July 3-5, 2023: vs Baltimore (3)
 

Game 1: Time for a 3-game set with our closest pursuer, the 13-games-back Orioles. Daniel Lynch was on the mound and he had dominated in his first two Rays starts at the Trop while struggling in his two road starts. Well he continued that trend by holding the high-powered Orioles offense largely in check, going 8 5 2 1 0 4 and allowing only a Rio Ruiz HR in the 3rd and an unearned run off a Devers error in the fifth. The problem was that the Rays were having a hard time breaking through against Baltimore's Dean Kremer, who came into the game with a 10+ ERA in 26 innings and was 0 for 6 in quality starts. He had them shut out into the 6th before Wander launched #20 to put them on the board, and then Seth Beer led off the 7th with his 13th longball to tie the game. And that's where we went until the 9th. Needing the work and with a tie game at home, Will Smith pitched the 9th and held the O's and then in the bottom of the 9th the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out against DL Hall on a Keibert HBP, a Bohm single and walk to Beer. But Hall whiffed Yusniel Diaz and Brandon Marsh, and having thrown 44 pitches the Orioles brought on Jairo Diaz to face Vidal Brujan. Just when it looked like the Rays might piss away the chance to win, Brujan lined a single to right and the Rays had a walk-off 3-2 win, expanding the division lead to two touchdowns.

Meet our new July 2 international signing:

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

The next Wander? Probably not. But he looked to be the class of this year's class so I was glad to spend our $5M on him. Oh who am I kidding, I'll probably trade him in the next year for a power-hitting outfield prospect or two.

Game 2: Tyler Glasnow was doing Tyler Glasnow things tonight as he shut down the Orioles in a 6-2 win. His line was 7 3 1 1 1 9 as he went to 9-2 and lowered his AL-leading ERA to 2.67. He was nicked for a run in the first when Austin Hays doubled in Bryan Stott, but the Rays got that run back in the 2nd on a Seth Beer RBI double and took the lead in the 3rd on a Rafael Devers RBI two-bagger. The game stayed at 2-1 until the bottom of the 7th when the Rays put 4 on the board. Rylan Bannon, playing for a tired Brujan, doubled in Max Kepler who had been hit by a pitch, Wander singled in Bannon and then Austin Meadows gave the July 4 crowd some fireworks with a 2-run HR, his 21st. With a 6-1 lead Anderson and Alvarado sat back down in the pen and Scott Barlow came on and got a rare 1-2-3 8th. Aaron Ashby was then given the ball in the 9th, and he got the first two out but of course couldn't get through clean as he gave up another HR to a lefty, this time Gavin Sheets. The lead only grew 1/2 game to 14 1/2, because Boston won tonight and moved past the Orioles into 2nd.

Game 3: High drama at the Trop tonight as Wander Franco's 2-run double in the bottom of the ninth gave the Rays a 5-4 win and a series sweep, avenging being swept in Baltimore earlier this season. The Rays trailed 4-3 going into the 9th against Oriole closer Drew Pomeranz, who walked Yusniel Diaz (starting against a righty with Kepler benched) and Brandon Marsh to start the inning, got Vidal Brujan to line out to right, and then watched Franco line one down the RF line as Marsh beat Austin Hays' throw to the plate. Chris Paddack got the start and had a rough first inning, allowing a couple of hits for a run and then seeing Anthony Santander take him deep to make it 3-0. The O's got another run in the 3rd to go up 4-0 but Paddack settled in nicely from there and actually ended up with a decent 7 6 4 4 1 8 line. This allowed the Rays to chip away at the lead, with Brujan getting them on the board in the bottom of the 3rd with a triple and scoring on a double play, and then they added 2 more in the 5th on a Marsh RBI single and a wild pitch. The game stayed 4-3 until the 9th and a pair of pitchers from the much-maligned part of the bullpen came through big. Scott Barlow, who has put together two nice appearances now, struck out 2 in the 8th and Dany Jimenez, who picked up the win, had a perfect 9th with a strikeout.

Team record: 63-25.

July 6-9, 2023: vs NY Yankees (4)
 

July 6: Traded 35-year-old minor league reliever Zack Britton to the Toronto Blue Jays, getting 34-year-old reliever T.J. McFarland in return. Optioned P Aaron Ashby to AAA Durham.

McFarland is someone I've had my eye on for awhile, I've always been intrigued by his 75 movement and 65 control offsetting his 35 stuff. In other words, he's the polar opposite of Ashby, whose spot in the bullpen he's taking. The price was basically a bag of baseballs, it almost looked like everyone in the organization came up when I clicked on "make this work", so hasta la vista Britton. Plus now I'm down to only one Zack Britton in the organization. Since I took over as GM in 2020 I think this is the first time I've made a deal with Toronto, meaning I've traded with every team in MLB now. McFarland fills the 40-man roster, meaning there's going to be a crunch when Gio Gallegos and Alex Kirilloff come off the 60-day IL in mid-late August.

Game 1: The Rays' dominance at the Trop continues as they improve to 39-6 under the dome this season with a 5-2 win over the Yankees. They left it late, although not as late as last night. With the game tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 8th, Alec Bohm drilled HR #20 into the LF seats off Yankee rookie reliever Tyler Mark to give the Rays the lead for good at 3-2, and then after Seth Beer walked, Yusniel Diaz went deep for his 3rd of the year to give us the final 5-2 score. Wander Franco and Brandon Marsh needed rest, so Rylan Bannon and Max Kepler started with Diaz sliding over to CF. The Rays grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 3rd off Yankee starter Luis Severino on a Brujan RBI double and a Keibert groundout, but the Yankees tied it with 2 in the 5th off Max Fried with Kolten Wong tripling in a run and then scoring on a Gleyber Torres single. That was the only lull in Fried's game tonight, as he went 6 5 2 2 3 7 on 102 pitches. Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th and got himself into big trouble, loading the bases with one out, but got a key popout and survived. Nick Anderson on the other hand breezed through the 8th, striking out the side and getting credit for his 2nd win of the season. Will Smith had a 1-2-3 9th with a pair of strikeouts as he goes 19-for-19 in saves this year. Boston fell at Toronto so the lead is now 15 1/2 and the magic # is 59.

Also around MLB, Michel Baez of the Padres no-hit the Dodgers in a 10-0 win, he walked 4 and struck out 7 on 111 pitches. And the no-hitter gives the Padres a 1-game lead in the NL West over those Dodgers, a division that's been their personal fiefdom for several years. The Padres are now 57-30 with the 2nd best record in baseball behind the Rays. And Diaz might be the NL Cy Young frontrunner (or at least competition for Mike Soroka) as he goes to 13-2, 2.22.

Game 2: The matchup was Gerrit Cole vs Noah Syndergaard and it was everything it looked to be on paper. The two aces traded zeroes for 7 innings before Syndergaard blinked first, allowing 3 runs and the Yankees topped the Rays 3-0. Thor had 2-hit the Yankees through 7 but with one out they strung together three singles to load the bases for Aaron Hicks, and his double scored a pair. Syndergaard (who ended 9 6 3 3 0 7) followed with a wild pitch that allowed the third runner to score but it didn't matter as the Rays couldn't solve Cole. They came closest in the 5th when Seth Beer tried to score on a fly ball by Brandon Marsh but was thrown out at the plate by Aaron Hicks, probably not a wise decision on my part acting as 3rd base coach. Max Kepler sprained his ankle while hitting a double and will be out 8 days, so expect a callup from Durham. It won't be Tork as he would have to go on the 40-man but Nick Schnell is a definite possibility.

July 8: Placed OF Max Kepler on the 10-day IL with a sprained ankle, recalled OF Nick Schnell from AAA Durham.

And there's the official move. Schnell has earned the callup, hitting 292/393/537 at Durham and he has speed too, stealing 14 bases to go with his 16 HR and 53 RBI (and he's mainly hit leadoff for the Bulls). He's 60 contact, 60 eye, 60 power, and a 60 defender in LF (Meadows will slide over to right when he plays), and I plan on giving him some good run while he's up. Schnell's actually a true home-grown product, not one of the many prospect OFs I've acquired in trades over the past few years. We really have an embarrassment of major-league ready riches at the position, with Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach (currently injured or he might have gotten the call), Hunter Bishop and of course Spencer Torkelson. There will be a spot open next year alongside Meadows and Marsh but there are so many guys who are qualified for it I'm going to have to trade one or more of them. And if you're thinking DH, well Seth Beer is there and so is Triston Casas. You might also think Yusniel Diaz's backup OF job is in jeopardy but all these guys save Tork are left-handed batters while Yusniel is a righty. #toomanybats

Game 3: The Rays obviously took being shut out last night at home as an affront, so they came out swinging the bats today against Corey Kluber in a 9-3 thrashing. Nick Schnell made his MLB debut, starting in LF and batting 7th, and after Daniel Lynch gave up a solo HR to Luke Voit in the 2nd to put the Yankees up 1-0, Schnell jump-started the offense with a double down the right-field line and scored when Ronaldo Hernandez doubled down the other line, and then Brandon Marsh hit #11 to make it 3-1. The Rays put more runners on and Brujan doubled one in to make it 4-1. They added 3 more in the fourth, with a Wander double scoring a pair. This was more than Lynch needed, and while he wasn't dominant by any means (6 7 3 3 1 2) he went to 4-1 as a Ray with a 2.97 ERA. Wander later blasted a 2-run HR, #21, off Trevor Bauer to round out the scoring. Schnell was on base 3 of the 4 times he was up, also getting an infield single and a hit-by-pitch. With the score 9-3 going to the 7th, Austin Franklin came on and pitched so well (3 1 0 0 0 2) that he finished the game for his first MLB save. Wander and Marsh each had 3 hits on the day.

Game 4: 2 of the Rays' top hitters, Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers, were shown to be fatigued so they sat out today (even though there's a 4-day All-Star break coming up). They weren't missed as the Rays finally vanquished Shawn Semple and thoroughly beat the Yankees 9-4. Tyler Glasnow got the start and he was dominating - except when it came to one batter in particular. Torres? no. Judge? no. Stanton? nope. It wasn't even Aaron Hicks or Gio Urshela or Luke Voit. No, it was backup catcher Chad Wallach, who twice took Glasnow deep for 2-run HRs. Tyler went 7 5 4 4 1 12 and without Wallach it was 7 3 0 0 1 12. Either way he improved to 10-2. The first Wallach HR came in the top of the 3rd to give the Yanks a 2-0 lead but they jumped on Semple, who had stymied them twice earlier this year, in bottom of the frame. Brujan singled, Wander doubled, and Keibert knocked them both home with his own double and he scored on a Seth Beer sac fly to make it 3-2. They added 2 more in the 4th on a Yusniel Diaz single and Brandon Marsh double to put men on 2nd and 3rd and then Brujan's RBI groundout and Wander's sac fly brought them home to make it 5-2. Wallach's 2nd HR made it 5-4 in the top of the 5th but a Brujan walk, stolen base and Wander double in the 6th made it 6-4, and then a wild pitch, a Yusniel sac fly and a Marsh single made it 9-4. TJ McFarland made his Rays debut in the 8th and did what he normally does, get three groundball outs, and Scott Barlow pitched around a couple of singles for a scoreless ninth. Nick Schnell was on base two more times today with walks and scored a run, going 0-2 otherwise. The Rays head into the All-Star break 15 1/2 up in the division with the best record in MLB.

