The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

November 15: Blockbuster time!



Farewell to Nate Clark, perhaps the franchise's greatest all-time power hitter. He hit 289 homers for us from 2027-2033, led the AL twice including this year, led the AL in RBI the last three seasons, hell I'll just post his numbers here:



Add to that an impressive 23 HR and 59 RBI in 283 postseason ABs, including being the MVP of both to 2028 and 2033 World Series. We may retire your #43 someday, Nate. But of course it was time for him to go, with him turning 32, having only one more year of team control, and projected to make about $22M more than his replacement who should put up about 90% of his numbers. And what did we get in return? Centeno actually was worth more WAR than Clark last year, 4.6 to 4.3, is only 25, and makes the minimum. And we really have no use for him as he's a 1B at a position where we're already looking to deal Rodolfo Rivas and have Joe Jimenez ready to rock, but he was the most attractive piece being offered. So he's going right on trade block which makes me wish OOTP allowed you to shop other team's players to see what you could flip them for. Now I'll find out.

UPDATE: Not really thrilled with what I'm being offered for Centeno, Rivas and Widmar. I just may keep everyone, which would mean another year at AAA for Jon Jimenez and Jeff Baez. With respect to Widmar, I'm thinking I'd rather have the comp pick in 2035 than what I'm being offered. Getting rid of Clark, Connors and Diaz has the projected payroll down to $128.8M.

Another deal with our favorite trading partners, the Cardinals:



I had decided to non-tender Ayers but I figured I'd see what I could get for him. As usual, the Cardinals seemed to make the best players available (that, and they were only one of two teams willing to offer any prospects for Ayers), so we got Azucena who isn't anything that special but is a versatile infield type that hit .300 at every stop, including AAA, in other words, Ayers-lite. Ayers was the ultimate supersub for a few years, but he's the wrong side of 30 now and his hit tool dropped to 45. This enhances the chances we keep Jeff Baez, or at least Melvin Gutierrez, on the roster, and it also takes $6M off the payroll.

November 20: I found a deal I liked for Rivas:



Bertone is a elite arm who slots in as a nasty reliever right now and projects as a very good starter down the line. I plan to use him in a multi-inning role, kind of how I used Jim Connors this year. Here are his ratings and check out his dominant numbers with the Padres last season:



This of course will also get Jon Jimenez on the team.

[Art Deco]

December 1: First big free-agent signing of the winter with the Red Sox inking Gleyber Torres to a 2/38 deal. Torres is 36 now but still productive although he missed about 2/3 of the last season with a torn labrum. He had 17 HR in 210 AB and hit 40+ HR in 3 straight seasons from 2030-2032.

December 2: The Rockies are trying to re-assemble the early-mid 20s Dodgers as they signed both Gavin Lux (2/56.8) and Cody Bellinger (3/75.4) today. Lux has remained healthy and productive although he's 36 and Bellinger is 38 and has been very injury-prone the last few years although productive when infrequently healthy.

December 4: The Tigers signed OF Heliot Ramos to a 4/98.4 pact today, he's a consistent .290-25 HR guy who will help their offense. Also the Phillies traded longtime Ray Jose Alvarado to the Royals for a couple of minor leaguers.

December 8: Houston signs a couple of former Rays: Bobby Witt Jr gets a 2/38.6 deal and Alexis Carmona signs for 1/13.3. Carmona had TJS after getting hurt with us in 2032 and has seen his stuff diminish from 60 to 45. Witt of course is "wrecked" so we'll see what they get out of him over these two seasons.

December 9: The Dodgers sent 3 minor leaguers to the Blue Jays for SP John Rizzo, a rare starter with 70 stuff. The catch, though, is he has 35 control so while he struck out 198 last season he walked 120.

December 10: More former Rays on the move as the Winter Meetings begin. Aaron Ashby has come full circle, going back to the team which drafted him 15 years earlier, Milwaukee on a 1/3 deal while Alexander Beltre goes to Minnesota on a 3/14.2 agreement.

December 17: Former Rays starter from the mid-20s Daniel Lynch continues to his bid to be the Edwin Jackson of the 2030s by signing a minor league deal with the Astros, which would be his 9th team.

December 21: Added OFs Michael Valdez and Zach Mathias and 3B Jim Gebers to the 40-man roster, waived P Mike Champagne, who cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA Durham.

Getting ready for the Rule 5 Draft again, I've given up on predicting who might get taken since I rarely ever get it right. Here are our top prospects as rated by BNN:



Stevenson at #9 is unprotected as is #13 Roush (who I think is most likely to go).

December 22: The Rule 5 draft was a dud, only three players were taken, two by the Mets, and none of our players were lost.

December 24: A couple of our former relievers got paid today, with Luke Little (our 2nd round pick all the way back in 2020) getting a whopping $15M on a 1-year deal with Houston, which apparently has cash to burn. Little's decent, but he's bounced around a lot lately and seems more worth $1.5M than $15M to me. Meanwhile, Mike Bayles, whom we acquired from the White Sox in the Connor Kirkley-for-Nate Schultz deal, refused my offer of a minor league extension and that decision paid off for him when the Yankees gave him a 2/8.8 deal. He's decent, but not spectacular; he had kind of a mixed season at Durham last year.



Bar fight? Christmas tree fall on him? We'll never know I guess.

December 27: It was "Sign a Jimenez" day in MLB as Eloy, who was a mixed-bag rental with us in 2031, got a 2/38.8 deal with Cubs as he returns to the city where he started his career with the White Sox, and the Astros signed 38-year-old Joe to a 2/16.4 deal where he takes his 385 career saves, the most among active players.

December 28: The Cubs signed top free agent closer Jackson Baumeister today, he's notched 149 saves over the past 5 seasons and he takes his talents to Chicago for 2 years for a total of $23.2 million.

[Art Deco]

January 2: Shane McClanahan continues to hang on, signing a 1-year, $960K deal with the Dodgers.

January 3: A couple more signings of significance as former Rays catcher Ryan Jeffers signs a 2/26 deal with the Phillies, and slugger Parks Harber gets a huge 5/111 contract from Houston to hit in the middle of their order. Harber's hit 215 homers over the last 6 seasons with Milwaukee and the White Sox.

The Hall of Fame voting is in:



January 15: Seattle traded All-Star catcher albeit brief Rays flop Adley Rustchman to Milwaukee for five minor leaguers.

January 30: Former Ray lefty reliever Evan Godwin has bounced around quite a bit over the last few years becoming a starter and he's now landed in Washington on a 1-year, $3.36M deal.

February 4: The White Sox got their replacement 1B after losing Parks Harber to free agency by trading with Arizona for Ryan Mountcastle, who has hit exactly 24 HR and 86 RBI each of the last two seasons. Joe Long, a pretty good reliever, and Steve Blair, a starting pitching prospect who was offered to me when shopping some of the guys I traded this offseason, go the other way.

We have a "minor" trade:



Carter is an MLB reliever but a victim of our numbers game, and is out of options. I wasn't ready to commit a roster spot to him, so I dealt him for another live arm in Reece, Columbus's 2nd round pick last season. A look under the hood at Reece:



With 65 stamina, he could be tried as a starter as well and could be something else if can handle that role; at worst, his ceiling is elite reliever. Baxter was a 1/2-1-star throw-in.

March 10: One of the few significant free agents left, Danny Pena, signed a 3/70.2 with the Yankees. The lefty starter was 13-5, 3.08 with the Angels last season.

March 12: Dane Ayers was non-tendered by St. Louis despite trading a minor league to us for him, and he sat out there until the Blue Jays signed him to a minor league deal. Also, long-ago former Ray and longtime Phillies slugger Nate Lowe, who has 391 career HR, signed a 1-year, $2.9M deal with Milwaukee, and speaking of former Rays, Rafael Devers (whom we had in 23 and 24) came full circle by signing a minor league deal with his original team the Red Sox.

