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Marc Topkin’s takeaways from the Rays’ 4-1 loss to the Yankees

Hunter Wood is in a bit of a rut, and it’s showing.
 
Published Aug. 15, 2018

1. Jalen Beeks doesn't have much margin for error. As billed, Beeks doesn't have overpowering stuff. Thus, he relies on mixing his pitches and sequencing them to his advantage, but he also has to throw them where he aims them.

2. RHP Hunter Wood is in a bit of a rut, and it's showing. Whether it's the sum of the season, the toll of working as an opener or a change in approach — as manager Kevin Cash suggested — in trying for strikeouts from pitch one, he has not been as effective.

3. Add to the list of oddities about this season how the Rays can play so well and do so well against the Yankees at the Trop, posting a 5-1 record thus far, and be so far the opposite at Yankee Stadium, posting a 1-6 mark.