The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

That went well.



The song blaring from the Tampa Bay locker room was The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" (oh who am I kidding, there's no way twenty-somethings in 2030 would be listening to The Who, but it should be) as rookie Caleb Picciotti hit a big 2-run homer in the 2nd in his first MLB postseason at-bat and fellow rookie Victor de Jesus blasted two more and drove in 4 as the Rays demolished Oakland 14-0 in Game 1 of their ALDS. Any concerns about run-scoring with all the key injuries were put to rest at least for one night as the Rays blasted 6 homers in the rout. Isaac DeLeon got it started in the 2nd with a solo shot before Picciotti's and hit another one later, and Joe Barker added a 2-run homer in the 4th as the fans with outfield seats at Publix Park came away with plenty of souvenirs. And they came exclusively from Rays' bats thanks to Christian Little, who shook off a couple of bad starts to end the regular season by returning to vintage form with a 6 3 0 0 1 9 performance. Mike Mooney and Corbin Martin completed the shutout as we now look to Game 2 tomorrow with Alec Sachais on the bump.

In the other ALDS:



Is it going to be Rays-Rangers III in the ALCS? That's where the arrow is pointing after today's games as Texas rode a dominant performance from Victor Presas (6.1 4 1 1 2 11) and a 4th-inning grand slam from rookie Danny Kovacs off Kumar Rocker to take Game 1.

[Art Deco]

Different day, same result:



Joe Barker got the headlines today for his 2 homers, but the big hit of the game once again came from rookie Caleb Picciotti who erased an early 1-0 Oakland lead with a 3-run HR into the RF bullpen in the bottom of the 2nd to put the Rays up 3-1 and kick-start a 7-run 2nd inning on the way to a 9-3 win and 2-0 series lead. They're calling him "Playoff Picciotti" in the Tampa Bay area now and my research is unclear but it's possible he's the first rookie to homer in his first *two* postseason games. Nate Clark's 2-run homer capped off that 7th inning before Barker added his pair. Alec Sachais had a rough start, allowing the first 3 men to reach with the third being former Ray Jhon Diaz, whose single made it 1-0 Oakland. But Sachais got out of that jam and cruised until the 6th when he allowed a run and then gave up a leadoff double in the 7th before being relieved by Andy Aparicio. AA let that runner score but shut down the A's the rest of the way to get the save as the Rays take a 2-0 lead into Oakland and will look to wrap it up behind Jon Hayes in two nights.

The other DS games today:



Now it really looks like Rays-Rangers III after the Rangers pounded Detroit once again. Former Rays led the way as Wander Franco was 4-6 with 3 RBI and Carlos Perez went 3-5 with 2 RBI. Over in the NL, big road wins for San Diego, staying hot behind their ace Kohl Franklin after winning a tiebreaker game and the Wild Card game, and the Columbus Lightning took their first step toward revenge for last year's elimination at the hands of the Dodgers with a 4-hit, 2-RBI game from CF Trent Deveaux and a solid 7-inning outing from their ace Delvis Alegre.

Another well-deserved award for a Rays farmhand:

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We're all even after great pitching performances from Jack Flaherty and Kyle Whitten:



Before he became "Playoff Picciotti" he tore up the IL this season, and gets his due here:



MLB News: Tyler Glasnow's age and injury-related decline has been well-documented here and today he was released by the Red Sox, who will eat the $30M left on his contract.

[Art Deco]

A-sweepin' we will go:



A strong outing from a starting pitcher who ended the season poorly and homers from Joe Barker and Victor de Jesus. Game 1? No, Game 3 as the Rays swept the A's with a 4-0 win in Oakland. Jon Hayes was outstanding, even if he did battle baserunners constantly (he had only one 1-2-3 inning) over his 7 innings. Jose Alvarado was surprisingly off tonight, giving up a same-handed homer (and only the 3rd of any kind this year) to Rowdy Tellez and putting two more men on to bring the tying run to the plate before getting out of it in the 8th. But JDLC, despite an infield hit allowed, got through the 9th and picked up his 20th postseason Rays save as he and Alvarado look to get their 6th World Series rings this year. The offense wasn't scoring at will tonight as they did in the first two games, but the usual suspects came through. After threatening in the 1st (bases loaded with 2 out) and the 3rd (1st and 2nd with 2 out), they finally broke through in the 5th when Dayle Jenkins and Connor Kirkley singled to start the inning. After Nate Clark forced Kirkley at 1st, Barker stepped up and hit a 3-run homer to left, his 4th of the series, and a couple of batters later de Jesus went deep for his 3rd. Barker was unsurprisingly named series MVP. So now it's time to face the........

.....Texas Rangers for the third straight year in the ALCS:



The series itself wasn't suspenseful but tonight's Game 3 was as the Rangers scored twice in the 8th on a 2-run homer from that man, Series MVP Wander Franco, to tie the game and spoil a great outing from Detroit starter John Rizzo (7 3 1 1 1 7). The homer came off Detroit's excellent rookie closer Eddie Pelton, and sent the game to extras where a Dylan Carlson walk-off single in the 13th won the game and the series for Texas.

[Art Deco]

Rays move: Optioned C Luis Corpus to AAA Durham and removed him from the playoff roster, activated SS Ricky Widmar from the 10-day IL.

Corpus got a little taste of playoff baseball, even if it all came from the bench and the bullpen. Widmar isn't quite ready to come back yet, he has 4 days remaining on the injury, but at least we'll get him back into action in this round.



Big Game 3 wins for Columbus and St. Louis. Adam Hill was excellent for the Lightning as you can see above and Andrew Benintendi's 2-run 8th inning HR was the difference (he also drove in their first run) as Columbus looks to close it out tomorrow. Meanwhile in San Diego Josh Stowers' 2-run HR in the 2nd turned out to be all St. Louis would need in their 5-1 win as 5 Cardinal pitchers combined to allow only run.

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The National League will crown a new champion as the defending pennant-winning Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Columbus Lightning, who win their first playoff series since the move from Miami and the franchise's first since 2003 when they won the World Series as the Marlins. Trent Deveaux came up big again with a 2-run homer to tie the game in the 5th before Cristhian Rodriguez provided the winning run with an RBI single later in the inning. Meanwhile the Padres have forced a deciding Game 5 thanks to great pitching from Kolby Allard and an unfortunate turn of events for the Cardinals. Their starter Yordy Richard, who was 17-2, 2.49 this year, had to leave in the 6th with a sore shoulder, and San Diego immediately capitalized on his absence by scoring three times against reliever Seth Elledge.

[Art Deco]

It was a tight, tense affair in St. Louis but San Diego prevailed 2-1 to take their NLDS from the Cardinals and move on to face the Columbus Lightning in the NLCS. 30-year-old rookie Joerlin De Los Santos (named Series MVP) figured in both the runs, doubling and scoring on a Mario Martez single in the 3rd, and in the 4th after a pair of Cardinal errors put two on base (including a Brandon Marsh dropped fly ball), his infield hit scored what proved to be the winning run. The Padre bullpen was great, going the final 3 2/3 innings with only one hit and no walks allowed.

[Art Deco]

Holy comebacks, Batman!



The Rays were dead and buried and Game 1, and rose from the grave in what for the Texas Rangers was a familiar horror movie after losing the ALCS to them the previous two seasons. In a battle of aces, Victor Presas had outdueled Christian Little and the Rangers had a comfortable 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the 9th before it all went wrong for them. It started off with Adley Rustchman of all people. The trade deadline flop had already drawn the ire of the Rays faithful at Publix Park for failing to come through twice earlier in the game, once in the first with two on and two out and again in the third with the bases loaded and two out. So there were a few boos mixed in when he led off the 9th, but with the Rangers in the lefty shift, he beat out a grounder hit into shallow right and knocked down by Rangers 2B Nico Hoerner. Victor deJesus doubled to send Rustchman to 3rd and Isaac DeLeon made it 4-2 with a sac fly. Playoff Picciotti beat out an infield single to put men on 1st and 2nd, and Dane Ayers (who drove in their first run in the 4th with a single) singled to score de Jesus and make it 4-3 as Picciotti took third. Dayle Jenkins' sac fly scored Picciotti to tie it, and after Connor Kirkley worked a walk to send Ayers to second, Nate Clark singled to left to score Ayers and the walk-off win was complete. This all came against Texas closer Jim Connors in his second inning of work as the OOTP AI likes to bring in closers in the 8th during the postseason (as many real-life managers do) but it backfired today. This wasted a fine 6 4 1 1 2 8 effort from Presas while Little was hit for 2 runs in the 4th with the key hit being a Carlos Perez (naturally) double. Keston Hiura took him deep in the 6th when I left Little in one batter too long, and after Andy Aparicio whisked through the 7th and 8th with 5 Ks, it looked really bad when Wander Franco doubled in a run off Corbin Martin with two out in the 9th to make it 4-1 Texas, but all it did was make the comeback even more dramatic. Alec Sachais will look to put them up 2-0 tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

So we're tied



It was a wild, back-and-forth game but Texas's outstanding lineup of hitters proved too much for the Rays in the end tonight. Alec Sachais started and was looking great through 5 innings, allowing the Rangers only one hit on an Adrian Ramos homer in the 4th after he had retired the first 10 batters. And when Dane Ayers blasted a 2-run homer and Nate Clark singled in another in the 5th to put the Rays up 3-1, it looked like the Rays were ready to roll to a 2-0 series lead. But it was Texas with the comeback today as suddenly Sachais couldn't get anyone out in the sixth, allowing three runs on four hits to put the Rangers back on top. And after Jordan Diaz got out of that jam and pitched through the 7th, former Ranger Brad Ballmann was terrible (although a Joe Barker error didn't help) and Jack Leiter looked a bit rusty in relief and when the dust settled Texas had four more runs to go up 8-3. The game marked the return of Ricky Widmar (who DH'd today) and he came back with a single to lead off the game but had his biggest hit with a bases-clearing double in the 8th that sparked thoughts of another miracle comeback, making it 8-6. But the Rays could do no more despite putting two men on in the 9th when Adley Rustchman struck out and came up empty in yet another clutch situation. He went 0-5 today and left a team-high 6 men on base and frankly it's getting kind of ridiculous. The loss ended an 11-game postseason winning streak for the Rays, with the last loss coming in Game 3 of last year's ALCS against the Rangers. They had also been 23-3 in their last 26 postseason games going back to 2028.

The NLCS got underway:

[Art Deco]

Victor Mesa Jr homered again, today with a big 3-run shot in the 3rd to put Columbus ahead, and the Lightning behind 6 strong innings from Justin Koehler didn't look back as they take a 2-0 lead over San Diego.

[Art Deco]

Back on top...



The Rays re-established supremacy in this series thanks to great hitting from their two hottest hitters in Joe Barker and Connor Kirkley and a big in-game turnaround from Jon Hayes on the mound in a 7-3 Game 3 win. Hayes didn't look like he'd be long for the game when the Rangers rapped out 3 straight hits and a sac fly to score twice in the 3rd on the heels of a 3-hit, one-run inning in the 2nd. But after the Rays re-took the lead in the top of the 4th Hayes gave Texas nothing the rest of the way, going 5 1/3 innings without allowing a hit until an 8th-inning Wander Franco single ended his night. That 4th inning comeback with the Rays trailing 3-1 started with Barker, who clubbed his 5th HR of the season to lead off the inning. And after Victor de Jesus singled, we tried a hit-and-run with Adley Rutschman to get him out of his slump and he responded with a single to send de Jesus to 3rd. Isaac DeLeon then singled in de Jesus, Connor Kirkley doubled in Rutschman to give them the lead and Dane Ayers' sac fly brought home DeLeon to make it 5-3 Rays. Rutschman then added an RBI double in the 5th and Kirkley, now 7-8 over the last two games, blasted his first homer of the postseason to make it 7-3. Jordan Diaz took over for Hayes in the 8th and got the final five outs without incident. The Rays will look to take a commanding 3-1 lead tomorrow as Marc Wagner makes his Rays postseason debut.

[Art Deco]

All tied up.