March 15: More contract news for former Rays: At one end of the spectrum Judson Fabian had to settle for a minor league deal with the Red Sox; at the other, the Cardinals handed out huge extensions to Jasson Dominguez (4/145.5) and Nate Clark (5/192.5), good on them for getting paid.

March 24: Who says you can't go home again? We signed Triston Casas to a minor-league deal where he's going to play 1B for Durham. Having traded Rivas and minor leaguer Dave Bagwell (who was in line to play at Durham), we actually needed a little depth at the position even though we're more than covered at the position at the MLB level (Centeno, Jimenez, de Jesus).

March 27: Big blow to the Dodgers who have lost Fernando Tatis Jr. for 5 months with a broken kneecap.

March 28: Well Spring Training has concluded and we went 16-1 and the loss came in extra innings, which is insane. And that's only with playing the regulars every other day. Also we didn't have any injuries, not even a minor one. This probably means we get off to a slow start.

[Art Deco]

We start off with an opening-day morning trade:



There's really been no place for Centeno since we acquired him for Nate Clark a few months back, and there wasn't even room for him on the final 26-man roster so he needed to be traded (theoretically, I could have optioned him to Durham but what's the point there?). So in return we get a pretty good player we also really don't need (Vasquez) and the #21 prospect in baseball in Champagne (yes, somehow we have two players with the last name Champagne, I'm going to pretend Steve & Mike are brothers). Morein is a soft tosser with control issues, so not really a prospect. Vasquez can rake:



He'll play 1B at Durham. Champagne has big-time power potential to go along with an elite batting eye, but contact is going to be an issue with him. This was the profile of Bo Angeac when we acquired him 5 years ago, but he eventually developed the hit tool and perhaps in a few years when Angeac is commanding a fortune in arbitration Champagne will follow his path and be ready to take over. Meanwhile it won't be fun to pitch to Centeno 18-19 times a year (starting as soon as tomorrow), this was the best offer we had for him.

Opening Day Roster:

C-Corpus, Quintana (Mike McKee deserves to play and I nearly dealt Corpus during the winter but I couldn't just yet. Definitely by next winter)
1B-J.Jimenez, de Jesus (we will have a Jon Jimenez/Omar Rodriguez platoon with de Jesus in the OF against righties and at 1B against lefties)
2B-Hardaway
SS-Widmar
3B-Angeac
IF-Gutierrez
OF-Jenkins, Ayala, O.Rodriguez, Buitrago
DH-V.Guerrero Jr.
SP-Aparicio, Schultz, Ortega, Soranno, Thompson
LR-Medina, Kerstetter
MR-Wherry, Hoyte, Sirna
SU-Bertone, Siqueiros
CL-Kawase

As usual there are lot of overqualified guys at Durham like McKee, Vasquez, Batchelder, Baez, Boesel, Roush, Hicks, Ron Adams.

Here are the preseason predictions. You'll notice I turned down the offense this year, last year was a bit too crazy. Given the Rays' hitting talent, this probably hurts them some, but I suppose they could use a bit of a handicap. One other change was to make the pitcher DL 10 days instead of 15, only 13 years behind MLB going back to this IRL. I will *never* adopt the stupid runner on 2nd in extra innings rule though.



The AL Central looks wide open yet mediocre.

[Art Deco]

Full box time for Opening Day:



Rays lost a tough one on Opening Day to Boston and their star young lefty Sean Nelson 5-4. The season did not get off to an auspicious start when reigning MVP Jaiden Hardaway dropped a popup from the leadoff hitter in the game, and that helped Boston take a 3-0 first-inning lead although the Steve Burns 3-run homer off reigning Cy Young winner Andy Aparicio was the bigger culprit. AA also coughed up a couple of more runs including a Gleyber Torres homer to put the Rays in a hole. Nelson was tough on them, allowing only a Ricky Widmar homer through 7 innings before he walked Hardaway and hit Dayle Jenkins to lead off the 8th. Boston closer Bobby Carman then walked Victor de Jesus to load the bases with nobody out, but Vlad Guerrero Jr grounded into a double play to take the steam out of the rally. A run did score on the play and Bo Angeac drilled an RBI double, but Danny Ayala struck out to end the threat. After Omar Rodriguez homered to lead off the 9th to cut it to 5-4, Hardaway singled with one out but couldn't advance. When we had Nate Clark and Rodolfo Rivas we had an all-righty lineup including switch-hitters most of the time so we weren't suspectible to lefties. But Ayala does have a platoon split, and with the only righties on the bench being backup catcher Will Quintana and light-hitting Melvin Gutierrez, he and/or Jon Jimenez are going to have to play against them. Kevin Kerstetter was a bright spot with 3 scoreless innings of relief featuring 6 whiffs.

Game 2: Nate Schultz, who finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting to Andy Aparicio last year, decided to go Aparicio one better than yesterday and put the Rays in a 6-0 hole before the bats came to life and came back all the way to edge Boston 10-9. I know, I said I turned down the offense this year. It was a costly win and I'll get to that in a minute. Almost immediately after Boston made it 6-0 (including a homer from Jose Centeno, taking revenge on a team he only played for in Spring Training), Danny Ayala went to work, homering off Mario Candelaria to lead off the 2nd and homering again with a man on in the 3rd and it was 6-4. Then in the 4th the comeback was complete when Victor de Jesus singled in a run and with the bases loaded Vlad Guerrero Jr cleared them all with a grand slam to make it 9-6. But Schultz, who had settled down after giving up 6 in the first 2, struggled again in the 5th, allowing a run to make it 9-7. Danny Medina got through the 5th and pitched the 6th before Willie Bertone made his Rays debut in the 7th. Hope you got a good look at him because after whiffing the first two batters he gave up a single then a 2-run homer to Tyler Gibson to tie the game. And after he got the final out, he left the game with what turned out to be a torn UCL, so Tommy John Surgery it is and we'll see you in 2035. Mike Wherry pitched a scoreless 8th and then in the bottom of the inning the Rays rallied and put men on 2nd and 3rd. They had trouble getting the lead man home until Ricky Vanasco uncorked a wild pitch and it was 10-9. Kikuo Kawase came on for the 9th and looked like the 2033 first-half Kawase by striking out the side including tough lefty hitter Eric Knatz so Wherry got the win and Kawase the save. Losing Bertone is a tough blow as he was going to be the bridge 7th-inning righty to get it to Siqueiros and Kawase. Medina may get moved into that role now and Wherry should take on increased responsibility beyond going against lefties.

MLB News: The first of the recently-departed Rays to make an impact turned out to be Dane Ayers, who hit a walk-off homer in the 10th to give Toronto a win over the Yankees. That's not counting Jordan Diaz blowing a save and vulturing a win on Opening Day for Houston.

April 1: Place P Willie Bertone on the 60-day IL with a torn UCL, recalled P Edgar Rios from AAA Durham.

I considered Chris Hicks, but he's a somewhat known quantity so I want to see what we have in Rios, acquired on waivers last year from San Diego and sent to Durham. The 27-year-old has 65 stuff, 60 movement and 55 control and was excellent with the Bulls last year with a line of 35.2 15 5 5 12 47 good for a 1.26 ERA with 5 wins and 3 saves. He also threw 3 hitless innings in spring training with 1 walk and 3 whiffs. It would be nice to be able to use him like I intended to use Bertone but let's see how he fares in some lower-leverage situations first.

