October 29, 2030: World Series Game 5
 

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

Champions Again! The Rays won their third straight World Series (the first three-peaters since the 1998-2000 Yankees) and sixth in eight seasons after a 5-1 win over the Columbus Lightning to win the Series in 5 games, or what's known as a "Gentleman's Sweep". Christian Little was utterly dominant tonight, allowing Columbus nothing until the 5th inning when they picked up both their first hit and first run of the game on a Roc Riggio infield single as he went 6 1 1 1 3 11. Andy Aparicio went two scoreless innings and the 9th and final inning was entrusted to the guy who's been here from the start of this save in 2020, Jose Alvarado. The 35-year-old lefty got to be on the bottom of the dogpile and collect his sixth World Series ring, one for the other hand. For the third straight game in Columbus the offense jumped to an early 3-0 lead but this time thanks to Little that lead wouldn't be blown. Leading off the 3rd Dane Ayers singled, was sacrificed to second by Little (who later picked up a single of his own), and scored on a Ricky Widmar double. Dayle Jenkins then doubled in Widmar and Nate Clark singled in Jenkins. After Columbus got their run to pull within 3-1, Victor de Jesus rapped an RBI double in the 6th and World Series MVP Joe Barker put the cherry on top with his 8th homer of the postseason, a solo shot in the 7th. Here's a look at the scene when Alvarado struck out Andrew Benintendi to end it:

https://i.imgur.com/Dpxfs5B.png

So it will time to plunge into another offseason, one that probably will be quieter than most given the limited # of free agents to be, mostly in the bullpen. Adley Rutschman will be gone, and frankly we won't notice after he closed out the playoffs with a couple of 0-fers meaning he never showed off his bat with us. JDLC is all but gone as is Corbin Martin as we need to get some of our younger arms up, although I will try to bring back Jose Alvarado once he goes on the market and his demands come down, which is what we did 3 years ago. There are still surpluses to deal from for prospects, but we have quite a prospect buildup now where I end up churning the ones ready for MLB for younger ones ad nauseum.

2030-31 Offseason: November
 

Let's take our what is now annual look at the World Series trophy:

https://i.imgur.com/yJI6nHY.png

Also, here's the end of season message from bossman Stu Sternberg:

https://i.imgur.com/Z1lHRIj.png
https://i.imgur.com/tZsCb0D.png

Every year he wants me to re-sign a veteran on the decline, and this year is no different, although Martin could still be effective. Every year I ignore him on this. And after his performance since being acquired, the Adley Rutschman comment is spot on.

In another email he told me payroll could be $180M, but thanks to the new rule pushing back free agency a year we're not going to have anyone new going to arbitration so even I keep everyone sans the free agents and Gabriel Moreno (whom I'm non-tendering), well take a look here:

https://i.imgur.com/KGkF2xt.png

Take Moreno and Romulo Canelon off, and we're looking at a $73M payroll. We won't be getting any compensatory picks this year as JDLC is the only one eligible for a qualifying offer and he's not getting $15M. I will be looking into signing some extensions; Ricky Widmar, Jasson Dominguez, Nate Clark, Joe Barker and Alec Sachais come to mind, and of course we'll pay Alvarado whatever he wants in free agency (shhh...don't tell him).

Positional thoughts:

C: Luis Corpus is in line to be the man, or least most of the man. I could go with Will Quintana as his backup but I'm not sure I want two rookies at catcher. I'll see what kind of vets are available.

1B: Joe Barker and Rodolfo Rivas are back. Caleb "Playoff" Picciotti had a nice year at AAA and is a legit MLBer. I'm going to see if the trade market for him has improved, and if it has (like it did for Chris Sharp last winter) he'll be dealt, if not he'll be a nice insurance policy at Durham even if his morale is going to suffer.

2B: Connor Kirkley took it up a notch this year and has excelled two straight years in the postseason, so I'm no hurry to get rid of him. But the #1 prospect in baseball Jaiden Hardaway is nipping at his heels and he had a big second half at Durham. Do I risk sending Hardaway to Durham again and have him get mad/regress? We'll see.

SS: Ricky Widmar is one of the best in the league - when healthy, and that's the only knock as he's missed chunks of the past two seasons.

3B: What I said about Widmar goes for Bobby Witt Jr., now our highest-paid player.

IF: Because of the injuries to Witt and Widmar, Isaac DeLeon has been a great insurance policy to have, and he's gotten 250-300 AB the last three seasons. He deserves to be a full-time starter somewhere and he has tremendous trade value, and with the emergence of Dane Ayers he's probably the most likely to be traded. Meanwhile Ayers is Ben Zobrist reincarnated, and his spot is safe.

OF: Clark, Dominguez and de Jesus are set, and Ayers can play here as well. D'Andre Hodges is another guy who could be starting elsewhere and we'll see how the roster shakes out with respect to him. After his big year at Durham, Alex Buitrago is knocking on the door and will go on the 40-man but he'll probably have to wait for Dominguez to get hurt again.

DH: Barker probably is the full-time DH with Rivas playing first.

SP: We certainly can bring back all five (Little, Sachais, Hayes, Leiter, Wagner) but I feel like I'm wasting Andy Aparicio in middle relief even though he's a multi-inning weapon as we saw in the playoffs. And that's not even considering Danny Ceja, whom I want to get in the rotation. So we could deal someone.

RP: Assuming Martin and JDLC are gone and Alvarado is back, that makes two openings for which I've penciled in Jon Whiteleather and Tim Siqueiros. Jordan Diaz is likely the closer or co-closer with Alvarado. Didn't think I'd bring back Evan Godwin as he's getting older and his first half was dreadful, but he bounced back nicely in the second half. Brad Ballmann and Mike Mooney are safe as power lefties. I also like Eric Carter a lot and want to see what he can do in the bigs.

Others: Malachi Benford excelled as a starter this year and is likely trade bait. I'm still pretty sure Mike Lammers could hit 40 HRs from someone, if that happens it's someone in the NL. Tim Sandstrom is probably ticketed for Durham although he could pitch in the majors now.

Some news:

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

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

Two Cy Youngs, back-to-back 20-win seasons, three World Series rings. Tyler Glasnow was definitely one of the great Rays of the 20s and deserves the retired number.

Other notable retirements: Nick Gordon retired from our team, former Ray Ji-Man Choi, Aaron Judge, one-time Ray Trevor Larnach, Nolan Arenado (#28 retired by Colorado), former Ray Yonny Chirinos, Roberto Osuna, Andrew Knizner (who had a nice season for us in 2027), longtime farmhands and Durham legends Shane Sasaki and Christian Knapczyk, who couldn't quite make the big team, Tyler Gough (who did make the team briefly).

2030-31 Offseason: November, Part 2
 

Had so much stuff in that first November post so I figured I'd make a new one.

Our first deal of the offsesason:

https://i.imgur.com/rfx7x71.png

Moreno was going to be non-tendered, didn't want to be paying him $15M, so I shopped him to see what I could get, and it turned out to be Escobar, Columbus's 2nd round pick in 2028. He's a hulking dude, 6'8" 250 with current 75 gap power and 60/65 current/potential HR power. He also has a decent eye. The catch is he's rated 40/45 contact, and although he's rated a 65 at 1B, the component fielding ratings are all in the 40s, which is odd. He'll probably play at AA Montgomery.

Alec Sachais won the gold glove for AL pitchers today, so congrats to him.

Congrats, Jordan Diaz!

https://i.imgur.com/JYy99Kc.png

Rightfully this should have gone to Jose Alvarado (who got his one first-place vote from me), who had 0.5 more WAR than Diaz and had 20 saves, but Diaz is a good choice too and was one of the main reasons we had our best-ever bullpen this past season.

Joe Barker (DH) and Nate Clark (LF) won Platinum Stick Awards. So did Adley Rutschman (C), but that was for his work with Baltimore. During his time with us, it was as if he were using an actual platinum bat.

November 13: Texas's Victor Presas (15-6, 2.64) won the Cy Young, beating out his teammate and last year's winner Wil Diaz. Surprisingly, Marc Wagner finished 3rd (guess it was all those strikeouts), Alec Sachais was 4th and Jon Hayes was 5th. Jack Flaherty (14-4, 2.53) won it once again in the NL. It was his fourth Cy Young in the last five seasons, and it was unanimous. The only year he didn't win it (2028), he was out injured most of the year and limited to 11 starts.

November 14: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (yawn) won the MVP once again, his third straight, fourth in the last five years, and seventh overall. He was .350-38-118 this year with 7.5 WAR. Nate Clark's .303-51-144 year was good for 2nd, he received 6 first place votes to Vlad's 22. Jasson Dominguez finished 7th, Ricky Widmar 9th and Joe Barker 10th. The first two of those would have made it a very interesting race had they not missed the last 4-6 weeks of the season. Colorado's Corbin Carroll won it in the NL thanks to a .372-21-78 season, a season that saw him hitting .400 as late as early August before gravity caught up to him. Juan Soto was a distant second.

November 15: Let the deals begin!

https://i.imgur.com/CUmoi7G.png

I've decided to put Andy Aparicio in the rotation next year, so someone has to go and it's Leiter, who's now 30 and if not on numbers, on ratings he's the fifth best of the 2030 rotation (of course this would make him the ace on some teams, and a #2 or #3 starter on most). The return here is Soranno, the #1 overall pick in 2027, who has 70 stuff potential (60 present) as a starter (80 if you believe OSA) along with 65 movement (or 70 per OSA). He was up as a reliever with Cincinnati last season and pitched quite well over 44 innings. He's probably ticketed for Durham this year to be a full-time starter. And Allen is a legit starting prospect as well, and will either be at Montgomery or Durham. Soland was our 2nd round pick who underwhelmed in his first exposure to pro ball and at best is a slap-hitting MLB 2B.

