Rays Defeat Yankees in a Pitching Duel

The two teams that are at the top of the American League East had a great pitching duel on Sunday at Tropicana Field. Charlie Morton of the Tampa Bay Rays has been the best pitcher in the American League so far this year. He was on his game against the New York Yankees. He struck out 10 hitters in less than six innings of work. He only allowed a single earned run and five hits. That was good enough to win his tenth game of the year. James Paxton also turned in a great performance. He gave up two earned runs in six innings of work. However, that was not quite good enough.

The Rays surprised a lot of people with how good they were last year. However, they have taken things to a new level this year. They are hot on the heels of the Yankees. It was expected that the Boston Red Sox would be the team that would be battling the Yankees for supremacy in the division. However, that has not turned out to be the case. The Red Sox have stumbled quite a bit so far this season. Meanwhile, the Rays have been hitting on all cylinders. The key has been the pitching of the Rays. They have the best pitching staff in baseball by a very wide margin.

Charlie Morton was a free agent signing that did not get a lot of attention from the national media. However, he certainly has been one of the free agents to make the biggest impact on his new team. He established himself as a terrific pitcher over the past two seasons with the Houston Astros. The Astros seemingly made no attempt to sign Morton to a new contract once he became a free agent. He then signed a contract for two years with the Rays that has already paid very big dividends for the team.

The Rays and Yankees split their series of four games in Florida. There can be no question that these two teams do not like each other. They have a rivalry that has become more intense the better the Rays have become. It will be very interesting to see how the Rays fare in the heat of a playoff race with a very young team. Their pitching will carry them very far this year. Exactly how far that is will not be known for a few months.