Game 3: Another Rays starting pitcher got his season off to a rough start but Leo Ortega limited the early damage, settled down, and the Rays took a 5-2 win over Boston to make it two out of three to start 2034. By the third inning Ortega had allowed 6 hits, and 2 runs were already in with men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out but he bore down and got a couple of strikeouts to end the inning and gave up nothing after that to finish 6 6 2 2 1 3 and grab the win. Mike Wherry continues to look more like the guy we thought we were getting than the guy we got lost year with a 1-2-3 2K 7th, Tim Siqueiros did his thing in the 8th and Kikuo Kawase retired the Sox in order in the 9th with a pair of whiffs for save #2. The offense came from two consecutive batters in the 2nd: Ricky Widmar laced a 2-run double and Luis Corpus followed him by depositing one into the LF seats for HR #1 to put the Rays up 4-1 early. Danny Ayala's sac fly brought home an insurance run in the 8th.

Game 4: Just when it looked like the Rays would pull out another come-from-behind win, Tim Siqueiros couldn't close the deal in the 9th and the Rays took a tough 6-4 loss. Victor de Jesus's RBI double in the bottom of the 8th tied it at 3, and then Dayle Jenkins delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to score de Jesus and the Rays looked golden with a 4-3 edge going into the 9th. Kikuo Kawase, having thrown about 45 pitches the last two days, was unavailable so it fell to Siqueiros to close it out. He struck out the first man, but gave up a double and a single to allow Boston to tie it, put another man on with 2 out, and Bob Sirna was brought in to face Rafael Devers but Boston countered with pinch-hitter Dominic Keegan, who hit a 2-run double down the LF line to make it 6-4 Sox and the Rays went meekly in the bottom of the 9th. Jon Soranno started and he suffered from the affliction of the previous three Rays starters, giving up early runs. Boston got single runs in each of the first 3 innings before Soranno was locked in, and he finished 7 4 3 3 2 5. Billy Hoyte made his Rays debut in impressive fashion, getting Boston 1-2-3 in the 8th and was in line for the win before it was blown. After a Bo Angeac triple in the 5th, Jon Jimenez got his first MLB RBI on a groundout, and Alex Buitrago in his first action of the year homered to get the Rays within 3-2 later in the inning.

Team record: 2-2. Next up: An off-day then 2 games at Yankee Stadium.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Jaiden Hardaway and Vlad Guerrero Jr. spoiled the Yankees' home opener as the Rays clubbed 5 homers in a 12-5 beatdown in the Bronx. Hardaway led off the game with his first homer of the year and added another solo shot in a 4-run 6th which broke the game open while Guerrero had a big 3-run homer in the 3rd (#2) which turned a 2-1 game into a 5-1 game along with an RBI double in the 7th. Coming through big again in the 6th was Luis Corpus, whose 3-run jack (#2) made it 8-4 after the Yankees had crept back within a run. Bo Angeac also added his first of the year in the 7th. Nate Thompson started and was adequate, going 5 6 4 3 2 6 and picking up the win. Edgar Rios made his Rays debut with a quick 6-pitch 1-2-3 6th, and Kevin Kerstetter looked dominant again in another 3-inning stint which saw him whiff 6. This time he picked up the save, although he did allow a solo homer in the 9th.

Game 2: Andy Aparicio was excellent and the Rays got a game-winning homer from the unlikeliest of sources to take a 4-2 win over the Yankees and a sweep of the 2-game mini-series. As has been the case for Rays starters in all 6 games so far, the early innings were bumpy with the Yankees scoring in both the 1st and 2nd, the former thanks to a pair of Rays errors. But Aparicio was dialed in after that and went 7 6 2 1 1 7 to even his record at 1-1. The Rays slowly came back, first in the 3rd when Alex Buitrago doubled and scored on a Jaiden Hardaway sac fly and then in the 4th they tied it up when new boys Danny Ayala and Jon Jimenez doubled and singled respectively. We stayed 2-2 until the 7th when with one out Will Quintana took the appropriately-named Tommy Pitcher into the LF seats to break the deadlock. Quintana, who had only 4 homers all of last year, got his first longball in only his second start of the season. Ricky Widmar, off to a blistering start, hit #2 in the 9th to give them a bit of a cushion. Widmar is now 11-23 with 2 HR and 5 RBI on the young season. Mike Wherry took over in the 8th and was so efficient retiring the side in order on 8 pitches that he came back for the 9th with more lefties due and got the first two on just 5 more pitches. The Yanks pinch-hit a righty with 2 out, so Kikuo Kawase came in and got a grounder to Widmar to end the game and nab his 3rd save.

Team record: 4-2. Next up: We head to Fenway for 3 games in 4 days starting with Boston's home opener tomorrow.

MLB Note: Former Ray Caleb Picciotti had a 3-homer game today for Colorado at San Diego in a 10-4 win. He drove in 5 and leads MLB in homers with 5. Also 40-year-old Joey Gallo signed a 1-year, $3M deal with who else - the Angels, as they lost 41-year-old Mookie Betts to a severe hip strain for 4 months.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays were dominated by Boston's Mario Candelaria as they only managed 2 hits for the entire game in a 2-0 loss at Fenway Park. Candelaria no-hit them until Victor de Jesus led off the 7th inning with a single, which extended his hitting streak dating back to last season to 26 games. Their only other hit came from pinch-hitter Omar Rodriguez in the 9th inning off Bobby Carman as they tried to mount a rally which also saw Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit by a pitch but Bo Angeac and Jon Jimenez struck out to end the game. Nate Schultz was the hard-luck loser as he pitched very well going 7 5 2 2 1 5 but was beat in the 4th on Gleyber Torres' 600th career homer and another run in the 7th. Edgar Rios pitched a scoreless 8th around a couple of Tampa Bay errors.

Game 2: Victor de Jesus supplied the offense and Leo Ortega supplied the pitching in a 6-1 win over Boston. The slugging 1B/OF extended his hitting streak to 27 games with an RBI double in the 3rd to get the Rays on the board and then blasted his first homer of the season with a man on in the 6th to cap the scoring as part of a 3-4 day. Ortega meanwhile shut the Red Sox out for 6 innings before giving up a leadoff homer in the 7th, going 7 4 1 1 0 9 to make it two wins in two starts for him this season. Also contributing a big hit was rookie Jon Jimenez, who had a 2-run single in the 5th after Bo Angeac walked with the bases loaded to turn a 2-0 game into a 4-0 one. Bob Sirna put two men on with one out in the 8th so Danny Medina came to the rescue, getting a quick double play and a 1-2-3 9th to finish things off.

Game 3: The Rays sent 12 men to the plate in an 8-run 2nd inning to propel them to a 13-5 rout of the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Boston had hit Jon Soranno for 3 in the bottom of the 1st to take a 3-1 lead before the Rays unloaded. Alex Buitrago started with a single and then Will Quintana homered in his second straight start over the Monster to tie the game. Victor de Jesus made it 28 straight with a hit by doubling in a run, and he scored on a Danny Ayala infield hit, one of Ayala's 4 on the day. They loaded the bases with two more infield knocks and then Omar Rodriguez hit one out of the infield and out of the outfield as well, a massive grand slam to deep center, his 2nd of the year. Jaiden Hardaway, off to a slow start, had a 3-run blast of his own (#3) and de Jesus went yard as well (#2). Soranno settled down once he had the big lead, later allowing a 2-run homer to finish 6.2 7 5 5 2 5, not pretty but enough to get his first win of the year. Edgar Rios continued to be stingy, going 1 1/3 scoreless and Billy Hoyte got some work in with only his 2nd appearance of the season pitching a scoreless 9th.

