[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was bad news all around as not only did the Rays lose to Cincinnati 3-2 on a 9th-inning walk-off for the Reds, but they lost Joe Barker for a month and a half with a broken hand. Barker, who was off to a red-hot start and had singled in his first at-bat, was hit by a Hugo Beltran pitch on his right hand in the 3rd and suffered the break. It will now be time for Rodolfo Rivas, the #45 prospect in baseball, to show his stuff. The rookie shares Barker's 40-HR power but not Barker's speed as he's a slow-as-molasses 20 runner, something we haven't had for a long, long time. As for the game the Rays wasted another great start from Christian Little. He allowed a base hit to lead off the game and then the #2 batter Robert Hassell III took him deep to center, but he gave up nothing after that and went 7 5 2 2 0 10. Little even had a double, but unfortunately he ended up out-hitting most of his teammates tonight as the Rays had both their runs in the 1st on a Ricky Widmar triple and Jasson Dominguez ground out, and then later a sac fly from Bobby Witt Jr. Jose Alvarado got the Reds in the 8th and stayed on in the 9th, gave up a 2-out single to Ryan Noda, who stole second, and with a righty due up and Alvarado on 25 pitches, JDLC came in. The Reds countered with a lefty pinch-hitter, and instead of putting him on with 1st base empty I pitched to the hitter who of course doubled in the winning run. So bad on me and JDLC.

April 13: Placed 1B Joe Barker on the 10-day IL with a fractured hand, optioned P Malachi Benford to AAA Durham. Recalled 1B Rodolfo Rivas and P Tim Siqueiros from AAA Durham.

Benford just can't seem to find any consistency in the bigs, mainly due to wildness, so we'll replace him with the power arm (80 stuff in relief) of Siqueiros, who isn't exactly known for his control either.

Game 2: Unbelievable. For the second straight night, Emmanuel Guiterrez walked it off for the Reds, as the Rays bullpen continues to be a time bomb this year. The final was 5-2 as Guiterrez drilled a 2-out, 3-run homer off Mike Mooney to give Cincinnati the win and for the second straight day they wasted a brilliant outing from a starter. Today it was Alec Sachais who had nothing to show for a 7 3 1 1 1 10 outing. The Rays led 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, and Evan Godwin had pitched a fine 8th with 2 Ks. JDLC, who's been basically unreliable since mid-season last year, walked the first two batters, gave up a single to the third batter to tie it up, and with a lefty due was pulled for Mooney, who got a double play to put a man on 3rd with 2 out. With a righty due up and 1st base open, I wasn't going to make the mistake I made yesterday and intentionally walked him so the lefty Mooney could face the lefty Gutierrez. And we know what happened from there. Of course all of this could have been moot had the offense scored its customary # of runs but they were held to 2 runs and 6 hits with both scores coming in the 5th when Ricky Widmar tripled in a run and scored on Jasson Dominguez's sac fly. Rodolfo Rivas made his MLB debut and went 0-4, but he twice reached on errors. The loss is now the team's 3rd straight and 4th in 5 games, and as a result Toronto with a win today has climbed into a first-place tie with them at 7-5.

Game 3: Jon Hayes pitched like the ace he was in Minnesota, the Rays got just enough hitting, and for once they survived the 9th-inning drama in a 4-2 win over the Reds to salvage the final game of the series. Hayes was brilliant, except for a brief sequence in the 5th when he allowed two walks and a single for a Cincinnati run, finishing 7.2 5 1 1 2 6. Andy Aparicio got him out of the 8th, but ran into trouble in the 9th after Jasson Dominguez dropped a fly ball and he gave up a hit and a walk to load the bases. And who should Cincinnati send up than Emmanuel Gutierrez, who delivered walk-off hits the last two nights? Jose Alvarado was summoned this time and he got Gutierrez on a fly ball which brought home a run, but after a walk re-loaded the bases Alvarado got the final 2 outs to nail down the save, his 3rd of the year as he's probably our closer now until and unless JDLC figures things out. Hayes picked up his first win. The offense came primarily from two guys: Dominguez singled in the Rays' first run in the 1st inning and then broke the 1-1 tie in the 6th with an RBI double. And Connor Kirkley supplied the big blow of the game, a 2-run HR in that 6th inning, his 1st of the year. This at least gave the Rays some margin for error unlike the previous two nights. Rodolfo Rivas got his first big league hit, a single to center in the 8th.

Team record: 8-5. Next up: The road trip continues with two in Baltimore which are sandwiched around an off-day.