Game 1: The Rays did something tonight for the first time in their history, and something that had only been done 19 times in MLB history prior to this save (I can't rule out it happening in another game over our now 12 seasons):
Yes, they scored in every inning of the game. Of course as the winning home team they only batted in 8 innings but most of the 19 in MLB history were 8-inning accomplishments, only twice has it been done in 9 innings and both of those were in the NL. The Rays belted four homers, including a 2-run shot from Eloy Jimenez in the first, his 5th in 9 games as a Ray and 48th overall, a solo shot from Dane Ayers (#12) in the 2nd, a Joe Barker solo shot (#22) in the 3rd, and a 2-run blast from Nate Clark (#30) as he broke out of his mini-slump. Clark, Ayers and Dayle Jenkins each had 3 hits, with the latter driving in a pair and Jasson Dominguez drove in 3 runs with 2 hits. The beneficiary of this offensive orgy was a guy who usually doesn't need more than a few runs, Jon Hayes. That's 14 straight starts won by Hayes, 16 straight decisions as he now goes to 18-2 after a 7 3 0 0 1 7 performance which saw his ERA plummet below 3 to 2.89. There's no hotter pitcher in baseball, except maybe teammate Andy Aparicio. Mike Mooney and Nate Thompson each had a scoreless inning to combine for the team shutout.
Game 2: Eloy, Eloy, Eloy. After all those flop big-name acquisitions perhaps the OOTP gods are smiling upon us in that department for a change. (Yes I know with 6 World Series wins we don't really need any gods smiling upon us, but it's all relative.) Tonight Jimenez smacked 2 more homers (one of which the CF didn't even move a muscle on) to lead the Rays to a 7-4 win over Atlanta. His 2-run shot in the 1st put the Rays up 3-1 and his 2-run shot in the 5th broke it open (at the time) to make it 6-1. The pair of dingers bring his total on the season to 50, including now a whopping 7 in 10 games and 45 at-bats since joining the Rays. He's on pace right now for a 70-HR season (across 3 teams) so look out Bonds and McGwire. Also homering for team's final run tonight was Victor de Jesus (#21), who gave Joe Barker a night off. Nate Clark drove in the other two runs with a triple and a fielder's choice. Danny Ceja started and was pretty good through 5 innings, allowing only 1 run, but he suffered a barrage of hits in the 6th leading to 3 runs and cutting the lead to 6-4. Having only thrown 77 pitches he came back out for the 7th but gave up a leadoff single and was pulled for Evan Godwin, who went the next 1 2/3 scoreless but left with a man on for Tim Siqueiros to get the final out of the 8th. Jordan Diaz then had 1-2-3 9th for save #16. Ceja did improve to 3-2 despite a mediocre 6 7 4 4 2 4 line as the jury remains out on his status as the 5th starter.
Team record: 91-23. Next up: An off-day then we start a lengthy road trip in Arlington with 3 against Texas.