Team record: 66-26.

All-Star Break 2023
 

First of all, two Rays prospects played in the Futures Game: Spencer Torkelson started in RF and went 0-1 with a walk, and Luke Little (a hard thrower at AA Montgomery I haven't mentioned much) threw a scoreless inning.

Here are the AL All-Stars:

https://i.imgur.com/l8yxr7D.png

Once again the Rays are well-represented with Wander, Marsh (over Trout!), Meadows, Syndergaard and Will Smith all winning the fan vote at their respective positions. Keibert Ruiz made it as a backup C and Tyler Glasnow was named to the staff, although I don't see him pitching after going 7 in the last game. Brujan probably deserved a spot over Bote at 2B, Nick Anderson also could be considered a snub, and whatever you do don't look at Abraham Toro's numbers.

Also, here are the MLB standings and leaderboards at the break:

https://i.imgur.com/PISi2Ne.png

All the division races are close (how about that AL West?) except for one, which is OK with us. Wander has taken over 1st in WAR in the AL (MVP anybody?) Over in the NL, Cody Bellinger is on pace for 70 HR this season (and about 12.7 WAR)

Going to interrupt the All-Star festivities here for a trade crossroads I find myself at. As I stated earlier I had no real intention of grabbing a big-name rental this year like I had the last two seasons. But I just checked the "on the trading block" list and there sits Miguel Sano. And all I'd have to give up for him is Rylan Bannon, a guy I like but c'mon. On the other hand, it would take away at-bats from Alec Bohm and Seth Beer and all I'd really need him for would be the playoffs. Also from a realism standpoint it doesn't make a lot of sense in that while Sano is a FA at year's end, Minnesota is nursing a 2-game lead over Detroit atop the AL Central so a fire sale seems odd. Last year Pittsburgh and Texas were out of it so trading Bell and Gallo made sense, and ditto for the Cubs in 2021 with Baez. My only concern is that the AI doesn't deal him elsewhere in the AL where he could hurt me come playoff time, however this one almost seems like taking advantage of the AI so I'm going to hold off.

The All-Star Game:

https://i.imgur.com/t7SrSjV.png

The Legend of Wander grows. He was 1-2 with that homer, and also made a great defensive play as did Brandon Marsh on a diving catch. Meadows and Marsh were each 0-2, Keibert was 2-2 after coming on in the later innings, Syndergaard pitched a scoreless inning (he didn't start) and picked off Cole Tucker, who had gotten a hit off him (why can't he do that in a regular game?), and Will Smith had a scoreless inning despite allowing a hit and a walk. Glasnow went unused as expected.

And then in the first MLB game back from the break on Thursday night:

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

This is the first perfect game I've had in this save. Skubal did it on exactly 100 pitches. For those wondering how Skubal ended up on Texas, the Tigers traded him last season for Willie Calhoun.

July 14-16, 2023: at Baltimore (3)
 

Game 1: The Rays jumped all over longtime nemesis Caleb Smith for 5 runs in the first and never looked back in a 7-3 win, getting off to a winning start post-ASB. Smith walked Brujan, gave up a Wander single, and after they moved up on a Meadows groundout, Devers singled Brujan home, Keibert singled Wander home, and Alec Bohm brought everyone home with a 3-run blast, #21. Max Fried was in control from there, coming within one out of pitching a complete game. He gave up a couple of runs in the 4th on an Austin Hays double and a sac fly, but was untouched until Rio Ruiz homered off him with two out in the ninth, and after he then gave up a base hit to Renato Nunez he was relieved by Scott Barlow who got the final out. Brandon Marsh hit #11 later in the game and Meadows had an RBI single for the other Rays runs. Fried, who went 8.2 8 3 3 0 7, now goes to 9-4, 3.29. Boston fell to the Dodgers so the lead grows to a more-than-ample 16 1/2.

Game 2: The scoreboard at the end of the game said Rays 14, Orioles 7, but this was a tight 4-3 affair until the teams binged on runs in the final 2 innings. Keibert Ruiz had the game of his career, going 4-4 with 2 HR, 3 RBI, a double, a walk and five runs scored. And so did Nick Schnell, who hit his first MLB HR as part of a 3-3 day in which he also hit a triple, walked twice and had a stolen base. Tyler Glasnow didn't have the game of his career, but it was good enough (6.2 7 3 3 2 6) to get the win and improve to 11-2. Despite the final score Nick Anderson had to come out to get Adley Rustchman out in the bottom of the 7th to preserve a 4-3 lead. But the Rays put 10 more on the board in the final 2 innings highlighted by Wander's 22nd HR of the season, a 3-run blast. At 14-3 you'd think you could coast through the 9th but Dany Jimenez had to come out after giving up a one-out base hit with a mild calf strain, and Austin Franklin was extremely ineffective following him, getting only one out while allowing 5 hits and 4 runs (3 of his own). Shane McClanahan had to finally come in and get the final out. Schnell in his three starts is 5-8 with a HR and 4 walks and a hit-by-pitch meaning he's been on base 10 of 13 times to the plate. Max Kepler was originally losing his job to Yusniel Diaz but now it looks like he's losing it to Schnell.

Also the other day the Cubs traded Ji-Man Choi, whom they signed as a free agent the past offseason, to the Yankees for Jose Urena and in his Yankee debut he hit a 3-run homer in a 6-5 win over the Jays. Yankee Stadium is the next stop on this road trip so we'll be seeing our old buddy.

Some breaking news:

https://i.imgur.com/3az8eLM.png

This may seem like a knee-jerk reaction to 3 games from Nick Schnell but it's really a reaction to a year and a half of Max Kepler and his grand total of 1.7 WAR accumulated over that time frame. This obviously opens up more PT for Schnell and Yusniel Diaz, makes a dent in the glut of outfielders we have and opens up a valuable 40-man roster spot. All of that could justify the deal alone but Bosley-Smith is a nice arm, a starter who can hit 97-99 on the fastball and in the Midwest League has a 24/102 BB/K ratio in 88 innings. He's actually a two-way player who can play 3B but his strike zone judgment doesn't look too good and his future is on the mound. If nothing else, he could eventually make a power reliever. And of course he isn't Rule 5 eligible either so no 40-man issues with him. Yes there's a possibility we could face Kepler in the playoffs, but so be it.

Also in a kind of symmetry with Kepler the Twins waived Hunter Renfroe today after acquiring JD Martinez from the Astros. Renfroe was .242-30-88 last year but had lost his job this year and was .190-6-22 as the two outfielders traded for each other in the 21-22 offseason mirrored each other's trajectory.

Game 3: Vidal Brujan paced the offense and Noah Syndergaard did his thing to give the Rays a comfortable 8-3 win and a second straight series sweep of the Orioles after they had been swept in Baltimore in early May. Brujan got the Rays on the board when his two-out infield single scored Nick Schnell who had led off with a single, tied the game with HR #5 leading off the 6th, and then drilled an RBI triple in the 7th to extend the lead. Meanwhile Syndergaard had one bad pitch on the day, a 2-run HR yielded to Renato Nunez in the 4th that briefly put Baltimore in front but was tough otherwise going 8 6 2 2 0 7 and getting his AL-leading 13th win of the year. After Brujan tied the game at 2 in the top of the 6th Austin Meadows and Seth Beer had RBI singles to put the Rays up to stay at 4-2, and the Brujan RBI triple and Wander singling him home made it 6-2. Alec Bohm later hit #22, a solo shot, and Wander had another RBI single to round out the scoring. Scott Barlow struggled again after a couple of good outings, allowing a run on 3 baserunners in the 9th but it didn't matter.

Team record: 69-26.

July 17-20, 2023: at NY Yankees (4)
 

Game 1: It's not often that Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson both implode in the same game, but that's what happened today as a 2-2 game going into the bottom of the 8th ended up a 6-2 Yankees victory. After Alvarado struck out Kolten Wong to end a threat in the 7th against Chris Paddack (who had a fine game at 6.2 4 2 2 2 5), he immediately got into trouble in the 8th by walking old friend Ji-Man Choi to lead off the inning and giving up a single to Gleyber Torres. Anderson came on and gave up an RBI single to Giancarlo Stanton and then served up a 3-run HR to Aaron Hicks and it was game over. Paddack had held his own against Gerrit Cole, who gave up a 2-run 442-ft blast to dead center to Austin Meadows in the 1st inning and was on the ropes early but settled in. The Rays got to him again in the top of the 8th, getting two on with one out but Alec Bohm struck out and Nick Schnell (0-4, his 1st 0-fer), popped out. Triston Casas walked to load the bases but Brandon Marsh grounded out to set the stage for disastrous bottom half of the inning. The Rays loaded the bases once again with one out in the 9th to bring the tying run up but Keibert hit a shallow fly ball and Bohm struck out again.

Game 2: The Rays got some longballs early and Daniel Lynch scraped his way through 5 innings as they evened this series at Yankee Stadium with a 9-5 win. After Rafael Devers singled in Austin Meadows in the first after a dropped fly ball by Stanton, Yusniel Diaz (#4) and Brandon Marsh (#13) took advantage of the short Yankee Stadium RF porch to make it 3-0. Lynch struggled with his control and between the walks and some hits and a Wander Franco throwing error the Yankees managed to equalize by the 3rd. But Devers took Yankee rookie starter Antoine Kelly deep for a 2-run blast (#14) to make it 5-3 Rays in the top of the 5th, and they tacked on 2 more in both the 6th and the 7th and in both innings Rylan Bannon was in the middle of it. His 6th inning triple scored a run, as did his 7th inning double and in both cases he came around to score. Lynch meanwhile made it through the 5th to pick up the win, with a 5 6 3 1 5 6 line on 110 pitches not a thing of beauty but enough to make him 5-1 in 7 starts as a Ray. TJ McFarland had two nice scoreless innings getting his groundballs, and although Austin Franklin had a scoreless 8th, pushing him into the 9th was probably a mistake as he surrendered homers to Gleyber Torres and Aaron Hicks and Scott Barlow was needed to get the final out.

Some more breaking news:

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

I'm optioning Austin Franklin to Durham to make room for Buttrey, who led the AL with 41 saves last year but for some reason the Angels decided to go with the mercurial Jose LeClerc this year as their closer. His numbers are a bit down this year but he's had some bad BABIP luck. At worst he improves on Franklin as the 13th pitcher, at best he supplants Barlow as the top righty in the pen behind Anderson. The cost was Vaughn, who has kind of stagnated at Durham to be a .260 hitter with doubles power and a good OBP. He was on the 40-man so no issues there with Buttrey coming on board. I've kind of decimated Durham now with Schnell looking like he's up to stay and now taking Vaughn away from them so I've got an offer out to Jose Abreu to hopefully take Vaughn's place at 1B/DH.

