The 2025 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Nothing like blowing a 4-run lead in the 9th but still winning after all. Bender has become a real problem.

Game 2:



A truly dominant outing from Ober in recording his first Rays win as they sweep the two-game mini-series from the Yankees, making it more likely the New Yorkers will be their Wild Card opponents as things currently look. Rays are 3 up in WC2 over Detroit which in turn is 2 1/2 up on Toronto. Next up: Another day off then NL Central-leading St. Louis visits for 3 games.

MLB News: The Phillies lost 3B Alec Bohm for the season with a fractured knee and San Diego star Manny Machado had a 6-hit game (in extra innings).

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



A legendary game for Junior Caminero, who homered three times including a 2-run walk-off shot in the bottom of the 9th. Since the box above gave the feat short shrift, here's the sidebar story:



Game 3:



More late walk-off drama as once again the Rays took it in the bottom of the 9th on a longball, this time a DeLuca grand slam, and it could have been a sweep had the pen not melted down in the opener. And St. Louis' Dairon Blanco had perhaps the worst game at the plate anyone's had in recent memory. Not only was he 0-5 with 5 strikeouts but he left 8 runners on base, twice whiffing with the bases loaded later in the game with the Cards having a chance to add to their slender lead.



Players of the Week:

AL: Rowdy Tellez (SEA), 8-12, 4 HR, 7 RBI (3 of the HR came in one game)
NL: Manny Machado (SD), 16-26, 2 HR, 6 RBI (including a 6-hit game)

MLB News: Philly's Jesus Luzardo pitched a no-hitter against Washington, walking 3 and fanning 10 on 109 pitches. Meanwhile LA's Mookie Betts his 300th career homer and Padres starter Dylan Cease inked a 5/133 extension with the club.

[Art Deco]

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Game 2:



Game 3:



Another good series for the Rays as they take 2 of 3 in Cleveland and continue to solidify their hold on WC2. Their magic number for clinching a playoff spot is down to 22 and next up they'll go to Washington to face a bad Nats team after an off-day.

MLB News: Houston's Lance McCullers Jr., who came back this year after missing two seasons, has suffered another serious setback as he tore his rotator cuff. He's of course done for 2025.

[Art Deco]

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Game 2:



Game 3:



The Rays closed out a 17-10 August with a 3-game sweep of the hapless Nationals.



Because of my screen cutoff and the tie atop the NL West, The Padres in NL WC3 are not shown. Rays are solidly in WC2 and have crept back within 4 of Boston for WC1.

Players of the Week:

AL: Royce Lewis (MIN), 11-21, 4 HR, 12 RBI
NL: Austin Riley (ATL), 14-28, 4 HR, 10 RBI

Players of the Month (August)

AL Batter:



NL Batter: Austin Riley (ATL), .351-10-27
AL Pitcher: Garret Crochet (BOS), 3-0, 0.40, 55 K in 45 IP
NL Pitcher: Jose Quintana (MIL), 4-1, 2.15, 25 K in 37.2 IP
AL Rookie: Bernie Martinez (LA), 3-0, 1.91, 25 K in 33 IP
NL Rookie: Braxton Ashcraft (PIT), 2-2, 1.64, 28 K in 33 IP

Down on the Farm:



Also Charleston's TJ Nichols was named Carolina League Pitcher of the Month after going 5-0, 2.65 with 41 K in 34 IP for August.

Next up: Back home for 3 against Seattle.

[Art Deco]

Transactions: For September roster expansion we brought back a couple of familiar names - IF Curtis Mead and P Ryan Pepiot. Pepiot was a surprise demotion when Bailey Ober was acquired and McClanahan came back, and he didn't take it too well with a 9.27 ERA in 5 starts for the Bulls with 17 BB in 24 IP a big problem. Nevertheless he pitched well before the demotion up here, so we're hoping it's a blip as he pitches in long relief.

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:



The Rays remain on quite the roll, winners of six straight in sweeping the last two series. They pulled out this sweep on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 11th and continue to be one of the league's top offenses while the run prevention has come around of late. They've crept to within two (one in the loss column) of Boston in the race for WC1 and home field in that round as the Red Sox have stumbled recently and fallen 3 behind New York.

Next up: 4 more at home against Cleveland, which sits atop the AL Central.

