Game 1: It speaks well in general of the bullpen that I can't remember the last time it happened, but today we had a good ole-fashioned bullpen meltdown which cost the Rays a win. With Tampa Bay seemingly in cruise control going into the 8th inning up 6-2, Danny Medina and Billy Hoyte decided to take up arson for the evening and 6 runs later the White Sox had an 8-6 victory. Jon Soranno had pitched great through 7, allowing only a Ryan Mountcastle 2-run homer, and with a pitch count of 84 started the 8th but immediately put a man on. With Tim Siqueiros unavailable and a 4-run lead, I turned to Medina who got nobody out, allowing a run and loading the bases. With lefty slugger Omar Rivas due I then turned to Hoyte, who gave up a 2-run double to make it 6-5, former Ray Bobby Witt Jr had a sac fly to tie it, and Mountcastle delivered a single to put Chicago in front. Tyler Jefferson then came in and gave up another RBI single. Before that Alex Buitrago had a huge game with a bases-clearing triple and an RBI single and Soranno finished 7 5 3 3 1 6 in what was still a fine start.
Game 2: No blown big lead tonight as the Rays took it to Chicago 8-2, and one of yesterday's culprits got some redemption. Nate Thompson started for the Rays and improved his already impressive record to 13-1, 3.33 with a 5.1 6 2 2 1 7 performance but put two men on in the 6th with the score only 4-2 at that point. Enter Danny Medina, who was awful yesterday and failed to retire a batter in the 6-run meltdown. The righty immediately got Bobby Witt Jr to bounce into a double play to end that threat, and he stayed on to pitch the rest of the game to notch his 4th save of the season. The Rays got out of the blocks quickly with a 4-run first highlighted by a 2-run Will Quintana single, and finally padded the lead in the 6th on a 2-run homer from the red-hot Alex Buitrago (#10) and tacked on two more with a Danny Ayala blast, #30. Ayala had 3 hits on the day as he reached the 30 HR/100 RBI plateau with almost two months left in the season, comfortably filling the shoes of the departed Nate Clark.
Game 3: The Rays' two hottest hitters and a pitcher who's getting warm took care of the White Sox today 7-1. Danny Ayala's 3rd inning grand slam (#31) got them going and Alex Buitrago drove in the other 3 runs with a pair of singles, giving him 9 for the 3 games of the series. Meanwhile Andy Aparicio won his sixth straight start with a 7 7 1 1 2 5 outing which has his ERA down to 4.47 and his record up to 14-6. AA has only allowed 5 earned runs in his last 4 starts over 26 innings and an in-form Aparicio would really come in hand during the playoffs. Tim Siqueiros (coming on with two on and nobody out in the 8th) and Bob Sirna each had a scoreless inning.
Team record: 86-26. Next up: An off-day then Baltimore comes to town. Here's a look at the standings and leaders since it's been a while:
