May 20: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day IL with a bruised knee, recalled C Chris Betts from AAA Durham.
As mentioned yesterday, Ruiz probably doesn't have to go on the IL, I could have played Ronaldo Hernandez most games over the next 6 days and maybe played Ruiz once with the bruised knee, but Betts has toiled at Durham since 2022 and deserves a call-up, however brief. Betts has 60 power and a 55 eye so he's the prototypical power-hitting catcher who hits for a low average but has actually hit .260-.270 for Durham. He could easily be playing for a lot of other MLB teams.
Also this:
Game 1: Well, that's it. Will Smith is out at closer. I've never had to do this before, demoting a closer, as Nick Anderson got the job done in 2020, Brad Hand in 21 and 22, and Smith last season. But he blew yet another save - his 4th straight - as the Rays fell to Cleveland 4-3 in 11 innings today and once again Walker Buehler was denied a win. Buehler went 7 8 1 1 0 6 and as you can see gave up base hits but usually got out of any mini-jams with strikeouts or a double play. Anderson pitched a fine 8th with 2 Ks and so Smith came on for the 9th. He struck out Gerardo Perdomo to start the inning but lefty Jake Bauers singled off him and another lefty, Nolan Jones, took him yard to tie the game. Gary Sanchez came in to pinch hit, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on, got him and got through the 10th. With a lefty leading off the 11th, Asa Lacy came in as Alvarado was unavailable, and Cleveland pinch-hit Matthew Barefoot. If that name sounds familiar he was in the Rays system after being acquired from Houston as part of the Abraham Toro deal in the 21-22 offseason. He was then dealt to Pittsburgh as part of the Josh Bell trade at the 22 deadline, and the Pirates surprisingly waived him last year (we even put in a claim) and Cleveland nabbed him. Anyway, you can probably guess by now that he greeted Lacy with a drive into the LF stands to walk it off for Cleveland. Of course if the offense managed more than 3 runs we wouldn't have been in this situation but Logan Allen and 3 Cleveland relievers (including old friend Diego Castillo who struck out both batters he faced) kept them in check and struck out 13 over the 11 innings including 4 whiffs from Keston Hiura. Vidal Brujan was the offensive star with a 3-5, 2-steal game, scoring 2 of the runs. Devers had an RBI single in the first, and Meadows and Schnell had RBI groundouts. They managed 11 hits and stole a team-season-high 6 bases but couldn't get the big hits when necessary. Still it should have been enough. De La Cruz is the likely choice to replace Smith, allowing me to keep Anderson and Alvarado in their regular roles. Smith will be relegated to low-leverage middle relief for the foreseeable future.
Game 2: Well that was the last thing anyone expected - a complete Matt Manning meltdown in the first inning. He allowed the first 8 Cleveland batters to reach and 7 of them scored before an out was recorded and that was all it took for the Rays to fall 7-4. Manning walked the leadoff man Jake Bauers and then Lewis Brinson homered, and followed that up by allowing a 2-run Christian Arroyo single and a bases-clearing triple from Ka'ai Tom. Amazingly he didn't allow Tom to score from third with nobody out as something clicked and he struck out the next three batters. He ended up 4 6 7 7 4 7 as he settled down from there, but it was way, way too late. It was too bad as the Rays grabbed a couple of runs in the first inning on Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm RBI singles off opener Diego Castillo. But follower Zack Godley kept them in check from there until a Spencer Torkelson RBI single in the 7th and a Devers solo homer in the 8th. Ian Hamilton and Asa Lacy threw a couple of scoreless innings each in mop-up duty, but you don't expect be down 0-2 in a series you have Walker Buehler, Manning and Tyler Glasnow starting. Chris Betts made his MLB debut and went 0-3 with a pair of strikeouts before Ronaldo pinch-hit for him against a lefty in the 8th. Ronaldo himself has been struggling for the first time in his MLB career as he's down to 200/196/356 (yes his OBP is lower than his BA thanks to 0 walks and a sac fly).
Game 3. Wow. Coming into this series with Buehler, Manning and Glasnow starting I figured we'd win at least 2 of 3, maybe a sweep. Never expected to be swept but that's what happened as Tyler Glasnow followed Manning's disastrous outing with one of his own as the Rays were routed 10-4. Glasnow looked good in the first, got the first 2 outs in the 2nd, and then a sequence in the 3rd led to 4 straight hits and 3 runs. And in the 5th he gave up a pair of 2-run HRs to Jake Bauers and Bobby Bradley along with 2 other runs to end with a ghastly 4 12 9 9 1 7 line which could have been worse had 2 runners not been thrown out at the plate. Maybe it's Chris Betts behind the dish that's the problem - his two starts have seen the normally reliable Manning and Glasnow both immolated. Whatever the reason, Ronaldo will get the next start in a couple of days. On offense, Vidal Brujan had 4 more hits to raise his AL-leading BA to .372, and he doubled and scored on a Meadows double in the first to give the Rays a brief lead. Meanwhile, the once-great Justin Bieber came into this game 0-5 with a 6.65 ERA but bedeviled the Rays until running out of gas in the 8th, when Meadows smacked a 3-run homer, his team-high 9th. A team that started 22-7 is now in the midst of a 5-9 stretch finding new ways to lose. Fortunately the Red Sox and Orioles keep losing so the lead remains 5 1/2 but this looks nothing like the 115-win, World Series-winning team of 2023.
Team record: 27-16. Next up: an off-day followed by a weekend series at home vs the Yankees.