Minor league trade and miscellany.
 

During the Baltimore series just finished, I made this minor league deal with the Giants:

Traded 22-year-old minor league first baseman Steve Williams, 23-year-old minor league right fielder Trey Duffield and 28-year-old minor league first baseman Matthew Mercedes to the San Francisco Giants, getting 25-year-old minor league first baseman Joe Barker and 24-year-old minor league catcher Steve Erickson in return.

The three guys I traded I really don't see having much of a future (especially Mercedes, who's 28) with the big club, but the key to the deal was adding Barker. I saw his name come up quite a bit when I shopped various players and his profile is intriguing to say the least. Now I'll start by saying we really don't need a 1B with Yordan Alvarez in tow for the next several years, and Chris Sharp a strong prospect at Durham. But this guy was too good to pass up. Here are his ratings:

https://i.imgur.com/qfY5rd7.png

An unusually impressive power/speed combo for a first baseman. Of course "first baseman" is used loosely since he's terrible in the field and is best suited to being a DH, which is perhaps why the Giants had no problem moving him. But his numbers back up his ratings, as he was 293/375/556 in the PCL with 17 HRs and 17 steals and already has hit 2 in 3 games with Durham. This trade is more to help Durham right now as Barker takes Nate Clark's place in the lineup. It's going to be exceedingly difficult to find a spot with the big club for him but I'd rather have too many good players than too few. And Erickson is a half-decent catching prospect, building up our organizational depth at that position.

Also we had some weekly awards come in:

I would have gone with Jhon Diaz, but...

https://i.imgur.com/9B9CqT5.png

And from Montgomery:

https://i.imgur.com/idvnU4e.png

Barillas is yet another 1B prospect we have. He has 65 current power and can mash. He was acquired from Kansas City as part of the Ronaldo Hernandez and Ian Lewis for Jack Leiter and Mebrys Viloria deal back in 2024 and has had issues staying healthy the last couple of years (he missed nearly all of 2026) but has been impressive. Most likely he'll end up as trade bait given our depth charts but he could fetch something interesting.

June 22-24, 2027: vs Oakland (3)
 

Game 1: Back home after a road trip where they laid waste to Toronto and Baltimore pitchers, the question was could they hit at home or would they revert to their recent anemic performances at the Trop? Tonight's answer was closer to the former than the latter as they fell behind, took the lead, lost the lead, and came back again to win 6-4 to make it six in a row since a certain someone was called up. Jhon Diaz continues red-hot, and his 7th inning homer (#6) broke a 4-4 tie and was the game-winning hit. Diaz had earlier singled and stole second as he's raised his average from .241 to .280 in a week. Shane McClanahan started and had a rough 1st inning, allowing 2 runs and leaving 2 on, then put two more on in the 2nd and was at 57 pitches. But as so many Rays starters have recently done, he settled down in the middle innings and was looking good up 4-2. But a strange 6th inning saw the A's tie it up, with a rare steal of home and a fly ball that Brandon Marsh might have tracked down but Hunter Bishop couldn't which went for a triple. Liam Hendriks pitched a scoreless 7th and got the win after Diaz's homer and Keibert Ruiz had a big insurance RBI single in the 8th. The back end of the pen was lights-out with Jose Alvarado whiffing 2 in a 1-2-3 8th and Jasseel De La Cruz getting a 1-2-3 9th and save #8. Earlier, they had RBI hits from Vidal Brujan (a 3-hit night), Wander Franco (a triple) and Keston Hiura. Nate Clark, you ask? He was 2-4 with a steal and a run scored. The Yankees won last night while the Rays were idle but lost tonight so the lead is up to 9 games.

Game 2: The Trop lived up to its reputation as the place where offense goes to die, and the Rays could only manage 2 hits and 6 runs tonight, even in the presence of Nate Clark. Fortunately for the Rays, though, 2 runs were enough as some outstanding pitching from Matt Manning and another lockdown 8th and 9th from Alvarado and JDLC were enough to nab a 2-1 victory. Manning was 7 2 1 1 2 6 on 98 pitches and is now 9-3, 3.35. After a very rough May (not counting the 31st) that saw him allow 20 runs in 29 innings, since his May 31 shutout in Minnesota he's gone 4-0 in 5 starts with 6 runs allowed in 34.1 innings. Alvarado retired all 4 batters he faced including the leadoff lefty in the 9th, and De La Cruz gave up a Matt Chapman single but retired the next 2 for save #9. As mentioned the offense was quiet but they did just enough. They loaded the bases in the 1st and got a sac fly from Hunter Bishop, and then in the 3rd Judson Fabian and Triston Casas (back from his suspension) each doubled for the second run. The golden child was 0-3 and saw his BA drop to .355. The Rays will go for the series sweep (and 6 of 7 in the season series) with another golden child on the mound. The Yankees fell to Baltimore again so the division lead reaches double digits for the first time this season.

June 23: Optioned P Cole Patten to AAA Durham, recalled P Jack Leiter from AAA Durham.

And here it is: the long-anticipated callup of Al Leiter's boy. Acquired 3 years ago from Kansas City, it's been a slow climb and he probably could have come up last season or at least started this season, but the Rays' MLB roster is the toughest to crack in MLB. He hasn't disappointed this year despite being frustrated at waiting, going 6-3, 2.19 with a 24/87 BB/K ratio in 78 innings to date. If all goes well, he should become a fixture in the rotation. For now he takes Hayden Johns' spot filling in for Mack Anglin, who's probably back in a couple of weeks and ultimately Blake Money will become a multi-inning wipeout guy like Shane McClanahan was back in 2022-23. Next year when Manning goes to free agency, any of Johns, Money or #3 prospect in baseball Andy Aparicio will take the 5th starter job.

Game 3: Jack Leiter pitched 6 strong innings in his MLB debut, and the Rays had to overcome a white-knuckle 9th inning that was saved by a diving Judson Fabian catch to hold on to a 6-5 win. Leiter of course was the big story, and he did managed to win his debut, going a solid 6 6 2 2 2 6. He struck out the first man he faced, and he also whiffed Oakland's star 3B Matt Chapman twice. He left with a 4-2 lead and having thrown 97 pitches, meaning they'd have to get through 3 innings without Jose Alvarado and JDLC, who both needed rest after pitching the previous 2 nights. Evan Godwin got the first part down, whiffing 2 in a perfect 7th, and then 2 more to start the 8th before he gave up a hit. Godwin's had a sneaky-good season so far, with a 1.27 ERA in 27 innings with 38 strikeouts. Steven Casey got the final out in the 8th and after they scored two more runs in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-2, I opted to leave him in despite some lefties due up. That was a mistake as he gave up 2 quick hits and I turned to the last lefty in the pen, Mike Bayley, and he immediately gave up an RBI double to lefty-hitting former Ray Chris Betts, and then wild-pitched another run home, before giving up another single to score another run. Now with the tying run at 2nd and 1 out, he had to face lefty Mark Payton, who hit a screaming liner to right that looked like extra bases but Fabian made a leaping, diving catch to preserve the lead. Liam Hendriks then came in to face Chapman, and got him looking to end the game and pick up his first save in 2 years against the team he made his name with some 9-10 years earlier. The bats were led by another monster game from Keston Hiura, 4 days removed from hitting for the cycle. He went 4-4 today, including HR #4 in the second inning and an RBI single in the 8th and is now 12 for his last 15. Vidal Brujan doubled to lead off the game and Wander singled him in to give Leiter some quick run support, and after the A's tied it in the top of the 5th at 2-2, Nick Gonzales drilled his first HR of the season with a man on to make it 4-2. Andrew Knizner drove in the 2nd run in the 8th. In the Nate Clark watch he was 1-4 with stolen base #4. The Yankees were idle so the lead grows to 10 1/2.

Team record: 55-27. Next up: A 3-game weekend series at home vs Seattle, whom we see for the first time this year. Before that, though, I'll be doing my usual midseason report card.

2027 Midseason Report Card
 

Time for the annual midseason report card. It's another successful year in the making with a 55-27 record through the first 82, and a healthy 10 1/2 game lead in the AL East, so we're looking at the team's 9th straight year in the playoffs barring an incredibly improbable collapse. The talent pipeline is stocked, the youngsters are getting it done, and it will be time for one last playoff hurrah with Wander Franco and some key members who have been part of the core for a while now (Brandon Marsh, Matt Manning, Keston Hiura, Liam Hendriks and perhaps Jose Alvarado, although with his great bounceback year I'll try to re-sign him) so this team will be looking fairly different in 2028. Here's a position-by-position look:

C: (A) Keibert Ruiz is having a great season, hitting .325, getting on base at about a .370 clip and driving in runs. He was probably miscast as a #3 hitter last year after Austin Meadows left and has to my surprise thrived in the #7 hole. Andrew Knizner has hit .311 as a backup and I can't complain.

1B: (C+) When I traded for Yordan Alvarez I was expecting the guy who hit 50 HR even when the ball wasn't juiced, like it isn't this year. I wasn't expecting a guy on pace for 28. He had a big last week on the road, but the Trop seems to have him psyched out. I'm hoping for some big-time positive regression in the second half and most importantly, come playoff time.

2B: (B+) Vidal Brujan has come in somewhere between his up-and-down 2025 and his outstanding 2026 this year. He's still getting it done, but he can be better.

SS: (A-) This is Wander's farewell tour after he got pissy in negotiations. We were about $5M and 2-3 years apart in negotiations and then he suddenly started demanding $71M a year and then broke off talks. We'll circle back later this year to see if there's a chance but I'm not optimistic, hence the Ricky Widmar and Isaac DeLeon acquisitions. He's not letting the contract woes affect him on the field though, as he's doing his usual 310/350/500 thing. I'm sure he'll be motivated for that 4th ring to further bolster his big new contract.

3B: (B) Triston Casas finally started hitting this year after spending the last 3 seasons flirting with the Mendoza Line and early in the season was the team's most consistent source of power. At the same time Keston Hiura got off to a miserable start and ended up on the short half of a platoon. But Hiura over the past week took advantage of Casas's suspension to start raking again so we may end up with more of an even split here.

LF: (A-) Hunter Bishop helped carry the team in April and May and although he's been a bit down recently, he's still Steady Eddie and plays excellent defense, except in CF where he's been forced to moonlight the past month with Brandon Marsh hurt, which brings us to...

CF (B) Marsh was doing his usual thing before getting hurt (which to be honest has been part of his usual thing) and will be out another 2-3 weeks.

RF (C) Judson Fabian has hit better of late but still had a miserable first half by his standards: 247/343/390 with only 6 HR and 36 RBI. The deader ball is some of it, but maybe about 25-30%. Like Alvarez, I'm expecting some positive 2nd half regression. As great as he was last year, with all the OF talent we have he could be off-season trade bait if he doesn't snap out of it.

DH: (B-). Not sure what to make of this. Spencer Torkelson of course tore his meniscus in early May and is done for the year (he might be ready come playoff time). So this has mostly been Jhon Diaz's domain and he was pretty bad for about a month before going nuts when Nate Clark was called up and he went to RF. Of course this is now Clark's position but he's only been up for a week but looks the part.

Bench: (B): Aside from Knizner, the bench is Hiura/Casas, Nick Gonzales and Nick Loftin. Loftin hardly ever plays (and could be waived to make 40-man room) so this grade is primarily Nick Gonzales, who's hit over .300 in sporadic playing time but with little power until last night's big homer.

