August 28: at NY Mets 3-2 W. WP-H.Smith (7-9, 6 3 1 1 1 5). S-Bautista (25). HR-Morel (21). Smith bounced back from a couple of bad outings with a gem and Morel's 2-run homer in the 7th proved to be the winning margin.
August 29: at NY Mets 0-5 L. LP-Guan (4-1, 6 5 3 3 1 5). The offense was dominated by Mike Vasil (8.1 3 0 0 1 11) and Guan suffered his first defeat as a Ray although he provided a quality start.
August 30: at NY Mets 9-0 W. WP-McGee (3-0, 6 5 0 0 2 5). HR-O.Cruz (10/20), Cermak (23), Caminero (29). A romp at CitiField with the rookie McGee lowering his ERA to 2.63 and Cruz going 3-4 with the homer and 4 RBI to lead the attack.
August 31: Off-Day.
Transactions: Time for September roster expansion and we're bringing up a couple of new faces.
Spencer Schwellenbach gets the nod as the extra pitcher; he's been a solid innings-eater at Durham and will give us some long relief outings. On the hitting side catcher
Dominic Keegan finally gets the call after toiling in our farm system since 2022; he's a bat-first catcher who will get some DH starts against lefties and pinch-hitting opportunities. He hit a robust 293/404/500 with 22 homers for the Bulls.
September 1: vs Milwaukee 2-4 L. LP-Bradley (14-6, 6.1 7 4 4 2 6). HR-Westburg (14). Westburg's 2-run shot in the first put Tampa Bay ahead but they were shut down after that by (brief) former Ray Kodai Senga as the Brewers chipped away off Taj.
September 2: vs Milwaukee 6-3 W. WP-Baumeister (2-1). S-Bautista (26). Starter-Pepiot (4.1 3 1 0 3 6). Going into the bottom of the 6th 37-year-old Gerrit Cole had turned back the clock, shutting down Tampa Bay with a 2-1 lead. But the Rays and Father Time came for him in that inning, as they put 4 up on the board with Cermak's 2-run double (as part of a 3-4 day) the big knock while Campusano was 2-4 with 2 RBI himself.
September 3: vs Milwaukee 2-0 W. WP-H.Smith (2-0, 6 2 0 0 0 4). S-Bautista (27). HR-Morel (22). Has Smith turned the corner? He no-hit Milwaukee for 6 innings in his second excellent start of the week before giving up a single and double to start the inning with Maldonado miraculously escaping that jam. And Gasser followed in the 8th, getting out of a mess he created by loading the bases with one out. The game was 1-0 at that point on Morel's 5th-inning solo shot and they added insurance in the 8th to take the series. Keegan made his MLB debut as the DH and was 2-3 with a walk.
Team record: 84-53, still 2 1/2 up on Boston, which actually crept to within 1/2 game after the loss on the 1st. Next week: A cross-country road trip for 3 in Oakland then back halfway after an off-day for 3 more in St. Louis where the currently 88-49 Cardinals await.
Players of the Week:
AL: Jonny DeLuca (CLE), 11-23, 2 HR, 8 RBI. Did we make a mistake trading him the winter before last for Sam Hentges? Quite possibly:
Had no idea he'd start doing
that.
NL: Xander Bogaerts (SD), 7-12, 3 HR, 6 RBI
Players of the Month (August):
AL Batter: Royce Lewis (MIN), .368-7-15
NL Batter: Brady House (WAS), .356-12-29
AL Pitcher: Tobias Myers (LA), 4-0, 1.57, 20 K in 23 IP
NL Pitcher: David Peterson (STL), 5-0, 1.36, 31 K in 33 IP
AL Rookie: Kisuke Sugiyama (HOU), .226-10-21
NL Rookie: Jansel Luis (ARI), .240-4-15
MLB News: The Yankees lost start OF Jasson Dominguez for the rest of the season with a torn meniscus.