June 3-4, 2030: at Columbus (2)
 

Game 1: Alec Sachais went 6 strong innings to go to 11-0 as the Rays beat the Lightning 4-2 despite only managing 5 hits. Sachais shook off allowing two runs in the first 3 innings and ended 6 5 2 2 0 4 on 84 pitches. He probably would have gone an extra inning but we were in an NL park and his spot came up in the 7th. Jordan Diaz got 5 outs and Jose Alvarado the final four for save #9. While the offense only had 5 hits, they did take advantage of 2 Ben Vespi walks and 3 hit batters and had two big hits for the night. The first was a 2-run triple from Bobby Witt Jr in the 3rd, and the second was a 2-run single from Connor Kirkley which was the difference in the game. Kirkley was on base 3 times with that single and 2 walks but was erased all 3 times on when Gabriel Moreno hit into a double play each time.

Game 2: Jon Hayes continues to do Jon Hayes things and the offense once again maximized a limited number of hits (6) in a 6-1 win over Columbus. Hayes allowed a 2nd-inning homer to Lightning slugger Cristhian Rodriguez but very little thereafter as he went 7 7 1 1 1 9 to up his record to 8-2 and lower his ERA to 2.43. Mike Mooney and Tim Siqueiros had a scoreless inning each. For the second straight night Lightning pitchers hit Rays batters 3 times, and it finally resulted in injury as Connor Kirkley suffered a foot contusion which will keep him out two weeks and necessitate an IL trip. Dane Ayers is a capable replacement, Dayle Jenkins can play 2nd, and Isaac DeLeon may get a tryout there as well to get his bat into the lineup. Meanwhile Nate Clark continues to rake, driving in 3 more runs tonight on an RBI groundout and a 2-run triple, giving him 58 in 58 games to lead MLB. He also added a double. The other big blow came in the 7th when Joe Barker made a 3-1 game a 6-1 game with a 3-run homer (#7) the opposite way which hit the RF foul pole. Ricky Widmar was a sparkplug today, getting on base 4 of 5 times with 2 walks, 2 singles and 2 steals to go with 3 runs scored. He currently leads the AL in WAR with 2.9.

Team record: 46-13. Next up: 2 more against these Lightning, but at the friendly confines of Publix Park.

The 2030 Amateur Draft
 

That time of year again, here were our top picks:

<table class="data" style="background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" width="968px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted SP Kevin Ferrero in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 1, Pick 33, 33rd overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted SP Art Carrier in the 2030 first-year player draft (Supplemental Round 1, Pick 7, 40th overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted RF Tim Carizosa in the 2030 first-year player draft (Supplemental Round 1, Pick 9, 42nd overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted 2B Johnny Soland in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 2, Pick 32, 74th overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted CF Mike LeRoy in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 3, Pick 24, 102nd overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted RF Steve Paonessa in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 4, Pick 25, 127th overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted 3B Pat McKinney in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 5, Pick 29, 157th overall pick).</td></tr><tr><td class="dl wrap" style="font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); vertical-align: top; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(247, 243, 222); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 233, 233); padding: 1px 4px 2px; white-space: normal;">Drafted SP Jim Hyder in the 2030 first-year player draft (Round 6, Pick 30, 187th overall pick).</td></tr></tbody></table>

Ferrero: Aside from a somewhat similar name to mine, this 6'2" righty who throws 95-97 comes from Clemson, the same school that brought us perhaps our best 1st round pick of the previous decade, Mack Anglin. OSA (always more optimistic) pegs him as a #2 starter, while my more pessimistic head scout Rob Metzler says #3.

Carrier: The first of our supplemental 1st rounders is another college righty out of Oklahoma State who throws hard, 96-98 with groundball tendencies. Once again OSA is more excited (top of the rotation potential) while Metzler says mid-rotation.

Carisoza: Our second supplemental 1st rounder is a big dude (6'6", 205) from Northeastern (the school that brought us Rays legend Carlos Pena), he has current 70 gap power, and OSA says potential 65 while Metzler says potential 55 HR power. Contact is projected either 60 or 50 so he won't be a BA drain.

Soland: Your prototypical scrappy 2B who's projected to hit for a high average (OSA potential 80 contact, Metzler 70) with excellent gap power and bat-to-ball skills. Only missing ingredient is power, so he could be a .300 hitter with 40 doubles and high single digit homers who hardly ever strikes out and can also steal bases. Only 17 so years away.

LeRoy: A rangy CF type who should hit for decent power and have a decent eye but will have some contact issues. Nickname is "Bushy".

Paonessa: A high-schooler from Minnesota who has massive power potential (75 OSA, 70 Metzler) but could have contact/strikeout problems.

McKinney: Kentucky high-schooler who has a similar hitting profile to Soland above, big on contact/gap power/avoid Ks but low on power. The difference is he plays 3B, a more traditional power position, and isn't very speedy.

Hyder: College starter from University of North Carolina who's projected for the pen with potential 65/70 stuff, throws 99-101, control is the question mark here.

All in all I'm reasonably pleased with the draft, especially the two college starters taken in the 1st round.

June 5-6, 2030: vs Columbus (2)
 

June 5: Placed 2B Connor Kirkley on the 10-day IL with a foot contusion, recalled OF D'Andre Hodges from AAA Durham.

Didn't expect Hodges back so soon but I want to get Victor de Jesus more at-bats at Durham.

Game 1: Jack Leiter had a meltdown 5th inning and the bats outside of Dayle Jenkins couldn't get anything going in a 7-2 loss to the Lightning. It was a 0-0 duel between Leiter and Columbus's Delvis Alegre, one of the NL's better starters, through 4 innings. But in the 5th Leiter started serving up gopher balls, giving up a 2-run shot to Mathieu Nelson and a solo blast to Taylor Jones back-to-back, and then after a Dane Ayers error kept the inning alive, Cristhian Rodriguez hit a 3-run blast to make it 6-0 and it was effectively game over. Leiter's ERA got a break as he ended up 6 7 6 3 0 6 but that's now 15 HR allowed in 71 innings, not great Bob. Steve Givens pitched the final 3 and gave up a run but walked 0 and whiffed 6 as he showed some of his vast potential. As mentioned Jenkins was the only one who did anything offensively with his 4th inning double the team's first baserunner and his 6th inning homer (#7) with a man on the team's only runs as they only managed 4 hits in total tonight.

Game 2: Joe Barker blasted two homers and drove in 4 to lead the Rays to a 6-2 win over Columbus. He had a 2-run HR as part of a 4-run 1st inning, hit his second (#9) in the 6th after the Lightning had pulled within 4-2, and drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th. The 4-run 1st also featured a Nate Clark RBI single and Jasson Dominguez's 13th HR of the year as he went back-to-back with Barker. Blake Money got the start and was pitching out of jams most of the way, going 5 6 2 2 4 7 and getting his 5th win of the season. Corbin Martin went 1 1/3 in relief, Evan Godwin 1 inning and Jordan Diaz the final 1 2/3 in another strong game for the pen. Barker's second homer came off an old friend, Sandy Gaston, who's been bouncing around MLB and the minors since pitching for us in 2024-25. Isaac DeLeon made his MLB debut at 2B today without incident.

Team record: 47-14. Next up: A weekend wraparound series at home with Seattle for four games through Monday.

Realized I've been remiss about posting the MLB standings, so here they are:

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

Pretty good races in both leagues except of course for the AL East (and the NL Central with St. Louis off to almost as good a start as the Rays). Can Corbin Carroll hit .400? He's at least playing in the right ballpark.

June 7-10, 2030: vs Seattle (4)
 

Game 1: Andy Aparicio had a brutal start, allowing 2 homers, hitting 3 batters and putting the Rays in a 6-2 hole. And in the end it didn't matter because of course they came back and won 8-7. Facing one-time farmhand Taj Bradley in the 7th, who's rated 30 for movement and who had allowed 9 HR in 22 2/3 IP coming in, the inevitable occurred as Dayle Jenkins smacked a 2-run HR (#8) to tie the game and Nate Clark hit #20 to break the tie. Before all that, though, Aparicio had his issues going 5 5 6 5 0 5 in his first start at Publix Park. Sac flies from Clark and Ricky Widmar kept the Rays marginally in it, but the comeback began in earnest in the middle innings when Jasson Dominguez hit #14 in the 4th to cut it to 6-3 and Joe Barker delivered a 2-run double in the 5th to make it 6-5. After Tim Siqueiros did his usual thing in the 6th (two walks, three whiffs), Mike Mooney gave up a leadoff triple to Jared Kelenic and he scored to put Seattle up 7-5 in the 7th before the comeback was completed in the bottom of the inning and Mooney ended up with his first win of the year. Evan Godwin pitched a 1-2-3 8th and Jose Alvarado gave up a leadoff single in the 9th but erased it with a game-ending double play ball to grab save #10.