Starters (A): Really, everyone's been good to great, just at varying degrees. Shane McClanahan took over Tyler Glasnow's status as ace of the staff and has pitched up to it, Matt Manning has been up and down but mostly up, Mack Anglin was doing great until he got hurt but should be back in a couple of weeks, and Christian Little is just something else to watch with 142 K's in 100 innings. Blake Money has had his ups and downs in the rotation but has been decent, and of course Asa Lacy was pretty bad before he was dealt.

Bullpen (A): The renaissance of Jose Alvarado has turned the pen from a potential weak spot to a true strength, and JDLC has been great since coming back from his multi-week injury. As I alluded to in my last game recap, Evan Godwin has been the unsung hero and Steven Casey and Liam Hendriks have done well if not lights-out. Also a shoutout to utility pitcher Hayden Johns, who's given us fine long relief to go with a pair of really good spot starts against Baltimore. I'm not sure what to make of Jack Filby yet. Last year's AL Reliever of the Year hasn't looked like that so far, but he hasn't been terrible either. Mike Bayley has been the weak link, and he'll go to Durham when Aaron Ashby comes back as he's been missed as the 3rd lefty.

Here's where we rank among the league, with as usual a lot of 1sts up and down the list. (Before the offense exploded on that last road trip, we were down to 2nd, 3rd and 4th in some of the offensive categories). Also as usual, we're a fine baserunning team but a lousy defensive one. Look for that to improve next year, especially if Julio Cedillo and his 70 defense win the CF job to take over for Brandon Marsh's 55, and either Widmar or DeLeon and their 65 D at SS take over for Wander's 55. Also Casas at 3B is a 55 compared to Hiura's 45.

https://i.imgur.com/Bb59LmS.png

June 25-27, 2027: vs Seattle (3)
 

Game 1: Lately with Wander Franco and his contract extension, it's been all about the money. Well tonight's game was all about Wander and Money as well with Wander blasting 2 HR and driving in 5 runs and Blake Money pitching 7 2-hit innings in a 7-1 thrashing of the Mariners, the team's 9th consecutive win. Wander hit a 2-run HR in the 1st off Evan Fitterer to put the Rays ahead to stay, and made a relatively close game a laugher with his 3-run shot in the 7th, giving him 13 on the year. And Blake was definitely Money tonight, shutting down his old team to the tune of 7 2 1 1 1 8 and getting his second straight win. Jack Filby, also acquired from Seattle in the same deal, had his best Rays outing, pitching 2 shutout innings with 5 Ks to finish the game. The guy we sent to Seattle to get Money and Filby (and Alec Sachais, who had nice start at Durham yesterday)? Patrick Bailey, who went 0-3 with 3 whiffs for Seattle. The other two runs for the Rays came courtesy of a bases-loaded walk to Yordan Alvarez and a Keibert Ruiz RBI single.

Game 2: The Rays only managed 3 hits, but with the help of 8 walks from Seattle pitchers made them count as they eked out a 4-3 win to make it 10 wins on the trot as the English say. The biggest of those 3 hits was Hunter Bishop's triple in the 2nd which scored Judson Fabian, who had reached on an error. Bishop then scored on Nate Clark's fielder's choice to make it 2-0. They added a run in the 5th when Nate Clark walked, Jhon Diaz had an infield hit and the two pulled off a double steal before Vidal Brujan's groundout scored Clark, and Keibert Ruiz singled in a run in the 6th that made it 4-2. Christian Little was doing his usual thing, although he was dinged for a couple of solo HRs from Jarred Kelenic and Sam Hilliard. He got through the 1st man in the 8th before lefties were due, and ended 7.1 4 2 2 2 9 and improved to 9-4, 3.10. Jose Alvarado came in to face those lefties and had a rare bad outing, walking a man, having a pop-up misplayed into a single, and then giving up an Evan White RBI single to cut it to 4-3. Jasseel De La Cruz came on and walked Michael Brosseau to load the bases but got out it it, and pitched a 1-2-3 9th to get save #10.

June 26: Traded 23-year-old minor league third baseman Gustave D'Elia and 26-year-old minor league second baseman Wilfri Peralta to the Milwaukee Brewers, getting 24-year-old minor league third baseman Mike Lammers in return. Activated P Jack Perkins from the 60-day IL and optioned him to AAA Durham.

Needed to make room on the 40-man, and D'Elia has lost some of the luster he had in recent years as a prospect. He's still a pretty decent prospect but the ability to get Lammers in return made it easy. Lammers, Milwaukee's 2024 1st round pick, is a mediocre defensive 3B (a 45) but he's another slugging beast we've added as he has 80 gap power and 70 HR power right now, not potential. He's a likely .240-.250 hitter but that would go with 45 doubles, 40 homers and 75 walks so a valuable offensive player. Who knows what I'll end up doing with him but I'm going to jump him to Durham and see how it goes since I already have the recently-acquired Adrian Meola playing 3B at Montgomery, which is where he would otherwise go for now. Perkins meanwhile remains on standby in case we have any injuries to the staff. He pitched very well last year for both Durham and us before that torn elbow tendon that caused him to miss the better part of a year, but he's shown flashes of his stuff on rehab so I'm optimistic.

Game 3: Yesterday the Rays scored 4 runs on 3 hits and won. Today they went one better and scored 4 runs on only 2 hits. They did not win. Seattle snapped the Rays' 10-game winning streak with an 11-4 thumping that saw the team wanting in all phases of the game. For awhile it looked like a repeat of yesterday. Yordan Alvarez homered in the 1st (#14) put the Rays up 1-0, and after Seattle tied it in the 2nd, the Rays got 2 more in the bottom of the frame when Touki Touissant lost the plate, hitting a man and walking 2 to load the bases with nobody out. Jhon Diaz's fielder's choice made it 2-1, and then Vidal Brujan's sac fly made it 3-1. With Shane McClanahan on the mound looking great through 4, surely they'd be on their way again. But Mac got touched for a 2-run HR by Sam Hilliard in the 5th to tie it, and in the 6th he gave up a 2-out double to put men on 2nd and 3rd, and Ke'Bryan Hayes singled up the middle to score both runners and make it 5-3 Mariners. Mac departed with a 6 5 5 5 2 5 line and Hayden Johns took over in the 7th and it was a disaster. He first gave up a 3-run HR to Michael Brosseau, and then stuck around to put two more on only to give up yet another 3-run HR to Oneil Cruz and that was the ballgame. The Rays had to wait 8 more innings before their second hit, which was a Judson Fabian homer (#7) leading off the 9th. Steven Casey went the final 2 2/3 scoreless on only 26 pitches when Seattle didn't care anymore. The Yankees won to cut into the Rays' lead for the first time in a long time, but it's still at 9 1/2 games.

Team record: 57-28. Next up: The homestand continues with 4 against the Angels.

June 28-July 1, 2027: vs LA Angels (4)
 

June 28: Sent P Mack Anglin to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Mack is back, he'll get 1 or 2 rehab starts at Durham as he was gone for only a month.

Game 1: The Rays looked dead and buried in this one, trailing 4-0 after 5 1/2 with only 3 hits through the first 5 innings, seeming like another game in the Trop where the offense couldn't rub two sticks together. But thanks to 2 runs in the 6th and 3 more in the 8th, and some solid bullpen work the Rays secured a come-from-behind 5-4 win. Early on it didn't look good as Matt Manning was having a mediocre start, giving up 3 HRs including something we didn't see often last year, Lewin Diaz homering in Tropicana Field. A 2-run shot in the 4th by Anthony Rendon and a solo blast from Mike Trout in the 6th made it 4-0 and Manning left with a 6 7 4 4 2 5 line. In the bottom of the 6th after Yordan Alvarez walked, Judson Fabian tripled off the RCF wall and scored on a Hunter Bishop single and it was 4-2. Liam Hendriks came on and retired all 5 Angels he faced with 3 on whiffs including Mike Trout. With lefty Shohei Ohtani looming, Mike Bayley came on and got him looking to end the 8th. Then the bats went to work. Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco doubled to cut the lead to 4-3, and Fabian doubled to tie it up before Keston Hiura singled up the middle with 2 out to score Fabian with the winning run. JDLC came on for the save and got the Halos 1-2-3 for #11 and the Rays made the win probability chart look like a stock market crash. Bayley picked up his first Rays win.

Game 2: As The Who sang, "the kids are alright". Tampa Bay's two splashy callups, Nate Clark and Jack Leiter, were the stars tonight in a 2-0 Rays win that was their 12th in 13 games. Leiter pitched 6 solid if not dominating innings and Clark's 4th inning solo blast to LF (#3) was the winning run. Leiter had the BABIP gods on his side as he only struck out 3 and allowed 6 hits, but most importantly he didn't walk anybody and he kept the ball in the park. After Leiter gave up a leadoff single to Anthony Rendon in the 7th, he was pulled after 82 pitches for Evan Godwin with three lefties coming up. Godwin got all 3, Jack Filby was more like Jack Filthy in a perfect 2K 8th, and JDLC came in for the second straight day to close things out, striking out the side around a walk. Leiter is now 2-0 in his 2 starts and JDLC gets save #12. Wander Franco got the pen a little breathing room with HR #14 in the 8th as he continues hot while the rest of the offense struggles to score at home, but tonight it was enough. The Yankees lost so the lead is back up to 10 1/2.

Mack Anglin rehab update: A bit of a rough go for Mack as he wasn't that sharp and ended up 3.2 8 6 6 2 3 on 74 pitches. The line was a bit deceiving because he did allow 4 infield hits so he wasn't like he was hit hard, but he still wasn't that sharp so he'll get another start. No need to rush him with the way things are going. Durham still ended up winning 19-6 with a pair of 8-run innings in the 3rd and 5th. Mike Lammers, acquired in the Gustave D'Elia trade over the weekend, went 3-3 with 2 walks, and 6 RBI including a grand slam.

Game 3: Back and forth we went at the Trop before the Rays finally pulled off another 8th-inning comeback to beat the Angels 6-5. They led 3-1 after 5 behind Blake Money but the Rays had Money problems in the 6th as he walked the first 2 batters of the inning and Mike Bayley gave up a 2-run single to lefty Luis Gonzalez to tie the game. And after Steven Casey came on in the 7th, he yielded a 2-run HR to Mike Trout to give LA a 5-3 lead. But once again the bats came alive in the 8th inning. First, after Yordan Alvarez beat out an infield single, Judson Fabian drilled an opposite-field 2-run HR (#8) to tie the game. And two batters later Triston Casas deposited HR #12 into those same RF seats to give the Rays the lead. With JDLC unavailable after pitching the last two nights, Jose Alvarado came on and got a 1-2-3 9th inning to earn save #4. Casey stuck around and got through the 8th to pick up his 1st win of the year. Money looked good before he lost it in the 6th and ended up 5 2 3 3 5 4 after the 2 runners he left on came around to score. Earlier in the game Wander Franco supplied most of the offense with a 1st inning solo HR (#15) off Shohei Ohtani and an RBI single in the 2nd. Alvarez had a sac fly in the 5th to score the other run. The Yankees lost in Baltimore to fall 11 1/2 back, so we're at that time again where I'm not going to bother giving updates on the division lead unless the Rays start losing a bunch of games and it gets down to like 8 or something like that.

Game 4: I wrote out a recap and hit the wrong button and lost it and now I don't want to have to write the whole damn thing again. Short version: Rays came back from a 6-0 deficit with yet another 8th inning rally to tie it at 6 before losing in 12, 8-6. Christian Little gave up 6 in the first 3 innings on a pair of homers but settled down and ended up 6 5 6 6 1 8. Hayden Johns went 2 1/3 perfect, Jack Filby pitched a nice 1 1/3 before Jose Alvarado took over in the 11th and stayed on to get two out in the 12th but gave up a single. He was lifted at 26 pitches with righties up and Liam Hendriks came on and was terrible, giving up 3 straight hits to score the 2 winning runs. The 8th inning comeback started with HR #13 from Triston Casas, then a Nate Clark RBI triple followed by a Wander Franco single to erase a 6-3 deficit. Franco, Judson Fabian and Keibert Ruiz drove in runs earlier despite their hitting into double plays in each of the first 4 innings (2 by Yordan Alvarez, 2 by Casas).

