September 20: Placed 3B Josh Beckett on the 10-day IL, recalled IF Jon Callahan from AAA Durham.
Callahan is a good hitter and a decent 3B, so he'll take Beckett's role in the lineup and platoon with Eric Phillips at the hot corner.
Game 1: Jose Mendoza continued to sparkle and the Rays took a tight 3-2 win over Boston. The lefty improved to 18-4, 3.02 in his first full year in the rotation after going 6.2 5 2 2 3 8. Chris Williams ended up with a 5-out save (#8) as Boston had a bunch of lefties due in the 9th. The offense came via a pair of homers with Jon Callahan celebrating his return to the bigs with a solo shot in the 5th and then Pat Moyer following up with a 2-run shot in the 6th, his 20th.
Game 2: Danny Romero was hit for 6 runs in the 1st and the Rays trailed 7-3 going into the bottom of the 9th, but a miracle 5-run rally enabled them to walk off an 8-7 win over the Red Sox. Dan Gregory's 2-run double pulled them within 7-5 and Seth Williams' 2-RBI double tied it up with nobody out. And after Jose Mendez and Andy Ruggles struck out with bases loaded, Mike McKee capped a 4-hit day with a game-winning RBI single. McKee earlier hit HR #11 in the 7th immediately after Doug Johns had an inside-the-parker (#10), his 6th in 5 games. Romero survived long enough to go 4 9 6 6 1 4 and after Vinny Willard turned in 4 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball Doug Combs notched his second victory with a scoreless 9th.
Game 3: If you thought yesterday's game was a slugfest, you should have seen today's as the Rays beat the Red Sox 15-9. Brad Jackson had another rough start (4.1 10 7 4 1 5) as he's lately not been in the form you'd like to see him take into the playoffs and he turned an early 7-0 Rays lead into a 7-6 game. Jon Harbour came on in relief and got the win, amazingly his first decision of the season despite pitching 72 1/3 innings over 31 appearances. Andy Ruggles had a massive day, going 4-5 with a double, 2 homers (#35 & #36) and 4 RBI as he took the team lead in the latter category from Josh Alexander, who had it all year, with 121. Jimmy Leonard drove in 4 including a bases-clearing double in the second while Jeff Baez drove in 3, including a pair with HR #12. Baez has been a hitting machine in the second half and is now 282/371/447 for the season to go with Gold Glove-caliber defense. We'll miss him at season's end but he's gonna cost way too much and for too long despite a "wrecked" designation. Tony Cordova added his 2nd homer of the year as well.
Game 4: After two games which saw 39 runs score in total, things calmed down considerably as the Rays swept the wrap-around series with a 2-1 win in Monday's finale, the team's 7th straight victory as they continue to shake off their second-half mediocrity. Jordan Perez was outstanding at 5 3 1 1 2 6 to improve to 6-3, 3.53, while the bullpen did its thing with 2 scoreless from Dan Anderson and Kikuo Kawase notching save #31. Both the Rays' runs came in the 4th when Jose Mendez tied things up with an RBI double and Mike McKee singled him home.
Team record: 109-47. Next up: The Yankees visit for 2 games in what could be an ALDS preview.
Some league news:
I also neglected to report this from the week before:
