The Rays continue to chase history as they put their 23-game win streak on the line for a pair of games at Truist Park. They have some circumstances going against them: no DH, which means Nelson Cruz is limited to pinch-hitting duty, and the Braves are throwing a pair of lefties at them in the two games and the Rays have not done that well against portsiders relative to their overall record. Atlanta, meanwhile, is fighting for its playoff life being only 2 games up on Milwaukee for the second wild card in the NL; they have no chance of catching the Mets for the division.
Game 1: See below
Max Fried pitched well against his old team to help the Rays extend their AL-record winning streak as they move to within 2 of tying the MLB record. He was aided by his defense, as Yusniel Diaz gunned down former Ray Willy Adames at home plate, and Keibert Ruiz threw out a runner trying to steal as Fried went 6 6 2 2 2 3 to go to 14-6. Anderson, Alvarado and Hand did their thing in the seventh, eighth and ninth, allowing only one baserunner between them as Hand nabbed save #28. The Rays got out to an early lead; in the first inning, Josh Bell tripled homed Vidal Brujan who had walked to lead off the game; in the second, Brujan doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman fielding error, and Toro homered in the top of the 4th to make it 4-0. Mookie Betts answered with a 2-run homer of his own off a get-me-over 3-0 pitch from Fried, but that was the end of the scoring. Toronto lost last night and again tonight so the magic # is down to 16.
Game 2:
Very similar game to yesterday's as the Rays jumped out to a big lead early, Atlanta made it interesting, but then the Rays prevailed in the end. A case could be made either way to pitch to 8-hitter Kiermaier with Glasnow on deck with two out and two on in the 2nd. The men on base were at 1st and 2nd so the open base was 3rd, which I guess was enough for the AI to go ahead and pitch to him (later in the game, Kiermaier was up with a man on 2nd and he was intentionally walked). Anyway the decision was costly for Atlanta as Kiermaier went deep off Bryse Wilson (lefty Sean Newcomb was originally tabbed to start but the Braves changed their minds) to make it 3-0, Keibert Ruiz added a 2-run shot of his own (#24) in the 5th, and then after pinch hitter Nelson Cruz walked and was pinch-run for by Whit Merrifield, who stole second, Wander doubled him home for a big insurance run. Things got very dicey in the seventh. Glasnow, who was a fine 6.2 5 3 2 2 7, got the first two out and then struck out pinch hitter Eddie Rosario but the ball was in the dirt and Josh Bell dropped Ruiz's throw to allow Rosario to reach. Nick Anderson then came on and proceeded to walk three straight batters to force in a run. He was then yanked for Gio Gallegos, who struck out Mookie Betts to end the threat and leave the game at 5-3. Gallegos got through the 8th and Hand came on again, working around a single for save #29. Glasnow goes to 11-2 (the only damage done against him was a Ronald Acuna 2-run HR in the 6th) and lowers his ERA to 3.89. The Rays have an off-day tomorrow before they head to Cleveland (the only team they've yet to play this year) to try and make MLB history by tying the win streak record Friday night and possibly breaking it Saturday. By my calculations, a 71-game win streak will ensure a World Series victory, so a long way to go. Meanwhile, the once-hot Blue Jays were swept by Baltimore, so the magic number is now 14.
Stand by now for a bunch of monthly awards:
Well-deserved for Glasnow as the hallmark of this winning streak has been the complete turnaround of the starting pitching from wildly inconsistent over the first half of the season to lights out in the second half.
Keibert is the presumptive AL Rookie of the Year, his closest competition appears to be Brujan.
About a week ago I mentioned how well Bohm was doing since his demotion, and he hasn't let up. If he could do 75% of this next year as the everyday 1B, I'll be thrilled.
Durham keeps winning almost as much as the Rays (they're 88-47 as well), thanks to an elite offense led by guys like Bohm, Seth Beer, Xavier Edwards, Josh Lowe and Alex Kirilloff (even Andrew Vaughn has gotten red-hot lately) but the pitching has been decent too if not as solid. But vets like Pineda have done the job too. One blow for Durham, though, top-of-the-order and .400 OBP guy Cal Stevenson is done for the year with a torn quadriceps.
Tanner Witt was our first-round pick in 2020 and he's been raking in the GCL. The caveat here is that it's time for him to move on from the GCL so it'll be interesting to see how he does next year at Princeton or Hudson Valley.