The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays - Page 9

Art Deco · 08-15-2020, 05:03 PM

Game 1: The Rays beat the Yankees 8-0 to go 8-0 behind a 115-pitch, 7-hit shutout from Max Fried, who walked 3 and struck out 4. It was a tense 0-0 game through 5 as Luis Severino had kept the Rays' bats in check until Vidal Brujan homered with one out in the 6th, and then Wander walked and scored on an Austin Meadows double to make it 2-0. They then broke it open with 6 runs in the 8th, on a Keibert Ruiz RBI single, 3 straight bases-loaded walks by Austin Brice (to Triston Casas, Nick Schnell and Brandon Marsh), and a 2-RBI single by Brujan. Fried was the one starter who struggled in the first turn through the rotation (6 runs in 6 innings although he got the win) but certainly turned that around.

Game 2: Chris Paddack was great again, and the offense did enough for the Rays to improve to 9-0 with a 5-2 win over the Yankees. Paddack went 6 3 1 1 0 7 with the only run a Gleyber Torres homer, Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado did their usual thing in the 7th and 8th, and after the lead went to 5-1 in the top of the 9th Jasseel De La Cruz came on and ran into some trouble, giving up a run and leaving with two runners on. So Will Smith had to come in after all, and he whiffed Mike Tauchman to end the game and pick up save #4. Keston Hiura had his best game as a Ray, banging out 3 hits and a steal including an RBI single in the 2nd which put them on the board, Wander's sac fly in the 5th put them ahead to stay, Hiura scored on a passed ball in the 8th, and Meadows had an RBI single to go with Devers' fielder's choice RBI in the 9th.

Game 3: The Rays finally lost, and worse yet they lost Brandon Marsh to shoulder inflammation, diagnosed after he had to leave making a throw. He'll be out 6 weeks and he was the one guy they really didn't have cover for on the active roster in terms of the ability to play CF. Hunter Bishop will come up for him, and he can play a passable (45) CF but there's no question Marsh will be missed. As for the game, Dustin May just did not have it tonight, giving up 3 in the first including a 2-run Aaron Hicks HR, a solo shot to Mike Tauchman in the 2nd, and 2 more in the 4th, going 4.1 8 6 6 1 3 as they lost 7-3. Aaron Ashby went 2 1/3 scoreless in relief, and Dany Jimenez gave up a run in the 8th. Offensively it was all Wander, who was 3-4 with a homer and 2 steals, and Vidal Brujan was 2-5 with a steal. Alec Bohm, off to a slow start, got his first RBI on a groundball.

Team record: 9-1.

Art Deco · 08-16-2020, 09:36 AM

April 19: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled OF Hunter Bishop from AAA Durham.

Game 1: This was a bizarre game. Tyler Glasnow gave up a couple of baserunners in the first but got out of it, then in the 2nd all hell broke loose as to start the inning he gave a double, single, RBI single, walk, bases-loaded walk, bases loaded walk, RBI single, and a 2-RBI single for 6 runs before getting a batter out. He then got the next 3 to end the inning but they were down 6-1 after Brujan led off the game with a triple and scored on a Devers sac fly. But the Rays immediately struck back for 3 in the top of the 3rd to get back in the game. Hunter Bishop, in his first MLB at-bat, walked and was wild-pitched to second, scored on a Brujan single and then Austin Meadows drilled HR #2 to make it 6-4. Then Seth Beer led off the top of the 4th with his 2nd HR of the season, an oppo shot over the Monster. And in the 5th, Keibert Ruiz hit his first of the year with Meadows on to make it 7-6 Rays. Meanwhile, Glasnow settled down and made it through the 5th at 107 pitches. Asa Lacy came on and was excellent again, throwing 3 scoreless innings and only allowing one hit, although he didn't walk or strike out anyone. And in a confident rookie move, Bishop swung away on a 3-0 pitch from Durbin Feltman and crushed it into the RF stands for a 2-run HR in his MLB debut to give the Rays insurance in the top of the 9th making it 9-6. Will Smith took it from there for save #5, the Rays had a comeback win and Glasnow went to 3-0 despite the most nightmarish of innings. And it's early but at 10-1 and with nobody else in the East distinguishing themselves the Rays already have a 5-game lead.

Game 2: The calendar says April 20, but it might as well have been February 2 as today's game followed yesterday's script almost identically. Daniel Lynch didn't have quite as a bad a start as Tyler Glasnow yesterday but 3 runs allowed in the first 2 innings including Abraham Toro's HR to lead off the game put the Rays in an early 3-0 hole. Justin Dunn set down the first 9 Rays in order but Vidal Brujan flipped the script in the 4th with a leadoff double and Keston Hiura (giving Wander a day off) doubled him home with Hiura scoring on a Keibert Ruiz RBI single to cut the Boston lead to 3-2. Then they took over in the 6th. Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers singled, Ruiz walked to load the bases, Seth Beer hit a 2-RBI double to give the Rays the lead, Spencer Torkelson walked to load the bases and Hunter Bishop came through again with a bases-clearing double to make it 7-3. They added a run in the 7th when Hiura doubled again and scored on a Devers fielder's choice. As you can tell by Boston's run total remaining at 3, Lynch settled down much like Glasnow yesterday and left in the 7th with a quality 6.2 7 3 3 1 6 line. Mitch Keller had to get him out of a 2-on, 2-out situation and did, but then Keller made his own mess in the 8th allowing a couple of runs and Jose Alvarado got Jackie Bradley Jr to ground out to end the inning. Will Smith made easy work of the Sox in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning for save #6 and the Rays nabbed an 8-5 win. One not-so-bright spot though was Alec Bohm, 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and sitting at .176 with 0 HR and 1 RBI so far. He'll be in there tomorrow against the first lefty starter they'll face this season, none other than nemesis Caleb Smith, but Triston Casas might get some run if Bohm doesn't pick things up.

April 21: Signed OF Jason Heyward to a minor league contract, assigned him to AAA Durham.

Between injuries and trades, our long-time OF glut has become a slight shortage, so Heyward was signed mainly to provide depth and help out Durham who's now without Hunter Bishop. Heyward can opt out in a couple of weeks if he isn't called up so we'll see what happens. Speaking of the OF glut one of its long-time victims, Trevor Larnach, suffered a literal bad break yesterday as he broke his hand and will miss 4 months just as he found himself an MLB regular for the first time with Pittsburgh.

Game 3: The Rays had another starter struggle badly in the first couple of innings but this time it was much worse, and the Rays fell to the Red Sox 11-7. The irony here is that they got to Caleb Smith, scoring against him twice in the first inning on a Meadows sac fly and a Ronaldo Hernandez RBI single and eventually getting 5 runs and 8 hits off him in 5 innings. But Max Fried, coming off a shutout of the Yankees last time out, was just horrendous, giving up 4 in the first inning including a 2-run Xander Bogaerts homer, and then couldn't get anyone out in the 2nd, giving up 10 hits in 1 1/3 innings. He left down 6-2 with 2 on, and Dany Jimenez immediately gave up a 3-run to Bogaerts again and then a run of his own and it was 10-2 after 2 innings. Fried ended an horrid 1.1 10 8 8 1 2 and despite pitching a shutout among his 3 starts his ERA is now 7.71. The Rays chipped away at the 10-2 lead, getting within 10-6 after Keston Hiura's first Rays HR and a Ronaldo HR among his 3 hits and 4 RBI on the day. Aaron Ashby relieved Jimenez and threw 3 scoreless innings, Jasseel De La Cruz threw one as well but it took him 33 pitches to get through, and Asa Lacy gave up his first run pitching the 8th. That's now 3 bad starts in 4 games for the Rays staff, with Daniel Lynch, who started the year as the 6th starter, getting the only decent one.

Game 4: It was the 11AM Patriots' Day game at Fenway, and the Rays had the game won until the bullpen and defense blew it and they fell 7-4 in 10 innings. Chris Paddack continued the trend of early runs allowed by the starters, giving up a run on 3 hits in the first inning but was fine from there, only allowing a Marcell Ozuna longball to go 6 7 2 2 0 5. Hunter Bishop continued to wreak havoc on MLB pitching, hitting a 2-run HR off Pablo Lopez to put the Rays in front in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers singled in Austin Meadows who had tripled in the 3rd. In the top of the 8th, Devers made it 4-2 with a solo homer, and the Rays looked in great shape with the troika set up. Alvarado had already gotten through the 7th despite allowing a couple of hits, and Nick Anderson came on for the 8th. But the leadoff man hit a ground ball that Devers threw away for a 2-base error, and he came around to score to cut it to 4-3. Still with Will Smith coming in it looked to be in the bag. But Smith walked the leadoff man, gave up a hit, committed a balk, and then gave up an RBI single to Abraham Toro. And we went to extras and after Vidal Brujan walked to lead off the 10th he was cut down on a botched hit-and-run with Wander, and in the bottom of the inning Mitch Keller put the first two men on and then served up a 3-run HR to Niko Goodrum, who wrapped it around the Pesky Pole to give Boston the improbable win and send the Rays to consecutive losses for the first time this year.

Team record: 11-3.

Art Deco · 08-16-2020, 03:52 PM

Game 1: It was reunion night with the Tigers in town, as Alex Kirilloff and Shane Baz returned to the Trop in enemy colors and Austin Meadows' brother Parker is now in the Tigers lineup as well. And the Rays were gracious hosts for this reunion as Detroit got 2 runs in the 7th off Jose Alvarado to grab a 3-1 victory. Young phenom Kumar Rocker was brilliant for Detroit, going 8 7 1 1 1 3 with the Rays' only run coming when Rafael Devers singled home Vidal Brujan in the 1st. Dustin May was just as good for the Rays, going 6 4 1 1 0 8 and only allowing a Yasmani Grandal homer. But after putting 2 on and getting two out, Alvarado gave up a 2-run double to Victor Reyes and that was the ballgame. Baz, now Detroit's closer, got the save after he induced a DP grounder from Alec Bohm after Keibert Ruiz had singled with one out. Aaron Ashby continued his effective pitching with 2 scoreless innings in relief of Alvarado in the silver linings department, but the Rays have now dropped 3 straight after an 11-1 start.

Game 2: The Rays ended their 3-game losing streak by turning the tables on the Tigers with a 3-1 win of their own. Their pitching was dominant tonight, led by Tyler Glasnow who fanned 13 Tigers in 6 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and walking a pair. He goes to 4-0, 2.92 and a short-handed bullpen struck out 5 more Detroit hitters to give them 18 for the night. Asa Lacy started the 7th and struggled, walking a pair and allowing the lone Tiger run, but Jasseel De La Cruz bailed him out of that inning and shut Detroit down in the 8th nabbing 3 Ks of his own in the process. With Will Smith still tired, Nick Anderson pitched a perfect ninth, whiffing a pair and picking up save #1 this season. The offense was quiet again, but twice they were very loud. Hunter Bishop stayed scorching hot with his 3rd HR in 5 games since his call-up, a 2-run oppo shot just inside the LF foul pole to break a scoreless tie in the 5th, and the guy who had singled ahead of Bishop and scored, Nick Schnell, hit his first of the year to deep LCF in the 7th to restore the 2-run lead after Detroit scored off Lacy.

Game 3: Another shaky start from the rotation which pitched well the first couple times through this season doomed the Rays to a 6-4 loss, their 4th in 5 games. Daniel Lynch cruised through the first 3 innings but lost his control in the 4th, walking the bases loaded to start the inning and 5 batters in all in the 4th, resulting in a 4-run Tigers outburst that wiped out an early 3-0 Rays lead. Lynch settled down in the 5th and started the 6th well, but gave up another run after the Rays had tied it at 4, and that was the game. They got off to the fastest of starts in the first when Vidal Brujan singled and Wander drilled HR #4 into the LF stands off Detroit's Sean Newcomb, and a couple of outs later Alec Bohm singled in Rafael Devers. Hunter Bishop continued unconscious, going 3 for 3 and drilling a moonshot to deep CF off Newcomb in the 5th to tie the game. But Asa Lacy, slumping since his first few excellent appearances, allowed a run in the 7th, and although Mitch Keller and Dany Jimenez shut the Tigers down over the last 2 2/3, the offense couldn't get anything else going the rest of the way and former Ray Shane Baz once again grabbed the save, striking out Spencer Torkelson (0-3 on the day with 3 whiffs and a walk) to end the game.

Team record: 12-5.

Art Deco · 08-16-2020, 09:20 PM

Before we start the Houston series, a couple of transactions:

April 26: Claimed P Kirby Yates on waivers, designated P Dany Jimenez for assignment and placed him on waivers.

Who says you can't go home again? Kirby Yates, who started his MLB career with the Rays in 2014-2015, is back ten years later. In the meantime Yates has been a quality reliever, and spent a few years as a closer for the Padres and later the Reds in 2020. His career was derailed in 2022 and the first part of 2023 with a torn UCL but he came back last year with the Mets and was brilliant, with an 8/58 BB/K ratio in 39 innings last season. He became a free agent and signed with Pittsburgh, but after 3 outings in which he gave up 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings they put him on waivers and I'm glad to chance it with him, as he should at least be an upgrade on Jimenez, whose spot on the roster and the 40-man he takes. Jimenez has cleared waivers 3 times in the last 6 months so I imagine he will again.

April 26: Traded minor-league 2B Gionti Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for minor-league RHP Jack Perkins.

Turner's a singles-hitting middle infielder who was playing at AA Montgomery and was tough to envision as anything more than a second-division utility infielder so he wasn't tough to part with for Perkins, a righty who has excellent stuff, whiffing 89 in 59 innings last season in High-A, and who had 10 whiffs in 8 innings at AA Tulsa so far this season. Scouting reports say he has mid-rotation potential, although the Dodgers have used him as a reliever. I'm going to put him into the Montgomery rotation and see how he does, but I like his upside way more than Turner's.

Game 1: The Rays got back to winning ways with a comprehensive 9-2 win over Houston as one hitter continued ludicrously hot and another who came in with a snowflake next to his name might have broken out of it. The former of course is Hunter Bishop, who had a big 2-run double in the bottom of the 2nd to put the Rays ahead 3-2, and later added a sac fly. Bishop has 4 HR and 13 RBI in 7 games and 23 at-bats. In fact, his 13 RBI are tied for third on the team behind Wander and Brujan's 14 and they've been playing all season. The cold guy you might have also guessed is Alec Bohm, who had 2 hits today and scored twice before he finally hit his 1st HR of the season, a 2-run shot in the 7th off Raisel Iglesias. It was long overdue for the guy who hit 38 last season and 6 more in the postseason including the walk-off shot in Game 6 that put the Rays in the World Series. Brujan tonight was 2-3 with 2 RBI and a steal (#9 which leads the AL) and Rafael Devers had an RBI double in the 1st. Max Fried was the starter and winner and made it through 6 innings with only 2 runs allowed but it was a struggle. His second inning could have been much worse had he not gotten two strikeouts with the bases loaded to end it, and he averaged 2 runners per inning, going 6 9 2 2 3 6 to go to 3-1. Aaron Ashby, who's undergone a 180-degree turnaround from most of last season, had 2 scoreless innings with 3 Ks, and Kirby Yates made his Rays return with a 1-2-3 9th.

Game 2: The Rays won 5-2 today but I would have traded that win for the loss they suffered during the game. Starter Chris Paddack had to leave in the 7th and it turns out he will miss the rest of the season with shoulder inflammation. He's been their most consistent starter aside from Tyler Glasnow since they acquired him at the deadline in 2022 and he'll be tough to replace. And given that he's no longer eligible for arbitration and is a free agent at year's end this is likely the last game he'll pitch in a Rays uniform. At least he went out with a win, going 6.1 7 2 2 1 7 to end the year 3-0, it was a typical Paddack performance: a strikeout an inning, hardly any walks (his walk in the 4th was his only one of the year), and a homer allowed (to Carlos Correa). As for the game, Austin Meadows was the offensive star, he doubled and scored on a Seth Beer single to put them up 2-1, and after the Correa homer tied it in the sixth, he hit a 2-run shot (#3) in the bottom of the inning to put the Rays ahead to stay. Alec Bohm went deep for the second straight night a couple of batters later off Houston starter David Villegas. Vidal Brujan had singled home Nick Schnell, who had doubled, for the first Rays run. Nick Anderson came in for Paddack in the 7th and struck out a couple to end that inning, Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 8th, and Will Smith worked around a 2-out single for save #7. For the short term, there's a good chance that Shane McClanahan gets called up to make his first Rays start as he's looked good at Durham in their rotation (2-0, 0.92, 2/21 BB/K ratio in 19.2 innings), and depending on how things shake out when Matt Manning comes back, Daniel Lynch may keep his spot in the rotation.

April 28: Placed P Chris Paddack on the 60-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham.

Depending on how things shake out, McClanahan could be used in long relief if needed since there's an off-day coming up and Paddack's rotation spot could be skipped for a turn.

Game 3: The kids were alright in a 7-0 win over, and series sweep of, the Houston Astros. Dustin May, not really a kid but a junior member of the staff, was dominant today going 8 4 0 0 0 7 with two of the hits infield singles by noted speedster Yordan Alvarez. He set the tone by striking out Jose Altuve to start the game (he whiffed the hard-to-K Altuve again later) and was never in any trouble. He got all the offense it turned out he would need when Nick Schnell hit a monster blast to the RCF stands in the 3rd, but got plenty more in the next inning when Triston Casas, getting a rare start with Rafael Devers needing a rest, hit a grand slam off Jose Urquidy to make it 5-0. Alec Bohm continued on his mini-roll by getting an RBI single in the 5th to make it 6-0, and then Casas went deep again the opposite way most impressively off a lefty, Kyle Kubat, to round out the scoring. May was at 101 pitches after the 8th and I decided not to push him (remembering how bad Max Fried was in his next start after I let him throw nearly 120 to get a shutout earlier this season), so Mitch Keller came in and struck out the side in the 9th to complete the shutout.

Team record: 15-5.

Art Deco · 08-17-2020, 01:21 PM

Game 1: This was a brutal loss on several levels. First of all, The Rays have suffered yet another serious pitching injury. Just when he turned things around from a bad 2023, Aaron Ashby had to leave the game in the 6th and will need elbow ligament reconstruction surgery which will puts him out for a little over a year. Secondly, the game itself was a gut punch as twice the Rays had the game won, and twice they blew it between a combination of bad defense and a shaky bullpen. They took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th with Nick Anderson on the mound and he whiffed the first two Orioles before Rio Ruiz's grounder was booted by Wander Franco. Sure enough the next batter CJ Chatham took Anderson deep to tie the game. Rafael Devers booted the next ground ball (they made 4 errors on the game), but Anderson got out of it. The Orioles tried to return the favor in the 9th when Ryan McKenna dropped Keibert Ruiz's fly ball and Seth Beer singled him home. But Will Smith blew the save in the 9th. After getting the leadoff man out, he walked Adley Rutschman, gave up a RBI triple to Austin Hays to tie it, and an Anthony Santander single to win it. It looked like they'd win behind Tyler Glasnow, but he had an inefficient outing, going 5 3 0 0 4 7 on 105 pitches, and Kirby Yates allowed Ashby's runner (on Ashby's own throwing error) to score, and then Alvarado allowed a Yates runner to score. But the Rays were still up thanks to a big night from Spencer Torkelson, spelling a tired Austin Meadows. Tork hit his 2nd HR of the year, a opposite field job off Max Scherzer, to give the Rays a 2-0 lead, and in the 7th he doubled and scored on Keston Hiura's double with Hiura scoring on a Wander single to make it 4-1. But things went very bad after that, and the Orioles improve to 11-7 and only 2 1/2 behind the Rays.

April 30: Placed P Aaron Ashby on the 60-day DL with elbow ligament reconstruction surgery, recalled P Sandy Gaston from AAA Durham.

It's time to give Gaston and his 80 stuff as a reliever a call. He was put in the Durham rotation to start the season and didn't fare very well, but last year in 33 2/3 innings as a reliever he walked 13 and struck out 71. He'll be wild, he'll be shaky, but he'll be exciting. Obviously he's not going to be used in a high-leverage spots for now, and may just be warming a roster slot until Matt Manning comes back in 10-14 days after a rehab start in Durham, or until I go pick someone up.

Game 2: Well it was nice to get through a game without suffering a season-ending injury to a pitcher, and even nicer to enjoy a 12-3 rout of the Orioles. The Rays trailed in this game 2-1 going into the 5th, and were only up 5-3 going into the 7th before they blew it open late. Vidal Brujan opened the game with a single, stole second and scored on an Austin Meadows double before Anthony Santander, last night's hero, took Daniel Lynch deep to put Baltimore on top. But the Rays strung together 5 singles and a walk to score 4 times in the 5th and chase Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez, and although Baltimore got one back off Lynch in the 6th to cut it to 5-3, Brujan doubled and scored on a Rafael Devers single in the 7th to make it 6-3. Jose Alvarado got Baltimore out in the bottom and then that man struck again, Hunter Bishop with yet another grand slam to make it 10-3. Ronaldo Hernandez's third hit of the night was a 2-RBI triple in the 9th to complete the scoring, which was quite a sight. With the game in hand, Sandy Gaston made his MLB debut and was impressive, pitching the final 2 innings, allowing only one hit and no walks and striking out 2. Lynch went 6 6 3 3 1 3, which meets the definition of a quality start and certainly counts as one for a soft-tosser going in Camden Yards. Bishop now leads the team in RBI with 17, amazing considering he's only played in 11 games of their 22 to date and has only 37 AB. Brandon Marsh has to wonder if he's going to be Wally Pipped, but he'll get his spot back in about 3-4 weeks' time. His rehab assignment at Durham might last a little longer than normal, though.

More hardware for Mr. Glasnow:

Also on the first of the month, we always get these player development updates from our head scout. Mostly it's a look at which prospects have progressed or regressed, but occasionally MLB players get updated ratings. And sometimes you get something like this, which you really don't want to see:

Yates isn't that big a deal since we just grabbed him off waivers (although it could turn out we wasted nearly $3M on his salary), but the Will Smith information is disturbing, especially in light of the save he blew the other night. Smith always got by on some guile but this could be a problem.

Game 3: The Rays grabbed a 7-4 win to take two of three from Baltimore and go back up 4 1/2 games in the AL East. Max Fried got the start, and he was his typical baserunner-dodging self, going 6.1 7 2 2 5 6, walking the bases loaded at the end in the 7th but Nick Anderson got a sac fly and a strikeout for the Rays to leave the inning with a 4-2 lead. After they added 3 more in the top of the 8th, Asa Lacy came on but continued his recent struggles, allowing 2 runs in 2/3 of an inning and Jasseel De La Cruz had to clean up his mess. De La Cruz stayed on and finished for his 1st save, as Fried went to 4-1 albeit with an unsightly 5.65 ERA. The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a 1st inning Keibert Ruiz RBI single and Alec Bohm's 3rd HR in less than a week, a 2-run shot in the 3rd. After Anthony Santander homered (again) off Fried, Ruiz's sac fly in the 5th restored the 4-1 lead and after the Baltimore run in the 7th, a couple of the Rays' young guns went deep, first Spencer Torkelson for his 2nd in 3 nights and then a 2-run blast by Nick Schnell made it 7-2.

