Game 1: Mack Anglin was in control as were the Tampa Bay bats as they crushed Oakland 10-2 to kick off this 4-game series. After the Rays scored the whopping total of 1 run for him in his last 2 starts - in which he pitched well enough to win - this time he coasted with the run support and went 7 4 1 1 2 8 and is now 6-2, 3.39 with 2.5 WAR, not too shabby for 13 starts. The offense took advantage of a wild Thomas Szapucki, who walked 6 in his 4 innings including Spencer Torkelson with the bases loaded in the 1st to start the scoring, and Hunter Bishop followed with an RBI infield single. They tacked on 2 more in the 3rd on Brandon Marsh's single, and 3 more in the 5th on a Marsh RBI double and Nick Gonzales's 2-run single. The final 3 runs came in the 7th on consecutive RBI singles from Wander Franco, Keibert Ruiz and Judson Fabian as everyone in the lineup had a hit except Lewin Diaz and everyone had an RBI except Diaz and Keston Hiura. Aaron Ashby pitched the final two innings, striking out 5, including 3 straight whiffs with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 8th. Elsewhere, the Yankees shut out Baltimore 2-0 so the lead grows to 8.
Game 2: The Rays were due for a stinker, and they had one today losing to Oakland 7-3. Shane McClanahan didn't have it - in fact he really hasn't had it in his last 3 starts as his ERA has ballooned from 3.41 on July 7 to 4.16 today after a 5 7 7 7 3 4 outing. He's now gone 15 27 16 16 5 17 in his last 3 starts. The longball was the problem for him today, falling behind 2-0 on a Daniel Johnson HR in the 2nd. He settled down after that for two innings and the Rays tied it in the top of the 5th on back-to-back HRs from Brandon Marsh (#8) and Nick Gonzales (#4). But the wheels came off in the bottom of the 5th, as McClanahan gave up a leadoff homer to Johnson again, allowed 3 straight hits for another run, and then surrendered a 3-run HR to Franklin Barreto and that was the ballgame. Marsh homered again later (#9) for the 3rd Rays run, and Ben Bowden (2 innings) and Nick Anderson (1) shut the A's out the rest of the way. Baltimore lost as well so the lead remains a robust 8.
Game 3: Tyler Glasnow - or should I call him Cyler Glasnow? - was dominant again as the Rays shut out Oakland 5-0. He went 7 5 0 0 3 8 to improve to 12-2, 2.59 and now leads the AL in wins, ERA and WAR and is tied for 2nd in strikeouts in a Cy Young-caliber season. Steven Casey and Evan Godwin threw scoreless innings to complete the team shutout, and the Rays hit 3 homers to supply the offense. Hunter Bishop hit #14 in the 2nd inning to make it 1-0 and in the 5th Keston Hiura (#14) had a 3-run shot and went back-to-back with Bramdon Perez (#7). Baltimore was destroyed by Cleveland 9-1 and now the lead is up to a quite comfortable 9 games.
Some trade news:
So long to Heston Kjerstad, who was a victim of our OF glut over the last few years. With the emergence of Jhon Diaz, and Luis Berdin right behind him, Kjerstad was expendable and is now 27. He'll be a great player for Texas, should hit 25-30 HR, hit .260-.270 and play 70 defense in LF (or 60 in CF). McQuatters was kind of a middling prospect, not garbage but not nowhere near being a stud. So what about the return? Well Widmar is the #7 prospect in baseball according to BNN, and he fills a glaring need in the system: a high-end SS prospect. Jose Gonzales was probably our best one, but he's 19 and several years away. I don't want to say Widmar is insurance for Wander Franco possibly leaving after 2027, but I'm not
not saying it. I'm going to try to extend Franco again but that may require more money than we can spend. And we won a World Series without him, right? Anyway, here's what's to like about Widmar:
There's nothing not to like here, especially the 70D at SS. The scouting report says Widmar, who went 1-1 in the 2024 draft, is a potential .310 hitter, although he's yet to show that in the minors, hitting about .225 at high-A right now. Still I believe in the tools (and the editor, which says he's an MLB 278/332/438 hitter right now) and if we have to in 2028, we can sacrifice some offense for defense. And while Widmar was the key, Hayden Johns is almost as exciting a piece. He went 5th overall in the 2022 draft and reached the majors this year as a reliever with Texas, going 10 6 1 1 5 16 in a brief stint before going back down. His long-term future is as a starter still, and he has 65 stuff, 55 present/65 potential control, and 40/50 present/potential movement, so he can be a little homer-prone. Still he has 4.5-star potential and is projected to "fit comfortably in the middle of a big league rotation". I see him as perhaps a Chris Paddack-type, the 2020-2022 Paddack rather than today's version. He's currently ranked #119 overall. Benedetto is an interesting throw-in, a little old for his level at A+ but has 60 gap power and 55 HR power and is a 65 defender in LF. Widmar and Benedetto will go to Port Charlotte in the FSL, while Johns is going to Durham but could contribute to the pen down the stretch.
Game 4: The offense scored 4 runs in the first 2 innings then took the rest of the game off, allowing the A's to creep back in the game and come back to win it 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th thanks to some terrible defense and terrible relief from Jose Alvarado. After Judson Fabian drove in a run in the 1st with an RBI groundout, Hunter Bishop led off the 2nd with his 15th HR of the year, and then Lewin Diaz hit a 2-run blast (#12/#18) to make it 4-0. Asa Lacy was rolling and finally ran into some trouble in the 6th, leaving 5.2 5 1 1 4 3 but Aaron Ashby got the final out of the 6th. Ashby then got the first two batters in the 7th, walked a man but got an easy fly ball to Fabian in right, who inexplicably dropped it to keep the inning alive and put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Liam Hendriks came in and got an easy ground ball to SS and then Wander Franco threw it away, allowing the 2 runs to score. Hendriks struck out the side in the 8th but the offense continued to go down meekly so it was 4-3 with two lefties coming up, so Jose Alvarado came on, gave up a walk and a single to put men on 1st and 3rd. Alvarado then threw a wild pitch to allow the tying run to score, leading to an intentional walk. With men on 1st and 2nd, he got Andrew Benintendi to ground to 1st but they couldn't turn the DP so with men on 1st and 3rd again, Jasseel De La Cruz came in to face Matt Chapman, who singled to left through the drawn-in infield to win the game for Oakland. You know you've done something wrong when the other team scores 5 runs and they only have 2 RBI. Alvarado's ERA is now up to 5.61 and while he hasn't apparently lost his stuff like Nick Anderson, he ain't right and the bullpen remains a source of concern. Baltimore scored 5 times in the 8th to beat Cleveland 9-7 and take advantage of our blown game to move back within 8.
Team record: 68-30. Next up: A day off, followed by 2 games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.