[Art Deco]

April 28: Optioned P Christian Chamberlain to AAA Durham, recalled P Tyler Gough from AAA Durham.

Welcome to the show, Tyler Gough. Our 2nd round pick in 2022 out of high school finally climbs the ladder to the top. He's got great (75) stuff and served as Durham's closer last year with a 10/47 BB/K in 32 innings and has been in their rotation this year with a 2/14 BB/K in 13 innings. Despite his low BB totals he's rated as 45 control (and 45 movement, so HRs could be an issue). He'll help out a burned-out pen for now. Chamberlain's 4 innings of relief last night will not be forgotten and he could be back in a couple of weeks.

Game 1: He did it again. On a night when the bullpen was down to Hayden Johns, Jack Filby and the just-recalled Tyler Gough, Alec Sachais came through with a game that might have been even better than his Rays debut 6 days ago, pitching a complete-game 3-hitter in a 3-1 win over Texas. Sachais walked 0 and struck out 12, including Wander Franco looking to end the game with a man on. He actually got the tough-to-whiff Franco 3 times on strikes tonight. His only blemish was a Monte Harrison HR in the 3rd inning but didn't allow a hit after that until Harrison singled leading off the 9th (Wander had the other hit, a single in the 1st). I'm not sure any Rays pitcher in their history has had such a successful 2-start debut. The offense was its usual sluggish self with a couple of exceptions. Judson Fabian went 4-4 and scored the first two runs, coming home both times on Keibert Ruiz RBI singles in the 2nd and the 4th. The pair accounted for 6 of the Rays' 8 hits on the night. Julio Cedillo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 8th for some insurance. The win improves the team to 14-13, putting them over .500 for the first time since winning on Opening Day.

Game 2: Christian Little was denied a win once again, but his teammates weren't as the Rays scored twice in the bottom of the 8th to beat Texas 5-3 after Daniel Espino blew a 3-1 lead in the top of the inning. The win was a season-high 4th straight, put them a season-high 2 games over .500 and pulled them to within 3 of Toronto after the Blue Jays lost in Anaheim. Little was his usual strikeout self (12) and took a shutout into the 7th but had thrown a lot of pitches so when he gave up a leadoff single to start the inning, Jack Filby came on and got through the inning but allowed the runner to score on a SB, WP and sac fly. Espino then came on for the 8th and had his first bad outing of 2028, giving up a couple of hits and walking a pair, including a 2-out 2-run single to Monte Harrison which tied the game. But Nate Clark immediately restored the lead leading off the bottom of the inning with a 500-ft HR to dead center (#7), one of the longest hit at the Trop. A couple of walks then led to Bobby Witt Jr's first big hit in a long time, an RBI double to make it 5-3. With two lefties (and Wander) due up in the 9th, Jose Alvarado got the call for the save and retired the Rangers 1-2-3 to grab save #2, while Espino vultured the win. Earlier they scored 3 times in the first 3 innings. Ricky Widmar led off the game with a triple and Gavin Lux singled him home and after stealing second Lux came in to score on a Yordan Alvarez RBI single. Judson Fabian stayed hot with an RBI double in the 3rd to score Clark with the other run.

Game 3: Bobby Witt, Jr: welcome to the Rays! The 3B, who cost a fortune in talent (Hunter Bishop and Triston Casas) and money (an 8-year, $134M deal), came into today's game sitting on 1 HR and 10 RBI and a .213 batting average through 27 games. To say he's been a disappointment so far was an understatement. But he had his first big game as a Ray, and boy was it a big game as he nearly single-handedly led the Rays to a walk-off 7-5 win over Texas. First after Jhon Diaz doubled in the 5th, Witt singled him home to cut Texas's lead to 3-2. Next, after Texas extended the lead to 4-2, he drilled a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 7th to put the Rays up 5-4. And after Jose Alvarado blew that 5-4 lead in the top of the 9th on a 2-out RBI single by none other than Wander Franco, Witt took Alvarado off the hook by hitting a 2-run walk-off homer off Texas rookie closer Jeff Lavender to win the game and make it 5 straight for the Rays, capping a 3-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI day. Aside from Witt and Diaz (who walked twice ahead of Witt's HRs and scored 3 runs), there was no offense to speak of from the rest of the team with the only other run scoring in the 1st when Ricky Widmar reached on an error, stole second, went to third on the errant throw, and scored on a Nate Clark groundball. Jack Leiter started and had a rough first two innings, allowing 3 runs, but settled in from there until the 7th when he allowed a couple of hits for the 4th Texas run. Hayden Johns pitched out of Leiter's jam and had a 1-2-3 8th but lost the win when Alvarado struggled in the 9th. Meanwhile the Blue Jays continue to fall to Earth, losing again in Anaheim and allowing the Rays to pull within 2 of the division lead.

Team record: 16-13. Next up: 3 games in Minnesota.