Game 3: There was a lot of scoring early in this game, but only 2 runs after the 3rd inning. Fortunately they came off the bat of Austin Meadows in the form of a 2-run HR, giving the Rays a 6-5 win. The game looked more like it would be 12-10 after the first couple of innings. Devers singled in Wander to put the Rays on the board off Luis Severino in the 1st, but in the bottom of the inning Max Fried gave up a 2-run HR to Giancarlo Stanton. After Nick Schnell hit his 2nd HR in the top of the 2nd to tie it, Fried gave up 3 more in the bottom on a 2-run Gio Urshela HR and a solo blast from new Rays nemesis Chad Wallach. But Rafael Devers hit a 2-run shot of his own in the top of the 3rd to cut the lead to 5-4. Both Fried and Severino settled down from there, making it through the middle innings unscathed before Meadows' 7th inning bomb provided the winning margin. After laying eggs in the first game of this series, Alvarado and Anderson did their jobs with perfect 7th and 8th innings respectively, each with a strikeout. And Will Smith followed suit in the 9th in his first action since the break, getting the Yankees 1-2-3 with a K for save #20. Schnell stayed hot: in addition to the HR he had two more hits on the night along with a stolen base, and Wander had a 4-hit night including a double. Fried goes to 9-4 with a 6 8 5 5 1 5 line which ain't bad considering all 5 came in the first two innings.

Game 4: Tyler Glasnow had one of his uglier starts of the season, but thanks to the offense he still managed a win as the Rays took 3 of 4 from the Yankees with today's 9-5 win. Glasnow was wild, fighting baserunners all game long, and didn't have his best stuff as he only managed 3 strikeouts in 5 innings. Yet he almost got through 5 allowing 1 run but his profligacy caught up with him when Miguel Andujar hit a grand slam. His final line was 5 6 5 5 6 3 on 89 pitches yet he improves to 12-2. The Rays broke open a 1-1 game with 6 runs in the top of the 4th off Deivi Garcia, started off by an Austin Meadows solo shot and capped by a Brandon Marsh grand slam. The Andujar slam got the Yanks within 7-5 and Shane McClanahan came on and turned in one of his best performances, 3 perfect innings with 4 strikeouts. Ty Buttrey made his Rays debut in the 9th and was tagged for a double by the first batter he faced, Kolten Wong, but he retired the next 3 and getting Giancarlo Stanton on a strikeout to end the game. Alec Bohm hit #23 in the 7th to expand the lead and to go with his earlier sac fly while Nick Schnell was 0-3 but walked and scored twice.

Team record: 72-27.

July 21-23, 2023: vs Chicago White Sox (3)
 

Game 1: Syndergaard was in vintage form today and the White Sox had Noah chance of winning with the Rays taking care of business 6-2. Thor was 8 5 2 2 2 11 in going to 14-4 and lowering his ERA to 3.43 as the Rays captured their 73rd win in 100 games this season. Look out AL, Austin Meadows is heating up as he had a 2-run shot in the 1st inning. Syndergaard did have his usual 3-4 batter sequence where he struggles, and the White Sox capitalized on that for a pair of runs in the 3rd to tie it up, but order was quickly restored in the bottom of the 4th when Alec Bohm and Seth Beer had RBI doubles to make it 4-2. And in the 5th, Vidal Brjuan went deep for #6 of the season (equaling last year's total) as part of a 2-3 game with 3 runs scored and 2 stolen bases to keep him 2nd in the AL with 25. Wander drove him in with a double for the Rays' final run in the 7th. Scott Barlow pitched the 9th with his usual busy-on-the-basepaths outing allowing a hit and a walk but no runs. For those keeping score at home, the lead is 18 1/2 and the magic number is 45.

Game 2: It was empty-the-bench day as Ronaldo was in for Keibert, Bannon in for Devers, Yusniel Diaz in for Marsh, and Casas in for Bohm and as a result the offense struggled for a while, although they did have a golden chance in the 2nd with the bases loaded and one out but Ronaldo grounded into a double play. Or maybe it was just trouble with Marcus Walden who is pitching to a 3.05 ERA this year and shut them out through 6 before having to leave with an injury. Either way, Chris Paddack was pitching well but not getting his usual run support. He gave up a Luis Robert HR in the 4th and left the game after 6 trailing 1-0 and putting up a 6 6 1 1 1 10 line. But finally in the 7th they broke through. Casas walked (he was on all 4 times up on a single and 3 walks), and one out later was doubled home by Bannon, and one out after that Wander singled him home to make it 2-1. And in the 8th Yusniel had a 1-out double and after an intentional walk to Casas and a single by Ronaldo, Bannon came through again with his own single to drive in 1 and two batters later Wander did it again with an RBI single to make it 4-1. Ty Buttrey pitched the 7th and got a double play in between a pair of walks, while Nick Anderson walked a man but struck out the other 3 he faced, and Will Smith closed it out with another perfect inning (remember earlier in the season when he was channeling Don Stanhouse?) featuring 2 Ks for save #21 in 21 tries. Buttrey picked up his first Rays win.

Game 3: Every so often this year some no-name pitcher shuts down the Rays' league-leading offense and today was one of those days. My upcoming games widget in the upper right corner said Lucas Giolito was going to start for the White Sox but instead it was somebody named Matthew Thompson who was making his second MLB start after being called up from AA Birmingham. And shut the Rays down he did, going 7.2 3 0 0 2 5 in a 5-1 White Sox win. Only Austin Meadows' 26th HR of the year in the 9th off reliever Tyler Johnson kept the Rays from being skunked. Daniel Lynch pitched poorly again, this time really poorly (3.2 8 4 4 1 2), allowing 2 runs in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th with two men on. Dany Jimenez, in only his 3rd appearance this month, came in and went 2 1/3 scoreless, and TJ McFarland went 2 shutout innings himself. Scott Barlow pitched the ninth and it would not surprise you if I noted he gave up a run in the 9th. Of course at this point wins are nice but I'm just glad nobody got hurt.

Team record: 74-28.

July 24-26, 2023: vs Boston (3)
 

Game 1: Although there's no longer a division race to speak of, the Red Sox are still fighting for a wild card and the Rays would like to get back at Boston after being swept in Fenway the last time the two teams met. Plus there's the Devers/Toro trade drama to play out. This one looked for the longest time that it would be a continuation of that Fenway series as the Rays played some sloppy baseball and fell behind 5-2 into the 7th inning. But they muscled up and rode the longball to a 6-5 comeback win. Max Fried got the nod and deserved a better fate as a couple of infield singles led to two Boston runs in the 3rd and a pair of Rays errors by Devers and Wander in the fifth helped Boston score two more times in the 5th. Max left with a 6 8 5 3 2 6 line and really pitched better than that. Meanwhile all the Rays had to show against Justin Dunn was a 2-run Brandon Marsh HR in the 2nd, his 15th. But they came back, first with Seth Beer's 14th HR making it 5-3 in the 7th and then they jumped on Red Sox reliever Wander Suero in the 8th. Franco did some Wander-on-Wander damage with his 23rd of the year to lead off the inning and make it 5-4, Austin Meadows singled, and after Devers popped out, Keibert Ruiz blasted his 13th HR of the season to make it 6-5 Rays. Will Smith took it from there with yet another perfect inning for save #22 in as many chances. He's really having a great year as closer with his overall pitching line being 27 15 3 3 7 33. Ty Buttrey had a scoreless 7th in relief of Fried, and Shane McClanahan picked up win #6 with a scoreless 8th. Toro won the head-to-head battle with Devers, though, going 2-5 with an RBI double and SB while Devers was 0-4 with that error. Nick Schnell was also 0-4 as he's come back to Earth after the hot start, now in a mini 0-13 slump. Today was the first game he didn't even get on base at all.

Game 2: There was no late comeback today as the Red Sox held on for a 5-3 win over the Rays. It was 1-1 going into the 7th with Tyler Glasnow right at the 100 pitch mark and I probably shouldn't have had him come out for the inning. He gave up 2 hits to lead things off and with lefty Alex Verdugo due up, I went with Nick Anderson instead of Alvarado which was mistake #2 as Verdugo took a 1-2 Anderson offering and deposited it into the LF seats and that was that. The Rays got a couple back in the bottom of the 8th when Austin Meadows tripled and scored on a Devers groundout, and on a Ronaldo Hernandez RBI single. But TJ McFarland gave up his first Rays run in the top of the 9th on a wild pitch and although Nick Schnell (who came in to replace the ejected Brandon Marsh) led off the 9th with a walk against Boston closer Durbin Feltman, the next 3 batters made outs and the game was over. For the most part, Chris Sale kept the Rays in check once again, going 7.2 9 3 3 1 2 while Glasnow was 6 8 3 3 1 6 and dropped to 12-3. Sale is now 4-10 but two of those wins have been over the Rays.

Game 3: Noah Syndergaard was in fine form once again as the Rays took the series from Boston with a 4-1 win. He improved to 15-4 and has been on quite the roll lately, lowering his ERA to 3.34 with the 7 7 1 1 1 7 outing and looking like a Cy Young contender. Ryan Mountcastle's 24th HR of the year was his only blemish. Vidal Brujan and Austin Meadows needed a rest today, so Brandon Marsh moved into the leadoff spot and led off the bottom of the 1st with HR #16, and then in the 2nd Ronaldo's sac fly and a Nick Schnell RBI double (off a lefty, Cionel Perez, who had 3-hit them in Fenway earlier this year) made it 3-0. Alec Bohm went long for #24 in the 4th to cap off the scoring. Jose Alvarado had a semi-rocky 8th - after striking out the leadoff man he allowed a single and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd but then struck out the next two to get out of it. Will Smith came on for the save but had to leave after retiring the leadoff man with a mild abdominal strain that will keep him day-to-day for a week, so Ty Buttrey had to get the final 2 outs.

Team record: 76-29.

July 28-30, 2023: at Toronto (3)
 

Some really sad news:

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

Thought there was a chance he could help out the bullpen down the stretch, but so be it.

Trade deadline is approaching, the biggest deals so far have been Texas dealing Nelson Cruz to the Angels for Matt Thaiss, and the Red Sox sending Chris Sale to the Reds for Travis Jankowski, so Sale beat us in his last Boston start. Hunter Renfroe cleared waivers and was released by Minnesota, and just signed a minor league deal with Detroit.

Also this just in: The Jays sent Randal Grichuk to the Red Sox (a pending FA) for a couple of minor leaguers so we won't be facing him this weekend.