Marc Wagner fell victim to his inability to keep the ball in the park, and a questionable call by the third base coach combined to doom the Rays to a 5-4 loss and allow Texas to even their best-of-7 ALCS at 2 games apiece. The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead on RBI doubles from Nate Clark in the 1st and Dayle Jenkins in the 3rd, but Wagner started giving up the longball, with 2-run homers to Nico Hoerner in the 3rd and Keston Hiura in the 4th, and a solo shot to Adrian Ramos in the 5th to make it 5-2. Jack Leiter pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief to keep the Rays in the game and they nearly repeated their feat in Game 1 when Jim Connors did not do well in his second inning of relief. They loaded the bases with nobody out, Clark hit a 2-run double to make it 5-4, but then Joe Barker's fly ball seemed deep enough to tie the game but Bobby Owens made an incredible throw to nail Dayle Jenkins at the plate, and Victor de Jesus grounded out to end the game. Was there another situation where Adley Rustchman could have come up big but didn't? You betcha. With one out in the 6th the Rays had two men on but Rutschman struck out as part of an 0-4 game. Now it's a best-of-3 series with Christian Little against Victor Presas in a Game 1 rematch tomorrow.

It's not a best-of-3 series in the NLCS, where the Columbus Lightning are now one game from the sweep:



Adam Hill was brilliant again, and Trent Deveaux continued his big postseason with a homer to put the Bolts on the cusp of their first World Series in Columbus.

[Art Deco]

Advantage, Rays.



Tampa Bay is on the brink of their seventh World Series trip in eight years thanks to a 5-1 win over Texas to take a 3-2 lead in the ALCS. After a slightly rough beginning, Christian Little turned in a great start and the offense came alive in the middle innings to propel the Rays to victory. Wander Franco led the game off with a single against Little, stole second, went to third on a grounder and scored on another one, and then Little gave up a double to Bobby Owens. But Nate Clark made a diving catch on Edgar Medina's liner to end the inning, and Little gave them nothing from there, finishing 6 3 1 1 0 6 on 95 pitches. Meanwhile Texas ace Victor Presas was mowing the Rays down, retiring the first 10 before Dayle Jenkins started a rally with a double, and Nate Clark and Victor de Jesus had RBI singles to give the Rays the lead. They expanded that lead in the 6th thanks to none other than Adley Rutschman, who earlier had a hit to keep the 4th inning rally alive and now came through with an RBI single in the 6th. We've had a few false dawns with him before so nobody's getting too excited, but it's good to see nonetheless. A second run scored on a wild pitch and Joe Barker added an RBI single in the 7th after Jenkins hit his second double of the game. Andy Aparicio came on in the 7th and threw two perfect innings. Usually I'd let him finish in these situations but with a day off tomorrow I figured taking him out would mean he'd be available for Game 6. So Jordan Diaz came on and got a 1-2-3 inning of his own to complete the team 3-hitter. Alec Sachais will look to clinch us the pennant in 48 hours' time.

Meanwhile, cue the Bee Gees as the Padres are stayin' alive:



Connor Walsh had a big game with a 2-RBI single in the 1st to erase a 2-run Columbus lead from the top of the inning and an RBI double in a 3-run third that put the Padres in front to stay, with Pavin Smith homering with Walsh aboard for the other two runs in that inning. Kolby Allard pitched well after that rough first inning to pick up the win.

[Art Deco]

The Padres ain't dead yet:



A stirring 2-1 win kept the San Diego Padres alive against the Columbus Lightning in the NLCS, forcing the series back to Ohio and putting the pressure on the Bolts. Luis Campusano's 2-run HR off Lightning ace Delvis Alegre was the difference as veteran Ryan Weathers pitched one of the best games of his career going 7 4 1 1 1 10. Adrian Mendez went two perfect innings with 5 whiffs to get the save as regular close Alexander Beltre needed some rest.

[Art Deco]

Series-bound again!



The Rays are going to their seventh world series in eight years thanks to a come-from-behind 3-2 walk-off win over Texas to take the ALCS in 6 games. Connor Kirkley doubled in Adley Rutschman to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 9th and send Publix Park into delirium. Kirkley was named Series MVP, the second straight year he's taken the ALCS honor. The win marked the third time the Rays have advanced to the World Series on a walk-off ALCS win: Alec Bohm's 9th-inning homer won Game 6 in 2023 over the Angels, and Wander Franco's RBI single in the bottom of the 9th won Game 7 against the Tigers in 2024. It was a great pitchers' duel between Alec Sachais and Texas's Wil Diaz, with thorn-in-our-side Keston Hiura once again homering off Sachais, a 2-run shot in the 2nd which gave the Rangers an early lead. It held up until the 6th when the Rays finally got to Diaz. Dane Ayers led off with a single and with one out Dayle Jenkins singled, sending Ayers to third. Nate Clark's sac fly scored Ayers, a Carlos Perez passed ball advanced Jenkins to 2nd, Joe Barker singled him to 3rd, and then Victor de Jesus legged out an infield single to score Jenkins and tie the game. Rustchman grounded out to end the threat. Sachais left after 6 innings, and it turns out he has shoulder inflammation and will miss the World Series, so Jack Leiter should be back in the rotation. Jordan Diaz had a scoreless 7th, and then Andy Aparicio came on in the 8th and had a little trouble, giving up a pair of hits but getting Adrian Ramos to ground into a double play to end the inning, and he got through the 9th. This set the Rays up once again against the unfortunate Jim Connors, who blew Game 1 and nearly blew Game 4. The much-maligned Rutschman singled to lead off the inning, went to second on an Isaac DeLeon grounder, and then scored on Kirkley's double to end the game and the series. So it will either be a third World Series against the Padres after starting this run by beating them in 2023 and again in 2028, or a first-time matchup with the Columbus Lightning, their former Florida rivals from Miami.

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Bolts!



Like the Rays, the Columbus Lightning advance to the World Series on a walk-off hit. Their hero was Yordys Valdes, whose RBI double scored Trent Deveaux who had walked and stole second to lead off the inning. And if you want some real spooky irony (cue the Twilight Zone music), Valdes used to be a Rays property, whom we traded to San Francisco after the 2024 season for....Connor Kirkley, the guy who put the Rays in the World Series this year on a walk-off RBI double. Valdes is an elite 80-rated defensive shortstop whom the Lightning ended up claiming on waivers but he's hit enough to be valuable for them.

Rays transaction: Placed P Alec Sachais on the Playoff IL with shoulder inflammation, added P Jon Whiteleather to the playoff roster.

It looks like we'll able to go Little-Hayes-Leiter-Wagner as the rotation. If you see Whiteleather in a game, it means we're either up 8-10 runs or down 8-10 runs or we've gone deep into extra innings.

[Art Deco]

This is really getting kind of silly, as the Rays erase a multiple-run deficit yet again in the late innings for a walk-off win. I guess the moral is that you better have a really good closer if he's going to get through 2 innings against the Rays' bats, because otherwise it'll be like it was for Jim Connors and Texas and like it was tonight for the Lightning and former Ray Jack Filby. Columbus took a 7-4 lead into the 8th, and Joe Barker, who had earlier hit a 3-run HR in the 1st off Delvis Alegre, his 6th of the postseason, hit #7 leading off the 8th against Filby. And that's 7 in only 10 postseason games. Filby got the next 3 in the 8th and the leadoff man in the 9th, but the Rays lineup caught up with him when Dane Ayers walked and was doubled to third by Ricky Widmar before Dayle Jenkins singled them both home to tie it up, Nate Clark walked, and then Barker stepped up again and came through with a single to score Jenkins and let the Rays walk it off for the third time in this year's postseason. Of course it was kind of wild how we got there; after Barker put the Rays up 3-0 with that 1st inning homer, Columbus stormed right back against Christian Little for 4 runs, capped by a 3-run homer from their walk-off hero and another former Ray Yordys Valdes, not really known for his power having hit 6 homers in 511 AB this season. Caleb Picciotti tripled in the bottom of the 2nd and scored on an Ayers groundout to tie it up, and that's where we stayed until the usually reliable Rays pen was anything but that tonight. Andy Aparicio gave up a 7th inning homer to Trent Deveaux, having a big postseason for Columbus, and then after putting a man on in the 8th, Evan Godwin relieved him and gave up a 2-run homer to Aaron Nixon to make it 7-4 Columbus. Corbin Martin came on and loaded the bases before getting out of it, and got the first out of the 9th before Mike Mooney got the final two and ended up with the win. Contrary to the recap accompanying the box score above, Jon Hayes will start Game 2 tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

