Game 1: The Rays visited Fenway to face the only AL East team they've yet to play this season and came away with a 15-4 blowout win. It was a 3-3 game after 4 with a pair of Eric Knatz homers off Alec Sachais offsetting a 2-run Dayle Jenkins double and a run off a wild pitch. But in the 5th the Rays exploded for 8 runs off Alex Santos and Bobby Carman, first on a 3-run HR from Bobby Witt Jr (#3) and then on a grand slam from Gabriel Moreno (#4) that went over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street. They tacked on four more in the 7th which included a 2-run shot from Jasson Dominguez (#6). Jenkins ended up with a 4-hit, 3-RBI with a pair of doubles, Rodolfo Rivas was 3-4, and Moreno had 3 hits including the slam. Sachais was quite good after the two early homers, leaving a man on in the 7th who scored after he left the game as he improved to 5-0, 3.11 with a 6.2 7 4 4 0 9 line. Mike Mooney went the final 2 1/3 to wrap things up. After a rough 1-19 start to his MLB career, Rivas has been on fire going 17-39 with 4 HR and 9 RBI in his last 11 games.
Game 2: Two nights in Boston, two 11-run wins as the Rays blasted Boston again 11-0. Jon Hayes was so masterful tonight (7 3 0 0 2 8) that he didn't allow a runner past first base the entire night. He's now 4-2 and his ERA dips to 2.75. And Jasseel De La Cruz got some work in, pitching the final two innings in perfect fashion with a pair of whiffs so the Red Sox did not manage a single runner in scoring position. Meanwhile the Rays were in scoring position when they entered the batter's box tonight and it started in the 1st with a 2-run HR by Nate Clark (#9), giving him 27 RBI and putting him among the league leaders. The game was broken open with a 5-run 2nd which saw RBI singles from Ricky Widmar, Dayle Jenkins and Bobby Witt Jr and capped off with a 2-run double from Rodolfo Rivas. Connor Kirkley had a sac fly and Widmar another RBI single in the 7th, and the red-hot Rivas completed a perfect night at the plate with a 2-run HR (#5) for the final 2 runs. Rivas ended up 3-3 with the HR, 4 RBI, a walk and a hit-by-pitch, now making him 20-42 with 5 HR and 13 RBI in his last 12. Joe Barker isn't going to be Wally Pipped in 3-4 weeks but I could see a scenario where he DHs, Clark moves to LF and Jenkins moves over to RF taking ABs away from Jhon Diaz, who's 212/297/362 in the early going.
Trade time:
Baker, our supplemental 1st rounder in 2026, is a polished lefty starter in his 2nd year at Durham who should be pitching in the majors now, but as usual there's no room at the inn. Hopefully Cincinnati will put him on the MLB roster. Flores has a decent arm, but is a bit homer-prone so it didn't break my heart to give him up. That's because the return is Medina, the 14th-ranked prospect by BNN and the #4 overall pick in 2028. For some reason the Reds put him on the MLB roster at one point which is probably why they were willing to part with him. He's been used in relief at AA but I'm going to put him back in the rotation at Montgomery. This is what he looks like under the hood and what Metzler has to say about him:
Game 3: The tables were turned tonight as the Red Sox jumped out to a big early lead and went on beat the Rays 6-2. Jack Leiter had the roughest of starts, giving up a double to lead off the game which scored, and then after giving up another leadoff double in the 2nd put another man and gave up a 3-run HR before still another run scored after Carlos Perez's throwing error. And the bats didn't respond to being in a 5-0 hole early, with only a couple of RBI hits from Perez getting runs in. Leiter settled down after those rocky first 2 innings to go 5 6 5 4 2 6, David Saldana pitched 2 innings and allowed a run and Corbin Martin had a scoreless inning. Ricky Widmar's 17-game streak of scoring a run came to an end, as did the hot hitting of Rodolfo Rivas who was 0-3 with 3 strikeouts.
Team record: 20-9. Next up: The road trip continues a little farther south and west in New York to play the Yankees for a 3-game weekend set. The Bombers are off to a brutal 9-18 start which wasn't helped by us sweeping 4 from them in Publix Park a couple of weeks back.