And here's another big trade:

https://i.imgur.com/Gmv0LP9.png

As mentioned before, DeLeon was nice to have with Bobby Witt Jr and Ricky Widmar getting hurt from time to time so I lose that security blanket, but the emergence of Dane Ayers made DeLeon an asset we were kind of wasting since he's a legit regular SS or 3B who should hit 35-40 HR in full-time play as you can see from the numbers above. So we got a nice return for him. First and foremost, we get a quality catcher to job-share with Luis Corpus. Runnels is really a .240 hitter, but he's one year removed from a .276-19-51 season in 83 games which was worth 3.7 WAR. He dropped to .205-8-25 in 69 games this year with Will Smith back from injury, so his real ability is somewhere between those two seasons. If he played 150 games, he'd hit 25-30 HR so as long he produces decently he'll help us. The real prize here is Thompson, an extreme groundballer who throws 97-99. He's been a top 20 prospect and the scouting has him as a potential #1 starter. He's had stints in relief the last two seasons with St. Louis, and right now he probably takes over Aparicio's role in the bullpen, although I eventually want to get him into the rotation. The eventual idea here with acquiring Sorrano and Thompson in these deals is that Christian Little isn't forever, he has two more years of team control left and because of his fragility I don't see signing him to an extension. I actually like Sachais and Hayes more long-term. Also Sorrano and Thompson are 65/70 movement guys, a much more important factor in Publix Park.

2030-31 Offseason: December
 

The first of our free agents sign elsewhere:

https://i.imgur.com/K1ASME3.png

Au revior JDLC as he takes his six rings to Philly.

And here goes another one:

https://i.imgur.com/nCz739B.png

Good luck in Seattle, for their sake I hope he does better than he did as a Ray.

December 8: Corbin Martin signed a 3/38.4 deal with St. Louis, not sure whether they plan to use him as a starter or reliever but based on that money starter seems more likely.

Shohei Ohtani signed a 2/44 deal with the Dodgers, where I guess he'll get to hit more since he can now bat when he pitches.

And in the big news of the day:

https://i.imgur.com/yw2Jv2I.png

You knew he wasn't going anywhere, and as you can see from the numbers above he keeps getting better with age. Will he be back in 2033? Stay tuned.

December 11: Ex-Columbus ace Delvis Alegre, whom we just faced twice in the World Series, signed a 7/170 deal with the Dodgers. Also the Yankees signed Japanese import Kichizo Masumoto, who looks like an ace reliever. Finally, old friend Emerson Hancock was traded by Kansas City to the Blue Jays, so we'll likely see him several times next season.

December 12: Speaking of former Rays pitchers joining AL East teams, Shane Baz parlayed an excellent comeback season with the Rockies last year into a 6/108 deal with the Red Sox, who apparently haven't learned from the Tyler Glasnow signing. Baz is 31 these days. The Blue Jays offloaded 36-year-old vet Corey Seager to the Diamondbacks for a couple of minor leaguers.

December 13: Waived P Romulo Canelon (on 12/9), added 1B Mike Harms, 2B Jaiden Hardaway, 3B Bo Angeac, OFs Alex Buitrago and Angelo Romo and P Eric Carter to the 40-man roster. Assigned Canelon to AAA Durham.

I had forgotten to release Canelon before everyone's contracts auto-renewed, which means he's the 6th-highest paid player on the team at $3.1M with the bulk of the team making the minimum. Still needed to get him off the 40-man before the Rule 5 Draft, and unsurprisingly he cleared waivers. There's nobody I'm really sweating this year for Rule 5, with the best chances to get taken being power reliever Chris Hicks, 75-rated shortstop Melvin Gutierrez, 26-year-old power hitter Brandon Applebee and SP Mike Champagne, our first-round pick in 2027 who hasn't quite panned out and only is rated 45 in stuff, movement and control although he did pitch well between Durham and Montgomery last year.

December 22: Well we did get dinged a couple of players in the Rule 5 draft. As predicted above, Chris Hicks was taken by Washington and Al Jackson, a lefty swingman with Durham the last couple of seasons acquired from Boston two winters ago, was taken by Texas. Would have been nice to keep Hicks but we have enough bullpen power arms.

December 25: You gotta love the dedication of my head scout, Rob Metzler, cranking out scouting reports on Christmas Day while most people are celebrating the holiday with their families:

https://i.imgur.com/Zw4snTs.png

The man has no life.

December 27: The A's, whom we beat in the ALDS, seem serious about returning to the playoffs as they signed the top free agent pitcher still on the market, Michel Baez, to a 4/98 deal. Baez won 35 games over the last two seasons with the Dodgers. Cleveland signed 1B Pavin Smith to a 4/61 deal. Smith's the kind of 1B you don't see much in the 21st century: a .300 hitter with 10-15 HR power and a great glove, a Mark Grace-type.

December 31: 1B Lewin Diaz, a flop for us a few years back, had a great contract year with Arizona (.303-26-89) and managed to get a 3/35 deal with San Francisco off of that.

2030-31 Offseason: January-February
 

January 8: In his first year of eligibility Clayton Kershaw is elected to the Hall of Fame, appearing on 98.3% of ballots. He was the only inductee. Joe Mauer (68.5, 8th year), Yadier Molina (64.1, 5th year) and Joey Votto (62.7, 3rd year) creep closer to 75%, while the first-timer aside from Kershaw who garnered the most votes was Giancarlo Stanton at 54.6%. Jimmy Rollins and Joe Nathan dropped off the ballot as their 10 years were up.

January 9: Old friend Jack Filby, whom we beat like a rented mule in the World Series, signed a 1-year, $2.76M deal with the Angels to be a setup man. Cy Young winner-turned-mediocre reliever Nate Pearson signed a 1-year, $1.14M contract with the Yankees.

January 10: Drew Rasmussen is kind of a modern-day Rich Hill, who pitches well when healthy but often isn't and is listed as "wrecked". He's coming off two solid years with the Cubs and Dodgers, pitching 112 innings in each as a swingman and totaling 3.7 WAR. Apparently that was enough for the Cardinals to commit to him for 3/61.8 which seems insane. Speaking of aging pitchers, the Dodgers brought back Taylor Rogers, who spent a couple of months with us in the early 20s, on a 1-year, $9.3M deal which is a fair chunk of change for a 40-year-old. He converted to starting at age 38 in 2029 and earned 2.3 WAR, but mostly went back to the pen (7 starts) last season. Guessing teams are desperate to throw money at pitchers this winter.

January 16: Alright I think I've now found the worst free-agent signing of the winter. The Rockies signed Chris Paddack to a 4/63 deal. Paddack is 35, "fragile", and historically homer-prone (35 movement in Coors Field, baby). He made 19 starts for Seattle last year and was just OK, with 1.2 WAR, and that's probably the best they can hope each season from him. He still gave up 17 HR in 105 IP in their pitcher-friendly park. Yeesh.

Made a prospect trade:

https://i.imgur.com/Ak7w1QI.png

McKee is one of better catching prospects in the game, a 1st round pick in 2029 by Pittsburgh. This addresses an organizational need as after the two catchers on the current MLB roster and Will Quintana, there isn't a lot of quality behind them. Nerison has great stuff but probably is ultimately a reliever.

January 29: Big news! I have instituted the DH in the National League. In real life this has probably happened long by now.

February 6: Rafael Devers signed a 3/75.6 deal with the Cubs today, culminating a remarkable turnaround in his fortunes. After a mediocre 1.7 WAR season in Baltimore in 2028, Devers went unsigned for the entire 2029 season. Last year the former Ray signed a 1-year deal with the Pirates, and was traded to Detroit at the deadline, rebuilding his value by having a career .332-30-101 season good for 6.5 WAR at age 33. It will be interesting to see if another Ray of the mid-2020s, Vidal Brujan, follows the same path. After being dealt to the Yankees, Brujan became a free agent after the 2029 season and went unsigned last year (and remains unsigned as of this date).

February 7: The Phillies signed the current NL Reliever of the Year Victor Arano to a 2/9.7 deal. The 36-year-old saved 45 games for San Francisco last year with a 1.98 ERA. Between adding him and JDLC, Philadelphia is definitely shoring up its pen with vets.

February 12: The Mariners signed Andrew Benintendi to a 2/34.8 deal, which seems like a lot of money for a guy who hits .270 with 15-20 HR. Also splurging were the Cardinals once again, paying 35-year-old Zack Littell, best known as a closer, $21M for one season. Littell pitched well making 10 starts for Texas down the stretch last year but he looks ticketed for their pen, meaning that's a ridiculous sum for a reliever.

March 31: We're still going with Spring Training. We've had a few injuries so far, most minor, but the most serious has been Jasson Dominguez with back stiffness that will cause him to miss Opening Day as he's gone on the IL, but he shouldn't be gone much longer than a few games into the season.

Gabriel Moreno is back where it all started, signing a 1-year, $2.4M contract with the Blue Jays. Grizzled vet Matt Chapman signed a 1-year, $2M with St. Louis but I'm not sure where they're going to put him. The DH in the NL now helps things there, though.

April 1: Dylan Carlson signed a 1-year, $5.3M deal with Oakland. FYI, Opening Day is later this year, April 6.

2031 Opening Day Roster & Preseason Predictions
 

No real surprises on the Opening Day roster, which is as follows:

C: Corpus, Runnels
1B: Barker, Rivas
2B: Kirkley
SS: Widmar
3B: B.Witt Jr
IF/OF: Ayers
IF: Lammers
OF: Clark, Jenkins, de Jesus, Hodges
SP: Little, Sachais, Hayes, Wagner, Aparicio
MR: Godwin, Thompson, Ballmann, Mooney, Whiteleather, Siqueiros
SU: Alvarado
CL: J.Diaz

Lammers is out of options, so when Jasson Dominguez comes back, D'Andre Hodges likely goes to Durham.

(Sorry I goofed on the preseason predictions, I deleted the file to try and get them re-generated then I realized I went past opening day, which was one game between St. Louis and the Cubs. The original version had us winning 112 games with the Yankees looking like the biggest threat with 93 wins)

April 7-9, 2031: vs Baltimore (3)
 

https://i.imgur.com/QQ67KYJ.png

Opening Day at Publix Park saw the Rays ended up winning easily, although it was anything but easy until they broke it open with a 6-run 8th inning to win 10-3. Dayle Jenkins had the game's biggest hit, a 2-run single in the 6th which put the Rays up 4-3, and then sac fly added insurance in the 8th to make it 5-3 before Joe Barker's 2-run single and Victor de Jesus's 3-run homer. Christian Little started and was his usual self, getting strikeouts but giving up a key homer, as Baltimore made the most of their three hits off him to drive in a run after a walk and a steal and a 2-run homer from Logan Tanner which put them up 3-2 at the time. The bullpen was great, Evan Godwin (who picked up the win) got a double play from the first man he faced in the 6th to get out of that, Tim Siqueiros looked great with a pair of whiffs in his inning of work, Jose Alvarado got a double play of his own after walking a man, and Mike Mooney finished nicely after the game was in hand. Earlier Ricky Widmar homered in the 3rd and Barker singled in a run.

