[Art Deco]

June 28: Sent C Luis Corpus to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

Corpus only missed three weeks, so he'll just need a couple of games of rehab before coming back this weekend.

Game 1: The Rays paid their first visit to PNC Park in many years and came away with a 5-2 win as injuries continue to bedevil them. Leo Ortega started and had to leave in the 4th inning with abdominal soreness. Fortunately it won't cause him to miss his next start but it pressed the bullpen into action early. Kevin Kerstetter came in and was extremely wild, walking 4 men in 1 2/3 innings (and whiffing 3) but only allowing one run, enough to claim his first Rays win. Tim Siqueiros pitched the 6th and 7th, and Mike Wherry started the 8th but put two men on with one out to bring the tying run to the plate, so Kikuo Kawase came on and got his 2 strikeouts and then pitched the 9th to net save #11. Not too many fireworks from the offense, but they did get 5 runs thanks in large part to Jaiden Hardaway who was on base all 5 times up with 3 hits and 2 walks, contributing a steal and an RBI. Alex Buitrago's sac fly and Dane Ayers' RBI single put them ahead to stay in the 4th, Will Quintana had an RBI double and Rodolfo Rivas an RBI single. Victor de Jesus had to leave the game in the 4th with knee soreness; it's a 10-day injury but minimal so we'll probably keep him active and limit his playing time.

Game 2: The Rays got some very late thunder and had to survive some tense situations to take a come-from-behind 5-3 win over Pittsburgh in 10 innings. It was a 1-1 game into the 8th inning as Nate Schultz pitched very well after a few early hiccups (7 5 1 1 2 5) while the offense was frustrated with a couple of runners thrown out at the plate and managed only a Bo Angeac RBI double in the 6th. Jim Connors came in for the 8th and it looked like he cost the Rays the game, giving up a single, RBI double and RBI single to put them in a 3-1 hole without retiring anyone. Mike Wherry came in and got out of the inning and going into the top of the 9th down 3-1 Dane Ayers reached on an error and Jaiden Hardaway continued his MVP-caliber season by hitting a 2-run homer (#20) to left to tie the game. Jordan Diaz got the call for the 9th and immediately did Jordan Diaz things, giving up a walk and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out. But he got a shallow fly ball with the outfield in and then a strikeout to Houdini his way out of it, and in the top of the 10th Rodolfo Rivas (#19) and Mike Harms (#8) went deep back-to-back, with Diaz pitching around another walk in the bottom of the 10th to claim his 3rd victory of the season.

Game 3: It was deja vu all over again at PNC Park as The Toughest Man to Retire in Baseball™, Jaiden Hardaway, came through with another 9th-inning 2-run homer this time giving the Rays a 4-2 win over the Pirates. With two out and nobody on, Pittsburgh closer Chris Reel walked Mike McKee which brought up Hardaway, who already had been on base twice on a walk and a HBP, and he took Reel deep to straightaway CF for his 21st HR of the year. His now-absurd numbers for the season: 373/475/662 with 21 HR, 59 RBI, 19 SB and 5.8 WAR in half a season. If he duplicated his first half, his 11.6 WAR would be the 15th-best season all-time for this metric. The only better WAR season during this save was Cody Bellinger's 2023 which earned him 12.2 WAR, 5th-highest of all-time. And Hardaway is at best an average defender so this is pretty much all coming from his bat. But back to the game. Jon Soranno started for the Rays and it was a struggle for him, walking 5 men in 4+ innings but limiting the damage to one run when he left with Danny Medina giving up a single to score another of his runners. He went 4 6 2 2 5 5 on 101 pitches. Medina turned in three scoreless innings and Tim Siqueiros one to get us to the 9th, and after Hardaway's homer Kikuo Kawase came on for the save. It was a bit of a relative struggle for him as well as he walked a pair but got two whiffs and a grounder to end the game and notch save #12 while Siqueiros tallied his 5th win. The two earlier runs for the Rays came on a Victor de Jesus 2-run shot in the 5th, #26.

Team record: 64-17. Next up: We're officially halfway through the season, so we'll have a midseason report card (spoiler: Jaiden Hardaway gets an A+++) then we head to Baltimore for 3 over the weekend after they beat us twice at Publix Park last weekend.