Some news from the off day:
Game 1: The Rays ran into a tough customer in Forrest Whitley, one of the AL's top pitchers, and they came out on the short end of a 3-1 scoreline. Alec Bohm singled in Keibert Ruiz who had doubled in the 5th to tie the game at 1, but Houston came back with runs in the 5th and 6th off Daniel Lynch to take the game. Lynch pitched pretty decently considering the opponent and the ballpark (6 7 3 2 1 7) but didn't get the run support. This was the first the Rays had seen the Astros since they took 3 of 4 from them in the opening weekend of the season but George Springer wreaked havoc on them back then anyway and tonight his HR was run #3. Old friend Max Kepler figured in the rally scoring the second run with a single and was 1-2 with a walk. Whitley and Matt Barnes, who got the save, held the Rays to 5 hits for the night. The magic # remains 3 so they'll have one chance between now and Thursday to clinch the division in August.
Game 2: It was looking a rerun of last night as the Rays and Tyler Glasnow fell behind 3-0 and had a hard time getting going against Houston lefty Daniel Norris. But they chipped away and then exploded for a 7-run 6th in a 9-3 win. Glasnow struggled in the first, giving up back-to-back HRs to Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez, and then in the 3rd Carlos Correa took him deep. But he settled down after that, and Rafael Devers led off the 4th with HR #20, and Nick Schnell, pressed into duty to replace an injured Austin Meadows (more on that in a minute) hit his first longball since July 28 to make it 3-2. Then the Rays went to work in the 6th. Keibert walked, Bohm reached on an error and then Yusniel Diaz hit a 3-run shot (#7) into the Crawford boxes to put them up 5-3. Raisel Iglesias relieved Norris and the second batter he faced was Brandon Marsh, who took him deep to RCF for HR #22. Wander then tripled, Schnell singled him home, and Devers hit his 2nd HR of the game (#21) to complete the scoring. Meadows had to leave after doubling in the first with a recurrence of his knee tendinitis, which has him DtD for a week and of course we won't fool around with it so he'll go to the IL. Glasnow, who improves to 15-5, ended 6.2 6 3 3 2 5 but put a couple on in the 7th with Alvarez due up, so TJ McFarland came in and got him on a popup and then finished the final two innings of the game. It was good to see Schnell off the schneid with 2 hits and a HR as he'll truly be playing everyday now with Meadows out. The win, combined with the Red Sox losing, reduces the magic number to 1, meaning the Rays can clinch the division on August 31 with either a win or Boston loss tomorrow. Whether it happens in August or not, they'll still clinch their division the earliest of any team in the division era, with the 1975 Cincinnati Reds' record of September 7 to be shattered.
August 31: Placed OF Austin Meadows (knee tendinitis) on the 10-day IL, recalled OF Trevor Larnach from AAA Durham.
Larnach is long overdue for the majors and might have gotten the call instead of Schnell in July but was injured at the time. He's had an up-and-down year with Durham but is 26 now and would probably be in the majors with another team, his problem of course is the glut of outfielders the organization has. Not sure how much time he'll get but with rosters expanding he may stay up when the next hitter (Beer) is due off the IL.
Game 3: THE RAYS WIN THE DIVISION! THE RAYS WIN THE DIVISION! OK, it was the biggest fait accompli since faits have accompli-ing but it's still great to see them get their third division title in four seasons after only having two in their previous 23 seasons. No coincidence with who took over as GM and Manager in 2020 (Win a damn postseason series, the critics say). Today the Rays clinched with a closer-than-it-should-have-been 9-7 win over Houston and Dustin May's first win as a Ray. Vidal Brujan led the game off with a HR and although May struggled in the 1st he limited the damage to a run and in the 3rd Yusniel Diaz homered for the second consecutive day to make it 3-1. Brujan then did it again in the 4th with a 2-run shot for his first 2-HR game in the majors as his season total climbs to 11 (he was on base all 6 times today with the 2 HRs and 4 walks). Then the Rays really blew it open in the 6th on a 3-run shot from Wander (#31), making it 8-1. Meanwhile May had settled down and had gone 5 2/3 allowing only the one run until good buddy Max Kepler and old nemesis George Springer went back-to-back to cut it to 8-3. He finished the inning and ended 6 7 3 3 2 4. His numbers through 2 starts aren't that impressive to look at but keep in mind he had to pitch in two very tough places for pitchers (Baltimore and Houston). So Ty Buttrey came on in the 7th, and allowed a hit and a walk with one out bringing a pair of tough lefties in Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker to the plate. Jose Alvarado came in, struck out Alvarez and would have been out of the inning but he misplayed Tucker's comebacker and that loaded the bases. You can guess what happened next as Carlos Correa went deep and it went from 8-3 to 8-7 just like that. Nick Anderson had a 2-strikeout 8th and then Rylan Bannon hit his 5th HR for a little insurance. They could have had more as Junior Fernandez walked the bases loaded with nobody out but he then struck out Keibert (who had 4 hits today) and Devers and got Bohm to ground out. No problem for Will Smith, though, as he got 3 grounders on 9 pitches to pick up save #30 as his teammates mobbed him in celebration.
Team record: 98-37. Magic number: 0.