AL East June check-up: Rays run but Yankees, Orioles lead pack behind them

The American League’s East Division is considered to be the most competetive in the league. It’s the only division that features five teams with winning records, and five teams with positive run differentials. The AL East also features the Tampa Bay Rays, so any team looking to climb the division ladder (including the New York Yankees) will have quite the chore ahead of them.

The Tampa Bay Rays exploded out of the gate this season, setting all kinds of records, hitting a bunch of dingers and really just shocking everyone. They are only really now just starting to slow down a little, going to 16-12 through the month of May, but still hold a five-win advantage over the next best team, the Texas Rangers. The Rays were still in the top five during this past month in all the important offensive categories that we all love — home runs, runs scored, OBP, and stuff like that. However, my favorite stat is that over the last 30 days, the Tampa Bay Rays have 52 stolen bases, and the next best team is Arizona with 28. The Rays are out here running around like a Little League team, and I love it. Wander Franco leads the team with 20 steals on the year, had 14 in May alone, including an obscene seven since May 24.

Tampa has dealt with some pretty devastating injuries this year and just keep rolling anyway. Jeffery Springs is out for the year, Drew Rasmussen is going to be out for most of the year, Zach Eflin and Tyler Glasnow have both been on the IL and Pete Fairbanks can’t seem to stay healthy. They just throw the next guy out there and keep winning. It’s pretty impressive to see these guys with 40 wins on June 1 as they’re on pace for one of the greatest seasons in MLB history. Shane McClanahan has been awesome this year and, as May ended, it looks like he really settled into a groove, going 3-1 on the month, he struck out 40 batters across six starts, while Zach Eflin was 4-1 in May, with Tampa picking up five wins in his six appearances.

If you wanted to point to one possible weakness on this club, you could point out that their bullpen ranks 22nd in ERA, 30th in strikeouts per nine, and is otherwise pretty average across the board. The injury to Fairbanks isn’t going to help matters there, but Jason Adams has stepped into that closer role and did save 7 games during May, but he also blew two saves, lost a game, and allowed eight earned runs on 12 hits across just 13 innings.

The Baltimore Orioles, on the other hand, don’t have that problem. At 35-21, they sit just four games behind Tampa. The O’s were 17-11 for the month and feature the two-headed monster of Felix Bautista and Yennier Cano at the backend of their bullpen. Bautista allowed just three runs in his 13.1 innings for the month while striking out 29 batters and picking up seven saves, while Cano allowed just three runs across 18 frames while punching out a batter an inning. Baltimore’s bullpen has been pretty good for the last year, and these two are definitley leading the charge this season.

Top prospect Grayson Rodriguez may have been sent to Norfolk to iron a few things out, but there is still plenty of pitching on the big club. Kyle Gibson has won his last three starts, and carried a 3.86 ERA for the month, while Baltimore was able to pick up three wins in six Tyler Wells starts, which saw him strikeout 38 batters in 34 innings. Kyle Bradish has been halfway decent, and the Orioles have a nice little rotation, even without Rodriguez. If this team can ever get a healthy John Means back (which at this point those chances aren’t looking too good), this could be sneaky good staff.

The Orioles offense has started to cool off a little, still seventh in baseball in runs scored, they were just 15th over the last 30 days. Jorge Mateo was hitting .347 on April 30, and his average now is just .228, as he collected just 11 hits in 86 May at-bats. With Mateo in a slump and Cederic Mullins landing on the injured list with a groin strain, the Orioles could struggle to score runs in the coming weeks. They have 28 steals between them and no one else on this team is really swiping bags to get into scoring position like two, so if Mateo is planning on waking up, sooner would be better than later.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox are within a half game of each other and looking up at the other three teams with longing eyes. The Jays were 11-17 during the month of May, including a brutal 2-12 versus divisional opponents. You’re not getting up the ladder like that. The Red Sox opened the month with six straight wins, then went 7-13 the rest of the way. Again, that’s disappointing.

The Blue Jays pitching has been inconsistant this year, but better lately. Kevin Gausman has turned in four beautiful starts in a row, allowing just five earned runs in his last 26.1 innings, with 31 strikeouts across those four games, but Toronto was able to win just one time with him on the mound this month. Jose Berrios has also started to find his groove, winning three of his six May starts, while surrendering just eight earned runs over his last five games. The rest of the staff, Alek Manoah, Yusei Kikuchi, and Chris Bassitt, have been up and down all year. You get the idea that if the Jays are going to be successful, then they’re going to need more from their starters.

After a torrid first month, Matt Chapman has joined us mortals back on earth. Hitting .384 with five HR and 21 RBI to end April, Chapman posted a .202 batting average for May, with just a pair of home runs. While .384 is probably not sustainable, neither is .202 for your third baseman if you want to win games. Toronto has had a hard time plating runs lately, with just 123 over the last 30 days, and if you take out the 20-run explosion against Tampa on May 20, then the average per game is actually much lower.

Boston has managed just 109 runs this month, with 20 of them driven in by Rafael Devers. With 47 on the year, he has the third-most in the league. Masataka Yoshida hit .354 for the month with 15 RBI, and Alex Verdugo has kept up a nice pace as well.

Chris Sale reemerged as a threat, going 3-0 in four starts and posting 30 strikeouts in 26 innings before heading to the injured list. Rookie Brayan Bello was 3-2, and there are plenty of nice, individual performances to point at, but Boston has a long way to go (as does Toronto for that matter) if they want to be considered among the elite teams in the league.