The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays - Page 11

Art Deco · 09-01-2020, 09:40 AM

Game 1: Well it wasn't another 15-2 rout at Rogers Centre. In fact it was 2-2 going into the 9th, but the Rays pulled out a 4-2 win to extend their winning streak to 8 games. The difference this time was that the Jays threw a lefty (Matthew Boyd) at the Rays and he kept them largely in check, allowing only an Alec Bohm RBI single in the 2nd and Nick Schnell's 13th HR (2-3 with a walk today, breaking out of his schlump) through 8 innings. Meanwhile Walker Buehler turned in 7 fine innings, going 7 5 2 2 1 9, allowing 2 runs in the 6th with a Vlad Jr RBI double the key hit there. This set us up for the 9th, when Keibert Ruiz reached on an error by Jays 1B Ryan Noda and Keston Hiura delivered an RBI triple off Nate Pearson to give the Rays the lead, and then Hiura scored on a Pearson wild pitch. With 3 of the first 4 batters lefties for Toronto in the 9th, Jose Alvarado got the call for the save and nailed it with a 1-2-3 inning for his 3rd of the season. Mitch Keller had pitched the 8th and picked up his 3rd win. One scare, though: Wander Franco had to leave the game in the 3rd inning and with the only other middle infielder being Hiura we had to give up the DH so Keston could play 2nd with Brujan sliding over to SS. Wander's injury is only a 4-day knee contusion so no biggie there but Buehler got to bat once and grounded out.

Game 2: Things went back to normal for the Rays at Rogers Centre today as they clubbed the Jays 13-5. Most of the damage was done at the top of the order where Vidal Brujan was 4-6 with 3 doubles and 2 RBI, and Keston Hiura was 4-5 with a HR and 3 RBI. Austin Meadows drove in 3, Rafael Devers was 3-5 with a pair of RBIs and everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. But it didn't start off easy. Although the Rays scored a run in the top of the first, Matt Manning was greeted rudely by Toronto as the first four batters reached and scored, with a 2-run double by Vlad Jr followed by a 2-run HR from Willie Calhoun. But Manning settled down from there and gave the Jays nothing the rest of the way, going 7 7 4 4 2 6 and ending his evening with a whiff of Vlad Jr. Meanwhile the offense turned a 4-2 deficit to a 7-4 lead in the top of the fourth and added four more in the 7th to cap the scoring. DL Hall (a run allowed on 2 hits and a walk) and Sandy Gaston (a scoreless inning but somehow without a strikeout) finished up as the Rays made it 9 straight wins.

Game 3: Daniel Lynch couldn't keep the ball in the park, and thanks to 4 Toronto HRs the Rays' 9-game winning streak was snapped as the Blue Jays beat them for only the second time in 13 tries this year, 7-4. Cavan Biggio's 2nd HR of the game in the 6th, a 2-run shot, broke a 4-4 tie and the Rays couldn't come back against Simeon Woods Richardson (who went a respectable 7 8 4 4 0 7 to get the win), Keith Ginkel and Nate Pearson. It looked like more of the same in the first inning when Vidal Brujan singled, Keston Hiura tripled, and Austin Meadows hit #27 to make it 3-0 before Richardson could record an out, and Keibert Ruiz singled in Meadows who had doubled in the 4th to make it 4-1. But the HR barrage off Lynch came, Alejandro Kirk and Randal Grichuk went back-to-back after Biggio had homered in the 2nd, and he ended up a rare non-quality start going 6 10 6 6 1 4. Mitchell Verburg gave up another run in the 8th to make it 7-4.

Game 4: The Blue Jays salvaged a split of the series with a walk-off 4-3 win against a makeshift Rays lineup. With Wander Franco on the last day of his injury and Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers both in need of a rest, the bench was emptied today and although like yesterday they jumped out to a first-inning lead, they couldn't hold it and couldn't do much more after that. Vidal Brujan was hit by a pitch and stole second leading off the game, and Keston Hiura singled him home, and Hiura after stealing second as well was singled home by Alec Bohm. Hiura and Bohm combined in the 3rd to make it 3-0 on a double and a sac fly, but that was all for the Rays offense. Meanwhile Asa Lacy had his ups and downs but made it through 7, going 7 9 3 3 1 4 and allowing a Randal Grichuk homer. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 8th, and Jose Alvarado got the first two lefties out in the 9th, but righty pinch-hitter Sheldon Neuse singled and Alvarado stayed in to pitch to the righty Grichuk which backfired when he sent a double into the LF corner to score Neuse and win the game. Other than Hiura's 3-5, 2-run, 1-RBI day and Bohm's 2 RBI, Seth Beer was on base all four times with a pair of singles and a pair of walks but fill-ins Triston Casas and Heston Kjerstad remained cold, both with 0-fers and seeing their BAs drop to .206 and .218 respectively.

Team record: 81-42. Next up: Back to the Trop to face Seattle for a 3-game weekend series.

Art Deco · 09-01-2020, 06:34 PM

Game 1: It was the Tyler Glasnow show at the Trop tonight as the righthander pitched the best game of his career, a 6-0 1-hit shutout of the Seattle Mariners in which he walked 2 and struck out 9. It was his second career shutout and complete game after last year's 6-hitter against Minnesota. The only hit he allowed was a 3rd inning double to JP Crawford, and he was never in any trouble. The offense came early with a couple of runs in the 2nd on a Nick Schnell RBI double and a Meibrys Viloria groundout. Schnell added an RBI groundout in the 4th to make it 3-0 and a solo HR in the 6th. The other runs came on a Rafael Devers RBI double in the 5th and Vidal Brujan's 5th HR of the year in the 7th. But Glasnow was the story with his 112-pitch masterpiece that takes him to 11-3, 3.33 for the year with 163 Ks in 135 1/3 innings.

Game 2: A pretty uninspiring performance tonight in a 6-1 loss. Walker Buehler was terrible, going 5 9 5 4 2 5 and very hittable again with the big blow a 3-run Daulton Varsho homer in the 4th to make it 4-1. The offense got some baserunners against Justus Sheffield thanks to 5 walks, but grounded into 4 (!) double plays, killing potential rally after potential rally. Their lone run came in the 1st on the typical Brujan single, stolen base, Wander infield single and Meadows sac fly. DL Hall pitched 3 scoreless innings with 2 walks and 5 Ks, and Mitchell Verburg was awful again, allowing 3 hits and a run in the 9th. He'll be heading down to Durham for Ian Hamilton as I've lost my patience with him.

August 25: Optioned P Mitchell Verburg to AAA Durham, activated P Ian Hamilton from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Verburg is probably back up on September 1 when we have roster expansion.

Game 3: For the longest time it looked like the Rays would waste an absolutely brilliant performance from Matt Manning but single runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th allowed them to pull out a 3-2 come-from-behind walk-off win over Seattle at the Trop. Manning went 7 3 2 1 0 11 with the damage against him a first inning HR from Mike Brosseau and an unearned run in the 3rd when a Brujan error led to a Brosseau sac fly. Nick Margevicius was giving the Rays the usual lefty fits until the 7th, when Brandon Marsh doubled home Alec Bohm. Will Smith pitched a perfect 9th against 3 lefties, and the Rays tied it in the 8th when Keibert Ruiz singled in Wander who had doubled. Jasseel De La Cruz pitched a perfect 9th inning with a whiff, and the wildness of Seattle closer Taylor Guilbeau enabled the Rays to pull it out. With one out Nick Schnell singled, went to second on a wild pitch, and then to third on a Marsh single. With Vidal Brujan at the plate, Guilbeau threw a second wild pitch to allow Schnell to score, and the Trop went crazy. De La Cruz picked up his first win of the season for his efforts, and the Rays ended up taking 5 of 6 from Seattle on the season.

Team record: 83-43. Next up: An off day, then the Blue Jays come to town for 3.

Art Deco · 09-02-2020, 08:46 AM

Game 1: The Rays came up just short in all phases of the game, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Blue Jays, who have suddenly won three straight against them after dropping 13 of the first 14 this season. The only offense came via the longball, on a pair of solo HRs by Wander (giving him 22) and #10 from Keibert Ruiz. They had some other baserunners, but hit into 2 double plays and had 2 runners thrown out attempting to steal by Toronto's Alejandro Kirk. Meanwhile Daniel Lynch gave up a 2-run shot in the first inning to Willie Calhoun, and then ran into some trouble in the 6th and Mitch Keller allowed one of his runners to score to tie the game. And then Keller served up a solo blast to dead center from Vlad Jr. in the 7th to provide the winning run. Will Smith had a 1-2-3 8th and Sandy Gaston likewise in the 9th but the offense couldn't get anything done against Simeon Woods Richardson and a couple of relievers.

Game 2: This game was effectively over in the first inning when the Rays jumped on Matt Wisler for 6 runs and cruised to an 8-3 win. Vidal Brujan led off the game for the Rays with a HBP and scored on a Wander Franco double, and then two batters later Rafael Devers hit a 3-run shot (#19) to make it 4-0. Seth Beer added a 2-run single later in the inning and it was plenty of run support for Asa Lacy. The lefthander was wild but unhittable over the first 5 innings, walking 3 but taking a no-hitter into the 6th. The pitches caught up to him that inning as a leadoff walk and 3 singles allowed a couple runs to score, and Ian Hamilton took over and got him out of the inning as Lacy finished 5.1 3 2 2 4 5 to go to 7-1. Hamilton had his own troubles in the 7th giving up a run but Will Smith took over and got 4 outs through the 8th and Sandy Gaston had a perfect 9th to finish it off. Nick Schnell added HR #15 in the 3rd and Brujan had an RBI single in the 8th to round out the scoring.

Game 3: The Rays closed out the season series with Toronto with a 6-1 win to go 15-4 against the Jays this year. Keston Hiura was the offensive star today as his triple in the second scored Nick Schnell before he scored on a Vidal Brujan single, and in the 6th he blasted a 3-run HR (#9) to make a 2-1 game 5-1. Alec Bohm hit #23 for the 6th Rays run. On the mound Tyler Glasnow wasn't quite as brilliant as his last time out (a 1-hit shutout) but overcame some early wildness to go 6 4 1 1 3 8 and improve to 12-3, 3.25. DL Hall pitched the final 3 innings going 3 2 0 0 1 5 to pick up his first Rays save and lower his ERA with the team to 0.61 in 14 2/3 innings.

Team record: 85-44. Next up: a lengthy Midwest road trip starts with a 3-game weekend set in St. Louis.

Art Deco · 09-02-2020, 01:51 PM

Game 1: The Rays visited St. Louis for the first time in 3 years and found several ex-Rays waiting for them. Joey Gallo is the leftfielder, Brad Hand and Matthew Liberatore are in their bullpen and they'll face Noah Syndergaard on Sunday. But tonight was another problematic start for one of their relative newcomers, Walker Buehler. He's been consistenly inconsistent in terms of getting hit hard and tonight he gave up 5 runs on 6 hits (5 doubles) in 5 innings as the Rays lost 8-4. He got his usual strikeouts (6) and only walked one but so many times this season he's been too hittable and his Rays ERA is too high at 4.20. The 5 runs all came in the first 3 innings putting the team in a hole from which they could never recover. Wander's 3rd hit of the game, a double in the 6th, ignited a brief 2-run rally in which Austin Meadows doubled him home and scored on a Rafael Devers single, but Sandy Gaston gave up a 3-run HR to Paul DeJong in the 8th to make it 8-2. Keibert Ruiz's 2-run pinch-hit single in the 9th off Liberatore accounted for the other Rays runs. If this is a possible World Series matchup we might not want to have Buehler pitch Game 1 here.

August 31: Sent OF Spencer Torkelson to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

It'll be good to get Tork back, both for his power and his right-handed bat. He'll get a week at least to get at-bats and shake the rust off, and when he comes back expect Heston Kjerstad to go back down. The idea right now for September expansion is to bring up Shane McClanahan and put him back in the rotation pending Dustin May's return, which is still the better part of 2 weeks away and he'll need a rehab start or two in Durham (thankfully they'll be in the playoffs come mid-September). The other expansion spot will probably go to Mitchell Verburg.

Game 2: Today's game featured an A+ pitching matchup of Matt Manning vs Jack Flaherty, and it lived up to billing, including both pitchers driving in runs off the other. The game itself was one of the best and most well-played of the year as these two World Series contenders battled tooth and nail until the Rays broke through in the top of 11th and pulled out a 3-2 win. The game was scoreless until the 5th when Nick Schnell doubled and with two out, Manning picked up his first career extra-base hit, doubling down the LF line to score Schnell. But perhaps the baserunning tired him out a bit as St. Louis scored 2 off him in the bottom of the frame, including an RBI single poked to right by Flaherty. Schnell was involved again when the Rays tied it in the 7th. He singled, went to second on a groundout, and scored on Vidal Brujan's single with two out. So on and on we went. Manning left with a fine 6 6 2 2 1 8 line, Nick Anderson got the Rays through the 7th and Jose Alvarado did likewise in the 8th. In the bottom of the ninth with two lefties due up Will Smith got the call and not only pitched a perfect 9th but ended up getting the Cards 1-2-3 in the 10th as well. This set the stage for the game-winner as Brandon Marsh doubled and scored on another Brujan RBI single, off former Rays closer Brad Hand. Jasseel De La Cruz got St. Louis 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to nab save #24 while Smith grabbed his 2nd win. Brujan also stole his 50th base of the season earlier in the game.

September 1: Recalled Ps Shane McClanahan and Mitchell Verburg from AAA Durham.

The predicted roster expansion callups. McClanahan will start Monday in Kansas City and he's tentatively scheduled to face former Ray Drew Strotman.

Some news from the minors:

Davis was the guy Cleveland gave us for Jose Abreu, and he's turned into yet another OF that can play at the MLB level that we're going to have to do something with. Also in the monthly scouting update I received today he was upgraded to 65 power and 55 contact. Next year is the final year of Austin Meadows' contract and someone's going to need to play RF in 2026. So put him in the pile with Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad. And here you thought when we moved guys like Kirlloff and Larnach we cleared some of the glut.

As you may remember Tanner Witt was our #1 pick back in 2020 (that sounds funny right now IRL 2020) and he's slowly but steadily progressed one rung at a time. He's a legit 3B already rated at 55 defense there and of course Rafael Devers will probably decline his player option for next season so we'll need a long-term 3B (Triston Casas is Plan B right now). Witt won't be ready next year (and I may have to leave him unprotected for Rule 5 but he seems too raw and low-level for the AI to grab him) but 2026 isn't out of the question.

Game 3: Daniel Lynch had a day at the ballpark as the Rays took 2 of 3 from a tough Cardinals team with a 4-1 win. Lynch went 6 5 1 0 1 6 with the only run scoring in the first thanks to a pair of errors behind him. And like Matt Manning yesterday, Lynch came through at the plate as well with his 5th inning RBI single the game-winning hit. Lynch was matched up against last year's Rays ace, Noah Syndergaard, but Thor had to leave in the 5th with elbow inflammation and they took advantage of reliever Alvaro Seijas for that run and another in the 7th when Brandon Marsh singled in Nick Schnell, who had doubled. Wander added HR #23 off Hector Neris in the 8th inning to cap the scoring. Earlier, Wander had singled off Syndergaard in the 1st, stole second, and scored on an Austin Meadows double. The troika got them through the final 3 innings although Jose Alvarado had his struggles, loading the bases with a pair of walks and 2 out before Nick Anderson got Ian Happ to fly out. Anderson stayed on and pitched a perfect 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz did it again for save #25, throwing a perfect inning with a pair of whiffs. Lynch improves to 11-6, 3.39 and although the advanced metrics don't like him (1.0 WAR, 4.60 FIP) he keeps getting it done.

Team record: 87-45. Next up: 3 games in Kansas City where we get to see more old friends, such as Drew Strotman who's scheduled to start tomorrow night, Xavier Edwards, 2nd in the AL in batting at .328 and on pace for nearly a 6 WAR season (just in case anyone out there thinks I ripped off the AI for Spencer Torkelson), JJ Bleday, whom we traded away twice and is 278/323/523 with 17 HR and 61 RBI and last but not least Ronaldo Hernandez, who is doing a little better with the Royals since the trade, with 3 HR and 9 RBI in 57 AB (218/246/400) but still nothing like his 2022-23 production.

Art Deco · 09-02-2020, 08:49 PM

Game 1: The Rays treated Royals starter and former teammate Drew Strotman rudely but it didn't matter in the end as the "B" bullpen blew up in an 8-5 loss to Kansas City. Vidal Brujan led off the game with HR #6 and Nick Schnell hit a 2-run shot for #16 off Strotman in the 2nd as they got to him for 5 runs in 5 innings, but with Alvarado, Anderson and De La Cruz all tired from having pitched the last two days they were going to have to rely on other relievers and it didn't go too well. Shane McClanahan got the start and wasn't terribly sharp, going 5 6 3 3 3 3 but left with a 5-3 lead. Asa Lacy, whose spot in the rotation he took, did well getting through the 6th but gave up a HR to Bobby Witt Jr to lead off the 7th, then a triple to Kevin Smith who scored on a sac fly to tie it up. Mitch Keller relieved him and got out of the seventh but made a mess loading the bases with nobody out in the 8th and all 3 runners scored as Will Smith allowed the last of them on another Smith triple. Smith also homered off McClanahan in the 5th as he had quite the game. The other two Rays runs came on a Seth Beer RBI single and a double play groundout, but they only managed 1 hit in the final 4 innings against the Royals bullpen.

Game 2: Another loss for the Rays as their primary bullpen guys were tired for a second day after pitching two straight in St. Louis. They fought back from falling behind 4-0 after an unfortunately timed error and passed ball to come back and tie the game in the 7th, but Ian Hamilton came in and hit Bobby Witt Jr with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th to force in the winning run. Tyler Glasnow got the start and a Vidal Brujan error cost him a run in the 1st, then KC picked up 3 runs with 2 out when the leadoff man in the inning should have been retired on a strikeout but Keibert Ruiz's passed ball allowed him to reach. Glasnow ended up 7 6 4 1 2 10 as he largely pitched well but did let things snowball after the passed ball. A Brandon Marsh RBI single in the 5th got the Rays on the board and then an Austin Meadows RBI double and a Nick Schnell infield single made it 4-3 in the 6th, before Meadows singled in Wander, who had doubled in the 7th, to tie it. Will Smith got through the 8th, and then in the 9th he remained in having only thrown 10 pitches. After a 1-out single, he got Khalil Lee to ground out moving the runner up to 2nd, so Xavier Edwards was intentionally walked to create a force and bring up lefty JJ Bleday. Bleday managed an infield single to load the bases, and Hamilton came in to face Witt, and the HBP on his first pitch immediately ended things. Meadows, Wander and Schnell each had 3 hits on the night but it wasn't enough. Tonight's loss equaled the number they had last season when they went 115-47.

Game 3: A pitchers' duel between Walker Buehler and Daniel Tillo, and the Rays had the edge with a 2-1 victory. Nick Schnell hit HR #17 in the 3rd and Austin Meadows blasted #28 in the 4th for the two Rays runs while Buehler overcame a bit of a rough start to go 8 5 1 1 1 6. Buehler allowed all 5 hits in the first 3 innings, including 3 in the 3rd when the Royals managed their only run. From there on out the Rays usually had at least one man on each inning but couldn't push anyone across, making it a tense game until the very end. Jasseel De La Cruz once again whiffed a pair in a perfect ninth to nail down the save, his 26th. Schnell was 2-2 with a walk and a stolen base to go with the homer to pace the offense while Buehler now evens his Rays record at 7-7, 4.02.

Team record: 88-47. Next up: An off-day followed by a weekend in the Windy City against the White Sox for 3 games.

Art Deco · 09-03-2020, 10:47 AM

Game 1: Matt Manning made a couple of mistake pitches and paid for it today as the White Sox beat the Rays 7-4. After Brandon Marsh's solo HR in the top of the 3rd tied the game at 1, Manning allowed a couple of base hits in front of Eloy Jimenez and the power-hitting OF took him deep for HR #36 to make it 4-1. Later rookie Collin Montez hit his 21st to make it 5-1 and the Rays could never recover. They did scratch out 3 runs in the top of sixth to get within 5-4 thanks to an error and a couple of wild pitches around a Vidal Brujan RBI single (the third of his three hits), but Manning put the first two on in the 7th and DL Hall gave up a 2-out Jason Heyward single to score them both, leaving Manning with a 5.1 8 7 7 0 7 line. Hall stayed on to whiff 4 in 1 2/3 innings and Will Smith had a perfect 2K inning. The Rays could have had more runs but left 10 men on the base, just about all of them in the early innings, while the Sox maximized their offense, only leaving 2 on.

September 7: Actived OF Spencer Torkelson from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned OF Heston Kjerstad to AAA Durham.

Great to have Tork back. He ended up playing 7 games at Durham and although he started off slowly he hit 2 doubles and a HR last night so I think he's ready. I'll probably stick him in the lineup tonight at DH. Kjerstad had kind of rotted on the bench lately and will be back to help Durham go for a third straight International League championship and fourth straight finals appearance.

Side note: I let the AI sign minor league free agents and they signed Chris Sale the other day. Obviously he's a shell of his former self but I found it interesting.

Game 2: The Rays scored 5 runs in the first inning and never looked back as they blasted the White Sox 11-3. Nick Schnell stayed scorching hot with the big hit of the game, a two-out 3-run HR (#18) in the first inning off Williams Perez. Keibert Ruiz also homered (#11) and drove in two runs, Austin Meadows had an RBI triple and sac fly to bring his season RBI to 98, Wander had a pair of RBI doubles and Vidal Brujan scored 3 times to pace the offense. The only one not hitting was Spencer Torkelson, who had a rough return to the lineup going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. All this run support made a winner of Daniel Lynch, who wasn't dominating but once again met the bare definition of a quality start going 6 6 3 3 3 5 to improve to 12-6, 3.43. Mitchell Verburg, Ian Hamilton (against his old team) and Sandy Gaston each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game off. Baltimore lost so the Rays' magic # for clinching their third straight division title and fourth in five years is 12.

Game 3: Shane McClanahan was brilliant today as the Rays shut out the White Sox 5-0. The lefty had perhaps his best MLB start with a 7 5 0 0 1 8 performance, improving to 3-2, 2.95 in 10 starts. Austin Meadows supplied all the offense he would need with a first inning solo blast (#29) off Codi Heuer, and he scored in the 3rd when his double was followed by one from Rafael Devers. Spencer Torkelson added his own RBI double in the 8th to give the Rays a little breathing room, and then Triston Casas (#5) and Brandon Marsh (#6) went deep in the 9th to expand the lead. Nick Anderson came in at 3-0 and got his MLB-leading 26th hold with a scoreless inning, and Mitch Keller struck out the side around a walk and a hit in the 9th to complete the team shutout. An Orioles loss means the magic # is down to 10.

Team record: 90-48. Next up: Back home for 3 against the central-leading Minnesota Twins.

Art Deco · 09-03-2020, 05:23 PM

Game 1: There's no way to sugarcoat it, the Rays were absolutely clobbered by Minnesota 11-5 at the Trop. The Twins hit 7 doubles and 4 HRs among their 19 hits as Tyler Glasnow and 3 Rays relievers just didn't have it tonight. Glasnow went 3.2 10 6 6 1 5 and gave up runs in each of the four innings he pitched in, although the Rays managed to pull within 6-4 after 4 on a 2-run double from Brandon Marsh. But Travis Swaggerty hit the 2nd of his 2 homers, a 3-run shot off Asa Lacy in the 6th, making it 9-4 and effectively ending the game. Swaggerty also had 2 doubles while Glasnow gave up a very long HR to Andrew Benintendi and DL Hall served up a 3-run shot to JD Martinez in the 8th. To make matters worse, Hall tore an elbow ligament on the pitch, and will miss the rest of this season and all of 2025 as well. Lacy allowed 5 runs in his 2 innings, Mitchell Verburg didn't allow any runs of his own but gave up 3 hits to allow a couple of Lacy's to score. On offense, Vidal Brujan and Keston Hiura had RBI hits, and Keibert Ruiz hit #12 in the 8th for the 5th Rays run, but it was a terrible day at the Trop.

September 10: Placed P DL Hall on 60-day IL with a torn elbow ligament, recalled IF Greg Jones from AAA Durham.

As mentioned earlier, Hall is done for 2025 as well and hopefully he can regain his stuff after the surgery. Jones was our #1 pick in 2019 and steadily climbed the ladder until stalling out at Durham the last couple of years. He's a switch-hitter, has 75 base-stealing speed and can hit some (60 gap power and 55 eye, albeit with a lot of swing and miss) and he can play 2B, SS and CF passably so he can be a useful player.

Game 2: After being blown out by the Twins last night, the Rays returned the favor although tonight's game was much closer for much longer before the Rays broke it open to win 8-1. The first inning saw the prototypical Rays run when Vidal Brujan led off with a single, stole 2nd (#51) and scored on Austin Meadows' 100th RBI of the season, a single. Nick Schnell (3 more hits tonight, he's unconscious) and Seth Beer singled to lead off the 5th and Brujan singled home Schnell to make it 2-0 in the 5th. The Twins got a run back in the 6th off Walker Buehler when Miguel Andujar tripled and scored on Andrew Benintendi's single, but that was all Buehler gave up on the night as he actually strung together 2 dominant starts for the Rays, going 6 4 1 1 4 10 with 2 of those four walks leading off the 7th when he was pulled for Jose Alvarado, who quelled the budding Twins rally with 3 up, 3 down. And that set the stage for the bottom of the 7th when the Rays went to town on starter Jhoan Duran and (mainly) rookie reliever Jordan Wicks. Brandon Marsh led off with a walk and Wicks came on, proceeded to give up a double to Brujan to put men at 2nd and 3rd, and then the odd decision to intentionally walk Wander to load the bases for Meadows. It was to set up lefty against lefty with Meadows and Rafael Devers due up next, but Meadows singled to score Marsh and Devers walked forcing in Brujan. The Twins got a force at the plate from Keibert Ruiz, but Alec Bohm's sac fly scored Meadows to make it 5-1, Schnell doubled in two more off Franklin Dacosta (a long-ago farmhand I traded away), and Beer singled in Schnell and it was 8-1. Sandy Gaston pitched the final 2 innings, whiffing 4 to finish off the game. The magic # is down to 8.

Game 3: It was quite the pitchers' duel tonight as Zack Godley and Matt Manning were each unhittable for long stretches, but the Twins ended up prevailing 3-1 in 11 innings. Nick Gordon had an RBI single off Manning in the 2nd but that was all he gave up as he went 8 3 0 0 1 12 in one of his best performances of the season. But not to be undone was Godley, who retired the first 17 Rays he faced until Brandon Marsh's 2-out single in the 6th. Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 9th and it went 1-0 into the bottom of the ninth when singles by Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco put men on 1st and 3rd with nobody out, and Austin Meadows' sac fly scored Brujan to tie it. Edwin Diaz got the Rays from there, and after Jasseel De La Cruz escaped a jam of his own making with help from Marsh gunning down Miguel Andujar at the plate, we went to the 11th. Will Smith came in with lefties due up, and he allowed a pair of singles to two of them with one out. He whiffed Matt Olson to get the second out, but Andujar made up for being thrown out at the plate by lining a 2-run double that just eluded Meadows. Brujan reached to lead off the 11th for the Rays but was erased when Wander grounded into a DP; however Meadows walked and Rafael Devers doubled to put the tying runs in scoring position but Keibert Ruiz flied to center to end the game. The game obviously meant more to the Twins, who needed the win to stay 2 behind Detroit in the AL Central, while the Rays still reduced their magic # to 7 as the Orioles lost.

Team record: 91-50. Up next: an off-day followed by a weekend set in Beantown with the Red Sox.

It's been a while since I posted the standings, so here they are as we come down the stretch:

None of the divisions are in much doubt except the AL Central, and Baltimore, Minnesota and Seattle are fighting over two wild card spots. The Mets have an outside division shot in the NL but look more likely the wild card with Arizona fighting off the Miami Roughnecks for wild card #2.

Art Deco · 09-04-2020, 11:36 AM

Since they played Wednesday night and again on Thursday on our off-day, I'll give them a separate post for these first 2 games against Indianapolis in the first round, the team they beat for the title last season.

Game 1: The Rays' top pitching prospect, Mack Anglin, got the start and he was overpowering. Unfortunately he wasn't efficient and while he pitched well he only lasted 5 innings, going 5 4 1 1 4 8. He left with a 3-1 lead but unfortunately Luke Little and Dany Jimenez combined to allow 4 runs in the 7th and 8th and the Bulls dropped Game 1 of the best-of-5 series 5-3. The offense only managed 4 hits with the biggest of them being Bramdon Perez's 2-run single which temporarily put them in front.

Game 2: The Bulls got another dominant but relatively short performance from a starter but this time scored enough runs to support him as they evened the series with Indianapolis at 1 with a 6-2 win. Seth Johnson was excellent, no-hitting Indy through 5 innings before allowing a run in the sixth and leaving at 6 1 1 1 2 5 on 98 pitches. Bramdon Perez stayed hot with a 2-run HR to put them up 3-0 and Tyler Frank also drilled a 2-run shot and later added an RBI single to pace the offense. Garrett Mitchell got on in front of these guys several times and stole 4 bases, going 2-3 with 3 runs scored. Nick Frasso picked up the save after Grant Gambrell put the first 2 runners on in the 9th as we head back to Durham even. Dustin May gets a rehab start in Game 3.

Art Deco · 09-04-2020, 12:29 PM

Game 1: Wander Franco had himself a day, tying the Rays' single-game record for RBI in a game with 8, as the Rays shellacked the Sox 13-1 at Fenway. They jumped on Justin Dunn early as Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Rafael Devers single, then Keibert Ruiz singled in Devers who went to second on the throw home. Seth Beer took Dunn deep in the 2nd over the Monster with HR #8 to make it 4-0 and then Wander went to work. He had a 2-run double in the 4th, a grand slam (#24) in the 5th, and a 2-run single in 7th to tie Ben Zobrist's team single-game RBI record set in 2011. Coasting with all this run support was Daniel Lynch, who went the distance throwing only 98 pitches. Only a Xander Bogaerts RBI single in the 6th kept Lynch from throwing a Maddux, as he went 9 6 1 1 0 3 to improve to 13-6, 3.30. Greg Jones came on in the 7th for Brujan to make his MLB debut, and singled in his first big league at-bat. Also it turned out to be a milestone win for me, my 500th as Rays manager. Baltimore lost again (more significantly to them for their wild card chances) so the magic # drops to 5.

Game 2: Trailing 4-2 going into the 6th, the Rays turned it around with 7 runs between the 6th and 8th and won 9-5. Wander Franco remained hot, going 3-4 with 2 RBI and Shane McClanahan pitched about as well as you can while still giving up 5 earned runs to get the win. After Alec Bohm tripled and scored on a groundball and Wander drove in Keston Hiura to put the Rays up 2-0, McClanahan was the victim of some hit sequencing (as well as a passed ball) in the 3rd which allowed Boston to score 4 times on 4 hits, on a 2-run double from Ryan Mountcastle and a 2-run single from rookie Pierson Gibis. It stayed that way until the 6th, when the Rays busted out for 4 runs against starter Pablo Lopez. The Rays loaded the bases with 1 out and Lopez walked Spencer Torkelson to force in a run before Hiura (giving Vidal Brujan a day off) got the 3rd of his 3 hits on the day, a 2-run single to put the Rays up 5-4 and which Wander followed up with an RBI single. They added 3 more in the 8th on a 2-run single by Austin Meadows and a Keibert Ruiz RBI single. As mentioned, McClanahan was great outside that sequence in the 3rd and allowing a run to score on a wild pitch in the 7th; he ended up 7 6 5 5 0 6 to improve to 4-2. Mitch Keller pitched 2 scoreless innings to finish the game. Baltimore won so the magic # is 4.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls won the pivotal Game 3 by a score of 2-1 to go up 2-1 in their first-round series. Durham pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts and leading the parade was starter Dean Christidis (acquired from the White Sox in the Rylan Bannon deal) who went 6 3 0 0 3 10. Dany Jimenez struck out the side in the 7th, and after Luke Little allowed an Indianapolis run in the 8th, Nick Frasso shut the door in the 9th by also striking out the side around a base hit. The Bulls got both their runs in the 5th inning on back-to-back doubles from Yordys Valdes and Patrick Dorrian, and then Bramdon Davis picked up his 5th RBI of the series with a sac fly scoring Dorrian. I misspoke about Dustin May starting last time, he had one more injury day so he'll be the rehab starter in Game 4 as the Bulls look to close it out and advance to the finals.

September 15: Activated P Dustin May from the 15-day IL and sent him on a rehab assignment to AAA Durham.

As just mentioned, May will start tonight for Durham, and assuming they win the series they're up 2-1 in, he should get another rehab start in the International League finals. This would enable him to possibly start during the last 7-10 days of the season, but with how well Daniel Lynch has pitched lately, the lefty looks like the choice for #4 playoff starter over May, meaning May likely works out of the pen.

Game 3: The Rays annihilated Boston 20-0, completing a sweep which saw them score 42 runs in the 3 games (you'd think they were in Rogers Centre or something). And this was 20 runs with Austin Meadows, Alec Bohm and Keibert Ruiz all getting the day off. Ruiz's understudy, Mebrys Viloria, had a career day missing the cycle by a single as he doubled, tripled and hit his first Rays HR around the Pesky Pole to drive in 4 runs, the very warm Seth Beer had a mammoth 3-run blast to CF for #9, Triston Casas homered against his old team, etc. etc. The Rays were up 11-0 after 2 innings and had the 20 through 6, courteously refusing to score over the final 3 innings. Tyler Glasnow got the start and went the minimum 5 innings to get the win, going 5 4 0 0 2 5 to improve to 13-4, 3.32. Asa Lacy went 3 1 0 0 2 5 and Mitchell Verburg pitched a perfect 9th to wrap up another team shutout. Here's the Rays batting section of the box score to take in and admire:

Team record: 94-50. Next up: back to St. Pete for 3 games with another once-formidable AL East team down on its luck, the Yankees.

Durham Playoffs/Dustin May rehab update: May got the start and went 4.2 3 1 1 4 1 on 76 pitches so he was a little wild but was able to limit the damage, and that was the only run Indianapolis scored as Durham eked out another 2-1 win to take the first round series 3 games to 1. The Bulls only managed 2 hits, but they were big hits as they came in a 2-run first inning. Tyler Frank led off the game with a walk and was forced by Bramdon Perez who scored on Nick Gonzales' double, and Chris Betts singled home Gonzales. They were no-hit the rest of the way but the Bulls' staff managed to hang on, including one real Houdini act from Emerson Hancock, who would have started had May not been rehabbing. In the 6th Hancock loaded the bases on walks with nobody out, but got an Indy hitter to line one at SS Yordys Valdes, who doubled off the man on 2nd, and then he struck out the last hitter. Luke Little bounced back from 2 outings allowing a run to get key outs in the 8th and the leadoff man in the 9th, and Nick Frasso got the final two outs to clinch the game and the series. They will play the Phillies' AAA affiliate, Lehigh Valley, in the finals as they seek a third straight IL title.

Art Deco · 09-04-2020, 05:22 PM

Game 1: Yeah, this happened:

Buehler had been on a bit of a roll lately, but this was ridiculous. The first Rays no-hitter I've had since starting this in the 2020 season, and only the second in the club's history after Matt Garza's on July 26, 2010. This also might have been the most dominating pitching performance I've seen in all the games I've played as well, as the only batters to reach were Andrew Knizner leading off the 3rd on Buehler's own fielding error and a one-out walk to Hyo-Jun Park in the 9th. Buehler's game score was 102, also a Rays record. And he did it on a relatively economical 116 pitches as well. Granted this isn't your older brother's Yankees team but it still had Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Knizner, who's a proven .280-.290 hitter, in the lineup. Also his 16 whiffs broke the club record of 15, last accomplished by Chris Archer in 2015. Buehler got the 6 runs of support mainly from Alec Bohm and Austin Meadows, as Meadows and Bohm doubled for a run in the 1st, Meadows had a 2-run HR in the 5th (#30) following a solo shot from Brandon Marsh (#7) to make a 1-0 games 4-0, and Bohm had a 2-run single in the 7th. Baltimore won so they prevented tonight from being a double celebration, but the magic # is down to 1.

Game 2: Well the champagne will have to chill for another night as the Yankees edged the Rays 3-2 and Baltimore won as well. Matt Manning pitched decently but Trevor Bauer was a little better. The Yankees finally got their first hit of the series when Giancarlo Stanton led off the 2nd with a double over Brandon Marsh's head, Skyler Messinger doubled him home, and old friend Brandon Lowe doubled home Messinger to make it 2-0. Seth Beer continued his renaissance with 3 more hits tonight, including an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd that made it 2-1, but Andrew Knizner tripled in Lowe to make it 3-1 in the 5th. Keibert Ruiz hit #12 off Bauer in the bottom of the 6th to get it to 3-2, but that's as close as they got. Beer singled to lead off the 9th, and Greg Jones came in to pinch-run for him and got his first MLB steal, but was stranded at 2nd as the game ended. Manning ended a decent 7 5 3 3 2 7, and although the Rays were trailing Alvarado and Anderson pitched the 8th and 9th as they hadn't worked in quite a while and there's an off-day Thursday. Beer, whose average dipped to .205 on July 29, has gone 37 for his last 100 with 4 HR and 14 RBI. The homers are down, partially due to the somewhat-suppressed HR environment I chose for the season, but he's reasserted himself as a fixture against RH pitchers.

Durham Playoff Update: Mack Anglin surrendered a first-inning grand slam to former Yankee Gio Urshela and Durham continued to struggle at the plate, falling 6-1 to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in the opener of the International League best-of-5 finals. The Bulls once again managed a mere 3 hits, and only Chris Betts' HR averted the shutout. Star prospects Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad are now a combined 1-for-33 in the postseason and if they don't start hitting soon it's going to be a short series.

Game 3: The Rays won the division today, thanks to a complete game 9-hit shutout from Daniel Lynch as they downed the Yankees 5-0. Lynch was pushed a bit, going 123 pitches, but went 9 9 0 0 0 11 for his first complete-game shutout since his debut 1-hitter last season with the Rays against Oakland. It was also Lynch's 2nd straight complete game as he's now 14-6, 3.13. The Rays came out aggressively, with Vidal Brujan walking to lead off the game and stealing 2nd, and then after Wander walked, they pulled off a double steal with Brujan scoring on a wild throw. This rattled starter Shawn Semple, who then gave up a 2-run HR to Austin Meadows (#31), Alec Bohm had an RBI single in the 4th and then Wander doubled in Brujan (who reached all 4 times he was up) for his 100th RBI on the season and the final run in the 7th. As Lynch got Skyler Messinger to fly out to center to end the game, the celebrations began as the Rays won the division for the third straight year, and fourth in the last five, as they look to defend their 2023 World Series title.