Game 2: Same story, different day as the Rays came back once again to win after they trailed today 4-1 in the 7th. It looked like Alec Sachais would lose his perfect 11-0 W/L record when he allowed 2 runs in the 6th to finish 6 7 3 3 0 8, and especially after Steve Givens allowed another one in the 7th. But Carlos Perez hit #4 in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 4-2, and Jhon Diaz had a big RBI double with 2 out in the 8th followed by a Dane Ayers RBI single to tie it up. And in the 9th Ricky Widmar led off against former Ray Steven Casey with a single, stole second, went to third on a bad throw from yet another former Ray Patrick Bailey, and scored on Dayle Jenkins' single for the Rays to walk it off 5-4. After Corbin Martin had a 1-2-3 8th, Jose Alvarado came on and pitched around a leadoff double in the 9th to secure his 3rd win as he lowers his ERA to a microscopic 0.40. Joe Barker drove in the first Rays run in the 1st with an RBI single while Jenkins had his second straight 3-hit game.

Game 3: No comeback needed today (OK technically they were down 2-1 in the 3rd) as the Rays clocked the Mariners 10-3. A 5-run 3rd inning broke the game open, highlighted by a 2-run HR from Bobby Witt Jr (#7) and a D'Andre Hodges RBI double. Joe Barker added a 2-run HR (#10) in the 6th, Dane Ayers drove in a couple of runs with a sac fly and an RBI single, and Dayle Jenkins had another great day going 2-3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and an RBI to make it 8 for 13 during this series. Jon Hayes started and although he was nicked for a couple of runs in the 3rd he shut down Seattle until giving up a homer in his final inning. He finished 7 6 3 3 1 4 and won his 9th straight decision after losing the first two. Tim Siqueiros had 2 dominant innings of relief to close it out, whiffing 5.

MLB News: A tough break for former Ray Mack Anglin, having a fine season after being traded to Philadelphia last winter (5-2, 2.95), as he tore the flexor tendon in his elbow and will be out 13 months.

Major deal incoming:

https://i.imgur.com/nE6TRI7.png

A biggie on several levels. First we say goodbye to a couple of mainstays of two World Series-winning squads in Diaz and Money. They were moved for several reasons, in no small part due to the poor seasons both were having. You can see Diaz's numbers above and Money has been mediocre this year. Both are better than this and I'm sure will be better for Oakland, but also they were getting more expensive with each moving into their second year of arbitration. But they're still both very talented and still have value so we parlayed them into one of the league's better young pitchers in Wagner, a workhorse lefty who struck out 250 in 198 innings last year in a 4.9 WAR season, and isn't eligible for arbitration until the winter after next. Here are his ratings, fairly mouth-watering except for movement:

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

65 stamina and rated "durable" for injury as well, hence the workhorse label. He gives us a fourth ace in the rotation to go with Little, Sachais and Hayes. Plus Little is getting expensive in arbitration and can't stay healthy so the acquisition is a bit of a hedge in that department as well. Wagner will make his debut tomorrow night against St. Louis. As for the prospects in the deal, we got the best one of the four: Boesel is a Florida Gator who's ranked #66 by BNN and was the 5th overall pick in 2028. He's got great all-around ability. The three we gave up are various levels of prospect. Narvaez is an 18-year old SS who can go anywhere from boom to bust, Miller throws 95-97 and has future closer potential according to the scouts, and Vazquez is the best of the lot, our 6th round pick last year who has developed into more of a prospect than some of the others taken ahead of him and a real comer at SS.

June 10: Recalled OF Victor de Jesus from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

And there's the other shoe to drop from the deal as trading Diaz makes room for de Jesus, whose potential for 40 HR and an OPS around 1.000 has been well-chronicled here. He's not going to play every day as we want to mix Isaac DeLeon and Rodolfo Rivas in as well but eventually the RF job will be his.

Game 4: Holy crap, this team. Yet another miracle comeback win tonight, with this one being by far the most dramatic. Down to their final out and trailing 6-5 with nobody on base, Joe Barker hit his 3rd (not a typo, his 3rd) homer of the day into the RF bullpen off former Ray Steven Casey to tie the game, and Gabriel Moreno's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th gave the Rays a 7-6 walk-off win to sweep the series (and the season series) from Seattle. Isaac DeLeon led off the 10th with a double up the RCF gap, Victor de Jesus in his MLB debut game was intentionally walked, and Dane Ayers' fly ball to right moved DeLeon up to 3rd, where he scored on Moreno's hit. Moreno was in the game because Carlos Perez was pinch-hit for in the 8th by Rodolfo Rivas as the Rays tried unsuccessfully to tie the game in that inning. It looked like the Rays would win this one easily as they led 5-1 through 5 and Jack Leiter was dealing. He got the first two outs in the top of the 6th but the Mariners then went double, single, single, and double and it was suddenly 5-4. Evan Godwin, who had been lights out this year, picked a bad time to revert to his homer-allowing form when Patrick Bailey greeted him with a 2-run shot and Seattle was improbably in the lead. But you can't mount a comeback if you don't keep the other team from continuing to score, and credit to Corbin Martin, Mike Mooney and Jasseel De La Cruz, who each went a scoreless inning to hold Seattle at 6, and JDLC ended up with his 2nd win of the season. That early 5-1 lead was built in part by Barker, who bashed solo homers in the 2nd and 5th before his dramatic equalizer in the 9th and now has an absurd 13 HRs in 78 AB (a HR every 6th AB!) and is slugging .923. He now has 6 in his last 5 games and 8 in the 11 games since his return from a broken hand. Perez had a 2-run double and Dayle Jenkins an RBI single for the other runs. de Jesus had an impressive debut as well, doubling in his first MLB at-bat and reaching base four of his five times up with a single and two walks as well.

Team record: 51-14. Next up: The most anticipated series of the regular season to date with the 44-20 Cardinals coming to town for two games in a rematch of the 2026 World Series and a possible preview of 2030's.

June 11-12, 2030: vs St. Louis (2)
 

Game 1: The much-ballyhooed matchup of the top teams in baseball wasn't much of a contest tonight as the Rays got a dominant start from Marc Wagner in his Tampa Bay debut and had a batter with a 3-HR game for the second straight day in a 7-0 whitewashing of St. Louis. After watching teammate Joe Barker lose 3 in the seats yesterday, Nate Clark wasn't going to be one-upped (or three-upped) as he hit HRs #21, 22 and 23 off Cardinals pitching. The first came in the 1st inning with Dayle Jenkins aboard and would be all the runs they'd need, the second was a solo shot in the 6th and the third came with a man on in the 7th. In between the Clark homers, Jenkins hit #9 in the 3rd with the bases empty. Clark's heroics would normally be the big story but he had to share the bill with new acquisition Wagner, who was everything as advertised in going 6 2 0 0 2 7 to stifle St. Louis. He ran several 3-2 counts so he had to leave after 107 pitches. No problem as the Rays had a healthy lead, so Corbin Martin threw 2 scoreless with 3 Ks and Tim Siqueiros completed the shutout with a 2-whiff inning of his own. Siqueiros is headed back to Durham tomorrow but goes there with 17 Ks in 9 scoreless MLB innings of relief to show for himself.

MLB note: Blake Money made his A's debut as well tonight and was a winner, going 5 5 2 2 1 6 on 95 pitches in an 8-3 win over the Angels. Also debuting for Oakland was Jhon Diaz, hitting in the 3-hole and going 0-3 but drawing 3 walks.

June 12: Activated P Christian Little from the 15-day IL, optioned P Tim Siqueiros to AAA Durham.

Siqueiros will be the first pitcher back up if and when needed, while Little comes off the IL to start tonight against Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty in a game that should have a real "Game 1 of the World Series" feel.

Game 2: This team has officially gone from the ridiculous to the absurd as trailing 4-1 in the 7th, they came back yet again to win 5-4. The matchup of aces between Jack Flaherty and Christian Little lived up to its billing for 6 innings. Little, after giving up an RBI triple to old friend Brandon Marsh in the 1st, was untouchable after that and went 6 3 1 1 1 11 in a vintage performance in his first appearance since missing a couple of weeks with a sore elbow. Flaherty was just as effective, but in a different way, only striking out 1 Ray through 6 but only being touched for a Gabriel Moreno RBI single in the 5th. Evan Godwin came in for Little to start the 7th and was flat-out horrible, giving up single-double-homer for a quick 3-run St. Louis lead. Andy Aparicio relieved him and struck out 5 in 2 innings. The Rays started chipping away at Flaherty in the 7th, with Dane Ayers hitting a solo homer (#3) to make it 4-2. And after Flaherty put a man on in the 8th, he was relieved and the Rays took advantage as Bobby Witt Jr singled to put men on 1st and 2nd, and D'Andre Hodges (getting another one of my "hunch" starts) drilled a 3-run HR (#5) just over the LF fence to give the Rays their first lead of the night. Jasseel De La Cruz came on for a 1-2-3 9th to get save #8 and Aparicio notched win #4 as the Publix Park crowd went home unexpectedly happy again.

Team record: 53-14. Next up: An off-day, then we head to Houston for a weekend series with Shane McClanahan tentatively scheduled to pitch the second game for the Astros.

