The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

First off, some honors from the league office:



Game 1: The Rays jumped all over Brody Westbrooks and the Jays for 10 runs in the first 3 innings on their way to a 12-6 victory over Toronto for win #90 of the season. They banged out 15 hits with everyone in the lineup getting at least one except Triston Casas, who was on base twice with a walk and a HBP. Austin Meadows was 3-5 with HR #22 and 2 RBI, Keibert Ruiz knocked in two to move to 101, and Nick Gonzales keeps on hitting as he went 2-4 with 3 RBI, two of which came on a triple. Tyler Glasnow was happy to receive all the run support but he started struggling and barely made it through 5 to pick up win #18, going 5 8 6 4 2 7. He'll have 2 more starts and will need to win them both to get to 20. The bullpen was great again, with scoreless innings from Liam Hendriks, Dustin May and 2 from DL Hall. With Baltimore off the magic # drops to 6.

Game 2: If the Rays want to go anywhere in the postseason their starting pitching is going to need to get it together as once again one of their top starters had a poor game, and unlike the last couple of games the offense couldn't overcome it in a 7-1 loss. Mitchell White gave up a pair of 2-run HRs in the 1st inning and another one later for a 5 8 7 5 0 6 outing that saw his ERA rise above 4 much as Tyler Glasnow's has. The only run for the Rays came courtesy of Hunter Bishop's 17th HR of the season off Kevin Abel, who went 7.1 5 1 1 3 6. The 3 walks were all to Vidal Brujan, who ended the night 0-0. Dustin May and Mitch Keller each threw a pair of scoreless innings in relief. Baltimore beat the Yankees so the magic # remains 6.

Game 3: The Rays had their way with the Jays in a 15-2 rout. Shane McClanahan continued on his roll, going 6.2 7 2 2 2 5 to improve to 9-6 and lower his ERA to 3.09, 2nd in the AL to Tarik Skubal's 3.07. Mitchell Verburg pitched the final 2 1/3 scoreless. Spencer Torkelson had the big bat once again, homering in the 2nd to put the Rays up 1-0, and then launching a 3-run shot in an 8-run 4th inning which blew the game open. He's now at 29 HR and 95 RBI and seems a lock to get 30/100. Also homering were Keibert Ruiz (#15 to go with his 103 RBI), Vidal Brujan (#10), and Alec Bohm (#21). Keston Hiura had 3 doubles as the 12 of the Rays' 18 hits tonight went for extra bases. Baltimore defeated the Yankees again so the magic # drops to 5 while the Angels lost to Texas putting the Rays a game up for best record in the AL.

Team record: 91-61. Next up: An off-day followed by 3 games in Baltimore, a series that looked like it would mean everything a few weeks ago but now could be the site of the Rays' division coronation.

[Art Deco]

First some news from the off-day: Baltimore lost so the magic # for clinching the division drops to 4. This means the Rays can clinch the division this weekend with 2 wins against the Orioles. Also, some notable retirements from around the league, with the most notable being longtime Ray (and face of the franchise after Evan Longoria was traded) Kevin Kiermaier. We retired Longoria's #3, but I'm not sure whether we'll do likewise for KK's #39. Other retirements include another Ray of several years, Alex Colome, as well as Adam Eaton, Nick Castellanos, Freddy Galvis, and A.J. Puk, the latter two spending some time with the Rays and the former two playing in the Rays minor league system this year.

Game 1: The Rays moved one win away from clinching the division this weekend by bludgeoning Baltimore 14-2. The "2" was more notable as Matt Manning (who had the dreaded snowflake next to his name) snapped out of his recent funk by taking a no-hitter into the 6th and ending up 6.1 2 2 2 3 8 with Mitch Keller allowing 2 of his runners to score in the 7th. Manning is now 17-7, 3.53 and although his recent slump may cost him a repeat Cy Young it's good to see him pitch well against a good team in a tough park. It was certainly a tough park for Oriole pitchers tonight as the Rays blasted 19 hits to score their 14 runs. Keibert Ruiz and Spencer Torkelson had RBI singles in the 1st to make it 2-0, Alec Bohm hit the first of his 2 HRs to make it 4-0 in the 2nd, and it just kept escalating from there. When the dust settled, Tork had a 2-RBI double as well to bring him to 98 RBI, Austin Meadows was 3-4 with a 2-run triple, Brandon Marsh had a 2-run HR (#18), and Bohm had a second 2-run HR (#23) to give him a 4-RBI night. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and Ruiz and Vidal Brujan had 3 apiece as well. Keller pitched the final 2.2 scoreless. A win tomorrow or Sunday secures the division. The Angels won to stay 1 1/2 behind in the race for the best record in the AL.

Game 2: Division Winners again! For the fourth straight season (and five in six) the Rays are kings of the AL East thanks to another Baltimore blowout, this time 12-3. Tyler Glasnow went to 19-6 (albeit with a 4.09 ERA) going 6 7 3 3 1 6 today while his teammates offered him up plenty of run support once again. The Rays got runners on in the 1st and Austin Meadows had a sac fly and Hunter Bishop a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0, Keibert Ruiz singled in Nick Gonzales in the 2nd to make it 3-0, Alec Bohm's RBI double in the 3rd made it 4-1, Keston Hiura's RBI single and Bohm's sac fly made it 6-1 in the 5th, Ruiz had another RBI single in the 6th to make it 7-3, and then they had fun in the 7th. First, Hiura (#19) and Bishop (#18) went back-to-back to lead off the inning, and then after Bohm whiffed, Gonzales (#5) and Vidal Brujan (#11) went back-to-back as well. And after Bramdon Perez walked, Austin Meadows doubled him home for the final Rays run. It was a second consecutive 3-hit game for Keibert, and Nick Gonzales had 2 doubles to go with that homer, as he continues to rake at 358/375/577 in 137 AB since taking Wander's place in the lineup and doing a wonderful impression of him. 3 more scoreless innings from the pen as Liam Hendriks (1), DL Hall (1 1/3) and Dustin May (2/3) finished it out. One bit of negative news: Brandon Marsh sprained his knee and is DtD for the next 3 days, so he'll get a much-deserved rest. Might call up an OF (Kjerstad) to play CF as Bishop is only a 45 there. Meanwhile, Glasnow will get one shot at win #20 at home against Houston on Thursday. The Angels won again to stay 1 1/2 behind for the league's top record.

September 28: Optioned P Dustin May to AAA Durham, recalled OF Heston Kjerstad from AAA Durham.

With Brandon Marsh gimpy for a few days, Kjerstad comes up and gets a reward for having a good season at Durham and what had to be a disappointing year for him after spending about a month or two up with the big club last season when Marsh was continually battling injuries.

Game 3: The Rays trotted out their day-after-clinching-the-division lineup today, with Vidal Brujan, Keibert Ruiz, Austin Meadows, Nick Gonzales and Brandon Marsh all getting the day off, and predictably didn't generate a lot of offense in a 4-1 loss. Keston Hiura's 20th HR in the 6th inning was the only run they scored, and Mitchell White had another rough start (5.2 10 4 4 1 4) to make it 19 ER allowed in his last 4 starts over 16 1/3 innings. Right now he's penciled in as the #4 starter in the playoffs but who knows? Another 2 1/3 shutout from the bullpen thanks to 1/3 from DL Hall and scoreless innings from Mitchell Verburg and Liam Hendriks. The Angels lost though, so the Rays remain 1 1/2 games up for the #1 seed.

Team record: 93-62. Next up: 3 games at Yankee Stadium.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays continue to have (relative) trouble with the 105-loss Yankees as they blow an early 6-0 lead and lose 7-6 with the regulars (except Marsh) back in the lineup. Keibert Ruiz was 3-5 with 3 RBI, Triston Casas and Nick Gonzales had RBI singles and Austin Meadows hit HR #23, but Shane McClanahan gave it all back and then Nick Anderson allowed a 7th inning longball to Giancarlo Stanton for the winning run. Mac couldn't stand prosperity and went 4.2 8 6 6 2 2 as he missed out on a golden chance get win #10. The bullpen pitched well with Mitch Keller and Aaron Ashby getting into the 7th but Anderson served up his longball to Stanton despite whiffing 3 of the other 4 he faced as he is now 3-3. Heston Kjerstad had a nice game filling in for Brandon Marsh, getting on base all 4 times up on 2 hits, a walk, and a HBP although he was caught stealing in the 8th. The Angels once again did us a favor though by losing to Oakland, so we're still 1 1/2 games up for the #1 seed. Aside from the benefit of playing a team with a lesser record in the ALDS, it also would give us home field throughout the AL playoffs, a big deal since the Rays have won about 2/3 of their home games but are only a couple of games over .500 on the road this season.

Another wave of retirements today, including the 2007 and 2008 #1 overall first round picks of the Rays David Price and Tim Beckham, one who lived up to the billing and the other who didn't.

Game 2: Ugh. This game probably couldn't have gone any worse. First of all, Christian Little got the start and looked good whiffing 2 of the first 4 batters, all of whom he retired, before having to leave with a sore elbow. It's a moderate 3-week DtD injury that pretty much rules him out of the playoffs which is unfortunate. Also unfortunate is this had to become a bullpen game and it ended up going 13 innings (!) so we had to end up using 9 pitchers today. Oh yeah, and we lost 8-7 after going up 7-5 in the top of the 13th only for Jasseel De La Cruz to give up a 2-run HR to Brandon Lowe (his 2nd of the game) and a solo shot to Mike Tauchman. Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees and he too had to leave early, in the 4th inning, after giving up Spencer Torkelson's 30th HR of the year, a 472-foot shot to dead center. It briefly put the Rays up but they fell behind 5-1 before fighting back to tie it. Hunter Bishop had an RBI single in the 6th, and then in the 7th Heston Kjerstad homered and three batters later Keston Hiura hit #21 with a man aboard to even up the score. And there we went until the 13th when Nick Gonzales hit a 2-out, 2-run single with the bases loaded to give the Rays an apparent win but Jasseel coughed it up. Little will go on the DL and Dustin May will come up to help out the beleaguered bullpen, and I may call up another arm as we'll need some length from Matt Manning tomorrow night in his final start of the regular season. Thankfully the Angels keep losing so the #1 seed is still in play.