MLB News: While the Yankees have opened up a bit of breathing room at the top of the division they did lose OF Jasson Dominguez for 3 weeks with an oblique strain.

[Art Deco]

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Game 3:



Game 4:



Another great series for the red-hot Rays, who have now won 9 of 10. The finale was quite the rollercoaster with them blowing a 5-1 lead before Jansen's dramatic homer off Emmanuel Clase in the bottom of the 9th tied it and Morel won it in the 10th. They're now only 1/2 back of Boston for WC1:



Players of the Week:

AL: Yordan Alvarez (HOU), 10-29, 4 HR, 8 RBI
NL: Kyle Schwarber (PHI), 13-25, 6 HR, 16 RBI

MLB News: A couple of contenders received some bad news as Atlanta lost Chris Sale for the year with shoulder inflammation and Texas will be without Adolis Garcia for the duration as he fractured his elbow.

[Art Deco]

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Game 3:



A key series win for the Rays as they now move within 1/2 of Boston for WC1. Next up: 3 more games in Chicago, this time against the Cubs.

[Art Deco]

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Game 2:



Game 3:



While it was unfortunate that the Rays lost the series, they still moved into the WC1 spot thanks to Boston being swept at Fenway by the Yankees, as reflected here:



Players of the Week:

AL: Kyle Manzardo (CLE), 12-25, 4 HR, 12 RBI
NL: Bryan Reynolds (PIT), 12-25, 3 HR, 9 RBI

MLB News: Atlanta lost starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez to a torn rotator cuff.

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



Transaction: We signed free agent CF Trent Grisham, whom the Yankees had let go. He's a 70 defender in center and while not that much of a hitter he should do better than Jake Mangum's 233/260/294 that earned negative WAR. Mangum goes to Durham to make room and Eric Orze is DFA'd to make room on the 40-man.

Game 3:



Game 4:



A big series win and a necessary one since Boston did likewise and the teams are tied for WC1, 4 behind the Yankees. And next up is a massive 3-game series with those Red Sox at Steinbrenner Field. We do have some unfortunate news though as A.J. Puk tore his labrum on the last pitch of the finale striking out Ernie Clement to earn his first (and last) Rays save. Mason Montgomery is back up to give us a 3rd lefty in the pen.

The Rays have also officially clinched a playoff spot.

MLB News: The playoff-bound Padres suffered a serious loss as their young star Jackson Merrill strained a hamstring and is out for the season.

[Art Deco]

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Game 2:



Game 3:



An incredible weekend for the Rays as they not only swept Boston to virtually clinch WC1 (3 games up with 6 to go) but they also pulled to within one(!) game of the division lead after the Yankees were shockingly swept in Baltimore, so there's going to be home playoff baseball in tiny George M. Steinbrenner Field one way or another this year. The finale was their most notable achievement as they got to the previously untouchable Garrett Crochet, who came into the game with a miniscule 1.72 ERA and 19 wins, for 5 runs in 5 innings. But if they are going to take the division they're going to have to do it on the road as they close out the regular season after an off-day with 3 in Baltimore (whom the Yankees will attest is no pushover) and 3 in Toronto.

The standings going into the final week:



Not a ton of suspense, other than of course the AL East and also the NL West. Detroit has all but wrapped up WC3 in the AL and the Padres are 2 up on the Cubs for WC3 in the NL.


Players of the Week:

AL: Yasmani Grandal (BOS), 8-14, 2 HR, 9 RBI
NL: Michael Harris II (ATL), 12-20, 2 HR, 7 RBI

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:



Not what the Rays wanted in trying to win the division as they lost 2 of 3 in Baltimore with the offense and bullpen being problems. Meanwhile the Yankees took 2 of 3 from the White Sox and now lead by 2 with only 3 games left. Tampa Bay does hold the tiebreaker edge on the Yankees so New York has to win outright but their magic number is down to 2. Also down is the Rays' WC1 lead over Boston, with the Red Sox creeping within one game. The Rays also have the tiebreak advantage there.

In the other races of note the Giants have moved a game ahead of the Dodgers but LA has the tiebreaker while NLWC3 sees the Cubs and Padres tied going into the final weekend with Chicago holding the tiebreaker.