June 14-16, 2030: at Houston (3)
 

Game 1: Two winning streaks came to an end today, the team's 7-game streak and Alec Sachais' 12-game winning streak which included an 11-0 record this year as the Rays fell to the Astros 6-4. Sachais dug himself a hole and there was no miracle comeback today as he went 5 8 4 4 0 4 with the primary damage being a couple of homers from Ramon Laureano. Corbin Martin allowed a couple of unearned runs in the 7th and Steve Givens had a scoreless 8th. As for the bats, the team only managed 5 hits for the game but at least made them count with Nate Clark continuing boiling lava hot with 2 more HRs, giving him 25 for the year and 5 in 3 games. His 25 HR and 68 RBI lead all of MLB in those categories by 2 and 9 respectively. Jasson Dominguez had an RBI double and Ricky Widmar an RBI single for the other runs.

Game 2: The Rays faced their longtime lefty ace Shane McClanahan for the first time since he became a free agent and signed with Houston, and opposing him was the lefty ace they acquired to take his place in the rotation, Jon Hayes. And it was every bit the classic pitchers' duel it looked on paper. Hayes gave up a triple to start the game which put him behind 1-0 but that was it for the scoring into the 8th inning. Hayes went 6.1 5 1 1 3 9 as he continues his excellent season but McClanahan was even better, shutting out his old team on 3 hits through 7. Dane Ayers led the 8th off with a single, stole second, and after McClanahan left, Dayle Jenkins delivered a 2-out RBI single off Houston closer Nick Sandlin to tie the game with Mac ending 7.1 4 1 1 1 7. Jordan Diaz went 1 2/3 perfect, and it went 1-1 to the bottom of the 9th. Jose Alvarado came on, struck out the first guy up but gave up a single, and then a double, and the game was over on a walk-off 2-1 Astros win, sending the Rays to their 2nd straight loss. The run was only the second allowed all season by Alvarado and his ERA ballooned to 0.78. It marked the first time the Rays lost two straight since May 2-3 at Boston and New York.

Game 3: The Rays salvaged a game from the series by beating Houston 6-4 thanks largely to a huge game from Dayle Jenkins, who's been the team's best all-around hitter of late. The second-year outfielder (if I were paying closer attention last year, I wouldn't have let him get 132 AB disqualifying himself from rookie status by 3) had 4 hits, including the biggest of the game, a 2-run HR in the 7th (#10) which gave the Rays a 4-3 lead. He added an RBI single in a 2-run 9th as well to give him 3 RBI on the day. Dane Ayers was the other offensive standout, going 3-4 with the other 9th-inning RBI. Jack Leiter was staked to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 6th on yet another Nate Clark homer, his MLB-leading 26th, a 2-run shot. But as he did in his last start Leiter cruised until he fell apart in the 6th, loading the bases and letting Alex Bregman clear them with a double. Corbin Martin got him out of the inning throwing 3 pitches and getting a double play, and that turned out to be enough to get Martin his 4th win. Evan Godwin got 2 outs in the 7th, Andy Aparicio relieved him and pitched through the 8th before giving up a homer and a double to start the 9th and bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Enter Jose Alvarado, who got beat last night but bounced back with 3 up, 3 down to get save #11.

Team record: 54-16. Next up: Back at home for 3 against Baltimore.

June 17-19, 2030: vs Baltimore (3)
 

Game 1: Marc Wagner was impressive in his Rays debut last week against St. Louis, but he took it to another level today as he completely dominated the Orioles with a 8 5 0 0 1 13 performance in a 5-0 win. He's now 2-0 without a run allowed in 14 innings as a Ray with 20 strikeouts. Jordan Diaz had a 1-2-3 9th to finish the shutout. It was scoreless into the 5th when Joe Barker clubbed HR #14 to break the deadlock, and then the Rays erupted for 4 runs in the 6th. Nate Clark had an RBI groundout, Jasson Dominguez ripped a 2-run double, and Victor de Jesus got his first MLB ribbie with a single. de Jesus was 3-3 on the day and 7-17 so far since being activated, while Barker added a single and a steal to his homer. As far as the Wagner deal has gone, Blake Money went 6 1-run innings for Oakland in a 3-1 win today for his second quality start with the A's and Jhon Diaz has hit 2 homers in the week since the deal so it's working out well for both teams so far.

June 18: Activated 2B Connor Kirkley from the 10-day IL, optioned OF D'Andre Hodges to AAA Durham.

Hodges was great in his limited appearances, and is probably going to end up trade bait one of these days.

Game 2: The offense left it late again, tying it up in the 6th and going ahead in the 7th to take a 5-2 win over the Orioles. Christian Little started and had to leave once again with an injury, this time a sore back, in the 6th. It isn't too serious and he should make his next start. He put the Rays in a 2-0 hole while pitching well (and relatively efficiently) going 5.1 6 2 2 0 6 on only 75 pitches. Andy Aparicio took over and went the rest of the way, giving up only 2 hits (including one which scored the second run of Little's), walking 0 and striking out 1. He managed his 5th win of the year when the offense finally come alive. In the 6th Joe Barker tripled in Nate Clark to make it 2-1 and Bobby Witt Jr singled home Barker to tie the game. And then in the 7th Ricky Widmar, in a 1-for-23 slump, singled past the drawn-in infield to give the Rays the lead, and Clark's sac fly and Barker's RBI single made it 5-2. Connor Kirkley returned to the lineup and reached base 3 times via walk, scoring the go-ahead run.

Game 3: Alec Sachais' old nemesis the gopher ball was back in full force today as he gave up 5 (!) homers to Baltimore hitters in a 6-4 loss to the Orioles. After being down 3-1 on homers from Adley Rustchman and Lewis Brinson the Rays fought back to tie it at 3 after 5 but then the ball really started leaving Publix Park in the 6th as Sachais gave up 3 more homers, including the 2nd of the game for Rutschman and Brinson and one for former Ray Yusniel Diaz. Steve Givens went 2 1/3 scoreless and Corbin Martin retired the Orioles in the 9th but there would be no late-game comeback as Sachais lost his second straight start in which he's allowed 7 homers total. Dayle Jenkins paced the offense with 3 hits, including a double in the 9th which brought the tying run to the plate to no avail. Isaac DeLeon and Carlos Perez had RBI singles while Joe Barker and Bobby Witt Jr had sac flies.

Team record: 56-17. Next up: A quick return engagement with the Houston Astros, whom we played last weekend, for four games at Publix Park.

June 20-23, 2030: vs Houston (4)
 

Game 1: It was an instant rematch of the epic pitchers' duel between Jon Hayes and Shane McClanahan from five days ago, and while Hayes held up his end of the bargain again, McClanahan most certainly didn't as he didn't make it out of the 2nd inning as the Rays put up 5 against him on their way to a ridiculous 17-0 rout of Houston. Ricky Widmar's 2-run single and Dayle Jenkins' 2-run homer were the big hits that chased Mac early and the rest is just tallying up the big days here. Widmar seems well and truly out of his slump as he went 4-5, Jenkins added another homer to give him 12 as he drove in 5, Connor Kirkley was 3 for 5 with 2 HR and 5 RBI to give him 12, Jasson Dominguez was 4-5 with a HR (#15) and 3 RBI, and Nate Clark hit #27. Bobby Witt Jr didn't get the invite, and was the only Rays starter hitless today. Meanwhile Hayes was dominant yet again in winning his 10th straight decision, going 7 1 0 0 3 6 and lowering his ERA to 2.30, with Mike Mooney going the final 2 innings allowing a hit to complete the combined 2-hit shutout.

Game 2: It looked like another laugher until it wasn't, but the Rays still hung on for a 6-5 win. Jack Leiter got the start and if I told you a 6-1 lead was cut to 6-5 you'd probably think Leiter melted down in the 6th inning again. But that wasn't the case as not only did he make it through the 6th, he struck out the side before leaving with 101 pitches through that inning, and went 6 5 1 0 0 10 with the only run scoring after Gabriel Moreno misplayed a strikeout and let the runner reach. No, it was the bullpen that let them down today. Corbin Martin got through the 7th but gave up three hits and a run in the 8th and left with two men on and the score 6-2. Enter Jose Alvarado, who was shockingly greeted by Jeremiah Jackson with a 3-run HR to make it 6-5, the first homer Alvarado has allowed this year and only the second in the last two seasons. If you were able to lay a prop bet on Alvarado allowing more HRs than Leiter today, you'd have cleaned up big. Alvarado did bounce back from the shock homer and whiffed the next two to end the inning and retired the side 1-2-3 in the 9th for save #12 while Leiter goes to 6-4. The offense did its thing with 5 runs in the first two innings, starting with a Dayle Jenkins RBI single, a Dane Ayers RBI single, a Ricky Widmar 2-run double and another Jenkins RBI single. Jasson Dominguez singled in a run in the 5th, which didn't look important at the time but turned out to be.

Game 3: In a bit of a shocker the bats fell completely silent as the Rays lost 5-0 to Houston. Andre Roberts, who came into the game with a 5.22 ERA but had only allowed a total of 2 runs over 13 innings in his last 2 starts (one of which was against the Rays in Houston), pitched 8 innings of 5-hit ball to stifle MLB's top offense. Ricky Widmar had 2 of the team's 5 hits and the only one through the first 5 innings. Marc Wagner started for the Rays and wasn't as sharp as he was in his first two Tampa Bay outings but still had great stuff. He was done in by a former Ray (and a lefty hitter to boot) in Bramdon Perez, who hit a 2-run triple with 2 out in the 3rd off of him and then homered in the 6th to make it 3-0. Alex Bregman then went back-to-back with him and Wagner finished 6 6 4 4 3 11. Steve Givens gave up a run in his 2 innings of work and then the 9th inning saw the MLB pitching debut of Rodolfo Rivas. This wasn't the normal "position player pitching" thing, either - Rivas is a legit pitcher and is rated for 50 stuff, 60 movement and 65 control and is considered a 2-way player. He had only thrown 12 innings in the minors, primarily because his bat is too important. And he acquitted himself well, getting the Astros 1-2-3 on 6 pitches with a couple of groundballs. I had been waiting for a situation to use him where a) he wasn't already in the lineup and b) the game situation called for it (the team isn't losing by several runs that often), and today was that day. Meanwhile, while Wagner was getting hit to some extent today Blake Money threw 9 shutout innings of 2-hit ball for the A's, walking 6 and whiffing 8 as the AI let him go 127 pitches in a game Oakland won in 11 innings 1-0. He has a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings over 3 starts since the trade.

Game 4: After yesterday's Houston win evened the season series between the teams at 3, today was the deciding game and the Rays weren't about to let a team get the better of them in 2030. Christian Little made sure of that as the Rays took advantage of sloppy Houston play, which included 3 errors and a key balk to take an 8-1 win. Little was outstanding in his best start of the season, no-hitting the Astros into the 5th inning and finishing 7 2 0 0 1 11 to improve to 7-1, 3.67. Corbin Martin pitched the final two innings, allowing a homer by Eloy Jimenez to spoil the shutout as just when I thought we'd hold the annual Ray-killer off the HR board for once he goes deep in his final at-bat of the season against them. The game was won in a 6-run 3rd inning in which all the runs were unearned thanks to two Houston errors, with one run coming in on a balk. The big hits were RBI singles from Dayle Jenkins and Rodolfo Rivas and a 2-run double from Victor de Jesus. Isaac DeLeon added HR #10 later on to pad the lead. Starting today in RF for the Astros was Stan Collier, our first-round pick in 2024. He's developed 70-rated HR power but he's a mediocre defensive OF and not much of a contact guy so with no future for him with the big club I dealt him a month ago for a couple of mid-level pitching prospects, the better of whom (Mike Fields, a power reliever) already tore his UCL and will be out almost a year.

Team record: 59-18. Next up: Now that we've already had the Lightning visit, it's time for the Bucs as Pittsburgh comes to town for 3.

June 24-26, 2030: vs Pittsburgh (3)
 

Game 1: The cardiac Rays did it again, coming behind from 4-2 down to win it 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th on a 2-run double by Connor Kirkley. Trailing 4-3 going to the bottom of the 9th, Bobby Witt Jr and Victor de Jesus singled, and then Kirkley ripped a double into the RF scoring them both and sending Publix Park into a walk-off frenzy. Nate Clark had hit #28, a solo shot, in the 8th to get them within a run, his 2nd RBI of the day after a sac fly in the 3rd. Gabriel Moreno also singled in a run. Alec Sachais started and had one bad inning, the 5th, in which he allowed the three runs in his 6 7 3 3 0 7 line. Jordan Diaz had a 1-2-3 7th but Evan Godwin stunk up the joint by giving up a homer for the third time in four appearances and walking the next two batters without retiring anyone in the 8th. Jasseel De La Cruz got him out of it, including a 5-2-3 double play with the bases loaded, and then had a perfect 9th to grab his 3rd win of the season.

Game 2: The Rays took another one-run win today, but it went the opposite way of yesterday's game with the Rays building a big early lead and withstanding a Pittsburgh comeback in a 6-5 decision. Tampa Bay got to Pirates starter Nick Dean for three homers in the 1st: Jasson Dominguez (#16), Nate Clark (an MLB-best #29) and then a 2-run shot from Rodolfo Rivas (#13) to take a quick 4-0 lead. Dane Ayers went deep for the 4th time this year in the 3rd and the team's 4th off Dean and he added an RBI single in the 5th. It was 6-1 after 5 with Jon Hayes pitching well if not as sharply as he recently has with ex-Ray Rafael Devers bailing him out 3 times by grounding into double plays. But Hayes' lack of sharpness caught up to him in the 6th, as he gave up a 2-run homer and a Connor Kirkley error with 2 out opened the door for another run. He departed at 5.2 7 4 3 3 7 and Jordan Diaz took over, getting him out of the inning and pitching through the 7th. Mike Mooney allowed a run in the 8th to get Pittsburgh within a run but Jose Alvarado shut the door in the 9th, getting Devers to ground out to finish his nightmare 0-5 game for the final out. So Hayes still ended up winning his 11th straight decision to go to 11-2 and Alvarado nabbed save #13. The Rays banged out 18 hits and should have scored more than 1 run on the 14 which weren't homers. Everyone in the lineup had at least one with Ayers and Clark each getting 3 and Kirkley and Ricky Widmar the only ones with one.

Game 3: The Rays could only scratch 3 hits together tonight, and while they managed 3 runs from them it still wasn't enough as they dropped a 4-3 squeaker to the Pirates. Onetime Rays prospect Matthew Liberatore got the start for Pittsburgh and held them to 2 runs and 2 hits through 5 with the two runs coming on a Dayle Jenkins RBI single and a wild pitch. Connor Kirkley homered in the 7th (#13) off still another former Ray, Austin Vernon, to cut it to 4-3 but despite putting men on via walks in the final 2 innings they couldn't get the job done. Also not getting the job done was Jack Leiter, touched for 4 runs in his 6 innings of work as he falls to 6-5. Steve Givens pitched the final 3 innings, retiring all 9 batters he faced on 31 pitches, to keep it close.

Team record: 61-19. Next up: An off-day, followed by a weekend trip to Baltimore that has us playing 4 games including a doubleheader on Friday.

2030 Midseason Report Card
 

It's that time of year again as we're one game shy of the midway point. It's been another great half-season and the move into Publix Park was a roaring success as the team has gone 37-7 in its new digs. The Trop suppressed their power while PP enhances it so given how power-laden the lineup is it's worked to their advantage relative to their opponents. Here's where they stand relative to the league at midseason:

https://i.imgur.com/CR0D4O5.png

As usual, this is like the report card a kid brings home with all A's but one B- or C+ and it's the defense, which is a trade-off we've always accepted and not slowed us down. We are allowing more HRs than a team with the rest of our pitching stats would normally allow but again it's the ballpark. We've been very good in one-run games this year so we're outplaying the Pythag record by 4 games. The player stats, followed by grades:

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

https://i.imgur.com/HGn19JV.png

C (B-): Gabriel Moreno got off to a hot start but has cooled down considerably, and Carlos Perez continues to underperform his ratings. We do miss Keibert a little.

1B (A): Joe Barker has raked when he wasn't out injured, and Rodolfo Rivas raked in his place.

2B (A-): Connor Kirkley has stepped it up this year, especially in the power department (new ballpark?).

SS (A-): Ricky Widmar gets the minus here because he's slumped over the last month.

3B (B+): Bobby Witt Jr isn't quite having the MVP-caliber season he had last year, and it seems like Kirkley took away his homers.

LF (A): Dayle Jenkins has been great and exceeded expectations, he's a potential batting title champ (at least when Vlad Jr slows down or retires). Jenkins has actually been shifted to RF after the trade of Jhon Diaz but he played the bulk of the season here to date.

CF (B-): Jasson Dominguez hasn't had the greatest first half and been disappointing in the power department. Expecting positive regression the rest of the way.

RF (C): This grade is mainly for the departed Jhon Diaz, who as you can see wasn't getting it done before the deal. Jenkins has the position now, and LF now is primarily Victor de Jesus who hasn't played enough to get a real grade but is getting on base as you can see from the stats above.

DH (A+): He got off to a bit of a slow start, but man Nate Clark is crushing the ball this year.

SP (A-): Jon Hayes has pitched like an ace, Alec Sachais has been great even though he's dropped off some over his last 3-4 starts, and newly acquired Marc Wagner is highly impressive. Christian Little has battled health and consistency but even at that his overall numbers are very good. This leaves Jack Leiter, the one pitcher really hurt by the new park as he's homer-prone. And Blake Money brings down the grade for his mediocre performance before being dealt.

RP (A): Aside from JDLC's rough first six weeks, the bullpen's been great. Jose Alvarado is having another Reliever of the Year-type season, Jordan Diaz and Mike Mooney have been much better in their second year as Rays, and Andy Aparicio is doing a fine job as a swingman.

Bench (A-): Dane Ayers has been outstanding whenever plugged into the lineup and Isaac DeLeon has put up the same decent numbers he's put up the last two years.

Here are the MLB standings and leaders at the approximate midway point:

https://i.imgur.com/wkpXsn0.png

June 28-30, 2030: at Baltimore (4)
 

Game 1: The Rays routed the Orioles 11-5 in the first game of their doubleheader thanks to a 6-run first inning. Dayle Jenkins had an RBI double, Jasson Dominguez an RBI triple and Connor Kirkley a 2-run HR (#14) to cap off the inning. The Rays continued to tack on runs throughout, including Nate Clark's 30th HR of the year and three more triples. Joe Barker missed the cycle by a home run as the offense was spread among the entire team except for Gabriel Moreno, who was the only one without an RBI (he did draw 2 walks). Barker, Clark and Dominguez had 3-hit games. Marc Wagner started and was dominating Baltimore early until he ran out of gas and started pitching to the score, allowing 4(!) homers in a 6.2 5 5 5 3 10 performance which was still good enough for his 3rd win in 4 starts as a Ray. Rodolfo Rivas came in to pitch again and was great, going 1 1/3 and striking out 2 batters, while Steve Givens got through the 9th scoreless.

Game 2: The Rays took the nightcap thanks to the strong pitching of Andy Aparicio, getting a spot start due to the doubleheader. AA went 6 4 2 2 0 9, and was 2-hitting the O's through 6 before giving up a Druw Jones homer and a single and giving way to Jordan Diaz, who got the next three batters to end the Baltimore threat. Aparicio is now 6-0, 2.94 with an incredible 5/63 BB/K ratio through 52 innings. He'd be the ace on probably half the teams in the league but here he's our 6th starter. Corbin Martin and Jasseel De La Cruz each had a scoreless inning to close out the game. The bats got another quick start with a pair of runs in the 1st on an RBI double from Rodolfo Rivas and an RBI single from Jasson Dominguez, but the game stayed 2-1 until the 6th when Victor de Jesus hit what should be the first of many MLB homers, a 2-run shot that made it 4-1. Dominguez added an RBI triple in the 8th, giving him a 5-hit day between the two games, and scored on Dane Ayers' sac fly.

Game 3: They just keep on rollin' as the Rays scored 6 times in the 10th inning to take a 10-4 win over Baltimore behind 5 homers. Four of them came in regulation to account for their four runs: Joe Barker (#15) in the 2nd, Jasson Dominguez (#17) and Victor de Jesus (#2) in the 7th to give them a 3-2 lead, and after Baltimore went back ahead in the 7th Gabriel Moreno (#7) tied it up in the 8th. In extras, the Rays kept the turnstiles spinning and scored on Ricky Widmar's sac fly after Moreno hit a double putting men on 2nd and 3rd, Barker and Dominguez singled in runs, and then Bobby Witt Jr broke out of a mini-slump with a 3-run jack (#8). Christian Little started and pitched quite well except for a couple of homers which cost him, a 2-run CJ Chatham blast in the 3rd and a 2-run homer from Lewis Brinson in the 7th when he probably shouldn't have still been in there as he went 7 6 4 4 2 8. Jose Alvarado had a 1-2-3 8th, Jasseel De La Cruz pitched around two walks in the 9th and picked up win #4, and Mike Mooney struck out the side in the 10th after allowing hits to the first two batters.

Game 4: Alec Sachais was almost untouchable today as he and Corbin Martin combined on a 1-hitter in a 5-1 win over Baltimore to sweep the 4-game series. Bryson Stott was the only Oriole to reach base today, homering off Sachais in the 3rd and later drawing a walk. The Rays righty went 7 1 1 1 1 11 to improve to 12-2, and Martin had two perfect innings in relief. Dayle Jenkins gave the Rays all the runs they'd need with a 3-run HR (#13) in the 3rd, Carlos Perez brought a run home with a sac fly in the 4th, and Joe Barker hit #16 in the 8th to cap a 3-hit, 2-steal day.

Team record: 65-19. Next up: We head up I-95 to the Bronx to take on the Yankees for 3 games.

July 1-3, 2030: at NY Yankees (3)
 

Some monthly honors from the league office:

https://i.imgur.com/vc0AeVM.png
https://i.imgur.com/UpONC3I.png

Game 1: The Rays took it on the chin today as the Yankees scored 5 times in the 8th inning to beat them 7-2. They had taken a 2-0 lead on a 2-run Joe Barker triple in the 3rd but couldn't get much else going and the Yankees finally got to Jon Hayes in the 6th with a pair of runs, the second scoring on a Ricky Widmar error as Hayes had to leave at 109 pitches with a 5.2 7 2 1 1 6 line. Jordan Diaz got him out of that and pitched a scoreless 7th, but Corbin Martin had all kinds of trouble in the 8th. He probably deserved a better fate as two infield singles loaded the bases with two out, but he gave up a clean 2-run single to Victor Robles to make it 4-2. Evan Godwin then came in to face the lefty Tyree Reed, and once again Godwin served up a homer which made it 7-2. He's allowed homers in four of his last five appearances after having a great 2-month start to the season and right now he can't be trusted.

Game 2: The Yankees' two best players hit big homers, and the Rays went down to defeat again 6-3 despite outhitting New York 10-6. A Connor Kirkley error with 2 out in the 1st inning allowed Ivan Vega to reach, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr took Jack Leiter deep to make it 2-0. Leiter gave up nothing after that through 5 and the Rays took a 3-2 lead in the 6th. But in the bottom of the inning the Yankees got two on with two out and Vega, leading the AL in WAR, hit one to dead center to make it 5-3 Yankees and that was that. Leiter's more than doubled his HR yield this year from 0.8/9 to 1.7/9 and it hurt him tonight despite pitching well, ending up 6 3 5 3 1 7. Mike Mooney pitched the 7th and Rodolfo Rivas was called on in the 8th and this time finally gave up a run on 3 hits. As mentioned the Rays had 10 hits but Yankee pitching did not issue a walk. Bobby Witt Jr's RBI triple gave the Rays that 3-2 lead after a fielder's choice RBI from Nate Clark and a Victor de Jesus RBI single. Joe Barker went 2-4 to raise his average to .338.

Game 3: The Rays withstood 5 homers from the Yankees to take a 7-6 win in 10 innings, but man it was ugly. And Marc Wagner's start was ugly in that he allowed 4 homers, making it 10 yielded in his last 3 starts which is not what we had in mind with the big trade as he went 6 6 5 5 1 6. Amazingly he still would have picked up the win had Jasseel De La Cruz not given up a leadoff homer to Miguel Sano in the bottom of the 9th, but instead JDLC vultured the win (his 5th) when Joe Barker hit his 2nd homer of the game in the 10th inning off Yankee closer Mike Tudor. Barker had earlier hit a 3-run shot in the 7th to help turn a 5-2 Yankee lead into a 6-5 Rays lead. The two homers give him 18 in only 153 at-bats and he's slugging a cool .784. Also hitting HR #18 today was Jasson Dominguez against his old team with Dane Ayers contributing an RBI double and Nate Clark an RBI single. Clark was supposed to have the day off, but came in after Victor de Jesus was drilled in the head by an Eric Peterson pitch. de Jesus suffered a concussion and will miss 6 weeks as he's had trouble staying on the field since we acquired him from St. Louis last year. On the mound after Wagner left, Jordan Diaz and Jose Alvarado had scoreless innings before JDLC blew it. Mike Mooney pitched the 10th and ended up with his 2nd save of the year, although he made things interesting by putting two men on before whiffing Sano to end the game.

Team record: 66-21. Next up: We head to the Motor City to celebrate Independence Day with the first of four games. Once again Detroit is atop the AL Central and having a big year for them is our buddy Spencer Torkelson, finally healthy and getting to play every day, hitting 291/360/534 with 19 HR and 53 RBI. At the rate our pitchers are giving up homers lately, he'll probably get 3 or 4 in the series.

MLB Note: Blake Money seems to be on the same rotation day as Wagner, and today he was hit hard as well (5 runs in 5 innings) and ended up getting suspended for triggering a brawl by throwing at Detroit's Levi Usher. Money was suspended 8 games so he and Wagner won't be pitching on the same day for a while.

July 4-7, 2030: at Detroit (4)
 

Game 1: There weren't many fireworks on July 4 at Comerica Park as the touted pitching matchup of Christian Little and Kumar Rocker lived up to billing. Nobody told Ricky Widmar and Bobby Witt Jr. about it, though, and each hit their 9th HR of the year to help the Rays to a 2-1 win over Detroit. Widmar led off the game with his blast against Rocker, and Witt followed suit in the 2nd. Little gave up a Blaze Jordan homer in the 4th, and then that 2-1 scoreline stood up for the rest of the game as the Rays ace went an excellent 7 4 1 1 1 9 to improve to 8-1. Jose Alvarado had a perfect 8th and Jasseel De La Cruz bounced back again from a blown save by striking out old friend Spencer Torkelson and getting a double play grounder for save #9.