Team record: 6-3. Next up: We head west to play the White Sox in Chicago for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Victor de Jesus sure has a flair for the dramatic, as he came up in the top of the 9th inning with the game tied, two men on and his 28-game hitting streak on the line after going 0-4. He took care of both with one swing of the bat as his 3-run homer to deep center (#3) gave the Rays a 7-4 win and de Jesus a 29-game hitting streak, the longest in club history. We got to that point as Nate Thompson squandered an early 3-0 lead and the Rays had to come back just to tie it in the 6th on Luis Corpus's 2nd RBI single of the day. Thompson went 5.1 10 4 4 1 4 and needed Danny Medina to get him out of trouble in the 6th to prevent further damage. Medina pitched through the 7th, Mike Wherry got two outs in the 8th before giving way to Tim Siqueiros, who ended up with the win. Siqueiros wasn't sharp, walking a man in the 8th and then after he was given a chance to finish it, put two more on with a single and a walk with one out so Kikuo Kawase came in and struck out the two men he faced for save #4. Earlier the Rays had built a 3-0 lead on a Dayle Jenkins RBI double in the 1st and a Danny Ayala RBI triple in the 2nd followed by the first Corpus RBI single.

Game 2: The Rays made it 4 straight wins today with Victor de Jesus, Danny Ayala and Andy Aparicio leading the way in a 10-1 rout of the White Sox. Ayala got things going for the Rays in the 3rd with a grand slam, his first homer since the second game of the season and his 3rd of the year. de Jesus, who had already extended his hitting streak to 30 games with a first-inning single, drilled a 2-run homer in the 5th to make it 6-0, and Ayala and de Jesus each went deep again with the former hitting a solo homer in the 8th and the latter launching another 2-run shot in the 9th to give him 5 HR and 14 RBI through the season's first 11 games. Ayala now has 4 homers, and they've come in 2 games. Aparicio was stifling the White Sox offense while all this was going on, going 8 4 1 1 0 5 on 103 pitches to improve to 2-1, 2.70, only losing his shutout in the 8th on a Kyle Teel homer. Bob Sirna pitched an uncharacteristically efficient 9th inning, getting three groundballs on 6 pitches.

Game 3: A bad day all around for the Rays as they were whupped 10-3 by the White Sox and Victor de Jesus saw his 30-game hitting streak come to an end when Chicago CF Dasan Brown made a diving catch of his liner to end the game. While last year's Nate Schultz-for-Connor Kirkley trade clearly benefited the Rays, opening up 2B full-time for Jaiden Hardaway to have an MVP season while Schultz won 22 games plus 3 more in a postseason championship run, today the trade winners were the White Sox. Schultz was back on his old mound but he was terrible, tagged for a 2.2 9 8 8 1 4 line. This marked the second disaster start for Schultz in 3 this season after giving up 7 to Boston in his first start of the year. He should still be OK, he has a 2/16 BB/K ratio in 14 innings despite a 10.93 ERA. Allowing 4 homers in those innings doesn't help nor does a BABIP of .422. Anyway the main man doing the damage against Schultz was none other than Kirkley, who hit a 3-run homer off him in the first and drove in 5 runs on the day. Kevin Kerstetter went 2 1/3 in relief without a run charged to him, but when he came in he walked two straight men to force in one of Schultz's runners. Bob Sirna wasn't good at all, walking 3 and giving up 2 runs in 1 2/3 while Edgar Rios stayed unscored upon as a Ray with 1 1/3 pitched. A Will Quintana RBI single and Omar Rodriguez's 3rd homer of the year with a man on accounted for the Tampa Bay scoring.

Team record: 8-4. Next up: An off-day, then the Philadelphia Phillies visit Publix Park for the first time.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Phillies made their first-ever visit to Publix Park (3 years ago we played them in Philly) and for five innings it looked like they owned the place, taking a 5-1 lead. But the explosive Rays offense exploded for 6 runs in the 6th and Tampa Bay held on for a 7-5 win. The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd on Jon Jimenez's first MLB homer, off former Ray Hayden Johns who was the centerpiece in the deal which brought Rodolfo Rivas here. But after dominating the Phillies through 3, Leo Ortega started to lose it, giving up a run in the 4th to tie it, then 4 runs in the 5th on a pair of homers and he departed with a rough 4.1 7 5 5 2 7 line. Johns meanwhile was stifling the Rays to the tune of 5 5 1 1 0 6 but ran up a pitch count of 95 and departed after the 5th. That was all the opening the Rays needed as they bludgeoned Tony Segui and Andres Munoz with a Danny Ayala RBI single, Bo Angeac 2-run double, Ricky Widmar RBI triple, a wild pitch to score Widmar and a bases-loaded walk to Victor de Jesus as they sent 11 to the plate that inning. Danny Medina took over for Ortega in the 5th and went 2 innings for the win, Tim Siqueiros got all 5 of his outs via the K, and Kikuo Kawase struck out 3 around a walk in the 9th for save #5 as Rays pitching struck out 19 Phillies in total.

Durham update: The Bulls opened their season with a 9-1 win in Charlotte last night with the big news being #1 prospect in baseball Ron Adams going 8 4 1 1 0 10 in a dominant performance. How long am I going to be able to keep him down?

Game 2: Despite the 9-4 record coming in, Rays starting pitching has been pretty bad in the aggregate this year with a 5.52 ERA as each of the starters have had some rough games. But Jon Soranno decided it was time to do something about it and he tossed 7 shutout innings in an 8-0 Rays win. The lefty went 7 4 0 0 1 7 to go to 2-0, 3.48 and was never in any real trouble. Billy Hoyte and Edgar Rios remain unscored upon since joining the Rays as each pitched a scoreless inning to complete the shutout. The offense was led today by Bo Angeac, who tripled his season homer total to 3 with a pair of solo shots including one in the 5th that made it 2-0. Jaiden Hardaway got the Rays on the board in the 3rd with an RBI double and he was on base 3 times in 4 trips after getting to a slow 2034 start. Not getting off to a slow start has been Victor de Jesus, and he launched a 2-run HR (#6) while Dayle Jenkins had a 2-run double as the Rays steadily added to their lead after the 5th.

Game 3: These days with Rays games it seems like the main question is "when is the offense going to have a big inning?" and the answer today was the 7th. After the Rays had taken a 3-2 lead on Philly in the 6th only to give it back in the top of the 7th they scored 6 times in the bottom of the frame, all after the first two batters were retired, in a 9-5 win. Will Quintana worked a 3-2 walk with two out and the significance of it is that it marked the end of the day for Philly ace Hugo Garza, who had struck out 9 Rays in his 6 2/3 innings. And just like the first game of this series the Rays jumped all over the Philly bullpen combo of Andres Munoz and Tony Segui as two batters later Dayle Jenkins doubled in two runs to put the Rays ahead, two batters after that Danny Ayala clubbed a 3-run homer (#5) and following Ayala Vlad Guerrero Jr went back-to-back for his 3rd of the year. Earlier Alex Buitrago had a 2-run double to put the Rays on the board in the 5th to tie the game and Ayala put them ahead in the 6th with an RBI double. Nate Thompson started, and had an OK start, going 6 4 2 2 4 2 and was in line for the win before Mike Wherry gave up a 2-run homer in the 7th to lose the lead but vulture the win, his second, when the rally came. Tim Siqueiros came in for the 8th and continued to struggle with his control this year, walking 2 more to give him 7 in 4 2/3 innings as well as allowing a solo homer. Billy Hoyte got him out of it and got two outs in the 9th before Kikuo Kawase came in and struck out Philadelphia slugger Eric Titcombe for the final out of the game, albeit in a non-save situation.

Team record: 11-4. Next up: The Texas Rangers come to town for 3 games in a rematch of our many, many playoff series the last 5-6 years.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: All Rays pitching had to do today was hold Texas to 7 runs or fewer, but they couldn't and dropped an 11-8 decision at Publix Park to the Rangers. It started off as a normal game between a couple of high-quality pitchers in Andy Aparicio and Edwin Harty and it was only 3-2 going into the 6th. Texas tied in the top of the inning but the Rays retook the lead on Bo Angeac's 4th HR. But then it all went wrong in the 7th as Texas scored 5 times. Aparicio started the inning walk-triple-single, Mike Wherry gave up an RBI single after a sac bunt, and Edgar Rios gave up a walk, a single and then got a strikeout but Luis Corpus' passed ball allowed another run to score. The Rays got 2-run homers in the 8th and 9th from Jon Jimenez (#2) and Victor de Jesus (#7) but in between Danny Medina was god-awful in the 9th, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk.

