Transactions: Recalled 1B Robby Castillo and P Charlie Ruegger in September roster expansion. Castillo of course is one of the top hitting prospects in the organization and I'll try to work him into the lineup as much as I can. Ruegger's been a good soldier for the organization and pitched decently at Durham (2.70 ERA, 13 saves) after spending most of the last two years (and the early part of this year) with the big club.
Game 1: 7-8 L. LP-Bradley (6-3, 3.2 8 5 3 2 4). HR-Cartaya (22). Taj was terrible and the Rays were down 8-2 in this one before nearly coming all the way back. Cartaya came off the bench for a 3-run pinch-homer in the 9th to make it 8-7, and DeLoach got to second with two out but couldn't be brought home. Robby Castillo made his Rays debut and was impressive, going 2-4 with an RBI single and an RBI double in the 9th which preceded Cartaya's homer.
Game 2: 15-3 W. WP-Orze (8-7, 6 0 1 1 3 7). Orze was excellent but had to leave after 83 pitches despite the no-hitter given his poor stamina. As for the offense, I'm just going to paste the Rays batting part of the box score:
The five runs scored by DeLoach tie a team single-game record.
Game 3: 7-2 W. WP-Swanda (16-8, 6 8 2 2 0 9). HR-DeLoach (24). Swanda dominated and the Rays scored 5 in the first inning with the help a couple of Houston errors.
Team record: 88-49. Unfortunately the Jays kept winning, sweeping Seattle and dropping us a game back thanks to our opening game loss. One of the Jays wins was a 3-1 decision with all the runs coming on a trio of Vlad Jr. solo homers. Next up: Kansas City visits for 3 games. The Royals are a dismal 58-80.