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