Oh, and lookie here:

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

Congrats to Jack, who got it done on 103 pitches for the first perfect game on Opening Day in MLB history. And he had to face a DH as well!

Game 2: This one didn't go according to script as the Rays' bullpen couldn't get it done in a 4-3, 11-inning loss to Baltimore. The Rays took a 3-1 lead into the 9th and 2030 AL Reliever of the Year Jordan Diaz came on for the save, but he blew it allowing the Orioles to tie it up with 2 runs. And after Brad Ballmann pitched a scoreless 10th, Jon Whiteleather coughed up a run in the 11th and although Bobby Witt Jr. got on with a leadoff single, Luis Corpus grounded into a double play to end the game. The loss wasted a fine effort from Alec Sachais, who went 6.2 4 1 1 1 9 with the only run a homer he allowed in the 7th. Former Ray Steve Givens was tough on his old team, though, holding them to 1 run through 6 innings on a Rodolfo Rivas RBI single in the 4th. But in the bottom of the 7th with two out Dayle Jenkins tripled, scored on a wild pitch, and then Nate Clark followed with his 1st homer of the year to make it 3-1. Speaking of Nates, Nate Thompson made his Rays debut in relief of Sachais and would have been in line for the win had it not been blown. Jose Alvarado got two outs in the 8th as well, but the team suffers a rare loss at Publix Park.

Game 3: The Rays were 12-6 winners in a sloppy, ugly game to take two out of three in their opening series of 2031. It was a 2-2 game going into the bottom of the 5th thanks to a Victor de Jesus RBI single and Joe Barker's first HR of the year before the Rays broke it open with 5-run innings in the 5th and 7th. Much of the first 5-run inning was due to Orioles starter Jorge Cadena, who had two out with two on and nobody in, but lost it with three walks, including one with the bases loaded as well as a bases-loaded balk. Rodolfo Rivas had a 2-run double and Connor Kirkley an RBI single to cap the inning. And then in the 7th consecutive Baltimore errors with one out loaded the bases, Jakob Runnels drew a bases-loaded walk, and then Ricky Widmar hit his 2nd HR of the young season for a grand slam. Jon Hayes started and wasn't his sharpest, going 6 4 2 2 4 8 and becoming the first Rays starter this year to notch a win. Jon Whiteleather had a nice 7th including striking out the side, but Mike Mooney (3 runs on 4 hits including a homer) and Tim Siqueiros (a run allowed and the bases were left loaded) were not good at all in their innings of work.

Team record: 2-1. Next up: An off-day then an instant World Series rematch in Columbus for a 3-game weekend series.

April 11-13, 2031: at Columbus (3)
 

April 10: Activated OF Jasson Dominguez from the 10-day IL, optioned OF D'Andre Hodges to AAA Durham.

We welcome J-Dom back from the IL, who missed the final month of the regular season and the playoffs with a fractured finger and then suffered back stiffness in spring training. Hodges deserves to play in MLB but so do most of his new teammates as he joins the most overqualified AAA team in history.

Game 1: The Rays raced out to a 10-0 lead through 3 innings but had to end up holding on to a 10-6 win over Columbus as they pick up where they left off in late October during the World Series. They were all over Lightning starter Blake Cederlind, jumping on him for 8 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks in the first two innings and added 2 more off Tommy Parsons in the 3rd. There weren't any homers, just a parade of baserunners. Nate Clark and Jasson Dominguez, in his first action of the new year, each drove in 3 runs and Joe Barker drove in a pair. Dayle Jenkins had an RBI triple and Bobby Witt Jr singled in another. Marc Wagner got all this run support, but ended up true to his three true outcomes M.O., walking 4, striking out 7 and giving up 2 homers in his 5 innings of work, allowing 3 runs to get the win. Nate Thompson took over in the 6th and looked good for 1 2/3 innings, but a 24-minute rain delay happened and when he came back out he put a couple of men on and gave up a 3-run homer to Cristhian Rodriguez but made it through the 7th. Tim Siqueiros got 4 up, 4 down and Evan Godwin the final two outs to finish the game.

Game 2: This was an absurd game:

https://i.imgur.com/e5PSPeS.png

I don't know where to start. Obviously if you're going to play 19 innings, you might as well win; it would have been crushing to lose this one, especially after the bullpen blew a 6-2 lead in the 9th and an 8-6 lead in the 10th. I really don't know what's happened to Jordan Diaz - he was so good last year and he's been so bad this one. Part of this was my fault for sticking with Brad Ballmann in the 9th after he had already gone 1 1/3. My genius idea was to save Jose Alvarado, but Ballmann gave up a walk and two singles to start the 9th and loaded the bases. Diaz immediately gave up a 2-run double but got a strikeout and a sac fly and it was still 6-5, but he gave up another single to tie the game. And in the 10th he gave up a leadoff homer to Mathieu Nelson and a walk, so I brought Alvarado in and he gave up a sac bunt on which the runner couldn't be retired, the lead runner went to third on a fielder's choice and he gave up a sac fly to tie the game again. Thankfully Alvarado got through the 11th and then Mike Mooney and Evan Godwin were positively heroic, Mooney going 3 innings of shutout ball and then Godwin going 5 (!) and getting the much-deserved win, already his 2nd of the year. Early in the game Andy Aparicio truly lived up to the cliche "scattered (X) hits" as he gave up 9 in his first 5 innings of pitching but only gave up one run. His final inning was his best, a 1-2-3 to end up 6 9 1 1 0 4. Dayle Jenkins had a solo homer in the 6th, Dane Ayers had a 2-run shot in the 7th, the first for each of them, and Victor de Jesus hit HR #2 in the 9th to make it 6-2. The bats did very little in extras until the 18th, when they loaded the bases with 2 out but Jenkins grounded out to end that threat. Finally they broke through in the 19th off former Ray Sandy Gaston and Jose Hernandez, who had thrown 4 innings last night and was obviously tired. They loaded the bases with nobody out and Mike Lammers drilled a 2-run double off the RCF wall, Ayers had an RBI single (his 5th hit of the game), Ricky Widmar had a 2-run single and they kept scoring from there to make sure there wouldn't be a 20th inning. Going to need a fresh arm from Durham so either Jon Whiteleather (who pitched briefly and ineffectively today) or Ballmann might go down. Also Lammers was in the game because Bobby Witt Jr. hurt himself again, this time a moderate hamstring tightness injury which will nag him for a week so he's IL-bound.

April 13: Placed 3B Bobby Witt Jr on the 10-day IL with hamstring tightness, optioned P Jon Whiteleather to AAA Durham; recalled OF D'Andre Hodges and P Eric Carter from AAA Durham.

This is a move to get a fresh arm up, I'm not giving up on Whiteleather despite his inconsistency over his first 3 appearances (and the few he had last season).

Game 3: The only thing worse than playing a 19-inning game is having to play an extra-inning game the next day. And the only thing worse than that is losing the second extra-inning game. Fortunately for the Rays they didn't lose it, as they edged Columbus 7-6 in 12 innings today, making it 31 innings or the equivalent of 3 1/2 games played over two days. Ricky Widmar's 2-run homer (#3) off one-time Ray Josh Fleming in the 12th won it after Luis Corpus kept the inning alive with a two-out single, his 4th hit of the game. Unlike yesterday when the bullpen blew the game, today they had to come back to tie it. Mike Lammers singled in the tying run in the 9th and we might have avoided extras if he wasn't thrown out trying to score on a Corpus double afterwards. Christian Little started and wasn't that great, allowing 5 runs over the first 3 innings although only two of them were earned after Joe Barker mishandled a Connor Kirkley throw. Little still gave up 2 homers but settled in to finish 6 6 5 2 1 11, going 107 pitches and an inning longer than he normally would have. Tim Siqueiros, who didn't pitch in yesterday's marathon, was brilliant going 3 1 0 0 0 7, and Jose Alvarado pitched the 10th but had to throw 24 pitches. So this left it to just-recalled Eric Carter, who got through the 11th and then struggled in the 12th after the Rays went up 7-5. He gave up a leadoff single to Victor Mesa Jr, wild-pitched him to 2nd, then gave up a Henry Parson double to make it 7-6 and put the tying run at 2nd with nobody out. But he got a whiff, a walk, another whiff and then got Bobby Alvarez, who had earlier homered off Little, to ground out to mercifully end the game, picking up a win in his MLB debut. Earlier the Rays had fought back from 4-0 down on Corpus's first MLB homer and a 3-run shot from Victor de Jesus, off to a red-hot start at .452-3-9 through 6 games.

Team record: 5-1. Next up: No rest for the weary as we head straight to Toronto for 4 games.

April 14-17, 2031: at Toronto (4)
 

From the league office:

https://i.imgur.com/NP5uyzf.png

Game 1: The Rays rode the longball to a come-from-behind 7-3 win over Toronto today, bashing four into the Rogers Centre seats. First, though, it was the Blue Jays who were hitting the ball out of the park as Alec Sachais surrendered a pair of homers in the 4th inning to put the Rays behind 3-1 after Jasson Dominguez had hit his first of the year in the 3rd. But they started the comeback in the 5th when doubles machine Luis Corpus drove in Dane Ayers who had also doubled. Corpus had a pair of two-baggers, giving him four in the last 2 games. Joe Barker then hit his 2nd of the year off Adrian Morejon to tie it in the 6th and Connor Kirkley drilled his 1st with a man on to make it 5-3. Nate Clark then added his 2nd with a runner aboard in the 9th to make the final 7-3. Sachais got into a groove after his early struggles and picked up his first win of the year going 6 4 3 3 2 10. Nate Thompson got himself into a bases-loaded jam in the 7th but got himself out of it and pitched through the 8th, and Jordan Diaz looked more like the Jordan Diaz we've known the last two seasons with a 2-strikeout 9th.