ALL HAIL TORK!




October 1: Placed P Christian Little on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness; optioned P DL Hall to AAA Durham, recalled Ps Daniel Lynch and Dustin May from AAA Durham.

Game 3: Well, congratulations to the Rays for managing to lose a 19-game season series to a 105-loss team. That's what they did by being swept tonight to end the year 9-10 against the Yankees thanks to a 5-0 loss. Matt Manning does not exactly go into the postseason with momentum and he's disturbingly walked 4 more men tonight as his control seems to have deserted him some. Tonight he was an ugly 5 8 4 4 4 6 as he ends the season 17-8, 3.62 after allowing 22 runs in 32 innings in his final 6 starts to see his ERA rise by about half a run in that span. Meanwhile the offense couldn't do anything against 19-game loser Trevor Bauer (who apparently has avoided losing 20) as he went 7.1 4 0 0 3 8. Only Triston Casas (2-3 with a walk) can hold his head up. The good news is that the bullpen got a rest after yesterday's marathon with callup Dustin May pitching the final 3 innings and allowing a run and that the Angels seem addicted to losing as the Rays are, being swept by Oakland so we're still 1 1/2 up for the top seed.

Team record: 93-65. Next up: We close out the regular season with 4 games at home vs Houston.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow took the mound today with a chance to win 20 games in a season for the first time in his career (his 2023 Cy Young season with 17 wins was the only time he had won more than 13), and he ran with it despite minimal offensive support in a 2-1 win over Houston. Glasnow might have pitched his best game of the season, going 7 3 1 1 0 11, only being dinged for Yordan Alvarez's 50th HR of the season in the 4th inning. The performance also got his ERA under 4 as he finishes 20-6, 3.99 with a 50/233 BB/K ratio in 196.1 innings. He'll also end up with his third AL strikeout crown after leading the league in 2020 and 2024. Jose Alvarado had a 1-2-3 8th and with lefties Alvarez and Kyle Tucker and their combined 76 HR and 245 RBI this year due up in the 9th, Evan Godwin got the call and set them down in a 1-2-3 inning for save #3. The Rays only managed 5 hits on the night but 3 of them were enough for the two runs. Keibert Ruiz tripled (!) with 2 out in the first and scored on an Austin Meadows single, and Keston Hiura hit HR #22 in the 2nd off Jairo Solis. The win was the team's first since clinching the division in Baltimore on Saturday, snapping a 4-game losing streak. The Angels were off so we go into the final 3 games of the season with a 2-game lead for the #1 AL seed.

Game 2: In another game that saw almost all its scoring come in the early innings (with a run in the 5th to decide it) the Rays beat Houston again 5-4. Mitchell White got the start and after a 1-2-3 1st inning looked his recent shaky self allowing 4 runs in the 2nd. But he sort of settled down from there. He still put baserunners on (only one other 1-2-3 inning) but was the beneficiary of 3 double plays as he went a mediocre 6 7 4 4 3 2 to pick up win #11. Aaron Ashby was outstanding, pitching a scoreless 7th & 8th and whiffing 5. After the two-inning stint he might be done for the season with only 2 games left so if that's it I want to salute him for a great comeback season after missing most of 2024 with surgery. He put up a 2.39 in 49 innings, walking 12 & whiffing 60, and finally becoming the lefty beast I foresaw him being after acquiring before the 2023 season where he struggled for most of the year before getting it together come the run to the World Series. Jasseel De La Cruz, shaky himself the last few outings, pitched a perfect 9th (although not without a Jesus Sanchez ball hit to deep left) to grab save #32. The offense mostly came in the bottom of the 2nd when the Rays answered Houston's 4 with 4 of their own. The bench was emptied today, but Patrick Bailey had an RBI single, Nick Gonzales (3-4, will he ever stop hitting? let's hope not) had a 2-run double and Greg Jones had an RBI single to tie it up. And after a two-out Alec Bohm double in the 5th, Triston Casas (2-4 today to get the average up to .199, we'll keep playing him to try and get him over the Mendoza Line) delivered an RBI single for what turned out to be the winning run. Also in our milestone watch, Spencer Torkleson was 0-3 with a walk today as he remains one RBI short of 100. The Angels pounded Texas to stay two back for the top seed, meaning our magic # there is 1 (actually it may be 0 as I believe the tiebreaker is season series, which the Rays won 5-1).

Austin Meadows extension negotiations update:




Hahahahahaha! Let's face it we're not signing Meadows, he wants too much $ and term and he's now on the wrong side of 30. Nick Schnell is back next season, plus we have Kjerstad, and Bishop's acquitted himself well this season. Nor does Tork have to DH, he can play a decent OF himself. So a Schnell-Marsh-Bishop OF will work, with Tork in the mix and perhaps Kjerstad or Bramdon Perez. And despite his poor numbers at AA Montgomery a look under the hood (the editor) shows that Jhon Diaz is still very capable of playing in the bigs, he's a 60 RF and could get a look. So no shortage of OFs even without Meadows. By the way for anyone who's been following along through the years of this save, here's an update on all the young OFs we traded in the 2023-24 offseason when we had that ridiculous glut: Alex Kirilloff has been mediocre in Detroit, .240-10-64 with -0.1 WAR, Yusniel Diaz in Milwaukee,.235-17-69 with 0.1 WAR, JJ Bleday (who went from SD->KC->COL) .216-16-53 with 0.1 WAR, and the big exception to all of them, Trevor Larnach in Pittsburgh who's having a monster season after missing most of 2024 with injuries: .277-35-126 with 3.7 WAR. That was the guy we should have kept out of all of them.

Game 3: With nothing to play for on this final regular season weekend, it was milestone time as Shane McClanahan looked for his 10th win, Spencer Torkelson his 100th RBI, and Triston Casas for some base hits to get the average over .200. None of them achieved their goals in 2025's penultimate regular season game but the Rays won an excellent pitchers' duel 1-0 on a Keibert Ruiz walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th. Mac was great (7 6 0 0 1 8) but unfortunately for him picking up a win Jonathan Loiasiga was even better (7 1 0 0 2 5) with Tork's single off him in the 2nd the only base hit he allowed. Tork had a shot at RBI #100 in the 4th when Brandon Marsh reached on an error and ended up at 3rd with 1 out but George Springer threw Marsh out at home attempting to score on Tork's fly ball. Casas, meanwhile, went 0-2 and in the second at-bat he took a called 3rd strike which he took exception to and was thrown out of the game. He'll need at least a couple of hits tomorrow if he wants to get over .200. Mac, meanwhile, ends his season 9-6, 3.19 with 190 whiffs in 192 innings and is the King of the No-Decision, with 18 of them in his 33 starts this year. As far as the game went, Jose Alvarado had a perfect 8th and Nick Anderson survived a walk in the 9th to get a couple of whiffs, setting the stage for the bottom of the 9th. Vidal Brujan led off and reached on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa error at 3B, stole second (#79) and after Brandon Marsh flied out, Ruiz singled to right and Brujan beat Will Benson's throw home to make the Rays a winner and assure them of having the best record in the AL where they'll play the winner of Cleveland and Baltimore in the ALDS.

Game 4: The bench got emptied again, Daniel Lynch got the start, and unsurprisingly the Astros won 6-1. Lynch showed why he had become the forgotten man of the staff and exiled to Durham, going 4 8 4 4 3 2 and failing in his bid to grab a spot on the postseason roster. Dustin May followed him and looked good until he gave up a 2-run HR to Carlos Correa, so he was 3 1 2 2 1 4 in his extended relief outing. The milestones didn't pan out - Spencer Torkelson was 0-3 with 2 walks and had 2 great opportunities to get RBI #100 with two men on in each of his last two at-bats but he struck out in the first instance and flew out to center to end the game, while Triston Casas was 0-3 and finished at .196. The lone Rays run came courtesy of Heston Kjerstad's 2nd HR, who impressed in his limited ABs in September going 375/423/667 with 2 HR in 24 AB, as many as he hit in 111 AB with the big club last season. His ability to hit righty (he's a switch-hitter) and play a decent CF make him a good candidate to make the roster next year. Anyway, another regular season is in the books and the Rays' bid for their third straight pennant and 2nd World Series win in 3 years soon begins.

Final Regular Season Record: 96-66. Next up: A post with the final stats, standings, etc. and then the Rays will host Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS against the winner of the Cleveland-Baltimore Wild Card Game.

MLB note: Evan Fitterer of the Miami Roughnecks, who famously threw a 144-pitch no-hitter as a rookie a couple of years ago, threw another one today against the Washington Nationals. This time around it only took him 100 pitches and he would have had a perfect game had he not hit Victor Robles with a pitch as he ended 9 0 0 0 0 6.

[Art Deco]

Wow, I didn't even notice until now that Shane McClanahan won the AL ERA title at 3.19. He'll start Game 3 of the ALDS. Here are the final standings and leaders:



And here are the final team stats, once again we were #1 in runs scored and runs allowed, the name of the game. The OBP was a little down but we're picking nits here. Not a nit is the defense, which was bad and got worse after Wander went down for the season. The D and the 4/5 spots in the rotation were our biggest weakness this year, at least the second is somewhat ameliorated by the playoff schedule.



The final hitting stats. Not too shabby when you sport a lineup with 7 guys who had at least 3.6 WAR. And how bout that Nick Gonzales? That 5/50 BB/K ratio is a bit ghastly, making me wonder how he'll sustain a .300 BA, but he was a godsend after Wander went down. At the other end of the table is the black hole of suck that was Triston Casas and Renato Nunez. I want to believe in Casas since he plays a decent defensive 3B and has serious power but he's just not getting it done. Those two + Alec Bohm played 1B this year and while Bohm has had his moments his main contribution is hitting HRs and playing some decent D at the position since he doesn't walk or hit for average, so that could be a position to consider upgrading in the offseason.




The final pitching stats. The big 3 in the rotation each led the AL in at least one major category with Glasnow tops in wins & whiffs, McClanahan in ERA, and Manning's 4.3 WAR was best in the league. You can see how good the bullpen was here, but Mitchell White as the 4th starter is a bit scary as he had a worse WAR than Daniel Lynch, whom I can't trust, and even Christian Little who basically had a cameo. I dread the thought of White starting Game 4 at Camden Yards, for instance, but the alternatives aren't much better (Dustin May?). Christian Little might have been the secret weapon here had he not gotten hurt.

[Art Deco]

October 7, NL Wild Card Game:



Arizona closer Seth Elledge loaded the bases with nobody out in the 9th - and nearly got out of it, getting a force at home and a strikeout - but gave up a 2-out grand slam to Gary Sanchez to give the Phillies the win and a date with the MLB-best 104-win Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. St. Louis will host San Diego in other NLDS.

October 8, AL Wild Card Game:



And it will be the Cleveland Indians taking on the Rays in the ALDS as they broke open a 2-2 game in the 7th with 6 runs, capped by a 3-run blast from former Ray Christian Arroyo after Lewis Brinson had homered to tie the game in the 6th. Kantaro Yokoyama was one of the AL's top pitchers this year and he got the win with a 6.1 6 2 2 2 5 peformance. Luckily for the Rays, they'll only see him once in the ALDS and it'll be nice to face someone other than the Mariners or the Blue Jays in the opening round as they've done the last 4 years. The Angels will host the Twins in the other ALDS.

[Art Deco]

October 9:

The NL got going first:



The Phillies must have thought they were onto something when they scored 2 runs in the 1st off NL Cy Young-elect Mike Soroka but Atlanta hit them hard over the next 2 innings to go on to romp. And a Michel Baez-Jack Flaherty duel got broken open with a 2-run Josh Stowers HR in the 6th and then the Cards feasted on the Padres bullpen to blow it open.

October 10:



Well that was about as pathetic a game as they could play, and once again this team proves it's virtually incapable of winning Game 1 of a postseason series. Since I started this save in 2020, they've lost nine of ten Games 1 (including the 2021 Wild Card Game) with the lone exception being the 2023 World Series over the Padres. And tonight they took it to an art form. Matt Manning continued his disturbing trend of wildness (and not unrelated, poor starts) by walking 2 and hitting a man in the first inning to allow 2 runs and just kept it up from there, ending with a bizarre 4 5 6 6 6 6 line. The stuff is still good, but he's turned into Bobby Witt Sr. these days. The Rays may have to win the next 3 if he's going to pitch like this in a potential Game 5. Of course Manning could have gone 7 5 1 1 0 12 and they still would have lost as the offense could only manage 3 hits tonight against Luis Castillo, who sported a 5.35 ERA for the season. He's a bit of a better pitcher than that but tonight was ridiculous. Nick Gonzales, who tripled in the 8th with 2 out, was their first (and only) baserunner to get past first base. Dustin May had 3 scoreless innings in relief, but if I'm mentioning his name things have gone horribly wrong. Liam Hendriks had a scoreless 8th and Mitchell Verburg gave up 2 more runs in the 9th but none of that mattered. Tyler Glasnow will need to pitch more like his 2024 postseason self (4-0 with a 2.19 ERA) rather than his 2019-2023 postseason self (2-7 with an ERA around 5) in Game 2 if the Rays are going to pull this out. Yes they came back from 0-2 down in the 2023 ALDS but that doesn't happen very often.

The other DS games today:



Minnesota jumped out to an early lead like Cleveland did and never looked back to go up 1-0 on the Angels, the Phillies were staring an 0-2 start trailing 4-1 in the 4th but got a big 3-run HR from Brendan Rodgers (whom they stole from Colorado) to come back and even the series, while former Ray WS winner Noah Syndergaard outdueled one of the guys the Rays beat in that 2023 WS, MacKenzie Gore, 2-1 to go up 2-0 there.

October 11:



So what the hell was that? Tropicana Field turned into Coors Field as the Rays outslugged Cleveland 11-9 to tie their ALDS at 1. Tyler Glasnow was horrid, putting them in holes of 4-0, 7-4 and 9-7 before I finally gave him the overdue hook. After Matt Manning's terrible outing with 6 walks, it was an omen that Glasnow walked the leadoff man to start the game and although he got out of the 1st unscathed, he did the same thing in the 2nd and didn't and former Ray Jake Bauers took him deep for a 3-run shot. But the Rays answered right back with 4 of their own, only for Glasnow to give up another 3 with another ex-Ray, Christian Arroyo, delivering the big hit. And they fought back again to tie it at 7, and again Glasnow gave it back on a Tyreque Reed homer. Another double and it was finally enough for me (it should have been in the 3rd) and although Liam Hendriks allowed an RBI double to score the 9th run, the bullpen was lights-out from there. Hendriks, Aaron Ashby, Nick Anderson, Jose Alvarado (who got the win) and Jasseel De La Cruz (the save) pitched the final 5 innings allowing only 1 hit, 1 walk and whiffed 10. With the Rays tying it at 9 in the bottom of the 5th they held the fort until Keston Hiura came through big with a 2-run double to provide the winning runs in the bottom of the 8th (don't know why the game story above refers to it as a "strikeout"). The hit was Hiura's 4th of the game, his 3rd double, and gave him 3 RBI for the day. The team hit 8 doubles, a triple and a homer (a solo shot from Austin Meadows early) as they atoned for their very weak performance in Game 1. Alec Bohm had a pair of RBI doubles and a triple, Hunter Bishop had an RBI double, and Vidal Brujan drove in 2 and stole two bases. But somehow they won a game where Glasnow had a 4 9 9 9 3 4 line. Shane McClanahan will try and not give up 6 or 9 runs in Game 3.

In the other ALDS:



The Angels struck back behind a dominant outing from their ace Garrett Williams (6 5 0 0 2 8) so that series is even as well.

October 12:



The Braves take a 2-1 lead in their NLDS over the Phillies behind a 7 2 1 1 1 5 outing from Ross Stripling, whom they kind of picked up off the scrapheap. Jose Ramirez's 2-run single in the 8th broke open a close game. And the Cardinals are in the NLCS thanks to a sweep of the Padres with Mike Clevenger the Game 3 hero with 6 solid innings backed by Paul Goldschmidt's 3-run HR in the 1st.

[Art Deco]

October 13:



Well that couldn't have gone any worse. Not only did we get another ****ty performance from a starter, we burned through the bullpen with guys like Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado throwing 2 innings apiece, and we still lost in 13 innings. Now it's up to Mitchell White to save the season tomorrow! Good luck boys! McClanahan went 4.1 6 7 7 1 5 and not shown there is that he hit 2 batters. And did he walk the first man he faced? Yes, of course he did. So in 3 games we had the AL WAR leader (Manning) give up 6 runs, the AL Wins & Ks leader (Glasnow) give up 9, and the ERA champ (McClanahan) give up 7. Cleveland's offense is pretty good, but it ain't the 1927 Yankees. Like in Game 2, the offense valiantly tried to keep up, and did, no more dramatically than when Keston Hiura homered with one out in the 9th to tie the game. They got 5 runs off the really good Kantaro Yokoyama, including HRs from Austin Meadows (his 2nd in 2 days) and an absolute blast to dead center with a man on from Spencer Torkelson. (By the way that little win probability surge in the 12th for the Rays came when they had the first two men single only for the next 3 to whiff). And the bullpen did it again with 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball, at least until Jasseel De La Cruz took the mound to start to 13th and gave up a HR to Lewis Brinson (his 2nd of the game) to win it for Cleveland. De La Cruz only threw 3 pitches so he'll be rested for tomorrow but given his penchant lately for surrendering HRs that's a mixed blessing. Otherwise Anderson threw 28 pitches and Alvarado 21 but it still will be all hands on deck tomorrow in an elimination game.

In the other ALDS:



and in the remaining NLDS:



Congrats to the Braves, who will take on St. Louis in the NLCS. The win was costly for them, though, as star 2B Ozzie Albies strained a rib cage muscle and is done for the playoffs.

October 14:



Well if yesterday's game couldn't have gone any worse for the Rays, today's couldn't have gone any better. Be honest: who had 8 shutout innings from Mitchell White on their bingo card? After the "3 aces" got roughed up in the first 3 games White should have been tagged for 10 runs by the transitive property. But instead he showed his postseason moxie once again going 8 6 0 0 1 7; after all he beat the Rays twice in last year's World Series for the Dodgers which was one of the main inspirations for trading for him. Anyway he was masterful, never giving up more than a baserunner an inning until he allowed a double and a walk to start the 9th so Evan Godwin came in and got a strikeout and double play to end it. Not only did White get the job done but his 8 innings meant the beleaguered bullpen finally got a rest and with a day off tomorrow they should be at full strength for Game 5. Nick Gonzales, who had a rough Game 4, got the Rays on the board to break up a tense 0-0 tie in the 5th with a 2-run HR off Spencer Howard, and then just as it looked like the Rays would squander a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity in the 6th after Hunter Bishop hit into a force at the plate, Alec Bohm came through with a 2-run single. And Brandon Marsh made it very comfortable in the 9th with a 2-run shot off one-time Cleveland ace Shane Bieber, now relegated to relief. So it's down to one all-or-nothing game back at the Trop with a rematch of Game 1 starters Matt Manning and Luis Castillo. That went horribly wrong the first time around, here's hoping for a reversal of fortune.

The other ALDS:



And if the Rays make it back to the ALCS it'll be a rematch of the one in 2023 as the Angels topped the Twins to win the series in 4 games behind 2 HRs from Mike Trout.

[Art Deco]

October 16:



They did it! They had to overcome another mediocre start from Matt Manning but the bats came to play in a 9-5 Game 5 win over Cleveland to advance to the ALCS against the Angels. Manning gave up HRs to Nolan Jones in the 1st and Jake Bauers in the 3rd but the Rays answered with runs of their own, including Austin Meadows' third HR of the series. Manning actually was on a decent roll through the 4th and 5th innings and the Rays took the lead in the 5th but he came unglued in the 6th, loading the bases and giving up a run. Evan Godwin came in and nearly got out of it with that one run scoring but he gave up an RBI single and Cleveland was back ahead 4-3. In the bottom of the inning Spencer Torkelson led off and reached on an error, and made it to third with one out. But Alec Bohm struck out and it looked like another opportunity wasted before Hunter Bishop, 1-for-18 at the time in the series, stepped up and drilled a Ryne Stanek fastball into the RF stands to put the Rays in front to stay at 5-4. Godwin got 2 out in the 7th and gave way to Nick Anderson, who got through the inning. And in the bottom of the frame the Rays blew it open on a 2-run single from Tork and a 2-run double by Alec Bohm. Anderson pitched through the 8th and although Jose Alvarado gave up a run in the 9th, he got the final 3 outs and the Rays pulled out yet another ALDS comeback.

Next up: The League Championship Series.

[Art Deco]

October 17:



Mike Soroka was Mike Soroka (7 4 1 1 0 9), and Mookie Betts backed him up with 2 HRs as Atlanta took Game 1 of the NLCS over Jack Flaherty and the Cardinals. Soroka drove in what proved to be the winning run with a single in the 5th.

October 18:



The Rays won a Game 1! For only the second time in their postseason history in this save (going back to 2020), the Rays are not staring at an 0-1 deficit (the only other time was the 2023 World Series, which they swept). Tyler Glasnow returned to dominant form and the offense hit on all cylinders in a 12-2 pasting of Shohei Ohtani and the Angels. After a scoreless first they went to work in the 2nd with Hunter Bishop's RBI double getting them on the board and Alec Bohm's sac fly making it 2-0. A Keibert Ruiz sac fly made it 3-0 in the 3rd and then they really broke it open in the 4th on Nick Gonzales' RBI double and a 2-run HR by Vidal Brujan which chased Ohtani. They didn't stop scoring after that and as you can see from the line score above they scored in every inning but the 1st and 8th as they banged out 15 hits which included 8 doubles and 2 HRs, the other being from Keston Hiura to cap off the scoring. Bishop ended up 3-4 with a 2nd RBI double, Bohm had an RBI double of his own and everyone in the lineup had at least 1 hit except Spencer Torkelson who had an RBI groundout. Glasnow was rolling and although he faded a bit allowing runs in the 5th and 6th, he ended up an excellent 6 5 2 2 2 10 to pick up the win while Dustin May pitched 3 shutout innings to get his first postseason save. Shane McClanahan will try to give the Rays a 2-0 lead tomorrow against Garrett Williams, one of the league's toughest lefties.

And in the NLCS:



A great duel between Noah Syndergaard and Ian Anderson ended up going the Braves' way when they rallied for 2 in the bottom of the 9th. First, pinch-hitter Drew Waters took the Cards' Seranthony Dominguez deep to tie the game and then after Christian Pache doubled with two out, Jose Ramirez singled him home to give the Braves a shock 3-2 win and a 2-0 lead in the series.

October 19:



It was the Hunter Bishop show again as the Rays lit up the scoreboard for the second straight night in an 11-5 win over the Angels to take a 2-0 ALCS lead. Bishop put the Rays in front in the 2nd with a 2-run HR, and then repeated the feat as part of a 5-run 4th inning. Bishop's second blast followed a 2-run Alec Bohm triple as the Rays jumped all over Garrett Williams and the Angel bullpen. Shane McClanahan got the start and was great through 4 innings before the wheels fell off in the fifth. He loaded the bases and allowed a couple to score and then with 2 men on he gave up a lefty-on-lefty homer to Alex Verdugo to turn a laugher into a close game at 7-5. He got Mike Trout but couldn't retire Shohei Ohtani, another lefty, so he was pulled one out short of qualifying for a win. Liam Hendriks got the final out, and the Rays put 3 more up in the bottom of the 5th when James Sherfy lost the strike zone and walked Bishop and Brandon Marsh with the bases loaded around a Nick Gonzales RBI single. Austin Meadows added HR #4 of the postseason in the 6th to give us the final score. Hendriks, who picked up the win, hung around for a 1-2-3 6th and he was followed by Aaron Ashby, who struck out 5 straight Angels as part of 2 perfect innings. Mitchell Verburg had a 1-2-3 9th to finish the game as the Rays bullpen continues to dominate. Despite what it says above, Matt Manning will take the ball in Game 3 and will hopefully deliver a quality start. That's something the Rays have only gotten twice in their seven playoff games so far, but thanks to the offense (54 runs in 6 games since being shut out in Game 1 of the ALDS) and the bullpen they're 5-2 and 2 wins away from their 3rd consecutive World Series.

October 20:



The Cardinals only managed 2 hits on the night but they were both homers as they pulled to within 2-1 in the NLCS. After Willson Contreras homered off Ross Stripling to tie the game, Josh Stowers hit a 2-run shot after a Jose Ramirez error kept the inning alive. Mike Clevinger got the win with 5 strong innings, whiffing 8.

[Art Deco]

October 21:



The Big Ray Machine rolls on as the team which has averaged 9 runs/game going back to Game 2 of the ALDS scored 9 runs to throttle the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 and move to within one win away of its 3rd straight World Series. For only the third time in those games they paired great starting pitching with the lethal offense as Matt Manning pitched maybe his best postseason game as a Ray going 8 6 1 1 1 6 and looking for the first time in a while like the pitcher who won the 2024 AL Cy Young and still might win it in 2025. His only blemish was a 7th inning HR from Mike Trout. Manning was in command but he had a lot of runs to work with as the Rays scored all 9 of their runs in the first 4 innings. Vidal Brujan was the offensive star with a 2-run double in 2nd and a 2-run triple in the 3rd, Austin Meadows kept his .500 postseason batting average by going 2-4 with an RBI, Keibert Ruiz had a key RBI double and Brandon Marsh went 3-5 with an RBI. They had 16 hits with only Nick Gonzales (0-5 with 3 whiffs) failing to notch a safety. One down note, though: the red-hot Hunter Bishop had to leave with back tightness in the 2nd inning (he still had a hit in his only at-bat) and is DtD for a week. Heston Kjerstad took over and didn't miss a beat, going 2-3 with a walk in Bishop's place. And I also have to keep reminding myself that this team is scoring like mad in the postseason despite missing perhaps the league's best player in Wander Franco. Mitchell White, who saved the season with 8 shutout innings in Game 4 of the ALDS, will now look to close it out tomorrow.

The NLCS:



Whereas the Rays look to be all but in the World Series, the NL's spot is up for grabs as the Cards have come back to tie up the series at 2. Johan Oviedo, who spent most of the year in AAA, went 7 6 0 0 0 9 to dominate the Braves. Nick Senzel and Dylan Carlson drove in 2 runs apiece to pace the St. Louis offense.

October 22:



The Rays completed the sweep with a convincing 7-2 win over the Angels to advance to their third straight World Series, joining the 1998-2001 Yankees as the only teams to appear in three or more straight fall classics over the last 25 seasons. They outscored the Angels 39-10 over the four games in a real show of force. Mitchell White got the start and although he wasn't as effective as in his ALDS start, he kept getting out of jams with key strikeouts, twice of Alex Verdugo with two men on and two out. But he ran up a pitch count and after giving up a Shohei Ohtani homer in the 5th and then two straight singles, was pulled at 92 pitches with a 4.1 10 2 2 1 7 line. With the Rays' lead at the time only 5-2, Liam Hendriks came on and got a couple of big strikeouts to end the inning and then Nick Gonzales made it a not-close game again with a 2-run shot to make it 7-2 in the top of the 6th. Hendriks stayed on for a perfect 6th and then Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado combined to pitch the final 3 innings. Aside from the bats, the story this postseason for the Rays has been the bullpen, and tonight Hendriks, Anderson and Alvarado combined to go 4.2 1 0 0 0 10, about as dominant as it gets. The offense actually went a whole first inning without scoring and trailed 1-0 going into the 2nd before Alec Bohm (who hit the series-clinching walk-off HR in Game 6 of the 2023 ALCS against the Angels) hit his first HR of the postseason to tie it. And the tie was broken by Spencer Torkelson in the 3rd with a 2-run double, a run was balked in, and Keston Hiura had an RBI single to suddenly make it 5-1. Now they await the Cardinals-Braves winner in the World Series.

In the NLCS:



The Mike Soroka vs Jack Flaherty pitching matchup lived up to its billing with the Braves coming out on top and returning to Atlanta with 2 shots to advance to the World Series to play the Rays. Soroka wasn't as dominating as Game 1, but still effective as he scattered 8 hits over his 7 innings, and RBI singles from Ronald Acuna Jr. and Mookie Betts supplied the offense.

October 24:



In a game they'll be talking about for a long time, the Cardinals forced a Game 7 with an epic, 15-inning 4-3 win over Atlanta. The Cards looked like they had it won in regulation behind 7 strong innings from Noah Syndergaard, leading 3-1. But Atlanta tied it in the 8th off Seranthony Dominguez on solo HRs from Ronald Acuna Jr. and Freddie Freeman. On and on we went until Joey Gallo singled in Ian Happ in the top of the 15th to break the tie, and former Ray Brad Hand picked up the save. Game 7 should now be interesting with two very tired bullpens as Mike Clevinger faces Ross Stripling for all the marbles.

October 25:



After building a 9-3 lead through 6, the Braves had to withstand a furious Cardinals rally to hang on to win 12-8 and advance to the World Series to face the Rays. Ronald Acuna Jr. was the series MVP and went 3-4 today with a HR and 3 RBI. As the Braves won an MLB-high 104 games this season, they will host Games 1 and 2 of the World Series and have home-field advantage. It was another costly win for the Braves, though. Having already lost Ozzie Albies for the playoffs, they'll now be without Freddie Freeman for the World Series as he tore his quad.

[Art Deco]

October 28: Activated P Christian Little from the 15-day IL, removed P Dustin May from the playoff roster.

Game 1:






It was a tough way to lose the World Series opener as Matt Manning and Mike Soroka hooked up in an excellent pitchers' duel but neither was around to see it decided as Willy Adames got revenge on his old team with a sac fly to win it in the bottom of the 12th. Wildness had been a problem for Manning and although he only walked one batter tonight, it was Christian Pache to lead off the game and he came around to score on a Mookie Betts double. The Rays would get exactly one hit in each inning off Soroka in the first 4 innings and finally strung two together in the 6th when Brandon Marsh singled, stole second, went to third on a grounder and scored on Austin Meadows' infield single. And there we went, inning after inning. The Rays had a threat in the 7th when Keston Hiura led off with a double but couldn't be brought home, and again in the 9th when Spencer Torkelson and Hiura singled with one out to no avail. The Rays got nobody on base in extras and things finally cracked in the 12th when Aaron Ashby gave up a single to lefty pinch-hitter Justin Williams, and after he struck out Cal Raleigh, he gave up a single to Ramon Urias to send Williams to 3rd. With the righty Adames due up, Liam Hendriks was summoned from the pen to hopefully get a strikeout or pop up, but instead Adames hit a fly ball to deep right that gave Meadows no chance to throw the runner out at home and Atlanta now has a 1-0 lead in the series. Tyler Glasnow will go tomorrow to try and get the Rays even.

October 29, Game 2:







If the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" is the song that always comes to mind when a team avoids elimination, perhaps when a team ties up a series the official theme song can be Heart's "Even it Up". Because even it up is what the Rays did today in a come-from-behind 9-3 win over Atlanta to wrest home-field advantage from the Braves as the series shifts to the Trop for the next 3 games. Tyler Glasnow got the call and pitched pretty well except for two instances: wild-pitching Jose Ramirez home in the 1st with 2 out, and surrendering a 2-run HR to Christian Pache in the 3rd inning. That put the Rays in a 3-0 hole but they clawed their way back into it, mainly on the back of Alec Bohm. His RBI single in the 4th scored Spencer Torkelson to put the Rays on the board against Ian Anderson, and his 2-run double tied it in the 6th. Then came the 7th. Pinch-hitter Heston Kjerstad struck out against Hector Yan, Vidal Brujan singled, but Brandon Marsh whiffed and it looked like nothing much would come of the inning. But then Yan lost the plate, walking Keibert Ruiz and Austin Meadows to load the bases, and then walked Torkelson and Keston Hiura to force in the go-ahead runs. He was finally pulled for Tyler Owens, making his major league debut in the World Series, and Bohm said "Welcome to The Show" with a grand-slam homer, giving him 7 RBI on the day and setting a World Series record for most RBI in a single game, breaking the record of 6 held by 4 players and becoming only the 6th player to ever drive in 7 in a postseason game. After the dust settled, Glasnow had come out for Kjerstad and finished 6 3 3 3 1 4 to pick up the win, and four relievers closed it out, including Aaron Ashby who struck out the side in the 7th. The four were one more than planned as Mitch Keller had to leave in the 9th after getting a strikeout, and it turns out he ruptured his ulnar collateral ligament and will be out 15 months. Sadly that probably brings an end to his Rays career as he will likely be non-tendered come arbitration time as a result. In any event, we head back to St. Pete with the series even and Shane McClanahan on the mound for Game 3.

[Art Deco]

October 31: Placed P Mitch Keller on the 60-day IL with a ruptured UCL, activated P Dustin May.

Game 3:






Holy Halloween, Alec Bohm! After setting a World Series record in Game 2 with 7 RBI, what does he do for an encore? He goes 3-4 with a double and 2 HR, driving in 4 as the Rays pounded Atlanta 9-1 to take a 2-1 series lead. Bohm got the Rays on the board in the 2nd with an RBI double as they scored 5 times in the frame, including a 2-run Nick Gonzales double and a Vidal Brujan RBI single to go with a run scoring off a Cal Raleigh passed ball. Bohm then hit the first of his 2 HRs leading off the 4th and hit the 2nd one with a man on off rookie Tyler Owens once again in the 7th to cap a 3-run inning that completed the scoring. While Bohm was doing his thing with the bat, Shane McClanahan was in control with his arm, keeping the Braves off-balance and going 6 4 1 1 1 6 in his best career postseason start. Liam Hendriks, Mitchell Verburg and Christian Little (in his postseason debut) each threw a scoreless inning to finish things off. Last year's World Series hero for the Dodgers, Mitchell White, gets the ball for the Rays in Game 4 tomorrow as they look to put a stranglehold on the series.

November 1, Game 4:






One win away. That's what the Rays are from becoming World Champions for the second time in three years after an 8-4 win over the Braves to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. Mookie Betts tried his hardest to keep the Braves in it, homering in the 2nd to give them a 1-0 lead and hitting a 2-run double in the 6th to tie the game at 3, but to beat the Rays these days the way their offense is going you'll need more than one guy hitting the ball. Brandon Marsh answered Betts' 2nd inning HR with one of his own to tie it, and then in the 3rd Austin Meadows went deep after Keibert Ruiz was hit by a pitch to make it 3-1 Rays. And after Betts tied it up in the 6th the Rays erupted for 5 runs in the bottom of the inning to put the game away. The wildness of Atlanta's bullpen came back to bite them again, as after Hunter Bishop doubled to lead off the inning, a pair of walks loaded the bases for Vidal Brujan, who singled to make it 4-3. Keston Hiura fouled out, but Ruiz ripped a 2-run single to center making it 6-3, Meadows singled to re-load the bases and then Spencer Torkelson walked to force in a run and Alec Bohm gave the crowd a thrill with a deep fly ball to left that didn't go for another grand slam but did get the 8th run home. All the while Mitchell White was solid, shutting down the Braves outside of Betts. He did give up a leadoff double in the 8th that came around to score so his line ended up 7 6 4 4 2 5 but it was a solid effort and worthy of the win. Nick Anderson got through the 8th and Jasseel De La Cruz briefly made things interesting by allowing a pair of singles to start the 9th up 8-4, but got a double play and a whiff to end the game. So tomorrow the Rays have the chance to be champions again, but it won't be easy as they'll face Mike Soroka, who shut them down in Game 1, the one game the Braves ended up winning in the series. Matt Manning will look to replicate his own Game 1 performance for the Rays.

November 2, Game 5:





Hold the champagne. Mike Soroka, Mookie Betts, and the Braves struck back tonight with a 7-0 win to stay alive and force the series back to Atlanta for a Game 6. Soroka picked up where left off in Game 1 with a 6.2 6 0 0 1 6 outing and Tyler Owens, the rookie who was victimized earlier in the series, bounced back to complete the shutout with 2.1 scoreless of his own. Meanwhile Betts continued to wield a hot bat going 4-5 with a HR and 4 RBI tonight. His homer was his 8th of the postseason, tying the single-season postseason record held by several, most recently Will Smith of the Dodgers in 2020. For the Rays, Matt Manning was decent but he would have had to have been perfect given Soroka and Owens. And the normally reliable bullpen coughed up 3 runs over the final 2 innings but it made no impact on the game. The Rays will try again to win it in two days' time at Truist Park with Tyler Glasnow on the mound facing Ian Anderson as they reprise their Game 2 matchup.

[Art Deco]

November 4, Game 6:






Well the Rays have squandered their series advantage and it's down to a Game 7 tomorrow. The 8-5 scoreline tonight flattered the Rays as Atlanta got to Tyler Glasnow for 3 1st-inning runs (all with 2 out) and built the lead from there. Only a 9th inning rally made the score respectable, and although the Rays had the tying runs on base with two out, Keston Hiura whiffed to end the game. Glasnow was far from his best, and a sequence of hits started by Mookie Betts (who else?) made it 3-0 in the 1st. Glasnow settled down from there for a few innings but was then hit for HRs by Christian Pache and Cal Raleigh and Ronald Acuna's HR off Christian Little made it 8-1. Nick Gonzales was the only Ray to get something off Ian Anderson in his 6 strong innings with a solo HR, Austin Meadows hit one, and then they had their too little, too late rally in the 9th. So it's all down to Shane McClanahan tomorrow against Ross Stripling. That matchup went well for the Rays in Game 3 but then again tonight's matchup went well for the Rays in Game 2.

November 5, Game 7:

WORLD CHAMPIONS AGAIN!






The Tampa Bay Rays took their 2nd World Series in 3 years with an 11-3 thrashing of the Atlanta Braves in which they quickly answered any questions about "momentum" or "choking" with a 4-run first inning. Vidal Brujan led off with a double, scored on an Austin Meadows double (whereupon Meadows had to leave with a calf cramp) and then Keston Hiura, who struck out to end Game 6 with a chance to tie or win it, drilled a 3-run HR into the Truist Park LF stands to make it 4-0 and the Rays never looked back from there on their way to a championship. But they weren't satisfied and continued to add on. Alec Bohm, who unsurprisingly was named World Series MVP, drilled a 2-run single to make it 6-1 in top of the 3rd. And when the Braves threatened to make it a game by pulling within 6-3 in the 5th, Keibert Ruiz went yard to make it 7-3 in the 6th and singles by Hunter Bishop (who replaced Meadows and went 3-3 with 4 runs scored), Spencer Torkelson and Bohm upped the lead to 8-3. Then in the 9th they added 3 runs on emphasis on a Tork RBI double, Hiura RBI single and a double play grounder. Shane McClanahan got the start and although he was nicked for a run in the 1st pitched pretty well through the 4th. The 5th, however, was another story as he yielded a leadoff homer to Atlanta P Hector Yan, gave up a triple to Christian Pache and a sac fly, and then walked Ronald Acuna Jr with the ludicrously hot Mookie Betts (who had driven in the 1st inning run with an RBI double) due up. So Liam Hendriks came in, and despite Acuna stealing 2nd and 3rd, got Betts to pop up on the infield and then got a groundball to end the inning. He stayed on through the 6th and picked up the win, and the combination of him, Jose Alvarado in the 7th, Nick Anderson in the 8th and Jasseel De La Cruz in the 9th pitched 4 2/3 perfect (except for a Vidal Brujan error) innings to finish it out as the best bullpen in baseball never gave Atlanta a chance to even think about a comeback. Unlike 2023, where everything (except the ALDS) came easy for the Rays with 115 wins on their way to a World Series sweep over the Padres, this year's model had to overcome regular season struggles, winning 19 fewer games than 2023, not putting away the division until late September and having to do it over the last 2 1/2 months (including postseason) without one of the game's best players in Wander Franco. (In fairness to Atlanta, they played the Series without Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman, although all 4 Rays wins were blowouts so I'm not sure they make a difference there). Still this has turned out to be the most dominant 3-year run by a team (2 titles, 3 WS appearances) since the Yankees of the late 90s and early 00s. We likely say goodbye to Austin Meadows (and perhaps Jose Alvarado) next season. Although he had a pedestrian-by-his-standards regular season, Meadows had a huge postseason and he'll be missed but as always with this franchise it's next man up, and Hunter Bishop has shown he's ready to take over in RF. Most of the pitching staff returns with right now only the 5th starter job in question but Christian Little and his electric stuff has the inside track there. We'll see what the offseason brings but don't look for major changes. I'd like better defense at 3B but Keston Hiura's bat is that good and we just won a title with him and his 45 defense so it's not a big priority. So let another parade down Central Avenue in St. Pete begin!

Let's take a look at that trophy:

[Art Deco]

Financial news: Stuart Sternberg has decided to up the payroll to $170M this season so I'll have about $20-25M to play with. Vidal Brujan and Brandon Marsh are at the point where they warrant extensions so most likely the money gets spent there although their current arb #s are baked into the totals so it may not affect this season so much. Austin Meadows is as good as gone, so we'll get a comp first-round pick for him since of course I made him the qualifying offer. Jose Alvarado is the guy I'd like to sign but he wants 3 yrs at $15M per which is no bueno. Evan Godwin is ready to step into his role so if I can't get him back at a more reasonable # once FA gets underway I have my replacement.

As I've noted, with Christian Little ready to take over the #5 spot in the rotation I'm going to need to do something with Daniel Lynch and/or Dustin May, both were disappointments last year. Also in the pitching department Jack Leiter may be ready soon. Another dilemma is going to be what to do about Nick Gonzales. With Wander back the infield is kind of full, and Nick can't play SS. I may gauge the trade market for him but I'd like to keep him around.

Some notable retirements around baseball: Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers retired his #22), Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, and J.D. Martinez. Gonna be weird facing the Yankees without Stanton or Hicks.

Also this year's FA class is loaded with Fernando Tatis Jr, Cody Bellinger and Pete Alonso all opting out of their contracts. Other big names include Eloy Jimenez, Michel Baez, Bo Bichette, JT Realmuto (again), Jacob deGrom (coming off a torn labrum), Corey Seager and Michael Conforto. And Austin Meadows of course.

November 8:



Welcome the new Austin Meadows! His name is Judson Fabian and he's probably going to be NL Rookie of the Year after a great debut campaign in Miami where he hit 281/334/486 with 28 HR and 94 RBI, he's a 55/60 RF/LF. The cost was very tolerable as Lynch goes back to his old team, Greg Jones was going to lose his backup IF job to Nick Gonzales anyway and although Mitchell Verburg's scouting ratings are great and he always seems coveted by other teams in "make this work" lists, in the year and a half he was with the Rays he never wowed me and could never seem to get through an inning without giving up a hit which was borne out by his 96 hits allowed in 90 innings (to go with 26 walks). Some of that is due to our shaky infield D, and he did only allow 5 HRs in those 90 innings and had a 2.79 ERA this year. He'll probably thrive better on Miami. Anyway, one of the reasons I also dealt for Fabian when it looked like we were set in the OF is that Nick Schnell's ratings have taken a hit since his long-term injury and he doesn't look like the player he was when he came up a couple of years ago. So right now the projected OF from L-R is Bishop, Marsh, Fabian with Torkelson at DH. Fabian's a RH hitter too which gives us some more balance. Oh yeah, and the deal opens up 2 40-man roster spots, which as usual are like gold, considering Wander, Schnell and Asa Lacy all need to come off the 60-day IL during the winter. Meanwhile, look for a future deal involving Schnell.

November 16:



It's a 4-year deal, buying out his first 2 free agency years for $13.2M/year which is what he was projected for in arbitration next season. Not bad for a guy who averaged 6 WAR over the last two seasons.

November 18:

Some awards updates: Keibert Ruiz, Wander Franco (despite his truncated season) and Spencer Torkelson won the Platinum Bat awards for C, SS and DH respectively.

Well he didn't win it as a Ray, but he's a Ray now:



Tarik Skubal won the AL Cy Young, but Shane McClanahan ended a close second, getting 10 first-place votes to Skubal's 15 and finishing behind him 149-136. Matt Manning was 4th and Tyler Glasnow 5, with Kantaro Yokoyama in 3rd. Mike Soroka won the NL version unanimously.

The juniors won the MVP Awards with Ronald Acuna taking it in the NL and Vladimir Guerrero in the AL.

First The Beatles, now Alec Bohm...



December 8: The first of the big free agent signings took place today. First in the boring news Cody Bellinger re-upped with the Dodgers for 5/131. Bo Bichette signed a 8/96.6 deal with Milwaukee and Brian Reynolds left Pittsburgh for the Chicago Cubs on a surprising 7/141 pact.

Very important update:



December 9: More big FA signings: Fernando Tatis Jr. signed a 8/240 deal with the Dodgers, who had Corey Seager opt for free agency, and the Mets re-signed Pete Alonso to a 4/79.4 deal.

December 15: The Dodgers missed the playoffs this season for the first time in ages, so they've come out with both barrels, signing the top 2 starting pitchers on the market. They got Michael Baez, who left the division rival Padres, for 5/95, and Jacob deGrom for 2/34. Earlier the White Sox signed Nick Senzel, the best 3B on the market, for 6/64.

December 18: Seconds after he hit a big HR for the Rays in Game 5 of the ALDS IRL here in 2020, this happened:



Good luck in Milwaukee! I was willing to give him a higher annual salary, but only over 3-4 years. He'll now join fellow AL East refugee Bo Bichette as the Brewers have been aggressive in free agency this offseason. And at least he won't be competing against us with an AL team.

December 19: JT Realmuto cashed in as a free agent once again, signing a 4/60 deal with the Rockies at age 34. The Blue Jays shipped Byron Buxton to Houston for pitcher Tylor Megill.

December 20: Paddack is back!



Well we made the predicted Nick Schnell deal, and got a nice haul for him. The big name in return of course is Chris Paddack, who won 10 games for us after his trade deadline acquisition from San Diego in 2022 as part of a 20-win season and was a mainstay in the rotation of the 2023 WS-winning team before getting hurt in early 2024 and becoming a free agent after being dealt to the Dodgers. He signed a 2-year deal with the Cubs last year and had an up-and-down year that still netted 1.9 WAR and he'll give up fewer homers in the Trop than he did at Wrigley. The Cubs are retaining 60% of his salary so we're paying $4M for a decent 5th starter (sorry, Christian Little - you're my multi-inning relief ace now). But the key player in the deal is Berdin, the #81 prospect in MLB and the 7th overall pick in the 2024 draft by Colorado, who dealt him to the Cubs last season. He's 6'6", 230 with a great hit and power tools, a pretty good defensive OF with a rocket for an arm. Here's a look under the hood:



Now it's not all wine and roses with him, as his numbers in A ball didn't live up to those tools and he's now been traded twice in a year and a half. But a 70 gap power and 60 power rating - right now, not potential - don't grow on trees. Bienick is a really good relief prospect who was a 3rd round pick of the Cubs in 2024, a groundballer who throws 98.

December 22:

It's Rule 5 Draft time, and although we didn't lose anyone last year, this year was different. The White Sox took C Zach Britton, whom we had at AAA Durham. I liked having him as depth, but Britton deserves a shot at the majors so good luck to him in Chicago. I was more worried about losing reliever Steven Casey, who has 70 stuff and would seem a natural for Rule 5 to stick in the back of someone's bullpen for a year. Britton was one of only 2 players taken, the other was OF Chase Davis a power hitter who blasted 32 HRs in AAA for the Mets' affiliate. He of course was taken by the Yankees in a New York thing.

[Art Deco]

January 14: The Hall of Fame results are in, and Albert Pujols was a no-brainer with 97.6% of the vote in his first year of eligibility. Manny Ramirez finally made it in on his 10th and final year at 77.2% and Ichiro Suzuki received 76.2% in his 2nd year to make it as well. Next closest was Joe Mauer at 51% in his 3rd year on the ballot.

In free agent signings of note, Corey Seager signed a 5/59 deal with the White Sox as they've upgraded the left side of their infield after earlier signing Nick Senzel. Ken Giles signed with St. Louis and to make room for him the Cards waived former Rays prospect Matthew Liberatore, who pitched pretty well for them last year. He was claimed by the Cubs. Other former Rays finding new teams include Brad Hand (2-year deal with the Rockies, good luck pitching there) and Yusniel Diaz, who signed a minor league deal with Arizona. Meanwhile, we continue to negotiate with Jose Alvarado with the latest offer being 2/22.5 as I'm not ready to let go of my bullpen security blanket just yet.

January 15: Eloy Jimenez signed a 6/91 deal with the Astros, where he'll presumably take Kyle Tucker's spot in LF as Tucker is a free agent as well. Also Kenley Jensen, who had continually re-signed with the Dodgers, finally went elsewhere taking a modest 1-year deal from Seattle.

February 4: Mitch Keller signed a 3-year deal with the Cubs for $13.6M where they plan to use him a starter in 2027 since he's going to miss all of 2026. Negotiations continue slowly with Jose Alvarado.



You knew it was going to happen. A pretty damn expensive contract for a reliever, but he's been our best the last 6 years and he shows no signs of slowing down. Now I need to make room on the 40-man.

February 8: Designated 3B Tanner Witt for assignment and placed him on waivers.

This was to make room for Alvarado. I don't want to lose Witt, of course, but he was the combination of most expendable and least likely to be claimed that I could come up with. Which of course doesn't mean he won't be claimed.

February 12: First off, Tanner Witt cleared waivers, so good job there me. Meanwhile old friend Anthony Banda is now on a hated rival as he signed a 1-year, $8.2M deal with the Red Sox, presumably to start.

February 14: While I was negotiating with Alvarado he kept telling me he had an offer from the Cardinals, so since they missed out on him they picked up another former Rays reliever with Diego Castillo inking a 3/11.8 deal with St. Louis.

March 18: Well a few days into exhibition season we had our first injury of significance with Mitchell White out 45 days with elbow inflammation. This will put Christian Little back into the rotation for now.

March 28: Hunter Bishop has a strained groin and will miss a month. Ugh.

April 3: Traded P Sandy Gaston to the Chicago Cubs for C Carlos Perez.

Gaston was out of option years, and there wasn't room for him on the active roster so he needed to be dealt. Made lemonade from lemons here by acquiring Perez, a well-regarded catching prospect who's ranked #52 in MLB by BNN. I will probably see if I can flip Perez for something.

[Art Deco]

Not a lot of surprises here.

C: Keibert Ruiz, Patrick Bailey
1B: Alec Bohm
2B: Vidal Brujan
SS: Wander Franco
3B: Keston Hiura
IF: Triston Casas, Nick Gonzales
LF: Judson Fabian
CF: Brandon Marsh
RF: Spencer Torkelson
OF: Heston Kjerstad, Bramdon Perez

SP: Matt Manning, Tyler Glasnow, Shane McClanahan, Chris Paddack, Christian Little
MR/LR: Dustin May, Asa Lacy
SU: Aaron Ashby, Liam Hendriks, Evan Godwin, Jose Alvarado, Nick Anderson
CL: Jasseel De La Cruz

IL: Hunter Bishop, Mitchell White

Dustin May made the team largely because he's out of options. BNN's preseason predictions has us winning the East with a 101-61 record. One very interesting thing is that they project Christian Little to be a top 10 pitcher in the league (!) so when Mitchell White comes back it's going to be interesting to see what happens. Although Bramdon Perez was up last year, I was planning on making Kjerstad the 4th OF but Bishop's injury gives Perez a reprieve. Odds are that the primary DH while Bishop is out will be Nick Gonzales, giving him a chance of at-bats and having Torkelson slide into the OF.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Opening Day at the Trop, and the Rays got off to a good start with a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays. Matt Manning got the OD honor and shut Toronto out through 5, but his late-season bugaboo last year of walks came back to bite him as he put a pair on with free passes and Ryan Noda drilled a 3-run HR. The Rays were already up 4-0 at that point, though, so Manning picked up the win going 6 6 3 3 3 5. And for the 6th year running our 7th and 8th inning standbys Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson pitched perfect innings, with Anderson whiffing Vlad Jr. as part of his outing. With a couple of lefties due in the 9th I went to Evan Godwin instead of Jasseel De La Cruz, and Godwin got it done. Although he allowed a leadoff single, he whiffed Noda and got Alejandro Kirk to ground into a game-ending double play. The offense came quick and early, with Wander Franco and Keibert Ruiz hitting 1st inning doubles off Mick Abel to get a run in the 1st, and then in the 2nd Nick Gonzales doubled, Brandon Marsh walked, they pulled off a double steal and then Wander doubled again, scoring them both. And in the 5th in his Rays debut, Judson Fabian hit a mammoth blast of 472 ft to LCF to make it 4-0. Unfortunately the offense dried up after that, but it was enough for the win.

Game 2: Another nail-biter at the Trop went the Rays' way as they prevailed 5-4 in 12 innings over Toronto. Tyler Glasnow got the start and he was utterly dominant, going 7 3 2 2 2 13 (on only 97 pitches!) with the only damage against him a 2-run Vlad Jr. HR in the 4th. He left with a 3-2 lead but things got dicey in the 8th. Evan Godwin came in and allowed a hit, but got 2 out bringing Vlad to the plate again. Nick Anderson came in and Guerrero greeted him with another 2-run HR to LF and the Jays were ahead 4-3. Nate Pearson came on in the bottom of the 9th to try and close it out for Toronto but Judson Fabian did it again, greeting Pearson with another massive blast to LCF similar to yesterday's. And the Rays nearly won it later in the inning but Alec Bohm was thrown out at the plate with one out, a mistake on my part to give him the green light. And on to extras we went and the Rays finally broke through in the 12th when Brandon Marsh led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Vidal Brujan's single to walk it off. Earlier in the game, Brujan led off the 1st with a dinger and Wander Franco followed with one of his own in the 3rd to make it 2-0. After Vlad's 1st HR tied the game, Keibert Ruiz singled in Brujan, who had doubled, in the 6th. After Anderson left it was a parade of relievers with scoreless innings from Aaron Ashby in the 9th, Jasseel De La Cruz in the 10th, Jose Alvarado in the 11th and finally Liam Hendriks in the 12th, who of course picked up the win. The relievers were all very pitch-efficient with De La Cruz's 17 the only one who had a double-digit pitch count.

Around MLB, some news on recent Rays no longer with the club: Nick Schnell went 3-4 with 3 singles as the Cubs' DH today in a game at Anaheim. In that same game Sandy Gaston gave up 2 runs and 4 hits in 2 2/3 innings. Zach Britton, whom the White Sox took from us in the Rule 5 draft, was 2-4 with a solo HR and a double. Austin Meadows was 0-3 with 2 walks in his Brewers debut as they lost their opener 4-2 to the Giants and another former Ray, Walker Buehler. Elsewhere, Kyle Tucker, who had 66 HR and 232 RBI over the last two seasons, and is only 29, had to end up signing a minor league deal with the Cubs.

Game 3: More drama at the Trop where the Rays scored 3 in the bottom of the 9th to complete a comeback from 5-0 down and walk it off again against Toronto 6-5. Nate Pearson struggled again to close it out for Toronto, and after he allowed a Judson Fabian HR last night, he gave up a one-out Spencer Torkelson shot to make it 5-4. But he struck out Fabian for the second out and things looked bleak. But he then lost the plate, walking Keston Hiura and Triston Casas, and Bramdon Perez singled to load the bases. Brandon Marsh then beat out a slow roller past the mound to tie the game, and Matt Wisler came in and walked Vidal Brujan to force in the winning run. Brujan was on base all 6 times up, going 3-3 with 3 walks. The 9th-inning comeback was the last thing anyone expected to happen after a nightmarish 1st inning for Shane McClanahan and the Rays. Mac walked the first two men of the game in front of Vlad Jr. and well you can guess the rest. That made it 3-0 but things got worse when Keibert Ruiz misplayed a nubber in front of the plate and threw past Casas at 1st and that led to a couple of unearned runs. But Mac settled down from there, going 5.1 5 4 3 4 4, and the offense chipped away at the lead. In the 2nd, Casas, who got the start for Alec Bohm, homered to make it 5-1. After they scored off a Toronto error in the 4th to make it 5-2, Perez, who started at DH for Nick Gonzales, also homered in the 6th to get it to 5-3. Bramdon ended up 2-4 with a walk and that HR, while Casas scored 3 runs and drew a walk in addition to his longball as my lineup moves paid off. Of course they wouldn't have been in position for the 9th inning comeback had the bullpen not done its job and Asa Lacy pitched a nice 1.2 innings with 2 whiffs while Liam Hendriks and Aaron Ashby (who picked up the win) had scoreless frames of their own as the team goes to 3-0 with 3 one-run wins.

