Red Sox, meanwhile, have lost three of their past four, scoring three runs or fewer in each of their games. Boston rarely plays well at Tropicana Field…

The Tampa Bay Rays will square off with the Baltimore Orioles today in the final matchup of a four-game series at Camden Yards. With that said, it's a good time to check out our MLB odds series, which includes our Rays-Orioles prediction and pick we have laid out below. Tampa Bay, who is clinging to the final playoff spot in the American League, is…

The Tampa Bay Rays (28-18) and Cleveland Indians (25-23) meet up Thursday at Progressive Field at 6:10 p.m. Eastern in the first game of a four-game set running through Sunday. The two teams currently occupy second place in the AL East and AL Central, respectively. Odds courtesy of Bet365; for a full-set of today's sports betting odds, access them…

We are now fewer than three weeks away from Opening Day, and for the most part, the transaction flurry has settled. While some teams may change in some ways before the start of the season, rosters are largely set and so we're going to take this opportunity to look at what the division looks like right now. For the next four days we'll look at the…