Game 1: The Rays beat the Jays by a final score of 6-3...wait, I'm being told that was the number of HRs each team hit. The ball was flying out of Rogers Centre today and the Rays rode 6 HRs to an 11-4 victory. Chris Paddack gave up 3 solo HRs and aside from one single, nothing else as he went 7 4 3 3 0 11 to improve to 10-5. Keibert Ruiz kicked off off the homer frenzy with a 2-run shot in the 2nd, and after Gregory Polanco and Griffin Conine hit back-to-back jacks for the Jays to tie it in the bottom of the inning, the Rays put 3 on the board in the 4th with a Brandon Marsh homer, a run-scoring wild pitch and a Ruiz sac fly. Then in the 4th Nick Schnell hit his 3rd Rays HR, a 2-run shot to make it 7-2. Alec Bohm (#25) and Seth Beer went back-to-back in the 7th, and Wander (#24) added a solo shot for good measure in the 8th plus a bases-loaded walk in the 9th. Speaking of bases-loaded walks, I tried to get Dany Jimenez to finish off the game but with 2 out in the ninth he walked 4 straight batters to force in a run and Scott Barlow had to get the final out. The Rays had 17 hits in total, and everyone in the lineup had at least one, led by Wander and Keibert's 3 apiece. Schnell had a single and a walk to go with his homer, so after the RBI double the game before he seems to be out of his mini-slump and is 300/472/625 in 40 ABs.

Game 2: The Rays won 8-2 today at Rogers Centre...wait, I'm using the same joke again as that was actually the # of HRs each team hit in the Rays' 14-5 win over the Jays. Once again the Rays treated the Toronto staff like batting practice pitchers as Triston Casas, getting a start at 3B for the slumping Rafael Devers, had 2 HR and 5 RBI, Wander had 2 more HR and a double to give him 26 HR and 86 RBI, Meadows hit #27, Bohm #26, Seth Beer #16 and Vidal Brujan had #7, an MLB career high. Getting all this run support was Daniel Lynch, but he looked like he might not make it out of the first when he allowed 4 runs including a 2-run HR to Alejandro Kirk. He settled down after that but wasn't exactly dominating, going 6 7 5 5 3 2 for his second-straight not too great start. He's still 6-2 as a Ray, though, but a couple of more starts like this and Dustin May's looking good at Durham I'm just saying. Casas, meanwhile in 69 nice at-bats this season, is hitting 304/377/609 with 6 HR and 13 RBI. Maybe we should be considering it the Casas-for-Toro trade. And in the Nick Schnell watch, he was one of the few Rays who didn't homer, but he was 1-3 with an RBI single and 2 more walks. Shane McClanahan pitched the final three innings, allowing 1 run for his 1st save of the season. Somehow Lynch and McClanahan managed to hold Vlad Jr to an 0-5 day.

Some more breaking trade news:

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

De La Cruz has come up often when I've shopped various players so despite his success this year for whatever reason Atlanta seemed eager to deal him. His control has been anomalously good this season: last year he had 43 walks in 56 innings (with 72 Ks) but this year he's only walked 14 in 53 innings with 69 Ks. He's a 40 control but the "editor" has him at 34 walks in 80 IP so he's really somewhere in between. Either way he's an upgrade on Jimenez whose spot he'll take, and he also some potential as a starter as he's started 1 game for the Braves and shut out the Phillies in it. Abbott is an excellent young arm obviously but I could part with him. Jacob isn't anything special and will just take Abbott's place at Montgomery.

Game 3: After hitting 14 HRs the past two days, the Rays only managed one today at Rogers Centre, but all it did was put the finishing touches on a 10-2 win as they swept the Jays, scoring double digits in each game. For about half the game it looked like it would be nothing like the other two games as it went 1-1 in the 5th as Toronto's Matt Wisler was matching Max Fried. But the Rays got 3 in the 5th, with Wander doubling in Nick Schnell (who was 4-5 with 2 steals today and whose OBP is now. 508) and then Gregory Polanco dropped an Austin Meadows flyball that allowed Wander to score, and Rafael Devers doubled Meadows home. They added 3 more in the 7th on a Meadows RBI single then 2 more runs scored when 2B Aramis Ademan threw away Seth Beer's ground ball. The HR finally came in the 9th from Triston Casas, his 3rd in 2 days as he got the start at 1B with Alec Bohm rested. It was almost kind of sad that the HR came off Nate Pearson, whom the Blue Jays have moved to the bullpen and made their closer as his stamina rating has dropped to 35 coming off labrum surgery last year. He still has the stuff as he struck out the side around the Casas HR and a Rafael Devers triple but to see the 2021 Cy Young winner mopping up in a blowout is a bit jarring. While all this was going on Max Fried went about his business and did his best to exorcise the ghosts of his ALDS Game 4 meltdown in this stadium. He went 8 5 2 2 1 6 to improve to 10-4, 3.46. And in what surely must be one of the signs of the apocalypse, Scott Barlow pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out Vlad Jr. The team is now 50 games over .500.

Team record: 79-29.

And congratulations here:

https://i.imgur.com/fpfCqT6.png

Snell is having a great season with the Mets, the first time he's put together a full season (or at least the first 2/3 of the season) of effectiveness and good health since his 2018 Cy Young season. It was inconsistency and injuries that led me to deal him (that and being in the last year of his contract), but all credit to him as he's thrived in the Big Apple and signed a big extension with the Mets earlier this season. Perhaps we'll see him in the World Series.

August 1-3, 2023: at Boston (3)
 

Before we start our final series at Fenway Park this year, some awards news (Wander was also player of the week for last week):

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

August 1: Sent OF Alex Kirilloff to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

Poor Alex Kirilloff. Finally makes the MLB roster, does OK, then gets hurt and misses almost 3 months. Comes back and finds himself surpassed by Nick Schnell. The OF glut is real, and it's spectacular. He'll probably spend the rest of the season at Durham but for now on rehab I don't have to put him back on the 40-man for up to 20 days. It's possible he takes one of the two extra September spots, though.

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow brought the good stuff tonight and totally dominated the Red Sox in a 9-0 win that was relatively close until the last couple of innings. Glasnow went 7 3 0 0 1 12 and improved to 13-3 but had one scare in the 5th: the trainer came out and checked his elbow but he was able to stay in the game. That sounds a bit ominous but I have no idea whether it has any significance in the game - does it mean he's more likely to get hurt in the near future or does it mean nothing? I really don't want to have rely on Daniel Lynch to start Game 4 of the ALDS. Anyway back to the game. The Rays went up 2-0 in the 3rd when Wander wrapped one around the Pesky Pole in right after Jeter Downs dropped a Brandon Marsh popup, and they were having trouble against newly acquired Sox starter Pablo Lopez who was striking out Rays left and right himself. Austin Meadows hit a 2-out triple in the 6th and Rafael Devers singled him home to make it 3-0. It stayed that way until the top of the 8th when Lopez ran out of gas and the Rays started teeing off. Meadows and Devers had RBI singles, Bohm had a sac fly, and Devers scored on a balk by reliever Cionel Perez (remember him?) to make it 7-0. Keibert and Bohm had RBI singles in the 9th to extend it to 9-0. TJ McFarland and Dany Jimenez (in probably his last Rays appearance for a while with De La Cruz to be added to the active roster shortly) pitched scoreless innings to complete the team shutout. The lead is now a ridiculous 23 games and the magic number is down to 31.

Game 2: 9 to 5 was an appropriate score for tonight's game as it was another day at the office for the Rays. They broke open a 1-1 tie in the 6th with a Rafael Devers HR (#16) and a Brandon Marsh grand slam (#18), his second slam in two weeks. The Big Ray Machine pounded out 17 hits with everyone in lineup getting at least one. Vidal Brujan led the way with a 4-hit game, and Triston Casas had 3 in a start at DH tonight against his former team. Devers, Keibert, Wander and Brujan had the other 4 RBIs to back Noah Syndergaard, who was cruising along until the 7th. At that point he had only given up one earned run but the Sox got to him for 3 in the bottom of the 7th to close it to 6-5 on a Jackie Bradley Jr 2-run HR and an Alex Verdugo RBI double before the Rays got it back to 9-5 in the top of the 8th. He came out for the 8th but gave up a hit with one out, so Jose Alvarado got his first action in ages with all the recent blowouts and got 2 outs, and Nick Anderson pitched the ninth. Will Smith has one more day left on his DtD injury and there hasn't even been a save opportunity in that time. Thor goes to 16-4 with the win and looks like a cinch to have back-to-back 20-win seasons.

August 3: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, added Jaseel De La Cruz to the active roster.

Jimenez was the easy choice to send down, and may be the one who gets put through waivers when Kirilloff has to come off the 40-man in 2-3 weeks.

Game 3: Well that was ugly. And by ugly I mean the Red Sox pounded the Rays 17-5. Chris Paddack simply did not have it, giving up 4 runs in the first and getting worse from there, ending with a 2.2 8 9 9 4 0 line (a game score of -2!) in far and away his worst start as a Ray. Shane McClanahan took over and immediately surrendered a 3-run HR to Alex Verdugo, whom the Rays could never seem to get out in this series. Mac was good for the next two innings but in his third inning of relief he gave up a 3-run HR to Marcell Ozuna, his second of the game and with a 2-run double he had 8 RBI (Ozuna always seems to have multi-HR games against the Rays, this is at least his 3rd over the past couple of years). Stuff worth mentioning about the Rays: Nick Schnell walked the first time up and apparently thought he should have his second as he was ejected for arguing a called third strike, Wander was on base 4 of 5 times, Rafael Devers was 3-4 with a HR and 3 RBI, and Rylan Bannon had a couple of hits including a HR. Jasseel De La Cruz made his Rays debut with a perfect inning in the 8th. The team has a rare Friday off tomorrow so there was no harm in using him.

August 5-6, 2023: vs Miami (2)
 

Game 1: This wasn't one of the their better games of the season, but the Rays did enough to squeak past the Marlins 6-5. Braxton Garrett started for Miami and was perfect through 3 innings but couldn't survive the 4th. Vidal Brujan led off with a triple, scored on an error, Keibert had an RBI single and then Alec Bohm capped off the 5-run inning with a 3-run HR, #27. This made it 5-1, and it looked like another Rays romp in the making. But Max Fried, after striking out the side on the 1st inning, struggled after that and allowed Miami to get back in it at 5-4 when he left after 6 with a pedestrian 6 6 4 4 3 4 line. But the Anderson/Alvarado duo had their hiccups. Anderson allowed a 2-out double by Austin Riley in the 7th to tie it, and Alvarado was lucky to get through the 8th as the Marlins had a man thrown out at the plate. With it still 5-5 in the bottom of the 8th, Austin Meadows took care of business with HR #28 off Ariel Jurado to provide the winning margin. Will Smith, in his first action in over a week since a minor injury (and also the first save situation since he went down), was a bit shaky, hitting the leadoff man and giving up a single with nobody out, but induced a DP and got ex-teammate Riley to ground out to deep short to stay perfect at 23-for-23 in saves. Alvarado picked up the win, his second. The Rays offense was confined to the 5-run 4th and Meadows' HR as they only managed 6 hits on the night.

