First some monthly honors:
Also winning monthly Southern League honors were a pair of Montgomery Biscuits, which makes sense since they're off to a 17-4 start. Collin Bosley-Smith, acquired a few years ago from Houston for Max Kepler, went 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA and 30 whiffs in 28 innings to be named pitched of the month, and Luis Berdin, the key player acquired in the offseason Nick Schnell deal, hit .338/438/537 with 3 HR and 19 runs scored to be named batter of the month.
Game 1: A wild game that was 7-7 after 5 innings ended up a walk-off 8-7 win over the Blue Jays once the Rays bullpen took over to buy some time for the offense to get another run. Shane McClanahan didn't have it today, going 2.2 8 6 6 3 3 and squandering an early 3-1 lead. Asa Lacy took over and pitched through the middle innings, going 3.1 4 1 1 1 4, only giving up a mammoth blast to dead CF by Vlad Jr while Liam Hendriks, Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th to hold the fort before the Rays loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 9th. Judson Fabian struck out, but Spencer Torkelson beat out a slow grounder to short to score the winning run and provide yet another walk-off win this season at the Trop. Earlier, Alec Bohm (#3), Vidal Brujan (#2) and Patrick Bailey (#2) homered, with Bailey having a big game, going 3-4 with a triple as well. Tork was 3-4 with 2 RBI and Brujan managed 3 hits and a steal to go with his dinger as the team knocked out 16 hits in picking up win #20.
Game 2: Christian Little kept on keepin' on in a 4-2 Rays win with a 6 4 1 1 3 8 performance to go to 4-0, 1.97 with 50 whiffs in 32 innings. He keeps this up and he could be looking at Rookie of the Year
and Cy Young. On the hitting side, Bramdon Perez got another start at DH and drilled a 2-run HR to put the Rays up 2-1 in the 2nd, his 3rd in 35 AB. Perez is hitting 371/421/714 which is going to make it very tough to send him down when Hunter Bishop comes back. Brandon Marsh singled, stole second and scored on a Vidal Brujan single in the 5th to make it 3-1 before the Jays made it close with a run in the 8th. After Liam Hendriks pitched a perfect 2K 7th, he walked Vlad Jr to start the 8th and he came around to score on a sac fly off Evan Godwin. Judson Fabian drove in an insurance run in the 8th, and then Jasseel De La Cruz pitched a perfect 9th with 2 whiffs to get save #5 as he's been lights out this season going 9.2 1 0 0 1 11 in his 9 outings. The win also makes the Rays 6-0 vs Toronto this season after sweeping the opening 4-game series of the season. By the way Minnesota won again today and their record is almost as good as the Rays' at 20-4.
Game 3: Several regulars got the day off (Wander, Marsh, Torkelson) and it showed as the Rays only managed 4 hits in a 3-1 loss to Toronto. In the bottom of the 2nd Alec Bohm answered Sheldon Neuse's HR in the top of the frame with #4 to tie it at 1, but that was the last time a Ray would cross home plate. Alejandro Kirk's RBI groundout off Chris Paddack in the 6th turned out to the be the winner, and Dustin May gave up a run in his lone inning in a relatively high-leverage situation to give the Jays some insurance. Paddack was excellent, going 6 3 2 2 1 7 but took his first loss of the season while Nick Anderson and Aaron Ashby had scoreless innings. The Rays had the makings of a rally in the 9th when Bramdon Perez and Bohm singled to lead it off, but Triston Casas hit into a double play to kill off those hopes.
Team record: 21-4. Next up: An off-day, followed by the LA Dodgers coming to town for 2 games.