The Rays will close out the season in Toronto while Boston hosts Detroit (which just clinched WC3) and the Yankees host Baltimore.

MLB News: The Padres are going down to the wire for the third NL Wild Card and they'll have to do it without closer Jeremiah Estrada thanks to a torn labrum.

Down on the Farm: Congrats to the Rays low-A affiliate Charleston as the Riverdogs won the Carolina League title, defeating Lynchburg 4 games to 2.

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



This loss officially ended the Rays' division hopes as the Yankees clinched. To make matters worse Boston won and pulled into a tie with the Rays for WC1, putting who would host up in the air (the Rays hold the tiebreaker).

Game 2:



Uh-oh. After fanning 16 times in the opener and scoring only one run the offense was dominated by Ricky Tiedemann, who came into the game with an ERA pushing 7. And combined with another Boston win the Rays have dropped into WC2 and will be headed to Fenway for the best-of-3 series unless the Rays win tomorrow while the Sox lose.

The Rays will try to thread that needle with Joe Rock being called up for the spot start as it's not worth using McClanahan or Rasmussen in the finale to try to get home-field advantage and not have them available for the wild card series. Ryan Pepiot, who also got a spot start in today's game, was optioned to Durham to make room.

Game 3:



Phew! The Rays were scoreboard-watching and saw that Detroit was routing the Red Sox so a win would mean WC1 and hosting the playoff series. And Rock was outstanding in his spot start and left up 3-1 in the 7th only to see Edwin Uceta, who had been nearly untouchable in the second half of the season, giving up a game-tying 2-run homer to Alejandro Kirk. But a solo homer in the 9th from former Jay Danny Jansen broke the tie, Brandon Lowe added another, and Fairbanks closed the door in the 9th to send Boston to the Trop for the wild card series.

The pitching rotation for the series will be McClanahan-Rasmussen-Ober with Baz and Bradley available in relief.

I'll have the final standings, playoff matchups and final regular season Rays stats in the next post.

[Art Deco]

There was drama at the end as the Giants pipped the Dodgers for the NL West crown on the final day while the Cubs were rained out on the final Sunday so the suspense was extended an extra day for NL WC3, and the Chicagoans won the makeup game to beat out San Diego, which lost 9 of its final 10 games in a real collapse. So here's the playoff tree:



The Rays will have to go through the AL East to make the LCS as if they get by the Red Sox, the Yankees await. And Chicago and St. Louis get to resume their traditional hostilities in the NL Wild Card round.

Final Rays team stats:



Despite the second half of the season being heavily backloaded with road games, the Rays went 50-29 over the final three months and that's even including a rough final week which cost them a shot at the division. The midseason pickups certainly helped (Ober was great in the rotation, Stewart, Speier and Puk - until he got hurt - helped solidify the bullpen). The returns of Kim and McClanahan from injury were huge as well as the latter went 8-0 down the stretch.



It was a breakout season for Aranda, who helped the offense to its lofty rankings seen above. A full healthy season for B.Lowe and a nice year for DeLuca after missing the first month-plus also helped.



We cycled through 24 pitchers but finally settled on the best 13 as the season wound down (well, except for Bender who was mostly brutal although he was better in September). Rasmussen didn't qualify for the ERA crown but he was still incredibly valuable while Ober and McClanahan really made the rotation great.



And the farm system looks to be in really good shape, both in terms of quality (4 top 50 prospects) and quantity (we have 25 of MLB's top 500). Isaac, Taylor and C.Williams all had big years at Durham (unlike IRL) and have them in the championship round after a first-round sweep. All three could very well play key roles for the big club next year as may the man with ludicrous speed, Simpson.

[Art Deco]

Also the players of the month for September were named:

AL Batter: Bobby Witt Jr (KC), .360-7-24
NL Batter: Kyle Schwarber (PHI), .286-9-24
AL Pitcher: Joe Ryan (MIN), 5-0, 2.03, 30 K in 31 IP
NL Pitcher: Raisel Iglesias (ATL), 3-1, 2.40, 9 SV, 21 K in 15 IP
AL Rookie: Kumar Rocker (TEX), 2-3, 2.05, 35K in 30.2 IP
NL Rookie: Agustin Ramirez (MIA), .306-6-23

[Art Deco]

Halfway there...



