The Rays won a trio of tight, low-scoring games from Baltimore thanks largely to fine pitching but suffered a couple of significant injuries to key players in the process.
Solo homers from
Jake Westfall (#8/15) in the 7th and
Orlando Tosado (#30) in the 8th brought them a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Orioles in the opener but the big news was the loss of star 2B
Arturo Gutierrez for the rest of the regular season. Gutierrez collided with a Baltimore runner at 2nd base and was down for a while before being helped off with what was diagnosed as a herniated disc. The injury will put him out until approximately October 10, so he may be ready for the ALDS but he might not. He ends another great season in the making with a 284/327/549 slash line, 27 HRs, 67 RBI and 3.6 WAR. As for the game
Ethan McElvain made his 2nd Rays start and pitched well outside of a 3-run 5th when perhaps the Gutierrez injury shook him up; he finished 6 5 3 3 1 5.
Tommy Burpee (4-1) got the win in relief and
Josh Scanlon finished up for save #26.
Nate Strickland earlier also joined the 30-homer club.
We wasted no time finding a Gutierrez replacement at 2B, picking up a veteran replacement:
The Reds were looking to dump Abrams, a free agent at year's end, and it cost us very little in salary or talent as Anillo is a 31-year-old minor leaguer. What we get is a competent fielder at the position who can hit for average and steal bases and gives us a credible option should Gutierrez not be ready for the playoffs. He was hitting 270/303/398 with 31 steals and 1.7 WAR for the Reds, in line with his career numbers. AA pitcher Jake Snyder was DFA'd to make room on the 40-man for Abrams.
It was bad news on the injury front once again despite good news on the field as
Chris Ferguson was excellent in a 3-1 win over Baltimore but left in the 7th with his own herniated disc but this one wasn't as bad as Gutierrez's as he should only miss a month. Ferguson did improve to 12-2, 2.53 after going 6.2 4 1 0 0 5 but the injury deals a serious blow to his dark horse Cy Young candidacy.
Josh Scanlon saved again, his 27th. Rookie
Danny Arroyave had the game's big hit, a 2-run homer (#7) in the 2nd and
CJ Abrams was 1-4 with a caught stealing in his Rays debut.
Transaction: Ferguson goes on the 15-day IL and
Danny Morales was summoned again from Durham to take his place in the rotation.
We made it through the finale without suffering any injuries and completed the sweep with a 4-2 win.
Danny Morales got the start and looked quite good, going 6 4 2 2 2 3 to improve to 3-2 with the big club. With Scanlon having pitched the previous two nights,
Mike Moore got the call in the 9th and retired Baltimore in order for save #6. It was the
Jake Westfall revenge game on offense as the former Oriole homered twice to drive in all 4 runs, a 3-run shot in the 2nd and a solo blast in the 7th, giving him 17 homers in total on the year. He's been on a tear since joining the Rays with 10 of those homers in only 101 AB and a 347/370/703 slash line.
Team record: 74-28. Next up: An off-day then 3 games in Toronto.