Down on the Farm: Our 2031 1st-round pick Jeff Hayes is an amazing HR tear for AA Montgomery. In their first 11 games, he has 9 HR in 41 AB including 4 in his last 3 games. He appears to be maxed out potential-wise at 65 power but only 45 contact so right now he looks like a 35-HR guy but a .240 hitter. He has a 55 eye, so he'll get like 55-60 walks. And right now his best position is LF and he's only average (50) there. So he's more likely trade bait than a future Rays regular but the HR are still fun to see.

Game 2: The Rays dropped consecutive games for the first time this season as Texas scored twice in the 9th to top Tampa Bay 3-1. The good news was that Nate Schultz, who came into the game with a four-figure ERA, pitched his best game of the season going 7 5 1 1 2 5 against probably the toughest-hitting lineup aside from ours. The bad news is that Tim Siqueiros isn't over his control problems although it was partially my fault for bringing him out for a second inning (the thought was Texas's lineup is very right-heavy and the only other non-tired righty reliever I had was Kikuo Kawase). He walked the first two men in the 9th to make it 9 walks in 5 2/3 innings this year and Kawase came on and gave up consecutive infield singles to load the bases and give Texas the lead. A sac fly ensued for the third Ranger run before he whiffed the last two batters. Of course none of this would have been an issue had the bats done their jobs but Tony Cardoso (who has premium stuff but can't always keep it in the park) dominated them early going 5 4 1 1 0 7 then Jon Whiteleather of all people shut them out for two more. They did get a man on in the 9th to bring the tying run to the plate but Omar Rodriguez, Danny Ayala and Ricky Widmar couldn't get it done. Jaiden Hardaway's 3rd inning RBI single gave the Rays a short-lived 1-0 lead.

Game 3: The Rays salvaged the final game of this series as they took an early 8-1 lead and had to hold on to win 8-5 over Texas. Jaiden Hardaway led off the game with his 4th HR of the year then they exploded for 5 in the 2nd keyed by an RBI double from Ricky Widmar and 2-RBI double by Dayle Jenkins. Vlad Guerrero Jr added a 2-run HR in the 4th (#4) to make it 8-1 and it looked like they'd coast behind Leo Ortega. Ortega did pitch decently even though he didn't have his best stuff going 7 8 3 3 0 3, good enough to improve to 3-0, 4.07. Edgar Rios gave up a run in the 8th to make it 8-4 and stayed on and gave up two more hits to start the 9th. Kikuo Kawase came in and like yesterday, gave up 2 quick hits of his own to let Texas add a run but got a couple of whiffs to end the madness and notch his 6th save.

Team record: 12-6. Next up: After an off-day, the homestand continues with Minnesota visiting Publix Park for a 3-game weekend set.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays built an 8-2 lead and then watched their bullpen nearly blow it before hanging to win 8-6 over Minnesota. Jaiden Hardaway, who had been off to a pedestrian start by his standards, looked like his MVP self by going 3-4 with a pair of homers, 3 runs, 3 RBI, a walk and a steal as he once again led off a game with a longball and then hit a 2-run shot (#6) in the 6th to make a 3-2 game 5-2. Vlad Guerrero Jr singled in a run and hit a solo shot (#5) in the 7th and Ricky Widmar had a 2-run double in the 6th to open things up. Jon Soranno got the start and pitched well but not efficiently, going 5 5 2 2 1 5 but on 99 pitches. He still ended up with the win to go to 3-0, 3.51. But the bullpen was an adventure, allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over the final 4 innings to almost let the Twins come all the way back. Danny Medina whiffed 6 in 2 2/3 but gave up 2 runs on 5 hits, Tim Siqueiros at least didn't walk anyone for a change but gave up 2 more runs on 4 hits, and Mike Wherry gave up a hit and a walk trying to nail down the final out and finally got it with a strikeout with the tying runs on base for his first save of the season (Kikuo Kawase was showing as fatigued). Also Omar Rodriguez had to leave with a strained MCL and will miss 6 weeks.

April 22: Placed OF Omar Rodriguez on the 10-day IL with a strained MCL, recalled OF Nate Boesel from AAA Durham.

Losing Rodriguez hurts some because he was one of our few righty bats off the bench and platooning against LHP, Boesel is a righty bat as well, not as good of course but he'll have to do.

Game 2: Once again the Rays raced out to a sizable lead and once again they had to hang on, taking a 6-4 win over Minnesota. This time though it was the starter who almost blew the lead while the bullpen was lights-out. Nate Thompson was rolling through 4, shutting out the Twins on only 41 pitches. But he gave up 2 runs in the 5th and then two more in the 6th before Bob Sirna had to bail him out of that inning as a 5-0 lead dwindled to 5-4. Sirna started a bullpen run that saw the final 10 Minnesota hitters retired as he went 1 2/3 with 3 whiffs, Edgar Rios fanned both men he faced in the 8th and Kikuo Kawase struck out the side in a perfect 9th for save #7. Thompson got the win to go 2-0 but with an ugly 5.32 ERA. The offense came early with Vlad Guerrero Jr delivering a 2-run single in the 1st and then Jaiden Hardaway (#7) hitting a solo homer in the 3rd followed two batters later by a 2-run Victor de Jesus blast (#8). They did tack on an insurance run in the 8th when Luis Corpus singled, pinch-runner Melvin Gutierrez stole second, went to third on an infield single and scored on a wild pitch.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Minnesota in walk-off fashion as they prevailed in another back-and-forth game with late lead changes 6-5. Will Quintana's 4th hit of the day was an RBI single off former Ray Jim Connors scoring Vlad Guerrero Jr. with the winning run. Quintana's hitting a cool .429 (12-28) in this young season. Andy Aparicio started for the Rays and was overpowering at times but gave up 3 homers and left with a 6 5 4 4 0 10 line in getting the no-decision. Billy Hoyte took over and breezed through the 7th as the Rays came back to take a 5-4 lead but gave up a couple of infield singles in the 8th and Edgar Rios gave up a 2-out single allowing the Twins to tie it up. Tim Siqueiros looked like his 2033 version, striking out 3 Twins around a single, and ended up with his 2nd win. On offense they had a lot of baserunners early but could only score on Victor de Jesus' 9th HR of the year in the 3rd. The next two runs came on sac flies from Alex Buitrago in the 5th and Dayle Jenkins in the 6th before de Jesus ripped a 2-run double later in the inning to put the Rays ahead 5-4.

Team record: 15-6. Next up: A real quirk in the schedule sees us with two consecutive off-days before we travel to Baltimore for a pair.

MLB News: 40-year-old Francisco Lindor hit HR #500 today for the Angels in a 7-2 win over the Giants.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Nate Schultz pitched his best game of the season and the Rays got just enough offense to take a 3-1 win at Oriole Park. Schultz had his sinker working, getting 14 groundball outs in an 8 4 1 1 2 4 performance to nab his first win of the year against two losses, as many as he had all of last season including the playoffs. With two tough lefties due to start the 9th, Billy Hoyte came on and walked the leadoff man, got a whiff, and then had to face the tough RHB and former Ray Mike Harms, but got him to ground into a fielder's choice. Kikuo Kawase was then available to come in and he got a strikeout to end the game and pick up save #8. Like last year Kawase's early numbers are insane: one walk and 19 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. Dayle Jenkins supplied 2/3 of the offense with RBI singles in the 5th and 7th scoring the first and third runs while Luis Corpus broke the 1-1 tie in the 7th with an RBI single of his own as the Rays were held to only 6 hits, all singles. Victor de Jesus had his 41-game on-base streak snapped tonight in an 0-4.

