August 26: at NY Mets 4-2 W. WP-Rasmussen (9-5, 5.1 4 1 1 2 5). S-Fairbanks (29). HR-Yandy Diaz (11). Another solid outing from Ras and Caminero's 2-run single in the 6th broke a 1-1 tie.
August 27: at NY Mets 1-7 L. LP-Springs (9-5, 5 9 4 4 2 5). Springs was hit hard and the offense was a no-show.
August 28: at NY Mets 5-2 W. WP-Pepiot (2-1, 6 5 2 2 1 6). S-Fairbanks (30). Pepiot has been outstanding since rejoining the rotation, going exactly 6 innings in his four starts and allowing 2 or fewer runs in each of them while walking 2 and fanning 27. Campusano had a pair of RBI singles to lead the offense.
August 29: Off-Day.
August 30: vs Milwaukee 6-2 W. WP-Bradley (13-5, 5 6 2 2 2 2). HR-Caminero (20), J.Lowe (14). Kjerstad's 2-run double and J.Lowe's 2-run homer in the 4th broke a 2-2 deadlock and the Rays went on to win thanks to fine pitching.including a 3 1 0 0 0 5 outing from Baz.
August 31: vs Milwaukee 5-6 L (10). LP-Fairbanks (5-8). Starter-McClanahan (7 8 4 4 1 4). HR-Caminero (21), Siri (5), T.Hernandez (26). Teoscar's dramatic 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th completed a comeback from 5-1 down but Milwaukee got the ghost runner home while three straight Rays batters struck out in the bottom of the 10th and they suffered the loss.
Transaction: September roster expansion time and on the hitting side we brought up
Jonny DeLuca, who was up most of the last season but had spent all of this year at Durham. DeLuca didn't go down there and pout though, hitting 289/378/616 with 38 homers and earned his way back up. I had considered
Xavier Isaac but with 1B and DH spoken for I wasn't about to stick him in LF where he's terrible. DeLuca will get some PT as Kjerstad has really struggled at 222/308/343. On the pitching side reliever
Luis Contreras got the call after having been up earlier this year.
September 1: vs Milwaukee 10-1 W. WP-Rasmussen (10-5, 5.2 4 1 1 2 8). Ras outdueled Milwaukee ace Brandon Woodruff and the bats went to town with 11 hits and 7 walks. C.Williams was 3-3 with a double, triple and RBI and DeLuca in his 2025 debut delivered a big 2-run double to break the game open and scored 3 times after stealing a pair of bases.
Team record: 81-56. Despite a 4-2 week we made minimal progress with respect to Baltimore (gaining a game but still 5 back) and actually lost ground in our bid for the #1 wild card as Boston has gone insane and won 9 straight games to pull within 2 1/2 of us. Next week: Road trip time with 3 in Oakland, a day off, and then 3 in St. Louis.
Players of the Week:
AL: Rafael Devers (BOS), 11-26, 5 HR, 15 RBI (one of the reasons why Boston is so hot)
NL: Cody Bellinger (CHI), 8-18, 2 HR, 8 RBI
Players of the Month (August):
AL Batter: Nolan Schanuel (LA), .354-8-30
NL Batter: Mookie Betts (LA), .310-6-18
AL Pitcher: Bryan Woo (SEA), 5-0, 1.51, 45K in 41.2IP
NL Pitcher: Brady Feigl (CIN), 0.66, 13 SV
AL Rookie: Brooks Lee (MIN), .387-5-19
NL Rookie: Chris Williams (CIN), .319-8-18
A look at where things stand as we enter the final month:
