[Art Deco]

Game 1: This season has been one step forward, two steps back, and they took a big step back with the most agonizing loss of the season, blowing a 3-1 lead in the 9th inning and losing 4-3 to New York. The offense was terrible again, generating only a Joe Barker HR (#2) in the 3rd off Jesus Luzardo with only 4 hits through 7 innings. In the 8th, though, Nate Clark blasted a 2-run HR off Mike Tudor in the 8th (#5) and it looked like the Rays would come away with the win. With three lefties due up, Jose Alvarado came on and immediately made a mess, retiring only one of them. This brought on Jasseel De La Cruz, who gave up an infield single to load the bases, and yet another infield single that made it 3-2. With the infield now drawn in, Ricky Widmar made a great diving play to stop a ball and threw it home for the force to make it 2 out, but Victor Robles delivered his 4th hit of the day, a 2-run single, to give the Yankees the win after the Rays went meekly 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th off Yankee closer Nick Paciorek. Jack Leiter pitched well, going 6 7 1 1 1 2 and Evan Godwin and Daniel Espino each had a scoreless inning before the Alvarado/JDLC metldown. The real problem is the utter lack of hitting as they only tallied 6 hits tonight, with 2 coming from Clark and 2 from Widmar. Yordan Alvarez struck out his first 3 times up to make it 7 straight at-bats with a whiff and was 0-4 to drop his average to .188. Keibert Ruiz was 0-4 to drop to .218 and all he seems to do is hit into double plays whenever we have a man on 1st. Widmar and Jhon Diaz are the only regulars over .300 and Fabian the only other one over .250. They're now hitting 239/307/407 as a team and are 13th in the AL in runs scored. I know this is only game #24 and regression says it will turn around but it's damn frustrating in the interim.

Note from Durham: Andy Aparicio didn't go to Durham to sulk as he went 7.1 7 1 1 0 6 in his first start after being demoted.

Game 2: Apparently tired of being called out, the Rays' bats went to work tonight in a 10-4 thrashing of the Yankees which saw every hitter in the lineup manage at least one base hit. Judson Fabian hit HR #3 with a man on in the 3rd to make it 2-0, and then we had an honest-to-goodness rally full of numerous hits that saw the Rays score 6 times in the 4th. Keibert Ruiz had a 2-run single, Gavin Lux an RBI double, Nate Clark had a sac fly and Bobby Witt Jr. hit a 2-run triple as runners kept circling the bases at the Trop, a rare sight of late. Ruiz added a 2-run HR in the 5th (#2) to complete the scoring. Blake Money made his first start of the season and was as effective as the hitters tonight, taking a 2-hit shutout into the 7th. Tiring, he hit a couple of batters with 2 out before Hyo-Jun Park hit a 3-run HR to put the Yankees on the board. Money got the final out and finished 7 3 3 3 2 8 in an impressive outing. Aaron Ashby pitched a scoreless 8th but Jeremy Bienick had his problems again in his 2nd MLB appearance, allowing a run and putting 3 on base. He may be heading back to Durham soon as I have no confidence right now using him in anything less than a blowout.

April 27: Optioned P Jeremy Bienick to AAA Durham, recalled P Christian Chamberlain from AAA Durham.

As mentioned above, Bienick probably needs a little more seasoning in Durham. Chamberlain is back, he had cameos in 2026 and 2027 with the big club and now gives us an extra lefty, making the bullpen balanced with 4 LHP and 4 RHP.

Game 3: If you're going to play an 18-inning game, you better f***ing win it as you burn your bullpen in the process. And despite squandering numerous great chances to score in extra innings, the Rays still ended up winning it 3-2 when Nate Clark led off the bottom of the 18th with HR #6 off Luis Severino. The reason why we got to that point was the Rays' penchant for hitting game-winning or game-tying HRs in the 9th at home and with 2 out and nobody on and facing Yankee closer Nick Paciorek, one of the best in MLB, Jhon Diaz went deep for HR #4. Special mention has to go to the just-recalled Christian Chamberlain. With Shane McClanahan struggling all game with baserunners and running up his pitch count, the bullpen had to start its work in the 6th inning and by the time the 15th rolled around, Chamberlain was the last man in the pen (unless you want to count tomorrow night's starter Alec Sachais, and we definitely didn't want to use him). All he did was pull off one of the more heroic relief efforts in team history, pitching 4 perfect innings and striking out 5. He picked up the much-deserved win but will likely be rewarded for his efforts by being sent back to Durham so we can have a fresh arm tomorrow. And I can't say enough about the rest of the bullpen. Mac was nowhere near his sharpest, going 5.1 7 2 2 5 5 on 107 pitches. Hayden Johns came in with the bases loaded and one out and had to face Victor Robles and Vlad Guerrero Jr. and struck them both out. This set the tone for the pen the rest of the way as they combined for an incredible 12.2 4 0 0 2 20 line. Yes that's right, 20 strikeouts for the bullpen and 25 for the game which has to be a team record. Rays batters struck out 18 times themselves for a combined 43 whiffs in the game. The MLB records IRL through 2020 are 26 for a single team and 48 for a game, so we nearly broke those. With the win, they're back to .500 and with Toronto losing they're within 4 games of the lead, the closest they've been for at least a couple of weeks.

Team record: 13-13. Next up: Wander Franco returns to the Trop in enemy colors for the first time as Texas is in town for a weekend series. The Rangers will get the benefit of facing a tired bullpen, so here's hoping Alec Sachais can duplicate his 8-inning Rays debut tomorrow night.