It was billed as an epic pitchers' duel in the making with Garrett Crochet and his 1.88 ERA going up against Shane McClanahan and his 8-0, 2.06 record. Spoiler: it was not. As they did in September when they got to him for 5 runs the Rays got the better of Crochet once again, this time when it really mattered. Things looked bleak when Mac gave up his second homer of the game, a 2-run Wilyer Abreu shot and the second he allowed to a lefty, but Crochet - who had already run up quite a pitch count - put two more men on in the 5th and had to come out on 99 pitches, and two batters later Brandon Lowe took Hector Neris deep for a grand slam and a 6-5 Tampa Bay lead. Mac and the pen took it from there with only a scare in the 9th when Kristian Campbell doubled off Pete Fairbanks to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the 9th but the Rays closer got Abreu to ground to 1st with the runners holding and then induced a game-ending pop-up from Alex Bregman. So the Rays were winners in the first-ever playoff game at George M. Steinbrenner Field and the first one at a minor-league park. Drew Rasmussen will go tomorrow for the clincher.

In the other AL WC game:



Tarik Skubal (who went 7 2 0 0 1 11) and Tigers led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th before Detroit blew the lead, sending to the teams into an extra-inning marathon which the Tigers ended up winning anyway.

In the NL Wild Card, both series will need a deciding Game 3 tomorrow:

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Yankees...



The Rays took another close one with Boston to sweep the Wild Card series and set a date with the New York Yankees in the ALDS. Junior Caminero's 2-run homer in the 5th broke a 2-2 tie and they never looked back after that with series MVP Brandon Lowe going deep again for insurance. Meanwhile the pitching was solid with Pete Fairbanks once again walking the tightrope (a leadoff double in the 9th allowed to Alex Bregman) before closing it out. Bailey Ober will start Game 1 at Yankee Stadium next.

All the other WC series are done, starting with the AL:



Detroit will head to Cleveland in the other ALDS.

In the NL it was do-or-die time:



The Cubs got a pair of homers from Kyle Tucker to vanquish their arch-rivals while the Dodgers found that it always helps to have Shohei Ohtani on your side as the two-way megastar homered and went 5 5 1 1 2 8 on the mound to make the difference against Philly. Chicago will face San Francisco while the Dodgers will take on Atlanta in the NLDS.

[Art Deco]

[Art Deco]

A fine start...



The Rays got a big win in New York to open the ALDS, torching Carlos Rodon for four homers including a pair from Christopher Morel, and Bailey Ober continued to be one of MLB's best trade deadline acquisitions as he dominated the Yankees over 6 innings, allowing but one run on two hits (an Aaron Judge homer, no shame in that). Shane Baz will go tomorrow to try and put the Rays in an enviable position.

In the other ALDS opener:



Kyle Manzardo's RBI single was the only run and Tanner Bibee went 7 2 0 0 2 8 to lead the Guardians to an early series advantage.

And in the NL it looks like the Giants and Dodgers are on a collision course for the NLCS:

[Art Deco]

Nothing wrong with an away split...



Things started off in a dire fashion for the Yankees as Clarke Schmidt had to leave after one batter with an undisclosed injury and the Rays struck for two runs in the top of the 1st. But Taj Bradley wasn't very good today and was owned by Cody Bellinger in particular, who hit a pair of two-run homers off him then added an RBI single off Gabe Speier, and New York ended up winning comfortably despite having to pitch a bullpen game. Although they drew seven walks off Yankee pitching, Rays batters only managed 4 hits. But they did wrest home-field advantage from New York with yesterday's win and will head to Steinbrenner Field for a playoff game against its March tenants with ace Shane McClanahan on the mound.

And the other ALDS is all square as well:



MLB News: The Yankees decided to give 38-year old 1B Paul Goldschmidt a 3/70 extension. He did have an excellent year with the Bombers, earning 4.7 WAR on a 293/370/494 with 25 homers but still.

Rays News: Big news on the farm as the Durham Bulls won the International League championship 4 games to 1 thanks to a 4-2 win in the clincher which saw all four runs score on homers - two apiece from top prospects Xavier Isaac and Brayden Taylor.

[Art Deco]

Both teams facing elimination got off the mat: