Game 1: The Rays tried their darndest to give this game away, but held on for a 6-5 win over Toronto in the opening game of the series. Christian Little got off to a bit of slow start, but settled in to go 5 3 1 1 3 8 but racked up his usual # of full counts and had to leave at 99 pitches. By this time he and the Rays were ahead 4-1 thanks to a 1st inning rally that saw a 2-run Yordan Alvarez single, a Bobby Witt Jr sac fly and a Jhon Diaz RBI single. Back in the bullpen (temporarily at least), Jack Leiter came on in the 6th, promptly gave up a run and then continued with his gopher ball issues (a whopping 21 in 91 IP) by allowing a 2-run Adanson Cruz shot in the 7th to tie it up. But Isaac DeLeon, giving Ricky Widmar a day off, came to the rescue with a 2-run HR (#6) in the 8th inning to make it 6-4. Evan Godwin and Daniel Espino (after loading the bases) got them through the 8th, and with lefties up Jose Alvarado got the call for the save. He ended up giving up a couple of hits and a run, so Jasseel De La Cruz had to get the final out for save #16. Espino picked up win #5 in a game where I wasn't thrilled I had to use 6 pitchers.
Game 2: One of the axioms in baseball is that a team's record in one-run games is in large part based on the strength of its bullpen. Lately with the Rays, though, it's been the bullpen that's been turning games into one-run games as once again today the Rays eked out a 4-3 win that they should have won relatively comfortably. Blake Money was back on the hill today and although his consecutive starts won streak ended, he remained undefeated and was brilliant again today, going 7 5 0 0 1 7. The Rays took a 2-0 2nd inning lead on Jhon Diaz's 14th HR of the season, and Ricky Widmar hit his 8th to make it 3-0 in the 6th. So when Nate Clark singled in a run to make it 4-0 in the bottom of the 8th it looked like it would only mean no save situation for the pen. Jack Filby and (mostly) Jeremy Bowers made sure there was one, though. Filby had pitched a perfect 8th and stayed on to face the leadoff righty, giving up a single. With three lefties due up, Bowers came on and proceeded to give up 3 straight hits, the last of which was a 2-RBI double by Jorge Polanco to cut the lead to 4-2 and put the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out. After looking great in his first few outings with the team, this was Bowers' second straight meltdown. So in came Jasseel De La Cruz and he got the job done with two groundouts (the first of which allowed the lead runner to score) and a whiff to end the game and pick up save #17 while Money is now 13-0, 2.19. To get an idea of how dominant the big 3 of Money, Christian Little and Alec Sachais have been, take a look at the AL pitching leaderboard:
Little is also tied for 3rd in wins at 8 but is cut off alphabetically.
Game 3: The Blue Jays had to be feeling good about themselves when they got to Shane McClanahan for 5 runs by the 4th inning and took a 5-0 lead. Those good feelings were short-lived, though, as the Rays had their biggest inning of the season in the bottom of the 4th, throwing up a 9-spot on the scoreboard and never looking back in a 13-9 win. They loaded the bases with nobody out and Brody Westbrooks walked in Jhon Diaz (it seems like he has about 5 bases-loaded walks this year) to start the scoring, then Bobby Witt Jr singled to make it 5-2, Jasson Dominguez's 2-run single made it 5-4, a Keibert Ruiz sac fly tied it, and then Ricky Widmar hit HR #9 with a man on to put the Rays up 7-5. A couple of batters late Nate Clark hit #23 with a runner aboard and it was suddenly 9-5. Connor Kirkley, getting a rare start, launched a 2-run shot (#3) to make it 11-5 in the 5th. Mac hung in there and although he gave up another run in the 6th, got the win go to 9-2 after a 6 8 6 6 3 6 day. Diaz hit a 2-run double in the 6th to make it 13-6, and Christian Chamberlain took over for Mac. After two scoreless innings on 23 pitches, I left him out there for the 9th with a 7-run lead. He ended up giving up a 3-run HR to Greyson Jenista (Jenista's 2nd of the game) with two out, but he managed to get the final out for his first MLB save (albeit an ugly one). Not that there's a division race anymore but FYI the Rays are now up 20 games on the 2nd-place Yankees.
Team record: 64-25. Next up: An off-day, then a week in New York with 2 games at the Mets and 4 at the Yankees before the All-Star break.