Though the A's continue to pull away with the American League's second Wild Card spot as September looms, the Rays aren't going away easily, racing out to an eight-game winning streak -- the best in baseball -- in the last week-plus, capped off by a weekend sweep of the Red Sox at Tropicana Field.
As has been the case all season, the Tampa Bay bullpen was in the middle of it all, with a 1.51 ERA in a Major League-leading 35 2/3 innings for the period from Aug. 20-26, and for their efforts, the Rays' relievers were named the MLB Bullpen of the Week presented by The Hartford for the third straight week.
As part of The Hartford Prevailing Moments program, each Monday throughout the 2018 season, MLB.com is honoring the MLB Bullpen of the Week presented by The Hartford. An industry-wide panel of MLB experts, including legendary stats guru Bill James, constructed a metric based on James' widely renowned game-score formula, to provide a weekly measurement of team-bullpen performance.
Here's how the Bullpen Rating System is compiled for each week. For reference, a weekly score of 100 is considered outstanding:
• Add 1.5 points for each out recorded
• Add 1.5 points for each strikeout
• Add 5 points for a save
• Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed
• Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed
• Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed
• Subtract 1 point for each walk
• Subtract 5 points for a blown save
The Rays' score of 137 made them the clear winner of the week, as their 33 strikeouts led all bullpens, while they walked only six batters and notched three saves. The A's, who registered a 1.16 bullpen ERA, finished a distant second with 100 points, while the Blue Jays finished third with 97 points, thanks to a 1.21 ERA and three saves.
Tampa Bay allowed only two runs in the seventh inning and beyond all week -- both in Wednesday's game against the Royals -- due to stellar late-inning work from Jose Alvarado and Sergio Romo, who combined for 7 1/3 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and two walks. Rookie lefty Ryan Yarbrough allowed one run in 10 1/3 innings during the week, spanning a start and a relief outing.
In fact, the only Rays "relievers" who allowed runs were Yonny Chirinos and Jalen Beeks, both in extended outings after taking over for "openers."
The unexpected: On Wednesday, with the Rays holding a 4-1 lead over the Royals in the eighth inning, Chirinos allowed a leadoff single to Ryan O'Hearn and a two-run homer to Hunter Dozier in the sixth inning he worked. That trimmed the Rays' lead to just one run, with the top of the Royals' order -- Whit Merrifield, Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez -- looming a few batters later.
How they prevailed: It took a true team effort -- three pitchers -- to finally hold off the Royals in the inning. Adam Kolarek retired Brett Phillips on a groundout for the first out, but Chaz Roe replaced him and allowed a ground-rule double to Alcides Escobar, putting the tying run in scoring position. Roe responded by striking out Merrifield before Alvarado entered and struck out Gordon to end the inning.