Team record: 60-29. Next up: How much more American can you get than spending the July 4 weekend at Wrigley Field? We'll find out as the Rays play 3 with the Cubs.

And we had this happen in MLB today:

https://i.imgur.com/559iuB8.png

July 2-4, 2027: at Chicago Cubs (3)
 

Game 1: The Rays came into the friendly confines and came away with a 7-4 win. Shane McClanahan was not at his best, pinch-hit for in the 6th, but still picked up his MLB-leading 12th win despite being quite hittable in a 5 9 3 3 1 4 performance. After getting a 1st inning run thanks to the wildness of Cubs starter Sam Thoresen (two walks and a wild pitch to score one), the Rays had two big hits. The first was a 3-run HR by the red-hot Wander Franco (#16) in the 5th to put them up 4-2, and the second was a 2-run double by Yordan Alvarez (his 3rd hit of the day) in the 8th that turned a 4-3 game into a 6-3 one. Nick Gonzales added a pinch-hit RBI single in the 9th to allow JDLC to sit down in favor of Steven Casey, who did give up a run in the 9th. Before that, Liam Hendriks bounced back from yesterday's struggles to whiff 3 Cubs in 1/1/3 innings and Evan Godwin and Jack Filby got through the other 1 2/3.

July 3: Activated P Aaron Ashby from the 60-day IL, optioned P Mike Bayley to AAA Durham, designated P Collin Bosley-Smith for assignment and placed him on waivers.

Time to bring back Ashby, who hopefully will be a more reliable lefty in the pen than Bayley. He showed his stuff at Durham (12 Ks in 7 IP) and his rust (5 BB). Hopefully he's over the latter. Bosley-Smith has a great arm but was way down the pecking order, he'll be a MiLB free agent this winter if a big league club doesn't claim him.

Game 2: The Rays lost a wild one in 12 innings to the Cubs 10-7 when Kyle Tucker hit a 3-run walk-off HR off Jasseel De La Cruz. We ended up in extras when Judson Fabian hit a 2-out, 2-HR (#9) in the top of the 9th to tie it at 7 after the Rays had earlier blown a 4-0 lead and found themselves down 7-5. Matt Manning couldn't stand prosperity and although he no-hit the Cubs through the first 3 innings they jumped on him in the 4th for 3 runs (including a 2-run double from Tucker who had a 5-RBI day), and nicked him for single runs in the 5th and the 6th. He then gave up a leadoff single in the 7th and Hayden Johns came on, struck out the next two batters but yielded a 2-run HR to Brian Reynolds after the Rays had come back to tie it on a Nate Clark sac fly. Earlier Triston Casas had a 2-run double and Fabian and Yordan Alvarez had RBI singles to stake the Rays to a 4-0 lead. There were only 4 non-tired relievers in the pen and after Johns pitched his rough inning, Steven Casey and Aaron Ashby each pitched 2 scoreless innings to prolong the game. Ashby looked good in his return, whiffing 4 and being pushed a bit harder than I had hoped with 33 pitches. That set up the fateful 12th when a Nick Gonzales error with 1 out put a man on, JDLC wild-pitched him to 2nd, Reynolds was intentionally walked, and then Tucker delivered his game-winning bomb.

Game 3: The Rays blew another early lead and ended up on the wrong end of a 9-6 decision to the Cubs. Chicago batters battered Rays hurlers for 18 hits to go with the 9 runs as they couldn't hold an early 4-1 lead. Jack Leiter started and was giving up a fair # of hits but getting out of it, and made it through 5 innings up 4-2. His spot came up in the 6th and with only 3 non-tired relievers I decided to let him try to move over Andrew Knizner from 1st instead of pinch-hitting for him. Not only did he bunt into a double play but he then couldn't get anyone out in the 6th, giving up a walk and three straight hits before I went to Evan Godwin, who gave up a hit, a HBP with the bases loaded, a sac fly and another RBI single as the Cubs scored 5 times to go up 7-4. The Rays got back within 7-6 in the top of the 8th, but Jasseel De La Cruz gave those two runs right back to the Cubs and the Rays ended up with an unhappy July 4th. Early it looked liked it might be their day as Vidal Brujan led off the game with a homer (#5) onto Waveland Avenue and Nate Clark had an RBI single in a 2-run 1st, Nick Gonzales had an RBI single in the 2nd and Hunter Bishop led off the 3rd with a triple and scored on Triston Casas's sac fly. Casas and Jhon Diaz singled in the runs in the 8th. Leiter, outside of the protected confines of Tropicana Field, ended up an ugly 5 11 6 6 1 4 in his first MLB road start. I'll also single out Yordan Alvarez for my ire: he was 0-5 today and left 5 men on base as he continues to be a major disappointment.

Team record: 61-31. Next up: An off-day followed by two games in Milwaukee.

Mack Anglin rehab update: He went 5 6 2 2 3 7 on 98 pitches in start #2, better than the first, a bit wild though. I've seen enough and he'll be back next weekend before the break.

July 6-7, 2027: at Milwaukee (2)
 

Game 1: After giving up 9 runs on 18 hits in their last game, Rays pitching gave up 9 runs on 16 hits for an encore in a 9-5 loss to Milwaukee. Tonight it was Blake Money, in likely his last start before the return of Mack Anglin, who was lit up like a Christmas tree by the opposition, going 4.1 12 7 5 0 3. It was a total of 13 singles and 3 doubles pounded out by the Brewers as Steven Casey and Jack Filby gave up runs as well. The only Rays pitched unscored on was Hayden Johns in 2/3 of an inning and he managed to give up a sac fly to the pitcher Jose Urquidy. Can't complain too much about the offense, they managed 13 hits and 5 runs, with everyone in the starting lineup (including Money) getting at least one hit, plus pinch-hitter Keston Hiura in his first game back in his old ballpark (an RBI single). Vidal Brujan had a couple of doubles and an RBI, Yordan Alvarez & Keibert Ruiz had RBI singles and Nate Clark had a sac fly. I said I wouldn't mention the division race again last week but now that the Rays have lost 3 straight (and 4 of 5), the Yankees have pulled back to within 9 after being back 12.

Game 2: For the fourth straight game the Rays couldn't hold an early multi-run lead and the for the fourth straight game they lost, 5-4 at Milwaukee. For the second time in less than a week, Vidal Brujan led off the game with a homer (#6) and Yordan Alvarez followed suit with #15 to make it 2-0. And after Triston Casas doubled in the 2nd, Keibert Ruiz singled him home to make it 3-0. Christian Little was looking good for the first 4 innings then the wheels came off in a disastrous 5th. It all started when Little gave up a 1-out hit to the pitcher Triston McKenzie, then Pete Crow-Armstrong doubled him in, Nolan Arenado singled and in the most critical play Wander Franco booted TJ Reeves' grounder that could have been a double play. Instead Crow-Armstrong scored and runners were on 2nd and 3rd for Bo Bichette to drive in both with a single, and a 3-1 lead became a 5-3 deficit. Yonny Chirinos relieved McKenzie and shut down his former team for 1 2/3 innings and another (very brief, 2 games in 2022) former Ray Tony Gonsolin got them out in the 8th. Keibert Ruiz hit HR #6 off Andrew Schultz with two out in the 9th to cut it to 5-4, but it was too little, too late. Aaron Ashby and Liam Hendriks had scoreless innings in relief. The Yankees won again, so they're back within 8, the closest they've been in weeks.

Team record: 61-33. Next up: An off day, then back home for more interleague play, a 3-game set with St. Louis before we hit the All-Star break in a rematch of last year's World Series. In the first game they'll try to snap their 4-game losing streak against Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty, who's currently 12-2 with a 1.22 ERA. Oh boy.

July 9-11, 2027: vs St. Louis (3)
 

Game 1: What. A. Game. Jack Flaherty and Matt Manning hooked up in the pitchers' duel of the year. Manning allowed doubles to the first two batters of the game to put St. Louis up 1-0 but only allowed 2 hits over the next 7 innings, while Flaherty shut the Rays out through 8 on 3 hits and 0 walks. Flaherty departed in favor of Cardinal closer Seranthony Dominguez in the 9th, and the Rays had to feel like they were done a favor. Sure enough Vidal Brujan led off the 9th with a single, stole 2nd, went to third on a Wander Franco groundout, and scored on Yordan Alvarez's sac fly to tie the game. And off to extras we went before Triston Casas drilled a Roberto Bautista pitch deep into the RF stands in the bottom of the 12th for HR #14 and a walk-off 2-1 win to snap the Rays' 4-game losing streak. Manning was 7 4 1 1 1 8 in his own brilliant outing, and the bullpen came up with 5 shutout innings, allowing only 3 hits and 0 walks. 2 of those hits came off Liam Hendriks, the first of the relievers, but Evan Godwin got him out of the inning. Jack Filby had 2 scoreless innings, Jose Alvarado 1 and Jasseel De La Cruz pitched the 12th and got his 3rd win. The Yankees won in walk-off fashion themselves on a 2-run Joe Allen HR to beat Texas, so the lead remains 8.

Game 2: It was almost a carbon copy of yesterday, except for the extra innings part and with Shane McClanahan in the role of Jack Flaherty as he shut down the Cardinals and the Rays came away with a 2-0 win. In a season of great starts, this might have been Mac's best as he went 8 4 0 0 2 10 and closed with a flourish by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 8th. He's now 13-3, 2.77. Jasseel De La Cruz had a 1-2-3 9th to get save #13. All four hits McClanahan allowed were singles, but two of them came in the 6th along with a walk and the bases were loaded with nobody out. But he got a strikeout, and then a fly ball double play when Hunter Bishop gunned down Joey Gallo at home trying to score. The Rays meanwhile were kept in check by Josh Hader, who's been a starter the last couple of years for St. Louis since being acquired in the famous Hader-for-Bader deal. But they did get to him in the 4th when Yordan Alvarez doubled and scored on Judson Fabian's single. They added a big insurance run in the 8th when Nate Clark took Corey Knebel deep for HR #4. The Yankees keep rolling so it's a good thing they've managed to win the epic struggles of the last two nights.

July 11: Activated P Mack Anglin from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned IF Nick Loftin to AAA Durham.

There were no obvious choices to send down from the staff, so Loftin goes and we're going with 14 pitchers. Loftin has barely played over the last month and a half so we can probably go with 3 on the bench, especially now that we played those series in the NL parks earlier this week.