Game 2: Daniel Lynch's grip on the 5th starter job continues to loosen as he gave up 5 runs today in a 5-3 loss to his ex-teammates the Marlins. All 5 runs came in the in the fourth inning when he allowed 5 hits, capped by a 2-run David Peralta HR. Outside of that inning, he actually pitched well, ending with a 7 7 5 5 0 5 line but his Tampa Bay ERA is now 4.18 and that's after starting his Rays career with 15 shutout innings. The offense couldn't generate much either - Cody Bolton held them to 6 4 1 1 3 0 (the team only struck out once), with Brandon Marsh accounting for all the scoring with an RBI single in the 2nd and a 2-run HR, #19 in the 7th. The Rays had a chance to tie it in the 9th against Miami closer Fernando Romero as they had runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2 out and Wander up, but he flew to center to cap an 0-5 day. Ty Buttrey (still unscored on as a Ray) and TJ McFarland (an 0.93 ERA since joining) pitched scoreless innings.

Team record: 82-31.

August 7-9, 2023: vs Toronto (3)
 

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow pitched a great game, but he wasn't perfect and that's what he would have had to be as the Rays fell to the Jays 3-1. Glasnow went 7 4 2 2 0 9 and the 2 runs against were a pair of loud and long HRs by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Meanwhile, the offense could do nothing against old friend Chris Archer, at home in the Trop. Archer went 6 3 0 0 2 0 in another game where the Rays made a lot of contact but most of it was weak or right at somebody. Jasseel De La Cruz made his Trop debut with a scoreless 8th which included a strikeout of Vlad Jr with a man on 3rd, but TJ McFarland gave up a run in the 9th. Cy Young-turned-closer Nate Pearson came on for the save in the 9th, which he got, but not until Keibert Ruiz took him deep for #15 to at least spare the Rays the embarrassment of a shutout. Ruiz and Meadows each had two hits, combining for 80% of the team total tonight.

Game 2: This game for all the world looked like it would be the Rays' 4th loss in 5 games, but a miraculous 9th inning comeback gave them a 10-9 win. Down 9-6 with two out and two on in the ninth, Keibert Ruiz took Nate Pearson deep for the second time in two games to tie the game and then Alec Bohm followed with his 28th HR of the season to win it. We got there in large part due a rare bad start from Noah Syndergaard, who was extremely hittable tonight, going 5 11 4 4 0 7. You know it's not your night when you give up a long HR to Austin Nola. He left down 4-2 and then Scott Barlow did Scott Barlow things again, allowing 3 runs in the 6th to make it 7-2 but the Rays got right back in it on a Vidal Brujan grand slam. However Shane McClanahan continued his recent struggles and allowed 2 runs of his own in the 7th to make it 9-6. Ty Buttrey continued to excel, pitching 1 1/3 scoreless in relief of McClanahan, and Jasseel De La Cruz struck out the side in the 9th to pick up his first Rays win. Brujan and Rafael Devers each had 3 hits as everyone in the lineup had at least one.

August 9: Placed OF Alex Kirilloff on the 60-day IL with recurring back spasms.

Kirilloff is now out 45 days with recurring back spasms, an injury which cost him a couple of months in 2021. This time around he was coming back from a ruptured finger tendon, and last year he missed 2 1/2 months with a hamstring injury. This ends his season as even if Durham makes the IL Championship series it'll be over by September 23 so back on the 60-day DL he goes. It spares me from having to put Dany Jimenez through waivers when his rehab time was due to be up.

Game 3: The Rays can beat you any way, yesterday it was 10-9, today it was 1-0. Chris Paddack got the start and bounced back from his miserable outing in Boston by whiffing 9 Jays in 6 1/3 innings. It wasn't a totally dominant performance as he gave up 7 hits and walked 3, but it was enough to improve him to 11-6. The Rays only managed 3 hits off Sean Reid-Foley and Isaac Matson and two of them were Rafael Devers singles but the third was a solo HR by Triston Casas, subbing for Seth Beer today at DH. Casas' blast came in the 5th inning and was his 8th of the season in only 85 at-bats. Jose Alvarado got Paddack out of a jam in the 7th, striking out Vlad Jr. with a man on 3rd to end the inning, Nick Anderson had a perfect 2K inning and Will Smith made it 24-for-24, erasing the one-out single he allowed by getting Juan Lagares to hit into a game-ending double play and lowering his ERA to 0.92. The Rays have an off-day tomorrow before heading to the west coast to play 3 in Seattle (a team they haven't seen this season) and 3 in San Diego (who of course they also haven't seen but are one of the best teams in MLB this year, neck-and-neck with the Dodgers for the NL West lead).

Team record: 84-32. Magic number: 24.

August 11-13, 2023: at Seattle (3)
 

Game 1: It was mostly a laugher for the Rays as they took a 9-0 lead on Seattle while Max Fried had a perfect game through 6 1/3 innings. But former Ray turned All-Star Mike Brosseau broke it up with a single up the middle, and the next batter Jarred Kelenic ended the shutout bid with a 2-run HR. Fried came out with a 7 2 2 2 0 9 line on 104 pitches, and then the back half of the bullpen as always made things dicey. Scott Barlow allowed his obligatory run pitching the 8th inning, and then Ty Buttrey, who until now had been great as a Ray, got into all kinds of trouble in the 9th, nearly bringing the tying run to the plate as he escaped allowing 2 runs and the Rays held on 9-5. Alec Bohm had a huge game, as his double in the 2nd off Justus Sheffield got Rafael Devers to 3rd where he scored on a Yusniel Diaz groundout, and then in the 4th after Meadows and Devers singled and Keibert walked, Bohm unloaded a grand slam into the LF bleachers to make it 5-0, his team-leading 29th HR. That chased Sheffield, then the Rays added 4 more in the 5th on a Meadows sac fly, a Keibert RBI double, Bohm's groundout and then a Yusniel RBI single. Fried was masterful tonight as he improves to 11-4, 3.52.

Game 2: The Seattle Mariners learned a valuable lesson tonight: don't disrespect Alec Bohm. With the game tied at 3 in the top of the 8th, Austin Meadows singled and went to second on a Devers groundout. With first base open, Seattle chose to intentionally walk Keibert Ruiz and pitch to Bohm, who made them pay with a 3-run HR for #30 of the season. You'd think the grand slam he hit the night before and the game-winning HR he hit earlier in the week would have registered with them, but no (incidentally, Bohm is looking like the frontrunner for AL player of the week). That 3-run shot was the difference in a 6-3 Rays win, one that saw Daniel Lynch make his best start in weeks. He was cruising along with a 3-hit shutout up 3-0 into the 7th, but walked Evan White, and then Bohm made a bad throw to Lynch covering first on Daulton Varsho's ground ball. Up stepped Eugenio Suarez, who then took Lynch deep to tie the game. Still, he ended with a nice 6.2 5 3 2 1 7 line and Nick Anderson got him out of the inning. Anderson stayed on and got through the 8th and picked up his 3rd win of the season thanks to the Bohm bomb, and Will Smith went 1-2-3 in the 9th to go 25-for-25 in saves. The Rays had gotten out to their 3-0 lead on Brandon Marsh's 20th HR of the season in the 3rd, a Schnell sac fly in the 4th, and a Devers RBI double in the 5th.

Game 3: It was one of those days for the Rays as they fell 12-5 to Seattle, and it wasn't even that close as they scored 4 times with 2 out in the 9th. Tyler Glasnow wasn't his best, although TJ McFarland made his 5.2 10 7 7 1 5 line uglier than it should have been, allowing a pair of inherited runners to score. Jarred Kelenic was a one-man wrecking crew today, going 4-4 with a walk, a HR and 4 RBI, and Mike Brosseau blasted a 3-run HR off the struggling Shane McClanahan in the 8th to make the rubble bounce. Only Ty Buttrey, with a perfect 7th, could hold his head up among Rays pitchers today. The offense was moribund against Seattle follower Marcos Diplan, who came into the game with an 8.64 ERA, going 6 5 1 1 2 6 against him. An Alec Bohm sac fly in the third briefly got the Rays within 2-1, but they did nothing until Mike Montgomery gave up back-to-back HRs to Brujan (#9, a 3-run shot), and Wander (#28), who broke out of a mini-slump with 3 hits today. Nick Schnell continues to get on base (.443 OBP) with a double and a hit-by-pitch today and scored twice.

Team record: 86-33. Magic number: 21.

August 14-16, 2023: at San Diego (3)
 

Before we get into the games, some social news:

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

Also, some minor league news:

https://i.imgur.com/U06ArAl.png

Not specified above is that it was a 10-inning no-hitter, and Figueroa threw 144 pitches. Not exactly thrilled one of my prospects got to throw that many pitches, but he does have 70 stamina. I do use the term prospect loosely as Figueroa isn't overpowering and I have my doubts about seeing him at the MLB level, although he was a 4th round pick last year.

Game 1: It was all there, a 3-run lead in the late innings, Thor on the mound, the troika behind him to close it out. And although Jose Alvarado gave up an 8th inning HR to Fernando Tatis Jr. to cut it to 5-3, the Rays got a run back in the 9th on a Keibert sac fly. Enter Will Smith, perfect thus far in save opportunities. Well you guessed it - he didn't have it tonight and blew the save. He threw 28 pitches but could only get one out as he allowed 4 hits and a walk to allow the Padres to score 3 and tie it. Nick Anderson had to come in and bail him out, and he did, getting Manny Machado on strikes and getting Tatis to pop out. So we went to the 10th and Yusniel reached second on Padre SS Allen Cordoba's error, and with men on 2nd and 3rd and a lefty on the mound, Wander was intentionally walked to bring up Austin Meadows. And for the second time in three days an opponent's intentional walk backfired as Meadows got his third hit of the day, a 2-run single to make it 8-6. Jasseel De La Cruz came on to get his first Rays save, and although he walked the leadoff man and threw a pair of wild pitches to get him to 3rd, he notched a pair of strikeouts and a pop up to the catcher to get that save. Anderson picked up win #4. Syndergaard had a fine game and deserved his 17th win, going 7 5 2 2 2 7 and the Rays got HRs from Bohm (again, #31, although he lost out on player of the week to Vlad Jr) and Yusniel Diaz, starting against the lefty Adrian Morejon. Meadows ended up with 3 hits and 3 RBI and Wander had 3 more hits and a pair of stolen bases.

Game 2: Another day, another extra-inning win, another Austin Meadows 2-run single to win it. But the similarities ended there as this was a taut, low-scoring affair in which the Rays prevailed 3-1 in 13 innings. Chris Paddack returned home to San Diego and he was matched up against Michel Baez, one of the frontrunners for the NL Cy Young coming in with a 15-4 record and an MLB-leading 2.14 ERA. He lowered that tonight, going 7 4 1 1 2 7 with his only blemish being a 6th inning HR from Wander Franco, his 29th. Paddack matched him almost pitch-for-pitch and went 6.2 5 1 1 2 8, coming out with 2 on and 2 out in the 7th. Nick Anderson got Manny Machado to fly out to end that threat, and then the two teams' bullpens took over. For the Rays, Ty Buttrey had 2 perfect innings whiffing a pair, Jasseel De La Cruz had 2 scoreless innings, Jose Alvarado struck out 2 in the 12th and picked up win #3, and surprise, surprise, Scott Barlow got the save, his 2nd as Will Smith was unavailable after throwing 28 pitches last night. Of course it wasn't without incident - Barlow gave up a hit and a walk to the first two batters but got a double play and a fly out to hang on. The Rays won the game in the 13th off veteran Arodys Vizcaino, who pitched in their minor league system last year for Durham and Montgomery. After pinch-hitter Seth Beer struck out, Brujan and Wander both singled and pulled off a double steal, and then Meadows singled them both home. In a 1-1 game there were some rough batting lines, but still every Rays starter not counting the pitcher had at least 1 hit except Nick Schnell who had his first really rough MLB game, whiffing 4 times although he did draw a walk.

