[Art Deco]

June 11: Placed P Christian Little on the 60-day IL with a ruptured finger tendon, optioned P Malachi Benford to AAA Durham. Recalled P Tim Siqueiros and P Romulo Canelon from AAA Durham.

Siqueiros will be getting a start or two while Alec Sachais remains on the IL and Canulon, a lefty, is a fresh arm for the pen. Both were pitching well at Durham: Canelon has a 6/32 BB/K in 19 innings while Siqueiros made two starts since being acquired in the Julio Cedillo trade, the first was 5 3 0 0 1 10 and the second was 6 2 0 0 0 11, not too shabby.

Game 1: Shane McClanahan continued his roll, winning his 5th straight start as the Rays edged Boston 5-4. Mac went 7 5 2 2 2 8 on exactly 100 pitches as he improves to 5-3, 3.62. Evan Godwin had a scoreless 8th but Jasseel De La Cruz gave up a 2-run HR to Yoan Moncada to allow Boston to get within one before finishing off the Sox for save #13. The offense came early: a 2-run HR by Spencer Torkelson (#5) in the 2nd, and in the 4th an RBI double from Bobby Witt Jr and a 2-run HR from Connor Kirkley (#8, his second straight game with a longball).

Game 2: The Tim Siqueiros era did not get off to a great start tonight as the rookie righty had a case of the nerves, walking four Red Sox in the first inning leading to two runs, and then after settling down for a couple of innings got into more trouble and ended 4 2 3 3 6 5 before Andy Aparicio had to come in and rescue him. Meanwhile, outside of a Jhon Diaz homer leading off the game the Rays could once again get little-to-nothing going against old friend Yonny Chirinos with only 2 hits through 5 and trailing 3-1. But the Rays unloaded on Chirinos in the 6th with 3 homers and 4 runs and ended up winning going away 8-3. First Keibert Ruiz launched #7 leading off the inning and Diaz immediately followed with his 2nd of the day (#7) to tie the game. A few batters later Jasson Dominguez blasted a 2-run shot to put the Rays ahead to stay. Bobby Witt Jr drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th and singled in a run in the 8th to give him a pair of RBI, and Dominguez went deep again in the 8th (#16) to cap the scoring. Aparicio picked up the win with another brilliant outing, 3 2 0 0 0 5 to give him his 3rd win and a sick 9/71 BB/K ratio in 44 innings. He should have probably got the start tonight but he's been so valuable in that multi-inning role that Shane McClanahan once played to perfection in 2022-23. Jose Alvarado and Mike Mooney pitched scoreless innings to finish out on the mound.

Game 3: Mack Anglin was not sharp tonight, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits in the first inning before the Rays even came to bat. And once again it didn't matter as by the 4th inning the Rays were up 9-3 on their way to an 11-4 win. Anglin was a pretty-bad 5.1 10 4 4 3 6 but thanks to yet another avalanche of run support he's 9-2 despite his 5.30 ERA (and despite a fine 22/94 BB/K ratio in 73 innings, the .358 opponent BABIP is part of the problem). Romulo Canelon made his Rays debut and looked pretty good, whiffing 3 in 1 2/3 innings despite being pushed a bit too far into a 3rd inning (the 8th) when he gave up a hit and a walk. Jordan Diaz got out of that with a whiff and a 3-6-3 DP and pitched the final 2 innings. The offense was led by the forgotten man, Spencer Torkelson. Once the young power-hitting stud the offense was built around in part, he's missed most of the last 2 seasons with injury and found himself largely on the bench this year thanks to a Clark/Fabian/Dominguez/Diaz hold on DH and the OF. But he's been producing lately and tonight he banged out 3 doubles and drove in 4 runs to lead the charge. After Ricky Widmar broke a 3-3 tie in the 4th with his 4th HR, Tork's bases-clearing double made it 7-3 and game over. Jasson Dominguez had 3 hits and an RBI as everyone in the lineup had at least one hit and everyone except Jud Fabian and Joe Barker had at least 1 RBI.

Team record: 47-17. Next up: 4 games at home vs Kansas City, also known as "Rays west" with Hunter Bishop, Triston Casas, Xavier Edwards, Lewin Diaz, Ian Lewis, and Luke Little.