Game 3: So after a grand total of 5 runs were scored by both teams combined the previous two games of this series, all hell broke loose in one of the wildest games in Trop history. Unfortunately the Rays came out on the losing end of a 12-9 game after the bullpen imploded and allowed 5 St. Louis runs in the 9th inning, with the winning 3 runs coming on an inside-the-park homer. And even in the bottom of the 9th the Rays had a chance to win or tie when with two out and nobody on, Keibert Ruiz (his 4th hit of the game, now hitting .336), Nate Clark and Jhon Diaz all singled to load the bases before Vidal Brujan's sinking liner, which looked it would score a run or two, was caught by a diving Josh Stowers. And it was in a strange way we got to that point. Early it looked just like the two games that preceded it, with Mack Anglin in his return from injury holding a 1-0 lead through 4 innings. And after getting the first out of the 5th, Anglin lost the plot. He gave up a single and a homer to Trejyn Fletcher to put St. Louis in front. And once he lost the lead, he lost it, going walk, HBP, walk, HBP to score another, wild-pitched in a run and then gave up an RBI single to make it 6-1. He stayed in through the 6th and pitched well after that, going 6 4 6 6 2 5. And for a long time it looked like he'd get the win as the Rays answered with their own 6-run inning in the bottom of the 6th on an RBI single from Judson Fabian, an RBI double from Hunter Bishop and a grand slam from Ruiz (HR #7). Yordan Alvarez added HR #16 in the 8th to make it 8-6, and then Jose Alvarado got into big trouble in the 8th, giving up 3 hits to 3 batters, allowing a run and leaving with men on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out. But Jack Filby came in, got a popup, strikeout, and fly out to keep the game at 8-7. And when Alvarez drew a bases-loaded walk in the 8th to make it 9-7, it looked the Rays were on their way with a big insurance run. But then came the 9th. Filby only threw 7 pitches in the 8th so he started the 9th with JDLC unavailable after pitching the previous two nights. He gave up a leadoff double, and with two lefties due up in next 3, Evan Godwin came in and just couldn't get anyone out, giving up 4 hits to score 2 runs to let the Cards tie it, got one out when Stowers tried to go to 3rd on his 2-run double and was thrown out, and then got a second out via strikeout. With 2nd and 3rd and a righty due up and Godwin already at 21 pitches, Steven Casey came on and was greeted by Fletcher's inside-the-park homer, his 2nd HR of the game and it was 12-9 St. Louis. Fortunately the Yankees' 7-game winning streak was snapped by Texas so the Rays go into the break up by 8.

Team record: 63-34. Next up: The All-Star break of course, with several Rays going to the ASG, and after that we open the "traditional second half" at Baltimore for 3.

All-Star Break 2027
 

First off we had the Futures Game, and 4 Rays prospects started for the AL: P Andy Aparicio, C Carlos Perez, SS Ricky Widmar and 3B Isaac DeLeon (although DeLeon is primarily a SS). Aparicio pitched a scoreless inning, and Perez and DeLeon had singles as the NL beat the AL 2-0.

July 12: Sent CF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Marsh coming back soon. Who goes down for him? Probably either Jhon Diaz or a pitcher. #TooManyGoodPlayers

Here are the MLB All-Star rosters, with Shane McClanahan, Yordan Alvarez and Vidal Brujan voted in as starters, and Wander Franco and Keibert Ruiz as backups.

https://i.imgur.com/I8jDyvn.png
https://i.imgur.com/QAl7WEm.png

https://i.imgur.com/vGBLT8S.png
https://i.imgur.com/AE86U2G.png

HR Derby: Nolan Jones beat Mike Trout 20-11 in the final round to take the Derby.

The All-Star Game: I have some thoughts after this:

https://i.imgur.com/Idm9TIr.png

So the game ended going 16 innings. Shane McClanahan was voted/selected as the starter, but he didn't go because he was only on 2 days' rest, having pitched Saturday. So of course the AL ran out of pitchers, and went to Mac, as he ended throwing 49 pitches over 2 2/3 innings, giving up 4 runs. I was going to start him on Friday, but now I have to push him back to at least Sunday. Not happy about this. As you can see from the recap above, Yordan won the MVP, he had an RBI infield single, a 2-run HR and an RBI single, so it was deserved. Vidal Brujan started, drew 2 walks in his 2 PAs, scoring a run, Wander came on as a sub and stayed in to go for 1-5, ditto for Keibert Ruiz, who went 0-5 but did throw an attempted basestealer.

Time for a somewhat big trade:

https://i.imgur.com/X9gs1WW.png

The one area of weakness (and I mean that in the most relative of terms) I see on the team is the late-inning relief. JDLC is an excellent closer, and Alvarado is one of the best lefty setup men in the game. But I am little less than comfortable with the RH setup options, even though they're pretty good. Hendriks is 38 and while he's pitched well (and gets Ks), I don't have the utmost confidence in him. And the same goes for the much-younger Filby. And Steven Casey, whom I've really liked, has slumped badly recently (8 ER in his last 10 innings over 7 appearances) and has a lot of trouble with lefty batters. Meanwhile, Espino is one of the top closers in baseball and is equally effective against lefties and righties. The price was a bit high. Evangelista is the best prospect here, a power-hitting RF who's only 20 and hitting homers in the Florida State League. West has pitched poorly at AAA Durham after we got him in a minor deal with the Pirates earlier this year, and Benedetto has had a nice season at AA Montgomery but he's 26 and we have many, many better OF prospects. I could see Benedetto playing for Cleveland right away.

July 16-18, 2027: at Baltimore (3)
 

July 16: Activated OF Brandon Marsh from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, added P Daniel Espino to the active roster, optioned Ps Steven Casey and Hayden Johns to AAA Durham.

We're back to 13/13 with these moves. Casey goes down as he's slumped as detailed in the post above, and Johns is the odd man out because Blake Money is taking over his long relief role. Johns will start at Durham. I might have sent Jhon Diaz down but he's out of options so I can't. He'll become a backup OF as Nate Clark takes over as full-time DH.

Game 1: So yeah, how about that bullpen? Daniel Espino made his Rays debut and promptly blew the save, and then Jose Alvarado blew the game in relief of him as the Rays lost to Baltimore 3-2 in a walk-off win for the Orioles. Christian Little was great tonight, going 7.2 4 1 1 1 6, allowing only a 7th inning HR to Adley Rustchman. With two out in the 8th he walked a batter, so Espino came on, walked a batter himself but got a whiff for the 3rd out. Up 2-1 with Rustchman due to lead off the 9th, I left Espino in figuring he matched up better than JDLC, especially with lefties coming up. Nope, Rustchman took him deep too to tie the game. So Jose Alvarado came on, walked the lefty Austin Meadows, and gave up a double down the LF line to Druw Jones, which scored Meadows with the winning run. So no matter who we acquire, we have trouble closing out games in Baltimore unless we're 7-8 runs ahead. Before the bullpen meltdown the story was the return of Brandon Marsh, who homered off Bryar Johnson in the 3rd inning in his first at-bat off the IL, and then singled in another run in the 5th and stole a base. He and Vidal Brujan had 2/3 of the team's 6 hits as the game played out more like one in Tropicana Field than Camden Yards, at least until the Baltimore 9th. Luckily the Yankees were blown out in St. Louis so the division lead was not trimmed from 8.

Game 2: It took 10 runs and 20 hits, but the Rays finally overcame the Orioles 10-6 with a 5-run 8th inning to get their first win after the break. The Rays had outhit the Orioles 14-6 through 7 innings but found themselves trailing 6-5 after that guy Adley Rustchman did it to them again, hitting a 2-run HR off Jack Filby in the 7th to give Baltimore the lead. But with one out in the 8th, Vidal Brujan singled, Wander Franco doubled sending him to 3rd, Yordan Alvarez (who had hit #17 earlier to put the Rays up 5-4 in the 6th) singled to drive both of them in to give the Rays a lead they wouldn't relinquish, Judson Fabian doubled in Alvarez, Triston Casas doubled in Fabian, and Keibert Ruiz delivered his 4th hit of the game, a single to score Casas. It was Ruiz's second 4-hit game in the last three, and he is now hitting a cool .343. Ruiz, Brandon Marsh and Brujan (2) drove in the Rays' first 4 runs as they battled back and forth through the first 7. Matt Manning had an interesting 6 4 4 4 3 10 line where he gave up a solo HR and the Orioles bunched their other runners together. After Filby gave up 2 runs in the 7th on that Rutschman homer, Liam Hendriks pitched a quick 8th on only 10 pitches and stayed on to finish the game, giving up only one hit and striking out 3 over his 2 innings. Filby vultured the win from Manning, his 2nd as a Ray. Everyone in the lineup ended up with at least one hit with Brujan and Casas banging out 3 to go with Ruiz's 4 as they got 10 of their hits off Kevin Abel through 4 1/3, just a few starts after Abel threw a perfect game. The Yankees won in St. Louis so the lead remains 8.

Game 3: Mack Anglin threw a solid 7 innings and Yordan Alvarez hit a big HR as the Rays pulled off the rare feat of shutting the Orioles out in Camden Yards, 5-0. Anglin wasn't overpowering but he was effective, going 7 7 0 0 1 2. Aaron Ashby pitched the 8th after Anglin gave up a leadoff single and Daniel Espino fared better in his second Rays appearance getting through the 9th after Ashby led the inning off with a walk. The offense primarily came in the third when Brandon Marsh singled, stole second and scored on a Wander Franco double, and then Alvarez took Zac Lowther deep with a shot to dead center (#18) to make it 3-0. Keston Hiura, getting a start against a lefty, made it 4-0 with #6 as part of a 3-hit day, and Hunter Bishop singled in Judson Fabian who had doubled in the 7th. The Yankees won in St. Louis again so the lead continues to be 8, but another day comes off the calendar.

Team record: 65-35. Next up: 3 games in Kansas City.

July 19-21, 2027: at Kansas City (3)
 

Game 1: The Rays took the lead twice and blew it before taking it for a third time and not blowing it in a 5-4 win over Kansas City. Triston Casas's 8th inning HR (#15) was the difference after Jack Filby and Evan Godwin conspired to blow a 4-2 lead in the 7th. The Rays had gone up 1-0 as Yordan Alvarez continues to regress positively to the mean with his 3rd HR in 4 games (#19) in the 1st, and that stood up until Shane McClanahan gave up a Bobby Witt Jr 2-run HR in the 5th. Mac pitched well but was a bit wild and pitch-inefficient (2 errors behind him didn't help), going 5.2 4 2 2 4 9. Wander Franco put them back in front in the top of the 7th with a 3-run blast (#17) making it 4-2. After Filby & Godwin gave it right back in the bottom of the inning, Daniel Espino came in and got the final out. And after Casas restored the lead, Espino showed why we acquired him by striking out the side in the 8th and earning his first Rays win. Jasseel De La Cruz threw a scoreless 9th to grab save #14. The Yankees seemingly have decided to never lose again as they beat the Angels so it's still an 8-game lead.

Game 2: The Rays hung on by the skin of their teeth to beat Kansas City 6-5 tonight. Leading 6-4 going into the bottom of the 9th, Jasseel De La Cruz came in to try and nail it down but he ran into all kinds of trouble, loading the bases on a HBP and two singles with nobody out. And then Khalil Lee beat out an infield single to make it 6-5, leaving the bases loaded and still nobody out. I rolled the dice and played the infield in, knowing a single could score the winning run. It paid off as former Ray farmhand Xavier Edwards hit one right at Keston Hiura who fired home for the force. And then JDLC whiffed Bobby Witt Jr. and Coby Mayo to end the game. The star of the game on offense was Brandon Marsh, who continues to rake since coming off the IL at the break and hit 2 homers tonight including a solo shot in the 7th for the 6th and decisive run. He's doubled his HR total in the 5 games since he's come back from 3 to 6. Jack Leiter got the start and had his ups and downs with the biggest down being a 3-run HR he gave up in the 2nd after walking a man with two out. He gave up a 4th run in the 3rd but settled down over the next two to end up 5 5 4 4 3 4 and pick up his 3rd win in 4 starts. Blake Money came in for the first time as a multi-inning reliever and was impressive, going 2 1/3 with 3 strikeouts, and Jose Alvarado got the final two outs of the 8th before JDLC's wild ride in the 9th. The comeback started when Judson Fabian cut the lead to 4-2 in the 4th with HR #10, and then Marsh hit the first of his 2 HRs in the 5th with a man on to tie it up. Wander Franco and Yordan Alvarez hit doubles later in the inning to put the Rays ahead to stay. Andrew Knizner drove in the first Rays run in the 2nd. The Yankees finally lost, in extra innings, so the lead grows back to 9.

Game 3: The Rays swept the series from the Royals and made it 5 wins in a row thanks to another come-from-behind tight win, 4-2. It was a matchup between strikeout king Christian Little and Kansas City's tough lefty Daniel Tillo, coming off a Cy Young-worthy 2026. The Royals got to Little first with a run in the 2nd and it stayed 1-0 before the Rays broke through in the 6th. Yordan Alvarez continued hot with an opposite-field shot off Tillo (#20) to tie it up, and later in the inning Keston Hiura doubled in a run and they scored a third on a passed ball. KC grabbed one right back in the bottom of the 6th off Little to cut the lead to 3-2. Little stayed on and struck out the first man in the 7th to end up 6.1 7 2 2 1 8 and improved to 10-5, 3.24. Then the "B" bullpen took over and was great. Aaron Ashby struck out the next two men in the 7th, Liam Hendriks had a 1-2-3 2K 8th and after Brandon Marsh continued his HR binge (4th in 6 games and #7) by going deep in the 9th to make it 4-2, Jack Filby picked up his 3rd Rays save and 6th overall with a scoreless 9th. And the Yankees were shut out by the Angels so the lead is back to double digits at 10.

Team record: 68-35. Next up: An off-day followed by 3 games at home vs Detroit.

July 23-25, 2027: vs Detroit (3)
 

Game 1: It was a matchup of two starting pitchers traded for each other in the 2023-24 offseason as one-time Rays phenom Shane Baz faced former Tiger Matt Manning at the Trop. Although Manning's won a Cy Young with the Rays and 2 World Series rings, tonight it was Baz who get the better of things in a 4-2 Detroit win. Baz came in a terrible 5-11, 6.90 but shut down his old organization with a 7 6 2 2 1 3 performance, yielding only Keibert Ruiz's 8th HR of the year, a solo shot in the 2nd, and a leadoff walk to Nate Clark in the 8th after he which departed and his reliever gave up a Vidal Brujan RBI double (Brujan was foolishly thrown out at 3rd on the play). Manning meanwhile struggled with his control and it cost him in the 3rd when he loaded the bases with two walks and a hit and with 2 out allowed a bases-clearing double to Levi Usher to break a 1-1 tie. Manning ended up 5.1 7 4 4 4 5 and falls to 9-4. Blake Money looked really good in another long relief outing, going 2.2 1 0 0 1 4 and Aaron Ashby had a 2K scoreless 9th to keep the Rays in the game. After losing yesterday the Yankees won to cut the lead back down to 9 1/2.

Game 2: The Rays continue to have their struggles at home (32-22 vs 36-15 on the road), and even worse than today's 7-5 loss was that Keibert Ruiz sprained his knee and has suffered a 4-week injury. It's listed as a DtD (minimal) injury, but given the state of the division lead and given we have a more than capable backup in Andrew Knizner, I'm going to IL him and see how it goes. As for the game the Tigers treated Mack Anglin like a human piñata today, getting 5 runs and 8 hits in the first 2 innings as he threw 71 pitches. He made it through another 2 1/3 to save the bullpen a bit, but after his 7 shutout innings in Baltimore last time out it was a bit startling to see him hit so hard. This put the Rays down 5-0 but they chipped away and got within 5-4. Keston Hiura hit HR #6 to put them on the board, Judson Fabian had a 2-run double, and Yordan Alvarez had an RBI single in the 5th and a comeback appeared to be in the cards. Unfortunately Aaron Ashby served up a lefty-on-lefty HR to Riley Greene, Greene's 2nd in 2 days, and then in the 9th Liam Hendriks gave up a dinger to Austin Martin to make it 7-4. Still they had a chance in the ninth. Vidal Brujan walked for the third time with one out, Wander got his 3rd hit of the game, and Alvarez was the tying run at the plate. He didn't homer as I had hoped but he did drill an RBI double putting the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd. But Fabian flew to shallow center and Hunter Bishop struck out, and that was the ball game. The Rays caught a break when the Yankees lost, so no diminution of the division lead.

July 25: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day IL with knee tendinitis, recalled C Carlos Perez from AAA Durham.

Second time this year Perez has been up, the first time for a brief period between trading Patrick Bailey and waiting for Andrew Knizner to sign. Perez remains highly regarded as a top 60 prospect, and is a 30-HR, 70-walk guy although he's a .240-.250 hitter. He's also a 60 defensively. So not too shabby for a backup here, another reason why I feel comfortable disabling Ruiz despite the "minor" nature of his injury. Why risk it?

Holy crap! This is the biggest trade I think I've seen the AI make the now 8 seasons I've been playing this save:

https://i.imgur.com/TxWidYA.png

Glad not to have face Gleyber Torres 18-19 times a season, but Robles is no slouch either.

Game 3: For the third straight game the Rays had their starting pitcher put them in a hole, but for a change they came back and held Detroit the rest of the way for a 5-3 win. Shane McClanahan was shaky in the 1st, nearly got out of it but gave up a 2-run single to Gabriel Moreno and then yielded an RBI double in the 3rd to make it 3-1 Detroit. But Mac settled down from there, going 5.2 8 3 3 2 4, limiting the damage. Meanwhile the offense chipped away until the lead was gone. Jud Fabian had a sac fly in the 1st, and Vidal Brujan doubled in the 5th and scored after consecutive wild pitches from Tigers starter John Rizzo. And then they completed the comeback in the 6th. Hunter Bishop singled, and with one out Andrew Knizner was hit by a pitch. After Jhon Diaz whiffed, Brandon Marsh walked and Brujan came through again, this time with a 2-run single to put the Rays ahead. They tacked on a run in the 8th when Diaz doubled and scored on a sac fly from Brujan, who ended up 2-3 with a walk and 3 RBI. And the revamped pen was lights out. Jack Filby went 1 1/3 perfect and got the win, in his home debut Daniel Espino did what he was acquired to do, pitch the 8th and he had a 1-2-3 inning, and with lefties due up Jose Alvarado came on and picked up save #5 with his own 1-2-3 inning. The Gleyber Torres-less Yankees lost, so the lead is now 10 1/2.

Team record: 69-37. Next up: An off-day before the Columbus Lightning (!) come to town for the first time in their current incarnation for a pair of games.

Note from the farm: Hayden Johns didn't take his demotion to Durham and pout as he threw a 2-hit shutout with 1 walk and 7 Ks tonight. I like Blake Money in the multi-inning relief role better so if Jack Leiter flames out (he's had 2 good and 2 bad-to-mediocre starts), I could see Johns as the 5th starter as he looked good in a pair of spot starts against Baltimore earlier in the season.

July 27-28, 2027: vs Columbus (2)
 

Game 1: In one of their poorer efforts of the year, the Rays were zapped by the Lightning 8-3 as they continue to have trouble with this franchise, having been swept in four games last season when they were known as the Miami Roughnecks. Jack Leiter had another poor start, this time in the pitcher-friendly confines of the Trop, giving up 3 in the 3rd on a 3-run Victor Mesa Jr homer and 2 more in the 4th, going 4.2 6 5 5 3 7 with the strikeouts the only good thing about his outing. Blake Money took over in long relief and was only a little better, giving up 3 runs (2 earned) over 3 1/3. Meanwhile the offense couldn't get anything going against Hunter Greene until it was too late, with the exception of Yordan Alvarez's 21st HR of the year, a solo shot in the 4th. Wander Franco hit a 2-run triple in the 8th but to sum up the night he was tagged out at third when Columbus pulled the old hidden ball trick. The Yankees came back with 3 in the 9th to beat the Mets with the winning hit courtesy of new acquisition Victor Robles, so the lead is cut to 9 1/2.

Game 2: The Rays took out all their frustrations at being 1-3 on this mini-homestand by putting up a touchdown and extra point in the first inning, kicking a field goal in the 2nd, and cruising to a 14-2 win over Columbus. Yoendrys Gomez didn't stand a chance, giving up hit after hit to a parade of Rays batters, allowing 7 runs on 6 hits and getting only two outs in the first, and Miguel Diaz was battered for 4 runs and 9 hits in 3 1/3 of relief as they totaled 21 hits for the day. Leading the parade was Wander Franco, who finished a triple short of the cycle, going 4-6 with a HR (#18) and 2 RBI. Yordan Alvarez (3-6 with 2 doubles and an RBI), Hunter Bishop (3-4 with 2 RBI) and Nate Clark (3-5 with 2 doubles and an RBI) also had big days. Interestingly, Jhon Diaz led the team in RBI on the day thanks to a bases-clearing pinch-hit double in the 7th for the final runs. Christian Little was absolutely dominant with all this run support, retiring the first 12 Lightning before Andrew Benintendi led off the 5th with a homer. That was the only baserunner Little allowed as he went 7 1 1 1 0 12 in one of the best starts of his career and is now 11-5, 3.14. Liam Hendriks gave up a run in the 8th and Jack Filby had a scoreless 9th to close out the game. The Yankees won, so we're still 9 1/2 up.

Team record: 70-38. Next up: Yet another off-day (something tells me we're not getting much if any rest in August and September) before a weekend 3-game trip to Cincinnati.

July 30-August 1, 2027: at Cincinnati (3)
 

Game 1: A 2-2 game in the 8th turned into a 10-3 Rays win in a case of "that escalated quickly". Andrew Knizner's 2-out, 2-run single broke a 2-2 tie in the 8th and then the Rays exploded for 6 more in the 9th capped by a 3-run HR from Brandon Marsh (#8 and his 5th since the All-Star break). Mack Anglin started and was pitching well, staked to a 2-0 lead on a 2-run shot from Wander Franco (#19) in the 5th. Unfortunately Anglin served up a 2-run homer of his own to the Reds' Owen Cobb in bottom of the 6th, costing him a shot at a win but still finishing 6 7 2 2 1 9. The 9 whiffs were a good sign as Anglin hadn't been striking out that many in his recent starts. After Jack Filby pitched a perfect 7th the Rays loaded the bases in the 8th and although Marsh whiffed with one out, Knizner came through with his clutch single. Daniel Espino pitched a shutdown 8th, and then came the big 9th inning. Liam Hendriks mopped up in the bottom of the 9th and gave up a homer for the second straight outing to give us the final score, with Filby getting his second win of the week. Vidal Brujan had 3 hits and steal #38, while Hunter Bishop had 3 hits including an RBI double. The Yankees lost to Boston to drop 10 back.

Game 2: The Rays played some fairly uninspired baseball in a 5-2 loss to Cincinnati today. Things looked good early when Yordan Alvarez hit #22 in the first inning to make it 1-0 and with Shane McClanahan on the mound there was cause for optimism. And at first Mac justified that optimism, retiring the first 10 Reds he faced. But the avalanche started after that, and 6 batters later, 4 runs had scored. He also gave up a Nolan Jones homer in the 5th and ended 6 6 5 5 1 6, a victim of sequencing I suppose. Liam Hendriks and Aaron Ashby each had a quick scoreless inning in relief. After the Alvarez homer the offense went extremely quiet and Reds rookie starter Ramon Carrasco, recently acquired from Kansas City, shut them down to the tune of 6.1 3 1 1 2 6. They did manage 5 hits and a run off the Reds bullpen on a Vidal Brujan RBI single in the 8th, but as the tying run in that inning with two out Wander Franco grounded out as part of his 0-5 day. Andrew Knizner did go 3-4 as the only hitter with a pulse (except perhaps Alvarez, and pinch-hitters Nate Clark and Keston Hiura, who each singled). The Yankees went down to defeat again, so on this last day of July I'll throw out the fact the magic # is reduced to 43.

Game 3: The Rays overcame the rain and the Reds today to post a 7-1 win that was closer than the final score indicated. Things did not start off well, as Matt Manning was in trouble in the first 2 innings, giving up a run in the 1st and putting the first two men on in the 2nd. But a bad bunt by Reds pitcher Sam Carlson turned into a double play and Manning settled in from there, going 5 3 1 1 3 5 but forced to leave after an 85-minute rain delay. Fortunately his teammates got some runs to get him a win. After Wander Franco's infield single in the 2nd tied it up, with the rain coming down the Rays rallied for 3 runs in the 6th. Brandon Marsh's RBI single gave the Rays the lead, and Carlos Perez followed a run-scoring single of his own, his first major league RBI. Vidal Brujan later plated the 3rd run with a groundout. The bullpen was outstanding from there, with Evan Godwin, Daniel Espino, Jose Alvarado and Jack Filby each pitching an inning and combining for a 4 2 0 0 0 6 line. Marsh continued on his HR binge by hitting #9 in the 8th to make it 5-1, and after a two-out Cincinnati error in the 9th, Judson Fabian doubled and Nate Clark drove both runners home with a single. Manning is now 10-4, 3.79. Yankees won so the magic # is now 42.

Team record: 72-39. Next up: We head further north for a 3-game set in Toronto.

August 2-4, 2027: at Toronto (3)
 

Game 1: Today marked the first of 16 straight games against AL East opponents, and the Rays got off to a good start on this stretch with a 7-1 win over the Blue Jays behind Jack Leiter's best MLB start to date. The rookie righty had struggled his last few times out (15 ER in his last 14.2), leading to some speculation about him losing his job to Hayden Johns. But after Johns threw a shutout at Durham he was shelled in his next start (despite whiffing 10) and Leiter silenced any budding critics with a 7.2 5 1 1 1 7 performance on 92 pitches. A Cavan Biggio homer in the 3rd was the only damage against him. As in some recent games, this was a close one until the Rays broke it open in the late innings. Brandon Marsh stayed hot with an RBI single to put the Rays on the board in the 2nd, and Wander Franco broke the tie in the 5th with HR #20 off Brody Westbrooks. Andrew Knizner singled in another run in the 6th to make it 3-1 and that's where we stayed until the 8th. Knizner doubled in Nate Clark, and Vidal Brujan singled in Knizner, Wander walked to load the bases, Yordan Alvarez had an infield RBI single, Judson Fabian walked with the bases loaded (all of this with 0 out) and the 5th run of the inning scored on a double play. Jack Filby got the final out of the 8th after Leiter put two men on, and Blake Money pitched a scoreless 9th to end the game. The Yankees won so the magic # drops to 41.

Game 2: The Rays lost a tough one to Toronto 4-3 today as the bats didn't quite generate enough (5 total hits) and Daniel Espino let them down in the 8th. Christian Little started and was roughed up in the first couple of innings. Adrian Hernandez led the game off with a triple and scored, and Dominic Fletcher hit a 2-run HR off Little in the 2nd to give the Jays a quick 3-0 lead. The Rays fought back in the 3rd, first on yet another Brandon Marsh HR (#10), then Vidal Brujan singled, stole second, and scored on a Wander Franco double. Brujan then hit his 7th HR of the year in the 5th to tie it and from there on out Little and Toronto starter Mick Abel settled down into the 8th. It was probably a mistake to bring Little out for the 8th having thrown 99 pitches, but bring him out I did and Cavan Biggio hit a leadoff double. I then pulled him for Espino, who got two outs around a wild pitch sending Biggio to 3rd. In the key at-bat of the game, Justin Ellison worked out a walk on a 3-2 pitch which brought Vlad Jr. to the plate and of course he singled to bring home Biggio. They had a chance to tie or go ahead in the 9th when Jays closer Nate Pearson walked the bases loaded but Brujan grounded to second to end the game. Little took a tough loss and ended up 7 4 4 4 1 10. The Yankees won so the lead is cut to 9.

MLB Note: German Marquez of the Nationals no-hit the Columbus Lightning in a 9-0 win. Marquez didn't walk anyone but missed out on a perfect game thanks to Juan Soto's dropped fly ball. He struck out 5, and it was a Maddux as it took him only 87 pitches.

Game 3: Another sad effort from the Rays in a 3-1 loss at Toronto. From the scoreline, you'd think the offense was the main culprit and for the most part you'd be right. They had great chances in the 8th and 9th to come back as Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco pulled off a double steal in the 8th to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out but Yordan Alvarez hit a foul pop and Judson Fabian grounded out. And in the 9th, Triston Casas and Nate Clark (who had 3 hits today) singled to lead off the inning but Andrew Knizner hit into a double play and Brandon Marsh struck out to end the game. Knizner's double driving in Clark in the 3rd was the only Rays run for the day. But also to blame was Mack Anglin's highly unusual bout of wildness today. Coming in he had walked only 17 in 111 innings but ended up putting 6 on base for free today and they led to all 3 Toronto runs, 2 in the 2nd and 1 in the fifth. He ended up with a strange 6 2 3 2 6 6 line and errors behind him didn't help either. So the run of mediocrity continues as the Rays are now 13-13 over their last 26. The Yankees scored 4 in the bottom of the 9th to beat the White Sox so they're as close as they've been in a while, 8 back.

Team record: 73-41. Next up: An off-day followed by a 3-game weekend series at home against Boston.

August 6-8, 2027: vs Boston (3)
 

Game 1: Ugh. The Rays lost in quite possibly the worst way, 5-4 in 19 innings. And the only reason we went 19 innings is because Jasseel De La Cruz blew a 3-2 lead in the 9th inning. Officially Red Sox rookie Bob Kelly's HR off Liam Hendriks in the top of the 19th won it for Boston, but the Rays lost the game several times prior to that. Runs were scarce tonight in most of regulation, and the Rays continued their offensive anemia tonight trailing 2-1 going into the bottom of the 8th. But Yordan Alvarez, who had the earlier RBI yet has come up wanting in so many clutch situations this season, came through big-time with a 2-run HR (#23) off Kyle Crick to give the Rays a 3-2 lead. All JDLC had to do was hold it, but he put two men on with two out and gave up singles to Yoan Moncada to tie it and Kelly to give Boston the lead. But miraculously the Rays tied it in the 9th thanks to sloppy play from Boston. With one out Triston Casas hit a grounder to SS Lusiangel Acuna, but he threw it away sending Casas to 2nd. He went to 3rd on a groundout and with two out, Crick threw a wild pitch to let Casas score the tying run. And on and on we went from there. Both teams had their chances with runners in scoring position and less than 2 out and couldn't convert them, and most egregiously Alvarez led off the bottom of the 18th with a double but was thrown out by Tirso Ornelas as he tried to stretch it into a triple. Judson Fabian singled right after him of course. The Rays only managed 12 hits through the 19 innings. Both bullpens are now burned, of course. Blake Money went 5 innings in relief in extras, Daniel Espino threw 2 as did Hendriks. Shane McClanahan was in trouble all game with a 6 7 2 2 5 4 line but amazingly the two runs came off homers. And the news got worse on the out-of-town scoreboard. Not only did the Yankees win tonight, they also won last night while the Rays were off and have pulled within 6 1/2 games. Time to start winning again.

Game 2: So guess what? We played extra innings again! And when Boston scored twice in the top of the 11th off Jose Alvarado in his 2nd inning of relief I was ready to throw my laptop across the room. Fortunately I didn't, as the Rays came back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 11th and won it in the 12th 6-5. The extra-inning comeback started with Hunter Bishop leading off the bottom of the 11th with HR #13, and that was immediately followed by a Triston Casas double and he scored on a two-out single from Andrew Knizner. Aaron Ashby got the Sox 1-2-3 in the 12th, and with one out Wander Franco singled for his third hit of the game, stole second, and went to third on a throwing error from former Rays farmhand Noah Cardenas. With the outfield in as well as the infield, Yordan Alvarez hit a liner to CF that Enrique Bradfield went back on to catch but couldn't get Franco at the plate and a thousand "whew"s were let out across the Tampa Bay area. Ashby picked up his first win of the season and the Rays snapped their 3-game losing streak. Before we went to extras again it was a matchup of two guys who have won 3 of the last 4 AL Cy Young awards with Tyler Glasnow facing Matt Manning. Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead against Manning in the 4th but the Rays answered in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases with 2 out and getting a bases-clearing triple from Knizner, who also showed off his wheels later with an infield hit among his 3 on the night. But the Sox tied it in the 7th, and Manning left with a decent 6.2 6 3 2 1 5 line. And the good news just kept coming as earlier in the day the A's scored 7 times in the 8th to beat the Yankees 7-1, so the lead is back up to 7 1/2 and the magic # is down to 39.

MAJOR INJURY UPDATE: I was so relieved to win, and win in extra innings no less, that in the aftermath of the game I forgot that Vidal Brujan had to leave with an "injured, diagnosis pending". So I pulled him up in the editor, and it's bad. Real bad. He's going to miss almost a year (348 days it says) with a torn labrum. That means of course it's Nick Gonzales time, and I don't expect a major dropoff. Gonzo is about 90% of Brujan (and perhaps a slightly better overall hitter) so just as we got by without Wander in 2025 we'll have to get by without Brujan. But of course next year now we'll go most of the season without Brujan and Franco at the top of the lineup so it is going to be weird. Also Keston Hiura should get to play more since 2B is his primary position.

August 8: Placed 2B Vidal Brujan on the 60-day IL with a torn labrum, purchased the contract of IF Nick Loftin from AAA Durham.

More like the 360-day IL for Brujan, whom we won't see again until mid-late July 2028. Not only was Brujan our starting 2B, he was also our backup SS as guys like Hiura and Gonzales don't play the position. Loftin doesn't play it particularly well either, but for now he's a stopgap as I've already reached out to a halfway-decent free agent SS to come in and be the backup as I'm not looking to start the service clock of Isaac DeLeon or Ricky Widmar to rot on the bench.

Game 3: After his great start in Toronto, Jack Leiter reverted back to his previous poor form of late and the Red Sox beat the Rays 7-5 in a game that really wasn't that close. With the bullpen down to Liam Hendriks, Daniel Espino and Jasseel De La Cruz after 31 innings of baseball the previous two days, length was needed out of Leiter. He gave them 7 innings, but they weren't very good innings (well 4 of them were). He did look good through the first 3 but in the 4th he had two men on and two out and up stepped Rays-killer David Dahl and he did just that with a two-run double. A Judson Fabian RBI single in the bottom of the inning got the Rays back to 2-1, but the 5th is where things really went bad. After giving up a run and having two men on, Boston rookie and new Rays nemesis Bob Kelly (who hit the 19th inning HR Friday night) launched a 3-run shot into the RF stands to make it 6-1. Leiter stayed in from there to pitch 2 more innings, giving up another run in the 7th and ending 7 10 7 7 0 5 as his ERA balloons to 5.44 despite his 4-3 record. He'll get at least one more start, but he's on a short leash. The offense chipped away to make it interesting at the end. Keston Hiura, getting the start today at 2B with Brujan out, singled in a run in the 6th to make it 6-2, and then in the 8th Nate Clark hit his second double of the day to make it 7-3. And with two out and a man on, Yordan Alvarez hit #24 to make it 7-5. And after the homer Fabian singled and Hunter Bishop reached on an error to put the tying runs on base and bring the winning run to the plate, but Triston Casas grounded out to end it. Hendriks came on in relief of Leiter and nearly went 2 innings but had to leave with 2 out in the 9th with back tightness, a 2-week injury so he's IL-bound as well. JDLC got the final out in the 9th. The Yankees won so the lead is back down to 6 1/2 games after this trying weekend.