Team record: 17-6. Off-day tomorrow, then the road trip continues in Toronto.

Art Deco · 08-17-2020, 09:54 PM

Game 1: After two seasons mostly toiling in middle relief for the Rays, Shane McClanahan finally made his first MLB start and it was a successful one as the Rays topped the Jays 5-1. McClanahan got the win going 5 4 1 1 2 4 and throwing 89 pitches, allowing the leadoff man in the 6th to reach before coming out. The "B" bullpen took it from there, with Asa Lacy going 1 1/3, Mitch Keller 1 2/3 and Kirby Yates pitching the 9th. All three allowed at least a pair of baserunners but the Rays turned 4 double plays for the game to stymie Toronto. The offense came in the first 3 innings off Simeon Woods Richardson: Austin Meadows had a 2-run HR in the 1st, #4, Alec Bohm scored on a wild pitch and Vidal Brujan had a sac fly in the 2nd, and Hunter Bishop drew a bases-loaded walk in the 3rd for his team-high 18th RBI. Meadows ended 3-5 with the homer and Nick Schnell had two more hits to raise his average to .351, while on the flip side Rafael Devers went 0-5 to drop his to .242.

Around MLB, Ryan Helsey of the Cardinals pitched a no-hitter against Cincinnati, walking 3 and striking out 10 over 124 pitches in a 4-0 win.

Game 2: The Rays struck quickly and didn't stop striking as they blasted the Blue Jays 12-1. Like last year Austin Meadows got off to a slow start but like last year he's heated up again and after Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco reached to start the game, he blasted a first inning homer for the second straight game, a 3-run shot off Matt Wisler. Meadows grabbed his 4th RBI of the game on a fielder's choice in the fourth and then - stop me if you've heard this before - Hunter Bishop hit a grand slam in the 5th, his second of the week. Bishop's 22 RBI now only trail Mike Trout's 27 for the MLB lead and that's only in 13 games and 45 AB. Ronaldo Hernandez had a 2-RBI double in the 6th and Brujan doubled home Nick Schnell (3 more hits today) and Wander doubled him home. Dustin May got the start and the run support, and wasn't at his sharpest but like last night Rays pitching put a lot of Toronto runners on base but didn't let them score. A 5 7 1 1 1 2 line doesn't look like it would take 100 pitches, but it did while May goes to 3-1, 2.76 with a healthy 3/28 BB/K ratio in 29 innings. Sandy Gaston pitched the sixth and seventh, allowed a hit and walked a pair but whiffed 3. Kirby Yates and Mitch Keller finished it out without incident.

May 4: Sent P Matt Manning to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Manning looked good for Durham tonight, going 5 3 2 2 0 5 on 76 pitches. Debating whether to bring him up for his next start or let him make another one at Durham. McClanahan pitched well in his debut so I might lean to the latter.

Game 3: The Rays won this one 17-1, so there's not really a lot to say except to tally up the offensive numbers. It was a normal 7-1 rout until the 9th, closer Keith Ginkel came on to get some work in and didn't retire any of the 6 Rays he faced, leading Charlie Montoyo to bring in position players to pitch which did not go well at all as Kevin Cron gave up 3 homers. Reese McGuire did get Keston Hiura to roll into a double play to bring the inning to a merciful end, though. When the dust settled, the Rays had 20 hits, 6 walks and 17 runs with Rafael Devers responding to his day off by going 4-6 with 2 RBI, Keibert Ruiz was 3-5 with 2 RBI, and in the HR parade Spencer Torkelson hit a pair later in the game, a majestic solo shot off Drew Pomeranz in the 8th and then a 3-run blast off Ginkel in the 9th so he didn't get any position player cheapies. No those belonged to Austin Meadows, Devers, and Hunter Bishop who all took Cron deep. Hiura had 4 RBI on a pair of doubles and it was his bases-clearing job in the 3rd off Sean Reid-Foley that broke the game open. Tyler Glasnow went to 5-0 and was brilliant going 8 2 1 1 1 9 in only 97 pitches; the two hits came back-to-back when Ryan Noda singled and Bo Bichette doubled him home in the 4th.

Team record: 20-6.

Art Deco · 08-18-2020, 01:05 PM

Before we start Roughneckin', here's some news from the league office:

Game 1: The Rays traveled to Miami to play the team known as the Roughnecks for the first time, and after a slow start took it to the ex-Marlins to the tune of 9-2. Nick Schnell and Daniel Lynch were the story tonight, with Schnell breaking a 0-0 tie with a solo homer in the fifth and hitting another one in the eighth with a man on. Schnell is now 378/427/622, leading the AL in batting average, 3rd in OPS, and he's also hit in 12 straight games. But Lynch did him one better - he too homered in the 5th against his old teammates making him the first Rays pitcher to homer in my save that's been going since 2020, and pitched a great game going 8 6 2 2 2 5 only allowing the 2 runs as he was running out of gas in the 8th. Keibert Ruiz had a pair of doubles, one of which drove in a run, and Austin Meadows (staying hot) and Wander Franco homered in the 9th in a tough park to generate offense (the Roughnecks played an 18-inning 1-0 game the day before). Sandy Gaston pitched the 9th with a walk and a pair of strikeouts, giving him 3 straight scoreless outings to start his big league career.

May 7: OF Jason Heyward opted out of his AAA Durham contract and became a free agent.

Heyward saw the writing on the wall and elected to pursue a return to MLB elsewhere. Unlike past seasons, Durham is having trouble scoring runs so with Heyward leaving and the OF being short, I offered one-time Ray farmhand Derek Dietrich a minor league contract.

Game 2: The Rays' 6-game winning streak came to an end today with a 6-4 Roughnecks win, and the primary culprit was Max Fried who had another terrible start, allowing all 6 runs in the first 2 innings and only lasting 4 (it could have been worse had a guy not been thrown out at home and another caught stealing) as his ERA balloons to 6.61. He served up a pair of HRs to Greyson Jenista and another to Monte Harrison. The Rays grabbed an early lead on a manufactured run as Brujan singled, stole second and scored after two groundouts, got another in the 4th when Seth Beer, filling in for Alec Bohm at 1B, singled home Rafael Devers as part of a 3-hit night, and then Austin Meadows stayed scorching hot with a 2-run HR, #8, to get the Rays within 2. They had a shot to tie in the 8th with men on 2nd and 3rd and 2 out but couldn't get them home, and Brujan led off the 9th with a walk but was erased on a game-ending GIDP from Meadows. At least the bullpen was good, as Kirby Yates, Sandy Gaston, Asa Lacy and Jasseel De La Cruz each threw a scoreless inning. But aside from the shutout of the Yankees, Fried has been mediocre to terrible, despite a misleading 4-2 W/L record. I've been trying to decide whether Lynch or McClanahan comes out for Manning but if Fried doesn't get going it could always be him. He's pitched to 4.48 and 4.47 ERAs the last 2 seasons which aren't inspiring (although he was good in the postseason run to the World Series), and he's a free agent at year's end, so there's no need to stay "loyal" to him if he isn't producing. And as always because I mentioned yesterday that Nick Schnell was on a hitting streak, of course it ended today with an 0-3.

Team record: 21-7. Miami comes back to St. Pete for 2 games at the Trop.

Art Deco · 08-18-2020, 04:45 PM

Before we get into the 2-game series in which the Roughnecks make the return leg to visit the Trop, we have some MAJOR trade news:

I'm always shopping players, including the really good ones, to see what they might yield and I've seen Buehler's name pop up a time or two even though he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. So given my disgruntlement with Fried, I tried to see what it would take along with him to maybe get Buehler since Fried still is well-regarded by other GMs in this game. So when the out-for-the-year Paddack appeared in "make this work" I couldn't hit the "complete trade" button fast enough. It seems that the Dodgers aren't thrilled with Buehler's contract even though he has a player option at the end of the season to go 2 more years at $23M per. I would think he'd opt out since he could maybe get closer to $30M but if he doesn't it will only cost us about $17M/year thanks to the salary LA is retaining in this deal. And it also gives us $9M more to play with this year in case we want to deal for someone expensive. So there's nothing not to like here. The Dodgers can make this deal work by extending Paddack and/or Fried, both of whom are no longer arbitration-eligible and therefore free agents as they will take a short-term hit to their staff. Of course watch Fried go on a roll back in the NL. Meanwhile, I'm more than ready to roll out a Glasnow-Buehler-Manning rotation come postseason time.

And in case you think I pulled a "force trade" here, see below:

Also, shut up Neander.

Game 1: The Rays rolled to a 9-0 win over the Roughnecks behind an outstanding start from Shane McClanahan, now 2-for-2 and making his bid to stay in the rotation with Matt Manning soon to return. Mac went 6 5 0 0 2 10 and was only in trouble once, in the 3rd inning where he put the first two batters on but got a double play to help him get out of it. Otherwise he was sending quite a few Roughneck hitters directly back to the dugout from the batter's box. The offense didn't waste time getting him run support. Brujan singled to lead off a game again, stole second again, and scored on a Rafael Devers single. In the 2nd Alec Bohm singled, was doubled to third by Keston Hiura (4-4 tonight with another pair of doubles), scored on a Spencer Torkelson ground out and then Nick Schnell doubled in Hiura. And in the 4th Torkelson went deep for the 6th time in 48 ABs with a man on to make it 5-0 and they kept scoring from there, including a Bohm solo HR. Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th despite the large margin as he hadn't pitched in over a week (neither have Nick Anderson nor Will Smith, but I didn't want to use all 3 in case they're needed tomorrow and we also don't have any off days for a couple of weeks) and Mitch Keller pitched the 8th and 9th. One dark cloud, though: Schnell had to leave with groin soreness and is DtD for a week, therefore Torkelson should get everyday at-bats for the next week plus.

Game 2: The last time we saw Nick Anderson and Will Smith was 10 days ago as they blew a game against Baltimore. Thanks to a bunch of Rays blowout wins, there really hasn't been a game that's had high-leverage situations in the 8th and 9th. Well they were back tonight and we ended up with the same result, an even more shocking defeat given that the Rays were up 6-2 going into the 8th. Dustin May had been cruising along holding the Roughnecks to 5 hits through 7 and only throwing 74 pitches. So he started the 8th and gave up the second solo HR of the day to JD Davis to make it 6-3, and then allowed his first walk of the game. Given that it was long past time to get Anderson into a game he entered and promptly gave up two singles to make it 6-4 and got one out. With lefty power hitter Greyson Jenista due, Jose Alvarado came on and walked him, loading the bases, and then gave up a sac fly to make it 6-5 before getting out of the inning. So to the ninth we went and Will Smith was called into action, and after giving up a leadoff single, he got a ground out moving the runner up to 2nd and then picked up a strikeout. But with one out to get, he gave up three straight singles to score the tying and go-ahead runs and Fernando Romero struck out the side for Miami in the bottom of the inning around a Wander infield single to give the Rays a shock 7-6 loss. May ended 7 6 4 4 1 7 and deserved a better fate, although he did allow 3 solo HRs. The Rays built their lead on a 2-run Vidal Brujan single which was followed by a 2-run Wander HR in the 5th, and a run on an errant pickoff throw as well as an Alec Bohm RBI single. The second straight bad outing from Smith in light of his diminished velocity is a definite cause for concern. Jasseel De La Cruz was Atlanta's closer before we acquired him and can go back into that role if need be, and Sandy Gaston is a dark horse candidate. I really don't want to put Anderson or Alvarado in the closer role as they're (usually) so effective in the 7th and 8th.

Team record: 22-8. Next up: Toronto visits the Trop for a weekend series.

Bad news from Durham: Starting pitching prospect Jimmy Lewis is done for the season with a torn back muscle. At least it's not an arm injury.

Art Deco · 08-18-2020, 08:35 PM

Game 1: Walker Buehler made his Rays debut and it was a success, although the Jays got to him for 3 runs in 7 innings in a tense 4-3 win. Buehler was electric out of the gate striking out 5 in the first two innings but Toronto got an RBI triple from Randal Grichuk in the 3rd and an RBI single from Ryan Noda in the 4th to go up to 2-0 while the Rays were having trouble with Jays starter Matt Wisler. Wisler had retired 12 straight Rays going into the bottom of the 6th when Wander Franco singled with one out, and after Austin Meadows flew out Rafael Devers singled and Alec Bohm singled home Franco. Then Seth Beer crushed a 2-1 pitch into the RF stands and suddenly the Rays were up 4-2. But Buehler made it tough on himself in the 7th by walking his first two batters of the game to lead off the inning, wild pitched them to 2nd and 3rd, then got a sac fly that made it 4-3, a ground out and then he whiffed Grichuk to get out of the inning with a man on 3rd to end his night 7 7 3 3 2 10 on 109 pitches. Unlike last night, though, the bullpen held tough - Nick Anderson whiffed a pair around a walk in the 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz set Toronto down 1-2-3 with two Ks to get his second save of the season and preserve Buehler's first Rays win. The offense only managed six hits but sequenced them well in the 6th. Hunter Bishop by the way has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and is now 0-16 since his grand slam in Toronto last Sunday.

Durham Rehab Update: Matt Manning went 6 6 2 2 2 5 in 86 pitches for the Bulls tonight so he's ready to make his next start with the Rays. The questions then become 1) who leaves the rotation? and 2) who leaves the roster?. McClanahan and Lynch will each get one more start and both have pitched pretty well. If McClanahan loses his spot, he likely goes back to Durham to stay stretched out as a starter. If it's Lynch, it could be Sandy Gaston but he's pitched so well since coming up and he might even factor into higher-leverage spots if he keeps it up. Decisions, decisions.

Game 2: The Blue Jays scored two in the first inning off Tyler Glasnow, and it turned out that would be all they needed to get the first win in nine tries against the Rays this season, taking a 2-1 decision. Cavan Biggio led off the game with a single, scored on a Vlad Jr double, and then Bichette doubled home Vlad for the 2 runs. That would be all Glasnow would give up as he went 7 4 2 2 2 8 but was let down by the offense, which managed only 3 hits on the night. They were befuddled by Jackson Stephens, who came in having thrown 13 innings allowing only one run over 9 relief outings and he continued his hot pitching in his first start by going 7 1 0 0 4 8. Keston Hiura got the start with Wander Franco needing a rest and he had his worst day as a Ray, going 0-4 with three strikeouts, and Spencer Torkelson also fanned 3 times. Drew Pomeranz gave up a single to Austin Meadows and a walk in the 8th but the Rays couldn't get anyone home, and then longtime nemesis Keith Ginkel, whom they destroyed in Rogers Centre a week ago, came on for the save and made it interesting, giving up a Seth Beer HR with two out and then walking Torkelson. But Hunter Bishop extended his slump to 0-19 by grounding out to end the game and the Rays dropped their third game in five. On the pitching side, in addition to Glasnow's fine outing Mitch Keller and Asa Lacy pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th respectively.

Game 3: Until the very end it looked like a rerun of yesterday's game in which the offense stayed asleep and wasted an excellent pitching performance. But a rally in the bottom of the 9th gave the Rays a walk-off 2-1 win and 2 out of 3 in this series. Daniel Lynch started in a bid to stay in the rotation, and although gave up a HR to Randal Grichuk as the 2nd batter of the game, he settled down from there and went 6.1 6 1 1 1 6. Mitch Keller took over in the 7th with 2 men on and was excellent again, whiffing 3 over his 1 2/3 innings giving him a Nick Anderson-like 24 Ks in 14 IP this season. And Sandy Gaston pitched a perfect ninth, ending it with a strikeout of Byron Buxton and picking up his first MLB win. Meanwhile the offense continued in its slumber and couldn't do anything against Toronto's Mick Abel who went 7.2 4 0 0 1 7 against him. But they got to Drew Pomeranz in the 9th. After Austin Meadows grounded out to start the inning, Rafael Devers doubled and went to third on a Keibert Ruiz single. Keston Hiura came in to pinch-hit for Seth Beer against the lefty and while Beer had been the Rays' entire offense the last two nights we played the platoon percentages and Hiura came through with a single to tie the game. And then it was time for another pinch-hitter as lefty Triston Casas had whiffed all 3 times up against Abel so the man he was spelling, Alec Bohm, came up for him and he too drilled a pinch-hit single to center and Ruiz beat Buxton's throw to the plate to walk it off and give the Rays the best of a very tough series after destroying this same team in their own park a week earlier. By the way Hunter Bishop singled in the 7th to snap his week-long 0-fer.

Team record: 24-9. Next up: 4 games at home vs Kansas City.

May 11: Traded 19-year-old minor league reliever Bobby Gil to the Baltimore Orioles, getting 24-year-old minor league starting pitcher Emerson Hancock in return.

Seemed like the Orioles were misusing Hancock, primarily pitching him in relief. He's lost some of the luster he has right now in 2020 IRL, but I figure he's worth a shot especially since the price was Gil, a scouting discovery whom I'm not sold on but came up in "make this work" so I made it work. I assigned Hancock to AA Montgomery and the AI immediately threw him into today's game, and he went 3.1 1 0 0 1 6 and then the AI promoted him to Durham. I'm going to stick him in their rotation and see how it goes.

Also around MLB, Max Fried made his Dodgers debut and predictably was brilliant, going 6.2 3 1 1 2 9. Also brilliant was Shane Baz, whom the Tigers decided to move from closer into the rotation and in his first start he was 7 6 2 2 2 10.

Art Deco · 08-19-2020, 10:59 AM

Game 1: It started off great for the Rays, then quickly got ugly as they fell 8-3 to Kansas City. Shane McClanahan got the start and looked great through 3 innings as the Rays built an early 3-0 lead. But the bottom fell out in the 4th when he gave up 5 runs, capped by a 3-run Thairo Estrada homer. After putting the leadoff man on in the 5th, he was pulled with his pitch count already about 90, so Asa Lacy came on, got out of the inning, but then had to leave in the 6th with a strained back. Enter Kirby Yates, who stunk up the joint and allowed Lacy's runner and 2 of his own to score, giving up 3 hits and a walk in 2/3 of an inning. I now see why Pittsburgh waived him. I was hoping for length from Lacy and for Yates to at least get into the 7th, but instead I had to bring on Sandy Gaston who excelled again, going 1 1/3 with 3 more Ks. And with Mitch Keller unavailable, I had to use Jose Alvarado in the 8th and Will Smith in the 9th, both of whom got through it but normally not the guys I want to use down 8-3. The offense, meanwhile, had another lousy game even with the 3 early runs. They were mainly the result of brief former Ray Lucas Sims walking 3 guys in the 3rd, including Tork with the bases loaded, and another run came on a Ronaldo Hernandez GIDP. Sims settled down from there, and went 7.1 6 3 3 3 5 with the 6 hits all the slumping offense got. At least I got the answer tonight as to who's going down when Matt Manning comes back.

Another trade:

Hamilton is a solid reliever but the White Sox were so desperate to get rid of his $6.5M contract that not only did they take Yates they even took back 30% so it only ended up costing us about $1M in salary. You can see from his excellent numbers above that he was probably what I thought I was getting in Yates before discovering he had lost his stuff (Also you've noticed I decided to go with OOTP's "light" skin to change things up).

Game 2: The May mediocrity continues as they lose again to the Royals, this time by a 6-3 score. Again they took an early lead, again the starting pitching blew up in the middle innings, again the middle reliever made things worse, and again I had to use high-leverage guys in the late innings down by several runs. Hunter Bishop's 2-run HR in the 3rd off Kyle Gibson made it 2-1 Rays, but Dustin May couldn't hold the lead, giving up 2 in the 5th and then getting into more trouble in the 6th. The newly-acquired Ian Hamilton did his best Kirby Yates impression, allowing the inherited runners to score and making a mess in the 6th as well. May ended 5.1 9 5 5 2 3 in his worst start of the season and Hamilton, who hardly ever walks anybody, walked a pair and gave up 3 hits in his 2/3 of an inning. Jasseel De La Cruz had to go two innings and today I had to use Nick Anderson as the bullpen has become worn down. Keston Hiura started for the tired Vidal Brujan and homered in the 5th to make it 3-3 and that was it for the Rays scoring. But unlike the last few nights where they didn't get many hits, tonight the problem was getting them home as they had 13 on the night. The primary culprits were Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm, both of whom were 0-5 and had opportunities to drive in runners, including in the 9th when they got 2 on with 1 out and both of them came up empty as Bohm struck out to end the game.

Game 3: Another gut punch loss and another bullpen meltdown. When you go into the 8th inning of a game up 5-1 with Walker Buehler on the mound you should win, right? Nope, not today. JJ Bleday, once a Rays farmhand who was traded to San Diego in the Paddack/McKay deal and then waived by the Padres and picked up by KC, hit the second of his 2 HRs today off Buehler to cut it to 5-3. Buehler then got the next two out before giving up a double, and Jose Alvarado shat the bed, giving up 2 hits and a walk to allow KC to tie it up. Nick Anderson got him out of the inning and then Will Smith came on for the 9th in a tie game. Smith should have gotten out #1 but Vidal Brujan threw wildly on a grounder to let the leadoff man on who was doubled to 3rd and then scored on a sac fly to put KC up 6-5, which turned out to be the final score. Although the run was unearned Smith gave up the double and a walk and continues to be shaky and is pitching his way out of the closer's role. The Rays jumped out to what looked like would be a winning lead off old friend Drew Strotman thanks to a Triston Casas (playing for Bohm) HR, a run scoring on a wild pitch, a Spencer Torkelson groundball, a Rafael Devers RBI double and a Wander sac fly. Buehler ended 7.2 8 4 4 1 7 with obviously the pair of Bleday HRs being his downfall. Brujan singled with two out in the ninth but Wander struck out as he continues mired in a slump that's seen his average drop to .284. Keibert Ruiz was also 0-4 and is 277/322/375 with 1 HR and 11 RBI so he hasn't been producing either as the team has gotten into a malaise. Baltimore lost today so the lead remains 3 1/2 games.

May 16: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, activated P Matt Manning from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Manning starts tonight as the Rays try to salvage a win from this 4-game home series against a sub-.500 club.

Game 4: The offense built a lead that was bullpen-proof and mediocre start-proof and the Rays rolled to a 13-1 win to snap out of their recent funk which saw them lose four of the last five with the only win a miracle 2-1 comeback in the 9th on Sunday. Matt Manning came off the DL and was brilliant, going 6 6 1 1 0 12 to go 2-0 in his two Rays starts this season. The Royals actually led the game with a run in the top of the 4th before the Rays scored all 13 of their runs over the 4th and 5th innings. Rafael Devers got things started with a 3-run blast, his 4th of the year, to make it 3-1, and as Ron Burgundy would say, it escalated quickly as Nick Schnell hit his own 3-run HR (#6) to cap a 7-run 3rd and then 6 more were added in the 4th including a Devers RBI double as part of his 4-hit, 4-RBI game. Speaking of snapping out of it, Wander went 3-5 with an RBI, while Spencer Torkelson was 2-4 with 2 RBI. Mitch Keller whiffed 4 in his 2 scoreless innings in relief of Manning, giving him 28 in 16 innings, and Sandy Gaston extended his MLB career-starting scoreless streak to 9 1/3 innings with a clean 9th and a total of 15 strikeouts.

