Game 1: It's just something about playing in AL East parks that's given the Rays trouble this year, and today was a brutal example of such struggles as the Red Sox crushed the Rays 15-5, and it wasn't even that close as the Rays scored 4 in the 9th. Mack Anglin had his troubles, and I tried to get him through one more batter and that backfired spectacularly as Didi Gregorius hit a grand slam off him in the 5th to make it 8-1 and Anglin left with a 4.1 7 8 7 3 4 line, his first bad start in a long time. And welcome to the show, Austin Vernon. He got the last 2 outs in the 5th but had all kinds of trouble in the 6th and he too was victimized by Gregorius, who blasted a 3-run HR off him as Vernon allowed 6 runs in 1 inning of pitching. Ben Bowden stopped the bleeding with 1 2/3 scoreless, and rather than use anyone else I went with Triston Casas for the 3rd time this year to pitch and once again he acquitted himself well, allowing only an unearned run in his inning thanks to Wander's 2nd error of the game. Early on Judson Fabian hit HR #29 in the second to tie the game at 1, and in the 9th Keston Hiura and Alec Bohm each hit 2-run doubles. In between those Rays runs old friend Anthony Banda dominated them going 6.2 3 0 0 1 5 as a follower. Still despite the thorough beating they still shaved 1 off the magic number as Baltimore's loss to Toronto dropped it to 23.
Random notes: Fabian's HR made him the 2nd Ray after Spencer Torkelson to reach the 100 RBI mark this season. Casas has now allowed only 1 earned run in 3 innings, maybe we should make him a 2-way guy.
Second month in a row for this guy:
Also down on the farm:
As mentioned before, Diaz is firmly in the mix for a job with the big club next season, especially if we make Tork the full-time 1B next year.
September 1: Recalled P Christian Chamberlain from AAA Durham.
I will probably call up Hayden Johns in a couple of days when he's rested from the start he made 3 days ago as the 2nd roster expansion player. For now, Chamberlain is up, giving us another lefty in the pen. He continued to pitch well at Durham after he was sent down from his cameo with us earlier this season.
Game 2: The Rays doubled up the Red Sox today, both literally (they won 8-4) and figuratively (they hit 7 doubles). Shane McClanahan had a solid start today going 6 6 3 2 2 8 to go to 13-5, 3.82 and once again retook the AL strikeout lead, today from Bryar Johnson. The Rays scored twice in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings to open up a healthy lead, with Brandon Marsh and Wander Franco singling in runs in the 3rd, Anthony Rizzo hitting the first of his 2 doubles to score one in the 4th followed by another coming home on a Boston error, and Judson Fabian and Spencer Torkelson RBI doubles accounting for the runs in the 5th. Wander tripled to lead off the 7th and scored on a Keibert Ruiz sac fly, and Nick Gonzales led off the 9th with his 8th HR of the year for the other runs. Things got a little dicey in the 7th when McClanahan left after putting the leadoff man on and Aaron Ashby ran into some trouble including that guy again - David Dahl - doubling in a run off him and cutting the lead to 7-4. Liam Hendriks calmed things down with 2 outs on 4 pitches and pitched through the 8th, and Jose Alvarado had a 1-2-3 2K 9th to end it. Baltimore dropped another one to Toronto so the magic # is down to 21.
Game 3: The bats took the day off in a 4-1 loss to Boston, denying Tyler Glasnow a shot at win #18. Glasnow pitched well, except when Ryan Mountcastle came to the plate. The Boston 1B homered off him in the 2nd and delivered an RBI single in the 6th, and also homered again in the 7th off Aaron Ashby, who has been not great recently. When he wasn't facing Mountcastle, Glasnow was dealing, going 6 5 3 3 3 12 to once again become the temporary AL strikeout leader with 195. Although David Dahl went 0-4 today, he still hurt the Rays by gunning down Brandon Marsh at the plate in the 6th and keeping the Rays from tying the game at 1. They did finally break through in the 7th on a Bramdon Perez RBI single, and even at 4-1 had a golden chance to come back in the 9th when Dillon Maples loaded the bases with a couple of walks and nobody out. But Keston Hiura whiffed, and Perez then hit into a double play to end the game. Steven Casey pitched a 1-2-3 7th after relieving Glasnow, then Christian Chamberlain came on for the 8th and after getting one out had to leave with a strained back, reminiscent of his getting injured in his prior Rays appearance. Ashby had to come in and gave up the 2nd homer to Mountcastle. Baltimore won so no reduction of the magic #.
Team record: 91-41. Next up: An off-day, then 3 at home this weekend against Toronto.