September 26-28, 2024: at San Antonio (3)
The string has been played out as the Rays closed the regular season by taking 2 of 3 in San Antonio, although the one loss was by far their worst of the season. Most importantly, nobody was injured.
Dustin May finished out his regular season in grand fashion, holding the Alamos to 2 hits over 7 innings in a 7-1 win. The righty concluded his first year with the Rays by going 7 2 1 1 2 10 to finish the year 17-10, 4.34 with an impressive 35/206 BB/K ratio in 193 IP. Carter Kieboom broke a 1-1 tie in the 4th with his 20th homer of the year and they didn't look back. Wander Franco chipped in a double and 2 RBI.
The Rays came from behind to take a 5-3 win in the second game when Vidal Brujan delivered a 2-run pinch-single in the 9th inning to break a 3-3 deadlock. Alex Bregman tied the game in the 7th with a 2-run homer, #4 as a Ray and #12 on the year, and the winning pitcher was Aaron Fletcher with his 5th while Devin Williams finished the game (and his season) with save #27.
The season finale saw the Rays turn in their most nightmarish inning (and game) of the year as they were clocked by the Alamos 19-4. San Antonio scored 11(!) times in the 1st inning off Tarik Skubal and Matt Peacock in an inning that saw Skubal throw 45 pitches and retire only two batters and which featured 3 Rays errors, one of which was catcher's interference on a third strike which would have ended it earlier. As a result only 4 of the 10 runs charged to Skubal were earned but he still saw his ERA rise to 4.27 and record fall to 13-7 to end the season. Joey Bart did slightly atone for his catcher's interference by hitting HR #16 and Carter Kieboom had 3 hits and an RBI.
Final regular season record: 111-51. Next up: Several days off followed by Game 1 of the ALDS at the Trop.
Final playoff race update: The wild and wacky race for the second wild card came down to the 12th inning in Baltimore when the Orioles pulled out a 3-2 win over the Yankees and secured the berth so they will travel to Fenway to take on the Red Sox for the right to face the Rays. The White Sox had a chance to clinch at least a tie but they fell to Oakland, and after Houston came away with a win we had a shot at a 3-way tie if Baltimore had lost, but they didn't. Over in the NL things got interesting when Atlanta won the first two of their series while the Phillies lost theirs and they were separated by a game going into the final day. But Atlanta lost and the Phillies won, so Philadelphia will now travel to San Diego in the NL Wild Card Game.
Last edited by Art Deco; 11-13-2021 at 09:28 PM.
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