2024 Sunburst Awards: New York Yankees games 97-100

We made it to 100 games!

“Sunburst Awards” is a series-by-series evaluation of player performance, where four different awards are given out after each series: Offensive player of the series, defensive player of the series, pitcher of the series, and highlight play of the series. This edition will be covering the 32nd series of the season, where the Tampa Bay Rays took on the New York Yankees from July 19 to July 22, a three game series at Tropicana Field.

Rays baseball is back and still .500 after a series split against the Yankees. Lets get straight to it!

Game 1: Rays - 1 Yankees - 6

Game 2: Rays - 9 Yankees - 1 (recap)

Game 3: Rays - 6 Yankees - 4 (recap)

Game 4: Rays - 1 Yankees - 9 (recap)

Offensive Sunburst Award: Randy Arozarena

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

My goodness did Arozarena have an outing in New York.

Perhaps the most deserving Sunburst award of the season so far, Arozarena hit three homers, two doubles, with four RBI in 17 plate appearances in the big apple.

Pitching Sunburst Award: Taj Bradley

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Bradley continues his dominant mound appearances with a seven inning massacre in New York this weekend. The young starter went seven innings allowing just one hit and striking out five in a 9-1 victory.

Bradley continues to improve his season numbers, now with a 1.05 WHIP and a 2.63 ERA.

Defensive Sunburst Award: Jose Caballero

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Caballero earns this weekends Defensive with this impressive backhanded grab and throw to throw out Aaron Judge in the eighth inning of game one of this series.

Highlight Sunburst Award: Jose Siri

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

There always seems to be drama when the Rays and Yankees face off, whether it’s hitting people with pitches or whatever we saw this weekend, it’s always pure entertainment.

Siri’s looooooooooooooong trot around the bases on Monday was no different, with a 30 second lap to mock Yankee star Juan Soto.

Conclusion

Rays split a series that really felt like it could’ve been won, however they will still have plenty of time to get into winning baseball with another series against the Blue Jays starting tonight at 7:00.