We made a trade!
Jon McGovern was worse defensively in CF than I thought when I pulled up the midseason numbers so I wanted to get someone up who could at least play average defensively at the position. Chris Kidd, who was up with us all of last year, fit that bill but someone needed to make room for him and turned out to be Yamaguchi, who was unbelievable in a reserve role last year but the regression pendulum swung way far in the other direction this year at 157/228/196. Yamaguchi also had no defensive value, limited to DH. So despite the lukewarm attitude of my AGM, you didn't have to ask me twice to take Avalos, who was offered when I shopped Yamaguchi and profiles as such:
That's a special bat, and he can least play the OF competently. For now he goes to Durham although he was up with Seattle and was underwhelming a bit playing every day at 264/327/413 with 4 HR. He's a lefty hitter and I see him as a replacement for pending free agent Alex Duran.
Game 1: The Rays got strong pitching and defense for a change and took a tidy 3-1 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park in the opener. Alec McInerney (2-0) continued to impress at 5.1 5 1 1 1 4 and Steve Talbott handled the 9th for save #26. Luis Barela's solo homer (#27) got them on the board and Juan Davila's RBI double broke a 1-1 tie in the 3rd.
Game 2: Chad Winger had a season-high 9 whiffs, leading the Rays to a 5-1 win over Boston. The lefty improved to 8-4 after going 5 5 1 1 3 9 on 98 pitches and got support from Jon McGovern (2-4, led off the game with HR #4) and Juan Davila (a 2-run double). The pen was spotless once again as well.
Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Boston in the same manner they won the first two games: excellent pitching and adequate hitting, prevailing 5-2. Today's solid starter was Steve Morris (9-3), who was 6 5 2 2 0 2 and Steve Talbott breezed through the 9th on nine pitches for save #27. Alex Duran homered (#15) with the bases empty and Chris Kidd had the game-winning hit when his RBI single in the 7th broke a 2-2 tie.
Team record: 62-23. The sweep enabled them to gain a game on the Yankees and up the division lead to 4 1/2. Next up: 3 games in Toronto as we'll spend our nation's birthday on foreign soil.