Game 3: Max Fried contributed with his arm and with his bat to pace the Rays to a sweep of a very good San Diego team (72-42 coming into this series) in their own ballpark with a 7-4 win today. Fried pitched decently enough, going 7 9 4 4 1 5 and confining the damage to a pair of 2-run rallies in separate innings and giving the semi-exhausted bullpen a decent rest. But it was his bat that was key in a 3-run 2nd inning rally that gave the Rays a lead they'd never relinquish. After Ronaldo Hernandez went deep for #7 off Cal Quantrill to lead off the inning, Yusniel Diaz singled and then Fried stepped up and lined a double down the left field line to put runners at 2nd and 3rd. Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco then each beat out groundballs for infield singles to score Diaz and Fried. The Rays tacked on a run in the 3rd on a Nick Schnell RBI groundout, then the big blow came in the 5th when Triston Casas, playing for Alec Bohm today, did his usual going deep thing with a 3-run blast, #9 of the year in only 93 at-bats. That made it 7-2 and although Fried gave 2 back in the bottom of the inning, he settled down to stifle the Padres in the 6th and 7th. Two pitchers who weren't used last night finished it out: TJ McFarland had a scoreless 8th for his first Rays hold, and then Will Smith bounced back after Monday's meltdown to strike out a pair around a walk in a scoreless 9th and pick up save #26. Fried improves to 12-4, 3.60.

Team record: 89-33. Magic number: 15.

August 18-20, 2023: vs Detroit (3)
 

Game 1: In what without a doubt was the most crisply played game of the season, the Rays edged Detroit 3-2. The game lasted only 2:26 and only 197 pitches were thrown between both teams, and all 5 runs scored on homers. Daniel Lynch was in full crafty lefty mode as he has been in many of his starts at the Trop, and went 8 5 2 2 0 7 with a 2-run Edmundo Sosa 2nd inning HR the only damage against him as he went to 7-3 as a Ray. He came out to start the 9th but gave up a leadoff single to Austin Martin, leading Will Smith to come on. Smith gave up a single and a walk as well, but got pinch-hitter Danny Sauseda to fly out with the bases loaded to end the game and pick up save #27. The entire Rays offense today came off the bat of Seth Beer, who had to be feeling the heat from Triston Casas whom some in the Tampa Bay media have clamored for to be the full-time DH. Beer immediately tied the game in bottom of the 2nd with a 2-run shot off Victor Gutierrez and took him deep again in the 5th to provide the winning margin. The homers were his first since July 29th and give him 18 for the season. He also added a single in 7th to account for 3 of the Rays' 5 hits on the night. Gutierrez, who had averaged over a strikeout per inning coming in, didn't strike out anyone nor did he issue any walks. In fact the 9th inning walk of Sosa by Smith was the only one of the entire game in a throwback to 70s baseball.

Game 2: "Refuse to Lose" is a cliche, but it's the phrase I immediately thought of after tonight's 13-inning win 5-3 win over Detroit in a game where they twice fell behind in extra innings but pulled out a victory. For the longest time it looked tonight's story would be Tyler Glasnow, as he had a no-hitter through 6 innings before Gilberto Celestino led off the 7th with a homer, tying the game at 1. Ronaldo Hernandez had hit #8 in the 5th inning off Eduardo Rodriguez to give the Rays the lead, but with Celestino's blast equalizing we went 1-1 with both starters going 8. That homer was the only hit Glasnow allowed in a brilliant 8 1 1 1 1 9 outing, and he leads the AL with a 3.23 ERA and is second in strikeouts despite missing a few weeks early in the season. Nick Anderson and Kumar Rocker got their respective teams through the 9th, but in the 10th Jose Alvarado surrendered a HR in his second straight appearance, this one from Stephen Piscotty, whom the Tigers had just signed off the street the day before after the Marlins had released him. But in the bottom of the 10th pinch-hitter Seth Beer walked and was pinch-run for by Nick Schnell, who stole second, went to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch to tie it up. Jasseel De La Cruz was positively filthy in the 11th and 12th, striking out 5, but the Rays couldn't get anything going. We moved to the 13th and Ty Buttrey came on, and he was touched for a run on a walk and two hits and once again the Rays trailed in extras. But Austin Meadows took Miguel Diaz deep for #29 to lead off the inning, Rafael Devers singled off new Detroit pitcher John Schrieber, and after Alec Bohm popped out, Yusniel Diaz took Schrieber into the LF stands for a walk-off HR, his 6th round-tripper of the year. Buttrey picked up his second win in the Rays' third extra-inning game of the week, and the team improves to an eye-popping 91-33.

Game 3: After a 13-inning game and a lot of recent bullpen usage, at least the Rays could take solace in the fact that Noah Syndergaard was starting today and that he should be good for 7-8 innings. Well it didn't work out that way. Thor had to leave after an inning with forearm stiffness which will put him out a week. So suddenly it became a bullpen day on a day where the bullpen options were thin. Shane McClanahan got the first call and pitched 3 innings, allowing only one run. Brandon Marsh hit #21 in the third, and after Scott Barlow pitched a 1-2-3 5th, we were tied 1-1 going into the 6th. Normally I wouldn't bring Barlow back for another inning, especially to tempt the fates as he just had a scoreless one, but desperate times, etc., so he came out for another inning and gave up 2 runs to put the Tigers up 3-1. But the Rays exploded for 4 runs in the bottom of the inning as Meadows an RBI groundout, Keibert Ruiz hit a 2-run HR (#17) and Seth Beer had an RBI double. TJ McFarland took the mound in the 7th, and things did not go well for him, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits - the last 2 with 2 out - and Detroit re-took the lead at 6-5. McFarland got through the 8th, and Jose Alvarado pitched a perfect 9th with 2 Ks, but the Rays couldn't get anything off Will Short or John Schrieber and the Tigers picked up the 6-5 win in a rare loss at the Trop. There will probably be a move or two made to get another arm up for the Seattle series.

Team record: 91-34. Magic number: 12.

August 21-23, 2023: vs Seattle (3)
 

August 21: Placed P Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day IL with forearm stiffness, recalled P Aaron Ashby from AAA Durham.

As mentioned above Syndergaard is only supposed to miss a week, but between the bullpen being tired and everything pretty much wrapped up he'll go on the IL. For now, Aaron Ashby comes up and he's pitched very well at Durham since being demoted a little less than a month ago, with an 0.64 ERA in 14 innings at Durham with 23 strikeouts so he deserved first crack at the roster opening.

Game 1: This turned out to be a 10-2 laugher for the Rays after they exchanged runs with Seattle early. Chris Paddack allowed runs in the first and second innings and had to throw a lot of pitches in the first 4 innings (93) before settling down and going an inning more than he might have otherwise given the bullpen usage of late. He went 6 3 2 2 4 10 in 117 pitches in an outstanding performance to improve to 12-6. Meanwhile, the offense scored early and often against Touki Touissant with a Meadows triple scoring Wander in the first and then he came home on a Devers groundout. Then they added 3 more in the second. After Nick Schnell doubled to put runners at 2nd and 3rd, a wild pitch and Brandon Marsh's groundout scored a pair and then Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Wander single. They tacked on 5 more in the 5th on a pair of HRs: Devers' 18th, a 3-run shot, and a 2-run blast by Alec Bohm, #32. The newly recalled Aaron Ashby looked better the second time around with 2 perfect innings of relief and Ty Buttrey pitched a scoreless ninth.

Game 2: The Rays rode a decent effort from Max Fried, some good bullpen work and the bat of Alec Bohm to grab a 5-4 win from Seattle. Fried went 6.1 5 4 4 2 6, with a couple of 2-out sequences in the 2nd and 6th hurting him where 2 runs scored each time. Otherwise he was in control and got enough offense to get the win and go to 13-4. Bohm's RBI double put them up 3-2 in the 3rd, and then his 33rd HR of the season for the 5th run turned out to be the difference. Nick Anderson got two key outs in the 7th, with Jose Alvarado unavailable Ty Buttrey pitched a perfect eighth to get his first Rays hold, and Will Smith got save #28 with a two-K perfect inning. Austin Meadows had 3 hits including an RBI double, and Keibert Ruiz had a pair of RBI singles for the other Rays runs.

Game 3: Yet another long extra-inning game in a 7-10 day period as we really burned the bullpen in this one and ultimately lost 8-5 to the Mariners in 13. It didn't have to be this way but with 2 out in the 9th and protecting a 2-run lead, Will Smith blew his second save in the last five attempts by allowing a 2-run HR to Yairo Munoz. The story originally would have been the Rays' comeback from 3-1 down when Seth Beer hit a game-tying 2-run shot, his 19th, and Ronaldo Hernandez followed with his second HR of the day, giving him 10. Instead, Smith's blown save meant Jose Alvarado threw 19 pitches and Nick Anderson threw 35 (!) as we finally had to go with the tired TJ McFarland with predictable results in the 13th. Daniel Lynch got the start and pitched his 2nd pretty good game against Seattle in two weeks, going 6 6 2 2 3 4. Beer was hit by yet another pitch and has a knee contusion that has him DtD for 2 weeks although it says minimal. It's possible I bring up a reliever from Durham and IL him, especially given the next four games are in Baltimore, which between the park and the Oriole lineup is usually a shooting gallery. I'm already planning on bringing up Dustin May to start the second game there.

Team record: 93-35. Magic number: 8.

August 24-27, 2023: at Baltimore (4)
 

August 24: Placed DH Seth Beer on the 10-day IL with a knee contusion, recalled P Dany Jimenez from AAA Durham.

Needed the extra arm, and why risk Beer with further injury given the circumstances? Jimenez will go back down tomorrow for Dustin May, who will get the start.

Game 1: This one was over early as the Rays exploded for 8 runs in the first 2 innings off Sean Poppen and Josh Lindblom in a 10-3 win. Caleb Smith was listed as the probable starter, so seeing reliever Poppen start looked like an opener situation. It was, but for Lindblom, not Smith, which meant that Yusniel Diaz and Rylan Bannon got starts against a righty, and ended up a combined 0-9. It didn't matter of course, as in the first Rafael Devers ripped a 2-run double as part of a 3-run inning and then in the second Wander had a 2-run double followed by a Meadows 2-run HR, his 30th. In the 8th, Devers hit HR #19 and Alec Bohm kept on keepin' on with HR #34. On the mound the important thing was that Tyler Glasnow give the team innings, and he did, giving them quality ones. He went 7 6 1 1 1 9 although it took 121 pitches. The just-recalled Dany Jimenez came on and got through the 8th, but struggled in the 9th allowing 2 runs and Shane McClanahan had to get the final out, but at least the bulk of the pen got some needed rest.

