[Art Deco]

April 17: Optioned P Clarke Schmidt to AAA Durham, recalled P Drew Strotman from AAA Durham.

Not sure why I didn't send Schmidt down earlier, when the fifth starting spot comes up Saturday the 22nd Glasnow will be due off the IL and he's already over the tired arm. As for Alec Bohm, I've decided not to IL him since he only has 4 days left and we can play shorthanded for the time being. I'm giving some thought to sending Strotman down Thursday for the 3rd game of this series and calling Andrew Vaughn up for a game against the lefty Caleb Smith, then sending him back down for Glasnow.

Game 1: This looked like the typical Rays game with Chris Paddack on the mound, getting 3 runs on 5 hits in the first to go up 3-0. But Paddack has been slowly morphing into Joe Ryan lately with the HRs and after Baltimore hit 3 off him through the first 4 innings it was 5-3 Orioles. But you just knew the Rays would chip away and take the lead, and after they got one back in the 4th they took the lead in the 6th on RBI singles from Brujan and Devers, and then in the 7th we had a Beer blast into dead center to make it 7-5. 3 more in the 8th gave us another 10-run game, and everyone in the lineup had at least 2 hits except Brujan and Marsh who each had one, and everyone drove in at least one run except Kirilloff and Marsh. Paddack, meanwhile, as is his custom hung around long enough to get the win after settling down past the 4th. His final line was 6.2 9 5 5 1 4 and he did get into a bit of trouble in the 7th that Nick Anderson got him out of with a big strikeout of Adley Rutschman. Alvarado pitched a perfect 8th while it was still 7-5, and even though the 3 8th inning runs took away the save situation Will Smith hadn't pitched in forever, and got nicked for a run in the 9th but the Rays go to 14-3 with the 10-6 win. Boston lost yesterday while the Rays were idle and lost again to the Yankees today, putting New York in second, 4 1/2 behind. Abe Toro hit #6 in a losing cause, just waiting for him to wreak vengeance this weekend. Also the Pirates are now 0-16 after losing 2-1 to Detroit despite being up 1-0 in the 8th, allowing single runs in the 8th and 9th to lose. Ouch.

Game 2: The calendar says April 19 but those who watched this game could be forgiven if they thought it was February 2 as today's game was Groundhog Day given its similarity to yesterday. Once again a Rays starter got into early HR trouble; today it was Max Fried who served up longballs to Austin Hays and Byron Buxton and in the middle of the fifth Baltimore was ahead 3-0 behind Grayson Rodriguez. But Brandon Marsh led off the bottom of the 5th with a HR of his own, and that must have gotten the Orioles thinking "here we go again", and there they went. Rafael Devers, tired of the Toro talk, hit a 2-run shot to tie it up, and after the red-hot Austin Meadows (regression can be fun sometimes) doubled, Keibert Ruiz hit his first of the season and suddenly an inning that started 3-0 Orioles was 5-3 Rays. And in the 6th Alex Kirilloff hit his first major league round-tripper into the RF stands to make it 6-3. Fried, meanwhile, when he wasn't giving up HRs was whiffing Orioles left and right as he ended the day with 11 Ks which was 3 more than he had in his first 3 starts combined. He hung around for 5 2/3, enough to get the win, but as you could imagine his pitch count got high and Scott Barlow came on and was nasty, finishing the 6th for Fried and whiffing 2 in the 7th in a perfect 1 1/3. Jose Alvarado got a hold with a perfect 8th, and then the Rays tacked on 2 more in the bottom of the inning on a Wander HR. With it now 8-3, Will Smith sat back down in the pen and Drew Strotman pitched a scoreless 9th as he bids adieu to the big club for now. Meanwhile Meadows had 3 more hits and now sits at 284/370/522 as if the first 10 games or so never happened. Devers also had 3 hits as Max Kepler was the only Ray not to hit safely but he did reach via walk. The Rays improve to an MLB-best 15-3 as they get off to a hot start for the third year running, and with Boston beating the Yankees the lead is already up to 5 1/2. (Yes, Toro was 1-2 with an RBI to improve to 371-6-17, thanks for asking). And Pittsburgh. Oh Pittsburgh. They led Detroit 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th and Kody Clemens hit a 2-run HR off their prize young pitcher, Brennan Malone, who is apparently their closer (there's a CL next to his name) although the position is currently theoretical. They're now 0-17, 4 games away the tying the 1988 Orioles for worst start ever. And in a real oddity, the Kansas City Royals started 0-6 but now have won 12 straight to go to 12-6 and are in first in the AL Central. Strange times.

April 20: Optioned P Drew Strotman to AAA Durham, recalled IF Andrew Vaughn from AAA Durham.

As alluded to earlier, Vaughn's going to get his MLB cup of coffee, starting today against the lefty Caleb Smith at DH. A heralded prospect out of college when drafted by the White Sox in 2019, Vaughn's kind of stagnated, showing only doubles power although he does have good on-base ability. The problem is he's barely a 1B, really a DH, so he needs to hit with some serious power (like Seth Beer does). The main thing he has to offer is his right-handedness in a team and organization overloaded with lefty hitters. He's toiling away for a second season at Durham now so we'll give him this cameo for a couple of games before Glasnow comes off the DL Saturday to start.

Game 3: Joe Ryan can usually survive a HR or two as long as they're solo shots, but he can't survive walks and that's what killed him and the Rays today as they dug too big a hole to climb out of. Brandon Marsh's 2-run opposite field HR off Caleb Smith gave the Rays a brief 2-0 lead after 3, but Ryan gave up a 2-run HR to Renato Nunez to tie the game in the 4th and a 3-run shot to Austin Hays to fall behind 5-2 in the 5th. Austin Franklin came on in the 6th and had his worst Rays outing allowing 2 runs, and Dany Jimenez's struggles continue as he gave up an eighth run in the seventh. They did try to come back from the 8-2 deficit, and it started with Andrew Vaughn's first major league HR off Smith to make it 8-3, and then they rallied for a couple of runs in the 8th to cut it to 8-5 when Alex Kirilloff, who was 3-3 with a walk mostly against a lefty, had an RBI single. But with the bases loaded and one out, Ronaldo Hernandez hit a short fly ball to right, and Marsh grounded out to 1st to end the threat and they could only manage a Brujan walk in the 9th off Drew Pomeranz. Ryan ended up 5 6 5 5 4 7, just too many baserunners for his style of pitching. In his debut Vaughn struck out his first 2 times against Smith but in addition to the HR he drew a walk in that 8th inning rally. With the 3-hit game today Kirilloff is suddenly up to .320 (albeit in 25 AB so your average can really jump). Wander and Brujan were a combined 0-7 at the top of the lineup which didn't help. The Red Sox were idle so the lead shrinks to 5 ahead of a 3-game series with them, Kansas City beat the Yankees for their 13th straight win, and Pittsburgh didn't lose today (they were off).

Team record: 15-4.