A trade:

https://i.imgur.com/ym64EsN.png

So long to Caleb "Playoff" Picciotti, our brief postseason hero who hit homers in the first two games of the ALDS when we were short-handed last season. With Rodolfo Rivas and Joe Barker on the MLB roster currently (not to mention that Victor de Jesus and Dane Ayers can play the position) and Mike Harms and Joe Jimenez at AAA and A+, we are awash in 1B so barring another cascade of injuries like last year it was doubtful he'd make it back to our big league roster despite his skills. Speaking of 1B, Blanco wasn't much of a prospect although he some power potential. In return we get Limongelli, the third best catching prospect in baseball according to BNN (although about 210th overall). We acquired the #2 catching prospect (Mike McKee) in an earlier trade as continue to beef up an organizational weakness.

Game 2: This team. Just when you start to think "oh, they'll finally lose" they go and do something like today. Down 4-1 in the 9th inning, they scored three times to force extras (once again) and won it in 12, 5-4. Victor de Jesus led off the 9th with a double, went to third on a groundout, and Mike Lammers walked. Connor Kirkley, who earlier had an RBI double for the Rays one run to that moment, hit into a fielder's choice for the second out allowing de Jesus to score. With Jakob Runnels and his 1 for 13 bat due, I sent in D'Andre Hodges to pinch hit and of course he drilled a 2-run homer to tie the game. And in the top of the 12th Kirkley came through his 2nd HR of the game to cap a 3-5, 3 RBI day. Jon Hayes started and shut the Jays out through 5 before he fell apart in the 6th, allowing 4 runs. Brad Ballmann pitched the 7th and in the bottom of the 8th down 4-1 I brought Rodolfo Rivas in to pitch since the bullpen remains tired. Rivas pitched a scoreless 8th and stayed on in the 9th, getting another out but giving up a single and then having to leave with a sore ankle (a 1-day injury). Jordan Diaz came in and had another effective outing, pitching through the 10th and getting 3 whiffs. The last rested pitcher, Mike Mooney, came in and pitched two shutout innings to get the win.

Game 3: The best way to rest a weary bullpen that's had three 12+ innings games in their last four is have your starter go deep and that's what Marc Wagner did today and then some, pitching a 5-hit shutout of the Blue Jays in a 4-0 win. This was by far Wagner's best performance as a Ray as he only walked one, struck out 14 and went all the way on 118 pitches to make it two wins in two starts this season. The Rays were up against old friend Emerson Hancock, and although he pitched very well against his old squad (7 4 3 3 1 7) he was victimized a pair of home runs. Luis Corpus continues to hit for extra bases and his 2-run homer (#2) in the 3rd made it 2-0. And the red-hot Victor de Jesus came through with #4, a solo shot in the 6th, and later tripled and scored in the 9th to make it 4-0 giving Wagner a longer leash to complete the shutout, especially after he allowed a pair of singles in the bottom of the 9th.

Game 4: The winning continues with a 5-3 triumph over Toronto to sweep the series and make it 8 straight. Dane Ayers' 2-run HR (#2) in the 8th broke a 3-3 tie, and the bullpen came through with 4 shutout innings to lead the way. The Rays grabbed a 3-1 lead on Luis Corpus's 3rd HR in the 5th and a 2-run shot from Mike Lammers in the 3rd (#1). But Andy Aparicio couldn't hold it, allowing 2 runs on a triple and double without retiring anyone in the 6th. Tim Siqueiros got him out of it and Aparicio ended 5 8 3 3 1 7. In his first appearance since his epic 5-inning outing in Columbus, Evan Godwin took over with one out in the 7th and after Ayers' homer he ended up getting his MLB-leading 3rd win of the season. Godwin went one out into the 8th and after he walked a man, Eric Carter took over and got the final two outs. I stuck with Carter for the 9th but he walked the leadoff man so Jose Alvarado came on. Alvarado gave up a double to put the tying run at 2nd, but stranded the runners on 2nd and 3rd to pick up his first save of the season.

Team record: 9-1. Next up: Back home for 3 this weekend against the Yankees.

April 18-20, 2031: vs NY Yankees (3)
 

Game 1: Once against the Rays flexed their muscles and rode the HR ball to their ninth straight win, 7-4 over the Yankees at Publix Park. Victor de Jesus, making an early bid for MVP, drilled a 3-run shot off Brennan Malone in the 1st (#5) and the Rays never trailed from there. Christian Little did allow the Yankees to get close on a couple occasions as he continued his mixed start to the season. He allowed a couple of runs in the early innings to make it 3-2, and after Dayle Jenkins' RBI double and Nate Clark's RBI single in the 5th made it 5-2, Joe Allen managed an inside-the-park homer with a man on to cut the lead to 5-4 in the top of the 6th. But a pair of homers in the bottom of the frame from Jasson Dominguez (#2) and Jakob Runnels (his first as a Ray) restored the 3-run lead and the bullpen took over from there. Brad Ballmann wasn't that sharp, allowing two hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings, but got help from de Jesus who threw a man out at 3rd. And Jordan Diaz continued to put his early season hiccups in the rearview mirror, retiring the 5 Yankees he faced with 2 via strikeout to pick up his first save of the season. Little went 6 7 4 4 1 9 and notched his first win of the year as well.

MLB News: Atlanta, which bottomed out at 71-91 last season and missed the playoffs for the second straight season after making them the previous 10, is off to a 10-0 start after beating Toronto tonight. The 10-0 start is the best I recall seeing in this save. At the other end of the spectrum the Columbus Lightning, who were playing in the World Series less than six months ago, are off to an 0-11 start which included three losses to the Rays last weekend despite Cristhian Rodriguez's MLB-leading 6 homers. Also Caleb Picciotti homered in his 2nd game as a Rockie at Dodger Stadium.

Game 2: The Rays saw their 9-game winning streak snapped in a 6-5 loss to the Yankees thanks to some shaky bullpen work and an inability to convert 17 hits and 2 walks into more than 5 runs. Alec Sachais left after 6 with a 5-3 lead and having gone 6 7 3 3 1 4, but Mike Mooney served up a Tyree Reed homer in the 7th and Evan Godwin was all kinds of awful in the 8th, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk. Godwin took the loss, giving him four decisions (3-1) in his five appearances this season. Brad Ballmann got the final four outs without incident to keep it close, but the Rays wasted a bases-loaded, 1-out situation in the 8th on a Victor de Jesus whiff and a Jasson Dominguez fly ball. Dominguez did come through in the 3rd with an RBI single and Mike Lammers followed with a 2-run double to tie the game up at 3 after Sachais had a rough first inning, and Lammers' sac fly in the 5th gave them a 4-3 lead. Nate Clark added an RBI triple in the 6th to make it 5-3, but in the story of the game they couldn't bring him home as they left 13 runners on base in total. Speaking of streaks ending, Toronto beat Atlanta to hand them their first loss of the season after winning the opening 10, and Columbus finally won its first game of the year after 11 losses to start the season, edging the Mets 5-4.

Game 3: It's been a long time since the Rays played a truly terrible game they were never in, but today they did as they were hammered 8-0 by the Yankees and only managed 2 hits for the day. Jon Hayes looked good for two innings but starting with the 3rd New York teed off on him. His particular problem was retiring Vlad Guerrero Jr., who hit a 2-run triple off him in the 3rd and an RBI double in the 5th. A key Rodolfo Rivas error in that 5th opened the door for 5 Yankees runs to put the game away, and Hayes ended 4.2 9 8 4 1 5. Nate Thompson went 2 1/3 scoreless in relief, whiffing 5 but allowing an RBI hit when he came on. Eric Carter went the final two and showed his premium stuff by striking out 4, including Guerrero (the only time they retired him during his 4-hit day) and also showed his shaky control by walking 2. Meanwhile the bats had no answer for Yankee starter Eric Peterson, getting only one hit and two walks off him through 7 (a Dayle Jenkins single in the 3rd). Ricky Widmar doubled in the 8th off reliever Nate Plasters for the other hit as the Rays drop two straight after winning 10 of their first 11 this season.

Team record: 10-3. Next up: An off-day then Boston comes to town for 3.

April 22-24, 2031: vs Boston (3)
 

Game 1: Marc Wagner picked up where he left off after last week's 14-K shutout of Toronto by whiffing 15 Red Sox in 7 innings in a 5-2 win. Wagner was 7 3 1 1 2 15 on 111 pitches, saving his best for last by striking out the side in the 7th. The win improves him to 3-0, 1.71 on the young season. Jose Alvarado was nicked for a run in the 8th but Jordan Diaz had a shutout 9th for save #2. The bats continued their bad habit of leaving runners on base (12), scoring only 5 despite 11 hits and 7 walks, but thanks to Wagner it didn't matter. Connor Kirkley put them on the board in the 2nd with an RBI single, and Dane Ayers drew a bases-loaded walk in the 6th to break a 1-1 tie (this after Kirkley was intentionally walked to load the bases) and Luis Corpus's sac fly made it 3-1. Joe Barker's sac fly and Jasson Dominguez's RBI single scored the other two runs.

April 23: Activated 3B Bobby Witt Jr from the 10-day IL, optioned OF D'Andre Hodges to AAA Durham.

Game 2: The offense put two touchdowns on the board and Andy Aparicio was beyond brilliant in a 4-hit shutout as the Rays wasted Boston 14-0. Aparicio went 9 4 0 0 0 9 to get his first career shutout and the team's second in a week. The win was AA's first of the season after a couple of no-decisions that saw his BABIP inflated, but regression worked in his favor today as he took a 2-hitter into the 9th before surviving a couple of hits to nail down the shutout. The offense broke open a 2-0 game in the 5th with a 9-run inning that got going with a 3-run Ricky Widmar homer, his 4th. Widmar drove in 4 for the day on 4 hits, and Dayle Jenkins was 3-4 with 4 RBI while Jasson Dominguez was 3-5 with 2 RBI. Bobby Witt Jr, fresh off the IL, went 2-5 with his first homer of the year as well. They had 21 hits in all, with everyone in the lineup getting at least a pair except for Victor de Jesus, who had to settle for just a 2-run double in five trips. The Rays are now 12-3 but hold only a two-game lead on the Yankees who are off to their own hot start at 10-5, including taking two of three from the Rays this past weekend.