Game 2: The Rays dropped a tough one in extra innings to Detroit today, losing 4-3 in 11. Alec Sachais started and was terrible early, giving up a 3-run homer to Austin Martin in the 1st inning (just once I want to get through a game without the staff allowing a homer) and struggled for a couple of more innings but held Detroit off the board, going 5 5 3 3 3 7. Andy Aparicio came on for him and was brilliant in 3 1/3 innings of 1-hit relief, walking 0 and whiffing 4. Jordan Diaz relieved him in the 9th and got through that inning with a one-pitch double play ball and navigated the 10th. He stayed on for the 11th and walked former Ray Alex Kirilloff to start the inning, and despite getting the next two out, Kirilloff moved up to 2nd and scored on Nathan Baez's double. As for the offense, it started out similarly to yesterday. Although Ricky Widmar didn't lead off the game with a homer, he did the next best thing by tripling and scoring on Dayle Jenkins' groundout. Isaac DeLeon supplied the rest of the offense with an RBI double in the 6th and an RBI single in the 8th which tied it up, but otherwise it was another fairly quiet day for the bats.

Game 3: Rodolfo Rivas had a career game with 2 HR, a double and 7 RBI to lead the Rays to a 10-4 win over Detroit. The rookie 1B had a 2-run double in the 1st, a 2-run HR in the 3rd and then a 3-run HR in the 8th (#15) to cap the scoring. In between the Tigers had come back to tie the game at 4, but the Rays put up 3 in the 7th as they loaded the bases with nobody out before Ricky Widmar singled one in and then Dayle Jenkins and Nate Clark brought home runs with sac flies. Jon Hayes started for the Rays and struggled through the first 5 innings, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits including an Alex Kirilloff homer (still looking for that homer-less game from the staff), but once the Rays went ahead 7-4 in the 6th he took over like the veteran ace he is, retiring the Tigers in order in the 6th and the 7th and going to 12-2 off a 7 8 4 4 1 7 line. Corbin Martin went the final 2 innings scoreless to end the game. In addition to Rivas's big game, Widmar and Dane Ayers each had three hits and I can't say enough about Ayers, who's hitting .376 in 109 AB as a supersub.

Game 4: Another big day for the offense as they rode a 5-run 1st inning to an 11-3 win over the Tigers. Nate Clark and Jasson Dominguez had RBI doubles in the 1st and Rodolfo Rivas, fresh off a 7-RBI day yesterday, drove in 2 more with a single. And in the 4th Dominguez took Cole Wilcox deep for a grand slam (#19) to truly blow the game open. Connor Kirkley added a 2-run shot (#15) in the 9th as part of a 3-hit, 1-walk day for him. Jack Leiter started, and no he wasn't the pitcher to break our home run allowed streak as he did yield a solo shot and while he was hittable he got the big outs when he needed them and went 7 10 2 2 0 4 to get back on the winning side of things at 7-6. Steve Givens pitched the final two innings and allowed a run. Rivas ended up with a 4-hit game as he stays red hot and Joe Barker had 3 hits and an RBI himself. On the flip side, Carlos Perez was 0-5 and his average has plummeted to .146.

Team record: 69-22. Next up: Back home for 3 vs the Rays west, also known as the Kansas City Royals.

MLB Note: Seth Nordlin of the Mets no-hit the Texas Rangers, and it was a "Maddux" on 93 pitches. He didn't walk anyone but he hit a batter in the 6th to cost him the perfect game, while he struck out 5.

July 8-10, 2030: vs Kansas City (3)
 

Some news from the farm:

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

Yep, just what we need: another elite 1B prospect. Harms you may recall was the main piece in the deal which sent Mack Anglin to the Phillies last winter. Of course this is on top of having Joe Barker and Rodolfo Rivas at the MLB level, Caleb Picciotti, who's hitting 312/377/512 at AAA Durham with 14 HR & 47 RBI and who projects right now as a .290, 25-30 HR guy in the bigs, and Jon Jimenez, the #73 prospect in baseball at Class-A Bowling Green who's hitting .303 himself. And even our 1B at High-A Port Charlotte, Sean Trostel, is hitting 343/393/508 although he's less of a prospect than Picciotti or Jimenez. I'd say it's a position of organizational depth.

Game 1: The Rays faced the Royals today and as is typical they were facing many of their former teammates with 5 of the 9 batters in the KC lineup one-time Rays or Rays farmhands, and the starting pitcher was Emerson Hancock, another ex-Ray. Well they treated him and four Royals relievers like human piñatas today in a 17-2 win. Rather than try to recap the scoring, I'll just share the Rays hitting section of the box score:

https://i.imgur.com/TsA6h9h.png

Marc Wagner was the beneficiary of all of this run support, and while he wasn't at his sharpest he was plenty good enough to go 7 7 2 2 4 9 and improve to 4-1 as a Ray. Alas, he couldn't go without giving up a homer as Triston Casas took him deep. Evan Godwin, banished to the back of the bullpen after allowing 4 homers in his last 5 outings, came on to pitch 2 perfect innings to finish it out to give him some work.

Game 2: The saying goes "you can't predict baseball" and tonight we had the Rays' MLB-best offense, on their hitter-friendly home field, coming off three straight games having scored double-digit runs - 38 in total. On the other side you had Kansas City giving Jackson Rutledge and his 5.38 ERA the start, going against Rays ace and former Cy Young winner Christian Little. I'm sure you can see where this is all going by now. Rutledge shut out the Rays on 3 hits through 8 innings as the Royals edged the Rays 2-1. Little was about the only one who lived up to billing, going 6 3 1 1 0 10, leaving down 1-0 after he allowed Ian Lewis to take him deep to lead off the game, so no suspense tonight on whether Rays pitching could go a game without allowing a homer. The hard-luck loss was Little's 2nd of the season. And Hunter Bishop hit one off Mike Mooney in the 7th to give Kansas City a 2-0 lead. Rutledge gave way to his closer Rogelio Ramos in the 9th, and Nate Clark greeted him with HR #32 to cut the lead in half. But the inning turned when the next batter Joe Barker, instead of taking a walk on a 3-0 pitch, swung away and meekly grounded one back to Ramos and the next two Rays went down. Jordan Diaz and Steve Givens had 1-2-3 innings to keep it close.

Game 3: As is usually the case at Publix Park, home runs were the story and it was a good story for the Rays today. The Royals started Ivan Valero and his 30 movement, and well that went about as expected as the Rays hit three homers in the first inning to lead the way in a 5-3 win. Dayle Jenkins led off the game with #15, two batters later Nate Clark homered for the third straight game with #33, and Joe Barker went back-to-back with #19. And the home run story on the flip side was that Rays pitching actually made it through a game for the first time in recent memory without allowing one. That was even with the homer-prone Alec Sachais starting (although he's been less prone this year) as he went 5.1 6 2 2 2 8 for his MLB-best 13th win of the season. He left with two on and one out in the 6th but Mike Mooney got Drew Waters to hit into a double play to end that threat, and Mooney pitched through the 7th. Valero had settled down but the Rays finally got to him again in the 6th thanks to a 2-run Dane Ayers double. Jose Alvarado had a perfect 8th, but the 9th inning was another ride on the Jasseelocoaster as JDLC gave up three hits and a run and had to be bailed out by Steve Givens, who got the final out and his 1st MLB save. Givens became the 9th different Rays pitcher to pick up a save this season.

Team record: 71-23. Next up: An off-day, then Toronto comes to town for a 3-game weekend set before we hit the All-Star break.

July 12-14, 2030: vs Toronto (3)
 

Game 1: Jon Hayes had his roughest outing as a Ray and the bats were largely quiet despite scoring 7 runs as the Rays dropped an 8-7 decision to Toronto. Hayes was hit for 3 runs in the 1st inning but looked like he'd settle in as he cruised through the next 3 innings. But the Jays started knocking him around again in the 5th and took a 7-3 lead, leaving Hayes with a 4.1 8 7 6 3 7 line. The Rays had answered the first Toronto lead with a 3-run HR from Jasson Dominguez (#21) in the bottom of the 1st, and after Toronto took the 7-3 lead in the 5th, Jays starter Christian Reyes walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning and Nate Clark stepped up and drilled #34 into the LF stands for a game-tying grand slam, the 4th straight game in which he's homered. But Corbin Martin wasn't sharp either and he allowed a run in the top of the 6th to make it 8-7. From that point on there was little to no offense, with Bobby Witt Jr thrown out at home in the 6th for the final Rays threat as despite scoring 7 times they only managed 6 hits for the game. Evan Godwin with a scoreless inning and Andy Aparicio, with 2 1/3 perfect with 6 whiffs, kept the game close but the bats couldn't respond late.

Game 2: The Rays scored a touchdown in the first inning on their way to a 9-5 win over Toronto that really wasn't that close as the Jays scored 4 times in the 9th off Steve Givens. Ricky Widmar led off the game with a triple and Nate Clark singled him home, then Carmen Mlodzinski loaded the bases for Jasson Dominguez who blasted HR #22 for a grand slam, and they kept the turnstiles spinning as Widmar had a RBI single in his 2nd at-bat of the inning and Clark walked with the bases loaded. This was more than enough for Jack Leiter, excellent today at 7 6 1 1 0 7 to go to 8-6. Givens had a 1-2-3 8th but fell apart in the 9th, giving up a 2-run triple and a 2-run homer and Mike Mooney had to come in to get the final out. Joe Barker added HR #20 in the 4th and Rodolfo Rivas had a sac fly for the other two Rays runs.