Game 4: The Christian Little era in Tampa Bay has begun. Yes, he was up late last season and even made a nice start, but this was his first start as a proper member of the rotation and it looks like he's here to stay. He went 7 4 0 0 2 10 on 97 pitches as the Rays swept the 4-game series from the Jays with a 4-1 win. I opted to have him start this game in the friendly confines of the Trop rather than in bandbox of Camden Yards (where Chris Paddack and his gopher-proneness will pitch instead, we'll see about that) and the decision paid off. The problem was that Tylor Megill was matching Little zero for zero through 5 before the offense finally got to him in the 6th. They did almost score in the 4th but Victor Reyes threw out Vidal Brujan at home and Brandon Marsh was caught stealing. But in the 6th Patrick Bailey singled, Spencer Torkelson walked and Judson Fabian singled him Bailey home. Triston Casas, playing at 3B today for Keston Hiura, singled in Tork, and Nick Gonzales ripped a 2-run double scoring Fabian and Casas. Evan Godwin came on for the 3rd time and did give up a HR to Gerardo Moreno but got through the 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz picked up his 1st save with a 1-2-3 9th that started off with a whiff of Vlad Jr.

Team record: 4-0. Next up: An off-day, followed by a 3-game weekend set in Baltimore.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays went to 5-0 with yet another 1-run win as perhaps the luck gods are finally evening the score after years of mediocre performances in such games. For the longest time, though, it didn't look like a 1-run type of game as they led the Orioles 5-0 before hanging on to a 5-4 win. Chris Paddack got the start and was brilliant. He even made it one batter short of leaving without giving up his obligatory homer but with 2 out in the 6th and his pitch count in the 90s he surrendered a 2-run HR to Austin Riley, still going 6 4 2 2 2 8 and getting the win. Nick Anderson got through the 7th but Jose Alvarado had big-time problems in the 8th, walking the bases loaded with one out. Liam Hendriks came in and got a strikeout but gave up a 2-run single to Druw Jones before getting the final out. Hendriks stayed in and whiffed Jo Adell to start the 9th before Evan Godwin came in with two lefties up. Godwin gave up a single but got Adley Rutschman to fly out to end the game and pick up his 2nd save. The hero on offense was Judson Fabian, who had a 2-out, 2-RBI double in the 3rd and another RBI double in the 5th. Wander and Spencer Torkelson had RBI singles for other two runs.

Game 2: It was one of those ridiculous games at Camden Yards where the ball was flying out of the park and the Rays scored 13 times in the final 4 innings to come back from a 6-1 deficit and beat the Orioles 15-10 to stay undefeated. The win was costly, though, as Keibert Ruiz suffered his first significant injury in five seasons with the Rays, a severe hip strain when he was stretching out a double which will put him out 6-7 weeks. Patrick Bailey becomes the new #1 catcher but we'll probably go sign a veteran free agent to back him up or share the job. Matt Manning got the start and allowed 6 runs in 4 innings on 5 (!) HRs. Asa Lacy came on for him and threw 3 important scoreless innings to allow the team to get back in the game and that's what they did. Judson Fabian homered with a man on to get it back to 6-4 in the 6th, and Wander homered in the 7th to make it 6-5. Then the dam burst in the 8th when the Rays got 8 runs, capped by Fabian's 2nd HR of the game, a 3-run shot. He now has 4 HR and 11 RBI in his first 6 games, making us forget for now about Austin Meadows. Keston Hiura's RBI single and Nick Gonzales' pinch RBI double put the Rays in front first. With it 13-6, Lacy (who picked up the win) stayed in but put the first two men on so Nick Anderson came in. He walked a man to load the bases and then served up a grand slam to Austin Riley, which was his second HR of the game as well. But the Rays added 2 insurance runs in the 9th with the key hit a Wander RBI double, and Aaron Ashby had a 1-2-3 9th to put an end to the nonsense.

April 12: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 15-day IL with a severe hip strain, recalled C Carlos Perez from AA Montgomery.

I considered putting Ruiz on the 60-day IL so I wouldn't have to dump someone from the 40-man when I sign a new catcher, but since he'll need 5-7 days of rehab he'd be out 65-67 days rather than 50-52 days with rehab based on the actual injury time. Perez, just acquired for Sandy Gaston, is up for now as the only other catcher on the 40-man.

Game 3: It was HR derby again at Camden Yards and the Rays suffered their first defeat of the season 7-4 to Baltimore. They actually took a 4-3 lead into the 6th on HRs from Alec Bohm, Judson Fabian (again, #5) and Nick Gonzales, but Tyler Glasnow gave up back-to-back HRs to Austin Riley (who was killing them all weekend) and CJ Chatham, and then Aaron Ashby had a rough outing allowing 2 runs to give Baltimore a 3-run lead. The Rays had 2 on in the 9th but couldn't get anyone home. Fabian also had an RBI double in the 1st and ended up 3-4, now hitting a ludicrous 444/516/1.148 in his first 27 at-bats with Tampa Bay. Glasnow ended up 6 6 5 5 2 6 having also allowed a Gunnar Henderson HR early. Dustin May and Heston Kjerstad saw their first action of the year, with May throwing a perfect 8th and Kjerstad going 0-4 but nearly hitting a 3-run HR.

Team record: 6-1. Next up: An off-day, followed by 3 at home vs Cleveland.

[Art Deco]

This wasn't a shock, but nice to see regardless:



Also, some big transaction news:



Caratini was the top free agent catcher on the market this winter, but never got signed, so the market's loss is our gain. It's a $4.2M deal when we call him up, but my thoughts are that when Keibert Ruiz comes back, we trade Caratini, recoup a prospect and let someone else pay his salary. Since he missed spring training, I'm going to let him get a few at-bats at Durham and activate him for this weekend's series against the White Sox.

Game 1: This has been a weird season so far, and the Rays just won their 5th 1-run game of the season and more improbably the second on a walk-off walk. Going 3-3 into the bottom of the 9th, Alec Bohm tripled with one out, pinch-hitter Nick Gonzales was intentionally walked, then Patrick Bailey unintentionally walked before Brandon Marsh walked as well, bringing in the winning run. The Rays jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the 1st on solo HRs from Wander Franco (#3) and Judson Fabian (still unconscious, #6). Eric Herman took Shane McClanahan way, way deep in the 2nd to cut the lead to 2-1, and Cleveland tied it at 2 in the 5th, but the Rays answered in the bottom of the frame when Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Wander single. Mac came out to get the leadoff lefty on strikes in the 6th, and then left with a 5.1 5 2 2 1 8 outing on 104 pitches. Liam Hendriks followed and had his first shaky outing of the season, giving up 3 singles to allow Cleveland to tie. And that's where we went until the 9th, with Jose Alvarado (1.2 innings) and Nick Anderson (1.1 & the win) combining to shut Cleveland out over the final 3 before the walk-off win. The offense only managed 5 hits on the night, but all of them except for a Fabian single counted in each of the runs.

Game 2: Christian Little wasn't quite as dominant as he was in his first start, but he was good enough to help lead the Rays to a 6-2 win over Cleveland which makes them 8-1. Little struggled with his control, and ended up 5 4 2 2 5 9 on 99 pitches to go to 2-0. Aaron Ashby was brilliant, whiffing 5 in 2 innings against Cleveland's lefty-heavy lineup, Evan Godwin had a scoreless 2K inning, and Asa Lacy and Jasseel De La Cruz managed to get through the 9th but not without a scare. Lacy gave up 2 hits with 2 out, and with righty Tyreque Reed due up, De La Cruz got the call. He hit Reed to load the bases, and then the tying run at the plate in the person of the powerful Bo Naylor hit one to deep LF but just shy of the track where Judson Fabian cradled it for the final out. Rays pitchers totaled 17 strikeouts. Wander Franco kick-started the offense in the bottom of the 1st with a 2-run HR (#4) and Alec Bohm added a sac fly later in the inning. They added a 4th run in the 4th on a Vidal Brujan fielder's choice and then got 2 big insurance runs in the 7th on a Patrick Bailey sac fly and a Brandon Marsh RBI single. Marsh was on base all 4 times today with that single and 3 walks.

Game 3: Team one-run win does it again with another walk-off win after coming back twice to defeat Cleveland 6-5 in 12 innings today. Trailing 4-1 in the 8th the Rays scored 3 times with 2 out on a Judson Fabian 2-run triple and a Spencer Torkelson infield single to score Fabian. But it looked like all was lost in the top of the 12th when Tyler Freeman tripled off Evan Godwin to give Cleveland the lead, but the Rays rallied in bottom of the 12th off Shane Bieber. With one out, Alec Bohm singled, Patrick Bailey singled and I had Bohm try to take third but he was thrown out, so things definitely looked bleak. But Brandon Marsh singled, and Vidal Brujan doubled up the gap to score Bailey and Marsh, and it party time again at the Trop. The Rays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st when Brujan doubled and scored on a Fabian single, but Cleveland tied it up and kept adding against Chris Paddack, who ended up 6.2 6 4 4 2 6. Dustin May got through the 8th, and Nick Anderson, Jose Alvarado and Jasseel De La Cruz all had scoreless innings before Godwin was touched for that run in the 12th. I'm not thrilled with how much I've had to use the bullpen this year but I'll bank these early season wins nonetheless.

Team record: 9-1. Next up: 3 weekend games at home vs the White Sox, where we see Zach Britton who's already hit 3 homers.