Game 2: Unlike last night the Rays brought the bats out for a 10-6 win over Baltimore, their 6th straight and giving them a sweep of the 2-game series. It was mainly the Luis Corpus, Jaiden Hardaway and Dayle Jenkins Show with Corpus going 4-4 with a 6th-inning solo HR (#3), Hardaway 4-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored, and Jenkins 2-5 with 4 RBI including a 3-run homer, his first of the year, in the 3rd. Vlad Guerrero Jr added a 3-run jack (#6) in the 8th to break the game open and Victor de Jesus reached double digits in homers with a solo shot. Leo Ortega was dominant through 5, allowing only a Druw Jones homer, but gave up a run in the 6th and put two men on to start the 7th. Tim Siqueiros came in and wild-pitched them to 2nd and 3rd and then gave up a sac fly and single to score them both. That got the Orioles within 5-4 before a 5-run 8th made it comfortable. Edgar Rios gave up a 2-run homer in the 9th after getting through the 8th so Mike Wherry had to come in and get the final two outs of the game. Ortega finished 6 6 4 3 0 6 and is now 4-0, 4.15.

Team record: 17-6. Next up: Off to Fenway Park for a 3-game weekend set. With the loss tonight, Baltimore fell to 12-13 meaning the rest of the AL East is below .500 and the Rays have an early 6-game lead.

[Art Deco]

The Friday night series opener was postponed due to rain, so we're playing a doubleheader on Saturday.

Game 1: The bullpen blew the lead twice in the late innings today, but all that did was keep giving Danny Ayala chances to shine as the young slugger led the Rays to an 8-4, 12-inning win over Boston in the first game of the doubleheader. Ayala thought he had given the Rays the win when his 7th inning double made it 3-2 Tampa Bay (after he had singled in a run earlier), but Tim Siqueiros and Billy Hoyte teamed up to allow Boston to tie it in the 8th. And then after Jon Jimenez homered (#3) in the top of the 11th to put the Rays up 4-3, it looked like a win until Kikuo Kawase gave up a single and double with 2 out in the bottom of the inning to let Boston equalize again. Ayala had enough of this nonsense in the 12th and blasted a 3-run homer (his 6th and first off a lefty) to cap his 5-RBI day and Bo Angeac followed with #5 later in the inning and the Rays finally had a lead they couldn't lose, with Kawase striking out the side in the bottom of the 12th to vulture his first win of the year, the teams' 7th straight. Jon Soranno had a great start and should have won, going 6.1 4 2 2 1 11 and in between the blown leads Danny Medina tossed a scoreless 9th and 10th. Jaiden Hardaway had another 4-hit game and drove in a run. It wasn't optimal to play 12 innings and use this much of the pen in the first game of a doubleheader but the priority is to win the game in front of you.

April 29: Purchased the contract of P Ron Adams from AAA Durham.

And here it is, time to see what the #1 prospect in baseball is all about. He's dominated at Durham with a 3/27 BB/K ratio in 24 innings and he'll get the start as the 27th man in Game 2 of the doubleheader. With Willie Bertone on the 60-day IL, we had a 40-man opening to add him as we didn't really need to add him until the offseason.

Game 2: Triumph turned to tragedy as Ron Adams won his major league debut but tore his flexor tendon in the 6th and will miss 14 months as the Rays bombed Boston 13-2 in the nightcap. Adams pitched well in his debut, settling down after giving up a homer to Gabriel Arias, the second batter he faced and finished 5.2 5 2 2 3 4 with the other run coming on another Arias homer. He threw 86 pitches and is rated 75 for stamina so he wasn't being pushed too far but pitchers break and sadly he did. Here's hoping he retains his stuff when he comes back in mid-2035. As for the game, Kevin Kerstetter went the final 3 1/3 scoreless with 5 whiffs for his 2nd save as he continues to impress in long relief. Offensively they had 21 hits as Dayle Jenkins led the way with a pair of triples as he went 4-6 with 3 RBI, Victor de Jesus was 4-6 with a HR (#11) and 2 RBI, Jaiden Hardaway was 3-4 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored, Vlad Guerrero went 3-6 with 2 RBI, Danny Ayala capped a big day going 3-5 with an RBI and Bo Angeac homered in both ends of the doubleheader with his 6th.

April 30: Placed P Ron Adams on the 60-day IL with a torn flexor tendon.

The double whammy here is that Adams has to go on the MLB IL, meaning it's as if I called him up and he spent all season with us for service time purposes. So we're essentially losing a year and a half of team control.

Game 3: The Rays are like Rasputin or Jason Voorhees as every time you think you have them killed, they rise from the dead to get you. Today was a prime example of this as the Red Sox took a 6-2 lead into the top of the 9th inning and seemed to have the game in hand. But with the regular closer Bobby Carman having worked yesterday's doubleheader, they had to turn to 38-year-old Will Kincanon and Andy Jones and the Rays scored 4 times in the 9th on RBI singles from Alex Buitrago and Luis Corpus and a pair of Jones wild pitches. It looked like Boston would win it the bottom of the 9th when Mike Wherry gave up Jose Centeno's 4th hit of the game (I knew he'd haunt us at some point) to put men on the 1st and 3rd with 1 out. But Tim Siqueiros came in and got a strikeout and a groundout on only 5 pitches to escape the threat and in the 10th after Danny Ayala led off with a double Vlad Guerrero Jr blasted HR #7 to make it 8-6. Corpus doubled in another run to make it 9-6 and that proved to be crucial as Siqueiros couldn't close out his own win, giving up back-to-back homers (including one to old friend Jud Fabian) and a single with Centeno due. So Bob Sirna, the last man in the pen, came in and whiffed Centeno and got a popup to grab his first save while Siqueiros continues to put up horrible numbers yet he got his third win in the 9-8 decision. Last year's AL Reliever of the Year has walked 10 in 10 1/3 innings, allowed 3 homers and 11 earned runs for a 9.58 ERA. The stuff is still there as he's struck out 20 but he's made a 180-degree turn in reliability. Andy Aparicio started and went 6.2 7 4 2 0 9 and Edgar Rios allowed a couple of runs in the 8th which appeared to put the game out of reach. The pitching has been pretty mediocre so far, with our 4.12 team ERA 11th in the AL and the 117 runs allowed 8th, but we've outscored all our problems so far.

Team record: 20-6. Next up: Off to Detroit for 3.

[Art Deco]

No surprise here, he leads MLB with 2.1 WAR already:



Perhaps there's a relatively weak crop of rookies in the AL this year because while Jimenez was OK, he wasn't spectacular:



Daniel Vasquez should be hitting in the middle of someone's lineup in MLB; instead with us he's hitting in middle of Durham's lineup:



I mentioned Jeff Hayes' insane HR binge a couple of weeks back and although he understandably cooled off, 14 HR in a month is something special. What's not special is the .250 BA as he'd probably hit about .230 in the bigs right now:



Bonus weekly award:



What an insane week Hardaway had. After getting off to something of a slow start, his overall numbers are now mostly in line with his historic 2033 season.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Tampa Bay Rays Traveling Hit Show came to Detroit tonight and laid waste to Tiger pitching in a 12-0 rout, win #10 on the trot. The scoring started innocuously enough when Jaiden Hardaway grounded into a double play in the 3rd to bring home a run, but in the next inning they loaded the bases with nobody out against Tiger knuckleballer Derek DeGolyer and he threw one that didn't knuckle to Jon Jimenez who deposited it into the RF seats for HR #4 to make it 5-0. That opened the floodgates and the Rays went on to get homers from Dayle Jenkins (#2), Victor de Jesus (#12), Vlad Guerrero Jr (#8) and Hardaway (#8, extending his hitting streak to 17). It turns out they scored 11 more runs than Nate Thompson needed as the righty turned in his best start of the year going 7 7 0 0 1 8 and improving to 3-0, 4.03. Danny Medina added a pair of scoreless innings with 3 Ks to close it out.

