Game 1: The Rays have played in numerous blowouts this year and typically have won them but today they got a taste of their own medicine as Texas rolled into Publix Park and handed them a 9-1 loss which was as ugly as the score indicated. Nate Thompson was hammered for four in the 1st inning including a 3-run Izaac Pacheco homer (the first of two for him today) then gave up three more to finish with a horrible 3.1 8 7 7 3 2 line which sees his ERA balloon back up to 3.36. Things weren't better on the other side of things either as the bats only managed 3 hits with Bo Angeac's 10th HR of the year in the 2nd the only thing standing between us and a shutout. Texas had been billed as the one team that could really challenge us, and they backed that up tonight.
Game 2: After being routed by the Rangers last night the Rays returned the favor by trouncing Texas 10-1, making some MLB history in the process. We'll get to that in a minute but our ace named Nate fared much better than our 4th starter named Nate as Schultz shut down the tough Texas lineup to the tune of 6 5 1 1 0 7 although it took 100 pitches to do so. Schultz is now 11-1, 3.12 and Danny Medina whiffed 5 over 3 scoreless innings for his 2nd save as he's back in the bullpen where he's thrived. The Rays took a 3-0 lead by the 2nd thanks in large part to a Bo Angeac single and a Dayle Jenkins sac fly, but then this happened in the 5th:
That's right: back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs, which had happened only 10 times in MLB history before this save started in 2020. It's never happened with the Rays, and although it's possible it's happened elsewhere over the last 15 1/2 seasons, it's a bit unlikely so either way it was a historic occurrence. And what's cut off from the top here is that Victor de Jesus homered two batters before the four consecutive, giving them five homers in six at-bats. For those involved it was #20 for de Jesus, #11 for Angeac, #28 for Jimenez, #16 for Rodriguez and #10 for Baez. Sadly Mike McKee could not be the MLB-record fifth-consecutive HR hitter.
Jimenez's HR tonight capped a great month for him:
Game 3: It was a remarkable game which saw Texas jump all over Josh Hanna and take a 6-0 lead in the top of the 5th, only for the Rays to get to Texas ace Victor Presas & former Ray Jon Whiteleather for 7 runs in the bottom of the 5th to go ahead, and then add 5 more in the 6th to end up 12-6 winners and take two of three from the Rangers. It was always going to be a tough assignment for the lefty Hanna to go against the righty-heavy Ranger lineup and they tuned him up to the tune of 4.1 9 6 6 2 3. Willie Bertone took over and staunched the bleeding and went 2 2/3 hitless to pick up his first Rays win while Edgar Rios shut down Texas over the final 2 innings. The comeback started with a 2-run Jaiden Hardaway triple, Omar Rodriguez singled him home and then June's AL Batter of the Month Jon Jimenez got a head start on repeating in July by smacking a 3-run homer to tie it and chase Presas, who had shut down the Rays and struck out 8 in the first 4 innings. Bo Angeac greeted Whiteleather with HR #12 to put the Rays ahead to stay, and in the 6th Jimenez went deep again with his 2nd 3-run homer of the game and 30th of the year while Hardaway got another RBI on a bases-loaded walk. Jimenez is now 357/419/767 with 30 HR and 78 RBI in only 258 AB. His 1.187 OPS leads MLB by over 100 points and he's 2nd in MLB to teammate Danny Ayala in HR and RBI (31/84), who got the day off today.
Team record: 65-19. Next up: Baltimore comes to town for 3 games.