Game 3: The Rays outlasted Toronto 3-2 in 13 innings today and their pitching was truly outstanding. Led by Marc Wagner, Rays hurlers struck out 25 Blue Jays today, one shy of the all-time record for extra-inning games. Wagner got it going with an excellent 7 5 2 2 1 11 outing, only touched for a 2-run Matt Olson homer in the 2nd. Then the bullpen took over. Jose Alvarado went 2 innings with 4 whiffs, Jordan Diaz struck out the side in the 10th, Mike Mooney whiffed 5 over 2 innings, and in the 13th and the final inning Jasseel De La Cruz struck out a pair and got win #6. That win came when Ricky Widmar singled in Dane Ayers, who had led off the 13th with a double. Earlier the Rays scored on Nate Clark's 1st-inning RBI single and a 4th inning Jasson Dominguez solo shot (#23).

Team record: 73-24. Next up: The All-Star Break, and when we get back from that it's off to Minnesota for 3 on the following weekend.

All-Star Break 2030
 

First a look at the standings at the break:

https://i.imgur.com/uTCYK4o.png

Now, a look at the All-Star rosters, once again laden with Rays in the AL:

https://i.imgur.com/p8yjaBL.png
https://i.imgur.com/2RDjJ9Y.png

https://i.imgur.com/RiduJUn.png
https://i.imgur.com/wz7Kzjx.png

The Home Run Derby:

https://i.imgur.com/muDO5Jz.png

Decent showing for Nate Clark, tough loss to the eventual winner in Round 2.

And the game itself:

https://i.imgur.com/K11zSBW.png

The All-Star Game is Nate Clark's personal playground as he hit 2 homers to take the MVP for the second straight season. Jasson Dominguez also hit a 2-run shot to represent the Rays while Ricky Widmar was the one ALer to play the whole game and went 0-5 with a walk. On the mound, Christian Little started a went a perfect inning while Alec Sachais and Jose Alvarado had scoreless innings. Jon Hayes, Andy Aparicio and Bobby Witt Jr did not see action.

July 19-21, 2030: at Minnesota (3)
 

Game 1: The Rays kicked off the traditional "second half" of the season in a losing manner as they fell 5-2 to the Twins. It was Jon Hayes against his old team and he pitched well for 6 2/3 before allowing 3 straight hits to score 3 runs and end with a 6.2 9 5 5 0 4 line. I probably should have pulled him after the first or the second of those three hits. The offense didn't do a lot, only scoring on Joe Barker's first inning sac fly and Jasson Dominguez's 24th HR of the year in the 9th after it was already 5-1. Corbin Martin went the final 1 1/3. Hayes drops to 12-3 and is in a bit of a slump, allowing 15 runs in 18 innings over his last 3 starts.

MLB News: Bad news out of Oakland: Blake Money tore his UCL tonight and will be out almost 10 months.

Personal note: Thanks to all of those who are reading along as I see this thread just went over 20,000 views, even if half of them are me updating it.

Game 2: Jack Leiter looks primed to go on another late season roll as he won his third straight start and today was his best outing of the year in an 8-0 Rays win. Leiter was dominating the Twins throughout, retiring the first 10 batters on 6 strikeouts and finishing 7 5 0 0 1 12 to improve to 9-6, 3.64. The offense made him comfortable with five runs in the first two innings, with an Jasson Dominguez RBI single in the 1st putting them on the board and then 4 more in the 2nd highlighted by RBI doubles from Gabriel Moreno and Nate Clark. Clark drove in another run later to increase his MLB-leading total to 94, and he, Dayle Jenkins and Bobby Witt Jr. each collected 3 hits. Evan Godwin and Steve Givens pitched scoreless innings to finish the shutout.

Game 3: The Twins turned the tables in the shutout department today as Jeremy Odle held the Rays off the board in a 3-0 Minnesota win. The Rays could only manage 6 hits for the game as the Twins took the series from them. Marc Wagner started and was haunted by his usual nemesis the gopher ball, allowing a pair but pitching well overall at 6.2 5 3 3 2 9. The final run against him came when Jordan Diaz allowed a Royce Lewis double to score his baserunner. A few regulars were given the day off (Nate Clark, who had a pinch-single, Connor Kirkley, Gabriel Moreno) but that usually hasn't set them back in the past.

Team record: 74-26. Next up: An off-day then a return two-game engagement with the St. Louis Cardinals, trucking along only 1 1/2 games worse than the Rays at 72-27. Not too often you see a regular season meeting of two teams so far above .700 this late in the season. The Rays took the two games they played in Tampa back in June.

July 23-24, 2030: at St. Louis (2)
 

Game 1: The hype around MLB was big for this series, pitting two teams with winning percentages of .725 or better against each other this late in the season for the first time ever as the Rays came into St. Louis to face the Cardinals. Plus it was a rematch of the All-Star Game starters from only seven days ago in Christian Little vs NL ERA leader Leo Ortega. But a national TV audience on ESPN got to watch a rerun as the Rays once again beat St. Louis 8-4. After Ortega got Ricky Widmar, Dayle Jenkins and Nate Clark on strikes in the top of the 1st it looked like the vaunted pitchers' duel was on. But Gabriel Moreno's 2-run single got the Rays on the board in the 2nd, and they broke it open against Ortega with 4 runs in the 3rd on Joe Barker's RBI single and a 3-run shot from Jasson Dominguez (#25). And after the Cards got a run off Little in the 3rd, Widmar's RBI double and Jenkins' RBI single made it 8-1 in the 4th. Little tired in the 6th and gave up a couple of runs on 3 hits, leaving with a 5.1 5 3 3 2 11 line. Not his best except for the strikeouts, but good enough to improve to 9-2. Evan Godwin got a couple of whiffs to finish the 6th, Corbin Martin gave up a run in the 7th, and Mike Mooney got it done in the 8th. JDLC came on in the 9th with a 4-run lead, whiffed the first two and then made it interesting by loading the bases for Cardinal slugger Josh Stowers. Fortunately he got Stowers on a weak grounder to 2nd and the game was over.

Game 2: What a game. After last night's Leo Ortega-Christian Little matchup failed to be the low-scoring duel it was expected to be, St. Louis's Yordy Richard and the Rays' Alec Sachais came through with an epic pitching battle. Both pitchers set down the other team's lineup 9 up, 9 down the first time through before Ricky Widmar singled leading off the 4th, and Sachais did not allow a hit until one out in the 5th when Michael Busch singled. And on and on the game went 0-0 with Sachais being pinch-hit for in the 8th having gone 7 3 0 0 1 10 in his best outing of the year. But Richard one-upped him by going 8 3 0 0 0 8 as the Rays had no answer for him. So Jordan Diaz came on for the bottom of the 8th and Cardinal catcher Jakob Runnels greeted him by taking a 2-2 hanging slider into the left-centerfield seats for the first run of the game and first homer allowed by Diaz this season. And in the 9th the Cards brought on their closer Jeremy Bienick, the key piece they acquired from us in the Victor de Jesus deal last year. Widmar drew a leadoff walk, stole second, made it to third with two out but was stranded there when Bienick struck out Joe Barker and the Cards took a 1-0 win. These two teams are the class of MLB and the last two teams to win the World Series and it should be something else if they were to meet in this year's version. Meanwhile, the shutout was the 2nd the Rays have suffered in the last 3 games, and since the break they've scored 2, 8, 0, 8 and 0 runs as they're in feast-or-famine mode right now.

Team record: 75-27. Next up: An off-day then we return to Publix Park to face the Red Sox for a 3-game weekend set.

July 26-28, 2030: vs Boston (3)
 

Game 1: The feast-or-famine offense since the break feasted tonight to the tune of 9 runs in the first 2 innings on the way to an 11-2 rout of Boston. Bobby Witt Jr's 2-run double was the key hit in a 3-run first, and then they put 6 on the board in the 2nd, all with 2 out. Nate Clark singled in a run, Jasson Dominguez singled in two more, Rodolfo Rivas did likewise, and Connor Kirkley singled in a run. Kirkley later drove in another run with a hit to cap a 3-3 day with 2 RBI and a walk. This was more than enough for Jon Hayes, who had a rough second inning allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, but was untouchable outside of that, finishing 7 6 2 2 2 10 to improve to 13-3, matching Alec Sachais' record and team wins lead. Andy Aparicio came on for the final two just to get some work as he hadn't pitched in two weeks, and was sharp, whiffing 4 in 2 1-hit innings and he now has an otherworldly 5/77 BB/K ratio in 59 2/3 innings.

