June 5: Placed 2B Connor Kirkley on the 10-day IL with a foot contusion, recalled OF D'Andre Hodges from AAA Durham.
Didn't expect Hodges back so soon but I want to get Victor de Jesus more at-bats at Durham.
Game 1: Jack Leiter had a meltdown 5th inning and the bats outside of Dayle Jenkins couldn't get anything going in a 7-2 loss to the Lightning. It was a 0-0 duel between Leiter and Columbus's Delvis Alegre, one of the NL's better starters, through 4 innings. But in the 5th Leiter started serving up gopher balls, giving up a 2-run shot to Mathieu Nelson and a solo blast to Taylor Jones back-to-back, and then after a Dane Ayers error kept the inning alive, Cristhian Rodriguez hit a 3-run blast to make it 6-0 and it was effectively game over. Leiter's ERA got a break as he ended up 6 7 6 3 0 6 but that's now 15 HR allowed in 71 innings, not great Bob. Steve Givens pitched the final 3 and gave up a run but walked 0 and whiffed 6 as he showed some of his vast potential. As mentioned Jenkins was the only one who did anything offensively with his 4th inning double the team's first baserunner and his 6th inning homer (#7) with a man on the team's only runs as they only managed 4 hits in total tonight.
Game 2: Joe Barker blasted two homers and drove in 4 to lead the Rays to a 6-2 win over Columbus. He had a 2-run HR as part of a 4-run 1st inning, hit his second (#9) in the 6th after the Lightning had pulled within 4-2, and drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th. The 4-run 1st also featured a Nate Clark RBI single and Jasson Dominguez's 13th HR of the year as he went back-to-back with Barker. Blake Money got the start and was pitching out of jams most of the way, going 5 6 2 2 4 7 and getting his 5th win of the season. Corbin Martin went 1 1/3 in relief, Evan Godwin 1 inning and Jordan Diaz the final 1 2/3 in another strong game for the pen. Barker's second homer came off an old friend, Sandy Gaston, who's been bouncing around MLB and the minors since pitching for us in 2024-25. Isaac DeLeon made his MLB debut at 2B today without incident.
Team record: 47-14. Next up: A weekend wraparound series at home with Seattle for four games through Monday.
Realized I've been remiss about posting the MLB standings, so here they are:
Pretty good races in both leagues except of course for the AL East (and the NL Central with St. Louis off to almost as good a start as the Rays). Can Corbin Carroll hit .400? He's at least playing in the right ballpark.