After looking they'd hardly ever lose, the Rays played a couple of games where it looked like they'd never win again before snapping back in the finale to keep from being swept. The hitherto unbeaten Yankees also dropped two of three so the Rays remain 1/2 back of New York in the early going.
Jackson Baumeister was as bad as feared when we saw his ratings downgraded after last season's injury and the Rays fell to Toronto 7-2 in the opener at Rogers Centre. The righty was 3 6 6 6 2 1 with a pair of homers allowed, falling to 1-2, and after a 2-run
Andrew Greckel homer (#3) in the first the bats went cold.
It was more of the same in the second game as the Rays were held to only 2 hits and
Michael Prosecky got roughed up in a 5-1 loss.
JT Realmuto's 2nd-inning homer (#4) was the alpha and omega of today's offense and Prosecky (2-1), after two brilliant starts to open the season, ran into a buzzsaw today going 4.2 9 5 5 1 4.
The Rays turned the tables on Toronto in the finale, blasting them 9-2 behind a two-man offense comprised of
Kelly Crumpton and
Dong-hwan Kim. Crumpton drove in 4 with a 2-run homer (#5), double and sac fly, and Kim, who was off to a gruesome start at 132/175/158 coming into today, was 3-4 with a 3-run homer (#1) and RBI single.
Robinson Ortiz struggled today and was unable to make it through the 5th to qualify for a win (4.1 8 2 2 3 2), so it went instead to
Kendall Williams (1-0), who retired all 5 men he faced with 3 via the whiff, and
Gavin Bruni pitched three one-hit innings for his first MLB save.
Team record: 11-3. Next up: We head out west for 3 in Anaheim against the Angels.
With some concerns about the starting pitching we swung a deal to finally bring some new blood to this team:
We gave up one our top pitching prospects in 2026 first-round pick Detmers, brother of Reid, but acquired a potential ace in Marlette:
80 stuff with 70 movement as a starter is
James Hays territory, and it's possible I took advantage of a scouting difference between my scout (those numbers above) and OSA's, which had him with 65 stuff as a starter (interestingly right after the trade OSA updated their scouting on him and gave him 80 stuff as well). But while these ratings are drool-worthy, Marlette's performance to date is still unproven. He's coming off an 8.1 2 0 0 3 11 gem against the Dodgers, but that's only his 3rd major league start and in the previous two he walked 7 in one and gave up 7 runs (6 earned) in 2 innings in the other. Before that he had a 5.14 ERA in 21 innings, all in relief, last season after a late-year callup by Memphis. And he was used almost exclusively in relief in the minors although he has 55 stamina. Nevertheless I'm hoping I'm buying at the right time just as I did with Hays three years ago.
As far as where Marlette slots in, I'm think of moving Baumeister to relief where his 60 stuff becomes 70 stuff and finding a home for
Elvis Garcia, who's out of options and whom I only trust in blowouts right now.