Team record: 25-12. Up next: a weekend visit to Fenway Park.

Art Deco · 08-19-2020, 08:36 PM

Game 1: The tough losses continue to pile up as the Rays fell 5-4 in 10 innings to the Red Sox today on an Abraham Toro walk-off homer off Jasseel De La Cruz. It was a back-and-forth affair with the Rays having 2-1 and 4-3 leads as Tyler Glasnow got the start. He had a bit of a rough start by his standards, going 6.1 8 4 4 1 8 but he left with the lead, only for Jose Alvarado to allow one of his runners to score and send us to extras, setting the stage for Toro's heroics. The offense was up and down with the 4 runs and 9 hits but they struck out a season-high 15 times including 4 from Nick Schnell and 3 each from Seth Beer and Triston Casas, starting for a tired Rafael Devers. Austin Meadows was 3-4 with 2 RBI and Beer and Ronaldo Hernandez had sac flies but all the strikeouts meant they couldn't get other runners home. With the win and a Baltimore loss, Boston moves into second place, 4 behind the Rays.

May 17: Sent P Scott Barlow to AAA Durham for injury rehab.

Barlow is back from his oblique injury and will get several appearances at Durham. He's out of options so he'll eventually have to be put on the active MLB roster or traded or waived.

Game 2: The Rays bounced back with a closer-than-it-looked 7-1 win over Boston behind the bat of Alec Bohm, who clubbed a pair of homers and drove in 3. His first homer put them on the board in the 3rd, and after Boston tied in the bottom of the inning and Keston Hiura's sac fly put the Rays back up 2-1, his 2-run homer in the 5th made it 4-1 and gave the Rays some breathing room. This came after Daniel Lynch pulled a Houdini act in the 4th. After loading the bases with nobody out, he got Buster Posey to hit the ball back at him and get a force at the plate, and then he got Niko Goodrum to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Lynch wasn't overpowering and he was a bit wild, leaving with a 6 5 1 0 4 3 line and hitting Jesse Winker with a pitch to lead off the 7th. Ian Hamilton came on and his second Rays appearance went much better than the first as he got 3 outs on 3 pitches, getting Abraham Toro to roll into a double play and Alex Verdugo to ground out. The Rays then broke it open in the 8th on a 2-run double from Vidal Brujan and a sac fly from Wander, who stayed in his slump at 0-4 and has now seen his BA plummet to .278. We've seen this before, and it always seems to end with a ridiculous hot streak of multi-hit games so hopefully we have that to look forward to. Hamilton stayed on for the 8th and got through unscathed, and Asa Lacy had a 5-pitch 1-2-3 9th to close it out. Lynch improves to 5-1, 3.02 and a guy who started the year without a rotation spot has made the most of his opportunity.

Game 3: The Rays rapped out 16 hits and Dustin May did just enough as they beat the Red Sox 6-2 to take 2 of 3 at Fenway. After a Jesse Winker HR put Boston up 1-0 in the 3rd, the Rays got 3 in the 4th on a Devers double (the second of his 4 hits today), a Keibert Ruiz double to score Devers, an Alec Bohm single to score Ruiz, and a Vidal Brujan single to score Bohm. Then they tacked on two more in the 5th on a wild pitch and another Bohm RBI single. Bohm ended with 3 hits on the day to cap a big weekend at Fenway which brought his average over. 300. In the 8th, Hunter Bishop singled, got his first MLB stolen base (on his 4th attempt) and scored on a Brujan single. Meanwhile May was far from his sharpest (after walking 6 men all season he issued 4 bases on balls today), getting only one strikeout and many fly balls instead of his trademark grounders. But he still managed a 6 5 2 2 4 1 line which was good enough to get him win #4. At 5-2, Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th and got through clean and with it 6-2 in the 8th Mitch Keller pitched the final two innings without incident. The only bit of bad news today was that Keibert bruised his knee when sliding into home when he scored and had to leave the game. He's DtD for 7 days so there's a chance he goes on the IL and Chris Betts gets a long-deserved call-up, however brief. The division lead now expands to 6.

Team record: 27-13. Next up: the road trip swings through Cleveland for 4 games.

Art Deco · 08-20-2020, 11:14 AM

May 20: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day IL with a bruised knee, recalled C Chris Betts from AAA Durham.

As mentioned yesterday, Ruiz probably doesn't have to go on the IL, I could have played Ronaldo Hernandez most games over the next 6 days and maybe played Ruiz once with the bruised knee, but Betts has toiled at Durham since 2022 and deserves a call-up, however brief. Betts has 60 power and a 55 eye so he's the prototypical power-hitting catcher who hits for a low average but has actually hit .260-.270 for Durham. He could easily be playing for a lot of other MLB teams.

Also this:

Game 1: Well, that's it. Will Smith is out at closer. I've never had to do this before, demoting a closer, as Nick Anderson got the job done in 2020, Brad Hand in 21 and 22, and Smith last season. But he blew yet another save - his 4th straight - as the Rays fell to Cleveland 4-3 in 11 innings today and once again Walker Buehler was denied a win. Buehler went 7 8 1 1 0 6 and as you can see gave up base hits but usually got out of any mini-jams with strikeouts or a double play. Anderson pitched a fine 8th with 2 Ks and so Smith came on for the 9th. He struck out Gerardo Perdomo to start the inning but lefty Jake Bauers singled off him and another lefty, Nolan Jones, took him yard to tie the game. Gary Sanchez came in to pinch hit, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on, got him and got through the 10th. With a lefty leading off the 11th, Asa Lacy came in as Alvarado was unavailable, and Cleveland pinch-hit Matthew Barefoot. If that name sounds familiar he was in the Rays system after being acquired from Houston as part of the Abraham Toro deal in the 21-22 offseason. He was then dealt to Pittsburgh as part of the Josh Bell trade at the 22 deadline, and the Pirates surprisingly waived him last year (we even put in a claim) and Cleveland nabbed him. Anyway, you can probably guess by now that he greeted Lacy with a drive into the LF stands to walk it off for Cleveland. Of course if the offense managed more than 3 runs we wouldn't have been in this situation but Logan Allen and 3 Cleveland relievers (including old friend Diego Castillo who struck out both batters he faced) kept them in check and struck out 13 over the 11 innings including 4 whiffs from Keston Hiura. Vidal Brujan was the offensive star with a 3-5, 2-steal game, scoring 2 of the runs. Devers had an RBI single in the first, and Meadows and Schnell had RBI groundouts. They managed 11 hits and stole a team-season-high 6 bases but couldn't get the big hits when necessary. Still it should have been enough. De La Cruz is the likely choice to replace Smith, allowing me to keep Anderson and Alvarado in their regular roles. Smith will be relegated to low-leverage middle relief for the foreseeable future.

Game 2: Well that was the last thing anyone expected - a complete Matt Manning meltdown in the first inning. He allowed the first 8 Cleveland batters to reach and 7 of them scored before an out was recorded and that was all it took for the Rays to fall 7-4. Manning walked the leadoff man Jake Bauers and then Lewis Brinson homered, and followed that up by allowing a 2-run Christian Arroyo single and a bases-clearing triple from Ka'ai Tom. Amazingly he didn't allow Tom to score from third with nobody out as something clicked and he struck out the next three batters. He ended up 4 6 7 7 4 7 as he settled down from there, but it was way, way too late. It was too bad as the Rays grabbed a couple of runs in the first inning on Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm RBI singles off opener Diego Castillo. But follower Zack Godley kept them in check from there until a Spencer Torkelson RBI single in the 7th and a Devers solo homer in the 8th. Ian Hamilton and Asa Lacy threw a couple of scoreless innings each in mop-up duty, but you don't expect be down 0-2 in a series you have Walker Buehler, Manning and Tyler Glasnow starting. Chris Betts made his MLB debut and went 0-3 with a pair of strikeouts before Ronaldo pinch-hit for him against a lefty in the 8th. Ronaldo himself has been struggling for the first time in his MLB career as he's down to 200/196/356 (yes his OBP is lower than his BA thanks to 0 walks and a sac fly).

Game 3. Wow. Coming into this series with Buehler, Manning and Glasnow starting I figured we'd win at least 2 of 3, maybe a sweep. Never expected to be swept but that's what happened as Tyler Glasnow followed Manning's disastrous outing with one of his own as the Rays were routed 10-4. Glasnow looked good in the first, got the first 2 outs in the 2nd, and then a sequence in the 3rd led to 4 straight hits and 3 runs. And in the 5th he gave up a pair of 2-run HRs to Jake Bauers and Bobby Bradley along with 2 other runs to end with a ghastly 4 12 9 9 1 7 line which could have been worse had 2 runners not been thrown out at the plate. Maybe it's Chris Betts behind the dish that's the problem - his two starts have seen the normally reliable Manning and Glasnow both immolated. Whatever the reason, Ronaldo will get the next start in a couple of days. On offense, Vidal Brujan had 4 more hits to raise his AL-leading BA to .372, and he doubled and scored on a Meadows double in the first to give the Rays a brief lead. Meanwhile, the once-great Justin Bieber came into this game 0-5 with a 6.65 ERA but bedeviled the Rays until running out of gas in the 8th, when Meadows smacked a 3-run homer, his team-high 9th. A team that started 22-7 is now in the midst of a 5-9 stretch finding new ways to lose. Fortunately the Red Sox and Orioles keep losing so the lead remains 5 1/2 but this looks nothing like the 115-win, World Series-winning team of 2023.

Team record: 27-16. Next up: an off-day followed by a weekend series at home vs the Yankees.

Art Deco · 08-20-2020, 05:40 PM

May 23: Sent OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Marsh will probably play 4 games for Durham through the weekend and rejoin the team Monday for the Angels series. He went 0-5 in the Thursday night game and it will be good to get him back. Hunter Bishop, who started like a house afire but has cooled lately, will go back to Durham.

Game 1: After suffering several heartbreaking losses over the past 2-3 weeks, it was time for the Rays to deal one out to somebody else and they came back with runs in the bottom of the 8th and 9th to beat the Yankees and Gerrit Cole 3-2. Daniel Lynch started and gave up 2-out RBI singles to Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres in the 1st and 3rd to fall behind 2-0 but pitched well overall and ended up 6.1 7 2 2 1 9 with the 9 strikeouts being a season-high. Meanwhile Cole was a tough customer for the Rays hitters as usual, but Austin Meadows broke through with a 2-out RBI triple in the 3rd however Rafael Devers couldn't bring him home. And 2-1 is where we stayed for most of the game. Lynch gave up a 1-out hit in the 7th before being pulled, but Ian Hamilton came in and got Raudy Read to hit into a double play. With two lefties due up to start the 8th, Will Smith got the call and retired both before having to leave with a sprained ankle that will keep him out 4 days. Maybe it was for the best as Torres was due, and Mitch Keller came on and struck him out and set the Yankees down in the 9th. Meanwhile the Rays tied it in the 8th on singles by Hunter Bishop, Vidal Brujan and Meadows, and then in the bottom of the 9th Alec Bohm led off the inning by doubling off Cole and he went to third on a Seth Beer single. Nick Schnell then hit a medium-deep fly ball to CF Aaron Hicks, who has a cannon arm and despite it being only the first out I gambled and sent Bohm, who scored to provide the walk-off win. Keller picked up his first Rays win as he's been a multi-inning bullpen beast since a rough first few appearances, now with 31 Ks in 19 1/3 innings.

Game 2: Another tense, hard-fought, low-scoring game yielded another Rays victory as Dustin May and 3 relievers combined on a 2-hit 2-0 shutout of the Yankees. May went 6 2 0 0 1 9 on 105 pitches and like Daniel Lynch yesterday, had a season-high 9 Ks. Jose Alvarado went 1 1/3 and struck out 3 on only 13 pitches, Nick Anderson got the other two outs in the 8th around a walk, and Jasseel De La Cruz got the Yanks 1-2-3 in the 9th in his first save situation after being anointed the closer, although it's his 3rd save of the year overall. The offense, such as it was, came from a Vidal Brujan single to lead off the game, followed by his MLB-leading 20th steal and a Rafael Devers RBI single. In the 3rd Austin Meadows went the opposite way for HR #10 and that was all the Rays could muster against Shawn Semple, who's given them trouble in the past and went the full 8 innings today. May improves to 5-2, 3.35 as the Rays have had more success lately with the back of their rotation (Lynch, May) than the front (Buehler, Manning, Glasnow).

Game 3: This game looked a lot like the first two in the series, going 1-1 to the 7th in a duel between Walker Buehler and Luis Severino. Buehler blinked first, giving up Giancarlo Stanton's second solo homer of the game to put the Yankees up 2-1 in the top of the inning, but Severino blinked a lot more in the bottom and the Rays put up 5 runs to go on to a 7-4 win and series sweep of the slumping Yankees, who have dropped 9 straight. The Rays, who had scored their only run at the time in the 5th on a Spencer Torkelson sac fly, started the rally with one out when Torkelson singled, Chris Betts got his first major league hit sending Tork to 3rd, and then Vidal Brujan tripled them both home. After a Wander groundout to 3rd that Brujan couldn't score on, Austin Meadows blooped a single to center to make it 4-2, and then Rafael Devers capped a 4-4 day with a 2-run HR (#6) off Yankee reliever Austin Brice to make it 6-2. Buehler left with an excellent 7 4 2 2 1 8 line on 116 pitches, and with a 4-run lead and lefties due up, yours truly made the decision to save Alvarado and go with Asa Lacy instead which kind of backfired. Lacy struck out former Ray Brandon Lowe but gave up a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases, and then Nick Anderson, after striking out Gleyber Torres for the 2nd out and now facing Stanton as the tying run at the plate, hit Stanton to force in a run and then gave up a single to Greg Deichmann to score another run but Torkelson threw Josh Smith out at home to end the inning and it was 6-4. In the bottom of the 8th Betts followed up his first MLB hit with his first MLB extra-base hit and RBI, doubling in Nick Schnell who had a leadoff walk and providing some insurance. Jasseel De La Cruz was then perfect again with a pair of whiffs for save #4 and the Rays got a much-needed series sweep.

Team record: 30-16. Next up: the homestead continues with 4 games against the Angels.

BREAKING NEWS: After the game the Yankees announced the firing of manager Aaron Boone and GM Brian Cashman, the end of an era.

Art Deco · 08-21-2020, 09:20 AM

May 27: Activated OF Brandon Marsh from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned OF Hunter Bishop to AAA Durham.

It's great to have our all-star CF back, and it was an impressive 5-week stint filling in for him from Bishop, who proved he can hit and hit for power at the MLB level. His insane start led to the expected slowdown, but when all was said and done he went 252/291/524 with 8 HR and 25 RBI in 103 AB and 0.8 WAR so he made the loss of Marsh hurt as little as could be reasonably expected.

Game 1: A bizarre, back-and-forth game that saw the Rays walk it off in the bottom of the 9th on a two-out, 3-run Nick Schnell pinch-hit homer and prevail 6-5. The Rays took a 3-2 lead into the eighth on solo HRs from Wander Franco (more on him in a minute), Austin Meadows (back-to-back in the 1st) and Alec Bohm behind a fine 7 5 2 2 2 8 effort from Matt Manning, who gave up both runs in a rough first inning. But Jose Alvarado didn't get it done in the 8th (I probably left him in too long figuring he could get one more righty out), allowing the tying run and leaving men on base, and Mitch Keller had his first ineffective outing since very early in the season, allowing one of Alvarado's runners to score to give LA the lead and then giving up one of his own in the 9th to put them down 5-3. Ken Giles came on for the 9th and gave up singles to Rafael Devers and Bohm to lead off the inning but whiffed Keston Hiura and Spencer Torkelson. So Schnell came in to pinch-hit for the pitcher, Ian Hamilton (who got the last out of the 9th) and drilled a 1-1 Giles pitch into the RF stands for pandemonium on Memorial Day at the Trop. Schnell was batting for the pitcher because we lost the DH when Wander Franco had to leave the game injured. Hiura had started at DH and there were no other middle infielders on the bench so he had to take over 2B and Vidal Brujan slid over to SS. Franco will be DtD for 6 days with forearm stiffness so it's not too serious but he might go on the IL. Nevertheless, had he not gotten hurt Schnell may have never had the chance to win it so it's funny how things can turn out.

Game 2: A second straight 6-5 victory for the Rays, although this one wasn't of the walk-off variety. But like yesterday, they lost the lead before getting it back in the end. Tyler Glasnow started, and like Matt Manning yesterday had some first inning trouble but he got out of it only down 1-0. This set the stage for a big 3rd inning which saw the bases loaded ahead of Austin Meadows who cleared them with a triple. Rafael Devers singled Meadows home, and Seth Beer got Devers home with a groundout. A 5-1 lead with Glasnow on the mound normally looks secure, but in the 6th he gave up a pair of 2-run homers to Anthony Rizzo and Marcus Semien and just like that we were tied. The Rays though struck back in the bottom of the inning. Brandon Marsh walked, Vidal Brujan singled, and after Keston Hiura lined out, Marsh and Brujan pulled off a double steal enabling Marsh to score on Meadows' fly ball to center and restoring the lead. It was then time for the up-and-down bullpen to lock it down and today they were up. Glasnow got the first two outs in the seventh before allowing a double (leaving at 6.2 8 5 5 1 8), so Nick Anderson came on and got Nick Solak to fly out. Jose Alvarado made up for his struggles yesterday by getting a 1-2-3 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz did likewise in the 9th, nabbing his 5th save. The Rays came into this series 3-6 in 1-run games and 3 games below their Pythagorean record but now have won two of them in as many days.

Game 3: Another tight one at the Trop, and another one in the win column for the Rays as they got by the Angels 3-1. It was a duel between Daniel Lynch and the always-tough-on-the-Rays Yohander Mendez, who beat them in Game 4 of last year's ALCS. Lynch allowed the leadoff man on in 5 of his 6 innings but got through unscathed thanks to some double plays and well-timed strikeouts as he went 6 7 0 0 0 6 to improve to 6-1, 2.68. In fact with Tyler Glasnow's recent bad run of starts the case can be made that Lynch has been their most consistent starter this year, pretty good for a guy who didn't have a rotation spot when the season started. This one was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th when the Rays finally broke through against Mendez. With one out Brandon Marsh doubled, was singled in by Vidal Brujan, and then Brujan was singled in by Austin Meadows, now with 41 RBI and among the league leaders, and in the 7th they added a run when Alec Bohm doubled and scored on a Ronaldo Hernandez sac fly. Meanwhile, with 2 lefties due up and Alvarado unavailable, Will Smith came in and got a 1-2-3 7th and with it 3-0 Sandy Gaston got his first high-leverage opportunity in the 8th. It did not go well. He gave up two hits and a walk to score a run without retiring anyone and Ian Hamilton as he did in a previous game got a double play grounder and then the third out to escape the inning with a 2-run lead. With Jasseel De La Cruz also unavailable, Nick Anderson pitched the 9th and in a bit of an odd turn for him got 3 flyballs and no strikeouts to nail down his 2nd save of the year.

May 30: Activated C Keibert Ruiz from the 10-day IL, optioned C Chris Betts to AAA Durham.

Good to get Keibert back, although the C position has been an offensive black hole this season as compared to the last two years where it might have been the best in MLB. Ruiz himself is only 279/331/385 with 1 HR and 12 RBI in 31 games, and Ronaldo has struggled as well, going 179/172/304 with 1 HR and 10 RBI himself. If these guys can get going, this team really could go on a run.

Game 4: It's tough to sweep a team in a 4-game series, and even tougher when you only score one run as the Rays lost a tough contest 3-1 to the Angels today. It was 1-1 going into the 9th and Jasseel De La Cruz came on for the Rays. After striking out Anthony Rendon to start the inning he gave up a blast into the RF stands by Anthony Rizzo, then gave up a single to Jo Adell who stole second and scored on a Marcus Semien single. Ken Giles didn't blow the save like he did on Monday, getting the Rays 1-2-3 and striking out Nick Schnell, the man whose 3-run HR off him gave the Rays that walk-off win, to end the game. They wasted a great performance from Dustin May, who went 7 3 1 1 2 8 and only allowed a Billy McKinney homer. The offense had a hard time against another lefty, Patrick Sandoval, only breaking through in the 3rd to go up 1-0 on a Keston Hiura RBI double. Hiura nearly put them ahead 2-1 in the 7th but Spencer Torkelson was thrown out a home on his single. Ian Hamilton pitched a perfect 8th to keep the tie intact, but ultimately the lack of offense doomed them tonight.

Team record: 33-17. Next up: A tough weekend series in Minnesota, where the Twins are off to a 31-15 start and the clear class of the AL Central.

Art Deco · 08-21-2020, 07:16 PM

Game 1: For a change the Rays came into a series against a team with a better record as the Twins were 31-15 vs the Rays' 33-17, giving the Rays a chance to see if they measure up as they've fattened up on the Blue Jays and Yankees this year with nearly half their wins (16) coming against those 2 teams. Well they came up short tonight in a sloppy, ugly 10-5 loss. Walker Buehler got the start and although he's been let down by his bullpen and the offense in some of his previous Rays starts, tonight he was the architect of his own downfall, giving up 3 HRs and 6 runs (5 earned) over 5 innings. He got his strikeouts (8) but that was about it. The other culprit tonight was Ronaldo Hernandez, who came on when Keibert Ruiz suffered a 2-day intercostal strain injury. Hernandez committed three throwing errors, two on SB attempts and the other on a grounder in front of the plate, leading to 4 unearned runs. Keston Hiura and Rafael Devers each went 2-5 with an RBI to lead the offense, which had the game at 3-3 after 3 before the Twins really went to work on Buehler. The Red Sox with a win cut the division lead to 5 1/2 games.

Some news from the International League:

Kjerstad got off to a terrible start in April but as you can see above really kicked it into gear in May. Also in my player development update he was upgraded to a 55 in CF from 45, and his eye was upgraded from 40 to 45.

Game 2: The Rays struck back, and struck late, to even the series with Minnesota riding a 4-run 9th to a 7-3 win. The Twins brought on their closer Zack Littell and the Rays' bats went to work. Seth Beer singled, and after Triston Casas whiffed, one of yesterday's goats Ronaldo Hernandez (who also threw out a would-be basestealer) managed an infield single and then Brandon Marsh ripped a double scoring Beer. Vidal Brujan followed with a sac fly and then Keston Hiura hit a mammoth homer to deep left to cap the inning. They were in the game thanks to a fine performance from Matt Manning, going 6.2 7 3 3 0 7 and whom I left in one batter too long, thinking (hoping?) he could retire Yu Chang with men on 1st and 3rd. He didn't and the Twins tied the game, so Ian Hamilton put out the fire again. Jose Alvarado got through the 8th (and was the beneficiary of that Ronaldo CS) picking up the win, and with a 4-run lead and some lefties due up Will Smith got to pitch in the 9th again and allowed only a Nick Gordon double. The Rays got their earlier runs on a pair of RBI hits from Casas (a double and single) and an Alec Bohm RBI double. Casas was in because Rafael Devers needed a rest, but I'm seriously considering installing him as the DH against righties over Beer, who despite 2 hits tonight is only hitting 222/331/359 with 4 HRs for the season starting about 80-85% of the time. Meanwhile Marsh has been on fire since coming off the IL earlier in the week and is now hitting 404/500/617 in his 47 AB this season before and after the injury. Tonight he was 3-4 with that game-winning RBI double and also has 9 steals in limited action as well. Boston won (behind a 4-4 day from Abraham Toro and 7 RBI from Ryan Mountcastle) so the lead stays at 5 1/2.