August 25: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled P Dustin May from AAA Durham.

Game 2: Dustin May's Rays debut did not go so well as in the first inning alone he allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. Although the Rays tied it in the 2nd on a 2-run Rylan Bannon double, that was it for them in a 7-2 loss. May got through the next 2 innings, but gave up 2 more in the 4th including a Renato Nunez HR and although he got through the fifth he left with a 5 10 4 4 2 6 line. The six strikeouts were nice but nothing else was. Aaron Ashby reverted to his 2023 Rays form by allowing 2 more runs in the 6th, and Scott Barlow gave up his obligatory run in the 7th. Meanwhile the Rays were once again held in check by longtime nemesis Caleb Smith, who was 7 7 2 2 2 4 and is 3-1 against them this season.

Game 3: The Rays bounced back from last night's struggles with a 5-2 win behind some fine pitching from Chris Paddack. He improved to 13-6, 3.83 with a 7 7 2 2 0 4 outing that probably should have been 7 6 1 1 0 4 had I not brought him out to start the 8th to give up a HR to Kike Hernandez. Paddack was touched for an RBI double by Anthony Santander in the 1st but settled in from there, mostly getting harmless fly balls from Oriole hitters. The Rays tied it up in the 3rd on a Vidal Brujan RBI double, then in the 5th Triston Casas, DHing in place of the injured Seth Beer, launched HR #10 onto the RF pavilion at Camden Yards to put the Rays in front to stay. They got 3 runs to give them a margin in the 8th, with Rafael Devers' 2-run triple the key blow and Devers then scored on an Alec Bohm sac fly. Jose Alvarado came on for Paddack in the 8th and gave up a couple of hits but no runs, and Will Smith bounced back from his 2nd blown save with a pair of strikeouts in a perfect ninth for save #29.

Game 4: (It's possible some of you may have read about an 8-5 Rays win in 11 innings. That was my first run-through of the game but then I went to bed without saving and my computer decided to reboot in the middle of the night so the game was lost. Forget everything you read about it.). The Rays won a typical Camden Yards affair with the Orioles today 12-6 behind a big game from Wander Franco, who went 4-6 with a HR and 4 RBI and reached 102 RBI for the season. After a Brujan triple in the first, Wander's sac fly started the Rays scoring and an Alec Bohm single made it 2-0. Baltimore got the runs back in the bottom of the 1st to tie, but in the 2nd doubles by Rylan Bannon and Brandon Marsh restored the lead, and then Wander launched a 2-run HR, #29 to make it 5-2. Wander added an RBI single in the 4th, but Max Fried struggled in the 4th and 5th, allowing HRs to Renato Nunez and Adley Rutschman and not making it through to get the win, ending 4.1 6 5 5 2 2. Shane McClanahan came on and got them out of it, and then they exploded for 5 in the 6th on a wild pitch and 2-run singles from Keibert Ruiz and Bohm. Mac got the win, his 6th, and Jasseel De La Cruz went the final 2 1/3 scoreless with 3 Ks to give him 11 1/3 scoreless innings as a Ray with a 2/17 BB/K ratio. Bohm ended with a 4-hit, 3-RBI day and Brujan had 3 hits as well.

Team record: 96-36. Magic number: 3.

August 29-31, 2023: at Houston (3)
 

Some news from the off day:

https://i.imgur.com/dbFr45v.png

Game 1: The Rays ran into a tough customer in Forrest Whitley, one of the AL's top pitchers, and they came out on the short end of a 3-1 scoreline. Alec Bohm singled in Keibert Ruiz who had doubled in the 5th to tie the game at 1, but Houston came back with runs in the 5th and 6th off Daniel Lynch to take the game. Lynch pitched pretty decently considering the opponent and the ballpark (6 7 3 2 1 7) but didn't get the run support. This was the first the Rays had seen the Astros since they took 3 of 4 from them in the opening weekend of the season but George Springer wreaked havoc on them back then anyway and tonight his HR was run #3. Old friend Max Kepler figured in the rally scoring the second run with a single and was 1-2 with a walk. Whitley and Matt Barnes, who got the save, held the Rays to 5 hits for the night. The magic # remains 3 so they'll have one chance between now and Thursday to clinch the division in August.

Game 2: It was looking a rerun of last night as the Rays and Tyler Glasnow fell behind 3-0 and had a hard time getting going against Houston lefty Daniel Norris. But they chipped away and then exploded for a 7-run 6th in a 9-3 win. Glasnow struggled in the first, giving up back-to-back HRs to Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez, and then in the 3rd Carlos Correa took him deep. But he settled down after that, and Rafael Devers led off the 4th with HR #20, and Nick Schnell, pressed into duty to replace an injured Austin Meadows (more on that in a minute) hit his first longball since July 28 to make it 3-2. Then the Rays went to work in the 6th. Keibert walked, Bohm reached on an error and then Yusniel Diaz hit a 3-run shot (#7) into the Crawford boxes to put them up 5-3. Raisel Iglesias relieved Norris and the second batter he faced was Brandon Marsh, who took him deep to RCF for HR #22. Wander then tripled, Schnell singled him home, and Devers hit his 2nd HR of the game (#21) to complete the scoring. Meadows had to leave after doubling in the first with a recurrence of his knee tendinitis, which has him DtD for a week and of course we won't fool around with it so he'll go to the IL. Glasnow, who improves to 15-5, ended 6.2 6 3 3 2 5 but put a couple on in the 7th with Alvarez due up, so TJ McFarland came in and got him on a popup and then finished the final two innings of the game. It was good to see Schnell off the schneid with 2 hits and a HR as he'll truly be playing everyday now with Meadows out. The win, combined with the Red Sox losing, reduces the magic number to 1, meaning the Rays can clinch the division on August 31 with either a win or Boston loss tomorrow. Whether it happens in August or not, they'll still clinch their division the earliest of any team in the division era, with the 1975 Cincinnati Reds' record of September 7 to be shattered.

August 31: Placed OF Austin Meadows (knee tendinitis) on the 10-day IL, recalled OF Trevor Larnach from AAA Durham.

Larnach is long overdue for the majors and might have gotten the call instead of Schnell in July but was injured at the time. He's had an up-and-down year with Durham but is 26 now and would probably be in the majors with another team, his problem of course is the glut of outfielders the organization has. Not sure how much time he'll get but with rosters expanding he may stay up when the next hitter (Beer) is due off the IL.

Game 3: THE RAYS WIN THE DIVISION! THE RAYS WIN THE DIVISION! OK, it was the biggest fait accompli since faits have accompli-ing but it's still great to see them get their third division title in four seasons after only having two in their previous 23 seasons. No coincidence with who took over as GM and Manager in 2020 (Win a damn postseason series, the critics say). Today the Rays clinched with a closer-than-it-should-have-been 9-7 win over Houston and Dustin May's first win as a Ray. Vidal Brujan led the game off with a HR and although May struggled in the 1st he limited the damage to a run and in the 3rd Yusniel Diaz homered for the second consecutive day to make it 3-1. Brujan then did it again in the 4th with a 2-run shot for his first 2-HR game in the majors as his season total climbs to 11 (he was on base all 6 times today with the 2 HRs and 4 walks). Then the Rays really blew it open in the 6th on a 3-run shot from Wander (#31), making it 8-1. Meanwhile May had settled down and had gone 5 2/3 allowing only the one run until good buddy Max Kepler and old nemesis George Springer went back-to-back to cut it to 8-3. He finished the inning and ended 6 7 3 3 2 4. His numbers through 2 starts aren't that impressive to look at but keep in mind he had to pitch in two very tough places for pitchers (Baltimore and Houston). So Ty Buttrey came on in the 7th, and allowed a hit and a walk with one out bringing a pair of tough lefties in Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker to the plate. Jose Alvarado came in, struck out Alvarez and would have been out of the inning but he misplayed Tucker's comebacker and that loaded the bases. You can guess what happened next as Carlos Correa went deep and it went from 8-3 to 8-7 just like that. Nick Anderson had a 2-strikeout 8th and then Rylan Bannon hit his 5th HR for a little insurance. They could have had more as Junior Fernandez walked the bases loaded with nobody out but he then struck out Keibert (who had 4 hits today) and Devers and got Bohm to ground out. No problem for Will Smith, though, as he got 3 grounders on 9 pitches to pick up save #30 as his teammates mobbed him in celebration.

Team record: 98-37. Magic number: 0.

September 1-3, 2023: vs Cleveland (3)
 

Some news from Durham:

https://i.imgur.com/7yKmgKN.png

After a mid-season slump Tork has heated up again and has a real shot at 40, if not in the regular season than with the playoffs combined as Durham is 6 up for a wild card right now with a couple of weeks left in the season. Xavier Edwards has been everything expected and more for KC (293/400/372, 34 steals after a May callup) so it's up to Tork and Rylan Bannon (see below) to salvage the deal as Scott Barlow has been mostly dreadful this year.

Game 1: What started out looking like an comfortable typical Rays win at the Trop ended up a wild back-and-forth affair in the late innings. Chris Paddack was looking good, and aside from his not-unusual solo HR allowed he was up 4-1 going into the 6th. In the 2nd Yusniel Diaz and Ronaldo Hernandez had back-to-back doubles, Nick Schnell (heating up again) homered to bring Ronaldo home, and in the 3rd Alec Bohm tripled home Wander to provide the runs. Paddack's longball bugaboo bit him in the 6th, serving up solo shots to Jake Bauers and Gary Sanchez to cut it to 4-3. After Paddack put a man on with one out in the 7th, Jasseel De La Cruz relieved him, but walked a man and gave up an RBI single to allow Cleveland to equalize. No problem for the Rays who struck back in the bottom of the inning when Rylan Bannon singled, Brandon Marsh doubled him to third and Vidal Brujan singled Bannon home to restore the lead. But Jose Alvarado faltered again in the 8th. Although an Alec Bohm fielding error hurt, the real problem was the 2-run HR Alvarado allowed to Sanchez, making it the second straight game he's given up a big HR. So Cleveland regained the lead again at 6-5 sending us to the bottom of the 8th. Yusniel and Schnell walked and with one out Bannon stepped up and jacked one into the LF stands for his 6th of the year and the Rays were back on top 8-6. Will Smith made sure there wouldn't be another lead change in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning for save #31. Alvarado vultured win #4 but he's becoming a bit of a worry. Although his surface numbers aren't that bad, it seems as he's become less reliable this year which could be a problem considering I gave him a healthy 2-year contract extension.

