[Art Deco]

Game 1: Matt Manning made a couple of mistake pitches and paid for it today as the White Sox beat the Rays 7-4. After Brandon Marsh's solo HR in the top of the 3rd tied the game at 1, Manning allowed a couple of base hits in front of Eloy Jimenez and the power-hitting OF took him deep for HR #36 to make it 4-1. Later rookie Collin Montez hit his 21st to make it 5-1 and the Rays could never recover. They did scratch out 3 runs in the top of sixth to get within 5-4 thanks to an error and a couple of wild pitches around a Vidal Brujan RBI single (the third of his three hits), but Manning put the first two on in the 7th and DL Hall gave up a 2-out Jason Heyward single to score them both, leaving Manning with a 5.1 8 7 7 0 7 line. Hall stayed on to whiff 4 in 1 2/3 innings and Will Smith had a perfect 2K inning. The Rays could have had more runs but left 10 men on the base, just about all of them in the early innings, while the Sox maximized their offense, only leaving 2 on.

September 7: Actived OF Spencer Torkelson from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned OF Heston Kjerstad to AAA Durham.

Great to have Tork back. He ended up playing 7 games at Durham and although he started off slowly he hit 2 doubles and a HR last night so I think he's ready. I'll probably stick him in the lineup tonight at DH. Kjerstad had kind of rotted on the bench lately and will be back to help Durham go for a third straight International League championship and fourth straight finals appearance.

Side note: I let the AI sign minor league free agents and they signed Chris Sale the other day. Obviously he's a shell of his former self but I found it interesting.

Game 2: The Rays scored 5 runs in the first inning and never looked back as they blasted the White Sox 11-3. Nick Schnell stayed scorching hot with the big hit of the game, a two-out 3-run HR (#18) in the first inning off Williams Perez. Keibert Ruiz also homered (#11) and drove in two runs, Austin Meadows had an RBI triple and sac fly to bring his season RBI to 98, Wander had a pair of RBI doubles and Vidal Brujan scored 3 times to pace the offense. The only one not hitting was Spencer Torkelson, who had a rough return to the lineup going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. All this run support made a winner of Daniel Lynch, who wasn't dominating but once again met the bare definition of a quality start going 6 6 3 3 3 5 to improve to 12-6, 3.43. Mitchell Verburg, Ian Hamilton (against his old team) and Sandy Gaston each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game off. Baltimore lost so the Rays' magic # for clinching their third straight division title and fourth in five years is 12.

Game 3: Shane McClanahan was brilliant today as the Rays shut out the White Sox 5-0. The lefty had perhaps his best MLB start with a 7 5 0 0 1 8 performance, improving to 3-2, 2.95 in 10 starts. Austin Meadows supplied all the offense he would need with a first inning solo blast (#29) off Codi Heuer, and he scored in the 3rd when his double was followed by one from Rafael Devers. Spencer Torkelson added his own RBI double in the 8th to give the Rays a little breathing room, and then Triston Casas (#5) and Brandon Marsh (#6) went deep in the 9th to expand the lead. Nick Anderson came in at 3-0 and got his MLB-leading 26th hold with a scoreless inning, and Mitch Keller struck out the side around a walk and a hit in the 9th to complete the team shutout. An Orioles loss means the magic # is down to 10.

Team record: 90-48. Next up: Back home for 3 against the central-leading Minnesota Twins.