Game 3: It was a laugher until it wasn't, but the Rays held on to beat the Twins 7-5 and take 2 of 3 over the weekend against the team with the best record in the AL. It looked like it would be a Sunday stroll at the ballpark when the Rays jumped on Jhoan Duran for 6 runs in the 3rd inning highlighted by 2-run doubles from Vidal Brujan and Keibert Ruiz. Rafael Devers and Nick Schnell had RBI singles as well and with Tyler Glasnow on the mound a win looked assured. And when Brandon Marsh answered the Twins' run in the 4th with a solo HR in the 6th to make it 7-1, pulses around Tampa Bay remained at resting level. But Royce Lewis and Miguel Andujar hit solo HRs in the 6th to cut it to 7-3, and Schnell's dropped fly ball helped create a mess in the 7th. Glasnow left with two out and two on and Mitch Keller came on, but he gave up a 2-run double to Lewis and suddenly it was 7-5. The back end of the pen got the job done, though, as Jose Alvarado whiffed a pair around a single and Jasseel De La Cruz got two flyballs and a strikeout to finish it off for save #6. Glasnow picked up his league-high 7th win going 6.2 5 5 3 1 7 on 114 pitches and Marsh stayed nuclear by doubling along with the HR to raise his average to .412. And Wander was back in the lineup today and celebrated with a 3-hit game so perhaps he'll get going again. Boston lost so we're back up 6 1/2.

Team record: 35-18. Next up: the road trip takes us to Texas for 3 games, and Tuesday is the draft.

Art Deco · 08-22-2020, 10:00 AM

Game 1: Some sloppy play cost the Rays in a 5-4 loss in Texas, a loss which wasted a great performance from Austin Meadows. The Rays RF hit two solo homers and tripled, but some shaky infield defense and a mediocre start from Daniel Lynch contributed to their downfall. It started in the second when Lynch got the first two out but Wander Franco booted a grounder, and then Danny Santana took Lynch deep to make it 2-0. After Lynch gave up another run in the 3rd the Rays came back to tie it on Meadows' first HR in the 4th and a Spencer Torkelson triple in the 5th which drove in Keston Hiura and then Torkelson scored on a Brandon Marsh double. This all happened with nobody out but they couldn't get Marsh in from 2nd. Then Lynch was tagged in the sixth for a run after giving up 3 hits and leaving with runners on first and third with one out. Mitch Keller came on with the idea of getting the strikeout, which he did, but in the pitch sequence leading up to it he threw a wild pitch, making it 5-3. Meadows homered again to cut it to 5-4 but the Rays couldn't push across a run in the 8th or 9th and fell to defeat. Lynch went 5.1 8 5 3 2 1 in his first slack performance in a while. The White Sox beat Boston so the 6 1/2 game lead remains intact.

Game 2: The Rays did just enough to eke out a 4-3 win behind the strong pitching of Dustin May. After giving up a Lewin Diaz RBI double in the first, May shut it down from there, going 7 6 1 1 1 7 to improve to 6-2, 2.93. Meanwhile the offense scraped out enough runs. Nick Schnell's RBI double in the 2nd tied the game, Wander's 3rd inning double put them in front, and Alec Bohm drilled HR #8 with Rafael Devers aboard to make it 4-1. With a couple of lefties up in the 8th and Alvarado still tired, Will Smith was entrusted to a high-leverage situation and failed, giving up a single to Josh Jung and then a HR to lefty-hitting Matt Thaiss which cut the lead to 4-3. Smith had to stay in for one more batter, the tough lefty Diaz, but got him out. Nick Anderson took over and after a walk he struck out a pair, and Jasseel De La Cruz had another 1-2-3 ninth to get save #7. Elsewhere the Red Sox were destroyed 13-0 by the White Sox, including a pair of HRs from Jason Heyward who was playing for Durham in April before wisely opting out of his minor league deal. As a result the lead now grows to 7 1/2.

Game 3: The Rays won another road series with a 9-1 thrashing of the Rangers behind a dominant Walker Buehler performance and a 4-hit day from Spencer Torkelson. Buehler was never in trouble, save for the 7th inning when he gave up a run on a couple of hits, going 8 4 1 1 0 8. Meanwhile the offense jumped all over Nick Neidert, getting 2 in the first, 2 in the second and 3 in the fourth and never looked back. Vidal Brujan, Austin Meadows and Brandon Marsh were all shown as fatigued, so it was an interesting lineup as while Keston Hiura simply plugged in for Brujan, the outfield was quite makeshift with Nick Schnell moving to center, Torkelson in right and Seth Beer of all people in left with Triston Casas DHing. It didn't matter as they banged out 18 hits. Hiura got things rolling in the first by singling, stealing second, going to third on a Wander single and scoring on a Schnell fielder's choice, and then Alec Bohm had an RBI double. In the 2nd, Keibert Ruiz (dropped to 8th in the lineup) got the first of his three hits ahead of Torkelson who's probably never hit 9th before but didn't care as he belted one into the LF seats to make it 4-0. Wander had a 2-RBI double and Devers had the first of his 3 doubles for an RBI to make it 7-0 in the 4th and Hiura had a 2-run single in the 7th. Boston was swept by the White Sox so the lead grows to a healthy 8 1/2 games.

Team record: 37-19. Next up: an off-day, followed by an ALDS rematch weekend series in Seattle.

Art Deco · 08-22-2020, 01:42 PM

Draft time again and obviously we were always picking at the end of the 1st round thanks to the best record in MLB and a World Series win last season. But due to several 1st round picks not signing last season, comp 1st round picks for those teams pushed our first round pick back to #35. Thanks to Noah Syndergaard turning down the qualifying offer we had our own comp pick at #38 overall. Here's what we got in the early rounds:

1. Round #1, #35 overall: 18-year old OF Stan Collier, from Canada. A Canadian high schooler you say? He's a 6'6", 200-pound monster with 70 power potential and 60 potential gap power. He's the prototypical power-hitting prospect whose ultimate success will depend on whether he makes enough contact, as he's only a 45 potential there.

2. Round #1 (comp pick), #38 overall: 22-year old LHP Billy Tacuri from the University of Arkansas. Gotta love lefties who can throw 96-98 and Tacuri's ceiling is a mid-rotation starter according to my scouts.

3. Round #2, #70 overall: 18-year old OF Pat Brown from Maine. Going with those cold-weather high-schoolers this year. I seem to remember one once from New Jersey who did pretty good, Trout somebody? Anyway neither Collier nor Brown will be another Mike Trout but Brown is potential 55 contact/60 power/55 eye who projects to be a .270 hitter.

4. Round #3, #104 overall: 18-year old 3B Joe Gerber from New York. When you get past the 100th pick you're looking for one outstanding potential tool and with Gerber it's power as he has a 75 ceiling. Contact as always with young power hitters is a potential issue but he'll definitely be one to watch.

5. Round #4, #134 overall: 22-year-old RHP George Campbell from the University of Virginia. Campbell has decent stuff, throws 94-96 and projects as either a 4th/5th starter or a really good bullpen guy.

6. Round #5, #164 overall: 22-year-old RHP Ian Morgan from the University of Florida. Go Gators! Morgan's ceiling is a 4th starter, with decent control who can bring it up to 98.

Art Deco · 08-22-2020, 04:34 PM

Game 1: In a rematch of last year's ALDS, where Seattle nearly stopped the Rays' World Series before it started as they had to come back from dropping the first two games at home, tonight was another epic battle between these teams. Given how the Rays often struggle with crafty lefty pitchers, the ALDS might have gone another way had the Mariners' ace Marco Gonzales not been out injured. Gonzales is healthy now and he was matched up tonight against Matt Manning, and the two turned in quite the pitchers' duel. The Rays broke through first in the 5th on a Spencer Torkelson homer just instead the LF foul pole, but the Mariners tied it at 1 in the 7th on a Kyle Lewis infield single off Jose Alvarado, who had inherited a couple of runners from Manning, who went 6 4 1 1 2 7 on 108 pitches. Gonzales left in the seventh as well and it became a battle of the bullpens in which the Rays finally prevailed in the 11th inning on a 2-run blast off Chris Bassitt by Alec Bohm, his 9th HR of the season. Jasseel De La Cruz picked up save #8 in the bottom off the 11th, and the surprise winner was Asa Lacy, who pitched the 10th and was chosen over the erratic Will Smith with two of the three batters due being lefties. Alvarado, Nick Anderson and Ian Hamilton had scoreless innings of their own as the bullpen was excellent tonight in a tough win. Boston won Thursday night against Baltimore but were beaten by them tonight so the lead has grown to 9 games.

Game 2: I could just cut and paste the Game 1 recap above and change a few names to describe this game since it was another 3-1 Rays victory in 11 innings. It was Tyler Glasnow vs George Kirby this time instead of Matt Manning vs Marco Gonzalez, and Glasnow went 7 4 1 1 4 8. Yesterday it was a Spencer Torkelson HR for the Rays' run in regulation, today it was Austin Meadows with one. Once again Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson had scoreless innings in relief, but there was a twist in the 10th. Will Smith did come in this time with the lefties up instead of Asa Lacy, and he nearly cost the Rays the game. He got the first out but then Marcus Wilson singled and Evan White doubled him to 3rd. Smith was pulled in favor of Ian Hamilton and both the infield and outfield were drawn in, which paid off when Julio Rodriguez's fly ball was too shallow to score Wilson, and then Hamilton got the very tough Jarred Kelenic to ground out to end the threat. This set the stage for the top of the 11th when Meadows, Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm all singled to load the bases with nobody out off Joey Gerber and then Nick Schnell and Keibert Ruiz delivered sac flies to make it 3-1. Jasseel De La Cruz came in once again for the save and got it, but not without a little drama as he put a couple of runners on. Hamilton got the much-deserved win given his Houdini act in the 10th.

Game 3: For the first five innings it looked like we might be in for a replay of games 1 and 2 of this series as a HR from the ludicrously hot Austin Meadows was the only run on the board for either team as Daniel Lynch dueled with Touki Toussaint. But in the 6th the Rays broke through for 3 runs as Meadows clobbered a 3-0 Toussaint pitch into the RF stands and on the next pitch Rafael Devers followed suit, and the Rays put more runners on and Seth Beer had an RBI single. That was more than enough for Lynch, who repeated his excellent Game 4 outing in last year's ALDS in the same ballpark with a 7 3 0 0 1 7 line on 109 pitches to improve to 7-2, 2.60 on the season. Devers singled Wander home in the 7th, and Wander put the cherry on top with a solo HR in the 9th and the Rays had a 6-0 win, series sweep and concluded a tough road trip 7-2. Meadows (whom I would be shocked if he wasn't player of the week in the AL) and Devers each had 3 hits and Nick Schnell had a pair of doubles to lead a 13-hit attack. Absent from the hit parade was Vidal Brujan, 0-5 again and in a deep 7-for-61 slump, yet they've been winning without his normal on-base contributions. Asa Lacy pitched the final 2 innings with the bullpen exhausted from the previous two nights' extra-inning affairs and allowed only a base hit. After sweeping the Red Sox Baltimore has moved into 2nd, 10 1/2 behind the Rays.

Team record: 40-19. Next up: An off-day tomorrow to further rest the pen and then a homestand begins with 3 against the White Sox.

Art Deco · 08-22-2020, 10:08 PM

As expected:

Game 1: Quick, someone get me rewrite - this script is all messed up. The Rays took a 5-4 lead into the 8th inning only for Nick Anderson to give up 4 runs as they lost the opener of the homestand 8-5 to the Chicago White Sox. Dustin May got off to a bit of a rough start allowing 4 runs in the first 3 innings but settled down nicely after that to get through 7 at only 91 pitches, and he could have been left in. But I figured Anderson was the safer bet with the middle of the order due and that was proven wrong almost instantly when the first batter he faced, Eloy Jimenez roped a double into the gap. Anderson whiffed Yoan Moncada and got to 2-2 on Michael Chavis and another K looked likely but instead Chavis singled to score Jimenez. After retiring the newly-signed Nick Castellanos, another new Chicago signing, Jason Heyward, singled and that brought up backup catcher Connor Wong who stunned Anderson and the Trop crowd with a long homer to the rays tank in RCF to make it 8-5. And while all this was going on, Rays castoff Kirby Yates shut them out for 2 1/3 allowing only a walk, and then another former Ray Will Harris got them in the 9th after a couple of singles were wiped out by Austin Meadows hitting into a game-ending double play. Earlier Meadows had continued his hot streak with a 2-run HR in the first, and Alec Bohm hit another one as well in the 3rd before the Rays regained the lead in the 4th on a Chicago throwing error and a Vidal Brujan RBI groundout. But Wong rewrote the script and the Rays suffered a shock loss.

Game 2: In what will go down as one of the more memorable games of the season, Wander Franco's walk-off HR in the 19th inning (yes, the 19th inning) gave the Rays an 8-7 win over the White Sox. The Rays trailed for most of the regulation 9 innings as Walker Buehler wasn't his sharpest, yielding a 3-run HR to Yoan Moncada and only striking out 3 while allowing 5 runs and 9 hits over 7 innings. Alec Bohm had his 11th HR in the 2nd and Seth Beer had an RBI double later that inning but the Rays trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox brought in lefty Aaron Fletcher to pitch and with a man on and Beer due up, Spencer Torkelson pinch-hit and he drilled a 507-ft HR to LCF to tie the game. But the tie was nearly short-lived as in the top of the 9th, Jasseel De La Cruz walked Nick Castellanos who went to 2nd on a ground out. Andrelton Simmons drilled a single to center and Castellanos tried to score but was gunned down by Brandon Marsh. So off to extras we went, and Mitch Keller tired in his 3rd inning of relief in the 14th and gave up a couple of runs to put the Sox up 7-5. But in the bottom of the inning Marsh led off with an infield single, Vidal Brujan doubled him to 3rd and Wander and Austin Meadows hit sac flies to tie it back up. So on we trudged, Asa Lacy threw 3 scoreless innings despite walking as many batters and the last man in the pen, Sandy Gaston came on in the 18th and threw a pair of scoreless innings setting the stage for Wander's walk-off blast off Kirby Yates, which got Gaston the win. Every reliever was used except Nick Anderson, who was tired, so we may need to call up an arm from Durham for tomorrow's game. Scott Barlow (out of options) is due to return from his rehab assignment anyway, and despite his solid pitching Gaston is the likely choice to go down.

Game 3: White Sox bats were once again too much for Rays pitching in an 8-6 loss. Chicago scored 8, 7 and 8 runs in the 3 games and the Eloy Jimenez-Yoan Moncada duo were tough on them the whole time. Today, Jimenez bashed 2 HRs including a 3-run shot off Jose Alvarado in the 7th that turned a 4-3 Rays lead into a 6-4 deficit from which they never recovered. Some sloppy defense hurt the Rays early, with Rafael Devers' throwing error allowing 2 unearned runs to score in the 2nd, but it looked like the Rays had overcome that largely due to a big 2-run double from Triston Casas in the 4th. With Matt Manning at 95 pitches going into the 7th, I left him in, only to give up 2 hits to start the inning. Alvarado came in and got the next two out but couldn't slip one by Jimenez. Ian Hamilton then gave up a 2-run HR to Tuesday's hero, Connor Wong, to make it 8-4 and although Wander and Austin Meadows hit back-to-back jacks in the bottom of the 8th it wasn't enough. Manning ended up 6 7 5 3 1 5 and took a tough loss between the defense and the manager's decision. One good sign from the game is that Vidal Brujan had 3 hits, hopefully snapping out of his slump.

Team record: 41-21. Up next: a weekend 4-game home series vs Oakland, including a rare scheduled doubleheader for Saturday.

Art Deco · 08-23-2020, 02:16 PM

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow was dominant, but the defense and the bats weren't, and the Rays fell 2-1 in 11 innings with both Oakland runs unearned. Glasnow went 7 3 1 0 0 10, but in the 5th Vidal Brujan's throwing error put a runner on 2nd and Sean Murphy had one of those 3 hits off Glasnow for an RBI single. The Rays answered in the bottom of the inning when a Wander groundout scored Brandon Marsh, but once again they were befuddled by a lefty, this time Steven Brault. Nick Anderson pitched the 8th, Jasseel De La Cruz whiffed 4 over the 9th and 10th, but Sandy Gaston dropped a toss from Alec Bohm to allow the leadoff man to reach in the 11th and he ended up scoring on a 2-out Mark Payton single while the Rays went out meekly in the bottom of the inning and lost their third in four games on this homestand. Gaston will be sent down so Shane McClanahan can start the 2nd game of tomorrow's doubleheader.

June 15: Optioned P Ian Hamilton and P Sandy Gaston to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan and P Scott Barlow from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Hamilton's a paper move to get an extra arm up since OOTP doesn't allow an extra pitcher for doubleheaders like MLB and McClanahan of course is starting Game 2 of the doubleheader, so Gaston and Hamilton come back tomorrow.

June 15: Traded minor-league 1B Jose Abreu to the Cleveland Indians for 24-year-old minor-league OF Bramdon Perez.

Abreu is having a big season at Durham with 14 HR and 41 RBI in 54 games so I figured I would try to cash him in. And Perez seems like a pretty good return: 50 CT/55 potential, 60 POW, 55 EYE, 55 LF, 50 RF, so average to above-average across the board. He's been ranked as his as #93 in the overall prospect ratings although he's now #208 and becomes our #19 prospect. Cleveland thought enough of him to call him up for a couple of games earlier this season so he's on an MLB contract which was no problem since we had 2 40-man spots open. He'll go to AA Montgomery for now. Obviously we have a lot of OF prospects but if nothing else he'll make good trade bait down the line.

Game 2: It's been a week of close, tense, sometimes wild games at the Trop and the first game of today's rare scheduled doubleheader was another one of them. Alec Bohm, who has a knack for the clutch HR, did it again with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 9th off A's closer Curtis Taylor to give the Rays an 8-7 walk-off win. It was a weird game, with the Rays jumping out to a 2-0 lead on an inside-the-park homer from Keibert Ruiz and they built a 5-1 lead through 6. Daniel Lynch, as he's been doing lately, was cruising going into the 7th with a pitch count in the 80s. With a lot of the bullpen burned out and a doubleheader to boot, Lynch was going to go as long as he could. But he gave up a solo HR to Sean Murphy to lead off the inning, then a single, double and a ground out to make it 5-3. On another day he might have come out here but he stayed in and Ramon Laureano hit a 2-run HR to tie it at 5 and then Matt Chapman went back-to-back to give the Oakland the lead. Finally Asa Lacy came in, gave up a single and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd but got a grounder right to Wander with the infield drawn in and got Murphy, who had started the inning, to fly out. However Lacy struggled in the 8th giving up another run and 7-5 is where it stood when the bottom of the 9th started. Taylor walked Austin Meadows but got Rafael Devers to fly out before Keibert ripped his 4th hit of the game, a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd. And then up stepped Bohm, and his bomb gave the Rays an 8-7 win. Lacy picked up his 2nd win despite his struggles, while Lynch's ugly 7th gave him a 6.1 10 6 6 2 4 line. The two teams combined for 30 hits but the Rays at least got the win and got through it using only 2 pitchers. There was some bad news, though: Brandon Marsh re-injured his shoulder diving for a fly ball and now will miss another 6 weeks. Hunter Bishop will now get his second act (he was tearing the cover off the ball at Durham since going down: 384/430/576).

Game 3: Turnabout is fair play, and the nightcap found Oakland coming back in the 9th to get a shock win. Shane McClanahan was excellent in his spot start, going 7 3 1 1 3 4 and after Mitch Keller pitched a scoreless 8th, the Rays added what appeared to be an insurance run in the bottom of the inning to go to the 9th up 3-1 and looking for the doubleheader sweep. But with the usual suspects in the pen all tired it was either a 2nd inning from Keller or a save attempt for Scott Barlow, and I went with the former which of course in hindsight was a mistake. Keller walked the leadoff man, gave up a single, and then gave up a 2-run triple to Tyler Nevin, who had earlier accounted for the sole Oakland run off Mac with a 2nd inning HR. Nevin then scored on a sac fly from Daniel Johnson, and although the Rays got 2 on with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th against Miguel Romero, Rafael Devers fouled out to third to short-circuit hopes of a 2nd miracle on the day. The loss makes the Rays 2-4 on this homestand so far.

June 16: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, recalled P Ian Hamilton from AAA Durham.

Game 4: Another tough, late loss for the Rays as they fall to Oakland 6-3 in 10 innings. The bullpen let them down again as they grabbed a 3-2 lead in the 7th. Jasseel De La Cruz came on in the 8th with the idea of going 2 innings since there's an off-day tomorrow but it was the second batter he faced in the eighth, Ramon Laureano, who did him in with a HR to very deep LCF. After the Rays missed a chance to win it in the bottom of the 9th, Jose Alvarado started the 10th and how it played out was frustrating as he struck out the leadoff man but he reached on a wild pitch, and then the next batter got an infield single. Sheldon Neuse then singled to make it 4-3, and Mark Payton added a two-run double with two out, and although the Rays got the first two runners on in the bottom of the inning, Keibert Ruiz hit into a double play and that was that. Dustin May got the start and pitched pretty well, going 6 6 2 2 0 5 on 98 pitches but the offense was again beguiled by a soft-tossing lefty, today in the person of Jose Quintana. But they finally broke through for 3 in the 7th when Keston Hiura led off with a double, Spencer Torkelson singled him home, Nick Schnell then doubled sending Tork to 3rd, a wild pitch scored Tork and then Wander doubled home Schnell. But the lead was extremely short-lived and the Rays end up dropping 5 of 7 on this brief homestand. Also, Ian Hamilton had to come out after the first batter he faced in the 7th and he has a herniated disc which will keep him out 3 weeks, so hello again Sandy Gaston. Taking over for him was Scott Barlow, making his season debut and he actually looked good, whiffing 2 of the 3 batters he retired in order. Probably should have used him to close Game 2 yesterday. Baltimore, now in 2nd place, has crept to within 8 1/2 games.

Team record: 42-24. Next Up: An off-day, followed by 2 games in Toronto.