Game 2: The Rays' 10-game winning streak is over as they fell 9-5 to Detroit thanks mostly to a brutal outing from Nate Schultz, off to a terrible start this year. Schultz was behind 4-0 after facing the Tigers' first four batters, kind of settled down, and then loaded the bases with two out in the 5th. Kevin Kerstetter took over and immediately gave up a bases-loaded double, leaving Schultz with a 4.2 6 8 8 4 5 line as he falls to 1-3, 7.22. This was after the Rays pulled back within 5-4 on a bases-clearing Bo Angeac triple in the top of the 4th. Kerstetter went 3 innings allowing 1 run and striking out 6 more as he now has a 3/25 BB/K ratio in 14.2 innings. Jaiden Hardaway kept his hitting streak alive in the 9th at 18 with HR #9.

Game 3: After last night's loss the Rays quickly made sure it wouldn't happen again, scoring 12 times in the first 3 innings on the way to a 14-2 rout of Detroit. Danny Ayala began his 4-hit day with a 3-run homer (#7) in the 1st off Shohei Ohtani, Dayle Jenkins did likewise in the 2nd (#3), Bo Angeac led off the 3rd with #7, and later in the inning Jenkins added a 2-run double to give him a 5-RBI day and Vlad Guerrero Jr. drove in 2 of his 3 RBI with a single. In addition to Ayala's 4-hit day, Jaiden Hardaway was 4-5 with an RBI to make it 19 straight games with a hit. Leo Ortega cruised to 5-0 going 6 3 2 2 1 6 and Bob Sirna got a 3-inning save (#2), whiffing 6 and not allowing a run.

Team record: 22-7. Next up: An off-day then Dane Ayers and the Blue Jays come to town for 3 over the weekend.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays recovered from blowing a pair of leads to outlast Toronto 12-8 at Publix Park. After taking an early 1-0 lead on a Danny Ayala double, Jon Soranno started getting battered in the 3rd and wound up allowing 6 runs by the 4th to put the Rays in a 6-1 hole. His 3.1 5 6 6 3 1 performance was by far his worst start this year. But the Rays immediately responded with a 7-run bottom of the 4th to take the lead 8-6, keyed by a 3-run Luis Corpus HR (#4), a 2-run Ayala double and a Bo Angeac solo shot (#8). Danny Medina relieved Soranno but allowed the Jays to tie it up in the 6th with a pair of runs, but that just annoyed the Rays who went back ahead on an Angeac RBI double, so Medina ended up with his 2nd win. They tacked on 3 more in the 8th on a Dayle Jenkins solo homer (#4, hitting them in bunches again) and an Ayala RBI single to cap a 4-RBI day for him and give him the MLB lead at 32. Tim Siqueiros looked his old self with a 1-2-3 2K 7th, and Billy Hoyte pitched the 8th and stayed on when the lead expanded to 4, picking up his first Rays save.

Somebody call the fire department:



Game 2: Despite a great record so far, the Rays have had a disturbing trend of awful outings from their starters and once again today there were put in a big hole. This time they were unable to climb out of it as Toronto battered Andy Aparicio and the Rays 11-3. Fortunately for Aparicio 5 of the 6 runs he allowed in the 2nd were unearned thanks to a Bo Angeac error and giving up a grand slam with two out. But they still hit him pretty hard even though he was piling up the whiffs and ended with a strange 5 11 8 3 0 10 line which was BABIP hell. Kevin Kerstetter, who has been so good, ended up giving up 3 runs in his 2 2/3, but part of that was Edgar Rios giving up two hits after coming in to replace him, as allowing inherited runners to score has been a habit for Rios. There weren't too many offensive highlights either, although Jaiden Hardaway's RBI single in the 4th extended his hitting streak to 21 and Victor de Jesus continued his scorching start to the season by going 3-4 with an RBI.

Game 3: The Rays got some outstanding pitching for a change and some timely late hitting to take a 6-2 win over Toronto. Nate Thompson was excellent, going 6.1 6 2 2 2 8 and nearly coming away with the win if not for a homer he allowed in the 7th to Skyler Messinger to tie up the game. Tim Siqueiros came on, got a couple of strikeouts to end the top of the 7th and in the bottom of the inning they got 2-run homers from Danny Ayala (#9) and Nate Boesel (his first of the year) to pull away. Mike Wherry had a scoreless 8th and Kikuo Kawase had a 1-2-3 9th although he only whiffed one. Earlier Jaiden Hardaway's RBI single made it 22 straight with a safety and Ayala walked with the bases loaded for the first two Rays runs.

Team record: 24-8. Next up: An off-day then some interleague action as Atlanta comes to town for two games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Congratulations Vladimir Guerrero Jr! The 7-time MVP and future Hall of Famer did this:



He might have spent most of his illustrious career with the Blue Jays and the Yankees (as well as a pit stop with tonight's opponent Atlanta) but he's now had two of his biggest career moments as a Ray: winning a World Series last October and tonight, career hit #3000. There weren't too many accomplishments I haven't achieved in this save but given how even our best players usually spend no more than 6-7 years with the club we don't often celebrate big-number career milestones. Oh by the way there was a game tonight, and Guerrero played a big part in it. The Rays took an 8-1 decision over Atlanta and Guerrero's two-run double in the 1st (hit #2999) supplied the only runs Tampa Bay would need. #3000 came in the 3rd on a single and immediately thereafter Bo Angeac had a 2-run HR (#9) after a brief stoppage in play. Angeac also had a sac fly in the 1st and a run-scoring groundout later for a 4-RBI day while Jaiden Hardaway waited until his final at-bat in the 8th to extend his hitting streak to 23 games with an RBI single. The big story though (aside from Guerrero's 3000th) was the return to form of Nate Schultz, who had already lost more games (3) than he did in all of 2033. The righty was dominant tonight, going 6.2 4 1 0 3 10 including 5 straight whiffs at one point. He's now 2-3 and the ERA drops to a still-ugly 6.02, but a definite step in the right direction. Tim Siqueiros got the final out of the 7th when it was 5-1, but after the lead expanded Edgar Rios came in and went the final 2 innings scoreless.

Game 2: The Rays followed yesterday's 8-1 win over Atlanta by going one better and beating them 9-1 tonight. Leo Ortega has been this year's most consistent starter and he had his best outing of the season to date, a brilliant 7 4 0 0 0 9 to go to 6-0, 3.32. Mike Wherry had a 1-2-3 2K 8th against his old team and Billy Hoyte lost the shutout in the 9th with a 2-out wild pitch, a run that was unearned due to a Jon Jimenez error, while he fanned 3 in his inning. Jaiden Hardaway was a beast again, getting the hitting streak to 24 right off the bat (literally and figuratively) and going 3-4 with a walk and an RBI. He now actually has better triple slash #s than last season, currently at 388/482/655. Also putting up insane numbers is Victor de Jesus, 2-4 tonight with HR #13. He's at 419/494/787 and already has 3.1 WAR (on pace for 14.7). Danny Ayala had a 3-run homer (#9) after whiffing his first 3 times up and Vlad Guerrero Jr now has 3,003 hits after going 3-4.

Team record: 26-8. Next up: Another off-day followed by 4 games in Baltimore over the weekend, including a Saturday doubleheader.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 5 more homers, 11 more runs, just another day in the life of the 2034 Tampa Bay Rays who blasted Baltimore 11-3 today. Victor de Jesus saw Jaiden Hardaway's 2033 and said to himself "maybe I can do better" and he continued his tear by hitting 2-run homers each of his first two times up to give him 15, Vlad Guerrero Jr followed de Jesus's 2nd in the 3rd inning with a 2-run shot (#9) of his own, and later in the game Ricky Widmar (#3) and Hardaway (#10, hitting streak to 25) went deep as well. Andy Aparicio was the beneficiary of all the runs today, going to 3-3 with a 7.2 8 3 3 1 6 outing. Edgar Rios retired the four men he faced to finish.