Game 3: Christian Little got knocked around for a couple of runs in the first inning but gave up nothing from there as the Rays took a 4-2 win over Boston and former Ray Shane Baz. Little gave up 2 runs on 3 hard-hit safeties but got into a groove from there, going 7 3 2 2 1 6 on 110 pitches and improving to 2-0. Jordan Diaz and Jose Alvarado took care of the 8th and 9th without incident and Alvarado picked up his 2nd save. Baz kept the Rays' bats in check for quite a while before a passed ball on strike 3 to Ricky Widmar to lead off the 6th started what proved to be the game-winning rally. Dayle Jenkins doubled Widmar to 3rd, and Widmar scored on Nate Clark's sac fly while Jenkins scored on one by Victor de Jesus. Widmar added an RBI double in the 7th for some insurance. The lone Rays run through the first 5 was a solo shot from Connor Kirkley, his 3rd homer of the season.

Team record: 13-3. Next up: The homestand continues with Toronto coming to town for the weekend.

April 25-27, 2031: vs Toronto (3)
 

Game 1: For the second straight day the Rays had a starter get knocked around early, only to settle down while the team caught up and overtook the opponent in today's 7-3 win over the Blue Jays. Alec Sachais fell prey to his old nemesis the home run as Toronto got a pair of them to score three runs in the 2nd inning. But he gave them nothing after that and pitched 8 solid innings (8 5 3 3 1 10) to go 2-0, 3.38. Deivi Garcia shut down the bats for 3 innings, not allowing a hit, but Dayle Jenkins followed a Ricky Widmar triple with an RBI single to get them on the board in the 4th, and then a Jasson Dominguez solo homer (#3) and a Widmar sac fly tied it up in the 5th. And in the 6th two more sac flies from Dominguez and Bobby Witt Jr put the Rays ahead to stay. This team's been hitting a lot of sac flies and their 12 so far this season far and away leads MLB with four teams next at only 6. A dropped foul pop in the 7th gave Joe Barker a second life, and he responded with an RBI double which was followed by a Dominguez RBI single for the final 2 runs. Tim Siqueiros struck out the side in the 9th to finish off the game.

Game 2: And it's become Groundhog Day at Publix Park as once again a Rays starter gave up 3 runs early on a couple of homers but settled down and the team came back and won 4-3 to make it 5 straight. It was same story, different pitcher today with Jon Hayes, whose bogey inning was the third as a pair of Toronto homers put three on the board and erased an early 2-0 Rays lead which came on Victor de Jesus' 6th HR of the year and a 2-out Jays error which allowed Bobby Witt Jr to score. Hayes was stingy after the 3rd, of course, and ended up 6 8 3 3 0 7 to pick up a quality start and his 2nd win of the season. The comeback happened in the 5th when Witt hit his second double of the game to score a pair of runners, and the bullpen made the one-run lead hold up. First Tim Siqueiros was brilliant again, striking out a pair in scoreless 7th. He now has an impressive 1/17 BB/K ratio in 9 2/3 innings of relief with the one walk the biggest pleasant surprise. Jose Alvarado picked up his 274th career hold with a 2K 8th (nothing special about that number, I was just wondering how many holds he had in his career and well it's a lot), and Jordan Diaz continued to roll after his bad first week with a 1-2-3 9th for save #3.

Game 3: Rays starter get roughed up in the first few innings? Check. Team comes back and eventually wins? Check. The broad contours of each game are the same, the only variability is in how the comeback win unfolds. Today it took a little longer as the Rays prevailed for the sixth straight game 5-4 in 11 innings after Marc Wagner put them in a 4-1 hole. Unlike his dominant shutout performance in Toronto last week, Wagner struggled from the get-go today. It took him 34 pitches to get through the 1st, and a pair of walks and hits including a 2-run Skyler Messenger single got him off to a tough start. And in the 4th, Werner Blakley homered for the second time this series, a 2-run shot to give Toronto a 3-run lead after Joe Barker's triple in the 1st got the Rays on the board. Barker proved to be a one-man comeback machine as his 2-run double in the 6th made it 4-3, and in the 8th after Dayle Jenkins reached on a 2-base error by Jays SS Cody Schrier, Barker singled him home to tie the game. They had a chance to win it in the 9th but pinch-runner Ricky Widmar was thrown out at the plate by Riley Greene after Jenkins singled. Finally in the 11th Connor Kirkley led off drawing his 16th walk of the season already in Game 19, Widmar singled him to second, and after Jakob Runnels popped up his sacrifice bunt attempt, Dane Ayers walked to load the bases, and Team Sac Fly came through again when Jenkins' fly ball scored Kirkley to walk it off. Of course they don't get to this point if this bullpen wasn't brilliant; after Wagner went 5.1 3 4 4 4 11, Nate Thompson came on and went 2 2/3 scoreless allowing only a hit. Jordan Diaz and Jose Alvarado combined for two scoreless innings through the 10th, and Eric Carter came on for the 11th. The rookie gave up a one-out triple but showed off his 100 MPH gas by whiffing the next two batters to strand the runner and get his 2nd win of the season.

Team record: 16-3. Next up: Hitting the road to play three at Yankee Stadium. When I last mentioned the standings after New York took 2 of 3 at Publix Park over the previous weekend, the Yankees were within 2 games of the Rays. Now they're five back, tied with Baltimore.

April 28-30, 2031: at NY Yankees (3)
 

Game 1: In an ugly, sloppy game in which the Rays made more than their share of mistakes they fell 9-6 in 13 innings to the Yankees. They started with a rough first inning which saw two walks, an error, and two wild pitches lead to a pair of Yankee runs, but overcame that to take a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the 9th. The bullpen was shorthanded with key pieces Jose Alvarado and Jordan Diaz unavailable, so Eric Carter, coming off a 1-2-3 8th, stayed on to face the leadoff righty in the 9th and walked him. This brought in Brad Ballmann, who promptly gave up a 2-run HR to the same-handed Joe Allen to tie the game. The Rays wasted a great chance in the 12th by putting men on 1st and 3rd with nobody out and failing to score, and in the 13th Evan Godwin struck out the first two batters but walked the next two, and served up the game-winning, walk-off homer to Yankee rookie Sal Mota to snap the team's 6-game winning streak. Aparicio didn't have his best stuff and fought it most of the game but managed to finish 7 6 4 2 3 5 while Ballmann ended up pitching 4 innings with 6 whiffs after giving up the homer. Connor Kirkley led the offense, 2-5 with a HR (#4) and 2 RBI but they struck out an uncharacteristic 16 times in the 13 innings.

Game 2: The Rays bounced back from yesterday's loss with a hard-fought 5-3 win over the Yankees. Ricky Widmar was the star on offense, driving in a run with a groundout in the 3rd and then blasting a 2-run HR (#5) off Dave Falco in the 5th to account for 60% of their runs today. Christian Little started and was OK, going 5.1 5 2 2 2 6 on 99 pitches as the Yankees crept back within 4-2 in the 6th before Mike Mooney got him out of it. Mooney stayed on for the 7th and gave up a pair of doubles to make it 4-3, but Tim Siqueiros continued to dominate by getting the Yankees' two toughest hitters, Ivan Vega and Vlad Guerrero Jr, on a fly ball and a whiff to end that threat. Jose Alvarado had a 1-2-3 2K 8th, and Jordan Diaz in the 9th just had to put two runners on to bring up Vlad with the game on the line but got him to ground out to end it and pick up save #4. Little is now 3-0, 3.94. Nate Clark also singled in a run in the 3rd and Joe Barker's sac fly gave them some insurance in the 8th.

April 30: Optioned P Eric Carter to AAA Durham, recalled P Jon Whiteleather from AAA Durham.

Whiteleather served his 15 days in Durham after being optioned out earlier, and we needed a fresh arm for the pen anyway. Carter had his moments but his control (7 walks in 6 2/3 innings) remains an issue.

Game 3: The last few years the Rays have relied on the 1-2 punch of Nate Clark and Joe Barker in the 3-4 spots in the lineup to provide big-time power. The two combined for 84 homers last season and that was with Barker missing a month. But coming into today the two of them had combined for a grand total of four homers, with each hitting two. Neither were exactly slumping, but they weren't providing the long ball. That changed today in a 6-3 Rays win over the Yankees. After the first two men reached to lead off the game Clark hit #3 off Eric Peterson, who had 1-hit the Rays over 7 innings 10 days ago. And after the Yankees battled back to tie the game at 3 in the 7th, Barker drilled a 2-run homer in the top of the 8th to win the game for Tampa Bay. Connor Kirkley, who's now third in the AL in WAR thanks to a 348/483/594 line to start the year, singled in a run later that inning as well. Alec Sachais started and pitched pretty well even if he wasn't getting his normal number of strikeouts. He ended 6.1 6 3 2 0 3 and should have been in line for a win except that with two out in the Yankee 7th Dayle Jenkins dropped a fly ball, allowing the tying run to score with Evan Godwin on the mound. This put men on 2nd and 3rd for Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Nate Thompson came in and got the big strikeout of the perennial MVP. With the bullpen shorthanded today, Thompson stayed on and finished out the game, going 2.1 2 0 0 0 3 and deservedly earning his first win as a Ray. Thompson, the key to the Isaac DeLeon trade, has impressed in the long relief role Andy Aparicio vacated by moving into the rotation with a 3/17 BB/K ratio in 12 innings with a 2.25 ERA.

Team record: 18-4. Next up: An off-day, then back home for a 3-game weekend series with Baltimore.

May 2-4, 2031: vs Baltimore (3)
 

First off, congrats to Victor de Jesus:

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

Game 1: It was quite the pitchers' duel between Jon Hayes and Baltimore's Danny Thompson, scoreless through six. But Hayes blinked first, giving up a 3-run homer to Tim Steele in the 7th, and that was enough for Baltimore to take a 4-1 victory over the Rays at Publix Park. Hayes ended 6.2 6 3 3 1 7 and Jon Whiteleather relieved him and looked quite good, whiffing 3 Orioles in 1 1/3. Mike Mooney didn't look so good, putting men on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the 9th and the O's were able to get a sac fly off Tim Siqueiros to push across the 4th run. The Rays had only 5 hits through 8 innings off Thompson before they mounted a mini-rally in the bottom of the 9th with Jasson Dominguez doubling in a run. They had two more on to bring the tying run to the plate, but Bobby Witt Jr. and Connor Kirkley both struck out to end the game.