08-15-2020, 05:03 PM	#161
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	April 15-18, 2024: at NY Yankees (3) Game 1: The Rays beat the Yankees 8-0 to go 8-0 behind a 115-pitch, 7-hit shutout from Max Fried, who walked 3 and struck out 4. It was a tense 0-0 game through 5 as Luis Severino had kept the Rays' bats in check until Vidal Brujan homered with one out in the 6th, and then Wander walked and scored on an Austin Meadows double to make it 2-0. They then broke it open with 6 runs in the 8th, on a Keibert Ruiz RBI single, 3 straight bases-loaded walks by Austin Brice (to Triston Casas, Nick Schnell and Brandon Marsh), and a 2-RBI single by Brujan. Fried was the one starter who struggled in the first turn through the rotation (6 runs in 6 innings although he got the win) but certainly turned that around. Game 2: Chris Paddack was great again, and the offense did enough for the Rays to improve to 9-0 with a 5-2 win over the Yankees. Paddack went 6 3 1 1 0 7 with the only run a Gleyber Torres homer, Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado did their usual thing in the 7th and 8th, and after the lead went to 5-1 in the top of the 9th Jasseel De La Cruz came on and ran into some trouble, giving up a run and leaving with two runners on. So Will Smith had to come in after all, and he whiffed Mike Tauchman to end the game and pick up save #4. Keston Hiura had his best game as a Ray, banging out 3 hits and a steal including an RBI single in the 2nd which put them on the board, Wander's sac fly in the 5th put them ahead to stay, Hiura scored on a passed ball in the 8th, and Meadows had an RBI single to go with Devers' fielder's choice RBI in the 9th. Game 3: The Rays finally lost, and worse yet they lost Brandon Marsh to shoulder inflammation, diagnosed after he had to leave making a throw. He'll be out 6 weeks and he was the one guy they really didn't have cover for on the active roster in terms of the ability to play CF. Hunter Bishop will come up for him, and he can play a passable (45) CF but there's no question Marsh will be missed. As for the game, Dustin May just did not have it tonight, giving up 3 in the first including a 2-run Aaron Hicks HR, a solo shot to Mike Tauchman in the 2nd, and 2 more in the 4th, going 4.1 8 6 6 1 3 as they lost 7-3. Aaron Ashby went 2 1/3 scoreless in relief, and Dany Jimenez gave up a run in the 8th. Offensively it was all Wander, who was 3-4 with a homer and 2 steals, and Vidal Brujan was 2-5 with a steal. Alec Bohm, off to a slow start, got his first RBI on a groundball. Team record: 9-1. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-15-2020 at 08:42 PM.

08-16-2020, 09:36 AM	#162
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	April 19-22, 2024: at Boston (4) April 19: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled OF Hunter Bishop from AAA Durham. Game 1: This was a bizarre game. Tyler Glasnow gave up a couple of baserunners in the first but got out of it, then in the 2nd all hell broke loose as to start the inning he gave a double, single, RBI single, walk, bases-loaded walk, bases loaded walk, RBI single, and a 2-RBI single for 6 runs before getting a batter out. He then got the next 3 to end the inning but they were down 6-1 after Brujan led off the game with a triple and scored on a Devers sac fly. But the Rays immediately struck back for 3 in the top of the 3rd to get back in the game. Hunter Bishop, in his first MLB at-bat, walked and was wild-pitched to second, scored on a Brujan single and then Austin Meadows drilled HR #2 to make it 6-4. Then Seth Beer led off the top of the 4th with his 2nd HR of the season, an oppo shot over the Monster. And in the 5th, Keibert Ruiz hit his first of the year with Meadows on to make it 7-6 Rays. Meanwhile, Glasnow settled down and made it through the 5th at 107 pitches. Asa Lacy came on and was excellent again, throwing 3 scoreless innings and only allowing one hit, although he didn't walk or strike out anyone. And in a confident rookie move, Bishop swung away on a 3-0 pitch from Durbin Feltman and crushed it into the RF stands for a 2-run HR in his MLB debut to give the Rays insurance in the top of the 9th making it 9-6. Will Smith took it from there for save #5, the Rays had a comeback win and Glasnow went to 3-0 despite the most nightmarish of innings. And it's early but at 10-1 and with nobody else in the East distinguishing themselves the Rays already have a 5-game lead. Game 2: The calendar says April 20, but it might as well have been February 2 as today's game followed yesterday's script almost identically. Daniel Lynch didn't have quite as a bad a start as Tyler Glasnow yesterday but 3 runs allowed in the first 2 innings including Abraham Toro's HR to lead off the game put the Rays in an early 3-0 hole. Justin Dunn set down the first 9 Rays in order but Vidal Brujan flipped the script in the 4th with a leadoff double and Keston Hiura (giving Wander a day off) doubled him home with Hiura scoring on a Keibert Ruiz RBI single to cut the Boston lead to 3-2. Then they took over in the 6th. Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers singled, Ruiz walked to load the bases, Seth Beer hit a 2-RBI double to give the Rays the lead, Spencer Torkelson walked to load the bases and Hunter Bishop came through again with a bases-clearing double to make it 7-3. They added a run in the 7th when Hiura doubled again and scored on a Devers fielder's choice. As you can tell by Boston's run total remaining at 3, Lynch settled down much like Glasnow yesterday and left in the 7th with a quality 6.2 7 3 3 1 6 line. Mitch Keller had to get him out of a 2-on, 2-out situation and did, but then Keller made his own mess in the 8th allowing a couple of runs and Jose Alvarado got Jackie Bradley Jr to ground out to end the inning. Will Smith made easy work of the Sox in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning for save #6 and the Rays nabbed an 8-5 win. One not-so-bright spot though was Alec Bohm, 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and sitting at .176 with 0 HR and 1 RBI so far. He'll be in there tomorrow against the first lefty starter they'll face this season, none other than nemesis Caleb Smith, but Triston Casas might get some run if Bohm doesn't pick things up. April 21: Signed OF Jason Heyward to a minor league contract, assigned him to AAA Durham. Between injuries and trades, our long-time OF glut has become a slight shortage, so Heyward was signed mainly to provide depth and help out Durham who's now without Hunter Bishop. Heyward can opt out in a couple of weeks if he isn't called up so we'll see what happens. Speaking of the OF glut one of its long-time victims, Trevor Larnach, suffered a literal bad break yesterday as he broke his hand and will miss 4 months just as he found himself an MLB regular for the first time with Pittsburgh. Game 3: The Rays had another starter struggle badly in the first couple of innings but this time it was much worse, and the Rays fell to the Red Sox 11-7. The irony here is that they got to Caleb Smith, scoring against him twice in the first inning on a Meadows sac fly and a Ronaldo Hernandez RBI single and eventually getting 5 runs and 8 hits off him in 5 innings. But Max Fried, coming off a shutout of the Yankees last time out, was just horrendous, giving up 4 in the first inning including a 2-run Xander Bogaerts homer, and then couldn't get anyone out in the 2nd, giving up 10 hits in 1 1/3 innings. He left down 6-2 with 2 on, and Dany Jimenez immediately gave up a 3-run to Bogaerts again and then a run of his own and it was 10-2 after 2 innings. Fried ended an horrid 1.1 10 8 8 1 2 and despite pitching a shutout among his 3 starts his ERA is now 7.71. The Rays chipped away at the 10-2 lead, getting within 10-6 after Keston Hiura's first Rays HR and a Ronaldo HR among his 3 hits and 4 RBI on the day. Aaron Ashby relieved Jimenez and threw 3 scoreless innings, Jasseel De La Cruz threw one as well but it took him 33 pitches to get through, and Asa Lacy gave up his first run pitching the 8th. That's now 3 bad starts in 4 games for the Rays staff, with Daniel Lynch, who started the year as the 6th starter, getting the only decent one. Game 4: It was the 11AM Patriots' Day game at Fenway, and the Rays had the game won until the bullpen and defense blew it and they fell 7-4 in 10 innings. Chris Paddack continued the trend of early runs allowed by the starters, giving up a run on 3 hits in the first inning but was fine from there, only allowing a Marcell Ozuna longball to go 6 7 2 2 0 5. Hunter Bishop continued to wreak havoc on MLB pitching, hitting a 2-run HR off Pablo Lopez to put the Rays in front in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers singled in Austin Meadows who had tripled in the 3rd. In the top of the 8th, Devers made it 4-2 with a solo homer, and the Rays looked in great shape with the troika set up. Alvarado had already gotten through the 7th despite allowing a couple of hits, and Nick Anderson came on for the 8th. But the leadoff man hit a ground ball that Devers threw away for a 2-base error, and he came around to score to cut it to 4-3. Still with Will Smith coming in it looked to be in the bag. But Smith walked the leadoff man, gave up a hit, committed a balk, and then gave up an RBI single to Abraham Toro. And we went to extras and after Vidal Brujan walked to lead off the 10th he was cut down on a botched hit-and-run with Wander, and in the bottom of the inning Mitch Keller put the first two men on and then served up a 3-run HR to Niko Goodrum, who wrapped it around the Pesky Pole to give Boston the improbable win and send the Rays to consecutive losses for the first time this year. Team record: 11-3. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-16-2020 at 02:24 PM.

08-16-2020, 03:52 PM	#163
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	April 23-25, 2024: vs Detroit (3) Game 1: It was reunion night with the Tigers in town, as Alex Kirilloff and Shane Baz returned to the Trop in enemy colors and Austin Meadows' brother Parker is now in the Tigers lineup as well. And the Rays were gracious hosts for this reunion as Detroit got 2 runs in the 7th off Jose Alvarado to grab a 3-1 victory. Young phenom Kumar Rocker was brilliant for Detroit, going 8 7 1 1 1 3 with the Rays' only run coming when Rafael Devers singled home Vidal Brujan in the 1st. Dustin May was just as good for the Rays, going 6 4 1 1 0 8 and only allowing a Yasmani Grandal homer. But after putting 2 on and getting two out, Alvarado gave up a 2-run double to Victor Reyes and that was the ballgame. Baz, now Detroit's closer, got the save after he induced a DP grounder from Alec Bohm after Keibert Ruiz had singled with one out. Aaron Ashby continued his effective pitching with 2 scoreless innings in relief of Alvarado in the silver linings department, but the Rays have now dropped 3 straight after an 11-1 start. Game 2: The Rays ended their 3-game losing streak by turning the tables on the Tigers with a 3-1 win of their own. Their pitching was dominant tonight, led by Tyler Glasnow who fanned 13 Tigers in 6 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and walking a pair. He goes to 4-0, 2.92 and a short-handed bullpen struck out 5 more Detroit hitters to give them 18 for the night. Asa Lacy started the 7th and struggled, walking a pair and allowing the lone Tiger run, but Jasseel De La Cruz bailed him out of that inning and shut Detroit down in the 8th nabbing 3 Ks of his own in the process. With Will Smith still tired, Nick Anderson pitched a perfect ninth, whiffing a pair and picking up save #1 this season. The offense was quiet again, but twice they were very loud. Hunter Bishop stayed scorching hot with his 3rd HR in 5 games since his call-up, a 2-run oppo shot just inside the LF foul pole to break a scoreless tie in the 5th, and the guy who had singled ahead of Bishop and scored, Nick Schnell, hit his first of the year to deep LCF in the 7th to restore the 2-run lead after Detroit scored off Lacy. Game 3: Another shaky start from the rotation which pitched well the first couple times through this season doomed the Rays to a 6-4 loss, their 4th in 5 games. Daniel Lynch cruised through the first 3 innings but lost his control in the 4th, walking the bases loaded to start the inning and 5 batters in all in the 4th, resulting in a 4-run Tigers outburst that wiped out an early 3-0 Rays lead. Lynch settled down in the 5th and started the 6th well, but gave up another run after the Rays had tied it at 4, and that was the game. They got off to the fastest of starts in the first when Vidal Brujan singled and Wander drilled HR #4 into the LF stands off Detroit's Sean Newcomb, and a couple of outs later Alec Bohm singled in Rafael Devers. Hunter Bishop continued unconscious, going 3 for 3 and drilling a moonshot to deep CF off Newcomb in the 5th to tie the game. But Asa Lacy, slumping since his first few excellent appearances, allowed a run in the 7th, and although Mitch Keller and Dany Jimenez shut the Tigers down over the last 2 2/3, the offense couldn't get anything else going the rest of the way and former Ray Shane Baz once again grabbed the save, striking out Spencer Torkelson (0-3 on the day with 3 whiffs and a walk) to end the game. Team record: 12-5. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-16-2020 at 07:32 PM.

08-17-2020, 01:21 PM	#165
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	April 29-May 1, 2024: at Baltimore (3) Game 1: This was a brutal loss on several levels. First of all, The Rays have suffered yet another serious pitching injury. Just when he turned things around from a bad 2023, Aaron Ashby had to leave the game in the 6th and will need elbow ligament reconstruction surgery which will puts him out for a little over a year. Secondly, the game itself was a gut punch as twice the Rays had the game won, and twice they blew it between a combination of bad defense and a shaky bullpen. They took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th with Nick Anderson on the mound and he whiffed the first two Orioles before Rio Ruiz's grounder was booted by Wander Franco. Sure enough the next batter CJ Chatham took Anderson deep to tie the game. Rafael Devers booted the next ground ball (they made 4 errors on the game), but Anderson got out of it. The Orioles tried to return the favor in the 9th when Ryan McKenna dropped Keibert Ruiz's fly ball and Seth Beer singled him home. But Will Smith blew the save in the 9th. After getting the leadoff man out, he walked Adley Rutschman, gave up a RBI triple to Austin Hays to tie it, and an Anthony Santander single to win it. It looked like they'd win behind Tyler Glasnow, but he had an inefficient outing, going 5 3 0 0 4 7 on 105 pitches, and Kirby Yates allowed Ashby's runner (on Ashby's own throwing error) to score, and then Alvarado allowed a Yates runner to score. But the Rays were still up thanks to a big night from Spencer Torkelson, spelling a tired Austin Meadows. Tork hit his 2nd HR of the year, a opposite field job off Max Scherzer, to give the Rays a 2-0 lead, and in the 7th he doubled and scored on Keston Hiura's double with Hiura scoring on a Wander single to make it 4-1. But things went very bad after that, and the Orioles improve to 11-7 and only 2 1/2 behind the Rays. April 30: Placed P Aaron Ashby on the 60-day DL with elbow ligament reconstruction surgery, recalled P Sandy Gaston from AAA Durham. It's time to give Gaston and his 80 stuff as a reliever a call. He was put in the Durham rotation to start the season and didn't fare very well, but last year in 33 2/3 innings as a reliever he walked 13 and struck out 71. He'll be wild, he'll be shaky, but he'll be exciting. Obviously he's not going to be used in a high-leverage spots for now, and may just be warming a roster slot until Matt Manning comes back in 10-14 days after a rehab start in Durham, or until I go pick someone up. Game 2: Well it was nice to get through a game without suffering a season-ending injury to a pitcher, and even nicer to enjoy a 12-3 rout of the Orioles. The Rays trailed in this game 2-1 going into the 5th, and were only up 5-3 going into the 7th before they blew it open late. Vidal Brujan opened the game with a single, stole second and scored on an Austin Meadows double before Anthony Santander, last night's hero, took Daniel Lynch deep to put Baltimore on top. But the Rays strung together 5 singles and a walk to score 4 times in the 5th and chase Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez, and although Baltimore got one back off Lynch in the 6th to cut it to 5-3, Brujan doubled and scored on a Rafael Devers single in the 7th to make it 6-3. Jose Alvarado got Baltimore out in the bottom and then that man struck again, Hunter Bishop with yet another grand slam to make it 10-3. Ronaldo Hernandez's third hit of the night was a 2-RBI triple in the 9th to complete the scoring, which was quite a sight. With the game in hand, Sandy Gaston made his MLB debut and was impressive, pitching the final 2 innings, allowing only one hit and no walks and striking out 2. Lynch went 6 6 3 3 1 3, which meets the definition of a quality start and certainly counts as one for a soft-tosser going in Camden Yards. Bishop now leads the team in RBI with 17, amazing considering he's only played in 11 games of their 22 to date and has only 37 AB. Brandon Marsh has to wonder if he's going to be Wally Pipped, but he'll get his spot back in about 3-4 weeks' time. His rehab assignment at Durham might last a little longer than normal, though. More hardware for Mr. Glasnow: Also on the first of the month, we always get these player development updates from our head scout. Mostly it's a look at which prospects have progressed or regressed, but occasionally MLB players get updated ratings. And sometimes you get something like this, which you really don't want to see: Yates isn't that big a deal since we just grabbed him off waivers (although it could turn out we wasted nearly $3M on his salary), but the Will Smith information is disturbing, especially in light of the save he blew the other night. Smith always got by on some guile but this could be a problem. Game 3: The Rays grabbed a 7-4 win to take two of three from Baltimore and go back up 4 1/2 games in the AL East. Max Fried got the start, and he was his typical baserunner-dodging self, going 6.1 7 2 2 5 6, walking the bases loaded at the end in the 7th but Nick Anderson got a sac fly and a strikeout for the Rays to leave the inning with a 4-2 lead. After they added 3 more in the top of the 8th, Asa Lacy came on but continued his recent struggles, allowing 2 runs in 2/3 of an inning and Jasseel De La Cruz had to clean up his mess. De La Cruz stayed on and finished for his 1st save, as Fried went to 4-1 albeit with an unsightly 5.65 ERA. The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a 1st inning Keibert Ruiz RBI single and Alec Bohm's 3rd HR in less than a week, a 2-run shot in the 3rd. After Anthony Santander homered (again) off Fried, Ruiz's sac fly in the 5th restored the 4-1 lead and after the Baltimore run in the 7th, a couple of the Rays' young guns went deep, first Spencer Torkelson for his 2nd in 3 nights and then a 2-run blast by Nick Schnell made it 7-2. Team record: 17-6. Off-day tomorrow, then the road trip continues in Toronto. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-17-2020 at 08:29 PM.

08-17-2020, 09:54 PM	#166
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 3-5, 2024: at Toronto (3) Game 1: After two seasons mostly toiling in middle relief for the Rays, Shane McClanahan finally made his first MLB start and it was a successful one as the Rays topped the Jays 5-1. McClanahan got the win going 5 4 1 1 2 4 and throwing 89 pitches, allowing the leadoff man in the 6th to reach before coming out. The "B" bullpen took it from there, with Asa Lacy going 1 1/3, Mitch Keller 1 2/3 and Kirby Yates pitching the 9th. All three allowed at least a pair of baserunners but the Rays turned 4 double plays for the game to stymie Toronto. The offense came in the first 3 innings off Simeon Woods Richardson: Austin Meadows had a 2-run HR in the 1st, #4, Alec Bohm scored on a wild pitch and Vidal Brujan had a sac fly in the 2nd, and Hunter Bishop drew a bases-loaded walk in the 3rd for his team-high 18th RBI. Meadows ended 3-5 with the homer and Nick Schnell had two more hits to raise his average to .351, while on the flip side Rafael Devers went 0-5 to drop his to .242. Around MLB, Ryan Helsey of the Cardinals pitched a no-hitter against Cincinnati, walking 3 and striking out 10 over 124 pitches in a 4-0 win. Game 2: The Rays struck quickly and didn't stop striking as they blasted the Blue Jays 12-1. Like last year Austin Meadows got off to a slow start but like last year he's heated up again and after Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco reached to start the game, he blasted a first inning homer for the second straight game, a 3-run shot off Matt Wisler. Meadows grabbed his 4th RBI of the game on a fielder's choice in the fourth and then - stop me if you've heard this before - Hunter Bishop hit a grand slam in the 5th, his second of the week. Bishop's 22 RBI now only trail Mike Trout's 27 for the MLB lead and that's only in 13 games and 45 AB. Ronaldo Hernandez had a 2-RBI double in the 6th and Brujan doubled home Nick Schnell (3 more hits today) and Wander doubled him home. Dustin May got the start and the run support, and wasn't at his sharpest but like last night Rays pitching put a lot of Toronto runners on base but didn't let them score. A 5 7 1 1 1 2 line doesn't look like it would take 100 pitches, but it did while May goes to 3-1, 2.76 with a healthy 3/28 BB/K ratio in 29 innings. Sandy Gaston pitched the sixth and seventh, allowed a hit and walked a pair but whiffed 3. Kirby Yates and Mitch Keller finished it out without incident. May 4: Sent P Matt Manning to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment. Manning looked good for Durham tonight, going 5 3 2 2 0 5 on 76 pitches. Debating whether to bring him up for his next start or let him make another one at Durham. McClanahan pitched well in his debut so I might lean to the latter. Game 3: The Rays won this one 17-1, so there's not really a lot to say except to tally up the offensive numbers. It was a normal 7-1 rout until the 9th, closer Keith Ginkel came on to get some work in and didn't retire any of the 6 Rays he faced, leading Charlie Montoyo to bring in position players to pitch which did not go well at all as Kevin Cron gave up 3 homers. Reese McGuire did get Keston Hiura to roll into a double play to bring the inning to a merciful end, though. When the dust settled, the Rays had 20 hits, 6 walks and 17 runs with Rafael Devers responding to his day off by going 4-6 with 2 RBI, Keibert Ruiz was 3-5 with 2 RBI, and in the HR parade Spencer Torkelson hit a pair later in the game, a majestic solo shot off Drew Pomeranz in the 8th and then a 3-run blast off Ginkel in the 9th so he didn't get any position player cheapies. No those belonged to Austin Meadows, Devers, and Hunter Bishop who all took Cron deep. Hiura had 4 RBI on a pair of doubles and it was his bases-clearing job in the 3rd off Sean Reid-Foley that broke the game open. Tyler Glasnow went to 5-0 and was brilliant going 8 2 1 1 1 9 in only 97 pitches; the two hits came back-to-back when Ryan Noda singled and Bo Bichette doubled him home in the 4th. Team record: 20-6. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-18-2020 at 11:54 AM.

