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The Tampa Bay Rays have placed shortstop Taylor Walls on the IL with a left oblique strain, according to the Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin. The Rays will call up Vidal Brujan from the minor leagues.
Walls, who is batting .211 this season with seven home runs and 27 RBIs, suffered the injury in Tampa Bay's 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Thursday.
Walls did not play Friday. Wander Franco played shortstop for Tampa Bay.
The Rays also have catcher Francisco Meija on the IL with a left MCL sprain.
Walls, who is 27 years old, made is MLB debut with the Rays in 2021. He played 142 games with the team in 2022 and batted .172 with eight home runs and 33 RBIs.
Tampa Bay is tied with the Orioles at the top of the AL East. Baltimore has played four fewer games than Tampa Bay this season and has a 59-38 record while the Rays are 61-40.
The Rays and Orioles will play two more games in a very important series for playoff standings this weekend. The Rays won Friday's game, 3-0.
Tampa Bay will certainly make the playoffs for the fifth straight year barring a collapse in which it falls out of the division lead or Wild Card race. The Rays advanced to the World Series in 2020 — they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers — and have not made it back since. Last season, Tampa Bay lost in the Wild-Card round to the Cleveland Guardians.
The Rays and Orioles will have a final four-game series in September. The games will be in Baltimore.
Tampa Bay and Baltimore play Saturday at 1:10 p.m. PT. Their last game of the series is Sunday at 10:40 a.m. PT.
