The Rays have placed 32-year old righty reliever Grant Balfour on the 15-day disabled list with strained ribs. He is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks for the Rays. Balfour has pitched in 44 games (0 starts) for the Rays this season and he is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Balfour has whiffed 44 batters in only 43 1/3 innings this season and he has only given up 34 hits as he has been amazing this year for the Rays. Balfour’s injury likely was one of the big reasons for the Chad Qualls deal.

The Rays have acquired 31-year old righty reliever Chad Qualls for a player to be named later. Qualls pitched in 43 games (0 starts) for the D-Backs this year and he was 1-4 with 12 saves, a 8.29 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP. He gave up a stunning 61 hits in only 38 innings this season for the D-Backs. Qualls has pitched in 433 games (0 starts) in his seven years in the majors and he is 30-26 with 51 saves, a 3.74 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. The D-Backs aren’t sending any cash with Qualls meaning the player to be named later is likely not a impact type of prospect. The Rays hope that a change of scenery will get Qualls back on the right path as he has been a solid reliever in the past.

26-year old righty starting pitcher Matt Garza was electric last night as he tossed the first no-hitter in team history against the Tigers. Garza only walked 1 batter while whiffing 6 as he faced only 27 hitters last night. He threw 120 pitches for the Rays last season of which 80 were strikes. Garza improved to 11-5 with a 4.06 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP this season. The big hit for the Rays came in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. That’s when Matt Joyce came up and ripped a Grand Slam right inside the right field foul pole. It was nice to see the Rays finally on the right side of a no-hitter since Edwin Jackson, Mark Buerhle and Dallas Braden have done it to them the last two years.

32-year old lefty swinging 1B Carlos Pena needs to change his style of hitting a bit. Most teams have the shortstop playing on the right side of 2B along with the second baseman and the first baseman making it very hard to get a ball through the infield. If he could just start swinging late more he would get a ton of hits because the 3B usually plays where the SS would in a normal set-up. He has bunted for a couple of hits to that side of the field but he needs to start hitting the ball on the ground that way as he would get a hit almost every time he did it. Pena has played in 93 games for the Rays this season and he is 68 of 325 (.209 avg, .761 OPS) with 49 runs scored, 20 homers, 60 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Pena also needs to cut down on how hard he swings to try to make more contact as he has whiffed 103 times already this year. He needs to try to quit hitting a homer every single time he’s at the plate.

The Rays have signed 28-year old righty swinging outfielder Rocco Baldelli to a minor league deal. He has started his comeback in A-ball but his first game didn’t go too well as he was 0 for 4 with 4 whiffs. The Rays just hope that Baldelli gets in shape with the idea of calling him up when rosters expand in September. Baldelli has played in 447 games (five years) for the Rays and he is 488 of 1,736 (.281 avg, .769 OPS) with 255 runs scored, 55 homers, 234 RBIs and 58 stolen bases. This is a feel good story for the Rays but Baldelli might also be able to help them out with some keys hits during the pennant race. After all, he did play in 62 games for the Red Sox last season in which he was 38 of 150 (.253 avg, .744 OPS) with 23 runs scored, 7 homers and 23 RBIs.