Team record: 96-51. Next up: An off-day at home, followed by the Red Sox visiting for a weekend series.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls still aren't hitting much (only 6 tonight) but did enough to even the IL Finals at a game apiece with Lehigh Valley thanks to a 3-1 win. Seth Johnson was the starter (and star) tonight for Durham. After giving up a 1st-inning HR to Jordan Groshans, Johnson was untouchable after that as he went 7 4 1 1 0 5. Dany Jimenez struck out the side in the 8th and Nick Frasso nailed down the save in the 9th. Bramdon Perez scored on a passed ball to tie in the 1st after Nick Gonzales doubled him to 3rd, and Tyler Frank singled in Dylan Davis in the 4th with what proved to be the winning run. They added some insurance in the 7th when Garrett Mitchell reached on a two-base throwing error and scored on Perez's sac fly. Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad were a combined 0-7 tonight and are now a combined 1-40 in the playoffs, yet Durham finds itself on equal footing in the series, although two of the next 3 are in Lehigh Valley. Dustin May will get another rehab start in Game 3 in two days' time.

Art Deco · 09-05-2020, 09:58 AM

Game 1: With the division clinched it was time to empty the bench so Vidal Brujan, Wander Franco, Austin Meadows, Rafael Devers and Keibert Ruiz all got the day off. It didn't matter as the Rays rode the strong pitching of Shane McClanahan and the bat of Spencer Torkelson to a 3-1 win over Boston. The lefty held Boston in check, going 6 3 1 1 3 7 on 102 pitches, and the troika took over with scoreless innings from Anderson, Alvarado and De La Cruz. In a nice bit of symmetry, the first two each picked up their 27th hold of the season while De La Cruz got his 27th save. Mac is now 5-2, 3.17 in his 12 starts. Torkelson took Pablo Lopez deep for a 2-run blast (#13) in the 2nd inning to provide all the offense needed and the homer was the first of his hits on a 3-3 night (and also his first since returning from a couple of months on the IL). Nick Schnell doubled in Brandon Marsh in the 8th for a little insurance. It so happened Schnell's double was his 27th of the year for all you numerologists out there.

Durham Playoff Update: Dustin May's second rehab start was a disaster, going 3.2 7 6 6 1 2, and he put Durham in a hole they couldn't climb out of in a 6-5 loss to Lehigh Valley which now means they have to win the next 2 to take the title. After May left they were down 6-1 and mounted a valiant comeback. Nick Gonzales had 4 hits and scored twice, Noah Cardenas (in his AAA debut after being recalled due to injuries) had a 2-run double, and Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad actually had RBI hits but it wasn't enough. Game 4 tomorrow is now a must-win and Dean Christidis will get the start.

Game 2: I'm treating these games now a bit like spring training, so that was one of the reasons why the Red Sox took a back-and-forth game from the Rays 7-6 today. Since the troika pitched last night, I decided not to push them again so Mitch Keller was on in the 9th and in his second inning of work he gave up a 2-run HR to Williams Astudillo (his 1st of the year) to give the Sox the win. Of course had Rafael Devers not thrown away an easy groundball to lead off the inning, Astudillo's HR would have been a solo shot at best. Tyler Glasnow started and was off his game today, going 4.2 6 4 4 5 5 on 111 pitches. Will Smith blew the lead in the 7th before Keller came on, but Alec Bohm's pinch-hit sac fly in the bottom of the inning gave the Rays a 6-5 lead. Earlier Triston Casas had a bases-clearing double, and Austin Meadows and Keibert Ruiz had RBI singles. Vidal Brujan had 3 hits and 2 steals to add to his MLB-leading total of 57. And Wander Franco had to leave the game legging out an infield single in the 1st, he has a sore groin and will be out 4 days as the goal for the remaining 13 games is to remain injury-free.

Durham Playoff Update: Winners of the last two IL titles and finalists the year before that, the Durham Bulls would not go quietly into that good night as they evened up their best-of-5 series with Lehigh Valley at 2 by shutting out the Iron Pigs 3-0. Dean Christidis had his second scoreless start of the playoffs, going 6.2 3 0 0 4 7 as he saved Durham's season. Luke Little pitched the final 2 1/3, striking out 3 for the save. As has been the case lately, offense was a challenge for the Bulls but three homers got the job done including 2 from Chris Betts with the other coming from the awakening Hunter Bishop. Heston Kjerstad, however, seems to remain a lost cause as he went 0-4 with 3 whiffs making him 1 for 31 this postseason. Mack Anglin will try to bounce back from his bad Game 1 start in the decisive Game 5 in Durham in two days' time.

Game 3: Austin Meadows sent the Trop crowd home happy as his RBI double in the bottom of the 12th drove in Keston Hiura with the winning run as the Rays edged the Red Sox 5-4 to take 2 of 3 in the weekend series. It looked like the Rays would coast to a win behind Walker Buehler, making his first start since Monday's 16-K no-hitter. He had no-hit stuff again but it was a bit uncontrollable today as he racked up quite a pitch count in going 6 3 0 0 4 12. Still the Rays took a 4-0 lead into the 8th but a couple of Red Sox rookies forced the game into extras. First, Baron Radcliff hit a 2-run HR off Sandy Gaston in the 8th to cut the lead in half, and then Jasseel De La Cruz had some uncharacteristic trouble in the 9th when he allowed an infield single to Jeter Downs leading off the inning and then served up a 2-run longball to pinch hitter Pierson Gibis. So on we went, Jose Alvarado, Will Smith and Ian Hamilton threw scoreless innings and then with 1 out in the bottom of the 12th, Hiura singled, stole second and then scored on Meadows' double. Earlier the Rays had scored on a double play grounder (after Greg Jones narrowly missed his first MLB HR, doubling off the top of the RF wall), a balk, and Alec Bohm's 24th HR of the season, a 2-run shot. Hamilton picked up his 3rd Rays win in the process, and Vidal Brujan had a 4-hit game.

Team record: 98-52. Next up: Another off-day, followed by a 2-game visit from the Chicago Cubs.

Final Durham Playoff Update: Mack Anglin got rocked for 4 runs in the first 2 innings, which was enough for Lehigh Valley to take a 4-1 win in the deciding game of the International League Championship Series and end Durham's 2-year reign atop the league. As it was throughout the playoffs, the Bulls' bats deserted them. They did manage 8 hits, but the only run came on a Chris Betts (one of the few who hit consistently) RBI single in the 7th. Hunter Bishop did have 3 hits including a double, and Heston Kjerstad managed a single to end the playoffs 2-37. Grant Gambrell deserves a shout for keeping them within striking distance by going 5 1 0 0 1 6 in relief of Anglin as the Bulls will have to console themselves with the knowledge they've made the finals four straight seasons.

Art Deco · 09-05-2020, 04:13 PM

Game 1: Matt Manning pitched very well for 6 2/3 innings but the star of the show today was Spencer Torkelson, who was involved in all the Rays' scoring today in a 6-3 win over the Cubs. Tork's RBI groundout put the Rays up 1-0 in the 5th before Austin Riley's 2-run HR off Manning put the Cubs in front in the 6th. He and Nick Schnell singled in the 7th off Kyle Hendricks, went to 2nd & 3rd on Brandon Marsh's groundout and then both scored on Vidal Brujan's double to put the Rays up to stay 3-2. And in the bottom of the 8th with two men on, Tork drilled an 0-2 pitch from Riley Self into the LF stands to seal the win. Manning went 6.2 4 2 2 2 8 on 108 pitches but left after giving up a 2-out single. Mitchell Verburg got the final out and therefore the win, while Nick Anderson had a 1-2-3 2K 8th for a hold and after the lead expanded to 4, Mitch Keller pitched the 9th and gave up a run but nothing else. Keibert Ruiz had 3 hits and scored twice as well. Torkelson now has 14 HR in 210 AB and is slugging .567 which would be best on the team if he had enough ABs. Gonna be a tough call between him and the resurgent Seth Beer for the DH role against RHP come playoff time.

Game 2: The Rays will have to wait at least another day for win #100 this season as the Cubs got the best of them in 12 innings, 9-6. The secondary bullpen couldn't get it done today, as Sandy Gaston gave up a 2-run HR to Austin Riley (who the Rays just couldn't get out) to put Chicago up 6-4, and then after the Rays rallied to tie it in the 9th off Cubs closer Mychal Givens with a pair of runs, Will Smith gave up a 2-run HR to Jordan Luplow in the 12th for the Cubs to prevail. In both cases the homers were allowed when each reliever was pushed to a second inning, but I did not want to burn through everyone today and in the case of Smith he had only thrown 10 pitches in getting through the 11th 1-2-3. The Rays jumped ahead 3-1 on a 3-run HR from Rafael Devers (#20) in the third but Daniel Lynch allowed the Cubs to tie in a scattershot 5 9 3 3 0 4 performance. Keston Hiura put the Rays back ahead in the bottom of the inning with a monster blast to dead center, his 10th HR of the year, but Ian Hamilton gave up a run in the 6th to let the Cubs tie at 4. Greg Jones had his first major league RBI with a single off Givens to tie it in the 9th, and Mebrys Viloria had a 3-hit game including the RBI single right before Jones to cut it to 6-5. Yesterday's hero Spencer Torkelson, however, got to hit cleanup as the likes of Meadows, Brujan, Ruiz and Marsh were given the day off and went 0-6 with 3 whiffs.

Team record: 99-53. Next up: A visit to Charm City to take on the wild card-bound Orioles in a 4-game set.

Art Deco · 09-05-2020, 07:32 PM

Game 1: Camden Yards is a tough place to pitch for an opponent, given the ballpark and Baltimore's power-laden lineup. But Shane McClanahan rose to the challenge, and although he did allow a couple of homers, he limited the damage to those alone and went 7 5 3 3 3 5 to lead the Rays to their 100th win of the season 8-3. Wander Franco had an RBI groundout and an RBI double around a 2-run Adley Rustchman HR in the 3rd which put us at 2-2 going into the 6th when the Rays erupted for 3 runs to take command of the game. Brandon Marsh had a 2-run single and Wander had a sac fly for his 3rd RBI of the day to make it 5-2. Jo Adell homered off McClanahan (now 6-2) in the 7th to make it 5-3 but Seth Beer got that run right back in the 8th with HR #10 of the season. Wander then doubled in the 9th and was driven in by an Austin Meadows single and then Keibert Ruiz drove home Meadows to cap the scoring. Nick Anderson pitched a scoreless 8th in a hold situation, and then with the 5-run lead Asa Lacy came on and had a 1-2-3 2K 9th to finish it off.

Game 2: A typical Coors...er Camden Yards game with HRs galore, and Jo Adell's 2-run walkoff blast won it in the bottom of the 9th for the Orioles 7-5. Entering up 5-4, Jasseel De La Cruz blew his second straight save attempt, walking Mitch Haniger and giving up a single to Nick Williams to put runners at 1st and 3rd with nobody out. With the infield in he got CJ Chatman to ground out right at Wander Franco to keep the runner at 3rd but Williams moved up to 2nd. Bryan Stott singled to score Gunnar Henderson who had run for Haniger, but Greg Jones nailed Williams at the plate to keep the game tied. But Adell took De La Cruz's next pitch into the LF stands to win it. The Rays had built a 5-3 lead on solo HRs from Keston Hiura leading off the game (#11), Austin Meadows in the 1st (#32), Seth Beer (#11) in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers (#21) in the 6th along with a Mebrys Violria RBI single. Tyler Glasnow started and pitched well going 7 5 3 3 3 6 with the only damage a 3-run HR by Ray-for-a-little-while-in-2021 Haniger. Nick Anderson pitched the 8th and gave up a solo HR to Austin Hays to draw the O's within a run, and then of course they went to work on Jasseel in the bottom of the 9th. Vidal Brujan, Alec Bohm, Keibert Ruiz and Brandon Marsh were all rested tonight.

With the AAA season ending, some notable vets who played at that level this year retired today: Chris Sale, Trevor Plouffe, Masahiro Tanaka, Danny Duffy, Kole Calhoun, Jose Abreu, and Shane Greene. Sale and Abreu played for Durham this year, the former very briefly and the latter we traded at midseason for Bramdon Perez. Plouffe and Greene were once Rays for a very short time.

Game 3: With Wander and Austin Meadows already over 100 RBI, I was wondering whether Rafael Devers would get there as he needed 8 with 8 games left coming into tonight. Well he's 62.5% of the way there after tonight's 2-HR, 5-RBI night leading the Rays to a 7-4 win over the Orioles. He broke a 1-1 tie in the 3rd with a 2-run shot, and then after an Austin Meadows single put the Rays up 4-3 in the ninth he blasted a 3-run shot off Sam Delaplane for #23 and it turned out to be important as Baltimore scored a run in the 9th. Walker Buehler got the start for the Rays and while he wasn't as dominant as recent outings, he still turned in a decent 7 9 3 2 2 9 line. But he left the game 3-3 and after Sandy Gaston got through the 8th (on 8 pitches!) the Rays went to work in the 9th as Seth Beer led off with a single (with Greg Jones pinch-running for him). It didn't look good as Brandon Marsh and Vidal Brujan hit fly ball outs but Wander beat out an infield single, bringing up Meadows who singled to put them ahead and then Devers hit his 2nd HR. With only the 8 pitches in the 8th and a 4-run lead, Gaston came back for the 9th but loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk, single, and HBP so Jose Alvarado came on with a lefty due up. The Orioles instead pinch-hit Adley Rutschman but Alvarado got him to ground into a DP, scoring a run but neutralizing the threat, and then he got a fly ball for the final out and picked up save #4. Gaston still got the win, his 5th.

Game 4: The Rays pounded Baltimore today 12-0 behind 7 shutout innings from Matt Manning and a 4-5 day from Spencer Torkelson. Manning was brilliant as usual, going 7 6 0 0 0 9 to improve to 11-6, 2.79 and Brandon Marsh had the big hit in the game, a bases-clearing double in the 2nd that put the Rays up 3-0. The first of Vidal Brujan's 3 hits on the day was an RBI single to drive in Marsh to make it 4-0, and he later stole base #59 and led off a 7-run 9th with his 7th HR of the season. Torkelson had 2 doubles and a triple among his four hits, driving in a pair, and Greg Jones went 3-5 with a steal and 2 RBI, which included his first MLB homer in the 9th. Mebrys Viloria had 3 hits too, as the Rays gave numerous starters a rest again today yet still banged out 19 hits. Only Nick Schnell at 0-5 didn't get in on the fun. One starter who didn't rest (since Triston Casas is nursing a sore back) was Rafael Devers and he crept closer to 100 RBI with his 98th today. Will Smith and Mitchell Verburg pitched scoreless innings to finish out the game.

Team record: 102-54. Next up: our final off-day of the season before a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium to close out the road portion of the schedule.

Art Deco · 09-06-2020, 01:28 PM

Here's where things stand in MLB going into the final week of the 2024 season:

The playoff spots look set in both leagues. Detroit and Houston will face off as division winners in the ALDS, and the Rays will likely be playing the winner of the Seattle-Baltimore wild card game. Where that game takes place is up for grabs, and Seattle just suffered a big blow yesterday when former Ray benchwarmer-turned-near-superstar Mike Brosseau broke his hand after being hit by a pitch and will miss at least most of the playoffs (he could come back if Seattle makes the World Series). So it could be a rematch of last year's ALDS which the Rays escaped from after falling behind 0-2 in the series. In the NL the playoff teams are all set but only the Cardinals know they'll definitely be playing in the NLDS as the Braves and Mets go to the wire in the East along with the Dodgers and D-backs in the West, so plenty of drama there to win the division as opposed to playing in a one-game crapshoot.

The Rays are well represented among the leaderboards and the WAR race is interesting. Royce Lewis will win it, but his numbers are not those of a traditional MVP at .310-13-74. A lot of his WAR is derived from his 70 defense at SS so it will interesting to see how the MVP race goes as Wander has the more traditional numbers (.321-24-103). The guys with the big HR/RBI numbers are Eloy Jimenez (5.1 WAR) and Matt Olson (3.1). Unlike in previous years were Vlad Jr was the clear choice, the MVP race is wide open this year.

The pitching leaderboards got cut off, so here they are:

Matt Manning leads in pitcher WAR, and his traditional numbers are: 11-6, 2.79, 32 BB, 191K in 171 innings. His innings are down since he pretty much missed the first month of the season. Those numbers you see for Walker Buehler are for his Rays time alone, not counting his first month + with the Dodgers. If you add them together, he's 12-9, 3.09, 35 BB, 248K in 209.2 innings and a combined WAR of 6.2, actually making this his career season. Despite his non-impressive W/L record, I'd give him my Cy vote since his AL numbers alone put him among the front-runners and combined he's been the most valuable pitcher in MLB (Mike Soroka leads the NL at 5.4 WAR).

Also as I was perusing the box scores I noticed someone I had never seen before in the Yankees lineup, a "J.Allen". Check this out:

A scouting discovery found today with those type of hitting skills? You gotta be kidding me. At least he's a butcher in the field so he'll probably be a future DH but his numbers in the editor have him 293/410/602 with 49 doubles, 39 HR and 97 walks. Good gravy. Well, we'll see him over the next 3 days at Yankee Stadium but he could be a real problem in that lineup next year.

Also a couple of more former Rays retired: Matt Andriese and Steven Souza Jr.

Art Deco · 09-06-2020, 02:55 PM

Before we get into the games, here's some hardware for a Ray:

Not bad when your fourth (fifth?) starter wins pitcher of the month.

Game 1: Well it was a good thing for Daniel Lynch that the calendar fell where it did because after his great September, October started out a disaster for him (let's hope it was just tonight as next time we see him it will be the playoffs). He had what was probably his worst start of the year, getting torched for 8 runs, 9 hits and 2 walks in 3 2/3 innings. But despite Daniel's disaster the Rays still won the game 9-8, coming back with 5 runs between the 8th and 9th. Down 8-4 in the top of the 8th, Addison Reed came on for the Yankees and after Keibert Ruiz singled, Nick Schnell went deep for #19 to make it 8-6, and Seth Beer made it back-to-back jacks with #12 of his own to cut the lead to 8-7. And then in the 9th against Yankee closer David Bednar, Rafael Devers (who earlier notched RBI #99) walked, Ruiz doubled to put men at 2nd and 3rd and after Alec Bohm grounded out to 3B with the runners holding, Schnell delivered an RBI single scoring Devers to tie it and Beer hit a sac fly to LF to score Ruiz with the go-ahead run. Jasseel De La Cruz bounced back from a couple of blown saves to strike out a pair around a base hit, giving him 28. Will Smith had pitched a 1-2-3 8th to nab the win, and that was part of a fine bullpen performance after Lynch that saw Asa Lacy go 2 1/3 scoreless and Ian Hamilton toss a shutout frame as well. In addition to the Devers RBI single, Ruiz had a pair of RBIs himself as part of a 3-hit day. Vidal Brujan was also on base 4 times today with 3 hits and an HBP as they followed yesterday's 19-hit day with 18 more and everyone in the (regular) lineup getting at least one. Side note: the mysterious Joe Allen was 0-2 with a pair of sac flies for the Yankees.

MLB Playoff Race Update: The Mets beat the Braves for the second straight night to go 1 1/2 games up in the NL East, while the Dodgers and Diamondbacks each split their games the last two nights leaving the Dodgers one game ahead. In the AL, Baltimore and Seattle both lost and Minnesota won, allowing the Twins to keep their longshot hopes alive as they creep to within 2 1/2 back. The magic # for Baltimore and Seattle remains 3.

