The Rays are built to win mostly with pitching and defense, but they still have to put together a serviceable offense to compete in the mighty AL East. And now their two best hitters -- Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce -- are on the disabled list.
Friday, the Rays announced they have placed Matt Joyce on the 15-day disabled list with a left external oblique strain. As we've seen in the past few seasons, oblique strains can sideline guys for up to six weeks. With Joyce, though, all we know at this point is he'll at least miss two weeks.
Joyce, 27, is hitting .279/.387/.512 with 11 homers, 34 RBI and 36 runs this season. He was likely headed to his second-straight All-Star Game, too, before the injury derailed that.
With Joyce joining Longoria on the DL, Carlos Pena, Ben Zobrist and B.J. Upton are left to do the heavy lifting on offense.
Longoria suffered a minor setback on his rehab from a hamstring injury earlier this week and the Rays have lost six of their last nine games. So they're in a bit of a rough patch right now.
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