Game 2: Marc Wagner was dominant again and the offense did enough in a 5-1 win over Baltimore. The power lefty took a shutout into the 8th, leaving after a one-out double which Jordan Diaz allowed to score to end with a 7.1 4 1 1 0 12 line. Wagner goes to 4-0, 2.41 and has an astounding MLB-leading 59 whiffs in 33 2/3 innings. Speaking of whiffs, Diaz did that to next two Baltimore batters to get out of the 8th with what was then a 3-1 lead. After they scored 2 in the 8th, I tried to get cute and bring Tim Siqueiros in to save Diaz and Jose Alvarado, but he loaded the bases with one out so Alvarado had to come in after all, doing his job with a strikeout and a grounder to pick up save #3. The offense managed single runs in 2nd, 3rd and 4th against former teammate Steve Givens. Joe Barker reached on an error and scored on Jasson Dominguez's sac fly in the 2nd, Nate Clark had an RBI double in the 3rd and Connor Kirkley singled in a run in the 4th. Kirkley continued his red-hot hitting by stroking a 2-run double in the 8th to give him a 3-4, 3 RBI day. Kirkley is now 2nd in the AL in batting average at .364, leads in OPS at 1.095 and is 2nd in WAR at 1.6 to teammate Victor de Jesus's 1.7.

Game 3: Andy Aparicio scattered a bunch of hits again, getting the job done as the Rays beat Baltimore 6-2 to take 2 out of 3 in the series. AA was hit for both runs in the 1st inning but kept the Orioles off the board after that going 7 9 2 2 0 7 and is now 2-0, 2.12. Evan Godwin and Jon Whiteleather each had 2-strikeout 1-2-3 innings to wrap it up as Whiteleather has looked very good since returning and has a 1/10 BB/K ratio in his 5 innings of MLB work this year. The Rays answered Baltimore's 2-run top of the 1st with 4 of their own in the bottom of the inning, helped by a Gunnar Henderson error. Nate Clark had an RBI double, Victor de Jesus an RBI grounder and Mike Lammers drove in a pair with a two-bagger. Clark later made it a 3-RBI day with a 2-run HR (#4) in the 5th, the only homer the Rays hit this weekend at Publix Park. Lammers has been ultra-efficient with his hits this season as he's driven in 10 runs on his 7 to date. It's helped that three were doubles and one was a homer. Rodolfo Rivas was 0-3 today, and although his playing time has been sporadic he's not doing much to earn more of it as he's now 196/262/214 in 56 AB with 0 HR and 3 RBI. Coming into the season the thought would be he and Victor de Jesus would have something of a time share but de Jesus leading the AL in WAR so far has put the kibosh on that.

Team record: 20-5. Next up: After coming home for 3 games we go back on the road for 3 games in Boston before returning home again.

May 5-7, 2031: at Boston (3)
 

Game 1: Christian Little struck out 12 in 6 innings and Jasson Dominguez hit a 1st-inning grand slam to lead the Rays to a 5-3 win at Fenway Park in the opener of their 3-game series. Little went 6 4 3 3 1 12, allowing his obligatory homer (a 2-run shot to Eric Knatz in the 4th) and probably shouldn't have started the 7th at 93 pitches, allowing a double and a single for the 3rd Boston run. But Nate Thompson came in and was great again, nearly going the final 3 innings for a save before leaving after giving up a 2-out single in the 9th and the Sox sending Pierson Gibis to the plate. Jose Alvarado came on to face the slugging lefty-hitting catcher and got him to ground out to end the game for save #4 while Little is now 4-0 with a slightly high 4.04 ERA. All of the offense came in the first on Nate Clark's fielder's choice RBI and then Dominguez's 4th HR of the year with the sacks full off former Ray Shane Baz. They seemingly had runners on every inning after that with a chance to build the lead but couldn't do so, stranding 9 and hitting into 3 double plays.

Game 2: Alec Sachais pitched into the 8th and Jasson Dominguez went deep for the 2nd straight day as the Rays topped the Red Sox 4-1. Sachais had one of his better outings with the only blemish a Gabriel Arias homer in the 6th as he went 7.1 2 1 1 0 6 to improve to 3-0, 2.90. Jordan Diaz took over and got him out of the 8th and Jose Alvarado pitched around his own error to retire the other three batters in the 9th to notch save #5. Dominguez's 2nd inning solo HR (#5) put them on the board in the 2nd, Luis Corpus singled in Connor Kirkley (who continued ablaze with 2 doubles in a 3-3, one-walk day) in the 5th, Ricky Widmar singled in a run in the 7th and Victor de Jesus blasted #7 with the bases empty in the 8th. The de Jesus/Kirkley combo remains 1-2 in the AL in WAR, Kirkley is 1st in OPS with de Jesus 3rd and Kirkley's .372 BA is 2nd.

Game 3: The Rays swept the Red Sox 12-3 behind something that had only been done 14 times befire in MLB history prior to today: a batter hitting two grand slams in the same game. Nate Clark cleared the bases in a 6-run 2nd and a 5-run 5th, becoming the second MLB player to hit multiple slams in a game along with Miguel Sano for the Yankees last season since Josh Willingham in 2009. The two homers give Clark 6 and propelled him to the MLB RBI lead with 30, and the 8 RBI ties the Rays' single-game record set by Ben Zobrist in 2011 and by Wander Franco in this same ballpark back in 2024. Ricky Widmar led off the game with his 6th HR of the year, an omen for the rest of the day. Boston tied it up on an unearned run off Jon Hayes in the bottom of the inning, but in the 2nd wildness from Boston starter Nelson Berkwich saw him walk Widmar with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run, Dayle Jenkins singled in a run, and then Clark hit the first of his two slams to make it 7-1. Reliever Tyson Miller was also wild for the Sox and he walked Jenkins to bring home a run in the 5th before Clark hit slam #2 and it was 12-1. Hayes coasted with all the run support until he ran out of gas in the 8th and allowed a couple of runs, still finishing 7.1 7 3 2 1 5 before Brad Ballmann finished things off for the last 1 2/3. Given the historic nature of Clark's feat, here's the offensive part of the box score for posterity:

https://i.imgur.com/n2yWcna.png

Also in interesting MLB feats tonight Wander Franco hit for the cycle for Texas, something he did twice with the Rays.

Team record: 23-5. Next up: Back home for four against Texas.

May 8-11, 2031: vs Texas (4)
 

Game 1: Marc Wagner had his first rough start of the season and Texas's Edwin Harty bedeviled the Rays' bats for 7 innings as the Rangers took a 6-3 win to open this 4-game series. A couple of former Rays did the key damage with Wander Franco's 2-run double in the 3rd and Keston Hiura's 2-run homer in the 6th helping to put the Rays in a 5-0 hole they never got out of. Wagner ended 5.2 8 5 5 2 6 in suffering his first loss of the year. The Rangers added a run in the 7th off Jon Whiteleather before Mike Mooney pitched 2 perfect innings with 4 whiffs to finish out the game. Offensively they were shut out by Harty until the 6th when Nate Clark stayed hot with his 3rd homer in 2 games (#7). Connor Kirkley added a 2-run shot off the Texas bullpen (#5) in the 9th to make the score a bit more respectable. While Clark, Victor de Jesus (2-4 with a double) and Kirkley remain red-hot, the combo of Joe Barker, Bobby Witt and Luis Corpus was 1-11 today and all three have seen their batting average plummet into the .220s. Meanwhile the Yankees continue to play great baseball at 19-10 and are now within 4 games of the Rays.

Game 2: The Rays bounced back with a strong performance from Andy Aparicio and a couple of early homers to beat Texas 4-1. AA was a little less pitch-efficient than usual, nearly doubling his season walk total of 4 in a 6 4 0 0 3 9 performance but impressive nonetheless against a very good Rangers lineup. He's 3-0 now and lowers his ERA to 1.80, moving into 2nd in that category in the AL and 2nd in WAR as well. Tim Siqueiros was impressive in two scoreless innings of relief even if he uncharacteristically didn't whiff anyone, but Evan Godwin crapped the bed in the 9th, loading the bases with nobody out with a pair of walks and necessitated Jordan Diaz to clean up his mess. Diaz started auspiciously by walking the first man he faced to force in the lone Texas run but got a fly ball and two strikeouts to earn save #5. All four of the Rays' runs came in the first two innings with Nate Clark continuing his HR binge by going deep for the third straight game with #8 in the 1st before Jasson Dominguez hit a 2-run shot (#6) in the 2nd. They put a couple of more runners on and Ricky Widmar brought one in with a sac fly for the fourth run. Joe Barker and Bobby Witt Jr. each took the collar again as their slumps continue.

Game 3: He nearly did it again. After pitching a no-hitter last season, and being a pitcher who regularly has no-hit stuff, Christian Little flirted with his 2nd career no-hitter before Nico Hoerner singled off him with two out in the 8th. At that point it was the only suspense left in the game as the Rays clocked the Rangers 13-0 tonight. Little would have been pushing it into the 9th as unlike in his previous no-hitter Hoerner's single came on pitch #117 of the game and had he made it into the 9th his pitch count would have ended up in the 130s. He came out after that hit and finished 7.2 1 0 0 1 9 to move to 5-0, 3.32. Jon Whiteleather got the final four outs, including striking out the side in the 9th. The offense teed off on a couple of former Rays properties who never quite made the big team. Al Jackson, whom Texas took from us in the Rule 5 Draft last winter, got the start and although he had been pitching well that came to an end tonight after 7 runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings. Several slumping hitters had their coming-out parties tonight, starting with Joe Barker, who doubled to start the 2nd and later tripled and singled to miss the cycle by a homer. After Jasson Dominguez reached, Rodolfo Rivas finally hit his first homer of the year to make it 3-0 and later in the inning Dane Ayers, giving Connor Kirkley a rest, picked up where CK left off by launching HR #3. Ayers continues to produce big-time in limited at-bats and is now 380/446/620 in 50 at-bats after tonight's 3-5, 3 RBI performance. Rivas added 2 more hits and 2 more RBI for a 5-RBI night and Jakob Runnels, who hasn't hit much as the backup catcher, blasted a grand slam off Chris Youngpeter whom the Rays traded to Texas last year along with Carlos Perez in the Brad Ballmann trade. The slumping Bobby Witt Jr was also on base 3 times tonight with a single and two walks. Now it's Ricky Widmar's turn to scuffle as he was 0-5 tonight and 0-13 in his last three games. He'll likely get a day off tomorrow to get Ayers back in the lineup.