October 2: Optioned P Mitchell Verburg to AAA Durham, recalled P Dustin May from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

May wasn't that sharp in his 2 rehab starts for Durham, but I want to give him a start in the final days here, especially as I may end up leaving him off the playoff roster. I will see how he looks as I need to decide whether to keep him or Asa Lacy on the playoff roster. Verburg may or may not make that playoff roster as well.

Game 2: Ugh. I say that not for the 5-4 loss tonight to the Yankees, but for the fact the game went 19 innings (!) and I had to use the entire bullpen except Jasseel De La Cruz. Probably would have won had I used him as the Rays blew leads in both the bottom of the 9th and the bottom of the 19th (and had I known the game was going to go 19 I would have used him in the 9th). He wasn't listed as tired but I didn't want to use him for the second straight day in a meaningless game. Anyway, this was another empty-the-bench game with Franco, Brujan, Meadows, Ruiz, and Devers all getting the day off, and some of the understudies had brutal games, especially Triston Casas who was 0-8 with 4 whiffs. Nick Schnell whiffed 5 times but had hits the other two times up, including an RBI single. Greg Jones had the best day of the bunch, going 4-8 with 2 doubles and a pair of steals and their only consistent offensive threat. Alec Bohm hit #25 back in the 4th inning but was 1-7. Thought we might still get the win when Mebrys Viloria got his third hit of the game, singling in Bohm who had walked, in the top of the 19th but Dustin May, whom I didn't want to have to use, loaded the bases with nobody out in his second inning of work. He then got two whiffs and I thought he might he get out of it but Andrew Knizner singled in the tying and winning runs to give the game to the Yankees. But several relievers got worn out: Ian Hamilton and Asa Lacy, who each pitched yesterday, threw 3 innings apiece and Mitch Keller pitched 2. Looks like Verburg will come back up tomorrow. Lost in all this was they got another pretty good start from Shane McClanahan, who went 6 4 2 2 2 4 and is making a case to be the 4th starter in the playoffs after Lynch looked really bad yesterday.

MLB Playoff Race Update: The Orioles won and the Twins lost, knocking their magic # for a wild card down to 1, and even though Seattle lost again, theirs is down to 2. In the NL, the Braves beat the Mets to pull back within 1/2 a game, and the D-backs won while the Dodgers lost so those two are tied with 3 games left. The Dodgers go to Coors Field to play the Rockies and the Diamondbacks host Kansas City, while the Braves play 4 in Miami and the Mets have 3 in Philly.

Game 3: It looked for a while like we might be playing extra innings again but the Rays scored in the top of the 9th to pull out a 7-6 win and this time I did bring in Jasseel De La Cruz and he pitched a perfect 9th with two whiffs to get save #29. The Rays jumped on Deivi Garcia for 4 runs in the first on a RBI double from Austin Meadows, an RBI single from Keibert Ruiz, and a 2-run HR by Alec Bohm (#26). Tyler Glasnow took those 4 runs and cruised through 5 innings, allowing only an Aaron Hicks homer. But things went badly for Glasnow in the 6th as he ended up allowing 3 more homers. Kyle Isbel's 2-run shot made it 4-3, the mysterious Joe Allen hit a 2-run shot to make it 5-4 Yankees and Skyler Messinger went deep after Allen to make it 6-4. Glasnow ended the game 6 6 6 6 3 10 and finishes the season 13-4, 3.66 with 212 whiffs in 174.2 innings. He gave up 17 runs in his last 26 1/3 innings which is not the trend you want to see going into the playoffs, especially with his checkered postseason history. He's looking more and more like the Game 3 starter behind Buehler and Manning. Anyway the Rays mounted a comeback which started with Spencer Torkelson's 15th HR of the season in the 7th, a majestic blast to LCF. Keibert's sac fly in the 8th tied the game, and in the 9th Tork singled and Greg Jones walked, and Vidal Brujan singled in Torkelson with what proved to be the winning run. Sandy Gaston picked up the win to go 6-1 after he bailed Mitchell Verburg, in his second inning of work, out of an 8th inning jam with 2 on and 0 out by whiffing a pair and getting a ground ball.

Team record: 104-55. Next up: We close out the regular season with 3 at the Trop against Baltimore, who is also gearing up for the playoffs.

MLB Playoff Race Update: Minnesota won to stay alive just barely in the AL, they and Oakland are 2 back of Seattle going into the final weekend. The Braves beat Miami and they move into a tie with the Mets so both the NL East and West have deadlocks at the top.

Art Deco · 09-06-2020, 08:12 PM

Game 1: The Orioles clinched their first playoff berth since 2016 at the expense of the Rays with a 7-1 win. Grayson Rodriguez held the Rays in check, going 7.1 6 1 1 1 6, and Walker Buehler was hit pretty hard in his regular season finale at 5 11 6 6 1 3. Spencer Torkelson's 5th-inning 495-foot homer (#16) was the only scoring for the Rays in a night that was all Baltimore. Mitch Keller went 3 innings in relief, allowing a run and striking out 6 while Mitchell Verburg pitched the 9th. Rafael Devers remains stuck on 99 RBI and is also sitting at .299 for those interested in such things.

MLB Playoff Race Update: It's all over in the AL as Minnesota and Oakland lost and Seattle and Baltimore won. The only thing not set is home field: Seattle is a game behind Baltimore to see who hosts the wild card game and Detroit is one game better than Houston to see who starts the ALDS at home. Over in the NL, things are much more interesting: Atlanta won while the Mets lost so the Braves re-take 1st by a game, and Arizona won at Kansas City while the Dodgers lost in Coors Field so the Diamondbacks are now a game up. As things stand now, the Mets would host the Dodgers in the WC game but whoever loses the NL East will host whoever loses the NL West.

Game 2: Tonight was the inverse of last night as the Rays had all the fun in an 8-0 win. Matt Manning made his final start of the regular season and threw 7 shutout innings although he had an odd 7 2 0 0 3 2 line on 93 pitches. He finishes the year 12-6, 2.68 with the latter number the best in the AL, making two straight seasons for the Rays with the ERA leader as Tyler Glasnow had a 3.01 mark last year. Will Smith and Sandy Gaston pitched scoreless innings to close it out. The offense was a HR parade tonight. After a second-inning wild pitch scored a run, Greg Jones (#2) and Keston Hiura (#12) went back-to-back with Hiura hitting another one of his dead-center shots to make it 3-0 off Vladimir Gutierrez, who did come into the game leading the AL in homers allowed and will leave the game with that distinction. Austin Meadows led off the 5th with #33, and then later in the inning Seth Beer and Spencer Torkelson had RBI doubles. The final two runs came on solo shots: Keibert Ruiz (#14) and Torkelson (#17) in the 7th. Tork ended the day 4-4 with the HR and 2 doubles as he's now .302/.349/.593 with 17 HR and 52 RBI in only 248 AB with 2.4 WAR. We're going to have to find a way to get him into the lineup everyday (I always say that). Rafael Devers' quest for 100 RBI is down to one game tomorrow and his 0-4 dropped his average to .297 so he may fall short of a couple of round numbers.

MLB Playoff Race Update: Status quo in the NL as all 4 teams fighting for a division title won, which means Atlanta stays 1 game up on the Mets and the Diamondbacks 1 up on the Dodgers as we head into the season's final day.

Game 3: You could kind of tell by how the game was played that both teams wanted to get the regular season over with and move on to the playoffs. The Rays beat the Orioles 2-1 in a game that lasted 2:26 with a lot of players swinging early in the count. Daniel Lynch got the start and bounced back from his terrible outing in New York with a 7 6 1 1 0 4 performance to finish the season at 15-6, 3.44, with the 15 wins leading the team. The Rays only managed 2 hits for the entire game but made them count. Nick Schnell walked in the bottom of the 5th, Seth Beer doubled him to 3rd, and Mebrys Viloria doubled them both home. They were also the only baserunners the team had today. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 2K eighth, and Jasseel De La Cruz put an exclamation point on the season by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 9th for save #30. Rafael Devers sadly ended on 99 RBI.

Final Regular Season Record: 106-56. This marks their 2nd best regular season after winning 115 last year and edges the 105 in 2022.

MLB Playoff Race Update: With everything set in the AL, eyes were turned to the NL. The Diamondbacks won and Dodgers lost, so Arizona ends up winning the NL West by 2 games and will travel to St. Louis for the NLDS. But the drama was in the east where the Mets won 4-2 in Philly (behind Yonny Chirinos!), beating their former ace Jacob deGrom while the Braves lost 3-1 at Miami where Rick Porcello struck out 10 and had an RBI double for the Roughnecks. This means the Braves and Mets will have a one-game playoff to determine the NL East winner with the loser hosting the Dodgers in the Wild Card Game and the winner playing the winner of the Wild Card Game. The Rays of course will host the winner of the Seattle-Baltimore WC Game while Houston will travel to Detroit in the other ALCS.

Art Deco · 09-07-2020, 10:22 AM

The final regular season standings & batting leaders:

Last week when I posted the standings & leaders, I speculated most of Royce Lewis's league-leading WAR came from defense, but one thing I discovered in the interim was that Lewis ended the season with 61 (!) doubles, the 6th-highest total in MLB history and only 6 off Earl Webb's record.

Rays team stats:

A lot of firsts, and what's really something is how this team can be 13th in the AL in walks yet still place 1st in OBP. That's some hittin' there. We were better in the second half in 1-run games (although not so much better that we finished 5 wins short of our Pythagorean record), and much better against lefties, when mid-season we were below .500. And it was also interesting how we ended up with identical home and road records after we struggled some at the Trop in the second half but played much better on the road. The defense remains mediocre but we're picking nits here.

Here are the individual stats:

Triston Casas, whom I'm looking at to play 3B next season assuming Rafael Devers declines his player option for 2025, was pretty dreadful this year, with a lower WAR than Matt Manning who had one at-bat. Otherwise the question remains: why do I keep playing Seth Beer over Spencer Torkelson?

Nothing wrong with this staff.

The NL East tiebreaker game:

Will Toffey's 2-run HR in the 5th was the big hit here as Sandy Alcantara was excellent (7 6 1 1 3 6). The Braves will now host the Dodgers in the wild card game while the Mets will await the winner of that game.

Art Deco · 09-07-2020, 12:02 PM

Well, we know who the opponent will be in the ALDS and it's a rematch of last season:

Yairo Munoz's 3-run HR in the first turned out to be enough for Seattle to book a spot in the ALDS once again. The Orioles had numerous chances against Marco Gonzales but either didn't get the key hit when they needed it (Renato Nunez whiffed with one out and the bases load) or made baserunning mistakes (one Oriole was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, another was thrown out trying to steal 3rd and another was picked off first).

I set the playoff roster and there really weren't any big surprises. Left off was Mitchell Verburg as well as Dustin May. It's a shame about May but missing the second half of the season was the big strike against him and he wasn't going to start anyway. As for long relief I have McClanahan and Lacy. I briefly gave some thought to going with Greg Jones (who impressed me quite a bit in September) over Triston Casas but if something happened to Devers he's the only 3B on the roster. Plus I already have Hiura to fill in for either Wander or Brujan if necessary. The other thing I decided was to go with Spencer Torkelson in the lineup at DH vs RHP instead of Seth Beer, and use him against LHP in lieu of Nick Schnell. Ride or die with Tork I say. Meanwhile the rotation will be Buehler, Glasnow, Manning and Lynch. I want to use Buehler and Glasnow at the Trop since they're more homer-prone than Manning. That would have been a bigger deal had Baltimore won and Games 3 & 4 were in Camden Yards, so it might not make as much of a difference now with Seattle. Plus if for no other reason I'd like to have Manning be my game 3 starter if we find ourselves down 0-2 like last year.

The NL Wild Card Game:

Brusdar Graterol was grate, er great, pitching 8 3-hit shutout innings to lead the Dodgers over the Braves. Wilmer Flores (the Dodgers' 1B after Josh Bell went down for the season) had a 2-RBI single off Mike Soroka to provide the game's only runs. Soroka was excellent otherwise, getting 10 strikeouts, but it wasn't enough as the Dodgers will now play the Mets in the NLDS.

Art Deco · 09-07-2020, 01:29 PM

October 11:

ALDS Game 1:

Here we go again.

A couple of unlikely homers did in the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS. It was quite the duel between Nick Margevicius (a lefty, natch) and Walker Buehler that went scoreless until the bottom of the 7th when Rafael Devers led off with a home run. The Rays put a couple of more men on in the inning and couldn't bring them home. That proved to be costly as the Mariners got to Buehler in the 8th when Kyle Lewis had an infield single and the immortal Keegan McGovern took Buehler deep into the RF stands to make it 2-1 Mariners. But the Rays fought back in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Marsh walked against Seattle closer Taylor Guilbeau, Wander Franco singled, and with two out Devers singled Marsh home to tie the game at 2. Buehler left with an excellent 8 4 2 2 0 10 line despite the homer. With lefty Jarred Kelenic leading off and a couple of righties after him, I opted for Jose Alvarado, explicitly thinking "at least Alvarado won't give up a homer to one of the righty bats since he allowed only 1 the entire season". Well I was right, he didn't give up a homer to one of the righties. Instead he let the lefty Kelenic take him yard to make it 3-2. It looked like the Rays might rally again when Alec Bohm led off the 9th with a double against Guilbeau but Torkelson, Hiura and Marsh stranded him there and the Rays find themselves down in yet another postseason series (The only time they've won a Game 1 in my tenure was the World Series last season). Tyler Glasnow will go against Julio Urias, whom the Dodgers released and the Mariners picked up a few days ago, probably expressly because he's a lefty, in tomorrow's Game 2 which really is a must-win because we can't count on coming back from 0-2 for a second straight year.

In the other ALDS game:

The Astros jumped all over young Detroit ace Kumar Rocker for 5 runs in 1 1/3 innings on homers from Carlos Correa, Eli White and former Rays farmhand Jesus Sanchez to ride to victory. Forrest Whitley was excellent, going 6.1 2 2 2 1 6.

October 12:

Here we don't go again:

Another tight, tense game that was no fun until it was over as the Rays just got by Seattle 2-1 to even their ALDS at a game apiece. Tyler Glasnow turned in perhaps his best career postseason start, going 6 3 1 1 3 9 on 102 pitches. He was running out of gas at the end, giving up some hard-hit outs and a HR to Yairo Munoz in the 6th, so he gave way to Jose Alvarado in the 7th with five straight lefties due up. Well Alvarado put two of them on base, setting up a rematch with Jarred Kelenic who took him deep in Game 1 to win it for Seattle. Round 2 went to Alvarado as he got a lazy fly ball to left to end the threat. Nick Anderson put a man on who stole second but got through his inning, and then Jasseel De La Cruz was set the face the same gauntlet of lefties Alvarado did in the 7th. He gave up a leadoff single to Braden Shewmake but Seattle did us a favor by giving away an out to bunt him over, and De La Cruz got the next two including Michael Siani swinging to end the game and allow the Tampa Bay region to let out a collective sigh of relief. Once again runs were tough to come by. Seattle started Touki Touissant instead of the originally announced Julio Urias and my move to make Spencer Torkelson the DH against righties paid off when Tork took Touissant deep with Nick Schnell aboard in the 4th to provide the only Rays runs. This came an inning after Brandon Marsh singled and Vidal Brujan doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out yet Wander, Meadows and Devers failed to bring either of them home. Matt Manning will take the mound in two days' time for Game 3 in Seattle looking to put the Rays ahead in a series for a change.

The rest of the division series games from today:

Detroit struck back to even the series. Starter Casey Mize had to leave after 2 innings with a hamstring, so Gerson Bautista came to the rescue for the Tigers, going 3.2 2 0 0 0 5 while his teammates jumped on Lance McCullers Jr. for 7 runs in the 4th and 5th with Yasmani Grandal driving in 3 of them. The Mets grabbed a 1-0 lead in their NLDS in a matchup of former Rays as Blake Snell got the better of Max Fried with the latter allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4.2 innings, and the Cardinals went up 1-0 on Arizona when Nick Senzel hit a 2-run triple in the bottom of the ninth off Andrew Gross to win it 5-4. Jack Flaherty went 6 5 2 1 1 7 for St. Louis before his bullpen let him down but they won anyway.

October 13:

All four division series are tied at 1 now after today's games. The Dodgers struck back behind Mitchell White, who threw 6 innings of 1-hit ball, only allowing a 2-run Michael Conforto HR, and Cody Bellinger, who missed about 3/4 of the season but just was activated, was 2-4 with 2 RBI. The Diamondbacks jumped all over Noah Syndergaard, one of last year's playoff heroes for the Rays, for 6 runs in 1 2/3 innings including a Max Muncy 2-run HR.

Art Deco · 09-07-2020, 03:47 PM

October 14:

Giddyup:

The Rays jumped on Marco Gonzales early and never let up as they cruised to a 9-3 win over Seattle to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-5 ALDS. Unlike the first two games when the Rays had to wait a while to score, they got going in the 1st with a manufactured run when Vidal Brujan singled, stole second, went to third on a Wander groundout and scored on a Meadows groundout. No need for small ball in the 2nd inning, though, as Spencer Torkelson did it again taking Gonzales deep for a 2-run shot to make it 3-0. Right after that Keston Hiura doubled and scored on a Brujan single to up the lead to 4-0. That would be all Matt Manning would need. Although he's been more dominant he was more than good enough tonight going 7 7 3 3 0 5. The Mariners made it interesting with a pair of runs in the 3rd to make it 4-2, but Wander tripled to lead off the 5th and scored on a Meadows single and then in the 6th Brujan had a 2-run double and was singled home by Wander and it was 8-2. Seattle scored in the 7th off Manning but Keibert Ruiz got that run back with a solo homer in the 9th. Mitch Keller went 6 up, 6 down with a pair of whiffs to close the game out. Brujan, who had a massive postseason last year, was 3-6 with the 3 RBI and 2 stolen bases, while Keibert and Hiura joined the 3-hit club too as the team pounded out 17 for the game, happy I suppose to get away from the stifling offensive environment of the Trop. Daniel Lynch, who pitched a great game in this ballpark in Game 4 of last year's ALDS, will look to do the same again in this year's Game 4. I keep getting told Julio Urias will start the next game so maybe it will actually happen tomorrow.

Game 3 of the other ALDS:

Jonathan India had 3 hits, including a HR and 3 RBI, Gavin Sheets had 3 hits and 3 RBI, and AL wins leader (with 17) Eduardo Rodriguez went 7.1 5 2 2 1 7 to lead the Tigers to within 1 game of the ALCS.

October 15:

Woo hoo!

Austin Meadows was the man as the Rays defeated Seattle 7-4 to take their ALDS 3 games to 1. The Mariners finally did start Julio Urias after all, and after a first inning where the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out only not to score and then saw Julio Rodriguez take Daniel Lynch deep to make it 1-0 Seattle, Meadows drilled a 3-run shot off the former Dodger lefty in the 3rd to put the Rays in front to stay. Vidal Brujan continued to rake with an RBI single in the 4th, and after Seattle got one back to cut it to 4-2 Meadows ripped a 2-run double to cap a 3-run 6th inning and the Rays' scoring. Seattle wouldn't go quietly though, as they grabbed 2 more off Lynch in the 6th, chasing him and making it 7-4. Lynch picked up the win, but his 5.1 6 4 4 1 5 wasn't his greatest. Ian Hamilton got the final two outs of the 6th, and then the final 3 innings were turned over to the troika. Jose Alvarado had a perfect 7th, including getting Jarred Kelenic for the final out of the inning, giving him a 2-1 edge in their personal battle this series. Nick Anderson had his typical 1-2-3 2K inning in the 8th, but Jasseel De La Cruz made it interesting in the 9th. After getting two quick outs, he gave up a single to Game 1 hero Keegan McGovern and then walked JP Crawford to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Michael Siani with Kelenic lurking on deck. Fortunately De La Cruz got Siani to fly out to Meadows to end the game and end the series as the Rays righty found himself at the bottom of another dogpile. As you can see from the game story, Brujan was named MVP of the series and in addition to the stats cited above he had 4 steals including one tonight.

The rest of the DS games today:

We don't know yet who we'll be playing in the ALCS as the Astros forced a Game 5 with Detroit thanks to a 4-2 win. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the unlikely hero for Houston today with a 2-run double and an RBI single. Joey Gallo and Paul Goldschmidt drove in a pair of runs each to back 7 strong innings from Ryan Helsley to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead over Arizona, and Brusdar Graterol followed up his gem in the wild card game with an even better performance (8.2 2 0 0 0 11) against the Mets with Gavin Lux driving in the only run of the game as the Dodgers go up 2-1 on the Mets.

October 16:

It's the Cardinals and the Dodgers in the NLCS as Joey Gallo's 2-run HR in the 8th and 2 more runs in the 9th allowed St. Louis to come from behind and beat Arizona 6-5 to take the series. And Will Smith (the catcher) drove in all 5 Dodgers runs on a 3-run HR and a 2-run single to give them the game and series win over the Mets and Yonny Chirinos tonight. Those following along might be interested to know that Josh Lowe had an RBI triple off Clayton Kershaw for the Mets in that game. Lowe had become the 3rd-string CF behind Kevin Kiermaier after the Mets signed Lorenzo Cain this year but Cain was injured late in the season, bumping up the 2 former Rays in the Mets' pecking order.

October 17:

Well we now know the Rays' opponent in the ALCS: The Detroit Tigers. They rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to edge Houston 3-2. Kumar Rocker had pitched a great game but it looked like he'd be a hard-luck loser after David Bote booted a ground ball allowing the Astros to take the lead in the 5th. Rocker was 7 7 2 1 1 10 and former Ray Shane Baz, moved back to the bullpen after a rough second half in the rotation, picked up the win in relief. We'll be seeing Baz and Alex Kirilloff in this series and of course Matt Manning will be pitching at Comerica again in Game 3.

09-01-2020, 09:40 AM	#201
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	August 19-22, 2024: at Toronto (4) Game 1: Well it wasn't another 15-2 rout at Rogers Centre. In fact it was 2-2 going into the 9th, but the Rays pulled out a 4-2 win to extend their winning streak to 8 games. The difference this time was that the Jays threw a lefty (Matthew Boyd) at the Rays and he kept them largely in check, allowing only an Alec Bohm RBI single in the 2nd and Nick Schnell's 13th HR (2-3 with a walk today, breaking out of his schlump) through 8 innings. Meanwhile Walker Buehler turned in 7 fine innings, going 7 5 2 2 1 9, allowing 2 runs in the 6th with a Vlad Jr RBI double the key hit there. This set us up for the 9th, when Keibert Ruiz reached on an error by Jays 1B Ryan Noda and Keston Hiura delivered an RBI triple off Nate Pearson to give the Rays the lead, and then Hiura scored on a Pearson wild pitch. With 3 of the first 4 batters lefties for Toronto in the 9th, Jose Alvarado got the call for the save and nailed it with a 1-2-3 inning for his 3rd of the season. Mitch Keller had pitched the 8th and picked up his 3rd win. One scare, though: Wander Franco had to leave the game in the 3rd inning and with the only other middle infielder being Hiura we had to give up the DH so Keston could play 2nd with Brujan sliding over to SS. Wander's injury is only a 4-day knee contusion so no biggie there but Buehler got to bat once and grounded out. Game 2: Things went back to normal for the Rays at Rogers Centre today as they clubbed the Jays 13-5. Most of the damage was done at the top of the order where Vidal Brujan was 4-6 with 3 doubles and 2 RBI, and Keston Hiura was 4-5 with a HR and 3 RBI. Austin Meadows drove in 3, Rafael Devers was 3-5 with a pair of RBIs and everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. But it didn't start off easy. Although the Rays scored a run in the top of the first, Matt Manning was greeted rudely by Toronto as the first four batters reached and scored, with a 2-run double by Vlad Jr followed by a 2-run HR from Willie Calhoun. But Manning settled down from there and gave the Jays nothing the rest of the way, going 7 7 4 4 2 6 and ending his evening with a whiff of Vlad Jr. Meanwhile the offense turned a 4-2 deficit to a 7-4 lead in the top of the fourth and added four more in the 7th to cap the scoring. DL Hall (a run allowed on 2 hits and a walk) and Sandy Gaston (a scoreless inning but somehow without a strikeout) finished up as the Rays made it 9 straight wins. Game 3: Daniel Lynch couldn't keep the ball in the park, and thanks to 4 Toronto HRs the Rays' 9-game winning streak was snapped as the Blue Jays beat them for only the second time in 13 tries this year, 7-4. Cavan Biggio's 2nd HR of the game in the 6th, a 2-run shot, broke a 4-4 tie and the Rays couldn't come back against Simeon Woods Richardson (who went a respectable 7 8 4 4 0 7 to get the win), Keith Ginkel and Nate Pearson. It looked like more of the same in the first inning when Vidal Brujan singled, Keston Hiura tripled, and Austin Meadows hit #27 to make it 3-0 before Richardson could record an out, and Keibert Ruiz singled in Meadows who had doubled in the 4th to make it 4-1. But the HR barrage off Lynch came, Alejandro Kirk and Randal Grichuk went back-to-back after Biggio had homered in the 2nd, and he ended up a rare non-quality start going 6 10 6 6 1 4. Mitchell Verburg gave up another run in the 8th to make it 7-4. Game 4: The Blue Jays salvaged a split of the series with a walk-off 4-3 win against a makeshift Rays lineup. With Wander Franco on the last day of his injury and Austin Meadows and Rafael Devers both in need of a rest, the bench was emptied today and although like yesterday they jumped out to a first-inning lead, they couldn't hold it and couldn't do much more after that. Vidal Brujan was hit by a pitch and stole second leading off the game, and Keston Hiura singled him home, and Hiura after stealing second as well was singled home by Alec Bohm. Hiura and Bohm combined in the 3rd to make it 3-0 on a double and a sac fly, but that was all for the Rays offense. Meanwhile Asa Lacy had his ups and downs but made it through 7, going 7 9 3 3 1 4 and allowing a Randal Grichuk homer. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 8th, and Jose Alvarado got the first two lefties out in the 9th, but righty pinch-hitter Sheldon Neuse singled and Alvarado stayed in to pitch to the righty Grichuk which backfired when he sent a double into the LF corner to score Neuse and win the game. Other than Hiura's 3-5, 2-run, 1-RBI day and Bohm's 2 RBI, Seth Beer was on base all four times with a pair of singles and a pair of walks but fill-ins Triston Casas and Heston Kjerstad remained cold, both with 0-fers and seeing their BAs drop to .206 and .218 respectively. Team record: 81-42. Next up: Back to the Trop to face Seattle for a 3-game weekend series. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-01-2020 at 05:01 PM.

09-01-2020, 06:34 PM	#202
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	August 23-25, 2024: vs Seattle (3) Game 1: It was the Tyler Glasnow show at the Trop tonight as the righthander pitched the best game of his career, a 6-0 1-hit shutout of the Seattle Mariners in which he walked 2 and struck out 9. It was his second career shutout and complete game after last year's 6-hitter against Minnesota. The only hit he allowed was a 3rd inning double to JP Crawford, and he was never in any trouble. The offense came early with a couple of runs in the 2nd on a Nick Schnell RBI double and a Meibrys Viloria groundout. Schnell added an RBI groundout in the 4th to make it 3-0 and a solo HR in the 6th. The other runs came on a Rafael Devers RBI double in the 5th and Vidal Brujan's 5th HR of the year in the 7th. But Glasnow was the story with his 112-pitch masterpiece that takes him to 11-3, 3.33 for the year with 163 Ks in 135 1/3 innings. Game 2: A pretty uninspiring performance tonight in a 6-1 loss. Walker Buehler was terrible, going 5 9 5 4 2 5 and very hittable again with the big blow a 3-run Daulton Varsho homer in the 4th to make it 4-1. The offense got some baserunners against Justus Sheffield thanks to 5 walks, but grounded into 4 (!) double plays, killing potential rally after potential rally. Their lone run came in the 1st on the typical Brujan single, stolen base, Wander infield single and Meadows sac fly. DL Hall pitched 3 scoreless innings with 2 walks and 5 Ks, and Mitchell Verburg was awful again, allowing 3 hits and a run in the 9th. He'll be heading down to Durham for Ian Hamilton as I've lost my patience with him. August 25: Optioned P Mitchell Verburg to AAA Durham, activated P Ian Hamilton from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham. Verburg is probably back up on September 1 when we have roster expansion. Game 3: For the longest time it looked like the Rays would waste an absolutely brilliant performance from Matt Manning but single runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th allowed them to pull out a 3-2 come-from-behind walk-off win over Seattle at the Trop. Manning went 7 3 2 1 0 11 with the damage against him a first inning HR from Mike Brosseau and an unearned run in the 3rd when a Brujan error led to a Brosseau sac fly. Nick Margevicius was giving the Rays the usual lefty fits until the 7th, when Brandon Marsh doubled home Alec Bohm. Will Smith pitched a perfect 9th against 3 lefties, and the Rays tied it in the 8th when Keibert Ruiz singled in Wander who had doubled. Jasseel De La Cruz pitched a perfect 9th inning with a whiff, and the wildness of Seattle closer Taylor Guilbeau enabled the Rays to pull it out. With one out Nick Schnell singled, went to second on a wild pitch, and then to third on a Marsh single. With Vidal Brujan at the plate, Guilbeau threw a second wild pitch to allow Schnell to score, and the Trop went crazy. De La Cruz picked up his first win of the season for his efforts, and the Rays ended up taking 5 of 6 from Seattle on the season. Team record: 83-43. Next up: An off day, then the Blue Jays come to town for 3. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-01-2020 at 10:42 PM.

09-02-2020, 08:46 AM	#203
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	August 27-29, 2024: vs Toronto (3) Game 1: The Rays came up just short in all phases of the game, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Blue Jays, who have suddenly won three straight against them after dropping 13 of the first 14 this season. The only offense came via the longball, on a pair of solo HRs by Wander (giving him 22) and #10 from Keibert Ruiz. They had some other baserunners, but hit into 2 double plays and had 2 runners thrown out attempting to steal by Toronto's Alejandro Kirk. Meanwhile Daniel Lynch gave up a 2-run shot in the first inning to Willie Calhoun, and then ran into some trouble in the 6th and Mitch Keller allowed one of his runners to score to tie the game. And then Keller served up a solo blast to dead center from Vlad Jr. in the 7th to provide the winning run. Will Smith had a 1-2-3 8th and Sandy Gaston likewise in the 9th but the offense couldn't get anything done against Simeon Woods Richardson and a couple of relievers. Game 2: This game was effectively over in the first inning when the Rays jumped on Matt Wisler for 6 runs and cruised to an 8-3 win. Vidal Brujan led off the game for the Rays with a HBP and scored on a Wander Franco double, and then two batters later Rafael Devers hit a 3-run shot (#19) to make it 4-0. Seth Beer added a 2-run single later in the inning and it was plenty of run support for Asa Lacy. The lefthander was wild but unhittable over the first 5 innings, walking 3 but taking a no-hitter into the 6th. The pitches caught up to him that inning as a leadoff walk and 3 singles allowed a couple runs to score, and Ian Hamilton took over and got him out of the inning as Lacy finished 5.1 3 2 2 4 5 to go to 7-1. Hamilton had his own troubles in the 7th giving up a run but Will Smith took over and got 4 outs through the 8th and Sandy Gaston had a perfect 9th to finish it off. Nick Schnell added HR #15 in the 3rd and Brujan had an RBI single in the 8th to round out the scoring. Game 3: The Rays closed out the season series with Toronto with a 6-1 win to go 15-4 against the Jays this year. Keston Hiura was the offensive star today as his triple in the second scored Nick Schnell before he scored on a Vidal Brujan single, and in the 6th he blasted a 3-run HR (#9) to make a 2-1 game 5-1. Alec Bohm hit #23 for the 6th Rays run. On the mound Tyler Glasnow wasn't quite as brilliant as his last time out (a 1-hit shutout) but overcame some early wildness to go 6 4 1 1 3 8 and improve to 12-3, 3.25. DL Hall pitched the final 3 innings going 3 2 0 0 1 5 to pick up his first Rays save and lower his ERA with the team to 0.61 in 14 2/3 innings. Team record: 85-44. Next up: a lengthy Midwest road trip starts with a 3-game weekend set in St. Louis. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-02-2020 at 11:35 AM.

09-02-2020, 01:51 PM	#204
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	August 30-September 1, 2024: at St. Louis (3) Game 1: The Rays visited St. Louis for the first time in 3 years and found several ex-Rays waiting for them. Joey Gallo is the leftfielder, Brad Hand and Matthew Liberatore are in their bullpen and they'll face Noah Syndergaard on Sunday. But tonight was another problematic start for one of their relative newcomers, Walker Buehler. He's been consistenly inconsistent in terms of getting hit hard and tonight he gave up 5 runs on 6 hits (5 doubles) in 5 innings as the Rays lost 8-4. He got his usual strikeouts (6) and only walked one but so many times this season he's been too hittable and his Rays ERA is too high at 4.20. The 5 runs all came in the first 3 innings putting the team in a hole from which they could never recover. Wander's 3rd hit of the game, a double in the 6th, ignited a brief 2-run rally in which Austin Meadows doubled him home and scored on a Rafael Devers single, but Sandy Gaston gave up a 3-run HR to Paul DeJong in the 8th to make it 8-2. Keibert Ruiz's 2-run pinch-hit single in the 9th off Liberatore accounted for the other Rays runs. If this is a possible World Series matchup we might not want to have Buehler pitch Game 1 here. August 31: Sent OF Spencer Torkelson to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment. It'll be good to get Tork back, both for his power and his right-handed bat. He'll get a week at least to get at-bats and shake the rust off, and when he comes back expect Heston Kjerstad to go back down. The idea right now for September expansion is to bring up Shane McClanahan and put him back in the rotation pending Dustin May's return, which is still the better part of 2 weeks away and he'll need a rehab start or two in Durham (thankfully they'll be in the playoffs come mid-September). The other expansion spot will probably go to Mitchell Verburg. Game 2: Today's game featured an A+ pitching matchup of Matt Manning vs Jack Flaherty, and it lived up to billing, including both pitchers driving in runs off the other. The game itself was one of the best and most well-played of the year as these two World Series contenders battled tooth and nail until the Rays broke through in the top of 11th and pulled out a 3-2 win. The game was scoreless until the 5th when Nick Schnell doubled and with two out, Manning picked up his first career extra-base hit, doubling down the LF line to score Schnell. But perhaps the baserunning tired him out a bit as St. Louis scored 2 off him in the bottom of the frame, including an RBI single poked to right by Flaherty. Schnell was involved again when the Rays tied it in the 7th. He singled, went to second on a groundout, and scored on Vidal Brujan's single with two out. So on and on we went. Manning left with a fine 6 6 2 2 1 8 line, Nick Anderson got the Rays through the 7th and Jose Alvarado did likewise in the 8th. In the bottom of the ninth with two lefties due up Will Smith got the call and not only pitched a perfect 9th but ended up getting the Cards 1-2-3 in the 10th as well. This set the stage for the game-winner as Brandon Marsh doubled and scored on another Brujan RBI single, off former Rays closer Brad Hand. Jasseel De La Cruz got St. Louis 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to nab save #24 while Smith grabbed his 2nd win. Brujan also stole his 50th base of the season earlier in the game. September 1: Recalled Ps Shane McClanahan and Mitchell Verburg from AAA Durham. The predicted roster expansion callups. McClanahan will start Monday in Kansas City and he's tentatively scheduled to face former Ray Drew Strotman. Some news from the minors: Davis was the guy Cleveland gave us for Jose Abreu, and he's turned into yet another OF that can play at the MLB level that we're going to have to do something with. Also in the monthly scouting update I received today he was upgraded to 65 power and 55 contact. Next year is the final year of Austin Meadows' contract and someone's going to need to play RF in 2026. So put him in the pile with Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad. And here you thought when we moved guys like Kirlloff and Larnach we cleared some of the glut. As you may remember Tanner Witt was our #1 pick back in 2020 (that sounds funny right now IRL 2020) and he's slowly but steadily progressed one rung at a time. He's a legit 3B already rated at 55 defense there and of course Rafael Devers will probably decline his player option for next season so we'll need a long-term 3B (Triston Casas is Plan B right now). Witt won't be ready next year (and I may have to leave him unprotected for Rule 5 but he seems too raw and low-level for the AI to grab him) but 2026 isn't out of the question. Game 3: Daniel Lynch had a day at the ballpark as the Rays took 2 of 3 from a tough Cardinals team with a 4-1 win. Lynch went 6 5 1 0 1 6 with the only run scoring in the first thanks to a pair of errors behind him. And like Matt Manning yesterday, Lynch came through at the plate as well with his 5th inning RBI single the game-winning hit. Lynch was matched up against last year's Rays ace, Noah Syndergaard, but Thor had to leave in the 5th with elbow inflammation and they took advantage of reliever Alvaro Seijas for that run and another in the 7th when Brandon Marsh singled in Nick Schnell, who had doubled. Wander added HR #23 off Hector Neris in the 8th inning to cap the scoring. Earlier, Wander had singled off Syndergaard in the 1st, stole second, and scored on an Austin Meadows double. The troika got them through the final 3 innings although Jose Alvarado had his struggles, loading the bases with a pair of walks and 2 out before Nick Anderson got Ian Happ to fly out. Anderson stayed on and pitched a perfect 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz did it again for save #25, throwing a perfect inning with a pair of whiffs. Lynch improves to 11-6, 3.39 and although the advanced metrics don't like him (1.0 WAR, 4.60 FIP) he keeps getting it done. Team record: 87-45. Next up: 3 games in Kansas City where we get to see more old friends, such as Drew Strotman who's scheduled to start tomorrow night, Xavier Edwards, 2nd in the AL in batting at .328 and on pace for nearly a 6 WAR season (just in case anyone out there thinks I ripped off the AI for Spencer Torkelson), JJ Bleday, whom we traded away twice and is 278/323/523 with 17 HR and 61 RBI and last but not least Ronaldo Hernandez, who is doing a little better with the Royals since the trade, with 3 HR and 9 RBI in 57 AB (218/246/400) but still nothing like his 2022-23 production. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-02-2020 at 05:01 PM.

