Game 1: It was a matchup of two starting pitchers traded for each other in the 2023-24 offseason as one-time Rays phenom Shane Baz faced former Tiger Matt Manning at the Trop. Although Manning's won a Cy Young with the Rays and 2 World Series rings, tonight it was Baz who get the better of things in a 4-2 Detroit win. Baz came in a terrible 5-11, 6.90 but shut down his old organization with a 7 6 2 2 1 3 performance, yielding only Keibert Ruiz's 8th HR of the year, a solo shot in the 2nd, and a leadoff walk to Nate Clark in the 8th after he which departed and his reliever gave up a Vidal Brujan RBI double (Brujan was foolishly thrown out at 3rd on the play). Manning meanwhile struggled with his control and it cost him in the 3rd when he loaded the bases with two walks and a hit and with 2 out allowed a bases-clearing double to Levi Usher to break a 1-1 tie. Manning ended up 5.1 7 4 4 4 5 and falls to 9-4. Blake Money looked really good in another long relief outing, going 2.2 1 0 0 1 4 and Aaron Ashby had a 2K scoreless 9th to keep the Rays in the game. After losing yesterday the Yankees won to cut the lead back down to 9 1/2.
Game 2: The Rays continue to have their struggles at home (32-22 vs 36-15 on the road), and even worse than today's 7-5 loss was that Keibert Ruiz sprained his knee and has suffered a 4-week injury. It's listed as a DtD (minimal) injury, but given the state of the division lead and given we have a more than capable backup in Andrew Knizner, I'm going to IL him and see how it goes. As for the game the Tigers treated Mack Anglin like a human piņata today, getting 5 runs and 8 hits in the first 2 innings as he threw 71 pitches. He made it through another 2 1/3 to save the bullpen a bit, but after his 7 shutout innings in Baltimore last time out it was a bit startling to see him hit so hard. This put the Rays down 5-0 but they chipped away and got within 5-4. Keston Hiura hit HR #6 to put them on the board, Judson Fabian had a 2-run double, and Yordan Alvarez had an RBI single in the 5th and a comeback appeared to be in the cards. Unfortunately Aaron Ashby served up a lefty-on-lefty HR to Riley Greene, Greene's 2nd in 2 days, and then in the 9th Liam Hendriks gave up a dinger to Austin Martin to make it 7-4. Still they had a chance in the ninth. Vidal Brujan walked for the third time with one out, Wander got his 3rd hit of the game, and Alvarez was the tying run at the plate. He didn't homer as I had hoped but he did drill an RBI double putting the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd. But Fabian flew to shallow center and Hunter Bishop struck out, and that was the ball game. The Rays caught a break when the Yankees lost, so no diminution of the division lead.
July 25: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day IL with knee tendinitis, recalled C Carlos Perez from AAA Durham.
Second time this year Perez has been up, the first time for a brief period between trading Patrick Bailey and waiting for Andrew Knizner to sign. Perez remains highly regarded as a top 60 prospect, and is a 30-HR, 70-walk guy although he's a .240-.250 hitter. He's also a 60 defensively. So not too shabby for a backup here, another reason why I feel comfortable disabling Ruiz despite the "minor" nature of his injury. Why risk it?
Holy crap! This is the biggest trade I think I've seen the AI make the now 8 seasons I've been playing this save:
Glad not to have face Gleyber Torres 18-19 times a season, but Robles is no slouch either.
Game 3: For the third straight game the Rays had their starting pitcher put them in a hole, but for a change they came back and held Detroit the rest of the way for a 5-3 win. Shane McClanahan was shaky in the 1st, nearly got out of it but gave up a 2-run single to Gabriel Moreno and then yielded an RBI double in the 3rd to make it 3-1 Detroit. But Mac settled down from there, going 5.2 8 3 3 2 4, limiting the damage. Meanwhile the offense chipped away until the lead was gone. Jud Fabian had a sac fly in the 1st, and Vidal Brujan doubled in the 5th and scored after consecutive wild pitches from Tigers starter John Rizzo. And then they completed the comeback in the 6th. Hunter Bishop singled, and with one out Andrew Knizner was hit by a pitch. After Jhon Diaz whiffed, Brandon Marsh walked and Brujan came through again, this time with a 2-run single to put the Rays ahead. They tacked on a run in the 8th when Diaz doubled and scored on a sac fly from Brujan, who ended up 2-3 with a walk and 3 RBI. And the revamped pen was lights out. Jack Filby went 1 1/3 perfect and got the win, in his home debut Daniel Espino did what he was acquired to do, pitch the 8th and he had a 1-2-3 inning, and with lefties due up Jose Alvarado came on and picked up save #5 with his own 1-2-3 inning. The Gleyber Torres-less Yankees lost, so the lead is now 10 1/2.
Team record: 69-37. Next up: An off-day before the Columbus Lightning (!) come to town for the first time in their current incarnation for a pair of games.
Note from the farm: Hayden Johns didn't take his demotion to Durham and pout as he threw a 2-hit shutout with 1 walk and 7 Ks tonight. I like Blake Money in the multi-inning relief role better so if Jack Leiter flames out (he's had 2 good and 2 bad-to-mediocre starts), I could see Johns as the 5th starter as he looked good in a pair of spot starts against Baltimore earlier in the season.