08-16-2020, 09:20 PM	#164
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	April 26-28, 2024: vs Houston (3) Before we start the Houston series, a couple of transactions: April 26: Claimed P Kirby Yates on waivers, designated P Dany Jimenez for assignment and placed him on waivers. Who says you can't go home again? Kirby Yates, who started his MLB career with the Rays in 2014-2015, is back ten years later. In the meantime Yates has been a quality reliever, and spent a few years as a closer for the Padres and later the Reds in 2020. His career was derailed in 2022 and the first part of 2023 with a torn UCL but he came back last year with the Mets and was brilliant, with an 8/58 BB/K ratio in 39 innings last season. He became a free agent and signed with Pittsburgh, but after 3 outings in which he gave up 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings they put him on waivers and I'm glad to chance it with him, as he should at least be an upgrade on Jimenez, whose spot on the roster and the 40-man he takes. Jimenez has cleared waivers 3 times in the last 6 months so I imagine he will again. April 26: Traded minor-league 2B Gionti Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for minor-league RHP Jack Perkins. Turner's a singles-hitting middle infielder who was playing at AA Montgomery and was tough to envision as anything more than a second-division utility infielder so he wasn't tough to part with for Perkins, a righty who has excellent stuff, whiffing 89 in 59 innings last season in High-A, and who had 10 whiffs in 8 innings at AA Tulsa so far this season. Scouting reports say he has mid-rotation potential, although the Dodgers have used him as a reliever. I'm going to put him into the Montgomery rotation and see how he does, but I like his upside way more than Turner's. Game 1: The Rays got back to winning ways with a comprehensive 9-2 win over Houston as one hitter continued ludicrously hot and another who came in with a snowflake next to his name might have broken out of it. The former of course is Hunter Bishop, who had a big 2-run double in the bottom of the 2nd to put the Rays ahead 3-2, and later added a sac fly. Bishop has 4 HR and 13 RBI in 7 games and 23 at-bats. In fact, his 13 RBI are tied for third on the team behind Wander and Brujan's 14 and they've been playing all season. The cold guy you might have also guessed is Alec Bohm, who had 2 hits today and scored twice before he finally hit his 1st HR of the season, a 2-run shot in the 7th off Raisel Iglesias. It was long overdue for the guy who hit 38 last season and 6 more in the postseason including the walk-off shot in Game 6 that put the Rays in the World Series. Brujan tonight was 2-3 with 2 RBI and a steal (#9 which leads the AL) and Rafael Devers had an RBI double in the 1st. Max Fried was the starter and winner and made it through 6 innings with only 2 runs allowed but it was a struggle. His second inning could have been much worse had he not gotten two strikeouts with the bases loaded to end it, and he averaged 2 runners per inning, going 6 9 2 2 3 6 to go to 3-1. Aaron Ashby, who's undergone a 180-degree turnaround from most of last season, had 2 scoreless innings with 3 Ks, and Kirby Yates made his Rays return with a 1-2-3 9th. Game 2: The Rays won 5-2 today but I would have traded that win for the loss they suffered during the game. Starter Chris Paddack had to leave in the 7th and it turns out he will miss the rest of the season with shoulder inflammation. He's been their most consistent starter aside from Tyler Glasnow since they acquired him at the deadline in 2022 and he'll be tough to replace. And given that he's no longer eligible for arbitration and is a free agent at year's end this is likely the last game he'll pitch in a Rays uniform. At least he went out with a win, going 6.1 7 2 2 1 7 to end the year 3-0, it was a typical Paddack performance: a strikeout an inning, hardly any walks (his walk in the 4th was his only one of the year), and a homer allowed (to Carlos Correa). As for the game, Austin Meadows was the offensive star, he doubled and scored on a Seth Beer single to put them up 2-1, and after the Correa homer tied it in the sixth, he hit a 2-run shot (#3) in the bottom of the inning to put the Rays ahead to stay. Alec Bohm went deep for the second straight night a couple of batters later off Houston starter David Villegas. Vidal Brujan had singled home Nick Schnell, who had doubled, for the first Rays run. Nick Anderson came in for Paddack in the 7th and struck out a couple to end that inning, Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 8th, and Will Smith worked around a 2-out single for save #7. For the short term, there's a good chance that Shane McClanahan gets called up to make his first Rays start as he's looked good at Durham in their rotation (2-0, 0.92, 2/21 BB/K ratio in 19.2 innings), and depending on how things shake out when Matt Manning comes back, Daniel Lynch may keep his spot in the rotation. April 28: Placed P Chris Paddack on the 60-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Depending on how things shake out, McClanahan could be used in long relief if needed since there's an off-day coming up and Paddack's rotation spot could be skipped for a turn. Game 3: The kids were alright in a 7-0 win over, and series sweep of, the Houston Astros. Dustin May, not really a kid but a junior member of the staff, was dominant today going 8 4 0 0 0 7 with two of the hits infield singles by noted speedster Yordan Alvarez. He set the tone by striking out Jose Altuve to start the game (he whiffed the hard-to-K Altuve again later) and was never in any trouble. He got all the offense it turned out he would need when Nick Schnell hit a monster blast to the RCF stands in the 3rd, but got plenty more in the next inning when Triston Casas, getting a rare start with Rafael Devers needing a rest, hit a grand slam off Jose Urquidy to make it 5-0. Alec Bohm continued on his mini-roll by getting an RBI single in the 5th to make it 6-0, and then Casas went deep again the opposite way most impressively off a lefty, Kyle Kubat, to round out the scoring. May was at 101 pitches after the 8th and I decided not to push him (remembering how bad Max Fried was in his next start after I let him throw nearly 120 to get a shutout earlier this season), so Mitch Keller came in and struck out the side in the 9th to complete the shutout. Team record: 15-5. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-17-2020 at 11:15 AM.

08-18-2020, 01:05 PM	#167
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 6-7, 2024: at Miami (2) Before we start Roughneckin', here's some news from the league office: Game 1: The Rays traveled to Miami to play the team known as the Roughnecks for the first time, and after a slow start took it to the ex-Marlins to the tune of 9-2. Nick Schnell and Daniel Lynch were the story tonight, with Schnell breaking a 0-0 tie with a solo homer in the fifth and hitting another one in the eighth with a man on. Schnell is now 378/427/622, leading the AL in batting average, 3rd in OPS, and he's also hit in 12 straight games. But Lynch did him one better - he too homered in the 5th against his old teammates making him the first Rays pitcher to homer in my save that's been going since 2020, and pitched a great game going 8 6 2 2 2 5 only allowing the 2 runs as he was running out of gas in the 8th. Keibert Ruiz had a pair of doubles, one of which drove in a run, and Austin Meadows (staying hot) and Wander Franco homered in the 9th in a tough park to generate offense (the Roughnecks played an 18-inning 1-0 game the day before). Sandy Gaston pitched the 9th with a walk and a pair of strikeouts, giving him 3 straight scoreless outings to start his big league career. May 7: OF Jason Heyward opted out of his AAA Durham contract and became a free agent. Heyward saw the writing on the wall and elected to pursue a return to MLB elsewhere. Unlike past seasons, Durham is having trouble scoring runs so with Heyward leaving and the OF being short, I offered one-time Ray farmhand Derek Dietrich a minor league contract. Game 2: The Rays' 6-game winning streak came to an end today with a 6-4 Roughnecks win, and the primary culprit was Max Fried who had another terrible start, allowing all 6 runs in the first 2 innings and only lasting 4 (it could have been worse had a guy not been thrown out at home and another caught stealing) as his ERA balloons to 6.61. He served up a pair of HRs to Greyson Jenista and another to Monte Harrison. The Rays grabbed an early lead on a manufactured run as Brujan singled, stole second and scored after two groundouts, got another in the 4th when Seth Beer, filling in for Alec Bohm at 1B, singled home Rafael Devers as part of a 3-hit night, and then Austin Meadows stayed scorching hot with a 2-run HR, #8, to get the Rays within 2. They had a shot to tie in the 8th with men on 2nd and 3rd and 2 out but couldn't get them home, and Brujan led off the 9th with a walk but was erased on a game-ending GIDP from Meadows. At least the bullpen was good, as Kirby Yates, Sandy Gaston, Asa Lacy and Jasseel De La Cruz each threw a scoreless inning. But aside from the shutout of the Yankees, Fried has been mediocre to terrible, despite a misleading 4-2 W/L record. I've been trying to decide whether Lynch or McClanahan comes out for Manning but if Fried doesn't get going it could always be him. He's pitched to 4.48 and 4.47 ERAs the last 2 seasons which aren't inspiring (although he was good in the postseason run to the World Series), and he's a free agent at year's end, so there's no need to stay "loyal" to him if he isn't producing. And as always because I mentioned yesterday that Nick Schnell was on a hitting streak, of course it ended today with an 0-3. Team record: 21-7. Miami comes back to St. Pete for 2 games at the Trop. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-18-2020 at 05:10 PM.

08-18-2020, 04:45 PM	#168
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 8-9, 2024: vs Miami (2) Before we get into the 2-game series in which the Roughnecks make the return leg to visit the Trop, we have some MAJOR trade news: I'm always shopping players, including the really good ones, to see what they might yield and I've seen Buehler's name pop up a time or two even though he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. So given my disgruntlement with Fried, I tried to see what it would take along with him to maybe get Buehler since Fried still is well-regarded by other GMs in this game. So when the out-for-the-year Paddack appeared in "make this work" I couldn't hit the "complete trade" button fast enough. It seems that the Dodgers aren't thrilled with Buehler's contract even though he has a player option at the end of the season to go 2 more years at $23M per. I would think he'd opt out since he could maybe get closer to $30M but if he doesn't it will only cost us about $17M/year thanks to the salary LA is retaining in this deal. And it also gives us $9M more to play with this year in case we want to deal for someone expensive. So there's nothing not to like here. The Dodgers can make this deal work by extending Paddack and/or Fried, both of whom are no longer arbitration-eligible and therefore free agents as they will take a short-term hit to their staff. Of course watch Fried go on a roll back in the NL. Meanwhile, I'm more than ready to roll out a Glasnow-Buehler-Manning rotation come postseason time. And in case you think I pulled a "force trade" here, see below: Also, shut up Neander. Game 1: The Rays rolled to a 9-0 win over the Roughnecks behind an outstanding start from Shane McClanahan, now 2-for-2 and making his bid to stay in the rotation with Matt Manning soon to return. Mac went 6 5 0 0 2 10 and was only in trouble once, in the 3rd inning where he put the first two batters on but got a double play to help him get out of it. Otherwise he was sending quite a few Roughneck hitters directly back to the dugout from the batter's box. The offense didn't waste time getting him run support. Brujan singled to lead off a game again, stole second again, and scored on a Rafael Devers single. In the 2nd Alec Bohm singled, was doubled to third by Keston Hiura (4-4 tonight with another pair of doubles), scored on a Spencer Torkelson ground out and then Nick Schnell doubled in Hiura. And in the 4th Torkelson went deep for the 6th time in 48 ABs with a man on to make it 5-0 and they kept scoring from there, including a Bohm solo HR. Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th despite the large margin as he hadn't pitched in over a week (neither have Nick Anderson nor Will Smith, but I didn't want to use all 3 in case they're needed tomorrow and we also don't have any off days for a couple of weeks) and Mitch Keller pitched the 8th and 9th. One dark cloud, though: Schnell had to leave with groin soreness and is DtD for a week, therefore Torkelson should get everyday at-bats for the next week plus. Game 2: The last time we saw Nick Anderson and Will Smith was 10 days ago as they blew a game against Baltimore. Thanks to a bunch of Rays blowout wins, there really hasn't been a game that's had high-leverage situations in the 8th and 9th. Well they were back tonight and we ended up with the same result, an even more shocking defeat given that the Rays were up 6-2 going into the 8th. Dustin May had been cruising along holding the Roughnecks to 5 hits through 7 and only throwing 74 pitches. So he started the 8th and gave up the second solo HR of the day to JD Davis to make it 6-3, and then allowed his first walk of the game. Given that it was long past time to get Anderson into a game he entered and promptly gave up two singles to make it 6-4 and got one out. With lefty power hitter Greyson Jenista due, Jose Alvarado came on and walked him, loading the bases, and then gave up a sac fly to make it 6-5 before getting out of the inning. So to the ninth we went and Will Smith was called into action, and after giving up a leadoff single, he got a ground out moving the runner up to 2nd and then picked up a strikeout. But with one out to get, he gave up three straight singles to score the tying and go-ahead runs and Fernando Romero struck out the side for Miami in the bottom of the inning around a Wander infield single to give the Rays a shock 7-6 loss. May ended 7 6 4 4 1 7 and deserved a better fate, although he did allow 3 solo HRs. The Rays built their lead on a 2-run Vidal Brujan single which was followed by a 2-run Wander HR in the 5th, and a run on an errant pickoff throw as well as an Alec Bohm RBI single. The second straight bad outing from Smith in light of his diminished velocity is a definite cause for concern. Jasseel De La Cruz was Atlanta's closer before we acquired him and can go back into that role if need be, and Sandy Gaston is a dark horse candidate. I really don't want to put Anderson or Alvarado in the closer role as they're (usually) so effective in the 7th and 8th. Team record: 22-8. Next up: Toronto visits the Trop for a weekend series. Bad news from Durham: Starting pitching prospect Jimmy Lewis is done for the season with a torn back muscle. At least it's not an arm injury. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-18-2020 at 06:55 PM.

08-18-2020, 08:35 PM	#169
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 10-12, 2024: vs Toronto (3) Game 1: Walker Buehler made his Rays debut and it was a success, although the Jays got to him for 3 runs in 7 innings in a tense 4-3 win. Buehler was electric out of the gate striking out 5 in the first two innings but Toronto got an RBI triple from Randal Grichuk in the 3rd and an RBI single from Ryan Noda in the 4th to go up to 2-0 while the Rays were having trouble with Jays starter Matt Wisler. Wisler had retired 12 straight Rays going into the bottom of the 6th when Wander Franco singled with one out, and after Austin Meadows flew out Rafael Devers singled and Alec Bohm singled home Franco. Then Seth Beer crushed a 2-1 pitch into the RF stands and suddenly the Rays were up 4-2. But Buehler made it tough on himself in the 7th by walking his first two batters of the game to lead off the inning, wild pitched them to 2nd and 3rd, then got a sac fly that made it 4-3, a ground out and then he whiffed Grichuk to get out of the inning with a man on 3rd to end his night 7 7 3 3 2 10 on 109 pitches. Unlike last night, though, the bullpen held tough - Nick Anderson whiffed a pair around a walk in the 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz set Toronto down 1-2-3 with two Ks to get his second save of the season and preserve Buehler's first Rays win. The offense only managed six hits but sequenced them well in the 6th. Hunter Bishop by the way has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and is now 0-16 since his grand slam in Toronto last Sunday. Durham Rehab Update: Matt Manning went 6 6 2 2 2 5 in 86 pitches for the Bulls tonight so he's ready to make his next start with the Rays. The questions then become 1) who leaves the rotation? and 2) who leaves the roster?. McClanahan and Lynch will each get one more start and both have pitched pretty well. If McClanahan loses his spot, he likely goes back to Durham to stay stretched out as a starter. If it's Lynch, it could be Sandy Gaston but he's pitched so well since coming up and he might even factor into higher-leverage spots if he keeps it up. Decisions, decisions. Game 2: The Blue Jays scored two in the first inning off Tyler Glasnow, and it turned out that would be all they needed to get the first win in nine tries against the Rays this season, taking a 2-1 decision. Cavan Biggio led off the game with a single, scored on a Vlad Jr double, and then Bichette doubled home Vlad for the 2 runs. That would be all Glasnow would give up as he went 7 4 2 2 2 8 but was let down by the offense, which managed only 3 hits on the night. They were befuddled by Jackson Stephens, who came in having thrown 13 innings allowing only one run over 9 relief outings and he continued his hot pitching in his first start by going 7 1 0 0 4 8. Keston Hiura got the start with Wander Franco needing a rest and he had his worst day as a Ray, going 0-4 with three strikeouts, and Spencer Torkelson also fanned 3 times. Drew Pomeranz gave up a single to Austin Meadows and a walk in the 8th but the Rays couldn't get anyone home, and then longtime nemesis Keith Ginkel, whom they destroyed in Rogers Centre a week ago, came on for the save and made it interesting, giving up a Seth Beer HR with two out and then walking Torkelson. But Hunter Bishop extended his slump to 0-19 by grounding out to end the game and the Rays dropped their third game in five. On the pitching side, in addition to Glasnow's fine outing Mitch Keller and Asa Lacy pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th respectively. Game 3: Until the very end it looked like a rerun of yesterday's game in which the offense stayed asleep and wasted an excellent pitching performance. But a rally in the bottom of the 9th gave the Rays a walk-off 2-1 win and 2 out of 3 in this series. Daniel Lynch started in a bid to stay in the rotation, and although gave up a HR to Randal Grichuk as the 2nd batter of the game, he settled down from there and went 6.1 6 1 1 1 6. Mitch Keller took over in the 7th with 2 men on and was excellent again, whiffing 3 over his 1 2/3 innings giving him a Nick Anderson-like 24 Ks in 14 IP this season. And Sandy Gaston pitched a perfect ninth, ending it with a strikeout of Byron Buxton and picking up his first MLB win. Meanwhile the offense continued in its slumber and couldn't do anything against Toronto's Mick Abel who went 7.2 4 0 0 1 7 against him. But they got to Drew Pomeranz in the 9th. After Austin Meadows grounded out to start the inning, Rafael Devers doubled and went to third on a Keibert Ruiz single. Keston Hiura came in to pinch-hit for Seth Beer against the lefty and while Beer had been the Rays' entire offense the last two nights we played the platoon percentages and Hiura came through with a single to tie the game. And then it was time for another pinch-hitter as lefty Triston Casas had whiffed all 3 times up against Abel so the man he was spelling, Alec Bohm, came up for him and he too drilled a pinch-hit single to center and Ruiz beat Buxton's throw to the plate to walk it off and give the Rays the best of a very tough series after destroying this same team in their own park a week earlier. By the way Hunter Bishop singled in the 7th to snap his week-long 0-fer. Team record: 24-9. Next up: 4 games at home vs Kansas City. May 11: Traded 19-year-old minor league reliever Bobby Gil to the Baltimore Orioles, getting 24-year-old minor league starting pitcher Emerson Hancock in return. Seemed like the Orioles were misusing Hancock, primarily pitching him in relief. He's lost some of the luster he has right now in 2020 IRL, but I figure he's worth a shot especially since the price was Gil, a scouting discovery whom I'm not sold on but came up in "make this work" so I made it work. I assigned Hancock to AA Montgomery and the AI immediately threw him into today's game, and he went 3.1 1 0 0 1 6 and then the AI promoted him to Durham. I'm going to stick him in their rotation and see how it goes. Also around MLB, Max Fried made his Dodgers debut and predictably was brilliant, going 6.2 3 1 1 2 9. Also brilliant was Shane Baz, whom the Tigers decided to move from closer into the rotation and in his first start he was 7 6 2 2 2 10. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-19-2020 at 09:37 AM.

08-19-2020, 10:59 AM	#170
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 13-16, 2024: vs Kansas City (4) Game 1: It started off great for the Rays, then quickly got ugly as they fell 8-3 to Kansas City. Shane McClanahan got the start and looked great through 3 innings as the Rays built an early 3-0 lead. But the bottom fell out in the 4th when he gave up 5 runs, capped by a 3-run Thairo Estrada homer. After putting the leadoff man on in the 5th, he was pulled with his pitch count already about 90, so Asa Lacy came on, got out of the inning, but then had to leave in the 6th with a strained back. Enter Kirby Yates, who stunk up the joint and allowed Lacy's runner and 2 of his own to score, giving up 3 hits and a walk in 2/3 of an inning. I now see why Pittsburgh waived him. I was hoping for length from Lacy and for Yates to at least get into the 7th, but instead I had to bring on Sandy Gaston who excelled again, going 1 1/3 with 3 more Ks. And with Mitch Keller unavailable, I had to use Jose Alvarado in the 8th and Will Smith in the 9th, both of whom got through it but normally not the guys I want to use down 8-3. The offense, meanwhile, had another lousy game even with the 3 early runs. They were mainly the result of brief former Ray Lucas Sims walking 3 guys in the 3rd, including Tork with the bases loaded, and another run came on a Ronaldo Hernandez GIDP. Sims settled down from there, and went 7.1 6 3 3 3 5 with the 6 hits all the slumping offense got. At least I got the answer tonight as to who's going down when Matt Manning comes back. Another trade: Hamilton is a solid reliever but the White Sox were so desperate to get rid of his $6.5M contract that not only did they take Yates they even took back 30% so it only ended up costing us about $1M in salary. You can see from his excellent numbers above that he was probably what I thought I was getting in Yates before discovering he had lost his stuff (Also you've noticed I decided to go with OOTP's "light" skin to change things up). Game 2: The May mediocrity continues as they lose again to the Royals, this time by a 6-3 score. Again they took an early lead, again the starting pitching blew up in the middle innings, again the middle reliever made things worse, and again I had to use high-leverage guys in the late innings down by several runs. Hunter Bishop's 2-run HR in the 3rd off Kyle Gibson made it 2-1 Rays, but Dustin May couldn't hold the lead, giving up 2 in the 5th and then getting into more trouble in the 6th. The newly-acquired Ian Hamilton did his best Kirby Yates impression, allowing the inherited runners to score and making a mess in the 6th as well. May ended 5.1 9 5 5 2 3 in his worst start of the season and Hamilton, who hardly ever walks anybody, walked a pair and gave up 3 hits in his 2/3 of an inning. Jasseel De La Cruz had to go two innings and today I had to use Nick Anderson as the bullpen has become worn down. Keston Hiura started for the tired Vidal Brujan and homered in the 5th to make it 3-3 and that was it for the Rays scoring. But unlike the last few nights where they didn't get many hits, tonight the problem was getting them home as they had 13 on the night. The primary culprits were Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm, both of whom were 0-5 and had opportunities to drive in runners, including in the 9th when they got 2 on with 1 out and both of them came up empty as Bohm struck out to end the game. Game 3: Another gut punch loss and another bullpen meltdown. When you go into the 8th inning of a game up 5-1 with Walker Buehler on the mound you should win, right? Nope, not today. JJ Bleday, once a Rays farmhand who was traded to San Diego in the Paddack/McKay deal and then waived by the Padres and picked up by KC, hit the second of his 2 HRs today off Buehler to cut it to 5-3. Buehler then got the next two out before giving up a double, and Jose Alvarado shat the bed, giving up 2 hits and a walk to allow KC to tie it up. Nick Anderson got him out of the inning and then Will Smith came on for the 9th in a tie game. Smith should have gotten out #1 but Vidal Brujan threw wildly on a grounder to let the leadoff man on who was doubled to 3rd and then scored on a sac fly to put KC up 6-5, which turned out to be the final score. Although the run was unearned Smith gave up the double and a walk and continues to be shaky and is pitching his way out of the closer's role. The Rays jumped out to what looked like would be a winning lead off old friend Drew Strotman thanks to a Triston Casas (playing for Bohm) HR, a run scoring on a wild pitch, a Spencer Torkelson groundball, a Rafael Devers RBI double and a Wander sac fly. Buehler ended 7.2 8 4 4 1 7 with obviously the pair of Bleday HRs being his downfall. Brujan singled with two out in the ninth but Wander struck out as he continues mired in a slump that's seen his average drop to .284. Keibert Ruiz was also 0-4 and is 277/322/375 with 1 HR and 11 RBI so he hasn't been producing either as the team has gotten into a malaise. Baltimore lost today so the lead remains 3 1/2 games. May 16: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, activated P Matt Manning from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham. Manning starts tonight as the Rays try to salvage a win from this 4-game home series against a sub-.500 club. Game 4: The offense built a lead that was bullpen-proof and mediocre start-proof and the Rays rolled to a 13-1 win to snap out of their recent funk which saw them lose four of the last five with the only win a miracle 2-1 comeback in the 9th on Sunday. Matt Manning came off the DL and was brilliant, going 6 6 1 1 0 12 to go 2-0 in his two Rays starts this season. The Royals actually led the game with a run in the top of the 4th before the Rays scored all 13 of their runs over the 4th and 5th innings. Rafael Devers got things started with a 3-run blast, his 4th of the year, to make it 3-1, and as Ron Burgundy would say, it escalated quickly as Nick Schnell hit his own 3-run HR (#6) to cap a 7-run 3rd and then 6 more were added in the 4th including a Devers RBI double as part of his 4-hit, 4-RBI game. Speaking of snapping out of it, Wander went 3-5 with an RBI, while Spencer Torkelson was 2-4 with 2 RBI. Mitch Keller whiffed 4 in his 2 scoreless innings in relief of Manning, giving him 28 in 16 innings, and Sandy Gaston extended his MLB career-starting scoreless streak to 9 1/3 innings with a clean 9th and a total of 15 strikeouts. Team record: 25-12. Up next: a weekend visit to Fenway Park. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-19-2020 at 07:34 PM.

