Before we recap the Baltimore series we made a trade of significance just before the deadline:
We've given him four months but Josh Lowe has showed no signs of snapping out of his season-long funk nor regaining the form of his 3.6 WAR 2023 season, so it was time to make a change in center. So out is Lowe's 197/274/327 bat with a -4.3 ZR (by contrast he was -2.0 ZR in the a full season last year), and in is the 38-year-old vet Lorenzo Cain, who had signed a 1-year deal with the Marlins. Cain was a solid 280/350/363 with Miami, good for 2.1 WAR with a 3.3 ZR in center. The cost was Zevallos, who has emerged as a player of interest when I've looked at some trades during the season but is still probably a C+ prospect with a 5th-starter ceiling. Lowe was sent to Durham to make room as I prefer Zach DeLoach's bat off the bench. We were probably still going to win the division with Lowe in CF but I like our postseason chances better with Cain.
Game 1: 5-0 W. WP-Rasmussen (7-3, 5.1 7 0 0 1 6). HR-Mead (12), Franco (14). Mead's 3-run homer in the 1st was all the offense Rasmussen and 3 relievers needed.
Game 2: 3-1 W. WP-Baz (5-4, 6 2 1 1 1 8). S-Pressly (5/14). HR-Soto (24). Another 1st inning homer, Soto's 2-run shot, was all Baz needed in a brilliant outing. Lorenzo Cain was 2-3 with 2 steals and scored the insurance run in his Rays debut.
Game 3: 4-7 L. LP-Swanda (11-5, 5.1 3 5 5 3 7). HR-Bregman (22). Rays got another 1st-inning homer to take the early lead but Swanda's run of good starts came to an end and the pen did not help out either, allowing 2 of Swanda's men to score and 2 of their own.
Team record: 71-38, still 5 1/2 up on the Yankees who also took 2 of 3 from Boston. Next up: Those same Yankees visit for 3 games. A Rays sweep effectively ends the division battle while a Yankees sweep makes it a real race.
Rays news: A couple of farmhands won monthly awards. Remember this guy?
Ramos, who carried the Rays during the first couple months of last season before slumping so badly he was demoted by July and never heard from again, is having a decent season at Durham and had a great month. He's still in consideration for a return next season especially if Joshua Mears, who will get first crack at replacing upcoming free agent Juan Soto, struggles in the majors. We also had this:
The likes of Taj Bradley and JJ Goss are ahead of him in the pecking order of Rays pitching prospects, but Munoz is moving up the charts. He has 50/45/45 ratings so he's a 5th starter at best, but a few more months like this one and you never know.
MLB News: There were two no-hitters thrown over these last three days, and one was truly bizarre as the Nationals threw a team no-hitter led by Nathan Florence, traded by us to Washington in the Juan Soto deal, which saw them allow 3 runs which is a major league record for an official 9-inning no-hitter.
I posted the box and wrote about it in the main forum.
A much more conventional - and much more impressive - no-hitter was thrown by Milwaukee's Freddy Peralta, who walked none and struck out 14 against Pittsburgh, missing a perfect game only because he hit a batter. This outing gave him a rare 100+ Game Score of 101, and he threw 114 pitches in the contest.