[Art Deco]

A few news items from the previous week I'd neglected to mention. First, Kevin Kiermaier is not recovering as expected from his hamstring strain and has an uncertain return date. Second, the draft took place a little over a week ago and here were our top 5 picks:

Round 1: P Mack Anglin. Power pitcher from Clemson, struck out 172 in 120 innings his senior year, potential #2-#3 starter.

Round 2: P Tyler Gough. High school pitcher with 3 pitches potentially 70 or better.

Round 3: C Luke Heyman. Power-hitting HS catcher with decent defense.

Round 4: P Erick Figueroa. 20-year-old pitcher out of a JuCo, more of a finesse guy with good command.

Round 5: 3B CJ Neese Jr. NC State product with some decent power.

On to the Yankees series:

Game 1: This was a tough one to lose, as the Rays fell to the Yankees 3-2 with New York walking it off in the ninth. The primary culprit here was the offense being held in check by Luis Severino and the Yankee bullpen as they only managed 6 hits for the night and struck out 13 times, unusual for a team that strikes out the least in the AL. Brandon Marsh's RBI double tied it in the 6th after they had been down 2-0, and it was the Rays bullpen which blinked in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Anderson allowed a leadoff single after getting through the 8th, and Alvarado came on to wild pitch him to second and although he got the next two batters out, Giancarlo Stanton singled pinch-runner Tyler Wade home to end the game. Blake Snell pitched reasonably well with a 6 8 2 1 2 9 line, battling baserunners throughout but making big pitches. Toronto was off so the lead shrinks to 6.

Game 2: Rained out, doubleheader tomorrow. This will mess up the rotation a bit as we don't have an off day until Thursday, meaning either Yonny or someone from Durham (maybe Josiah Gray) would get the start on Wednesday at Houston. Elsewhere, Toronto came from behind to beat Washington 8-7 in the 9th so we're back down to 5 1/2. Zack Greinke still can't help us as he gave up 6 runs in 6 innings for the Nats, only striking out 2.

June 17: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher Conner Menez and 25-year-old minor league center fielder Michael Smith to the Oakland Athletics, getting 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 22-year-old minor league shortstop Brandon Dieter in return.

So while we were sitting out that lengthy rain delay that tuned into a postponement, I got on the phone with the A's and swung a deal for Puk, who has fallen out of favor in Oakland but we're talking a guy who was 14-9, 3.22 with 191 Ks in 164 IP and worth 3.3 WAR last season in MLB. Control of course is the problem with him, as he walked 4.0/9 last year and that was up to 6.1/9 at AAA Las Vegas but I'm going to chalk that up to a small sample and frustration. Anyway he's a far better version of Menez, and Michael Smith was stuck at A+ Charlotte for a few years now and is 25, plus we have a boatload of outfielders in the system so he was expendable. Plus we get Dieter, Oakland's 1st round pick last year, in the deal and while his pro career has been mixed so far, he's worth a shot. Thanks to OOTP's powers of teleportation, I'm going to have Puk pitch tonight for Durham so he's lined up as a possibility on Wednesday in Houston.

Game 2 (first of doubleheader): This one started off like so many others recently as Brendan McKay couldn't retire the first five batters on his way to allowing 4 runs in the first inning. Add in a Gleyber Torres solo homer in the 3rd and the Rays were in a 5-0 hole after 3. But even without Meadows this offense can be relentless and they got 3 back in the 4th on a 2-run triple by Marsh and a sac fly from Brujan. Meanwhile McKay held in there continuing to shut down the Yanks and in the top of the 6th Nelson Cruz led off with a majestic homer to dead center off Corey Kluber, making his first start of the year, to make it 5-4. The homer rattled Kluber and with men on 2nd and 3rd, Brujan singled them both home to put the Rays ahead and Keibert Ruiz brought Brujan home. In the 7th Cruz hit another homer, a solo blast to LF, and in the 8th Ruiz knocked in Wander, who had singled and stole second, to make it 9-5. With the 4-run lead the troika got the 1st game off and although Dany Jimenez allowed a Miguel Andujar shot in the 9th, Zack Britton got Aaron Judge to ground out for his first Rays save against his former Yankee teammates in a 9-6 win.

Game 3 (second of doubleheader): How sweep it is! The Rays beat the Yankees in another football-score game 13-7 to take both ends. And both games were eerily similar in that a Rays starter blew up in the first inning and settled down. This time it was Max Fried, who after the Rays put 3 on the board against Trevor Bauer with a Wander 2-run shot and Khris Davis' first Rays homer, gave up 5 runs in the 1st on a 2-run homer from Aaron Judge and a 3-run blast by Miguel Andujar. But of course the Rays fought back and Davis homered again with a man on to put the Rays up 6-5 in the 5th. The funny thing was that I almost went with Nelson Cruz in the second game since he had hit 2 in the first game, but going with Davis made me look good. The Rays tacked another couple on, and after Gleyber Torres' HR off Austin Adams got the Yanks back with 8-7 they blew it open in the 8th with 5 runs. The only negative (aside from the disastrous first inning) was that Adams had to come out with biceps tendinitis and will be out 1-2 weeks so an IL trip is coming. With everyone in the pen used at some point today, another arm or two or three will be needed for tomorrow's game. And thanks to Toronto's loss mentioned earlier, the division lead is up to a season-high 7. Random notes: Wander gets a Slurpee for going 7-11 today, and Ronaldo banged out 3 more hits in the nightcap to raise his average to .377.

June 19: Placed P Austin Adams on the 15-day IL with biceps tendinitis, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham.

Schmidt had a decent year in the rotation for Durham in 2021 after being acquired from the Yankees in a 2020 deal, and had been mostly pitching in relief for some reason thanks to the AI, although I was ready to force him into the rotation there.

Game 4: The Bucs put two touchdowns on the board against the Giants today..wait, I'm being told the Rays scored 14 against the Yankees and beat them 14-4. It looked like a great pitching matchup on paper with Tyler Glasnow against Gerrit Cole but Cole didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Another move I was close to making but didn't was putting Alec Bohm in at 1B in place of Ji-Man, who was 0-5 in the first game of the doubleheader yesterday and has been slumping. But I decided I liked Ji-Man's lefty bat against Cole and it paid off with a solo homer in the 2nd and an RBI single in the 3rd ahead of another slumper, Max Kepler, who took Cole deep for a 3-run shot and the Rays would have all the runs they'd need. Glasnow was dealing again, striking out 5 in the first two innings and aside from a brief interlude where it looked like he was pitching to the score, ended up 6 5 2 2 1 8 to go to 3-0. By the time he left it was 14-2 Rays after a 6-run sixth and Clarke Schmidt took over in his MLB debut against his original organization. He was a bit shaky, allowing 2 runs in 2 innings with 1 walk and 1 K, but it didn't matter. Wander had 3 more hits and is back up to .288 after bottoming out at .244 a couple of weeks back. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and everyone except Brujan drove in a run and everyone except Marsh scored one as the Rays have enjoyed hitting in Yankee Stadium this season and have taken 5 of 6 from the Bombers, all in New York. Toronto won big so the lead stays at 7.

Team record: 49-22.