September 1: Activated P Mitchell White from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, recalled P Dustin May from AAA Durham.
As we can now expand the roster by two, White will be welcomed back to start today as we'll push Shane McClanahan back a day. May pitched decently at Durham and will be a long relief/spot start option for now although there's no guarantee he holds the 28th spot for the month.
Game 1: The Rays continue to eke out 1-run wins, which is fine considering how many they've been on the wrong end of this season, but I'd appreciate it for my nerves if they could just win a laugher or at least add some runs late to build a lead. As mentioned above, Mitchell White was back to start and he came through with an excellent 6.2 6 2 2 2 6 outing in the Rays' 3-2 win. A Ryan Noda HR in the 7th cost him a shot at a win as it tied the game at 2, and although pitching into the 7th might have seemed to be pushing him considering it was his first start back, he only threw 89 pitches. Nick Anderson got the final out in the 7th and then pitched a perfect 8th with 3 Ks total and became the winning pitcher when Brandon Marsh hit HR #17 in the bottom of the 7th to break the tie. Jose Alvarado came on for the 9th with two lefties up and retired them, but lost his shot at the save as the 3rd batter he faced singled, so Jasseel De La Cruz came in to face the scheduled righty hitter but the Blue Jays pinch-hit a lefty. No matter though as De La Cruz whiffed Luis Toribio to notch save #29 in his first action in over a week after his sprained ankle. The Rays grabbed their other two runs in the 5th when Hunter Bishop tripled in Alec Bohm and scored on a Vidal Brujan single. Nick Gonzales had only his 2nd hitless game in 15 starts, going 0-4 today. The Rays have now won 4 straight and 6 of 7 in their best stretch in quite a while. Baltimore got a 3-run Ranfy Adon HR in the bottom of the 9th to win and stay 2 1/2 back.
Game 2: The Rays heeded my call for a laugher of a game rather than the nail-biters they've been playing and annihilated Toronto 17-1 behind the team's second individual 3-HR game in less than a week. After Keston Hiura hit 3 bombs against Baltimore Friday, Alec Bohm hit 3 Bohms today to become the second Ray (after Wander) to hit 20 HR this season. The team hit 6 longballs in all, including 5 in the first 4 innings as the game quickly got out of hand. Austin Meadows hit a 2-run shot (#19) to start the scoring in the first, and then they exploded for 5 in the second on Bohm's first (a solo shot), a 2-run double from Spencer Torkelson, and a 2-run jack from Nick Gonzales (#3). Bohm had another solo blast in the 3rd, Hunter Bishop a 2-run homer in the 4th (#14), and Bohm hit his third with a man on in the 6th. They scored in every inning except the 8th as every starter except Patrick Bailey (1-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored) drove in at least one run. The beneficiary of all these runs was Shane McClanahan, who wasn't his best but good enough to go 5 7 1 1 2 7 and even his record at 6-6, 3.40. Christian Little, who hadn't pitched in over a week and half, got an extended run going the final 4 innings and dazzling, going 4 2 0 0 0 6 including a pair of whiffs of Vlad Jr and picking up his first career MLB save. Baltimore had their own rout tonight beating Cleveland 20-7 behind a 3-HR game from Jo Adell and immolating one of the top pitchers this season in the AL, Kantaro Yokoyama, so they stay 2 1/2 behind.
In fact it was such a big scoring night around the league that Bohm barely rated 3rd star of the night with his 3-HR game:
Game 3: The Rays continued their homer-happy ways by blasting 5 more tonight in a closer-than-it-looked 12-2 win over the Jays. It was only a 5-2 game in the 6th when Asa Lacy ran into some trouble with two out, putting two men on and the tying run at the plate in Cavan Biggio, leading to a tough choice: go with a lefty to retire Biggio or go with a righty in case Biggio reached with two righties including Vlad Jr. to follow? I ended up going with the lefty Aaron Ashby and got Biggio on a fly ball but if he hadn't he'd have to face those two guys with it either 5-3 or the bases loaded. The Rays tacked on a run in the bottom to make it 6-2 and then really blew it open with 6 in the 8th. They got off to a 2-0 start behind RBI singles from Austin Meadows and Spencer Torkelson, and then after Toronto made it 2-1 in the 3rd, Nick Gonzales went deep again (#4) to make it 3-1. And in the 5th Keibert Ruiz (#14) and Tork (#20) hit solo blasts to make it 5-1. Keibert's RBI groundout made it 6-2 in the 6th and then in the 8th Meadows hit #20 for a grand slam and Hunter Bishop followed with #15. Lacy got the win, going a decent 5.2 7 2 2 1 3 to go to 4-4, and after Ashby got the big out in the 6th, Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 3K 7th, Evan Godwin a scoreless 8th with a pair of whiffs and after the lead grew to 10, Dustin May had a scoreless 9th getting a double play to end the game. Everybody had at least one hit as they had 14 for the night and extended the winning streak to 6 and their current run to 8 of 9. They're also now 12-4 against Toronto this season. Baltimore continues to parallel the Rays with their own 10-4, 4-HR win tonight.
Team record: 79-55. Next up: An off-day followed by the beginning of a long road trip which starts in Detroit for 3 over the weekend.