Game 4: It was a pitching matchup between Alec Sachais and reigning AL Cy Young winner Victor Presas but a pitchers' duel it was not as both were gone in the middle innings as the Rays took a back-and-forth game with Texas 7-6. The hero today, as he's been much of the season, was Connor Kirkley. First he hit a 2-run homer in the 6th to put the Rays back ahead 5-4, and after Texas came back to tie it at 6 in the 7th, Kirkley hit his second homer of the game in the bottom of the 8th, #7 overall, to provide the winning run. He was 3-4 and is now a cool 380/500/680 in 100 at-bats this young season and is second in the AL with 2.3 WAR. Going into last season Kirkley looked like the weak link in the lineup which is partly why we dealt for uber-prospect Jaiden Hardaway (raking at Durham to the tune 304/392/452 himself and ready for the bigs), but he had a big year last season (especially in the 2nd half) and has been a clutch playoff performer so once again we've got a surplus. Anyway as for the game, Texas went up 2-0 on Sachais in the 1st before we rallied for 3 in the 4th against Presas including a 2-run shot from Rodolfo Rivas, suddenly getting hot. Texas went back up 4-3 in the 6th, knocking Sachais out as he was on the wild side today going 5.2 5 4 4 4 4 with a hit batter. Tim Siqueiros came on and was in line for a win when Kirkley's first homer put them back on top but he gave up a pair of runs in the 7th, the first he's allowed since April 9 which was the only run he had surrendered this season. Brad Ballmann came in against his former team and went 4 up, 4 down through the 8th and he picked up the win, his first of the season. Jordan Diaz gave up a leadoff single in the 9th to Bobby Owens who got greedy and was thrown out by Nate Clark trying to stretch it into a double. Diaz then got Wander Franco and Adrian Ramos to end the game and register save #6.

Team record: 26-6. Next up: The Yankees come to town again for four. They're our closest pursuer at 6 games back after losing 2 of 3 to Baltimore this weekend yet are an impressive 20-12 and 3 1/2 up in the wild card race.

May 12-15, 2031: vs NY Yankees (4)
 

Game 1: So Jon Hayes gave up four early runs and the bullpen coughed up four more in the 8th and 9th. Sounds like a recipe for a bad loss, right? Well somehow the Rays managed to hold on and beat the Yankees 9-8 thanks to the best efforts of Dane Ayers at the plate and despite the best efforts of the pen to blow it. Yankee rookie sensation Mario Aguilar led the game off with a homer and then current AL WAR leader Ivan Vega doubled in two more in a 3-run 3rd and the Rays were down 4-0 as Yankee starter Forrest Whitley retired them in the order the first 3 innings. But they started chipping away, starting with Nate Clark's 2-run HR (#9) in the 4th, then Jasson Dominguez added a solo shot (#7) in the 5th and with Ricky Widmar's RBI single tied up the game. Hayes settled down and at one point struck out 6 straight Yankees, ending 6.1 9 4 4 0 9. Hayes left with a man on 3rd and one out, and with two lefties due Brad Ballmann came in. He proceeded to walk the two lefties to load the bases for Vlad Guerrero Jr but managed to get him to hit into a double play to end the inning. And then Ayers went to work. He blasted a solo HR in the bottom of the 7th to give the Rays the lead, and Joe Barker broke it open with a 3-run shot (#4) to make it 8-4. Nevertheless, Ballmann couldn't stand prosperity in the 8th and gave up 2 runs to cut the lead to 8-6 before Jose Alvarado got the final out of the inning. Ayers then homered again in the 8th (#5) to make it 9-6 and with Alvarado to close it out, things looked under control. Nope. Alvarado suddenly couldn't get anyone out, two runs were in with nobody out and men were on 1st and 2nd. Then Joe Allen lined a shot to center which Dominguez made a diving catch on, and J-Dom gunned out Vlad Jr at 3rd trying to tag up and advance for a double play. Alvarado then got the final out on a grounder and the Rays miraculously hung on in their wildest game of the year. Despite their struggles Ballmann picked up win #2 and Alvarado save #6.

Game 2: I'm beginning to run out of ways to describe the Rays winning games they have no business winning and today it happened again as they bested the Yankees 8-5 in 13 innings. The Yankees pummeled Rays starter Marc Wagner and built a 5-0 lead in the 5th. Wagner left 5 7 5 5 4 4 and was lucky it wasn't worse. Of course once it was 5-0 it was like a switch came on and they decided to start hitting as for the second day in a row they went down in order over the first 3 innings. Victor de Jesus hit a solo shot in the bottom of the 5th to make it 5-1 and Dayle Jenkins hit HR #2 to make it 5-2 after 6. Then the Yankees started putting all kinds of baserunners on against Nate Thompson and Mike Mooney. They got 5 hits off Thompson in 1 2/3 innings, and after Connor Kirkley cut the lead to 5-4 in the 7th with a 2-run shot (#8), they got 4 more hits off Mike Mooney. But despite 9 hits in 4 innings off those two pitchers, both of them got big strikeouts with multiple men on and sometimes with the bases loaded. In fact the Yankees finished with 18 LOB, and Mario Aguilar had 10 LOB himself and they outhit the Rays 18-10. This kept the came close until the 9th when the Rays mounted an improbable 2-out rally. Veteran Yankee closer Joe Jimenez struck out the first two before walking Kirkley and giving up a single to Bobby Witt Jr. This brought Luis Corpus up, and the rookie catcher lined a single up the middle scoring Kirkley and tying the game. Jordan Diaz pitched the 10th and 11th, giving up a couple of hits but no runs, and Evan Godwin came on for the 12th and came through with two scoreless innings of his own. This bought time for Jasson Dominguez to haunt his old club by blasting a 3-run HR off Japanese import Kichizo Matsumoto, his 8th of the season in the bottom of the 13th to win it. Godwin ends up with his 4th relief win of the young season and the Rays roll to 28-6 and 8 games up on New York.

Game 3: After two high-scoring, back-and-forth games, one of which went to extra innings, the Rays bullpen was in need of a breather today. And they got one courtesy of Andy Aparicio who twirled his second shutout of the season, a 5-hitter with 0 walks and 4 strikeouts on 112 pitches, to beat the Yankees 2-0. AA had his sinker working as the Yankees hit into 14 ground outs, including one double play as he improved to 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA and 1.9 WAR, the latter two numbers the best in the AL. He did survive a scare in the 9th when Ivan Vega tripled with two out to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of slugger Joe Allen, and Rays fans feared the worst when Allen sent one deep to right but fortunately it fell just short of the fence into the waiting glove of Victor de Jesus. Meanwhile it turned out Aparicio would get all the offense he needed when Ricky Widmar led off the game with his 7th homer of the season off Yankee starter Brennan Malone, but that would be all the offense he'd get until the 6th inning when Joe Barker hit HR #5 off Roansy Contreras to make it 2-0. Rays batters only managed 5 hits on the night, with Widmar and Barker combining for four of them (Dane Ayers' double was the other).

Game 4: I don't know, maybe this team is incapable of losing. Maybe the Yankees are incapable of beating them any longer, even though they've dealt the Rays half of their six losses this season. But right now it doesn't seem to matter what kind of lead the Yankees have and when they have it, the Rays will overcome it. Today the Yankees led the Rays 4-2 going into the bottom of the 8th and two Yankee errors ignited a 3-run Rays rally to enable Tampa Bay to take it 5-4. Nate Clark struck out to start the inning and Joe Barker walked. Then Yankee 3B Vlad Guerrero Jr booted Victor de Jesus's grounder and 2B Ivan Vega muffed Jasson Dominguez's ground ball. Connor Kirkley then singled to score Barker and reload the bases, and Dane Ayers, who had homered earlier (#6, more on him in a bit) drilled a 2-run single to give the Rays the lead. Jordan Diaz then worked around hitting Vlad Jr with a pitch in the 9th to get save #7. For a while it looked like the Yankees would take a page from the Rays by coming back for a change; after the Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Ayers' homer and Ricky Widmar's RBI single New York hit Christian Little for a pair of homers in the 6th, a 2-run blast from Guerrero to tie it and a Joe Allen solo shot, to take a 3-2 lead. And after Tim Siqueiros got the Yanks 1-2-3 in the 7th he gave up a leadoff double to Vlad in the 8th who Brad Ballmann allowed to score. As a result of the subsequent Rays rally, Ballmann got the win in his third consecutive appearance. Little was rolling until the 6th and ended 6 8 3 3 0 9 while Ayers continues his insane hitting in part-time play, now up to 400/451/738 with 6 HR and 16 RBI in 65 AB over 16 games. He's earned some more consistent playing time which is going to mean a lot more rotation of the lineup.

Team record: 30-6. Next up: Road trip begins in Minnesota for 3 over the weekend.

May 16-18, 2031: at Minnesota (3)
 

Game 1: It was a business-like win for a team on a business trip as the Rays continued their winning ways with a 4-1 decision over Minnesota. Alec Sachais was outstanding, with a 6 4 0 0 1 9 line to go to 4-0, 2.97. Jon Whiteleather went 1-2-3 in the 7th and probably was being pushed a bit into the 8th when he gave up a homer to old friend Chris Sharp and a single with two out. Tim Siqueiros got him out of the 8th and stayed on through the 9th to pick up his first save of the season. The bats were somewhat quiet but Nate Clark (#10, a 2-run shot in the first) and Joe Barker (#6, a solo blast in the 4th) were loud enough to get some runs home, with the final run coming on a Luis Corpus sac fly.