09-02-2020, 08:49 PM	#205
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 2-4, 2024: at Kansas City (3) Game 1: The Rays treated Royals starter and former teammate Drew Strotman rudely but it didn't matter in the end as the "B" bullpen blew up in an 8-5 loss to Kansas City. Vidal Brujan led off the game with HR #6 and Nick Schnell hit a 2-run shot for #16 off Strotman in the 2nd as they got to him for 5 runs in 5 innings, but with Alvarado, Anderson and De La Cruz all tired from having pitched the last two days they were going to have to rely on other relievers and it didn't go too well. Shane McClanahan got the start and wasn't terribly sharp, going 5 6 3 3 3 3 but left with a 5-3 lead. Asa Lacy, whose spot in the rotation he took, did well getting through the 6th but gave up a HR to Bobby Witt Jr to lead off the 7th, then a triple to Kevin Smith who scored on a sac fly to tie it up. Mitch Keller relieved him and got out of the seventh but made a mess loading the bases with nobody out in the 8th and all 3 runners scored as Will Smith allowed the last of them on another Smith triple. Smith also homered off McClanahan in the 5th as he had quite the game. The other two Rays runs came on a Seth Beer RBI single and a double play groundout, but they only managed 1 hit in the final 4 innings against the Royals bullpen. Game 2: Another loss for the Rays as their primary bullpen guys were tired for a second day after pitching two straight in St. Louis. They fought back from falling behind 4-0 after an unfortunately timed error and passed ball to come back and tie the game in the 7th, but Ian Hamilton came in and hit Bobby Witt Jr with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th to force in the winning run. Tyler Glasnow got the start and a Vidal Brujan error cost him a run in the 1st, then KC picked up 3 runs with 2 out when the leadoff man in the inning should have been retired on a strikeout but Keibert Ruiz's passed ball allowed him to reach. Glasnow ended up 7 6 4 1 2 10 as he largely pitched well but did let things snowball after the passed ball. A Brandon Marsh RBI single in the 5th got the Rays on the board and then an Austin Meadows RBI double and a Nick Schnell infield single made it 4-3 in the 6th, before Meadows singled in Wander, who had doubled in the 7th, to tie it. Will Smith got through the 8th, and then in the 9th he remained in having only thrown 10 pitches. After a 1-out single, he got Khalil Lee to ground out moving the runner up to 2nd, so Xavier Edwards was intentionally walked to create a force and bring up lefty JJ Bleday. Bleday managed an infield single to load the bases, and Hamilton came in to face Witt, and the HBP on his first pitch immediately ended things. Meadows, Wander and Schnell each had 3 hits on the night but it wasn't enough. Tonight's loss equaled the number they had last season when they went 115-47. Game 3: A pitchers' duel between Walker Buehler and Daniel Tillo, and the Rays had the edge with a 2-1 victory. Nick Schnell hit HR #17 in the 3rd and Austin Meadows blasted #28 in the 4th for the two Rays runs while Buehler overcame a bit of a rough start to go 8 5 1 1 1 6. Buehler allowed all 5 hits in the first 3 innings, including 3 in the 3rd when the Royals managed their only run. From there on out the Rays usually had at least one man on each inning but couldn't push anyone across, making it a tense game until the very end. Jasseel De La Cruz once again whiffed a pair in a perfect ninth to nail down the save, his 26th. Schnell was 2-2 with a walk and a stolen base to go with the homer to pace the offense while Buehler now evens his Rays record at 7-7, 4.02. Team record: 88-47. Next up: An off-day followed by a weekend in the Windy City against the White Sox for 3 games. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-03-2020 at 09:44 AM.

09-03-2020, 10:47 AM	#206
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 6-8, 2024: at Chicago White Sox (3) Game 1: Matt Manning made a couple of mistake pitches and paid for it today as the White Sox beat the Rays 7-4. After Brandon Marsh's solo HR in the top of the 3rd tied the game at 1, Manning allowed a couple of base hits in front of Eloy Jimenez and the power-hitting OF took him deep for HR #36 to make it 4-1. Later rookie Collin Montez hit his 21st to make it 5-1 and the Rays could never recover. They did scratch out 3 runs in the top of sixth to get within 5-4 thanks to an error and a couple of wild pitches around a Vidal Brujan RBI single (the third of his three hits), but Manning put the first two on in the 7th and DL Hall gave up a 2-out Jason Heyward single to score them both, leaving Manning with a 5.1 8 7 7 0 7 line. Hall stayed on to whiff 4 in 1 2/3 innings and Will Smith had a perfect 2K inning. The Rays could have had more runs but left 10 men on the base, just about all of them in the early innings, while the Sox maximized their offense, only leaving 2 on. September 7: Actived OF Spencer Torkelson from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned OF Heston Kjerstad to AAA Durham. Great to have Tork back. He ended up playing 7 games at Durham and although he started off slowly he hit 2 doubles and a HR last night so I think he's ready. I'll probably stick him in the lineup tonight at DH. Kjerstad had kind of rotted on the bench lately and will be back to help Durham go for a third straight International League championship and fourth straight finals appearance. Side note: I let the AI sign minor league free agents and they signed Chris Sale the other day. Obviously he's a shell of his former self but I found it interesting. Game 2: The Rays scored 5 runs in the first inning and never looked back as they blasted the White Sox 11-3. Nick Schnell stayed scorching hot with the big hit of the game, a two-out 3-run HR (#18) in the first inning off Williams Perez. Keibert Ruiz also homered (#11) and drove in two runs, Austin Meadows had an RBI triple and sac fly to bring his season RBI to 98, Wander had a pair of RBI doubles and Vidal Brujan scored 3 times to pace the offense. The only one not hitting was Spencer Torkelson, who had a rough return to the lineup going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. All this run support made a winner of Daniel Lynch, who wasn't dominating but once again met the bare definition of a quality start going 6 6 3 3 3 5 to improve to 12-6, 3.43. Mitchell Verburg, Ian Hamilton (against his old team) and Sandy Gaston each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game off. Baltimore lost so the Rays' magic # for clinching their third straight division title and fourth in five years is 12. Game 3: Shane McClanahan was brilliant today as the Rays shut out the White Sox 5-0. The lefty had perhaps his best MLB start with a 7 5 0 0 1 8 performance, improving to 3-2, 2.95 in 10 starts. Austin Meadows supplied all the offense he would need with a first inning solo blast (#29) off Codi Heuer, and he scored in the 3rd when his double was followed by one from Rafael Devers. Spencer Torkelson added his own RBI double in the 8th to give the Rays a little breathing room, and then Triston Casas (#5) and Brandon Marsh (#6) went deep in the 9th to expand the lead. Nick Anderson came in at 3-0 and got his MLB-leading 26th hold with a scoreless inning, and Mitch Keller struck out the side around a walk and a hit in the 9th to complete the team shutout. An Orioles loss means the magic # is down to 10. Team record: 90-48. Next up: Back home for 3 against the central-leading Minnesota Twins. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-03-2020 at 08:56 PM.

09-03-2020, 05:23 PM	#207
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 9-11, 2024: vs Minnesota (3) Game 1: There's no way to sugarcoat it, the Rays were absolutely clobbered by Minnesota 11-5 at the Trop. The Twins hit 7 doubles and 4 HRs among their 19 hits as Tyler Glasnow and 3 Rays relievers just didn't have it tonight. Glasnow went 3.2 10 6 6 1 5 and gave up runs in each of the four innings he pitched in, although the Rays managed to pull within 6-4 after 4 on a 2-run double from Brandon Marsh. But Travis Swaggerty hit the 2nd of his 2 homers, a 3-run shot off Asa Lacy in the 6th, making it 9-4 and effectively ending the game. Swaggerty also had 2 doubles while Glasnow gave up a very long HR to Andrew Benintendi and DL Hall served up a 3-run shot to JD Martinez in the 8th. To make matters worse, Hall tore an elbow ligament on the pitch, and will miss the rest of this season and all of 2025 as well. Lacy allowed 5 runs in his 2 innings, Mitchell Verburg didn't allow any runs of his own but gave up 3 hits to allow a couple of Lacy's to score. On offense, Vidal Brujan and Keston Hiura had RBI hits, and Keibert Ruiz hit #12 in the 8th for the 5th Rays run, but it was a terrible day at the Trop. September 10: Placed P DL Hall on 60-day IL with a torn elbow ligament, recalled IF Greg Jones from AAA Durham. As mentioned earlier, Hall is done for 2025 as well and hopefully he can regain his stuff after the surgery. Jones was our #1 pick in 2019 and steadily climbed the ladder until stalling out at Durham the last couple of years. He's a switch-hitter, has 75 base-stealing speed and can hit some (60 gap power and 55 eye, albeit with a lot of swing and miss) and he can play 2B, SS and CF passably so he can be a useful player. Game 2: After being blown out by the Twins last night, the Rays returned the favor although tonight's game was much closer for much longer before the Rays broke it open to win 8-1. The first inning saw the prototypical Rays run when Vidal Brujan led off with a single, stole 2nd (#51) and scored on Austin Meadows' 100th RBI of the season, a single. Nick Schnell (3 more hits tonight, he's unconscious) and Seth Beer singled to lead off the 5th and Brujan singled home Schnell to make it 2-0 in the 5th. The Twins got a run back in the 6th off Walker Buehler when Miguel Andujar tripled and scored on Andrew Benintendi's single, but that was all Buehler gave up on the night as he actually strung together 2 dominant starts for the Rays, going 6 4 1 1 4 10 with 2 of those four walks leading off the 7th when he was pulled for Jose Alvarado, who quelled the budding Twins rally with 3 up, 3 down. And that set the stage for the bottom of the 7th when the Rays went to town on starter Jhoan Duran and (mainly) rookie reliever Jordan Wicks. Brandon Marsh led off with a walk and Wicks came on, proceeded to give up a double to Brujan to put men at 2nd and 3rd, and then the odd decision to intentionally walk Wander to load the bases for Meadows. It was to set up lefty against lefty with Meadows and Rafael Devers due up next, but Meadows singled to score Marsh and Devers walked forcing in Brujan. The Twins got a force at the plate from Keibert Ruiz, but Alec Bohm's sac fly scored Meadows to make it 5-1, Schnell doubled in two more off Franklin Dacosta (a long-ago farmhand I traded away), and Beer singled in Schnell and it was 8-1. Sandy Gaston pitched the final 2 innings, whiffing 4 to finish off the game. The magic # is down to 8. Game 3: It was quite the pitchers' duel tonight as Zack Godley and Matt Manning were each unhittable for long stretches, but the Twins ended up prevailing 3-1 in 11 innings. Nick Gordon had an RBI single off Manning in the 2nd but that was all he gave up as he went 8 3 0 0 1 12 in one of his best performances of the season. But not to be undone was Godley, who retired the first 17 Rays he faced until Brandon Marsh's 2-out single in the 6th. Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 9th and it went 1-0 into the bottom of the ninth when singles by Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco put men on 1st and 3rd with nobody out, and Austin Meadows' sac fly scored Brujan to tie it. Edwin Diaz got the Rays from there, and after Jasseel De La Cruz escaped a jam of his own making with help from Marsh gunning down Miguel Andujar at the plate, we went to the 11th. Will Smith came in with lefties due up, and he allowed a pair of singles to two of them with one out. He whiffed Matt Olson to get the second out, but Andujar made up for being thrown out at the plate by lining a 2-run double that just eluded Meadows. Brujan reached to lead off the 11th for the Rays but was erased when Wander grounded into a DP; however Meadows walked and Rafael Devers doubled to put the tying runs in scoring position but Keibert Ruiz flied to center to end the game. The game obviously meant more to the Twins, who needed the win to stay 2 behind Detroit in the AL Central, while the Rays still reduced their magic # to 7 as the Orioles lost. Team record: 91-50. Up next: an off-day followed by a weekend set in Beantown with the Red Sox. It's been a while since I posted the standings, so here they are as we come down the stretch: None of the divisions are in much doubt except the AL Central, and Baltimore, Minnesota and Seattle are fighting over two wild card spots. The Mets have an outside division shot in the NL but look more likely the wild card with Arizona fighting off the Miami Roughnecks for wild card #2. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-03-2020 at 11:27 PM.

09-04-2020, 11:36 AM	#208
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	Durham Playoff Update Since they played Wednesday night and again on Thursday on our off-day, I'll give them a separate post for these first 2 games against Indianapolis in the first round, the team they beat for the title last season. Game 1: The Rays' top pitching prospect, Mack Anglin, got the start and he was overpowering. Unfortunately he wasn't efficient and while he pitched well he only lasted 5 innings, going 5 4 1 1 4 8. He left with a 3-1 lead but unfortunately Luke Little and Dany Jimenez combined to allow 4 runs in the 7th and 8th and the Bulls dropped Game 1 of the best-of-5 series 5-3. The offense only managed 4 hits with the biggest of them being Bramdon Perez's 2-run single which temporarily put them in front. Game 2: The Bulls got another dominant but relatively short performance from a starter but this time scored enough runs to support him as they evened the series with Indianapolis at 1 with a 6-2 win. Seth Johnson was excellent, no-hitting Indy through 5 innings before allowing a run in the sixth and leaving at 6 1 1 1 2 5 on 98 pitches. Bramdon Perez stayed hot with a 2-run HR to put them up 3-0 and Tyler Frank also drilled a 2-run shot and later added an RBI single to pace the offense. Garrett Mitchell got on in front of these guys several times and stole 4 bases, going 2-3 with 3 runs scored. Nick Frasso picked up the save after Grant Gambrell put the first 2 runners on in the 9th as we head back to Durham even. Dustin May gets a rehab start in Game 3.

09-04-2020, 12:29 PM	#209
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 13-15, 2024: at Boston (3) Game 1: Wander Franco had himself a day, tying the Rays' single-game record for RBI in a game with 8, as the Rays shellacked the Sox 13-1 at Fenway. They jumped on Justin Dunn early as Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Rafael Devers single, then Keibert Ruiz singled in Devers who went to second on the throw home. Seth Beer took Dunn deep in the 2nd over the Monster with HR #8 to make it 4-0 and then Wander went to work. He had a 2-run double in the 4th, a grand slam (#24) in the 5th, and a 2-run single in 7th to tie Ben Zobrist's team single-game RBI record set in 2011. Coasting with all this run support was Daniel Lynch, who went the distance throwing only 98 pitches. Only a Xander Bogaerts RBI single in the 6th kept Lynch from throwing a Maddux, as he went 9 6 1 1 0 3 to improve to 13-6, 3.30. Greg Jones came on in the 7th for Brujan to make his MLB debut, and singled in his first big league at-bat. Also it turned out to be a milestone win for me, my 500th as Rays manager. Baltimore lost again (more significantly to them for their wild card chances) so the magic # drops to 5. Game 2: Trailing 4-2 going into the 6th, the Rays turned it around with 7 runs between the 6th and 8th and won 9-5. Wander Franco remained hot, going 3-4 with 2 RBI and Shane McClanahan pitched about as well as you can while still giving up 5 earned runs to get the win. After Alec Bohm tripled and scored on a groundball and Wander drove in Keston Hiura to put the Rays up 2-0, McClanahan was the victim of some hit sequencing (as well as a passed ball) in the 3rd which allowed Boston to score 4 times on 4 hits, on a 2-run double from Ryan Mountcastle and a 2-run single from rookie Pierson Gibis. It stayed that way until the 6th, when the Rays busted out for 4 runs against starter Pablo Lopez. The Rays loaded the bases with 1 out and Lopez walked Spencer Torkelson to force in a run before Hiura (giving Vidal Brujan a day off) got the 3rd of his 3 hits on the day, a 2-run single to put the Rays up 5-4 and which Wander followed up with an RBI single. They added 3 more in the 8th on a 2-run single by Austin Meadows and a Keibert Ruiz RBI single. As mentioned, McClanahan was great outside that sequence in the 3rd and allowing a run to score on a wild pitch in the 7th; he ended up 7 6 5 5 0 6 to improve to 4-2. Mitch Keller pitched 2 scoreless innings to finish the game. Baltimore won so the magic # is 4. Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls won the pivotal Game 3 by a score of 2-1 to go up 2-1 in their first-round series. Durham pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts and leading the parade was starter Dean Christidis (acquired from the White Sox in the Rylan Bannon deal) who went 6 3 0 0 3 10. Dany Jimenez struck out the side in the 7th, and after Luke Little allowed an Indianapolis run in the 8th, Nick Frasso shut the door in the 9th by also striking out the side around a base hit. The Bulls got both their runs in the 5th inning on back-to-back doubles from Yordys Valdes and Patrick Dorrian, and then Bramdon Davis picked up his 5th RBI of the series with a sac fly scoring Dorrian. I misspoke about Dustin May starting last time, he had one more injury day so he'll be the rehab starter in Game 4 as the Bulls look to close it out and advance to the finals. September 15: Activated P Dustin May from the 15-day IL and sent him on a rehab assignment to AAA Durham. As just mentioned, May will start tonight for Durham, and assuming they win the series they're up 2-1 in, he should get another rehab start in the International League finals. This would enable him to possibly start during the last 7-10 days of the season, but with how well Daniel Lynch has pitched lately, the lefty looks like the choice for #4 playoff starter over May, meaning May likely works out of the pen. Game 3: The Rays annihilated Boston 20-0, completing a sweep which saw them score 42 runs in the 3 games (you'd think they were in Rogers Centre or something). And this was 20 runs with Austin Meadows, Alec Bohm and Keibert Ruiz all getting the day off. Ruiz's understudy, Mebrys Viloria, had a career day missing the cycle by a single as he doubled, tripled and hit his first Rays HR around the Pesky Pole to drive in 4 runs, the very warm Seth Beer had a mammoth 3-run blast to CF for #9, Triston Casas homered against his old team, etc. etc. The Rays were up 11-0 after 2 innings and had the 20 through 6, courteously refusing to score over the final 3 innings. Tyler Glasnow got the start and went the minimum 5 innings to get the win, going 5 4 0 0 2 5 to improve to 13-4, 3.32. Asa Lacy went 3 1 0 0 2 5 and Mitchell Verburg pitched a perfect 9th to wrap up another team shutout. Here's the Rays batting section of the box score to take in and admire: Team record: 94-50. Next up: back to St. Pete for 3 games with another once-formidable AL East team down on its luck, the Yankees. Durham Playoffs/Dustin May rehab update: May got the start and went 4.2 3 1 1 4 1 on 76 pitches so he was a little wild but was able to limit the damage, and that was the only run Indianapolis scored as Durham eked out another 2-1 win to take the first round series 3 games to 1. The Bulls only managed 2 hits, but they were big hits as they came in a 2-run first inning. Tyler Frank led off the game with a walk and was forced by Bramdon Perez who scored on Nick Gonzales' double, and Chris Betts singled home Gonzales. They were no-hit the rest of the way but the Bulls' staff managed to hang on, including one real Houdini act from Emerson Hancock, who would have started had May not been rehabbing. In the 6th Hancock loaded the bases on walks with nobody out, but got an Indy hitter to line one at SS Yordys Valdes, who doubled off the man on 2nd, and then he struck out the last hitter. Luke Little bounced back from 2 outings allowing a run to get key outs in the 8th and the leadoff man in the 9th, and Nick Frasso got the final two outs to clinch the game and the series. They will play the Phillies' AAA affiliate, Lehigh Valley, in the finals as they seek a third straight IL title. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-04-2020 at 04:29 PM.