Team record: 74-43. Next up: 4 at home vs Toronto. Where are those off-days now that we need them?

August 9-12, 2027: vs Toronto (4)
 

August 9: Placed P Liam Hendriks on the 15-day IL with back stiffness, recalled P Cole Patten from AAA Durham. Signed SS Cole Tucker to a minor league contract and assigned him to AAA Durham.

Patten can give us multiple innings, which is what we need right now with this burned-out bullpen. Tucker is the guy I was hinting at yesterday, he was a regular SS for the Pirates. He's an adequate SS who has moderate power and can hit around .260, although in the small sample size he's going to get who knows? He'll play a few games with Durham and then come up for Lofton and then like Lofton, go on a milk carton.

Game 1: I hate this game. I really do. Another day, another injury. This time it was tonight's starter Christian Little, who had to leave with forearm stiffness after 2 innings. It's not serious, he should make his next start, but it was the last thing we needed with a burned-out bullpen after this past weekend. And it ended up biting us in the end as the short-handed pen blew a 6-3 lead after 7 innings and lost the game 8-6. Weirdly the game was 0-0 after 5. Little was perfect in his 2 innings and then Cole Patten came in and made like Little, striking out the side in the 3rd and the 4th and getting through the 5th before tiring, and Rays pitching had still not allowed a hit. With only Daniel Espino, Evan Godwin and JDLC rested, I brought Espino with the idea of getting two innings from him. I did, but in the first one he gave up the first hit of the game on a bunt, walked a guy and then surrendered a 3-run HR to Adrian Hernandez. But the Rays answered back with an RBI single from Triston Casas and a 3-run HR from Nate Clark (#5) to take the lead 4-3. And when Wander tripled in a run and scored on Yordan Alvarez's single to make it 6-3 in the 7th, it looked it would be a win. But Evan Godwin had to come in and face righties, and although he struck out the first one, the next two got hits and it brought up the righty-hitting Vlad Jr. I didn't want to push JDLC for 1 2/3 but I should have tried because you can guess what happened: Vlad homered. And when I did bring JDLC on for the 9th, he was terrible and gave up 2 runs to lose the game. So Espino, Godwin and JDLC combined for 8 runs allowed in 4 innings and each threw upwards of 30 pitches so they won't be available for at least a day if not 2. This bullpen hell shows no sign of going away. And of course the Yankees won so the lead is now 5 1/2 and slipping fast. We head to Yankee Stadium next week with no off-days in between. Woo hoo!

August 10: Optioned P Cole Patten to AAA Durham, recalled P Steven Casey from AAA Durham.

Patten wasn't going to be useful for several days, so Casey comes back up. Tonight's available pitchers are Casey, Blake Money, Jack Filby, Jose Alvarado and Aaron Ashby. Hoping Mack Anglin can go 6-7 at least.

I've been remiss in providing the MLB standings to give an idea of where things are around the league, so here it is with the league leaders as well:

https://i.imgur.com/RRlktFS.png

Game 2: OK, maybe I don't hate this game. The Rays were dead and buried once again, down 6-1 going to the bottom of the 9th. But a 6-run rally brought them the most improbable of victories at a much-needed time. Keston Hiura and Wander Franco singled to start the inning, and after Lyon Richardson walked Yordan Alvarez to load the bases, Nate Pearson came on to try and close it out. Judson Fabian singled in a run, Hunter Bishop doubled in two more, and suddenly it was 6-4. Pearson struck out Triston Casas but rookie sensation Nate Clark ripped a line double to the left field corner, scoring Fabian and Bishop to tie the game. Andrew Knizner walked to put men on first and second, and they advanced on Brandon Marsh's groundout. So the inning ended where it began, with Hiura at the plate hitting a single, scoring Clark to win the game and setting off a mad scene at the Trop. The less said about how we got to this inning the better, but Mack Anglin struggled with his control again, walking 4, 3 of which came around to score, in a 6 7 5 5 4 7 outing that was aided by two baserunner kills by Rays outfielders. Steven Casey pitched a perfect 2K 7th in his return (including a whiff of Vlad Jr, whom Rays pitchers held 0-4 with 3 whiffs, would have hurt to lose a game where they did that), Aaron Ashby gave up a run in the 8th and Blake Money pitched a scoreless ninth and grabbed his 4th Rays win, 7th overall. The win was critical because the Yankees are on one of their rolls, winning again in Kansas City. At least I get a chance to report a reduction in the magic #, now 38.

Game 3: It was nice for a change to have a relatively comfortable, classic Rays-style win, and that we did tonight behind Shane McClanahan, our ace who gave an ace-like performance as the Rays prevailed 4-1. He went 7 4 1 1 3 8 and is now 14-4, 2.98 and was never in serious trouble. Jack Filby pitched the 8th and Jose Alvarado closed it out in the 9th for save #6. The offense largely came via the longball. After Judson Fabian singled in Wander Franco who had doubled in the 1st, Fabian (#11) and Nate Clark (#6) went deep in the 4th, and Keston Hiura (#7, and happy to be in the regular lineup again) did likewise in the 7th. Fabian had a 3-hit night and added a stolen base. Clark was 2-3 with the HR and a steal and continues to rake (321/367/509 with 15 steals) in his 165 AB. The Yankees keep winning (their 71-50 record would lead either of the other 2 divisions) so the magic # is down to 37.

Game 4: The Rays made it three straight (and finally evened the season series with Toronto at 8) with a 5-3 win over the Jays. Yordan Alvarez's RBI single in the bottom of the 7th broke a 3-3 tie and after he went to 2nd on the throw Judson Fabian singled him home with some insurance. Daniel Espino had a perfect 1-2-3 2K 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz, despite allowing a 2-out double, nailed down save #16. Matt Manning got the start and had his strikeout pitch today, whiffing 11 in 6 innings. The only problem was he gave up a pair of homers in the 2nd, one of them to old friend Yusniel Diaz. He had a 3-2 lead going into his final inning, but a leadoff walk to Cavan Biggio came around to haunt him and enabled Toronto to tie. Earlier, Alvarez and Fabian had the first of their RBI singles and Hunter Bishop knocked one in as well. They banged out 15 hits as a team with Wander Franco and Alvarez each picking up 3. Jack Filby got the win in relief pitching the 7th, his 5th win with the Rays and 6th overall. And some rare good news on the out-of-town scoreboard as the White Sox scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th to pip the Yankees 4-3 after New York had gone ahead in the top of the 9th. The lead is now up to 6 1/2 and the magic # down to 35.

Team record: 77-44. Next up: 3 at home vs Baltimore, who just brought Rays oldboy Brandon Lowe up to their team.

August 13-15, 2027: vs Baltimore (3)
 

August 13: Purchased the contract of SS Cole Tucker from AAA Durham, designated IF Nick Loftin for assignment and placed him on waivers.

Tucker got 4 games in at Durham (2 for 18), so he got to work a little rust off. Loftin should clear waivers again.

Game 1: The Orioles came to town for Friday the 13th, and the game played out like a horror movie for the Rays on a couple of occasions. The first instance came right away when Jack Leiter, his rotation spot dangling by a thread, gave up hits to the first four Orioles hitters of the game with three of them scoring to put the Rays in an early 3-0 hole. He did settle in nicely after that, and aside from a run allowed in the 6th when he was running out of gas, ended 5.2 7 4 4 0 9 with his run of strikeouts impressive. And not only that, the offense got to Oriole ace Bryar Johnson, chasing him in the fifth. But just when it looked like the monster/demon/slasher was dead, it resurfaced in the 8th inning when the bullpen contrived to blow a 10-4 lead, capped by Blake Money surrendering a grand slam to Gunnar Henderson to tie the game. Money was terrible, putting two on ahead of Henderson's shot and then two more after before Jose Alvarado had to rescue him, sending us to yet another extra-inning game. But like in most horror films, the nemesis is defeated in the end and the "final girl" in this movie was Andrew Knizner, whose 12th inning homer off Ruben Galindo gave the Rays an eventual 11-10 win. After Leiter put them in arrears, they tied it up by the 3rd and went ahead with 7 runs in the 5th and 6th. Knizner had a big 2-run double early in the game to get them on the board, and Yordan Alvarez's 25th HR tied it up. Keston Hiura chased Johnson with a 2-run shot (#8) in the 5th, and Judson Fabian hit #12 in that inning. Brandon Marsh had a 4-hit day and scored twice with a steal as well. Alvarado ended up going 2 1/3 in relief before Evan Godwin pitched 1 2/3 brilliant innings, retiring all 5 he faced including 4 via strikeout to get his 3rd win. The other pitcher who combined with Money to give up 6 in the 8th was Steven Casey, and he at least had the excuse of having to leave with biceps tendinitis, a 7-week injury which effectively ends his season since I doubt he makes the postseason roster. Strangely the Yankees were idle on a Friday so the lead grows to 7 and the magic # drops to 34. By the way, I just want to take a moment to talk about Knizner, who's replaced an injured .340-hitting catcher by going 317/368/520 himself with 25 RBI in 36 games. This would make the 3rd year in 4 he's hit over .300 and I might try and give him a 1-year extension and let Carlos Perez play every day at Durham for another season.

August 14: Placed P Steven Casey on the 15-day IL with biceps tendinitis, recalled P Cole Patten from AAA Durham.

Patten's done nothing but pitched well when he's been up, so here's hoping that continues.

Game 2: The Rays lost a tough one tonight to Baltimore 3-2, wasting another dominant outing from Christian Little. The game was 1-1 going into the 7th, and Little had 13 strikeouts with his only blemish a CJ Chatham solo homer. Little got the first two outs of the 7th, one via strikeout, but gave up an infield single, hit a batter and then gave up another infield single to load the bases. With his pitch count approaching 110, surely Daniel Espino could come in and take care of .150-hitting Oriole backup catcher Will Banfield? Nope, Banfield hit a 2-run single and Baltimore had all the runs they'd need. Espino pitched a scoreless 8th after getting the final out of the 7th, and Cole Patten continued to look good with a 1-2-3 9th, but the damage was done. The bats couldn't get much going against Kevin Abel, but it didn't look that way at the start as Keston Hiura led off the game with a triple (extended his hit streak to 15 games) and immediately scored on a Wander single. But it turned out Abel would allow only 3 more hits after that, although one of them was Nate Clark singling in Hunter Bishop who had doubled in the 7th. Judson Fabian walked in the 9th to give them a semblance of hope, but nobody else could reach and the game was over. The Yankees got back in the win column with a 4-run ninth to beat the White Sox so the lead is down to 6.

Game 3: The Rays rolled to a comfortable 7-1 win today behind the solid pitching of Mack Anglin and some awake bats. Anglin had the Orioles pounding his slider into ground, recording 10 ground outs in a 6.2 7 1 1 1 5 performance. Aside from the 5th when Baltimore scored its run, Anglin was only really in trouble in the 2nd when Austin Meadows led off with a double and Druw Jones beat out an infield single to put men on 1st and 3rd with no out. But he struck out the next two batters and got a ground out and rolled from there. Hunter Bishop got the offense going with HR #14 to lead off the bottom of the 2nd, and they scored two more in the inning on Brandon Marsh's double. A Marsh RBI single and Keston Hiura's RBI double (hit streak now at 16) added runs in the 6th after Judson Fabian's GIDP scored one in the 5th. Nate Clark's 7th inning sac fly rounded out the scoring. Jack Filby struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced and retired, and Cole Patten had another scoreless inning to finish it off. Filby has been great lately as today's outing was the 13th consecutive appearance he's made without allowing a run. The Yankees won to stay 6 back but the magic # is now 33.