Game 2: This one was all Cleveland as they bombed Max Fried and Shane McClanahan and other Rays relievers 15-5. Gary Sanchez, who had 2 HR last night, hit 3 more tonight (!) with 7 RBI to lead the way. It was 1-1 after 3 with Devers doubling in Wander but it quickly got out of hand in the middle innings when Fried was chased in the 5th (4.1 9 6 6 1 1). McClanahan got two quick outs to end that threat, but couldn't get anybody out in the 6th, giving up 3 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter, all of whom ended up scoring so he was charged with 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Scott Barlow allowed a few of those inherited runners to score, and then Aaron Ashby gave up Sanchez's 3rd homer in the 8th. The Rays got a few runs back late with a 2-run Keibert shot (#18) in the 8th, Trevor Larnach had his first major league hit, an RBI double, in the 9th and Wander singled one in too. Otherwise they were kept in check by Jackson Stephens, who went 8 6 3 3 2 5 for Cleveland. The game will be a footnote, but two areas of concern going forward: Fried was looking good for the #3 spot in the playoff rotation behind Thor and Glasnow but has had two bad starts now and might give way to Paddack, and McClanahan has been largely terrible in the 2nd half of the season, not showing the flashes of dominance he had over the last year and a half in middle relief.

Game 3: The Rays got their 100th win of the season in dramatic fashion relying on the speed of.....Alec Bohm. His infield single scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th as the Rays came back from a 4-0 first inning deficit to beat Cleveland 6-5. Daniel Lynch had a brutal first inning, loading the bases with nobody out although it looked like he might get out of it with one run allowed, but a 2-out single by Bo Naylor scored a run and then Lewis Brinson's 2-run triple made it 4-0. The Rays struck back for 3 in the bottom of the 2nd off Luis Castillo, having a great season for Cleveland, on a Trevor Larnach fielder's choice and RBI singles by Brandon Marsh and Rylan Bannon. Brinson homered off Lynch in the top of the 4th to make it 5-3, but Lynch pitched quite well after that disastrous first inning, ending with a 6 5 5 5 3 6 line. Ty Buttrey got of his own jam in the 7th to keep it 5-3, and Bannon greeted former longtime Ray Diego Castillo with a bodacious blast to dead center to cut the lead to 1. Jasseel De La Cruz was nasty once again, pitching a perfect 8th and 9th with 4 strikeouts to set things up for the bottom of the 9th. Cleveland closer Nick Sandlin couldn't get the job done as Yusniel Diaz led off with a single on an 0-2 pitch, and Larnach for the second day in a row had an RBI double in the 9th except this one was much, much bigger as it tied the game. Marsh was intentionally walked, Bannon struck out, and then Wander grounded out moving up the runners. Keibert was then intentionally walked, bringing up Bohm, whose slow roller towards 3rd with a whopping exit velocity of 71.3 MPH couldn't be fielded and the Rays walked it off to hit triple digits in wins. Devers and Brujan were rested today as the rotations will begin. Last year the team lost 8 of its last 10 with regulars rotating off so we'll see how it goes this time around as the only thing that matters over this final month will be health.

Team record: 100-38.

September 4-6, 2023: vs Baltimore (3)
 

Game 1: The story early was Tyler Glasnow's perfect game, until Renato Nunez doubled with one out in the 5th. Then the next batter Rio Ruiz took care of the shutout as well with a homer and put Baltimore up 2-0. Trevor Larnach slammed his first MLB HR to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the 6th, but things went bad in the top of the 7th when Glasnow got into trouble and gave up a couple of runs and had to depart with a 6.1 6 4 4 0 8 performance. TJ McFarland got the last two outs but then made a mess in the 8th and between him and Ty Buttrey the Orioles added 3 more runs on their way to a 7-2 win. Yusniel Diaz hit #9 against his old club for the other Rays run. Wander, Bohm and Keibert Ruiz all sat today and that helped Kohl Stewart hold the Rays to 4 hits in 7 1/3 innings. Diaz and Larnach each also had a single and Rafael Devers had the other hit.

Game 2: The Rays returned to winning ways with a 7-4 decision over Baltimore. They got out to a quick 3-0 lead after 2 on a Wander RBI double, Brujan RBI single and a Wander fielder's choice, but the Orioles jumped on Dustin May for 3 runs in the 3rd highlighted by a 2-RBI triple from Anthony Santander. The Rays retook the lead to stay in the bottom of the inning when Orioles starter Rony Garcia gave up a single and then walked three straight with Nick Schnell getting the RBI on the bases-loaded walk and then a run scored when Trevor Larnach grounded into a double play. Renato Nunez's HR off May in the 6th cut the lead to 5-4 but another Brujan RBI single and a Wander sac fly added to the lead in the following innings. May got his 2nd win in 3 starts but was helped by the run support, going 6 4 4 4 3 5 with a couple of hit batters. The troika did its job, though: Alvarado bounced back from some shaky outings with a 1-2-3 7th, Anderson struck out the side around a hit in the 8th and Will Smith had a 3 up, 3 down 9th for save #32. Brujan and Devers had 3 hits each, and Larnach was 2-3 with a walk and 3 runs scored.

September 6: Activated DH Seth Beer and P Noah Syndergaard from the IL.

Syndergaard will start tonight, Beer will go back into the lineup at DH although with that darn lefty Caleb Smith going tonight he'll be on the bench.

Game 3: As we welcomed two players off the IL, another is headed to it. On the first batter of the game, Brandon Marsh strained his back making a diving catch in center and will miss 2 weeks. Thankfully it won't keep him out of the playoffs but it's a reminder that with 21 games to go anything can happen. As for the game itself, Noah Syndergaard was masterful in his return as the Rays got the better (I won't say best) of Caleb Smith in a 3-1 win. Thor was 7 4 1 1 2 4, not dominant but efficient as he goes to 17-4, 3.38 still with a shot to win 20 for the second consecutive season. The only Oriole run came in the 5th inning on a Byron Buxton homer. I could have gone with Anderson or Alvarado again but Jasseel De La Cruz made it 16 shutout innings as a Ray with a clean 8th, and Will Smith had a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 9th for save #33. Smith pretty much shackled the Rays as usual, but for a 3-batter sequence in the 4th they got to him. Rafael Devers hit HR #22, Alec Bohm singled, and then Yusniel Diaz (an everyday player now in CF) hit #10 into the LF stands to put 2 more on the board. Smith ended 8 7 3 3 1 3 but was second-best to Syndergaard today. Austin Meadows is due back in a couple of days so he'll slide into the roster spot when Marsh goes on the IL. This means Trevor Larnach's stay is extended with the big club so Durham will have to do without him for the IL playoffs as they just clinched a wild card there last night.

Team record: 102-39.

September 7-10, 2023: vs Toronto (4)
 

September 7: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with back stiffness.

Game 1: As mentioned the last time we played Toronto, the AI had made star pitcher Nate Pearson the Jays' closer, but now I guess it decided to end that experiment and he was back in the rotation and starting today. Wander Franco welcomed him back as a starter with a long and loud homer (#32) in the 1st inning and Seth Beer celebrated his return to the lineup by blasting a 2-run shot off him (#20) in the 4th to give the Rays the lead to stay in a 7-2 win. Chris Paddack got the start for the Rays and didn't have his best stuff, constantly battling runners on base, but got through to the tune of 5.1 7 2 2 2 2 to improve to 14-6 with one of the runs coming on a Cavan Biggio HR. With several lefties due up in the 6th, Aaron Ashby came on and actually did the job, getting out of the inning while it was still 3-2. Ty Buttrey finished the 7th, and Jose Alvarado looked good again with a perfect 2K inning in the 8th. After the lead was expanded in the bottom of the 8th to take away the save situation (it would have been Nick Anderson with Will Smith tired), TJ McFarland got three groundball outs in a perfect 9th to end the game. The additional runs in the 7th & 8th came off a wild pitch, a Keibert Ruiz groundout, a Yusniel Diaz sac fly and Nick Schnell's RBI double.

Game 2: Max Fried snapped out of his mini-slump which earned him a snowflake next to his name, going 7 strong innings in a 4-2 win over Toronto. Fried improved to 14-5 and got his ERA under 4 at 3.96 with a 7 4 1 1 4 7 outing. The walks were a bit of a concern, and after throwing 64 pitches in the first 3 innings, lasting 7 looked like a pipe dream but he settled down from there with great efficiency and finished with 105 pitches. Nick Anderson gave up a run in the 8th, but Will Smith had a clean 9th for save #34. The big blow in this game came from Trevor Larnach, whose 2-run HR in the 2nd gave the Rays the lead to stay. Wander (who leads the AL in WAR with 7.2) singled in a run in the 4th for RBI #111, and Alec Bohm blasted HR #35 in the 8th to give them a cushion late. In addition to his HR, Larnach doubled and threw out a runner at the plate who would tied the game in the 3rd. He's making a sneaky play to be an OF starter when Meadows comes back over Nick Schnell, who was 0-4 today and has dropped to 236/368/393 in 140 AB. Also in his favor is that he plays RF unlike Schnell which would allow Meadows to stay at his better position of LF. Of course Schnell got off to a similar red-hot start before slumping so we'll just have to see.

Game 3: Unlike past seasons the Rays had held Vlad Jr in check this year in dominating the season series. Until today, that is. The Blue Jay 3B had a 2-run HR, RBI double and then a 3-run HR as the Jays blasted the Rays 8-3. Daniel Lynch got the start while Keibert, Bohm and Wander all sat, and the first Vlad HR combined with an RBI single from Alejandro Kirk meant an immediate 3-0 hole, and a Triston Casas error in the 2nd led to Vlad's RBI double. Casas made up for the error by blasting HR #11 off Chris Archer in the 4th to cut the lead in half, but that was as close as the Rays would come today. Lynch did settle down after the rough start, but as he was running out of gas in the 6th he put 2 on with 2 out. Enter Scott Barlow to face Vlad, and well you have another entrant for the famous SNL "Bad Idea Jeans" skit as it instantly became 8-2. Barlow stayed in the rest of the way and threw 3 1/3 scoreless after that. Vidal Brujan added HR #12, doubling his total from last season, to round out the scoring. Archer beat the Rays for the second time this season at the Trop where he obviously feels at home.

September 10: Activated OF Austin Meadows from the 10-day IL.

Game 4: It was Ye Olde-Fashioned Pitcher's Duel today between Tyler Glasnow and Rick Porcello, and the Rays came out on top 2-0. Glasnow was actually less overpowering today than Porcello (who went 7 5 2 2 1 7), and had 3 walks and only 5 strikeouts in his 7 innings, but got the benefit of three double plays turned behind him to help keep Toronto off the board. After Porcello retired the first 11 Rays, Austin Meadows, fresh off the IL, re-introduced himself with his 31st HR of the year into the RF stands giving him 100 RBI for the season. That one run stood up until the 7th when Rafael Devers tripled and scored on a Porcello wild pitch. Nick Anderson took over for the 8th inning and got a rare 1-2-3 inning without a strikeout, and then Will Smith came on for the 9th getting Vlad Jr to ground out, giving up a hit, getting a strikeout and grabbing save #35. For a guy who was going a long time between save situations, Smith has now picked up 6 in the last 11 days. The win was #105, equaling last year's team record which of course will end up being shattered.

Team record: 105-40.