[Art Deco]

Durham finally got its season underway last night (no idea why OOTP scheduled AAA to start two weeks after MLB and one week after AA and lower began), and they beat arch-rivals Gwinnett 2-1 on back-to-back HRs by Spencer Torkleson and Triston Casas and behind a great AAA debut from Shane Baz, who went 7 5 1 1 0 6.

Game 1: If you were going to predict the first time the Rays would be shut out this season, I doubt you'd have picked a game in Toronto, and I doubt even more that the starting pitcher that you'd pick would be Rick Porcello, but that's what happened as the Jays beat the Rays 5-0. The game was effectively decided in the bottom of the 3rd when Justin Ellison hit a 2-out grand slam off Max Fried, who was returning to the scene of his Game 4 crime in last year's playoffs when he let a big early lead get away to put the Rays' playoff elimination in motion. It turned out that was all that Fried gave up over 6 innings and the case can be made that his 6 6 4 4 1 3 performance was the best of his 3 starts to date. Porcello and a pair of relievers didn't exactly dominate as the Rays had 7 hits and drew 6 walks but they couldn't get the hits when they counted, especially in the 7th when Devers grounded out with the bases loaded and 2 out. Seth Beer was 0-4 with a couple of strikeouts and his average is down to .147 although his OBP is .310. Also Alec Bohm's name hasn't been mentioned much lately as he cooled off after his ridiculous start, although he's still getting hits here and there. The Yankees won so the lead is down to 3 1/2.

Quick Durham update: In Game 2 of their season Asa Lacy made his Rays organization debut and was brilliant, going 6 5 0 0 2 9. Tristan Casas had another HR and drove in 3, although Nick Frasso and Tony Cingrani allowed 6 runs to Gwinnett in the 7th, turning a potential 4-0 win into a 6-4 loss.

Game 2: It was Joe Ryan against Nate Pearson and one of them gave up 4 runs in 5 innings on 2 HRs. It wasn't Joe Ryan though. Sure, he gave up his obligatory HR in the 2nd to Ray-for-a-month Mitch Haniger, but aside from that and an unearned Jays run in the first off two errors (one his own) Ryan went 6 2 2 1 3 8 in a 6-2 win over the Jays. After mentioning him yesterday, Alec Bohm got back on the HR board with #6 for the first Rays run in the 2nd but the big hero today was Ronaldo Hernandez, who hit a 2-run off Pearson in the 5th to put the Rays up to stay. Ronaldo was 3-3 with a walk and he's 8 for 15 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in his limited appearances this year (he actually has 2 more RBI than Keibert Ruiz, which is kind of quirky since Ruiz has been hitting). Max Kepler added a 2-run HR off Amir Garrett for the final Rays runs, and the bullpen actually got through 3 innings clean although there were some moments. After Nick Anderson's perfect 7th when it was 4-2, Scott Barlow came on in the 8th and put 2 on with 2 out and lefty Reese McGuire due up so Alvarado was summoned and responded with the strikeout. With it 6-2, Alvarado didn't come out for the 9th and Aaron Ashby pitched around a hit to finish things off. The Yankees lost but Boston won to improve to 8-7 so they are now in 2nd, 4 games back.

Another Durham update: I don't plan on giving these every game, but there are so many top-notch power prospects on the team that there always seems something to report. Today they bashed 6 HRs in a 14-9 win over Gwinnett (the bullpen sucks, it was a 14-4 game). Nick Schnell was 3-5 with a HR and 5 RBI, Tork went deep again and Hunter Bishop hit his first AAA HR.

April 16: Signed P Brandon Workman to a minor league contract; assigned him to AAA Durham.

Well there's some help for the lousy Durham bullpen. Workman was waived by Texas and released last week; his numbers still look pretty decent so there's always a chance he can help the big club as well.

Game 3: The Rays clocked the Jays 10-3 today and the Porcello-led shutout of them seems like it was weeks ago now. Thor was in command, going to 4-0 on an 8 4 3 3 1 5 line with the only Jays runs coming courtesy of a Haniger (again) 2-run shot and a Bo Bichette solo shot in the 8th when he was running out of gas. Marsh and Meadows doubled in the 1st then they added 3 more in the third with a Yusniel Diaz double the key hit. Haniger's blast cut it to 4-2 where it stood until the 6th when Seth Beer, who had to come on to play 1B after Alec Bohm suffered an oblique strain (6 days out, probably headed to the IL), hit HR #3 to make it 5-2. Beer has had his struggles but for a guy hitting .154 his OPS is .725 thanks to drawing walks and hitting with power when he does hit. He'll likely be the everyday 1B for the next 7-10 days. As they do so often, they blew it open late with 5 runs in the 8th and 9th with the highlight being a Marsh 3-run HR, giving him 4 RBI on the day. Meadows had 3 hits and is up to .241 now and Rylan Bannon was 2-3 with a walk and an RBI as Vidal Brujan got a day off. Even Dany Jimenez, who had struggled mightily with an ERA near 20 coming in, had a scoreless 9th. Those surprising Red Sox won again to stay 4 back and they're being led by none other than Abe Toro, hitting .350/444/717 with 5 HR and 15 RBI, vastly outproducing Devers so far. Great trade! (at least we got Triston Casas in the deal too, he might be coming up for Bohm). We'll be seeing Toro and the Sox next weekend at home following a 3-game set with Baltimore after a day off tomorrow. Elsewhere around MLB the Pirates lost today (in 10 innings, had to be painful) and they are 0-15 to start the season. Look out 1988 Orioles!

Durham update: As long as these guys keep blasting homers, I'll keep updating. Torkelson and Casas each hit their third in 4 games, and Nick Schnell hit #2 giving him 8 RBI now in those 4 games. Unfortunately Durham lost 8-4 as Slade Cecconi was torched for 6 runs in 1.2 innings in his Rays org debut.

Team record 13-3.