[Art Deco]

Game 1: The big news was Adley Rustchman's return to Baltimore, where he had spent almost a decade in Oriole colors before being dealt a month ago to the Rays. He received a mix of cheers and boos when introduced to the crowd, and they turned to mostly boos when he finally hit his first homer in a Rays uniform in the 4th inning. It was his only hit of the day but the Rays didn't need more from him in an 8-6 win. After Christian Little had a rough first inning which saw him give up back-to-back homers and then walk the bases loaded before getting out of it, Connor Kirkley hit the first of his two homers with a man on to tie it and Dane Ayers went back-to-back with #7. And then a 3-run 4th courtesy of Rustchman's homer and Kirkley's 2nd two-run shot (#20) made it 6-2. Jasson Dominguez, who has taken over the AL WAR lead at 5.1, added a 2-run HR in the 8th (#36) which made it 8-3 but turned out to be the difference. Little recovered from his tough 1st inning to go 5 5 2 2 3 10 on 104 pitches, and nabbed win #12. It was hoped Andy Aparicio could go the final four innings, but he turned out to be unusually wild (3 walks after walking 8 all season) and could only get through 3 with 1 run allowed. With a 5-run lead, Mike Mooney came on but gave up a single, saw Dayle Jenkins drop a fly ball and then Druw Jones hit a 3-run HR to suddenly make it 8-6 and bring back memories of a game 4-5 years back when the Rays blew a similarly large lead in the 9th in this ballpark. But Jose Alvarado put an end to the nonsense with 3 straight outs to get save #17. The win was costly, though. Bobby Witt Jr, stretching a double into a triple in the 4th inning, tore a thigh muscle and is out for the season. This marks the 2nd time in 3 years Witt's missed the last month or two of the season and the playoffs but thankfully we have a more than capable replacement in Isaac DeLeon.

August 27: Placed 3B Bobby Witt Jr on the 10-day IL with a torn thigh muscle, recalled 1B/3B Mike Lammers from AAA Durham.

I could have put Witt on the 60-day IL, but we already have 3 40-man roster spots open due to dealing 2-for-1 in the Marc Wagner and Brad Ballmann deals and with Rodolfo Rivas already on the 60-day. With Witt out Lammers will play a little more than last time he was up.

Game 2: It was a great pitchers' duel between Alec Sachais and former Ray Steve Givens, traded to Baltimore in the Adley Rutschman deal. The two had the game scoreless until the bottom of the 6th when Ed Howard hit a 2-run homer off Sachais to give Baltimore the lead. The Rays answered back against Givens in the 7th on a Connor Kirkley RBI double, but it wasn't until the 8th after Givens left (going 7 4 1 1 3 5) that the Rays broke through. After Ricky Widmar doubled and Dayle Jenkins singled to start the 8th, Joe Barker blasted a 3-run homer (#27) to dead center to make it 4-2 Tampa Bay. Sachais made it through two outs in the 7th when he put two on to finish a still-excellent 6.2 5 2 2 0 11 and was relieved by Jordan Diaz. Diaz got the final out of the 7th and pitched through the 8th. JDLC came on for the save in the 9th and it was another spin on the Jasseelocoaster as he loaded the bases before finally getting Howard on a fly ball to deep center to end the game as the Rays hung on to the 4-2 victory. Diaz got win #2 as Sachais missed out on win #18 by one out and it was save #16 for JDLC. The Rays now have a nicely symmetric 99-33 record.

Game 3: Despite striking out 10 Jon Hayes had a rough game and the Rays fell 6-3 to Baltimore. After D'Andre Hodges singled in a run in the 2nd to give the Rays a brief 1-0 lead, Hayes was hit for an RBI double from former Ray Yusniel Diaz and then a 3-run HR from CJ Chatham in the bottom of the inning. He gave up another homer in the 4th and although he settled in from there the damage was done as Hayes finished 6.1 7 5 5 1 10. Corbin Martin got him out of a jam in the 7th but gave up a homer of his own to Diaz. The Rays added a couple of runs on solo HRs from Victor de Jesus (#4) and Joe Barker (#28) but couldn't get much else going. Dayle Jenkins was 0-5 and is in a mini 1-19 slump.

Game 4: The Rays blasted 6 homers today in an 8-1 triumph over Baltimore, their 100th win of the year in game #134. Ricky Widmar set the tone by homering to lead off the game, and he added another later to give him 13 as part of a 3-hit day which also saw him steal his 51st base of the season. I called out Dayle Jenkins yesterday for being in a bit of a slump and he responded by going 4-5 with a HR (#18) and 2 RBI as he doubled in the first and scored on Adley Rutschman's sac fly. Later in the 6th, Victor de Jesus (#5), Connor Kirkley (#21) and Widmar went back-to-back-back, and Nate Clark hit #42 in the 9th. All this offense backed Jack Leiter, who was pitching great (a 4-hitter) until the 7th when he allowed a run and 4 hits to finish 6.1 8 1 1 2 9 and notch win #14. Jordan Diaz got him out of his bases-loaded jam with a pair of strikeouts, Brad Ballmann struck out the side in the 8th, and Evan Godwin had a scoreless 9th to round things out. We'll see if calling out Rutschman gets him going - despite the homer in Game 1, he was 0-3 with that sac fly today and is only hitting .212 as a Ray.

Team record: 100-34. Next up: Back to Tampa for a lengthy homestand starting with 4 against the Red Sox which wraps around through Monday, Labor Day.