Some news from Durham:
After a mid-season slump Tork has heated up again and has a real shot at 40, if not in the regular season than with the playoffs combined as Durham is 6 up for a wild card right now with a couple of weeks left in the season. Xavier Edwards has been everything expected and more for KC (293/400/372, 34 steals after a May callup) so it's up to Tork and Rylan Bannon (see below) to salvage the deal as Scott Barlow has been mostly dreadful this year.
Game 1: What started out looking like an comfortable typical Rays win at the Trop ended up a wild back-and-forth affair in the late innings. Chris Paddack was looking good, and aside from his not-unusual solo HR allowed he was up 4-1 going into the 6th. In the 2nd Yusniel Diaz and Ronaldo Hernandez had back-to-back doubles, Nick Schnell (heating up again) homered to bring Ronaldo home, and in the 3rd Alec Bohm tripled home Wander to provide the runs. Paddack's longball bugaboo bit him in the 6th, serving up solo shots to Jake Bauers and Gary Sanchez to cut it to 4-3. After Paddack put a man on with one out in the 7th, Jasseel De La Cruz relieved him, but walked a man and gave up an RBI single to allow Cleveland to equalize. No problem for the Rays who struck back in the bottom of the inning when Rylan Bannon singled, Brandon Marsh doubled him to third and Vidal Brujan singled Bannon home to restore the lead. But Jose Alvarado faltered again in the 8th. Although an Alec Bohm fielding error hurt, the real problem was the 2-run HR Alvarado allowed to Sanchez, making it the second straight game he's given up a big HR. So Cleveland regained the lead again at 6-5 sending us to the bottom of the 8th. Yusniel and Schnell walked and with one out Bannon stepped up and jacked one into the LF stands for his 6th of the year and the Rays were back on top 8-6. Will Smith made sure there wouldn't be another lead change in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning for save #31. Alvarado vultured win #4 but he's becoming a bit of a worry. Although his surface numbers aren't that bad, it seems as he's become less reliable this year which could be a problem considering I gave him a healthy 2-year contract extension.
Game 2: This one was all Cleveland as they bombed Max Fried and Shane McClanahan and other Rays relievers 15-5. Gary Sanchez, who had 2 HR last night, hit 3 more tonight (!) with 7 RBI to lead the way. It was 1-1 after 3 with Devers doubling in Wander but it quickly got out of hand in the middle innings when Fried was chased in the 5th (4.1 9 6 6 1 1). McClanahan got two quick outs to end that threat, but couldn't get anybody out in the 6th, giving up 3 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter, all of whom ended up scoring so he was charged with 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Scott Barlow allowed a few of those inherited runners to score, and then Aaron Ashby gave up Sanchez's 3rd homer in the 8th. The Rays got a few runs back late with a 2-run Keibert shot (#18) in the 8th, Trevor Larnach had his first major league hit, an RBI double, in the 9th and Wander singled one in too. Otherwise they were kept in check by Jackson Stephens, who went 8 6 3 3 2 5 for Cleveland. The game will be a footnote, but two areas of concern going forward: Fried was looking good for the #3 spot in the playoff rotation behind Thor and Glasnow but has had two bad starts now and might give way to Paddack, and McClanahan has been largely terrible in the 2nd half of the season, not showing the flashes of dominance he had over the last year and a half in middle relief.
Game 3: The Rays got their 100th win of the season in dramatic fashion relying on the speed of.....Alec Bohm. His infield single scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th as the Rays came back from a 4-0 first inning deficit to beat Cleveland 6-5. Daniel Lynch had a brutal first inning, loading the bases with nobody out although it looked like he might get out of it with one run allowed, but a 2-out single by Bo Naylor scored a run and then Lewis Brinson's 2-run triple made it 4-0. The Rays struck back for 3 in the bottom of the 2nd off Luis Castillo, having a great season for Cleveland, on a Trevor Larnach fielder's choice and RBI singles by Brandon Marsh and Rylan Bannon. Brinson homered off Lynch in the top of the 4th to make it 5-3, but Lynch pitched quite well after that disastrous first inning, ending with a 6 5 5 5 3 6 line. Ty Buttrey got of his own jam in the 7th to keep it 5-3, and Bannon greeted former longtime Ray Diego Castillo with a bodacious blast to dead center to cut the lead to 1. Jasseel De La Cruz was nasty once again, pitching a perfect 8th and 9th with 4 strikeouts to set things up for the bottom of the 9th. Cleveland closer Nick Sandlin couldn't get the job done as Yusniel Diaz led off with a single on an 0-2 pitch, and Larnach for the second day in a row had an RBI double in the 9th except this one was much, much bigger as it tied the game. Marsh was intentionally walked, Bannon struck out, and then Wander grounded out moving up the runners. Keibert was then intentionally walked, bringing up Bohm, whose slow roller towards 3rd with a whopping exit velocity of 71.3 MPH couldn't be fielded and the Rays walked it off to hit triple digits in wins. Devers and Brujan were rested today as the rotations will begin. Last year the team lost 8 of its last 10 with regulars rotating off so we'll see how it goes this time around as the only thing that matters over this final month will be health.
Team record: 100-38.