MEGA TRADE NEWS!

https://i.imgur.com/cuhWE2Q.png

Welcome to Tampa Bay, Adley Rutschman! The 32-year-old vet is the best catcher in baseball, a 70 on defense to go with his middle-of-the-order bat, currently third in the AL in WAR right now with 4.3. He was available because he's a free agent at year's end and Baltimore is obviously out of it. Do we need a player like Rutschman? Probably not, but there's no question catcher has been our weakest position by far. Gabriel Moreno has not quite been the answer, and although I had this deal lined up before last night's game, watching him go 0-4 with 3 whiffs and a GIDP while everyone else hit and seeing his numbers drop to 243/312/372 didn't exactly give me second thoughts. And don't get me started on Carlos Perez, who despite good underlying skills hasn't hit all for the second straight season (more on him in a bit). So when I checked the trading block and saw Rutschman available, it didn't take me long to work something out. Givens is the key piece here, he's got a great arm and he's a power lefty. But he has 40 control and only 40 potential on it, so he is what he is: an effective, talented pitcher who's going to walk himself into trouble at times. I would like to think the Orioles move him into the rotation, since he's fully capable of starting and probably more suited in that role to pitch around his walks rather than come into tense situations. (UPDATE: They have.) Halsted was our 7th round pick last year and he's been impressive in the minors, hitting for more power than expected even if the scouting reports are still somewhat bearish on his ultimate future. Still he's hit 26 homers in 151 games between rookie ball and Class A so he could be a keeper. Me, I'm just glad not to have to pitch to Rutschman anymore and I hope he signs with an NL team this winter. This is our first big rental in 8 years, when we picked up Joey Gallo and Josh Bell in 2022 after trading for Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber back in 2021. Now onto the next deal:

https://i.imgur.com/j20BF5q.png

So after the Rutschman deal I'm down a lefty reliever and have too many catchers, so here's the other shoe to drop. Actually I had this deal lined up a few weeks ago, but Ballmann went on the IL with some shoulder soreness (he's coming off now, and is rated "normal" for injuries so I'm not concerned) as the original thought was to bring up Luis Corpus from Durham and have him job-share with Moreno. Corpus is having a great season and will be our primary catcher next year, but he's going to have to wait a bit now. As for the deal, you can see Perez's numbers above and why I've soured on him. Perhaps if he gets a chance to be the #1 catcher as it appears he might in Texas he'll be the player we thought he'd be. Anyway Ballmann is the key here, the 25-year old lefty is a 4.5 star/5 star potential reliever who has 65 stuff (potential 70), 60 movement (big for Publix Park) and 55 control and a 24/103 BB/K ratio in 89 1/3 innings the last two seasons. He was the #4 overall pick way back in 2023, and is quite capable of being a good starter as well (75 stamina) although the rotation is always crowded. The price wasn't cheap: in addition to Perez, Chris Youngpeter is an excellent prospect who's getting a bit long in the tooth since he's been blocked at Durham for a couple years now. He's a righty sidearmer with great stuff who also probably is better suited as a starter than reliever. Wimberly was hitting .330 at High-A Charlotte but like Halstead in the other deal is outperforming his scouting right now and mainly has doubles power.

Game 2: The Rays got a clutch 7th inning, 2-run homer from their catcher to give them a 3-2 win over Boston today. Adley Rutschman? Nope, he was just in from the west coast and showed as tired, so Gabriel Moreno stayed in the lineup one more night and had the big hit of the game. It was another example of their on-again, off-again offense since the ASB and after scoring 11 yesterday that meant it was time to struggle today, and struggle they did to score runs with only Bobby Witt Jr's RBI double in the 4th getting them on the board against the Red Sox as they found themselves trailing 2-1 in the 7th. But Witt reached on a walk and with 2 out Moreno, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats, drilled his 8th HR of the year into the LF seats at Publix Park. Jack Leiter started and continued to pitch well going 6 6 2 2 1 6, victimized by a Jerry Bowman homer with 2 out in his final inning of work to fall behind. Corbin Martin came in for the 7th but got into trouble, putting two on so Evan Godwin relieved him. Godwin immediately gave up a hit to load the bases with one out, but got a force at the plate and a whiff to get out of it, and pick up win #3 in the process. Jose Alvarado had a quick 8th against two lefties and stayed on for the two-inning save, his 14th of the year.

While we didn't use Rutschman or Ballmann tonight, the guys who were traded for him were put to immediate use by their new teams. Texas started Carlos Perez at catcher, and he continued to not hit by going 0-4 and he must not have called a great game as the reigning Cy Young winner Wil Diaz was blasted for 8 runs in 5 2/3 innings. And Steve Givens got the start for Baltimore, and went 5.1 6 4 4 3 8 with 2 homers allowed in a 7-3 loss to Seattle so it was a pair of rough beginnings for our recently traded.

Game 3: Adley Rutschman made his Rays debut today and he and the Rays came out 5-2 winners to sweep the series from Boston. Rutschman grounded to first in his debut Rays AB, then doubled, was hit by a pitch and walked, although he didn't figure into scoring. Perhaps it was his game-calling that helped Marc Wagner pitch his most efficient game of the year, as he got through 8 innings on only 101 pitches for the win. The power lefty went 8 8 2 2 2 8 as he had a rough patch or two but turned in one of his better recent outings. Jasseel De La Cruz picked up save #10 and in an upset he didn't put the tying run on base, although he did allow a single while striking out a pair. The offense was kind of spotty today but they did enough. They had three runs score on sac flies from Nate Clark, Joe Barker and Dane Ayers (2-3 again with a double), while Jasson Dominguez drove in a run with a groundout. The only RBI hit came courtesy of Dayle Jenkins in the 8th as his 2-out single scoring Isaac DeLeon gave the Rays some extra breathing room at the end.

Team record: 78-27. Next up: The Milwaukee Brewers come to town for three games.

July 29-31, 2030: vs Milwaukee (3)
 

Game 1: The Rays took the first game of their interleague series with Milwaukee 10-6 in a game that really wasn't that close as they led 9-1 and 10-3. Jasson Dominguez got the party started in the 2nd with a 3-run HR (#26) off Touki Touissant, and Adley Rutschman drove in his first run as a Ray in the 4th with an RBI single. And they kept tacking on runs, culminating in Bobby Witt Jr's 3-run shot (#10) in the 5th as part of his 4-RBI day. Ricky Widmar also had a nice day, going 3-5 with a double and an RBI. Christian Little started and wasn't his sharpest but did well enough to win and get a quality start at 6 6 3 3 3 12 to go to 10-2. Corbin Martin gave up a run before Brad Ballmann made his Rays debut, walking the first man he faced but getting the next 3 including a pair of whiffs. Andy Aparicio got some work in the 9th and gave up a 2-run HR to new MLB HR leader Parks Harber, his 37th, as Nate Clark has been quiet in the HR department for a while now. The news wasn't all good tonight, though: Rodolfo Rivas tore his ACL legging out an unlikely infield single and is done for the year but will ready for 2031. At least we don't have to worry about how this injury affects his speed, as he was already a 20 runner.

Game 2: The Rays made it 5 wins in a row thanks to a 4-3 decision over Milwaukee. All of the scoring took place in the first three innings as Alec Sachais settled in after a shaky start and the bullpen was outstanding as usual. The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead on a Nate Clark RBI single and a 2-run single from Jasson Dominguez, and after that man Parks Harber hit a 2-run shot off Sachais in the 3rd to extend his MLB lead at 38 and tie the game, Joe Barker's sac fly scored Ricky Widmar (now on an 18-game hitting streak) with the go-ahead run. And it held up the rest of the way as Sachais ended 6 6 3 3 1 9 to win his 14th game of the year, Jordan Diaz had a 1-2-3 7th, and Jose Alvarado went 2 innings for save #15. Alvarado has been unbelievable this year even by his own standards as he gets better with age (now 35). He has an 0.73 ERA and a 7/51 BB/K ratio in 37 innings with only one homer allowed. He's earned 2.1 WAR already, an insane number for a short reliever as we're still one game short of the 2/3 mark of the season.

July 31: Placed 1B Rodolfo Rivas on the 60-day IL with a torn ACL, recalled IF Mike Lammers from AAA Durham.

Game 3: The Rays overcame a 3-0 deficit midway through the game to beat Milwaukee 7-3, sweep the series, and extend their winning streak to 6. Dayle Jenkins started the comeback with an RBI single in the 5th, and Connor Kirkley's 2-RBI triple tied it up in the 6th. And with 2 out in the 7th Adley Rustchman lived up to his nickname of "Clutchman" by drilling an RBI double to put the Rays ahead to stay. Bobby Witt Jr followed with a 2-run single, and Dane Ayers' sac fly brought the fourth run of the inning. Jon Hayes started and pitched well, except for one unfortunate sequence in the 3rd with two out where he went HBP, single, RBI single, 2-run triple to allow Milwaukee to take the lead. He ended up 6 5 3 3 1 8, and Andy Aparicio took over in the 7th with one of his usual brilliant outings, going 3 2 0 0 0 6 to get the win and up his record to 7-0. Ricky Widmar extended his hitting streak to 19 with a pair of hits.

Team record: 81-27. Next up: An off-day, then the Angels come to town for a 3-game weekend series.