09-04-2020, 05:22 PM	#210
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 16-18, 2024: vs NY Yankees (3) Game 1: Yeah, this happened: Buehler had been on a bit of a roll lately, but this was ridiculous. The first Rays no-hitter I've had since starting this in the 2020 season, and only the second in the club's history after Matt Garza's on July 26, 2010. This also might have been the most dominating pitching performance I've seen in all the games I've played as well, as the only batters to reach were Andrew Knizner leading off the 3rd on Buehler's own fielding error and a one-out walk to Hyo-Jun Park in the 9th. Buehler's game score was 102, also a Rays record. And he did it on a relatively economical 116 pitches as well. Granted this isn't your older brother's Yankees team but it still had Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Knizner, who's a proven .280-.290 hitter, in the lineup. Also his 16 whiffs broke the club record of 15, last accomplished by Chris Archer in 2015. Buehler got the 6 runs of support mainly from Alec Bohm and Austin Meadows, as Meadows and Bohm doubled for a run in the 1st, Meadows had a 2-run HR in the 5th (#30) following a solo shot from Brandon Marsh (#7) to make a 1-0 games 4-0, and Bohm had a 2-run single in the 7th. Baltimore won so they prevented tonight from being a double celebration, but the magic # is down to 1. Game 2: Well the champagne will have to chill for another night as the Yankees edged the Rays 3-2 and Baltimore won as well. Matt Manning pitched decently but Trevor Bauer was a little better. The Yankees finally got their first hit of the series when Giancarlo Stanton led off the 2nd with a double over Brandon Marsh's head, Skyler Messinger doubled him home, and old friend Brandon Lowe doubled home Messinger to make it 2-0. Seth Beer continued his renaissance with 3 more hits tonight, including an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd that made it 2-1, but Andrew Knizner tripled in Lowe to make it 3-1 in the 5th. Keibert Ruiz hit #12 off Bauer in the bottom of the 6th to get it to 3-2, but that's as close as they got. Beer singled to lead off the 9th, and Greg Jones came in to pinch-run for him and got his first MLB steal, but was stranded at 2nd as the game ended. Manning ended a decent 7 5 3 3 2 7, and although the Rays were trailing Alvarado and Anderson pitched the 8th and 9th as they hadn't worked in quite a while and there's an off-day Thursday. Beer, whose average dipped to .205 on July 29, has gone 37 for his last 100 with 4 HR and 14 RBI. The homers are down, partially due to the somewhat-suppressed HR environment I chose for the season, but he's reasserted himself as a fixture against RH pitchers. Durham Playoff Update: Mack Anglin surrendered a first-inning grand slam to former Yankee Gio Urshela and Durham continued to struggle at the plate, falling 6-1 to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in the opener of the International League best-of-5 finals. The Bulls once again managed a mere 3 hits, and only Chris Betts' HR averted the shutout. Star prospects Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad are now a combined 1-for-33 in the postseason and if they don't start hitting soon it's going to be a short series. Game 3: The Rays won the division today, thanks to a complete game 9-hit shutout from Daniel Lynch as they downed the Yankees 5-0. Lynch was pushed a bit, going 123 pitches, but went 9 9 0 0 0 11 for his first complete-game shutout since his debut 1-hitter last season with the Rays against Oakland. It was also Lynch's 2nd straight complete game as he's now 14-6, 3.13. The Rays came out aggressively, with Vidal Brujan walking to lead off the game and stealing 2nd, and then after Wander walked, they pulled off a double steal with Brujan scoring on a wild throw. This rattled starter Shawn Semple, who then gave up a 2-run HR to Austin Meadows (#31), Alec Bohm had an RBI single in the 4th and then Wander doubled in Brujan (who reached all 4 times he was up) for his 100th RBI on the season and the final run in the 7th. As Lynch got Skyler Messinger to fly out to center to end the game, the celebrations began as the Rays won the division for the third straight year, and fourth in the last five, as they look to defend their 2023 World Series title. Team record: 96-51. Next up: An off-day at home, followed by the Red Sox visiting for a weekend series. Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls still aren't hitting much (only 6 tonight) but did enough to even the IL Finals at a game apiece with Lehigh Valley thanks to a 3-1 win. Seth Johnson was the starter (and star) tonight for Durham. After giving up a 1st-inning HR to Jordan Groshans, Johnson was untouchable after that as he went 7 4 1 1 0 5. Dany Jimenez struck out the side in the 8th and Nick Frasso nailed down the save in the 9th. Bramdon Perez scored on a passed ball to tie in the 1st after Nick Gonzales doubled him to 3rd, and Tyler Frank singled in Dylan Davis in the 4th with what proved to be the winning run. They added some insurance in the 7th when Garrett Mitchell reached on a two-base throwing error and scored on Perez's sac fly. Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad were a combined 0-7 tonight and are now a combined 1-40 in the playoffs, yet Durham finds itself on equal footing in the series, although two of the next 3 are in Lehigh Valley. Dustin May will get another rehab start in Game 3 in two days' time. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-04-2020 at 09:14 PM.

09-05-2020, 09:58 AM	#211
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 20-22, 2024: vs Boston (3) Game 1: With the division clinched it was time to empty the bench so Vidal Brujan, Wander Franco, Austin Meadows, Rafael Devers and Keibert Ruiz all got the day off. It didn't matter as the Rays rode the strong pitching of Shane McClanahan and the bat of Spencer Torkelson to a 3-1 win over Boston. The lefty held Boston in check, going 6 3 1 1 3 7 on 102 pitches, and the troika took over with scoreless innings from Anderson, Alvarado and De La Cruz. In a nice bit of symmetry, the first two each picked up their 27th hold of the season while De La Cruz got his 27th save. Mac is now 5-2, 3.17 in his 12 starts. Torkelson took Pablo Lopez deep for a 2-run blast (#13) in the 2nd inning to provide all the offense needed and the homer was the first of his hits on a 3-3 night (and also his first since returning from a couple of months on the IL). Nick Schnell doubled in Brandon Marsh in the 8th for a little insurance. It so happened Schnell's double was his 27th of the year for all you numerologists out there. Durham Playoff Update: Dustin May's second rehab start was a disaster, going 3.2 7 6 6 1 2, and he put Durham in a hole they couldn't climb out of in a 6-5 loss to Lehigh Valley which now means they have to win the next 2 to take the title. After May left they were down 6-1 and mounted a valiant comeback. Nick Gonzales had 4 hits and scored twice, Noah Cardenas (in his AAA debut after being recalled due to injuries) had a 2-run double, and Hunter Bishop and Heston Kjerstad actually had RBI hits but it wasn't enough. Game 4 tomorrow is now a must-win and Dean Christidis will get the start. Game 2: I'm treating these games now a bit like spring training, so that was one of the reasons why the Red Sox took a back-and-forth game from the Rays 7-6 today. Since the troika pitched last night, I decided not to push them again so Mitch Keller was on in the 9th and in his second inning of work he gave up a 2-run HR to Williams Astudillo (his 1st of the year) to give the Sox the win. Of course had Rafael Devers not thrown away an easy groundball to lead off the inning, Astudillo's HR would have been a solo shot at best. Tyler Glasnow started and was off his game today, going 4.2 6 4 4 5 5 on 111 pitches. Will Smith blew the lead in the 7th before Keller came on, but Alec Bohm's pinch-hit sac fly in the bottom of the inning gave the Rays a 6-5 lead. Earlier Triston Casas had a bases-clearing double, and Austin Meadows and Keibert Ruiz had RBI singles. Vidal Brujan had 3 hits and 2 steals to add to his MLB-leading total of 57. And Wander Franco had to leave the game legging out an infield single in the 1st, he has a sore groin and will be out 4 days as the goal for the remaining 13 games is to remain injury-free. Durham Playoff Update: Winners of the last two IL titles and finalists the year before that, the Durham Bulls would not go quietly into that good night as they evened up their best-of-5 series with Lehigh Valley at 2 by shutting out the Iron Pigs 3-0. Dean Christidis had his second scoreless start of the playoffs, going 6.2 3 0 0 4 7 as he saved Durham's season. Luke Little pitched the final 2 1/3, striking out 3 for the save. As has been the case lately, offense was a challenge for the Bulls but three homers got the job done including 2 from Chris Betts with the other coming from the awakening Hunter Bishop. Heston Kjerstad, however, seems to remain a lost cause as he went 0-4 with 3 whiffs making him 1 for 31 this postseason. Mack Anglin will try to bounce back from his bad Game 1 start in the decisive Game 5 in Durham in two days' time. Game 3: Austin Meadows sent the Trop crowd home happy as his RBI double in the bottom of the 12th drove in Keston Hiura with the winning run as the Rays edged the Red Sox 5-4 to take 2 of 3 in the weekend series. It looked like the Rays would coast to a win behind Walker Buehler, making his first start since Monday's 16-K no-hitter. He had no-hit stuff again but it was a bit uncontrollable today as he racked up quite a pitch count in going 6 3 0 0 4 12. Still the Rays took a 4-0 lead into the 8th but a couple of Red Sox rookies forced the game into extras. First, Baron Radcliff hit a 2-run HR off Sandy Gaston in the 8th to cut the lead in half, and then Jasseel De La Cruz had some uncharacteristic trouble in the 9th when he allowed an infield single to Jeter Downs leading off the inning and then served up a 2-run longball to pinch hitter Pierson Gibis. So on we went, Jose Alvarado, Will Smith and Ian Hamilton threw scoreless innings and then with 1 out in the bottom of the 12th, Hiura singled, stole second and then scored on Meadows' double. Earlier the Rays had scored on a double play grounder (after Greg Jones narrowly missed his first MLB HR, doubling off the top of the RF wall), a balk, and Alec Bohm's 24th HR of the season, a 2-run shot. Hamilton picked up his 3rd Rays win in the process, and Vidal Brujan had a 4-hit game. Team record: 98-52. Next up: Another off-day, followed by a 2-game visit from the Chicago Cubs. Final Durham Playoff Update: Mack Anglin got rocked for 4 runs in the first 2 innings, which was enough for Lehigh Valley to take a 4-1 win in the deciding game of the International League Championship Series and end Durham's 2-year reign atop the league. As it was throughout the playoffs, the Bulls' bats deserted them. They did manage 8 hits, but the only run came on a Chris Betts (one of the few who hit consistently) RBI single in the 7th. Hunter Bishop did have 3 hits including a double, and Heston Kjerstad managed a single to end the playoffs 2-37. Grant Gambrell deserves a shout for keeping them within striking distance by going 5 1 0 0 1 6 in relief of Anglin as the Bulls will have to console themselves with the knowledge they've made the finals four straight seasons. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-05-2020 at 03:27 PM.

09-05-2020, 04:13 PM	#212
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 24-25, 2024: vs Chicago Cubs (2) Game 1: Matt Manning pitched very well for 6 2/3 innings but the star of the show today was Spencer Torkelson, who was involved in all the Rays' scoring today in a 6-3 win over the Cubs. Tork's RBI groundout put the Rays up 1-0 in the 5th before Austin Riley's 2-run HR off Manning put the Cubs in front in the 6th. He and Nick Schnell singled in the 7th off Kyle Hendricks, went to 2nd & 3rd on Brandon Marsh's groundout and then both scored on Vidal Brujan's double to put the Rays up to stay 3-2. And in the bottom of the 8th with two men on, Tork drilled an 0-2 pitch from Riley Self into the LF stands to seal the win. Manning went 6.2 4 2 2 2 8 on 108 pitches but left after giving up a 2-out single. Mitchell Verburg got the final out and therefore the win, while Nick Anderson had a 1-2-3 2K 8th for a hold and after the lead expanded to 4, Mitch Keller pitched the 9th and gave up a run but nothing else. Keibert Ruiz had 3 hits and scored twice as well. Torkelson now has 14 HR in 210 AB and is slugging .567 which would be best on the team if he had enough ABs. Gonna be a tough call between him and the resurgent Seth Beer for the DH role against RHP come playoff time. Game 2: The Rays will have to wait at least another day for win #100 this season as the Cubs got the best of them in 12 innings, 9-6. The secondary bullpen couldn't get it done today, as Sandy Gaston gave up a 2-run HR to Austin Riley (who the Rays just couldn't get out) to put Chicago up 6-4, and then after the Rays rallied to tie it in the 9th off Cubs closer Mychal Givens with a pair of runs, Will Smith gave up a 2-run HR to Jordan Luplow in the 12th for the Cubs to prevail. In both cases the homers were allowed when each reliever was pushed to a second inning, but I did not want to burn through everyone today and in the case of Smith he had only thrown 10 pitches in getting through the 11th 1-2-3. The Rays jumped ahead 3-1 on a 3-run HR from Rafael Devers (#20) in the third but Daniel Lynch allowed the Cubs to tie in a scattershot 5 9 3 3 0 4 performance. Keston Hiura put the Rays back ahead in the bottom of the inning with a monster blast to dead center, his 10th HR of the year, but Ian Hamilton gave up a run in the 6th to let the Cubs tie at 4. Greg Jones had his first major league RBI with a single off Givens to tie it in the 9th, and Mebrys Viloria had a 3-hit game including the RBI single right before Jones to cut it to 6-5. Yesterday's hero Spencer Torkelson, however, got to hit cleanup as the likes of Meadows, Brujan, Ruiz and Marsh were given the day off and went 0-6 with 3 whiffs. Team record: 99-53. Next up: A visit to Charm City to take on the wild card-bound Orioles in a 4-game set. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-05-2020 at 05:08 PM.

09-05-2020, 07:32 PM	#213
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	September 26-29, 2024: at Baltimore (4) Game 1: Camden Yards is a tough place to pitch for an opponent, given the ballpark and Baltimore's power-laden lineup. But Shane McClanahan rose to the challenge, and although he did allow a couple of homers, he limited the damage to those alone and went 7 5 3 3 3 5 to lead the Rays to their 100th win of the season 8-3. Wander Franco had an RBI groundout and an RBI double around a 2-run Adley Rustchman HR in the 3rd which put us at 2-2 going into the 6th when the Rays erupted for 3 runs to take command of the game. Brandon Marsh had a 2-run single and Wander had a sac fly for his 3rd RBI of the day to make it 5-2. Jo Adell homered off McClanahan (now 6-2) in the 7th to make it 5-3 but Seth Beer got that run right back in the 8th with HR #10 of the season. Wander then doubled in the 9th and was driven in by an Austin Meadows single and then Keibert Ruiz drove home Meadows to cap the scoring. Nick Anderson pitched a scoreless 8th in a hold situation, and then with the 5-run lead Asa Lacy came on and had a 1-2-3 2K 9th to finish it off. Game 2: A typical Coors...er Camden Yards game with HRs galore, and Jo Adell's 2-run walkoff blast won it in the bottom of the 9th for the Orioles 7-5. Entering up 5-4, Jasseel De La Cruz blew his second straight save attempt, walking Mitch Haniger and giving up a single to Nick Williams to put runners at 1st and 3rd with nobody out. With the infield in he got CJ Chatman to ground out right at Wander Franco to keep the runner at 3rd but Williams moved up to 2nd. Bryan Stott singled to score Gunnar Henderson who had run for Haniger, but Greg Jones nailed Williams at the plate to keep the game tied. But Adell took De La Cruz's next pitch into the LF stands to win it. The Rays had built a 5-3 lead on solo HRs from Keston Hiura leading off the game (#11), Austin Meadows in the 1st (#32), Seth Beer (#11) in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers (#21) in the 6th along with a Mebrys Violria RBI single. Tyler Glasnow started and pitched well going 7 5 3 3 3 6 with the only damage a 3-run HR by Ray-for-a-little-while-in-2021 Haniger. Nick Anderson pitched the 8th and gave up a solo HR to Austin Hays to draw the O's within a run, and then of course they went to work on Jasseel in the bottom of the 9th. Vidal Brujan, Alec Bohm, Keibert Ruiz and Brandon Marsh were all rested tonight. With the AAA season ending, some notable vets who played at that level this year retired today: Chris Sale, Trevor Plouffe, Masahiro Tanaka, Danny Duffy, Kole Calhoun, Jose Abreu, and Shane Greene. Sale and Abreu played for Durham this year, the former very briefly and the latter we traded at midseason for Bramdon Perez. Plouffe and Greene were once Rays for a very short time. Game 3: With Wander and Austin Meadows already over 100 RBI, I was wondering whether Rafael Devers would get there as he needed 8 with 8 games left coming into tonight. Well he's 62.5% of the way there after tonight's 2-HR, 5-RBI night leading the Rays to a 7-4 win over the Orioles. He broke a 1-1 tie in the 3rd with a 2-run shot, and then after an Austin Meadows single put the Rays up 4-3 in the ninth he blasted a 3-run shot off Sam Delaplane for #23 and it turned out to be important as Baltimore scored a run in the 9th. Walker Buehler got the start for the Rays and while he wasn't as dominant as recent outings, he still turned in a decent 7 9 3 2 2 9 line. But he left the game 3-3 and after Sandy Gaston got through the 8th (on 8 pitches!) the Rays went to work in the 9th as Seth Beer led off with a single (with Greg Jones pinch-running for him). It didn't look good as Brandon Marsh and Vidal Brujan hit fly ball outs but Wander beat out an infield single, bringing up Meadows who singled to put them ahead and then Devers hit his 2nd HR. With only the 8 pitches in the 8th and a 4-run lead, Gaston came back for the 9th but loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk, single, and HBP so Jose Alvarado came on with a lefty due up. The Orioles instead pinch-hit Adley Rutschman but Alvarado got him to ground into a DP, scoring a run but neutralizing the threat, and then he got a fly ball for the final out and picked up save #4. Gaston still got the win, his 5th. Game 4: The Rays pounded Baltimore today 12-0 behind 7 shutout innings from Matt Manning and a 4-5 day from Spencer Torkelson. Manning was brilliant as usual, going 7 6 0 0 0 9 to improve to 11-6, 2.79 and Brandon Marsh had the big hit in the game, a bases-clearing double in the 2nd that put the Rays up 3-0. The first of Vidal Brujan's 3 hits on the day was an RBI single to drive in Marsh to make it 4-0, and he later stole base #59 and led off a 7-run 9th with his 7th HR of the season. Torkelson had 2 doubles and a triple among his four hits, driving in a pair, and Greg Jones went 3-5 with a steal and 2 RBI, which included his first MLB homer in the 9th. Mebrys Viloria had 3 hits too, as the Rays gave numerous starters a rest again today yet still banged out 19 hits. Only Nick Schnell at 0-5 didn't get in on the fun. One starter who didn't rest (since Triston Casas is nursing a sore back) was Rafael Devers and he crept closer to 100 RBI with his 98th today. Will Smith and Mitchell Verburg pitched scoreless innings to finish out the game. Team record: 102-54. Next up: our final off-day of the season before a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium to close out the road portion of the schedule. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-06-2020 at 01:07 PM.

09-06-2020, 01:28 PM	#214
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	One week to go. Here's where things stand in MLB going into the final week of the 2024 season: The playoff spots look set in both leagues. Detroit and Houston will face off as division winners in the ALDS, and the Rays will likely be playing the winner of the Seattle-Baltimore wild card game. Where that game takes place is up for grabs, and Seattle just suffered a big blow yesterday when former Ray benchwarmer-turned-near-superstar Mike Brosseau broke his hand after being hit by a pitch and will miss at least most of the playoffs (he could come back if Seattle makes the World Series). So it could be a rematch of last year's ALDS which the Rays escaped from after falling behind 0-2 in the series. In the NL the playoff teams are all set but only the Cardinals know they'll definitely be playing in the NLDS as the Braves and Mets go to the wire in the East along with the Dodgers and D-backs in the West, so plenty of drama there to win the division as opposed to playing in a one-game crapshoot. The Rays are well represented among the leaderboards and the WAR race is interesting. Royce Lewis will win it, but his numbers are not those of a traditional MVP at .310-13-74. A lot of his WAR is derived from his 70 defense at SS so it will interesting to see how the MVP race goes as Wander has the more traditional numbers (.321-24-103). The guys with the big HR/RBI numbers are Eloy Jimenez (5.1 WAR) and Matt Olson (3.1). Unlike in previous years were Vlad Jr was the clear choice, the MVP race is wide open this year. The pitching leaderboards got cut off, so here they are: Matt Manning leads in pitcher WAR, and his traditional numbers are: 11-6, 2.79, 32 BB, 191K in 171 innings. His innings are down since he pretty much missed the first month of the season. Those numbers you see for Walker Buehler are for his Rays time alone, not counting his first month + with the Dodgers. If you add them together, he's 12-9, 3.09, 35 BB, 248K in 209.2 innings and a combined WAR of 6.2, actually making this his career season. Despite his non-impressive W/L record, I'd give him my Cy vote since his AL numbers alone put him among the front-runners and combined he's been the most valuable pitcher in MLB (Mike Soroka leads the NL at 5.4 WAR). Also as I was perusing the box scores I noticed someone I had never seen before in the Yankees lineup, a "J.Allen". Check this out: A scouting discovery found today with those type of hitting skills? You gotta be kidding me. At least he's a butcher in the field so he'll probably be a future DH but his numbers in the editor have him 293/410/602 with 49 doubles, 39 HR and 97 walks. Good gravy. Well, we'll see him over the next 3 days at Yankee Stadium but he could be a real problem in that lineup next year. Also a couple of more former Rays retired: Matt Andriese and Steven Souza Jr. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-06-2020 at 02:16 PM.

