A great series for the Rays as they swept the Mets in New York while the Yankees dropped 2 of 3 in Miami so the division lead has grown to a season-best 2 1/2 games. The good news was offset though by some bad injury news, which we'll get to shortly.
Dong-hwan Kim and
Nate Strickland were a two-man wrecking crew as the Rays routed the Mets 11-4 in the opener. Kim had an RBI single in the 3rd and then hit a pair of 2-run homers, including one off former Ray Jackson Baumeister, to cap a 5-RBI day and give him 14 longballs on the year. Not to be outdone the rookie Strickland blasted a pair of 3-run shots including one to kick off proceedings in the 1st and now has 9 homers after his 6-RBI day.
Kevin DiCostanzo (7-2) didn't need all this support after going 7 6 2 2 1 6 but was undoubtedly happy for it.
The Rays scored 5 times in the 2nd and then held on to take a 6-5 win in the second game at Citi Field.
Arturo Gutierrez had a 2-run single and
Kelly Crumpton a solo homer (#25) to highlight the inning but
Wes Mendes (7-2) let the Mets get within 5-4 and finished 5 2 4 4 2 4.
Jonathan Gutierrez came through with a pinch-hit infield RBI single in the 6th to make it 6-4 and that run proved decisive when the Mets got one back in the 7th.
Tommy Burpee pitched the 9th for his 3rd save.
Joe Marlette did his usual thing and the Rays completed the sweep of the Mets with a 5-2 win in the finale. Marlette (10-2), who leads the AL in pitcher WAR at 2.7, was a fine 6 3 2 2 4 7 and three relievers contributed a scoreless inning apiece with
Mike Moore the last of them in picking up save #2. Four of the five Rays runs came via the home run as
Arturo Gutierrez got them on the board with (#16) off another former Ray (the Mets are chock full of them) Levi Stoudt and
Dong-hwan Kim followed two batters later with a 2-run shot (#15) to make it 3-0.
Cristian Hernandez added #12 with the bases empty in the 4th.
Team record: 47-23. Next up: We return home after the 9-game road trip to host Houston for 3 games.
As promised however, we did receive some very bad injury news:
Originally we had hoped to have him back in a couple or three weeks but instead he's done for 2032 which is a crippling blow to the bullpen considering how much he stabilized it this year after last season's nightmare. For now
Mike Moore (righty) and
Tommy Burpee (lefty) will handle the 9th depending on the opposition and we'll be on the prowl for a high-quality late-inning arm.
Also getting bad news were the Texas Rangers, who lost their ace and former Rays farmhand Mike Mank for 11-12 months with a torn UCL. Mank of course was the headliner going Texas's way when we acquired James Hays from them. Speaking of Hays it seems we may have traded him at the right time as he's found the going rough with the Dodgers. He has his usual fine BB/K ratio at 19/139 but since going to LA he's become a homer-yielding sieve, already with 23 allowed in 112 IP to go with the 9 in 57 he allowed after the deal last season. This is roughly twice the rate he allowed the longball with us. As a result he sports a 4.87 ERA, in line with 4.81 he put up last year after going over.