Before we start Roughneckin', here's some news from the league office:
Game 1: The Rays traveled to Miami to play the team known as the Roughnecks for the first time, and after a slow start took it to the ex-Marlins to the tune of 9-2. Nick Schnell and Daniel Lynch were the story tonight, with Schnell breaking a 0-0 tie with a solo homer in the fifth and hitting another one in the eighth with a man on. Schnell is now 378/427/622, leading the AL in batting average, 3rd in OPS, and he's also hit in 12 straight games. But Lynch did him one better - he too homered in the 5th against his old teammates making him the first Rays pitcher to homer in my save that's been going since 2020, and pitched a great game going 8 6 2 2 2 5 only allowing the 2 runs as he was running out of gas in the 8th. Keibert Ruiz had a pair of doubles, one of which drove in a run, and Austin Meadows (staying hot) and Wander Franco homered in the 9th in a tough park to generate offense (the Roughnecks played an 18-inning 1-0 game the day before). Sandy Gaston pitched the 9th with a walk and a pair of strikeouts, giving him 3 straight scoreless outings to start his big league career.
May 7: OF Jason Heyward opted out of his AAA Durham contract and became a free agent.
Heyward saw the writing on the wall and elected to pursue a return to MLB elsewhere. Unlike past seasons, Durham is having trouble scoring runs so with Heyward leaving and the OF being short, I offered one-time Ray farmhand Derek Dietrich a minor league contract.
Game 2: The Rays' 6-game winning streak came to an end today with a 6-4 Roughnecks win, and the primary culprit was Max Fried who had another terrible start, allowing all 6 runs in the first 2 innings and only lasting 4 (it could have been worse had a guy not been thrown out at home and another caught stealing) as his ERA balloons to 6.61. He served up a pair of HRs to Greyson Jenista and another to Monte Harrison. The Rays grabbed an early lead on a manufactured run as Brujan singled, stole second and scored after two groundouts, got another in the 4th when Seth Beer, filling in for Alec Bohm at 1B, singled home Rafael Devers as part of a 3-hit night, and then Austin Meadows stayed scorching hot with a 2-run HR, #8, to get the Rays within 2. They had a shot to tie in the 8th with men on 2nd and 3rd and 2 out but couldn't get them home, and Brujan led off the 9th with a walk but was erased on a game-ending GIDP from Meadows. At least the bullpen was good, as Kirby Yates, Sandy Gaston, Asa Lacy and Jasseel De La Cruz each threw a scoreless inning. But aside from the shutout of the Yankees, Fried has been mediocre to terrible, despite a misleading 4-2 W/L record. I've been trying to decide whether Lynch or McClanahan comes out for Manning but if Fried doesn't get going it could always be him. He's pitched to 4.48 and 4.47 ERAs the last 2 seasons which aren't inspiring (although he was good in the postseason run to the World Series), and he's a free agent at year's end, so there's no need to stay "loyal" to him if he isn't producing. And as always because I mentioned yesterday that Nick Schnell was on a hitting streak, of course it ended today with an 0-3.
Team record: 21-7. Miami comes back to St. Pete for 2 games at the Trop.