[Art Deco]

April 19: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled OF Hunter Bishop from AAA Durham.

Game 1: This was a bizarre game. Tyler Glasnow gave up a couple of baserunners in the first but got out of it, then in the 2nd all hell broke loose as to start the inning he gave a double, single, RBI single, walk, bases-loaded walk, bases loaded walk, RBI single, and a 2-RBI single for 6 runs before getting a batter out. He then got the next 3 to end the inning but they were down 6-1 after Brujan led off the game with a triple and scored on a Devers sac fly. But the Rays immediately struck back for 3 in the top of the 3rd to get back in the game. Hunter Bishop, in his first MLB at-bat, walked and was wild-pitched to second, scored on a Brujan single and then Austin Meadows drilled HR #2 to make it 6-4. Then Seth Beer led off the top of the 4th with his 2nd HR of the season, an oppo shot over the Monster. And in the 5th, Keibert Ruiz hit his first of the year with Meadows on to make it 7-6 Rays. Meanwhile, Glasnow settled down and made it through the 5th at 107 pitches. Asa Lacy came on and was excellent again, throwing 3 scoreless innings and only allowing one hit, although he didn't walk or strike out anyone. And in a confident rookie move, Bishop swung away on a 3-0 pitch from Durbin Feltman and crushed it into the RF stands for a 2-run HR in his MLB debut to give the Rays insurance in the top of the 9th making it 9-6. Will Smith took it from there for save #5, the Rays had a comeback win and Glasnow went to 3-0 despite the most nightmarish of innings. And it's early but at 10-1 and with nobody else in the East distinguishing themselves the Rays already have a 5-game lead.

Game 2: The calendar says April 20, but it might as well have been February 2 as today's game followed yesterday's script almost identically. Daniel Lynch didn't have quite as a bad a start as Tyler Glasnow yesterday but 3 runs allowed in the first 2 innings including Abraham Toro's HR to lead off the game put the Rays in an early 3-0 hole. Justin Dunn set down the first 9 Rays in order but Vidal Brujan flipped the script in the 4th with a leadoff double and Keston Hiura (giving Wander a day off) doubled him home with Hiura scoring on a Keibert Ruiz RBI single to cut the Boston lead to 3-2. Then they took over in the 6th. Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers singled, Ruiz walked to load the bases, Seth Beer hit a 2-RBI double to give the Rays the lead, Spencer Torkelson walked to load the bases and Hunter Bishop came through again with a bases-clearing double to make it 7-3. They added a run in the 7th when Hiura doubled again and scored on a Devers fielder's choice. As you can tell by Boston's run total remaining at 3, Lynch settled down much like Glasnow yesterday and left in the 7th with a quality 6.2 7 3 3 1 6 line. Mitch Keller had to get him out of a 2-on, 2-out situation and did, but then Keller made his own mess in the 8th allowing a couple of runs and Jose Alvarado got Jackie Bradley Jr to ground out to end the inning. Will Smith made easy work of the Sox in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning for save #6 and the Rays nabbed an 8-5 win. One not-so-bright spot though was Alec Bohm, 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and sitting at .176 with 0 HR and 1 RBI so far. He'll be in there tomorrow against the first lefty starter they'll face this season, none other than nemesis Caleb Smith, but Triston Casas might get some run if Bohm doesn't pick things up.

April 21: Signed OF Jason Heyward to a minor league contract, assigned him to AAA Durham.

Between injuries and trades, our long-time OF glut has become a slight shortage, so Heyward was signed mainly to provide depth and help out Durham who's now without Hunter Bishop. Heyward can opt out in a couple of weeks if he isn't called up so we'll see what happens. Speaking of the OF glut one of its long-time victims, Trevor Larnach, suffered a literal bad break yesterday as he broke his hand and will miss 4 months just as he found himself an MLB regular for the first time with Pittsburgh.

Game 3: The Rays had another starter struggle badly in the first couple of innings but this time it was much worse, and the Rays fell to the Red Sox 11-7. The irony here is that they got to Caleb Smith, scoring against him twice in the first inning on a Meadows sac fly and a Ronaldo Hernandez RBI single and eventually getting 5 runs and 8 hits off him in 5 innings. But Max Fried, coming off a shutout of the Yankees last time out, was just horrendous, giving up 4 in the first inning including a 2-run Xander Bogaerts homer, and then couldn't get anyone out in the 2nd, giving up 10 hits in 1 1/3 innings. He left down 6-2 with 2 on, and Dany Jimenez immediately gave up a 3-run to Bogaerts again and then a run of his own and it was 10-2 after 2 innings. Fried ended an horrid 1.1 10 8 8 1 2 and despite pitching a shutout among his 3 starts his ERA is now 7.71. The Rays chipped away at the 10-2 lead, getting within 10-6 after Keston Hiura's first Rays HR and a Ronaldo HR among his 3 hits and 4 RBI on the day. Aaron Ashby relieved Jimenez and threw 3 scoreless innings, Jasseel De La Cruz threw one as well but it took him 33 pitches to get through, and Asa Lacy gave up his first run pitching the 8th. That's now 3 bad starts in 4 games for the Rays staff, with Daniel Lynch, who started the year as the 6th starter, getting the only decent one.

Game 4: It was the 11AM Patriots' Day game at Fenway, and the Rays had the game won until the bullpen and defense blew it and they fell 7-4 in 10 innings. Chris Paddack continued the trend of early runs allowed by the starters, giving up a run on 3 hits in the first inning but was fine from there, only allowing a Marcell Ozuna longball to go 6 7 2 2 0 5. Hunter Bishop continued to wreak havoc on MLB pitching, hitting a 2-run HR off Pablo Lopez to put the Rays in front in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers singled in Austin Meadows who had tripled in the 3rd. In the top of the 8th, Devers made it 4-2 with a solo homer, and the Rays looked in great shape with the troika set up. Alvarado had already gotten through the 7th despite allowing a couple of hits, and Nick Anderson came on for the 8th. But the leadoff man hit a ground ball that Devers threw away for a 2-base error, and he came around to score to cut it to 4-3. Still with Will Smith coming in it looked to be in the bag. But Smith walked the leadoff man, gave up a hit, committed a balk, and then gave up an RBI single to Abraham Toro. And we went to extras and after Vidal Brujan walked to lead off the 10th he was cut down on a botched hit-and-run with Wander, and in the bottom of the inning Mitch Keller put the first two men on and then served up a 3-run HR to Niko Goodrum, who wrapped it around the Pesky Pole to give Boston the improbable win and send the Rays to consecutive losses for the first time this year.

Team record: 11-3.