[Art Deco]

Game 1: Keibert Ruiz had himself a night, and so did his teammates as they pummeled the Yankees 14-2. The Rays' catcher had his first career 5-hit night, going 5-for-5 with a walk, scoring 4 times and driving in 3. His night started with a solo HR in the 1st inning, his 18th, he added an RBI single in a 6-run 4th that broke the game open, and finished with an RBI double in the 9th. Judson Fabian hit HR #30, a 3-run shot, Anthony Rizzo had a 2-run double in that 4th inning and drove in 3, as did Keston Hiura. The beneficiary of all this run support was Matt Manning, who did allow the Yankees to briefly tie in the first on a Joe Allen homer, but gave up nothing after that, finishing 7 3 1 1 2 9 and is now 12-6, 4.15 with 203 strikeouts. Christian Chamberlain made his first appearance in 3 with the Rays without leaving hurt, pitching a scoreless 8th but allowing a hit to start the 9th which Austin Vernon allowed to score. Baltimore was off so the magic # is now 12.

Durham Playoff Update: Another year, another great season from Durham, another playoff series with Gwinnett. The Bulls were about as good as the Rays this year, going 94-46, which earned them a matchup with wildcard team Gwinnett, the Braves' affiliate. Tonight they faced the IL's top pitcher, Trey Riley, and beat him and the Stripers 6-3 to take Game 1 of their first round best-of-5. Jimmy Lewis got the start, and aside from a bad 4th inning in which he allowed 3 runs, pitched great going 7 3 3 3 1 10. Nick Anderson got the hold with a scoreless 8th and Nick Frasso picked up the save. The big hit in the game was a 2-run HR from Chris Sharp that turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead in the 5th. Sharp was a kind of throw-in in the Evan Godwin deal last year with the Cubs, but he has 70 current/80 potential contact and 80 gap power to go with 55 HR power. He seems like a Mark Grace-type hitter and he went 309/361/500 with the Bulls this season, and potentially could be a solution to our 1B problems.

Game 2: Another day, another rout of the Yankees. The final was 10-6, but that was deceiving because Andrew Knizner hit a 3-run HR off Steven Casey with two out in the 9th. Wander Franco had a monster day, going 4-5 with a HR (#32) and 3 RBI and he joined Spencer Torkelson and Judson Fabian (who ironically each went 0-5 tonight) in the 100-RBI club. Keibert Ruiz continued his hot hitting as well, going 2-3 with 2 RBI on the heels of his 5-5 yesterday, and Brandon Marsh hit HR #12, a 2-run shot, to go with a bases-loaded walk for a 3-RBI night. Shane McClanahan was battling throughout his 6 innings, not even getting his first whiff until the 5th but gutted out a 6 8 3 3 3 3 performance for win #16, keeping his outside shot at 20 wins alive. Mitchell White came in with the idea of the 3-inning save, but had to throw a lot of pitches getting through the 7th and 8th and then he walked the first two in the 9th before Casey came on. Casey struck out Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge but gave up the HR to Knizner before getting Wilmer Flores to ground out to end the game. Baltimore won again so the magic # drops to 11.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-5 series thanks to a 4-1 win over Gwinnett. There will certainly be wailing and gnashing of teeth when Tyler Glasnow goes to free agency this winter but the reason we can let him is the pitching pipeline we have. Mack Anglin and Christian Little have already demonstrated it, and next up is Jack Leiter (Al's son), ranked the #47 prospect in baseball by BNN. Tonight he was brilliant, going 7 5 1 1 1 9 and was par for the course with his 10-3, 3.41 season with a 25/128 BB/K ratio in 129 innings. The star on offense tonight was Christian Knapczyk, 3-4 with a HR and 3 RBI. We'll head to Gwinnett with a chance to sweep in two days' time.

Game 3: The Rays blew an early 6-3 lead, but still came out on top with an 8-6 win to make it 3 straight at the Stadium. 2-run HRs from Wander Franco (#32) and Judson Fabian (#31) helped stake them to the lead, but Mack Anglin struggled again today although he did leave after 5 up 6-4. He went 5 8 4 4 2 6 as he saw his ERA rise above 4 for the first time in a long time. Speaking of struggling, Aaron Ashby came on in the 6th and relinquished the lead by giving up another homer to a lefty, this time a 2-run shot from Chase Davis. The homer was Davis's 40th of the season, making him maybe the best Rule 5 pickup since George Bell as the Yankees nabbed him from the Mets system this winter. Ashby meanwhile has allowed 8 runs in 3 1/3 innings over his last 5 appearances, and isn't going to be trusted in a high-leverage situation for the foreseeable future. Hayden Johns relieved Ashby in the 6th and then made a mess in the 7th, loading the bases but Ben Bowden got him out of it, and then in the top of the 8th the Rays struck back. Keston Hiura led off with HR #23 to make it 7-6 and a few batters later Vidal Brujan singled in a run. Liam Hendriks had a clean 8th and then Jasseel De La Cruz got save #27 with a 1-2-3 effort. Bowden picked up his 5th win. And although Keibert Ruiz got the afternoon game off after a night game, Patrick Bailey picked right up where Keibert left off with a 3-3 day with a walk and an RBI. The magic # is now 10 as Baltimore won.

Game 4: The Rays completed a 4-game sweep in a place that's been tough on them over the years thanks to an 8-5 win. It looked like a pitchers' duel on paper with Tyler Glasnow facing Gerrit Cole, but the Rays got to Cole for 5 runs in 3 2/3 innings with Wander Franco homering for the third straight game. Wander's 34th in the 1st gave the Rays a quick lead, and he added sac flies off Cole in the 3rd and 4th to give him 105 RBI on the season. The big blow in the game was another Keston Hiura HR, #24, a 3-run shot in the 5th that turned a 5-3 game into an 8-3 one. Glasnow had his issues with the bandbox that is Yankee Stadium, allowing 3 solo HRs but limited the damage to that in a 6.2 7 3 3 2 7 performance that earned him his 19th win of the season as he looks to win 20 for the second straight year. Ben Bowden got a whiff of Joe Allen to get Glasnow out of the 7th but Steven Casey ran into some trouble in the 8th which wasn't helped by Spencer Torkelson dropping a fly ball. Jose Alvarado came in with the bases loaded and 2 out and gave up a hit to score one and a wild pitch to score another (both unearned), but got the final out and stayed on for a 1-2-3 9th and picked up his 8th save. The magic # only drops to 9 because Baltimore keeps winning, and if they go 13-7 the rest of the way we'll have 2 100-win teams in the same division for the first time since 2018.

Team record: 99-43. Next up: 3 games in Toronto.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls couldn't quite pull off the sweep as their 9th inning rally fell just short in a 4-3 loss. They had a run in, and loaded the bases with two out but Chris Sharp struck out. Gwinnett scored 3 times in the 1st off Emerson Hancock on an RBI double from ringer Jose Ramirez (on a rehab assignment) and a 2-run HR from former Rays 1st-round draft pick Garrett Whitley. Ramirez added a sac fly for the 4th Stripers run. Jhon Diaz homered for Durham, and speaking of ringers Evan Godwin pitched a scoreless inning on his own rehab assignment, allowing only a hit and striking out 1 on 10 pitches. Game 4 will be tomorrow in Gwinnett as the Bulls get their second chance to advance.