Game 2: The winning streak reached 9 as the Rays pummeled the Twins 14-1. Ricky Widmar had a career day, going 5 for 5 with 3 runs scored and 2 knocked in to lead the attack, while four Rays went deep against Minnesota pitching. Joe Barker is heating up, and he hit a 3-run shot for #7 in the 1st to start the festivities, Nate Clark hit a 2-run shot in the 4th (#11), Connor Kirkley blasted an 8th inning 2-run homer into the upper deck at Target Field (445 feet, #9), and with the game out of hand Mike Lammers pinch-hit for Barker later in the 8th and drilled a 3-run dinger, his 2nd of the year. Dayle Jenkins drove in the other two Rays runs. As dominant as the offense was, Jon Hayes was equally so on the mound, no-hitting the Twins until Yairo Munoz doubled in the 6th. Hayes finished 7 2 1 0 3 7 to go to 4-2 and bring his ERA back under 4 at 3.96. Nate Thompson and Mike Mooney each struck out three in their respective one inning of work to round things off.

Game 3: Make it 10 straight for the Rays as they overcame an early 3-0 deficit to tame the Twins 7-4. Marc Wagner started and went from getting everyone out (retiring the first 8 batters) to not getting anyone out (allowing the next 5 to reach with 3 runs scoring) and then back to pretty much getting everyone out (allowing only one baserunner over the next 3 1/3 before 2020 Rays first-round pick Tanner Witt homered off him leading off the 7th). His rollercoaster day ended 7 4 4 4 3 9 to go to 5-1, 4.03. Tim Siqueiros had a 1-2-3 8th and Jose Alvarado a 1-2-3 9th for save #7. Wagner's second wind bought time for the offense to do its usual thing: score runs. Victor de Jesus' RBI single got them on the board in the 4th, Ricky Widmar continued to wield a hot stick by hitting HR #8 to make it 3-2, and Nate Clark followed with an RBI double to tie it up in the 5th. And in the 6th Mike Lammers came through against a lefty, delivering a 2-run single to put the Rays ahead to stay. Clark led off the 7th with HR #12 and they added a run on a balk later in the inning to round out the scoring.

Team record: 33-6. Next up (or should I say next victim): Nobody tomorrow but after that some interleague play with 2 games in Atlanta where we can finally use the DH.

May 20-21, 2031: at Atlanta (2)
 

Ricky Widmar getting some recognition:

https://i.imgur.com/6cqfHW7.png

Game 1: The Rays blew open a close game with an 8-run 6th as they rolled to consecutive win #11 with a 10-1 pasting of Atlanta. Joe Barker's 1st-inning RBI single and Nate Clark's 3rd-inning RBI grounder gave them a 2-0 lead in support of Andy Aparicio, and the Braves' Pedro Avila hung in there until the dam burst in the 6th. Clark and Victor de Jesus hit doubles to make it 3-0, Connor Kirkley and Luis Corpus had RBI singles to make it 5-0, Dayle Jenkins hit a 2-run double to extend the lead to 7-0, and Clark in his 2nd at-bat of the inning drilled a 3-run homer (#13) to put them in double digits. Clark now has an MLB-leading 44 RBI in 37 games. Aparicio was brilliant again on the mound, going 7.1 4 1 0 2 7 and losing his shutout in the 8th thanks to a hit batter, an error, a walk and a sac fly. He's now 5-0 with a microscopic 1.28 ERA and leads the AL in pitching WAR at 2.2, meaning our nominal 5th starter is likely the current front-runner for the AL Cy Young. He's also gone 28 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run. Jon Whiteleather went the final 1 2/3 with a couple of whiffs.

Game 2: It was the Rodolfo Rivas and Christian Little show at Truist Park in Atlanta tonight as the Rays extended their winning streak to 12 with a 6-1 triumph. Just four days after Ricky Widmar went 5-for-5, Rivas repeated the feat with four singles and his 3rd homer of the year. Meanwhile Little pitched a rare complete game, only the second of his career with the first being last season's no-hitter. He went 9 3 1 1 1 10 on exactly 100 pitches and was at 88 with two out in the 9th before walking a batter and then running a 3-2 count with some foul balls before striking out Jarren Duran to end the game. The only damage against him was a solo homer in the 6th from long-ago Ray Willy Adames which cut the lead to 2-1 at the time. Joe Barker got the Rays started with a 3rd inning sac fly, and then Rivas went deep in the top of the 6th to make it 2-0 and added an RBI double in the 7th to increase the lead to 3-1. The Rays busted it open in the ninth with 3 more runs on RBI singles from Jasson Dominguez and Rivas and an RBI double from Bobby Witt Jr. Dayle Jenkins was 3-4 with a pair of doubles and 3 runs scored to also spark the offense.

Team record: 35-6, one off the legendary 35-5 Detroit Tigers' start of 1984. Their next goal is to best the 1946 Red Sox' 50-game start of 41-9. Next up: Back home for four games against Oakland in a rematch of last year's ALDS. The A's are off to a rough start this year, 19-23 and 6 games back of the Angels in the AL West.

May 22-25, 2031: vs Oakland (4)
 

Game 1: The Rays' 12-game winning streak came to a merciless end today as Oakland dominated them 9-3. Alec Sachais was piling up the strikeouts but A's hitters were piling up the hits and runs as they got to him for 5 runs and 8 hits in 5 innings despite 8 whiffs. Nate Thompson relieved him in the 6th and gave up a run of his own, and then after the Rays crept back within 6-3 in the 7th, Thompson was hit for 3 more runs in the 8th to put the game out of reach. Mike Mooney went the final 1 1/3 as the only Rays pitcher unscored upon. Former Ray Jhon Diaz, off to a rough start coming in at .196, was a thorn in our side today as he went 3-5 with 2 RBI and was in the middle of most of Oakland's rallies. Jose Inostroza was a tough customer for Rays hitters, keeping them off the board until Dayle Jenkins' sac fly in the 6th and solo homers from the still-hot Rodolfo Rivas (#4) and Bobby Witt Jr (#2) in the 7th as he improved to 6-2 for Oakland.

Game 2: The Rays were saddled with another mediocre-to-terrible outing from a starter, but unlike the yesterday the bullpen held serve, enabling the Rays to come back and take a 5-4 win over Oakland. Like Alec Sachais yesterday, Jon Hayes piled up the strikeouts but started the game ridiculously wild and then after getting over that, starting getting hit hard later. Hayes inexplicably walked the first four batters of the game and that along with a sac fly meant Oakland scored twice without a hit in the 1st. After Dayle Jenkins' 3rd HR of the year and a Rodolfo Rivas RBI single tied it at 2 in the 3rd, Hayes gave it right back in the 4th allowing 2 more runs on 3 hits. He made it through the 5th and ended with a strange 5 5 4 4 4 9 line on 113 pitches. Jon Whiteleather took over for the 6th and got four outs and then Brad Ballmann came on after him in the 7th. And in his fourth straight appearance Ballmann picked up a win when the offense came back on his watch. First Joe Barker hit a game-tying 2-run homer (#8) in the 7th, and then in the 8th the Rays managed a 2-out rally with Nate Clark drawing a walk, going to third on a Barker single and scoring on a Taj Bradley wild pitch to make it 5-4. Jordan Diaz took over in the 9th and retired Oakland 1-2-3 to pick up save #8. He lowered his ERA to 2.37 and now has a 15-game, 17-inning scoreless streak after starting the season by allowing 5 runs in his first 2 innings and blowing a pair of saves.

Game 3: Marc Wagner took the mound for the first time against his old team and although he started off wild he settled in as the Rays took care of Oakland 6-1. In a performance reminiscent of Jon Hayes yesterday Wagner walked a couple in the first, and two more in the second when he wild pitched one of them in to give the A's a brief 1-0 lead. But Bobby Witt Jr homered for the second time in three games (#4) as he's heating up after his somnambulant start to the season to tie it up in the 3rd, and in the 4th Nate Clark was hit by a pitch, stole second, went to third on the bad throw, and scored on Victor de Jesus's grounder to give the Rays the lead for good. Joe Barker, also hot, hit a 2-run HR in the 6th (#9) to make it 4-1, and Jakob Runnels doubled in a run and Ricky Widmar tripled in another in the 7th to round out the scoring. Wagner meanwhile got into a grove and ended 6 1 1 1 4 7 on 110 pitches to improve to 6-1, 3.77. Tim Siqueiros was brilliant yet again with 2 perfect innings striking out 3, and after an 88-minute rain delay thanks to a Florida summertime thunderstorm, Evan Godwin pitched a scoreless 9th as he finished off the team 2-hitter.

Game 4: The buzz before the game was for the return of Blake Money, both to Publix Park and to the active roster this season after missing 10 months with a torn UCL shortly after the Rays traded him to Oakland. But Dane Ayers and Andy Aparicio stole the show in a 5-3 Rays win. Ayers welcomed Money back to Tampa Bay and back to MLB by drilling a 1-2 pitch into the LF stands to lead off the game for the Rays, and after Oakland had pulled to within 3-2 in the 7th he went deep off Taj Bradley to almost the same spot. It's getting ridiculous how productive he's been in limited appearances this year as he added a single as well and is now 395/443/741 with 8 HR and 18 RBI in 81 AB. Aparicio meanwhile was dominant again, even if he had his usual scattering of hits. He struck out a career-high 13 in 6 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits and walking only one to improve to 6-0, 1.44. Billy Benedetto got him for a homer in the 4th and I pushed him too far in the 7th as he got into the 110s in pitches and allowed another run. Brad Ballmann came on and got him out of the 7th but gave up a homer of his own in the 8th to lefty Bo Naylor. Jon Whiteleather got the call in his first high-leverage situation and passed the audition, retiring both batters he faced to get through the 8th and record his first MLB hold. Nate Clark hit HR #14 in the bottom of the 8th to restore the 2-run lead and Jordan Diaz stayed on his roll by getting the A's 1-2-3 for save #9. Jasson Dominguez had HR #9 in the 2nd off Money as well, who ended 5 4 3 3 4 2 in his return.

Team record: 38-7. Next up: Seattle comes to town for 3, bringing along Adley Rutschman who will hopefully continue not to hit at Publix Park.