08-19-2020, 08:36 PM	#171
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 17-19, 2024: at Boston (3) Game 1: The tough losses continue to pile up as the Rays fell 5-4 in 10 innings to the Red Sox today on an Abraham Toro walk-off homer off Jasseel De La Cruz. It was a back-and-forth affair with the Rays having 2-1 and 4-3 leads as Tyler Glasnow got the start. He had a bit of a rough start by his standards, going 6.1 8 4 4 1 8 but he left with the lead, only for Jose Alvarado to allow one of his runners to score and send us to extras, setting the stage for Toro's heroics. The offense was up and down with the 4 runs and 9 hits but they struck out a season-high 15 times including 4 from Nick Schnell and 3 each from Seth Beer and Triston Casas, starting for a tired Rafael Devers. Austin Meadows was 3-4 with 2 RBI and Beer and Ronaldo Hernandez had sac flies but all the strikeouts meant they couldn't get other runners home. With the win and a Baltimore loss, Boston moves into second place, 4 behind the Rays. May 17: Sent P Scott Barlow to AAA Durham for injury rehab. Barlow is back from his oblique injury and will get several appearances at Durham. He's out of options so he'll eventually have to be put on the active MLB roster or traded or waived. Game 2: The Rays bounced back with a closer-than-it-looked 7-1 win over Boston behind the bat of Alec Bohm, who clubbed a pair of homers and drove in 3. His first homer put them on the board in the 3rd, and after Boston tied in the bottom of the inning and Keston Hiura's sac fly put the Rays back up 2-1, his 2-run homer in the 5th made it 4-1 and gave the Rays some breathing room. This came after Daniel Lynch pulled a Houdini act in the 4th. After loading the bases with nobody out, he got Buster Posey to hit the ball back at him and get a force at the plate, and then he got Niko Goodrum to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Lynch wasn't overpowering and he was a bit wild, leaving with a 6 5 1 0 4 3 line and hitting Jesse Winker with a pitch to lead off the 7th. Ian Hamilton came on and his second Rays appearance went much better than the first as he got 3 outs on 3 pitches, getting Abraham Toro to roll into a double play and Alex Verdugo to ground out. The Rays then broke it open in the 8th on a 2-run double from Vidal Brujan and a sac fly from Wander, who stayed in his slump at 0-4 and has now seen his BA plummet to .278. We've seen this before, and it always seems to end with a ridiculous hot streak of multi-hit games so hopefully we have that to look forward to. Hamilton stayed on for the 8th and got through unscathed, and Asa Lacy had a 5-pitch 1-2-3 9th to close it out. Lynch improves to 5-1, 3.02 and a guy who started the year without a rotation spot has made the most of his opportunity. Game 3: The Rays rapped out 16 hits and Dustin May did just enough as they beat the Red Sox 6-2 to take 2 of 3 at Fenway. After a Jesse Winker HR put Boston up 1-0 in the 3rd, the Rays got 3 in the 4th on a Devers double (the second of his 4 hits today), a Keibert Ruiz double to score Devers, an Alec Bohm single to score Ruiz, and a Vidal Brujan single to score Bohm. Then they tacked on two more in the 5th on a wild pitch and another Bohm RBI single. Bohm ended with 3 hits on the day to cap a big weekend at Fenway which brought his average over. 300. In the 8th, Hunter Bishop singled, got his first MLB stolen base (on his 4th attempt) and scored on a Brujan single. Meanwhile May was far from his sharpest (after walking 6 men all season he issued 4 bases on balls today), getting only one strikeout and many fly balls instead of his trademark grounders. But he still managed a 6 5 2 2 4 1 line which was good enough to get him win #4. At 5-2, Jose Alvarado pitched the 7th and got through clean and with it 6-2 in the 8th Mitch Keller pitched the final two innings without incident. The only bit of bad news today was that Keibert bruised his knee when sliding into home when he scored and had to leave the game. He's DtD for 7 days so there's a chance he goes on the IL and Chris Betts gets a long-deserved call-up, however brief. The division lead now expands to 6. Team record: 27-13. Next up: the road trip swings through Cleveland for 4 games. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-20-2020 at 08:40 AM.

08-20-2020, 11:14 AM	#172
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 20-22, 2024: at Cleveland (3) May 20: Placed C Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day IL with a bruised knee, recalled C Chris Betts from AAA Durham. As mentioned yesterday, Ruiz probably doesn't have to go on the IL, I could have played Ronaldo Hernandez most games over the next 6 days and maybe played Ruiz once with the bruised knee, but Betts has toiled at Durham since 2022 and deserves a call-up, however brief. Betts has 60 power and a 55 eye so he's the prototypical power-hitting catcher who hits for a low average but has actually hit .260-.270 for Durham. He could easily be playing for a lot of other MLB teams. Also this: Game 1: Well, that's it. Will Smith is out at closer. I've never had to do this before, demoting a closer, as Nick Anderson got the job done in 2020, Brad Hand in 21 and 22, and Smith last season. But he blew yet another save - his 4th straight - as the Rays fell to Cleveland 4-3 in 11 innings today and once again Walker Buehler was denied a win. Buehler went 7 8 1 1 0 6 and as you can see gave up base hits but usually got out of any mini-jams with strikeouts or a double play. Anderson pitched a fine 8th with 2 Ks and so Smith came on for the 9th. He struck out Gerardo Perdomo to start the inning but lefty Jake Bauers singled off him and another lefty, Nolan Jones, took him yard to tie the game. Gary Sanchez came in to pinch hit, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on, got him and got through the 10th. With a lefty leading off the 11th, Asa Lacy came in as Alvarado was unavailable, and Cleveland pinch-hit Matthew Barefoot. If that name sounds familiar he was in the Rays system after being acquired from Houston as part of the Abraham Toro deal in the 21-22 offseason. He was then dealt to Pittsburgh as part of the Josh Bell trade at the 22 deadline, and the Pirates surprisingly waived him last year (we even put in a claim) and Cleveland nabbed him. Anyway, you can probably guess by now that he greeted Lacy with a drive into the LF stands to walk it off for Cleveland. Of course if the offense managed more than 3 runs we wouldn't have been in this situation but Logan Allen and 3 Cleveland relievers (including old friend Diego Castillo who struck out both batters he faced) kept them in check and struck out 13 over the 11 innings including 4 whiffs from Keston Hiura. Vidal Brujan was the offensive star with a 3-5, 2-steal game, scoring 2 of the runs. Devers had an RBI single in the first, and Meadows and Schnell had RBI groundouts. They managed 11 hits and stole a team-season-high 6 bases but couldn't get the big hits when necessary. Still it should have been enough. De La Cruz is the likely choice to replace Smith, allowing me to keep Anderson and Alvarado in their regular roles. Smith will be relegated to low-leverage middle relief for the foreseeable future. Game 2: Well that was the last thing anyone expected - a complete Matt Manning meltdown in the first inning. He allowed the first 8 Cleveland batters to reach and 7 of them scored before an out was recorded and that was all it took for the Rays to fall 7-4. Manning walked the leadoff man Jake Bauers and then Lewis Brinson homered, and followed that up by allowing a 2-run Christian Arroyo single and a bases-clearing triple from Ka'ai Tom. Amazingly he didn't allow Tom to score from third with nobody out as something clicked and he struck out the next three batters. He ended up 4 6 7 7 4 7 as he settled down from there, but it was way, way too late. It was too bad as the Rays grabbed a couple of runs in the first inning on Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm RBI singles off opener Diego Castillo. But follower Zack Godley kept them in check from there until a Spencer Torkelson RBI single in the 7th and a Devers solo homer in the 8th. Ian Hamilton and Asa Lacy threw a couple of scoreless innings each in mop-up duty, but you don't expect be down 0-2 in a series you have Walker Buehler, Manning and Tyler Glasnow starting. Chris Betts made his MLB debut and went 0-3 with a pair of strikeouts before Ronaldo pinch-hit for him against a lefty in the 8th. Ronaldo himself has been struggling for the first time in his MLB career as he's down to 200/196/356 (yes his OBP is lower than his BA thanks to 0 walks and a sac fly). Game 3. Wow. Coming into this series with Buehler, Manning and Glasnow starting I figured we'd win at least 2 of 3, maybe a sweep. Never expected to be swept but that's what happened as Tyler Glasnow followed Manning's disastrous outing with one of his own as the Rays were routed 10-4. Glasnow looked good in the first, got the first 2 outs in the 2nd, and then a sequence in the 3rd led to 4 straight hits and 3 runs. And in the 5th he gave up a pair of 2-run HRs to Jake Bauers and Bobby Bradley along with 2 other runs to end with a ghastly 4 12 9 9 1 7 line which could have been worse had 2 runners not been thrown out at the plate. Maybe it's Chris Betts behind the dish that's the problem - his two starts have seen the normally reliable Manning and Glasnow both immolated. Whatever the reason, Ronaldo will get the next start in a couple of days. On offense, Vidal Brujan had 4 more hits to raise his AL-leading BA to .372, and he doubled and scored on a Meadows double in the first to give the Rays a brief lead. Meanwhile, the once-great Justin Bieber came into this game 0-5 with a 6.65 ERA but bedeviled the Rays until running out of gas in the 8th, when Meadows smacked a 3-run homer, his team-high 9th. A team that started 22-7 is now in the midst of a 5-9 stretch finding new ways to lose. Fortunately the Red Sox and Orioles keep losing so the lead remains 5 1/2 but this looks nothing like the 115-win, World Series-winning team of 2023. Team record: 27-16. Next up: an off-day followed by a weekend series at home vs the Yankees. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-20-2020 at 10:26 PM.

08-20-2020, 05:40 PM	#173
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 24-26, 2024: vs NY Yankees (3) May 23: Sent OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment. Marsh will probably play 4 games for Durham through the weekend and rejoin the team Monday for the Angels series. He went 0-5 in the Thursday night game and it will be good to get him back. Hunter Bishop, who started like a house afire but has cooled lately, will go back to Durham. Game 1: After suffering several heartbreaking losses over the past 2-3 weeks, it was time for the Rays to deal one out to somebody else and they came back with runs in the bottom of the 8th and 9th to beat the Yankees and Gerrit Cole 3-2. Daniel Lynch started and gave up 2-out RBI singles to Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres in the 1st and 3rd to fall behind 2-0 but pitched well overall and ended up 6.1 7 2 2 1 9 with the 9 strikeouts being a season-high. Meanwhile Cole was a tough customer for the Rays hitters as usual, but Austin Meadows broke through with a 2-out RBI triple in the 3rd however Rafael Devers couldn't bring him home. And 2-1 is where we stayed for most of the game. Lynch gave up a 1-out hit in the 7th before being pulled, but Ian Hamilton came in and got Raudy Read to hit into a double play. With two lefties due up to start the 8th, Will Smith got the call and retired both before having to leave with a sprained ankle that will keep him out 4 days. Maybe it was for the best as Torres was due, and Mitch Keller came on and struck him out and set the Yankees down in the 9th. Meanwhile the Rays tied it in the 8th on singles by Hunter Bishop, Vidal Brujan and Meadows, and then in the bottom of the 9th Alec Bohm led off the inning by doubling off Cole and he went to third on a Seth Beer single. Nick Schnell then hit a medium-deep fly ball to CF Aaron Hicks, who has a cannon arm and despite it being only the first out I gambled and sent Bohm, who scored to provide the walk-off win. Keller picked up his first Rays win as he's been a multi-inning bullpen beast since a rough first few appearances, now with 31 Ks in 19 1/3 innings. Game 2: Another tense, hard-fought, low-scoring game yielded another Rays victory as Dustin May and 3 relievers combined on a 2-hit 2-0 shutout of the Yankees. May went 6 2 0 0 1 9 on 105 pitches and like Daniel Lynch yesterday, had a season-high 9 Ks. Jose Alvarado went 1 1/3 and struck out 3 on only 13 pitches, Nick Anderson got the other two outs in the 8th around a walk, and Jasseel De La Cruz got the Yanks 1-2-3 in the 9th in his first save situation after being anointed the closer, although it's his 3rd save of the year overall. The offense, such as it was, came from a Vidal Brujan single to lead off the game, followed by his MLB-leading 20th steal and a Rafael Devers RBI single. In the 3rd Austin Meadows went the opposite way for HR #10 and that was all the Rays could muster against Shawn Semple, who's given them trouble in the past and went the full 8 innings today. May improves to 5-2, 3.35 as the Rays have had more success lately with the back of their rotation (Lynch, May) than the front (Buehler, Manning, Glasnow). Game 3: This game looked a lot like the first two in the series, going 1-1 to the 7th in a duel between Walker Buehler and Luis Severino. Buehler blinked first, giving up Giancarlo Stanton's second solo homer of the game to put the Yankees up 2-1 in the top of the inning, but Severino blinked a lot more in the bottom and the Rays put up 5 runs to go on to a 7-4 win and series sweep of the slumping Yankees, who have dropped 9 straight. The Rays, who had scored their only run at the time in the 5th on a Spencer Torkelson sac fly, started the rally with one out when Torkelson singled, Chris Betts got his first major league hit sending Tork to 3rd, and then Vidal Brujan tripled them both home. After a Wander groundout to 3rd that Brujan couldn't score on, Austin Meadows blooped a single to center to make it 4-2, and then Rafael Devers capped a 4-4 day with a 2-run HR (#6) off Yankee reliever Austin Brice to make it 6-2. Buehler left with an excellent 7 4 2 2 1 8 line on 116 pitches, and with a 4-run lead and lefties due up, yours truly made the decision to save Alvarado and go with Asa Lacy instead which kind of backfired. Lacy struck out former Ray Brandon Lowe but gave up a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases, and then Nick Anderson, after striking out Gleyber Torres for the 2nd out and now facing Stanton as the tying run at the plate, hit Stanton to force in a run and then gave up a single to Greg Deichmann to score another run but Torkelson threw Josh Smith out at home to end the inning and it was 6-4. In the bottom of the 8th Betts followed up his first MLB hit with his first MLB extra-base hit and RBI, doubling in Nick Schnell who had a leadoff walk and providing some insurance. Jasseel De La Cruz was then perfect again with a pair of whiffs for save #4 and the Rays got a much-needed series sweep. Team record: 30-16. Next up: the homestead continues with 4 games against the Angels. BREAKING NEWS: After the game the Yankees announced the firing of manager Aaron Boone and GM Brian Cashman, the end of an era. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-20-2020 at 10:27 PM.

08-21-2020, 09:20 AM	#174
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 27-30, 2024: vs LA Angels (4) May 27: Activated OF Brandon Marsh from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned OF Hunter Bishop to AAA Durham. It's great to have our all-star CF back, and it was an impressive 5-week stint filling in for him from Bishop, who proved he can hit and hit for power at the MLB level. His insane start led to the expected slowdown, but when all was said and done he went 252/291/524 with 8 HR and 25 RBI in 103 AB and 0.8 WAR so he made the loss of Marsh hurt as little as could be reasonably expected. Game 1: A bizarre, back-and-forth game that saw the Rays walk it off in the bottom of the 9th on a two-out, 3-run Nick Schnell pinch-hit homer and prevail 6-5. The Rays took a 3-2 lead into the eighth on solo HRs from Wander Franco (more on him in a minute), Austin Meadows (back-to-back in the 1st) and Alec Bohm behind a fine 7 5 2 2 2 8 effort from Matt Manning, who gave up both runs in a rough first inning. But Jose Alvarado didn't get it done in the 8th (I probably left him in too long figuring he could get one more righty out), allowing the tying run and leaving men on base, and Mitch Keller had his first ineffective outing since very early in the season, allowing one of Alvarado's runners to score to give LA the lead and then giving up one of his own in the 9th to put them down 5-3. Ken Giles came on for the 9th and gave up singles to Rafael Devers and Bohm to lead off the inning but whiffed Keston Hiura and Spencer Torkelson. So Schnell came in to pinch-hit for the pitcher, Ian Hamilton (who got the last out of the 9th) and drilled a 1-1 Giles pitch into the RF stands for pandemonium on Memorial Day at the Trop. Schnell was batting for the pitcher because we lost the DH when Wander Franco had to leave the game injured. Hiura had started at DH and there were no other middle infielders on the bench so he had to take over 2B and Vidal Brujan slid over to SS. Franco will be DtD for 6 days with forearm stiffness so it's not too serious but he might go on the IL. Nevertheless, had he not gotten hurt Schnell may have never had the chance to win it so it's funny how things can turn out. Game 2: A second straight 6-5 victory for the Rays, although this one wasn't of the walk-off variety. But like yesterday, they lost the lead before getting it back in the end. Tyler Glasnow started, and like Matt Manning yesterday had some first inning trouble but he got out of it only down 1-0. This set the stage for a big 3rd inning which saw the bases loaded ahead of Austin Meadows who cleared them with a triple. Rafael Devers singled Meadows home, and Seth Beer got Devers home with a groundout. A 5-1 lead with Glasnow on the mound normally looks secure, but in the 6th he gave up a pair of 2-run homers to Anthony Rizzo and Marcus Semien and just like that we were tied. The Rays though struck back in the bottom of the inning. Brandon Marsh walked, Vidal Brujan singled, and after Keston Hiura lined out, Marsh and Brujan pulled off a double steal enabling Marsh to score on Meadows' fly ball to center and restoring the lead. It was then time for the up-and-down bullpen to lock it down and today they were up. Glasnow got the first two outs in the seventh before allowing a double (leaving at 6.2 8 5 5 1 8), so Nick Anderson came on and got Nick Solak to fly out. Jose Alvarado made up for his struggles yesterday by getting a 1-2-3 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz did likewise in the 9th, nabbing his 5th save. The Rays came into this series 3-6 in 1-run games and 3 games below their Pythagorean record but now have won two of them in as many days. Game 3: Another tight one at the Trop, and another one in the win column for the Rays as they got by the Angels 3-1. It was a duel between Daniel Lynch and the always-tough-on-the-Rays Yohander Mendez, who beat them in Game 4 of last year's ALCS. Lynch allowed the leadoff man on in 5 of his 6 innings but got through unscathed thanks to some double plays and well-timed strikeouts as he went 6 7 0 0 0 6 to improve to 6-1, 2.68. In fact with Tyler Glasnow's recent bad run of starts the case can be made that Lynch has been their most consistent starter this year, pretty good for a guy who didn't have a rotation spot when the season started. This one was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th when the Rays finally broke through against Mendez. With one out Brandon Marsh doubled, was singled in by Vidal Brujan, and then Brujan was singled in by Austin Meadows, now with 41 RBI and among the league leaders, and in the 7th they added a run when Alec Bohm doubled and scored on a Ronaldo Hernandez sac fly. Meanwhile, with 2 lefties due up and Alvarado unavailable, Will Smith came in and got a 1-2-3 7th and with it 3-0 Sandy Gaston got his first high-leverage opportunity in the 8th. It did not go well. He gave up two hits and a walk to score a run without retiring anyone and Ian Hamilton as he did in a previous game got a double play grounder and then the third out to escape the inning with a 2-run lead. With Jasseel De La Cruz also unavailable, Nick Anderson pitched the 9th and in a bit of an odd turn for him got 3 flyballs and no strikeouts to nail down his 2nd save of the year. May 30: Activated C Keibert Ruiz from the 10-day IL, optioned C Chris Betts to AAA Durham. Good to get Keibert back, although the C position has been an offensive black hole this season as compared to the last two years where it might have been the best in MLB. Ruiz himself is only 279/331/385 with 1 HR and 12 RBI in 31 games, and Ronaldo has struggled as well, going 179/172/304 with 1 HR and 10 RBI himself. If these guys can get going, this team really could go on a run. Game 4: It's tough to sweep a team in a 4-game series, and even tougher when you only score one run as the Rays lost a tough contest 3-1 to the Angels today. It was 1-1 going into the 9th and Jasseel De La Cruz came on for the Rays. After striking out Anthony Rendon to start the inning he gave up a blast into the RF stands by Anthony Rizzo, then gave up a single to Jo Adell who stole second and scored on a Marcus Semien single. Ken Giles didn't blow the save like he did on Monday, getting the Rays 1-2-3 and striking out Nick Schnell, the man whose 3-run HR off him gave the Rays that walk-off win, to end the game. They wasted a great performance from Dustin May, who went 7 3 1 1 2 8 and only allowed a Billy McKinney homer. The offense had a hard time against another lefty, Patrick Sandoval, only breaking through in the 3rd to go up 1-0 on a Keston Hiura RBI double. Hiura nearly put them ahead 2-1 in the 7th but Spencer Torkelson was thrown out a home on his single. Ian Hamilton pitched a perfect 8th to keep the tie intact, but ultimately the lack of offense doomed them tonight. Team record: 33-17. Next up: A tough weekend series in Minnesota, where the Twins are off to a 31-15 start and the clear class of the AL Central. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-21-2020 at 05:26 PM.

08-21-2020, 07:16 PM	#175
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	May 31-June 2, 2024: at Minnesota (3) Game 1: For a change the Rays came into a series against a team with a better record as the Twins were 31-15 vs the Rays' 33-17, giving the Rays a chance to see if they measure up as they've fattened up on the Blue Jays and Yankees this year with nearly half their wins (16) coming against those 2 teams. Well they came up short tonight in a sloppy, ugly 10-5 loss. Walker Buehler got the start and although he's been let down by his bullpen and the offense in some of his previous Rays starts, tonight he was the architect of his own downfall, giving up 3 HRs and 6 runs (5 earned) over 5 innings. He got his strikeouts (8) but that was about it. The other culprit tonight was Ronaldo Hernandez, who came on when Keibert Ruiz suffered a 2-day intercostal strain injury. Hernandez committed three throwing errors, two on SB attempts and the other on a grounder in front of the plate, leading to 4 unearned runs. Keston Hiura and Rafael Devers each went 2-5 with an RBI to lead the offense, which had the game at 3-3 after 3 before the Twins really went to work on Buehler. The Red Sox with a win cut the division lead to 5 1/2 games. Some news from the International League: Kjerstad got off to a terrible start in April but as you can see above really kicked it into gear in May. Also in my player development update he was upgraded to a 55 in CF from 45, and his eye was upgraded from 40 to 45. Game 2: The Rays struck back, and struck late, to even the series with Minnesota riding a 4-run 9th to a 7-3 win. The Twins brought on their closer Zack Littell and the Rays' bats went to work. Seth Beer singled, and after Triston Casas whiffed, one of yesterday's goats Ronaldo Hernandez (who also threw out a would-be basestealer) managed an infield single and then Brandon Marsh ripped a double scoring Beer. Vidal Brujan followed with a sac fly and then Keston Hiura hit a mammoth homer to deep left to cap the inning. They were in the game thanks to a fine performance from Matt Manning, going 6.2 7 3 3 0 7 and whom I left in one batter too long, thinking (hoping?) he could retire Yu Chang with men on 1st and 3rd. He didn't and the Twins tied the game, so Ian Hamilton put out the fire again. Jose Alvarado got through the 8th (and was the beneficiary of that Ronaldo CS) picking up the win, and with a 4-run lead and some lefties due up Will Smith got to pitch in the 9th again and allowed only a Nick Gordon double. The Rays got their earlier runs on a pair of RBI hits from Casas (a double and single) and an Alec Bohm RBI double. Casas was in because Rafael Devers needed a rest, but I'm seriously considering installing him as the DH against righties over Beer, who despite 2 hits tonight is only hitting 222/331/359 with 4 HRs for the season starting about 80-85% of the time. Meanwhile Marsh has been on fire since coming off the IL earlier in the week and is now hitting 404/500/617 in his 47 AB this season before and after the injury. Tonight he was 3-4 with that game-winning RBI double and also has 9 steals in limited action as well. Boston won (behind a 4-4 day from Abraham Toro and 7 RBI from Ryan Mountcastle) so the lead stays at 5 1/2. Game 3: It was a laugher until it wasn't, but the Rays held on to beat the Twins 7-5 and take 2 of 3 over the weekend against the team with the best record in the AL. It looked like it would be a Sunday stroll at the ballpark when the Rays jumped on Jhoan Duran for 6 runs in the 3rd inning highlighted by 2-run doubles from Vidal Brujan and Keibert Ruiz. Rafael Devers and Nick Schnell had RBI singles as well and with Tyler Glasnow on the mound a win looked assured. And when Brandon Marsh answered the Twins' run in the 4th with a solo HR in the 6th to make it 7-1, pulses around Tampa Bay remained at resting level. But Royce Lewis and Miguel Andujar hit solo HRs in the 6th to cut it to 7-3, and Schnell's dropped fly ball helped create a mess in the 7th. Glasnow left with two out and two on and Mitch Keller came on, but he gave up a 2-run double to Lewis and suddenly it was 7-5. The back end of the pen got the job done, though, as Jose Alvarado whiffed a pair around a single and Jasseel De La Cruz got two flyballs and a strikeout to finish it off for save #6. Glasnow picked up his league-high 7th win going 6.2 5 5 3 1 7 on 114 pitches and Marsh stayed nuclear by doubling along with the HR to raise his average to .412. And Wander was back in the lineup today and celebrated with a 3-hit game so perhaps he'll get going again. Boston lost so we're back up 6 1/2. Team record: 35-18. Next up: the road trip takes us to Texas for 3 games, and Tuesday is the draft. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-21-2020 at 10:49 PM.

