August 16: Optioned IF Mike Lammers to AAA Durham, activated 1B/OF Victor de Jesus from his rehab assignment there.
Good to have de Jesus back, and yes that's not a typo above, he can play 1B as well as OF and while he's no Keith Hernandez (a 45 rating), he's better than Barker (35 or 40, depending on which scout you believe) who will DH.
Game 1: It was the Alec Sachais show, even if the Yankees' Joe Allen tried his best to spoil it. The Rays righty went 8 2 2 2 0 11 with the two runs against coming on a pair of solo homers from Allen in a dramatic 4-2 win. Allen's first homer in the 2nd put New York up 1-0 but the Rays fought back to take the lead on an Adley Rustchman sac fly in the 4th and Ricky Widmar's RBI double in the 5th. But Allen struck again in the 7th to tie it and despite his brilliant performance it looked like Sachais would be denied a win despite making it through the 8th. Jasson Dominguez had other thoughts, though, as he ripped a 2-run blast (#33) in the 8th to win the game for the Rays. Jose Alvarado came on for the 9th, and after yesterday's debacle, well this meme comes to mind:
Although he gave up a leadoff walk, Alvarado then proceeded to strike out Victor Robles, Vladimir Guerrero Jr and Allen all swinging to end the game and pick up his 16th save. And also nabbing #16 was Sachais, whose win total now leads all of MLB. Meanwhile the Rays are now an astounding 51-9 at Publix Park.
Game 2: For the second straight day the Rays had a truly outstanding outing from a starter but today there was no suspense as to whether he'd get the win as Jon Hayes and the Rays blasted the Yankees 9-0. New York didn't get a runner past second base as Hayes went 7 5 0 0 0 9 to go to 15-4, 3.09 and bring his season WAR total to 4.9. Corbin Martin went two scoreless innings despite allowing 3 hits to finish the team shutout. The primary offensive backer of Hayes' effort was Connor Kirkley, who blasted a pair of 2-run homers to give him 17 for the season with the first capping a 3-run 2nd which saw Bobby Witt Jr triple in a run, and the second coming in the 6th to make it 8-0. Also homering were the team's two top power hitters with Nate Clark hitting #40 and Jasson Dominguez #34 in the 3rd inning. Dominguez added an RBI fielder's choice and Gabriel Moreno doubled in the final run in the 8th.
Game 3: Jack Leiter was brilliant as the Rays got by the Yankees 3-1 today to sweep the series. He went 7.2 3 1 1 2 12 on a season-high 111 pitches. Unfortunately the 111th pitch resulted in a Victor Robles homer, but Jordan Diaz whiffed Vlad Jr to end the 8th. Leiter is now 12-7, 3.46 as the Rays rotation continues its great run. The bullpen made things interesting in the 9th when Diaz allowed a one-out hit and with a lefty up and Jose Alvarado tired, Brad Ballmann was put into his first save situation as a Ray. He immediately allowed a double to the lefty to put men on 2nd and 3rd, walked the next batter to load the bases, but got a strikeout and ground out to escape the jam and get his first Rays save and his 10th of the year overall. Ballmann becomes the 10th Rays pitcher to record a save this season. The offense all came in the 3rd inning when it looked like they might be on their way to another rout but it turned out to be all they'd get. Connor Kirkley had an RBI single, Ricky Widmar doubled him home, and Jasson Dominguez singled in Widmar. I'll take this moment to point out that while Carlos Perez has been raking for the Rangers, Adley Rutschman was 0-2 today and is only hitting 255/368/309 as a Ray, still looking for his first homer and only with 3 doubles in 55 at-bats. Seems like over the years whenever we've picked up a big "name" player they've disappointed with the exception of Gavin Lux's 2028, but of course there's still plenty of time left for Rutschman to get hot and what really matters is what he does in the postseason since we were going there with or without him.
Team record: 93-31. Next up: An off-day at home then the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers come to town for 3 games.