That should read *at* Texas above.
Been remiss in providing the updated MLB standings. No real drama in the NL with the divisions in hand and the wild cards as well (Mets and Padres). Once again the AL Central stinks with Minnesota the best of a bad lot, and of course a great division race in the west as well as a pretty wide open wild card race with the west loser and Houston and Boston battling it out for the second spot. You'll note some familiar names among the leaders, like Mike Brosseau 2nd in the league in WAR which falls into the "Things Nobody Could Have Foreseen for $200, Alex" category. Also Xavier Edwards is 2nd in steals, which was quite foreseeable. And it's good to see that Taylor Walls made it as Houston's utility guy, and he has a current 18-game hitting streak to boot. And how about Cory Bellinger, tied with Maris in the NL. We'll see him next week as we start this road trip in Texas and then hang out in LA for a while with a series with the Angels and then 2 games with the Dodgers.
Also of course we have the MLB record of 116 wins in sight, we'd have to go 12-5 the rest of the way to break it which just happens to be our current winning percentage. Those two games against the Dodgers won't help.
Game 1: Noah Syndergaard was masterful going 9 5 0 0 0 6 to improve to 18-4, 3.23 in a 3-0 shutout of the Texas Rangers, his second whitewashing of the season in a history-making win for the Rays. After allowing a Stephen Wrenn double with two out in the fifth, Syndergaard only allowed one baserunner after that, a HBP in the 9th. Rangers starter Tadaomi Akamine nearly matched him pitch-for-pitch, with the Rays clinging to a slender 1-0 lead on Wander's 33rd HR of the year in the first inning going into the top of the 9th. Finally with two out they broke through against reliever Ricky Vanasco when Alec Bohm walked with two out, scored on a Seth Beer double, and then Beer scored on Yusniel Diaz's double. Even with that late outburst, the Rays only managed 5 hits on the night themselves, but in any event the win was #106 on the year, breaking the club record of 105 set last season and keeping alive hopes of breaking the MLB record of 116.
Game 2: It was the Keibert Ruiz show at Globe Life Field tonight as the Rays all-star catcher belted 3 homers and drove in 6 to pace the team to a 9-3 win. I believe this is the first 3-HR game I've had from a player since managing the Rays, and he did it in his first 3 at-bats and nearly had a fourth but flew out to deep right. The Rays jumped all over Texas starter Ross Stripling in the top of the 1st. For the second straight day Wander homered in the first inning (#34), then Austin Meadows followed with #32. Rafael Devers singled, and Ruiz hit the first of his three to make it 4-0. Keibert hit his second in the 3rd, a 3-run shot to make it 7-1, and then Devers (#23) and he went back-to-back off Addison Moss in the 5th to make it 9-1. The 3 homers give Keibert 21 for the season, and while he probably won't equal last year's 28 to be where he is considering he only had about 5 or 6 well into June is impressive. Sitting back and watching all this run support roll in was Chris Paddack, who was outstanding in his own right going 7 6 1 1 0 6 to improve to 15-6, 3.78. Aaron Ashby and Scott Barlow finished it out and unsurprisingly allowed a couple of runs between them, although a Wander error was responsible for one.
Game 3: If our all-star catcher isn't going to beat you, his backup will. That was the story today as Ronaldo Hernandez had a big game and the key at-bats in a come-from-behind 7-5 win over Texas. With the Rays trailing 5-4 in the 6th, Ronaldo homered off Tarik Skubal to tie the game, and in the 8th his sac fly brought home the winning run. He also had an RBI groundout earlier and continues to rake in infrequent play, now 293/325/578 with 11 HR and 25 RBI in 147 AB. Skubal looked unhittable very early, setting down the first 8 Rays with 4 of them on strikeouts before Trevor Larnach got a lefty-on-lefty hit off him and Vidal Brujan hit #13 to put them up 2-0. But Max Fried kept giving the lead back, allowing 2 in the bottom of the third and then when the Rays scored 2 more in the 4th on doubles by Devers and Bohm and Ronaldo's groundout, Fried let Texas get 3 more in the bottom of the inning to take the lead, and finished an ugly 4.2 9 5 5 3 3 line. But Jasseel De La Cruz was great again, whiffing 3 in 1 2/3 scoreless, Alvarado got the two batters he faced, one on a strikeout, in the 7th and picked up win #5, Nick Anderson struck out the side around a walk and a hit in the 8th, and Will Smith nailed down save #36 despite allowing a walk. The march towards history rolls on, with the team now needing to go 9-5 in its final 14 to set the all-time MLB single-season wins record.
Team record: 108-40.
Minor League Playoff Update: Montgomery missed the playoffs in AA this year, but defending IL champ Durham is back. Durham had an outstanding 84-56 record yet they finished *10* games behind Gwinnett, the Braves' AAA team, who went a Rays-like 94-46. So as a result they're matched up against each other with Durham as the wild card and Gwinnett the #1 seed. Tonight was Game 1 of the best-of-5 in Gwinnett and Durham pulled out a 7-5 win in 11 innings to take command. Greg Jones' 2-run triple was the game-winning hit, Dany Jimenez (remember him?) got the win with 2 innings of scoreless relief, and flamethrower Sandy Gaston (71 Ks in 33.2 innings although with a 5.35 ERA) whiffed a pair for the save. Spencer Torkelson had a HR and 3 RBI, and Heston Kjerstad, who had an MVP-caliber season at Montgomery going 309/385/550 with 25 HR and 102 RBI and was promoted to take Trevor Larnach's place in RF, was 3-4 with a triple, a HR and 2 RBI. Durham had fallen behind 3-0, 4-3, and 5-4 but kept coming back. Clarke Schmidt hung in there at 6 8 4 4 2 9 to keep them in the game. Shane Baz gets the ball tomorrow in Game 2.