The old joke about the NBA was that there was no need to watch a game until the final couple of minutes since it would be 100-100 or something like that. Well maybe there's no need to watch a Rays game until the 9th inning because they improbably pulled off another improbable walk-off win for the second straight day to take a 2-0 World Series lead. Victor de Jesus' 2-run homer capped a 3-run 9th inning rally to turn a 2-1 loss into a 4-2 win. Once again poor Jack Filby was the victim. Again after getting through the 8th, the 9th was a different story even if he did retire the leadoff man Dayle Jenkins. But Nate Clark went deep into the RF bullpen with his 2nd homer of the postseason to tie the game, Joe Barker singled up the middle, and after de Jesus took a couple of pitches to see if Barker could steal 2nd (he never got a good-enough jump), the Rays rookie RF clubbed a 3-2 Filby offering into almost the same spot as Clark's blast to set off another mob scene. de Jesus has had a big postseason, hitting .318 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in the team's 11 games to date. The comeback wasted a great effort from Adam Hill against the tough Rays lineup as all he allowed was a run in the 6th on back-to-back doubles from Ricky Widmar and Jenkins. But he didn't have much run support thanks to Jon Hayes, who held Columbus to a pair of solo homers from Cristhian Rodriguez and Auggie Ziegler and was quite good overall. Jose Alvarado, who has hardly been used this preseason due to a lack of slender late-inning leads, got Hayes out of a mini-jam in the 8th with a couple of outs but got into his own jam putting men on 1st and 3rd with one out in the 9th before Jordan Diaz got two big strikeouts to keep it at 2-1 and pick up the win. Jack Leiter will get his first start of the postseason in two days in Columbus as the Rays seek to take an overwhelming 3-0 series lead.

[Art Deco]

No need for a miracle comeback today as the Rays jumped out to an early lead, lost it, regained it and never looked back in an 8-4 win over Columbus to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the 2030 World Series. Victor de Jesus is making his bid to be series MVP, and his first-inning, 2-run homer on the heels of Game 2's winner gave the Rays a 3-0 lead after Dayle Jenkins' RBI double. But Jack Leiter, starting in place of the injured Alec Sachais, was not good at all today and coughed up that lead by the 2nd inning. Ricky Widmar's 2-out, 2-run single in the 4th restored the lead which this time they wouldn't relinquish, but Leiter got hit again for another run in the 4th and was pulled for Brad Ballmann, who went 1 1/3 scoreless to become the third Rays reliever with a win this series. de Jesus had an RBI double to make it 6-4 in the 5th, and then they added two more runs in the 7th on an Adley Rustchman sac fly and a Connor Kirkley triple to put the game away. Andy Aparicio had two perfect innings and Jasseel De La Cruz saw only his second action of the entire playoffs by finishing out the final two frames. Marc Wagner, who had a rough start in Texas during the ALCS, will look to rebound and help the Rays sweep tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

So we'll be staying in Columbus for another day as it was the Lightning's turn to walk one off and stay alive in the series with a 5-4 win. For the second straight day the Rays handed their starter an early 3-0 lead which he blew, but the difference today is that the Rays only scored one more run the rest of the game. Nate Clark's 2-run homer in the 1st and Ricky Widmar's RBI double staked Marc Wagner to the advantage, but once again he was terrible primarily due to the home run ball where he gave up 3 more, the first two to erase the lead and the third by Victor Mesa Jr. making it 4-3 Columbus. The Rays fought back to tie it on Joe Barker's sac fly in the 7th but this time Jack Filby got the job done for Columbus, pitching two perfect innings against them in the 8th and 9th. And it probably wasn't wise to try to have JDLC pitch a second inning for the second straight day as after he got Columbus 1-2-3 in the 9th he gave up a leadoff double to pinch-hitter Stuart Fairchild. Trent Deveaux (who homered yet again earlier) was intentionally walked and Evan Godwin came in, but they couldn't turn the double play on Yordys Valdes' grounder, so instead of 2 out and a man on 3rd it was 1 out with men on 1st and 3rd and Mesa's fly ball brought home the winning run instead of being the third out of the inning. So it'll be a Game 1 rematch tomorrow with Christian Little going for the Rays and Columbus ace Delvis Alegre, who pitched very well in Game 1, tasked with keeping the Lightning alive.