Game 2: The Rays took the first game of the doubleheader 9-3 although it was only a 3-2 lead going into the 8th before they exploded. Ricky Widmar's solo homer in the 2nd (#4) made it 1-0, where it stood until Bo Angeac went deep with a man on (#10) to triple the lead in the top of the 6th. Baltimore got back within 3-2 in the bottom of the inning but in the 8th Widmar walked with the bases loaded before Will Quintana delivered a grand slam (#3) as he continues to rake in limited action (356/412/600 in 45 AB), putting the game away. Jon Soranno started and was excellent before tiring in the 6th, finishing 5.2 7 2 2 0 5 and going to 4-0. Danny Medina went the final 3 1/3 for his 1st save of the year, only allowing a solo homer in the 9th. Jaiden Hardaway doubled leading off the game, quickly extending his hitting streak to 26 (he's getting the nightcap off).

Game 3: The Rays completed the doubleheader sweep of Baltimore with a 7-0 win, and while the offense did its usual thing the big story came on the mound. Kevin Kerstetter got the spot start given that no off days are on the horizon and he responded admirably, going 6 4 0 0 0 6 to pick up his first win of the season. He's been outstanding in long relief and is having a great season with a 1.93 ERA and a 3/35 BB/K ratio in 23.1 innings to date. Edgar Rios went two innings without incident and Bob Sirna pitched a scoreless 9th in a rare appearance for him which didn't feature a walk or a strikeout. The Rays hit Baltimore for 4 in the 4th, first on a Vlad Guerrero Jr RBI double, then a Bo Angeac RBI groundout before Tim Steele dropped a fly ball and allowed another run to score, opening the door for a Melvin Gutierrez (getting a rare start) RBI single. Angeac later made it homers in both ends of the doubleheader with a solo shot (#11) while Dayle Jenkins tripled in a run and scored on a Vlad single.

Ex-Rays news: Nate Lowe hit career HR #400 for Milwaukee, while Nate Clark will miss 6 weeks with biceps tendinitis for St. Louis, and surprise, surprise, Bobby Witt Jr will be out 6 weeks as well for Houston with a sprained knee.

Game 4: The fourth game of this series looked a lot like the first three with the Rays winning comfortably 8-3. Instead of the Rays going on a homer barrage today it was Oriole pitching, especially starter Chris Pendergrast, which allowed them to walk around the bases rather than trot as Tampa Bay batters were issued 12 bases on balls today, 8 of which were courtesy of Pendergrast. He walked the sacks full in the 1st and Jon Jimenez cleared them with a double, Will Quintana stayed hot with a 2-run single in the 5th, and Victor de Jesus hit the team's lone longball of the day in the 6th with an man on, his 16th. Meanwhile Nate Thompson turned in the team's fourth fine start of the series, going 6 4 1 1 1 7 and improving to 4-0, 3.48. Bob Sirna was shaky today, walking 3 and allowing two runs in the 7th, but Tim Siqueiros went a solid 1 1/3 and Mike Wherry pitched around a couple of walks in the 9th to finish the game. One sour note, though: the inevitable and annual Ricky Widmar injury occurred as he sprained an ankle and will miss four weeks.

Team record: 30-8. Next up: The road trip hits the heartland as we head to Kansas City for 3.

[Art Deco]

Since we're at about the 1/4 mark of the season, here's a look at the standings and leaderboards:

[Art Deco]

May 15: Placed SS Ricky Widmar on the 10-day IL with a sprained ankle, recalled SS Jeff Baez from AAA Durham.

Let the Jeff Baez Era begin. He almost got the job to start the year as I shopped Widmar, but the offers weren't great for a free-agent-to-be making $20M and who can't stay healthy, as good as Widmar is when he's available. So we get a preview of 2035 instead, and Baez has hit well at Durham (309/442/392 this year after 329/387/490 last season).

Game 1: After 4 games in 3 days in Baltimore we only had 2 relievers showing in white, not yellow, so it was imperative Nate Schultz give us some length tonight. In the end he kind of did, going 6 7 2 2 4 8 on 102 pitches, not the model of efficiency but it got the job done as the two non-tired relievers were set up to preserve a 4-2 lead. Billy Hoyte went two perfect innings with three whiffs to lower his ERA to 0.75, and Kikuo Kawase came on for the 9th. Kawase was too rested, having only pitched once in the last 15 days mostly due to our winning games by way too many runs for save situations. And the rust showed as he allowed two men to reach and wild pitched one of them in with two out but rallied to strike out the next batter and hang onto a 4-3 win with save #9 while Schultz evened his record at 3-3. It was not the usual offensive orgy as you can tell, but Danny Ayala did smoke HR #10 to get the Rays on the board in the 2nd and Vlad Guerrero Jr's 10th with a man on in the 7th gave them the lead for good. Jaiden Hardaway once again left it late, singling in the 8th to make it 28 straight with a hit, and he then stole second, went to third on the bad throw and scored on a Dayle Jenkins sac fly for insurance against which we had to file a claim. Jeff Baez made his MLB debut and singled in his first at-bat, but later grounded into a pair of double plays and finished 1-4.

Game 2: You can't win 'em all, and the Rays saw their 8-game winning streak snapped tonight in Kansas City 5-3. A pair of Royals did them in. On the mound Tony Sanchez 1-hit them through 6 innings, and although they got to him for 3 in the 7th it wasn't enough. And at the plate they were owned by Alex Anderson. The second-year DH, who was 4-5 last night and drove in one of KC's runs, was 3-4 tonight and each of the three hits drove in runs: RBI doubles in the 1st and 3rd and just when the Rays pulled within 4-3 he had an RBI single off Mike Wherry in the 7th to give KC some breathing room. Leo Ortega pitched decently except for a rough sequence in the third where he allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, 3 of which were doubles. He finished 5 7 4 4 1 6 and lost his first game of the year, now 6-1. Danny Medina had his inherited runner score on that last Anderson hit after going 1 2/3 and Wherry went the final 1 1/3. The 7th-inning outburst was the extent of the offense with the key hit a Danny Ayala RBI double. Jeff Baez got his first MLB RBI with a groundout, but Ayala's double was their only extra-base hit among 6 on the night. The one hit they did have off Sanchez through 6 came off the bat of Jaiden Hardaway, so he's now more than halfway to DiMaggio at 29 straight.

Game 3: Surprise, surprise, the Rays have dropped two straight after being edged 3-2 by the Royals. Once again a Royals starter shut down the high-powered Rays offense and today it was Tim Levitt, who went 7.1 4 2 2 2 5 with the only damage against him a 2-run HR from Jon Jimenez (#5) in the 5th inning. That put the Rays up 2-1 behind Andy Aparicio, whom I probably shouldn't have brought out for the 7th as he was approaching 100 pitches. He put the first two men on and they were bunted over to 2nd and 3rd, so I brought in Tim Siqueiros with the hope of a strikeout. Instead I got a wild pitch scoring the tying run and a single scoring the go-ahead run before he finally did get the strikeout. AA finished 6.1 4 3 3 2 7 and probably deserved a better fate as he actually now has a losing record at 3-4 despite being on a 31-10 team. He has an impressive 7/66 BB/K ratio in 57.2 innings but 11 HR allowed (including one earlier in the game) has been his problem this season. Siqueiros went an inning and Billy Hoyte the final 2/3 to keep it close but 4 hits was all the offense got and none of them came from Jaiden Hardaway, meaning his hitting streak is over at 29. It was probably over before that when I mentioned the D-word (DiMaggio) yesterday.

Team record: 31-10. Next up: We keep heading west until we hit water as Anaheim is next on the itinerary for four games.