08-22-2020, 10:00 AM	#176
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	June 3-5, 2024: at Texas (3) Game 1: Some sloppy play cost the Rays in a 5-4 loss in Texas, a loss which wasted a great performance from Austin Meadows. The Rays RF hit two solo homers and tripled, but some shaky infield defense and a mediocre start from Daniel Lynch contributed to their downfall. It started in the second when Lynch got the first two out but Wander Franco booted a grounder, and then Danny Santana took Lynch deep to make it 2-0. After Lynch gave up another run in the 3rd the Rays came back to tie it on Meadows' first HR in the 4th and a Spencer Torkelson triple in the 5th which drove in Keston Hiura and then Torkelson scored on a Brandon Marsh double. This all happened with nobody out but they couldn't get Marsh in from 2nd. Then Lynch was tagged in the sixth for a run after giving up 3 hits and leaving with runners on first and third with one out. Mitch Keller came on with the idea of getting the strikeout, which he did, but in the pitch sequence leading up to it he threw a wild pitch, making it 5-3. Meadows homered again to cut it to 5-4 but the Rays couldn't push across a run in the 8th or 9th and fell to defeat. Lynch went 5.1 8 5 3 2 1 in his first slack performance in a while. The White Sox beat Boston so the 6 1/2 game lead remains intact. Game 2: The Rays did just enough to eke out a 4-3 win behind the strong pitching of Dustin May. After giving up a Lewin Diaz RBI double in the first, May shut it down from there, going 7 6 1 1 1 7 to improve to 6-2, 2.93. Meanwhile the offense scraped out enough runs. Nick Schnell's RBI double in the 2nd tied the game, Wander's 3rd inning double put them in front, and Alec Bohm drilled HR #8 with Rafael Devers aboard to make it 4-1. With a couple of lefties up in the 8th and Alvarado still tired, Will Smith was entrusted to a high-leverage situation and failed, giving up a single to Josh Jung and then a HR to lefty-hitting Matt Thaiss which cut the lead to 4-3. Smith had to stay in for one more batter, the tough lefty Diaz, but got him out. Nick Anderson took over and after a walk he struck out a pair, and Jasseel De La Cruz had another 1-2-3 ninth to get save #7. Elsewhere the Red Sox were destroyed 13-0 by the White Sox, including a pair of HRs from Jason Heyward who was playing for Durham in April before wisely opting out of his minor league deal. As a result the lead now grows to 7 1/2. Game 3: The Rays won another road series with a 9-1 thrashing of the Rangers behind a dominant Walker Buehler performance and a 4-hit day from Spencer Torkelson. Buehler was never in trouble, save for the 7th inning when he gave up a run on a couple of hits, going 8 4 1 1 0 8. Meanwhile the offense jumped all over Nick Neidert, getting 2 in the first, 2 in the second and 3 in the fourth and never looked back. Vidal Brujan, Austin Meadows and Brandon Marsh were all shown as fatigued, so it was an interesting lineup as while Keston Hiura simply plugged in for Brujan, the outfield was quite makeshift with Nick Schnell moving to center, Torkelson in right and Seth Beer of all people in left with Triston Casas DHing. It didn't matter as they banged out 18 hits. Hiura got things rolling in the first by singling, stealing second, going to third on a Wander single and scoring on a Schnell fielder's choice, and then Alec Bohm had an RBI double. In the 2nd, Keibert Ruiz (dropped to 8th in the lineup) got the first of his three hits ahead of Torkelson who's probably never hit 9th before but didn't care as he belted one into the LF seats to make it 4-0. Wander had a 2-RBI double and Devers had the first of his 3 doubles for an RBI to make it 7-0 in the 4th and Hiura had a 2-run single in the 7th. Boston was swept by the White Sox so the lead grows to a healthy 8 1/2 games. Team record: 37-19. Next up: an off-day, followed by an ALDS rematch weekend series in Seattle. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-22-2020 at 01:21 PM.

08-22-2020, 01:42 PM	#177
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	The 2024 Amateur Draft. Draft time again and obviously we were always picking at the end of the 1st round thanks to the best record in MLB and a World Series win last season. But due to several 1st round picks not signing last season, comp 1st round picks for those teams pushed our first round pick back to #35. Thanks to Noah Syndergaard turning down the qualifying offer we had our own comp pick at #38 overall. Here's what we got in the early rounds: 1. Round #1, #35 overall: 18-year old OF Stan Collier, from Canada. A Canadian high schooler you say? He's a 6'6", 200-pound monster with 70 power potential and 60 potential gap power. He's the prototypical power-hitting prospect whose ultimate success will depend on whether he makes enough contact, as he's only a 45 potential there. 2. Round #1 (comp pick), #38 overall: 22-year old LHP Billy Tacuri from the University of Arkansas. Gotta love lefties who can throw 96-98 and Tacuri's ceiling is a mid-rotation starter according to my scouts. 3. Round #2, #70 overall: 18-year old OF Pat Brown from Maine. Going with those cold-weather high-schoolers this year. I seem to remember one once from New Jersey who did pretty good, Trout somebody? Anyway neither Collier nor Brown will be another Mike Trout but Brown is potential 55 contact/60 power/55 eye who projects to be a .270 hitter. 4. Round #3, #104 overall: 18-year old 3B Joe Gerber from New York. When you get past the 100th pick you're looking for one outstanding potential tool and with Gerber it's power as he has a 75 ceiling. Contact as always with young power hitters is a potential issue but he'll definitely be one to watch. 5. Round #4, #134 overall: 22-year-old RHP George Campbell from the University of Virginia. Campbell has decent stuff, throws 94-96 and projects as either a 4th/5th starter or a really good bullpen guy. 6. Round #5, #164 overall: 22-year-old RHP Ian Morgan from the University of Florida. Go Gators! Morgan's ceiling is a 4th starter, with decent control who can bring it up to 98. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-22-2020 at 01:43 PM.

08-22-2020, 04:34 PM	#178
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	June 7-9, 2024: at Seattle (3) Game 1: In a rematch of last year's ALDS, where Seattle nearly stopped the Rays' World Series before it started as they had to come back from dropping the first two games at home, tonight was another epic battle between these teams. Given how the Rays often struggle with crafty lefty pitchers, the ALDS might have gone another way had the Mariners' ace Marco Gonzales not been out injured. Gonzales is healthy now and he was matched up tonight against Matt Manning, and the two turned in quite the pitchers' duel. The Rays broke through first in the 5th on a Spencer Torkelson homer just instead the LF foul pole, but the Mariners tied it at 1 in the 7th on a Kyle Lewis infield single off Jose Alvarado, who had inherited a couple of runners from Manning, who went 6 4 1 1 2 7 on 108 pitches. Gonzales left in the seventh as well and it became a battle of the bullpens in which the Rays finally prevailed in the 11th inning on a 2-run blast off Chris Bassitt by Alec Bohm, his 9th HR of the season. Jasseel De La Cruz picked up save #8 in the bottom off the 11th, and the surprise winner was Asa Lacy, who pitched the 10th and was chosen over the erratic Will Smith with two of the three batters due being lefties. Alvarado, Nick Anderson and Ian Hamilton had scoreless innings of their own as the bullpen was excellent tonight in a tough win. Boston won Thursday night against Baltimore but were beaten by them tonight so the lead has grown to 9 games. Game 2: I could just cut and paste the Game 1 recap above and change a few names to describe this game since it was another 3-1 Rays victory in 11 innings. It was Tyler Glasnow vs George Kirby this time instead of Matt Manning vs Marco Gonzalez, and Glasnow went 7 4 1 1 4 8. Yesterday it was a Spencer Torkelson HR for the Rays' run in regulation, today it was Austin Meadows with one. Once again Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson had scoreless innings in relief, but there was a twist in the 10th. Will Smith did come in this time with the lefties up instead of Asa Lacy, and he nearly cost the Rays the game. He got the first out but then Marcus Wilson singled and Evan White doubled him to 3rd. Smith was pulled in favor of Ian Hamilton and both the infield and outfield were drawn in, which paid off when Julio Rodriguez's fly ball was too shallow to score Wilson, and then Hamilton got the very tough Jarred Kelenic to ground out to end the threat. This set the stage for the top of the 11th when Meadows, Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm all singled to load the bases with nobody out off Joey Gerber and then Nick Schnell and Keibert Ruiz delivered sac flies to make it 3-1. Jasseel De La Cruz came in once again for the save and got it, but not without a little drama as he put a couple of runners on. Hamilton got the much-deserved win given his Houdini act in the 10th. Game 3: For the first five innings it looked like we might be in for a replay of games 1 and 2 of this series as a HR from the ludicrously hot Austin Meadows was the only run on the board for either team as Daniel Lynch dueled with Touki Toussaint. But in the 6th the Rays broke through for 3 runs as Meadows clobbered a 3-0 Toussaint pitch into the RF stands and on the next pitch Rafael Devers followed suit, and the Rays put more runners on and Seth Beer had an RBI single. That was more than enough for Lynch, who repeated his excellent Game 4 outing in last year's ALDS in the same ballpark with a 7 3 0 0 1 7 line on 109 pitches to improve to 7-2, 2.60 on the season. Devers singled Wander home in the 7th, and Wander put the cherry on top with a solo HR in the 9th and the Rays had a 6-0 win, series sweep and concluded a tough road trip 7-2. Meadows (whom I would be shocked if he wasn't player of the week in the AL) and Devers each had 3 hits and Nick Schnell had a pair of doubles to lead a 13-hit attack. Absent from the hit parade was Vidal Brujan, 0-5 again and in a deep 7-for-61 slump, yet they've been winning without his normal on-base contributions. Asa Lacy pitched the final 2 innings with the bullpen exhausted from the previous two nights' extra-inning affairs and allowed only a base hit. After sweeping the Red Sox Baltimore has moved into 2nd, 10 1/2 behind the Rays. Team record: 40-19. Next up: An off-day tomorrow to further rest the pen and then a homestand begins with 3 against the White Sox. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-22-2020 at 07:47 PM.

08-22-2020, 10:08 PM	#179
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	June 11-13, 2024: vs Chicago White Sox (3) As expected: Game 1: Quick, someone get me rewrite - this script is all messed up. The Rays took a 5-4 lead into the 8th inning only for Nick Anderson to give up 4 runs as they lost the opener of the homestand 8-5 to the Chicago White Sox. Dustin May got off to a bit of a rough start allowing 4 runs in the first 3 innings but settled down nicely after that to get through 7 at only 91 pitches, and he could have been left in. But I figured Anderson was the safer bet with the middle of the order due and that was proven wrong almost instantly when the first batter he faced, Eloy Jimenez roped a double into the gap. Anderson whiffed Yoan Moncada and got to 2-2 on Michael Chavis and another K looked likely but instead Chavis singled to score Jimenez. After retiring the newly-signed Nick Castellanos, another new Chicago signing, Jason Heyward, singled and that brought up backup catcher Connor Wong who stunned Anderson and the Trop crowd with a long homer to the rays tank in RCF to make it 8-5. And while all this was going on, Rays castoff Kirby Yates shut them out for 2 1/3 allowing only a walk, and then another former Ray Will Harris got them in the 9th after a couple of singles were wiped out by Austin Meadows hitting into a game-ending double play. Earlier Meadows had continued his hot streak with a 2-run HR in the first, and Alec Bohm hit another one as well in the 3rd before the Rays regained the lead in the 4th on a Chicago throwing error and a Vidal Brujan RBI groundout. But Wong rewrote the script and the Rays suffered a shock loss. Game 2: In what will go down as one of the more memorable games of the season, Wander Franco's walk-off HR in the 19th inning (yes, the 19th inning) gave the Rays an 8-7 win over the White Sox. The Rays trailed for most of the regulation 9 innings as Walker Buehler wasn't his sharpest, yielding a 3-run HR to Yoan Moncada and only striking out 3 while allowing 5 runs and 9 hits over 7 innings. Alec Bohm had his 11th HR in the 2nd and Seth Beer had an RBI double later that inning but the Rays trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox brought in lefty Aaron Fletcher to pitch and with a man on and Beer due up, Spencer Torkelson pinch-hit and he drilled a 507-ft HR to LCF to tie the game. But the tie was nearly short-lived as in the top of the 9th, Jasseel De La Cruz walked Nick Castellanos who went to 2nd on a ground out. Andrelton Simmons drilled a single to center and Castellanos tried to score but was gunned down by Brandon Marsh. So off to extras we went, and Mitch Keller tired in his 3rd inning of relief in the 14th and gave up a couple of runs to put the Sox up 7-5. But in the bottom of the inning Marsh led off with an infield single, Vidal Brujan doubled him to 3rd and Wander and Austin Meadows hit sac flies to tie it back up. So on we trudged, Asa Lacy threw 3 scoreless innings despite walking as many batters and the last man in the pen, Sandy Gaston came on in the 18th and threw a pair of scoreless innings setting the stage for Wander's walk-off blast off Kirby Yates, which got Gaston the win. Every reliever was used except Nick Anderson, who was tired, so we may need to call up an arm from Durham for tomorrow's game. Scott Barlow (out of options) is due to return from his rehab assignment anyway, and despite his solid pitching Gaston is the likely choice to go down. Game 3: White Sox bats were once again too much for Rays pitching in an 8-6 loss. Chicago scored 8, 7 and 8 runs in the 3 games and the Eloy Jimenez-Yoan Moncada duo were tough on them the whole time. Today, Jimenez bashed 2 HRs including a 3-run shot off Jose Alvarado in the 7th that turned a 4-3 Rays lead into a 6-4 deficit from which they never recovered. Some sloppy defense hurt the Rays early, with Rafael Devers' throwing error allowing 2 unearned runs to score in the 2nd, but it looked like the Rays had overcome that largely due to a big 2-run double from Triston Casas in the 4th. With Matt Manning at 95 pitches going into the 7th, I left him in, only to give up 2 hits to start the inning. Alvarado came in and got the next two out but couldn't slip one by Jimenez. Ian Hamilton then gave up a 2-run HR to Tuesday's hero, Connor Wong, to make it 8-4 and although Wander and Austin Meadows hit back-to-back jacks in the bottom of the 8th it wasn't enough. Manning ended up 6 7 5 3 1 5 and took a tough loss between the defense and the manager's decision. One good sign from the game is that Vidal Brujan had 3 hits, hopefully snapping out of his slump. Team record: 41-21. Up next: a weekend 4-game home series vs Oakland, including a rare scheduled doubleheader for Saturday. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-23-2020 at 01:25 PM.

08-23-2020, 02:16 PM	#180
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	June 14-16, 2024: vs Oakland (4) Game 1: Tyler Glasnow was dominant, but the defense and the bats weren't, and the Rays fell 2-1 in 11 innings with both Oakland runs unearned. Glasnow went 7 3 1 0 0 10, but in the 5th Vidal Brujan's throwing error put a runner on 2nd and Sean Murphy had one of those 3 hits off Glasnow for an RBI single. The Rays answered in the bottom of the inning when a Wander groundout scored Brandon Marsh, but once again they were befuddled by a lefty, this time Steven Brault. Nick Anderson pitched the 8th, Jasseel De La Cruz whiffed 4 over the 9th and 10th, but Sandy Gaston dropped a toss from Alec Bohm to allow the leadoff man to reach in the 11th and he ended up scoring on a 2-out Mark Payton single while the Rays went out meekly in the bottom of the inning and lost their third in four games on this homestand. Gaston will be sent down so Shane McClanahan can start the 2nd game of tomorrow's doubleheader. June 15: Optioned P Ian Hamilton and P Sandy Gaston to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan and P Scott Barlow from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham. Hamilton's a paper move to get an extra arm up since OOTP doesn't allow an extra pitcher for doubleheaders like MLB and McClanahan of course is starting Game 2 of the doubleheader, so Gaston and Hamilton come back tomorrow. June 15: Traded minor-league 1B Jose Abreu to the Cleveland Indians for 24-year-old minor-league OF Bramdon Perez. Abreu is having a big season at Durham with 14 HR and 41 RBI in 54 games so I figured I would try to cash him in. And Perez seems like a pretty good return: 50 CT/55 potential, 60 POW, 55 EYE, 55 LF, 50 RF, so average to above-average across the board. He's been ranked as his as #93 in the overall prospect ratings although he's now #208 and becomes our #19 prospect. Cleveland thought enough of him to call him up for a couple of games earlier this season so he's on an MLB contract which was no problem since we had 2 40-man spots open. He'll go to AA Montgomery for now. Obviously we have a lot of OF prospects but if nothing else he'll make good trade bait down the line. Game 2: It's been a week of close, tense, sometimes wild games at the Trop and the first game of today's rare scheduled doubleheader was another one of them. Alec Bohm, who has a knack for the clutch HR, did it again with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 9th off A's closer Curtis Taylor to give the Rays an 8-7 walk-off win. It was a weird game, with the Rays jumping out to a 2-0 lead on an inside-the-park homer from Keibert Ruiz and they built a 5-1 lead through 6. Daniel Lynch, as he's been doing lately, was cruising going into the 7th with a pitch count in the 80s. With a lot of the bullpen burned out and a doubleheader to boot, Lynch was going to go as long as he could. But he gave up a solo HR to Sean Murphy to lead off the inning, then a single, double and a ground out to make it 5-3. On another day he might have come out here but he stayed in and Ramon Laureano hit a 2-run HR to tie it at 5 and then Matt Chapman went back-to-back to give the Oakland the lead. Finally Asa Lacy came in, gave up a single and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd but got a grounder right to Wander with the infield drawn in and got Murphy, who had started the inning, to fly out. However Lacy struggled in the 8th giving up another run and 7-5 is where it stood when the bottom of the 9th started. Taylor walked Austin Meadows but got Rafael Devers to fly out before Keibert ripped his 4th hit of the game, a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd. And then up stepped Bohm, and his bomb gave the Rays an 8-7 win. Lacy picked up his 2nd win despite his struggles, while Lynch's ugly 7th gave him a 6.1 10 6 6 2 4 line. The two teams combined for 30 hits but the Rays at least got the win and got through it using only 2 pitchers. There was some bad news, though: Brandon Marsh re-injured his shoulder diving for a fly ball and now will miss another 6 weeks. Hunter Bishop will now get his second act (he was tearing the cover off the ball at Durham since going down: 384/430/576). Game 3: Turnabout is fair play, and the nightcap found Oakland coming back in the 9th to get a shock win. Shane McClanahan was excellent in his spot start, going 7 3 1 1 3 4 and after Mitch Keller pitched a scoreless 8th, the Rays added what appeared to be an insurance run in the bottom of the inning to go to the 9th up 3-1 and looking for the doubleheader sweep. But with the usual suspects in the pen all tired it was either a 2nd inning from Keller or a save attempt for Scott Barlow, and I went with the former which of course in hindsight was a mistake. Keller walked the leadoff man, gave up a single, and then gave up a 2-run triple to Tyler Nevin, who had earlier accounted for the sole Oakland run off Mac with a 2nd inning HR. Nevin then scored on a sac fly from Daniel Johnson, and although the Rays got 2 on with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th against Miguel Romero, Rafael Devers fouled out to third to short-circuit hopes of a 2nd miracle on the day. The loss makes the Rays 2-4 on this homestand so far. June 16: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, recalled P Ian Hamilton from AAA Durham. Game 4: Another tough, late loss for the Rays as they fall to Oakland 6-3 in 10 innings. The bullpen let them down again as they grabbed a 3-2 lead in the 7th. Jasseel De La Cruz came on in the 8th with the idea of going 2 innings since there's an off-day tomorrow but it was the second batter he faced in the eighth, Ramon Laureano, who did him in with a HR to very deep LCF. After the Rays missed a chance to win it in the bottom of the 9th, Jose Alvarado started the 10th and how it played out was frustrating as he struck out the leadoff man but he reached on a wild pitch, and then the next batter got an infield single. Sheldon Neuse then singled to make it 4-3, and Mark Payton added a two-run double with two out, and although the Rays got the first two runners on in the bottom of the inning, Keibert Ruiz hit into a double play and that was that. Dustin May got the start and pitched pretty well, going 6 6 2 2 0 5 on 98 pitches but the offense was again beguiled by a soft-tossing lefty, today in the person of Jose Quintana. But they finally broke through for 3 in the 7th when Keston Hiura led off with a double, Spencer Torkelson singled him home, Nick Schnell then doubled sending Tork to 3rd, a wild pitch scored Tork and then Wander doubled home Schnell. But the lead was extremely short-lived and the Rays end up dropping 5 of 7 on this brief homestand. Also, Ian Hamilton had to come out after the first batter he faced in the 7th and he has a herniated disc which will keep him out 3 weeks, so hello again Sandy Gaston. Taking over for him was Scott Barlow, making his season debut and he actually looked good, whiffing 2 of the 3 batters he retired in order. Probably should have used him to close Game 2 yesterday. Baltimore, now in 2nd place, has crept to within 8 1/2 games. Team record: 42-24. Next Up: An off-day, followed by 2 games in Toronto. Last edited by Art Deco; 08-23-2020 at 07:58 PM.