Team record: 79-45. Next up: 3 big games with those Yankees in New York. Get swept and it's a real dogfight, win one and things are tight but relatively comfortable, win two and be in command, or sweep and the division race is effectively over. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

August 16-18, 2027: at NY Yankees (3)
 

Game 1: So there's nothing like clicking on "manage game" and seeing the lineup has 5 guys in it with the "tired" designation next to their names, especially when those guys are Wander Franco, Hunter Bishop, Brandon Marsh, Andrew Knizner and Triston Casas, and especially when it's the biggest game of the season to date in mid-August. So hello Cole Tucker, Nick Gonzales, Jhon Diaz and Carlos Perez (with only 4 guys on the bench, Casas stayed in the lineup). And whaddya know, the tired and the replacements did enough on offense to back another gem from Shane McClanahan despite the efforts of one of the other replacements in a critical 4-3 win over the Yankees. With the makeshift lineup, Nate Clark moved up to the 2-hole and singled in the first, stole second, went to third on a throwing error and scored on Yordan Alvarez's single. After the Yankees tied it up with help from a Perez throwing error on a steal attempt in the 2nd, they loaded the bases in the 3rd and Casas wasn't too tired to drive in a pair with a single to make it 3-1. And then Diaz came through with his 7th HR of the year in the 4th to increase the lead to 4-1 and that homer would prove to be the difference. Mac meanwhile was dealing, but got touched for another run when Perez threw JT Schwartz's squibber in front of the plate into RF and he ended up scoring without the benefit of a hit (Perez later made another throwing error on a steal attempt, giving him a hat trick). Mac went 7 3 2 0 3 6 and is now 15-4, 2.85. In another year he might win the Cy but Minnesota's Jon Hayes is 17-2 with a lower ERA and leading in WAR. Daniel Espino came on for the 8th and although he got the first 2 outs, he remains decidedly un-clutch as a Ray, giving up a HR to Joe Allen to cut it to 4-3. Jose Alvarado got the lefty out to end the inning and with two more due in the 9th, stayed on. He gave up a leadoff double to Skyler Messinger to make us all nervous but struck out the next 3 Yankees to nail down save #7 and give the Rays a commanding 7-game lead, assuring them they'll leave New York no worse than 5 up.

Game 2: The regulars were back tonight, and most importantly Matt Manning was on the mound as he came up with another clutch road performance as the Rays beat the Yankees 4-1 to take a stranglehold on the AL East, now up by 8 games. It was reminiscent of his shutout in Minnesota, although the final batter he faced in the 8th, Aaron Judge, tripled in the lone Yankee run. He went 7.2 7 1 1 0 6 and wasn't seriously threatened until the 8th. With Jose Alvarado unavailable from yesterday, Evan Godwin got the lefty to end the 8th and stayed on with two more due and picked up his first save of the season. The offense was primarily supplied by Yordan Alvarez and Judson Fabian. Alvarez smacked his 25th HR of the year off Gerrit Cole in the 1st to put them on the board, Fabian doubled in Alvarez in the 4th, and he added a solo HR (#13) in the 6th. In between Brandon Marsh hit #11 (his 8th since the All-Star break) off Cole in the 5th for the other run. Keston Hiura extended his hitting streak to 18 by leading off the game with a single, but had to leave with a slight hamstring tweak which won't prevent him from being in the lineup tomorrow. The already-tired Triston Casas had to come in to replace him, so he'll definitely be getting the day off tomorrow. The mercurial Jack Leiter will get the start but having won the first two of the series, the Rays are playing with house money.

Game 3: Down 5-1 after 7 innings, the Rays mounted a furious comeback to score twice in 8th and twice in the 9th to send it to extra innings, but the offense then went dead and the Yankees eventually prevailed in 14 innings, 6-5, on a Chase Davis homer off Cole Patten leading off the inning. As a result the Yankees pull back within 7 of the Rays. It was a weird game for the offense, which bunched 3 hits together in the 3rd to score a run, went hitless for the next four innings, made the comeback in the 8th and 9th, and then went hitless again for the entirety of extras as Yankees relievers retired all 15 batters from the 10th through the 14th. Jack Leiter got the start and as usual, he was brilliant for a stretch and horrible for a stretch. He no-hit the Yanks over the first 3 innings before he couldn't retire anyone the second time through and the Yankees scored 4 off him in the 4th. He gave 2 more hits in the 5th and was pulled, going 4.1 6 4 4 2 3 to give him a 5.79 ERA through 51.1 innings over 9 starts. He has a nice 12/48 BB/K ratio but he's getting hit too hard (or unlucky with a .365 BABIP). I'm going to have to mull over what to do with him (we have an off-day tomorrow so he could be skipped). The bullpen was excellent after that, with only Blake Money giving up a run in the 7th that made it 5-1 and looked like a "so what?" run but turned out to be crucial. Yordan Alvarez had a 2-run single in the 8th to make it 5-3, and with one out and one on in the 9th, Nick Gonzales launched his 2nd HR of the year off Yankee closer Nick Paciorek to improbably tie the game. They had 2 more on against Paciorek after the homer, but couldn't get them home and those would prove to be the last baserunners of the game for them. Jose Alvarado went 1 1/3 in extras and Jack Filby 2 innings. Patten had a nice 1-2-3 13th including a whiff of the tough lefty hitter Joe Allen but Davis took him deep to start the 14th and that was that. Still as longtime Rays manager Joe Maddon used to say, they Meat Loafed them as two out of three ain't bad.

Team record: 81-46. Next up: A day off as we head west to play 3 in Anaheim against the Angels.

Elsewhere in MLB today, Dodgers starter Michel Baez had a helluva day. Not only did he take a no-hitter into the 8th against the Cubs (giving up an Austin Hays double) and ended up with a 9 1 0 0 0 9 performance, he also hit a 2-run HR in support of himself.

August 20-22, 2027: at LA Angels (3)
 

Game 1: Almost every time he takes the mound, Christian Little seems like he has no-hit stuff (the game has him at 80) and tonight he was no-hitting the Angels through 5 2/3 with a 6-0 lead. But Alex Verdugo singled and it seemed to rattle him, as Mike Trout (having an renaissance year at age 35) then drilled a 2-run HR (#35) off him and former Rays flop Lewin Diaz followed suit to halve the lead. Little then hit Anthony Rendon, and another former Rays disappointment Max Kepler hit a ball to deep RF - and it was caught at the fence and Little escaped. He stayed on until the 7th and went 6.2 4 3 3 1 7 to go to 12-7, 3.26 and the Rays tacked on 4 late runs to win comfortably 10-4. Jack Filby relieved him and pitched in the 8th, giving up a double that Jose Alvarado allowed to score to make it 6-4 and marking the first run charged to Filby in 15 appearances. Once the Rays went up 6, JDLC sat down and Cole Patten pitched a scoreless 9th. The offensive star was Judson Fabian, who had a monster game: homering in the 3rd, singling in the 5th and homering again in the 9th with two aboard to give him 15 now as he slowly rounds into 2025-2026 form. Brandon Marsh continues to make like Mark McGwire in the 2nd half with yet another homer, a 2-run shot in the 3rd (#12) and Andrew Knizner added a solo blast in the 9th (#5). Keston Hiura led off the game with a single to extend his hitting streak to 20, and Wander Franco had to leave with a mild hamstring strain that will keep him out for the final two games of this series. The Yankees won tonight but lost last night while the Rays were idle so the lead is 7 1/2 and the magic # is down to 27.

Game 2: It was kind of a tortoise and the hare game tonight, with the Angels in the role of the hare as they raced out to a 2-0 lead behind Ryan Helsley, who set down the first 12 Rays he faced. But slow and steady wins the race, and the Rays scored single runs in the 5th, 6th and 7th to take a 3-2 win. The win was costly, though, as our injury bug continues - this time it's Brandon Marsh who went down and he'll be out 4 weeks with chronic back soreness. I'll get into what we might do about his CF spot at the end of this recap. As for the game, Mack Anglin got the start and got into a little trouble, mainly with Angel rookie 3B Jose Bonilla. Bonilla took him deep in the 2nd inning to make it 1-0, and his sac fly in the 4th doubled the Angels' advantage. But that was all Anglin would give up as he mowed down LA in the middle innings and left with a 7 6 2 2 0 5 line and his 11th win of the season. Daniel Espino came on for the 8th and walked a pair after getting the leadoff man, so Jose Alvarado had to clean up his mess. Jasseel De La Cruz made his first appearance in 9 days with either no save available in the 9th or multiple lefties due up, and didn't show any rust by getting through the 9th with only a 2-out single allowed to - you guessed it - Bonilla, for save #17. Judson Fabian walked to lead off the 5th to break up Helsley's perfect game, Hunter Bishop singled him to 3rd to end the no-hitter, and Triston Casas's sac fly ended the shutout. Then Cole Tucker made his first substantial contributions as a Ray, filling in for the mildly-injured Wander Franco. First in the 6th he singled and scored on Nate Clark's double for the tying run, and in the 7th he got the game-winner, singling in Casas. Keston Hiura singled in his final at-bat of the game to extend his hitting streak to 21. The Yankees won so the magic # drops to 26. As for replacing Marsh, Jhon Diaz and Hunter Bishop are options but I'm not thrilled about going a month with 40/45 play in CF even if the division is largely in hand. So it might be time to get a glimpse of 2028 and bring up Julio Cedillo to play the position. We'd lose a year of control but hey, these aren't the penny-pinching Rays of the 2010s. I'll need a few minutes.

August 22: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with chronic back soreness, optioned C Carlos Perez to AAA Durham; recalled OF Julio Cedillo from AAA Durham, activated C Keibert Ruiz from the 10-day IL.

Let the (preview of the) Julio Cedillo era begin! We'll see how he does in his 4-week trial which might inform how we approach things in the offseason. Meanwhile, Ruiz is welcomed back, Andrew Knizner's performance over the last several weeks has meant we've barely missed him but it's great to have him back.

Game 3: Keston Hiura led off the game with HR #9 off Logan Allen and extended his hitting streak to 22 games. And that was about as good as it got for the Rays as Shane McClanahan had a rare off-day and the Rays had to settle for Meat Loafing another series as they fell 7-4 to the Angels. Things turned sour quickly for Mac as he yielded a 2-run HR to Shohei Ohtani in the 1st inning and after surviving two on in the 2nd things fell apart in the 3rd. Mike Trout homered to make it 3-1, then a string of mostly singles off him punctuated by a Lewin Diaz double and a Cole Tucker error which didn't help and Mac was forced to leave at 2.2 8 6 4 2 2 to drop to 15-5, 3.02. Blake Money took over and rolled until he gave up Ohtani's 2nd HR of the game in the 7th. Cole Patten had a scoreless 8th. Hiura's homer was the only hit they had until the 5th but they did rally for 3 runs in the 6th to make things interesting at 6-4, capped by Yordan Alvarez's 27th of the year, a mammoth 2-run shot that landed well up on the rock sculpture in LCF. Still despite the loss they lowered their magic # to 25 as the Yankees fell at home to Toronto.

Team record: 83-47. Next up: We head north up the west coast to Seattle for a 3-game series and the MLB debut of Julio Cedillo.