Game 1: It's a little early in the season to say the Rays' series with Baltimore is a big one as all four of the other teams in the AL East have held down 2nd place at one point or another over the last few weeks. But Baltimore had been the hottest, winning 5 straight games coming into tonight's series opener. And the Rays snapped that streak tonight with a 5-2 win behind Christian Little, the best pitcher in the American League. Little went 6 4 0 0 1 6 and is now 8-1, 1.47 as he looks to make it two Cy Youngs in a row. Evan Godwin threw a scoreless inning and Malachi Benford pitched the final 2, losing the team shutout on a 2-out, 2-run HR in the 9th from the Orioles' Sam Hilliard. Jasson Dominguez got the Rays on the board off Baltimore ace Bryar Johnson with a 2-run HR in the 2nd (#6) and Isaac DeLeon (who loves hitting in this park after last year's 3-HR game) had the 2nd of his 3 hits tonight with an RBI single in the 3rd. Keibert Ruiz's sac fly in the 7th scored Bobby Witt Jr who had doubled, and Joe Barker tacked on a solo HR (#7) in the 8th. The win now gives the Rays a 6-game lead in the AL East.
Game 2: Blake Money snapped out of his slump and the Rays continued to bash the longball in an 8-1 win over Baltimore. Money, who had allowed 18 ER in his last 15 1/3 innings, was brilliant today going 7.1 4 1 0 1 8 in going to 5-2 and knocking almost a run off his bloated ERA to get it down to 5.21. Jordan Diaz got the final 2 outs of the 8th and Andy Aparicio had a perfect 2K 9th mopping up. (Side note: Aparicio's numbers are pretty sick now after a rough start to the season, he has a 5/42 BB/K ratio in 26.2 innings and a 2.02 ERA.) On the offensive side of things, Oriole Park continues to be Isaac DeLeon's personal playground as his 3-run blast (#11) in the 4th turned a 1-0 Oriole lead into a 3-1 Rays advantage. They added 4 more runs in the 6th on a Jasson Dominguez RBI single, Joe Barker's 8th HR, and a 2-run shot from Spencer Torkelson (#3). Nate Clark added #13 in the 9th for good measure. So with Baltimore losing and Boston winning again, the Red Sox now take their turn in 2nd, 6 1/2 behind the Rays.
Game 3: Postponed by rain, to be made up August 20.
Team record: 30-12. Next up: The road trip continues with 3 in Toronto.
Since we're just past the quarter pole of the season, here's a look at the team stats:
5th in defensive efficiency! A positive zone rating! What new devilry is this? I was surprised last season when our defensive didn't improve despite the obvious upgrades at SS, 3B and CF so maybe we're finally getting positive regression in that department. I figured it might be worse with Joe Barker, who's terrible at 1B, instead of Yordan Alvarez. Also we're not drawing a lot of walks, but that's kind of meaningless since our OPS and runs scored at #1.