09-06-2020, 02:55 PM	#215
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	October 1-3, 2024: at NY Yankees (3) Before we get into the games, here's some hardware for a Ray: Not bad when your fourth (fifth?) starter wins pitcher of the month. Game 1: Well it was a good thing for Daniel Lynch that the calendar fell where it did because after his great September, October started out a disaster for him (let's hope it was just tonight as next time we see him it will be the playoffs). He had what was probably his worst start of the year, getting torched for 8 runs, 9 hits and 2 walks in 3 2/3 innings. But despite Daniel's disaster the Rays still won the game 9-8, coming back with 5 runs between the 8th and 9th. Down 8-4 in the top of the 8th, Addison Reed came on for the Yankees and after Keibert Ruiz singled, Nick Schnell went deep for #19 to make it 8-6, and Seth Beer made it back-to-back jacks with #12 of his own to cut the lead to 8-7. And then in the 9th against Yankee closer David Bednar, Rafael Devers (who earlier notched RBI #99) walked, Ruiz doubled to put men at 2nd and 3rd and after Alec Bohm grounded out to 3B with the runners holding, Schnell delivered an RBI single scoring Devers to tie it and Beer hit a sac fly to LF to score Ruiz with the go-ahead run. Jasseel De La Cruz bounced back from a couple of blown saves to strike out a pair around a base hit, giving him 28. Will Smith had pitched a 1-2-3 8th to nab the win, and that was part of a fine bullpen performance after Lynch that saw Asa Lacy go 2 1/3 scoreless and Ian Hamilton toss a shutout frame as well. In addition to the Devers RBI single, Ruiz had a pair of RBIs himself as part of a 3-hit day. Vidal Brujan was also on base 4 times today with 3 hits and an HBP as they followed yesterday's 19-hit day with 18 more and everyone in the (regular) lineup getting at least one. Side note: the mysterious Joe Allen was 0-2 with a pair of sac flies for the Yankees. MLB Playoff Race Update: The Mets beat the Braves for the second straight night to go 1 1/2 games up in the NL East, while the Dodgers and Diamondbacks each split their games the last two nights leaving the Dodgers one game ahead. In the AL, Baltimore and Seattle both lost and Minnesota won, allowing the Twins to keep their longshot hopes alive as they creep to within 2 1/2 back. The magic # for Baltimore and Seattle remains 3. October 2: Optioned P Mitchell Verburg to AAA Durham, recalled P Dustin May from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham. May wasn't that sharp in his 2 rehab starts for Durham, but I want to give him a start in the final days here, especially as I may end up leaving him off the playoff roster. I will see how he looks as I need to decide whether to keep him or Asa Lacy on the playoff roster. Verburg may or may not make that playoff roster as well. Game 2: Ugh. I say that not for the 5-4 loss tonight to the Yankees, but for the fact the game went 19 innings (!) and I had to use the entire bullpen except Jasseel De La Cruz. Probably would have won had I used him as the Rays blew leads in both the bottom of the 9th and the bottom of the 19th (and had I known the game was going to go 19 I would have used him in the 9th). He wasn't listed as tired but I didn't want to use him for the second straight day in a meaningless game. Anyway, this was another empty-the-bench game with Franco, Brujan, Meadows, Ruiz, and Devers all getting the day off, and some of the understudies had brutal games, especially Triston Casas who was 0-8 with 4 whiffs. Nick Schnell whiffed 5 times but had hits the other two times up, including an RBI single. Greg Jones had the best day of the bunch, going 4-8 with 2 doubles and a pair of steals and their only consistent offensive threat. Alec Bohm hit #25 back in the 4th inning but was 1-7. Thought we might still get the win when Mebrys Viloria got his third hit of the game, singling in Bohm who had walked, in the top of the 19th but Dustin May, whom I didn't want to have to use, loaded the bases with nobody out in his second inning of work. He then got two whiffs and I thought he might he get out of it but Andrew Knizner singled in the tying and winning runs to give the game to the Yankees. But several relievers got worn out: Ian Hamilton and Asa Lacy, who each pitched yesterday, threw 3 innings apiece and Mitch Keller pitched 2. Looks like Verburg will come back up tomorrow. Lost in all this was they got another pretty good start from Shane McClanahan, who went 6 4 2 2 2 4 and is making a case to be the 4th starter in the playoffs after Lynch looked really bad yesterday. MLB Playoff Race Update: The Orioles won and the Twins lost, knocking their magic # for a wild card down to 1, and even though Seattle lost again, theirs is down to 2. In the NL, the Braves beat the Mets to pull back within 1/2 a game, and the D-backs won while the Dodgers lost so those two are tied with 3 games left. The Dodgers go to Coors Field to play the Rockies and the Diamondbacks host Kansas City, while the Braves play 4 in Miami and the Mets have 3 in Philly. Game 3: It looked for a while like we might be playing extra innings again but the Rays scored in the top of the 9th to pull out a 7-6 win and this time I did bring in Jasseel De La Cruz and he pitched a perfect 9th with two whiffs to get save #29. The Rays jumped on Deivi Garcia for 4 runs in the first on a RBI double from Austin Meadows, an RBI single from Keibert Ruiz, and a 2-run HR by Alec Bohm (#26). Tyler Glasnow took those 4 runs and cruised through 5 innings, allowing only an Aaron Hicks homer. But things went badly for Glasnow in the 6th as he ended up allowing 3 more homers. Kyle Isbel's 2-run shot made it 4-3, the mysterious Joe Allen hit a 2-run shot to make it 5-4 Yankees and Skyler Messinger went deep after Allen to make it 6-4. Glasnow ended the game 6 6 6 6 3 10 and finishes the season 13-4, 3.66 with 212 whiffs in 174.2 innings. He gave up 17 runs in his last 26 1/3 innings which is not the trend you want to see going into the playoffs, especially with his checkered postseason history. He's looking more and more like the Game 3 starter behind Buehler and Manning. Anyway the Rays mounted a comeback which started with Spencer Torkelson's 15th HR of the season in the 7th, a majestic blast to LCF. Keibert's sac fly in the 8th tied the game, and in the 9th Tork singled and Greg Jones walked, and Vidal Brujan singled in Torkelson with what proved to be the winning run. Sandy Gaston picked up the win to go 6-1 after he bailed Mitchell Verburg, in his second inning of work, out of an 8th inning jam with 2 on and 0 out by whiffing a pair and getting a ground ball. Team record: 104-55. Next up: We close out the regular season with 3 at the Trop against Baltimore, who is also gearing up for the playoffs. MLB Playoff Race Update: Minnesota won to stay alive just barely in the AL, they and Oakland are 2 back of Seattle going into the final weekend. The Braves beat Miami and they move into a tie with the Mets so both the NL East and West have deadlocks at the top. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-06-2020 at 05:35 PM.

09-06-2020, 08:12 PM	#216
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	October 4-6, 2024: vs Baltimore (3) Game 1: The Orioles clinched their first playoff berth since 2016 at the expense of the Rays with a 7-1 win. Grayson Rodriguez held the Rays in check, going 7.1 6 1 1 1 6, and Walker Buehler was hit pretty hard in his regular season finale at 5 11 6 6 1 3. Spencer Torkelson's 5th-inning 495-foot homer (#16) was the only scoring for the Rays in a night that was all Baltimore. Mitch Keller went 3 innings in relief, allowing a run and striking out 6 while Mitchell Verburg pitched the 9th. Rafael Devers remains stuck on 99 RBI and is also sitting at .299 for those interested in such things. MLB Playoff Race Update: It's all over in the AL as Minnesota and Oakland lost and Seattle and Baltimore won. The only thing not set is home field: Seattle is a game behind Baltimore to see who hosts the wild card game and Detroit is one game better than Houston to see who starts the ALDS at home. Over in the NL, things are much more interesting: Atlanta won while the Mets lost so the Braves re-take 1st by a game, and Arizona won at Kansas City while the Dodgers lost in Coors Field so the Diamondbacks are now a game up. As things stand now, the Mets would host the Dodgers in the WC game but whoever loses the NL East will host whoever loses the NL West. Game 2: Tonight was the inverse of last night as the Rays had all the fun in an 8-0 win. Matt Manning made his final start of the regular season and threw 7 shutout innings although he had an odd 7 2 0 0 3 2 line on 93 pitches. He finishes the year 12-6, 2.68 with the latter number the best in the AL, making two straight seasons for the Rays with the ERA leader as Tyler Glasnow had a 3.01 mark last year. Will Smith and Sandy Gaston pitched scoreless innings to close it out. The offense was a HR parade tonight. After a second-inning wild pitch scored a run, Greg Jones (#2) and Keston Hiura (#12) went back-to-back with Hiura hitting another one of his dead-center shots to make it 3-0 off Vladimir Gutierrez, who did come into the game leading the AL in homers allowed and will leave the game with that distinction. Austin Meadows led off the 5th with #33, and then later in the inning Seth Beer and Spencer Torkelson had RBI doubles. The final two runs came on solo shots: Keibert Ruiz (#14) and Torkelson (#17) in the 7th. Tork ended the day 4-4 with the HR and 2 doubles as he's now .302/.349/.593 with 17 HR and 52 RBI in only 248 AB with 2.4 WAR. We're going to have to find a way to get him into the lineup everyday (I always say that). Rafael Devers' quest for 100 RBI is down to one game tomorrow and his 0-4 dropped his average to .297 so he may fall short of a couple of round numbers. MLB Playoff Race Update: Status quo in the NL as all 4 teams fighting for a division title won, which means Atlanta stays 1 game up on the Mets and the Diamondbacks 1 up on the Dodgers as we head into the season's final day. Game 3: You could kind of tell by how the game was played that both teams wanted to get the regular season over with and move on to the playoffs. The Rays beat the Orioles 2-1 in a game that lasted 2:26 with a lot of players swinging early in the count. Daniel Lynch got the start and bounced back from his terrible outing in New York with a 7 6 1 1 0 4 performance to finish the season at 15-6, 3.44, with the 15 wins leading the team. The Rays only managed 2 hits for the entire game but made them count. Nick Schnell walked in the bottom of the 5th, Seth Beer doubled him to 3rd, and Mebrys Viloria doubled them both home. They were also the only baserunners the team had today. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 2K eighth, and Jasseel De La Cruz put an exclamation point on the season by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 9th for save #30. Rafael Devers sadly ended on 99 RBI. Final Regular Season Record: 106-56. This marks their 2nd best regular season after winning 115 last year and edges the 105 in 2022. MLB Playoff Race Update: With everything set in the AL, eyes were turned to the NL. The Diamondbacks won and Dodgers lost, so Arizona ends up winning the NL West by 2 games and will travel to St. Louis for the NLDS. But the drama was in the east where the Mets won 4-2 in Philly (behind Yonny Chirinos!), beating their former ace Jacob deGrom while the Braves lost 3-1 at Miami where Rick Porcello struck out 10 and had an RBI double for the Roughnecks. This means the Braves and Mets will have a one-game playoff to determine the NL East winner with the loser hosting the Dodgers in the Wild Card Game and the winner playing the winner of the Wild Card Game. The Rays of course will host the winner of the Seattle-Baltimore WC Game while Houston will travel to Detroit in the other ALCS. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-07-2020 at 10:12 AM.

09-07-2020, 10:22 AM	#217
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	October 7, 2024: Final Standings, Rays Stats & NL East Tiebreaker The final regular season standings & batting leaders: Last week when I posted the standings & leaders, I speculated most of Royce Lewis's league-leading WAR came from defense, but one thing I discovered in the interim was that Lewis ended the season with 61 (!) doubles, the 6th-highest total in MLB history and only 6 off Earl Webb's record. Rays team stats: A lot of firsts, and what's really something is how this team can be 13th in the AL in walks yet still place 1st in OBP. That's some hittin' there. We were better in the second half in 1-run games (although not so much better that we finished 5 wins short of our Pythagorean record), and much better against lefties, when mid-season we were below .500. And it was also interesting how we ended up with identical home and road records after we struggled some at the Trop in the second half but played much better on the road. The defense remains mediocre but we're picking nits here. Here are the individual stats: Triston Casas, whom I'm looking at to play 3B next season assuming Rafael Devers declines his player option for 2025, was pretty dreadful this year, with a lower WAR than Matt Manning who had one at-bat. Otherwise the question remains: why do I keep playing Seth Beer over Spencer Torkelson? Nothing wrong with this staff. The NL East tiebreaker game: Will Toffey's 2-run HR in the 5th was the big hit here as Sandy Alcantara was excellent (7 6 1 1 3 6). The Braves will now host the Dodgers in the wild card game while the Mets will await the winner of that game. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-07-2020 at 11:03 AM.

09-07-2020, 12:02 PM	#218
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	October 9-10, 2024: Wild Card Games & Rays Playoff Info Well, we know who the opponent will be in the ALDS and it's a rematch of last season: Yairo Munoz's 3-run HR in the first turned out to be enough for Seattle to book a spot in the ALDS once again. The Orioles had numerous chances against Marco Gonzales but either didn't get the key hit when they needed it (Renato Nunez whiffed with one out and the bases load) or made baserunning mistakes (one Oriole was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, another was thrown out trying to steal 3rd and another was picked off first). I set the playoff roster and there really weren't any big surprises. Left off was Mitchell Verburg as well as Dustin May. It's a shame about May but missing the second half of the season was the big strike against him and he wasn't going to start anyway. As for long relief I have McClanahan and Lacy. I briefly gave some thought to going with Greg Jones (who impressed me quite a bit in September) over Triston Casas but if something happened to Devers he's the only 3B on the roster. Plus I already have Hiura to fill in for either Wander or Brujan if necessary. The other thing I decided was to go with Spencer Torkelson in the lineup at DH vs RHP instead of Seth Beer, and use him against LHP in lieu of Nick Schnell. Ride or die with Tork I say. Meanwhile the rotation will be Buehler, Glasnow, Manning and Lynch. I want to use Buehler and Glasnow at the Trop since they're more homer-prone than Manning. That would have been a bigger deal had Baltimore won and Games 3 & 4 were in Camden Yards, so it might not make as much of a difference now with Seattle. Plus if for no other reason I'd like to have Manning be my game 3 starter if we find ourselves down 0-2 like last year. The NL Wild Card Game: Brusdar Graterol was grate, er great, pitching 8 3-hit shutout innings to lead the Dodgers over the Braves. Wilmer Flores (the Dodgers' 1B after Josh Bell went down for the season) had a 2-RBI single off Mike Soroka to provide the game's only runs. Soroka was excellent otherwise, getting 10 strikeouts, but it wasn't enough as the Dodgers will now play the Mets in the NLDS. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-07-2020 at 01:08 PM.

09-07-2020, 01:29 PM	#219
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	The 2024 Division Series Round October 11: ALDS Game 1: Here we go again. A couple of unlikely homers did in the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS. It was quite the duel between Nick Margevicius (a lefty, natch) and Walker Buehler that went scoreless until the bottom of the 7th when Rafael Devers led off with a home run. The Rays put a couple of more men on in the inning and couldn't bring them home. That proved to be costly as the Mariners got to Buehler in the 8th when Kyle Lewis had an infield single and the immortal Keegan McGovern took Buehler deep into the RF stands to make it 2-1 Mariners. But the Rays fought back in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Marsh walked against Seattle closer Taylor Guilbeau, Wander Franco singled, and with two out Devers singled Marsh home to tie the game at 2. Buehler left with an excellent 8 4 2 2 0 10 line despite the homer. With lefty Jarred Kelenic leading off and a couple of righties after him, I opted for Jose Alvarado, explicitly thinking "at least Alvarado won't give up a homer to one of the righty bats since he allowed only 1 the entire season". Well I was right, he didn't give up a homer to one of the righties. Instead he let the lefty Kelenic take him yard to make it 3-2. It looked like the Rays might rally again when Alec Bohm led off the 9th with a double against Guilbeau but Torkelson, Hiura and Marsh stranded him there and the Rays find themselves down in yet another postseason series (The only time they've won a Game 1 in my tenure was the World Series last season). Tyler Glasnow will go against Julio Urias, whom the Dodgers released and the Mariners picked up a few days ago, probably expressly because he's a lefty, in tomorrow's Game 2 which really is a must-win because we can't count on coming back from 0-2 for a second straight year. In the other ALDS game: The Astros jumped all over young Detroit ace Kumar Rocker for 5 runs in 1 1/3 innings on homers from Carlos Correa, Eli White and former Rays farmhand Jesus Sanchez to ride to victory. Forrest Whitley was excellent, going 6.1 2 2 2 1 6. October 12: Here we don't go again: Another tight, tense game that was no fun until it was over as the Rays just got by Seattle 2-1 to even their ALDS at a game apiece. Tyler Glasnow turned in perhaps his best career postseason start, going 6 3 1 1 3 9 on 102 pitches. He was running out of gas at the end, giving up some hard-hit outs and a HR to Yairo Munoz in the 6th, so he gave way to Jose Alvarado in the 7th with five straight lefties due up. Well Alvarado put two of them on base, setting up a rematch with Jarred Kelenic who took him deep in Game 1 to win it for Seattle. Round 2 went to Alvarado as he got a lazy fly ball to left to end the threat. Nick Anderson put a man on who stole second but got through his inning, and then Jasseel De La Cruz was set the face the same gauntlet of lefties Alvarado did in the 7th. He gave up a leadoff single to Braden Shewmake but Seattle did us a favor by giving away an out to bunt him over, and De La Cruz got the next two including Michael Siani swinging to end the game and allow the Tampa Bay region to let out a collective sigh of relief. Once again runs were tough to come by. Seattle started Touki Touissant instead of the originally announced Julio Urias and my move to make Spencer Torkelson the DH against righties paid off when Tork took Touissant deep with Nick Schnell aboard in the 4th to provide the only Rays runs. This came an inning after Brandon Marsh singled and Vidal Brujan doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out yet Wander, Meadows and Devers failed to bring either of them home. Matt Manning will take the mound in two days' time for Game 3 in Seattle looking to put the Rays ahead in a series for a change. The rest of the division series games from today: Detroit struck back to even the series. Starter Casey Mize had to leave after 2 innings with a hamstring, so Gerson Bautista came to the rescue for the Tigers, going 3.2 2 0 0 0 5 while his teammates jumped on Lance McCullers Jr. for 7 runs in the 4th and 5th with Yasmani Grandal driving in 3 of them. The Mets grabbed a 1-0 lead in their NLDS in a matchup of former Rays as Blake Snell got the better of Max Fried with the latter allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4.2 innings, and the Cardinals went up 1-0 on Arizona when Nick Senzel hit a 2-run triple in the bottom of the ninth off Andrew Gross to win it 5-4. Jack Flaherty went 6 5 2 1 1 7 for St. Louis before his bullpen let him down but they won anyway. October 13: All four division series are tied at 1 now after today's games. The Dodgers struck back behind Mitchell White, who threw 6 innings of 1-hit ball, only allowing a 2-run Michael Conforto HR, and Cody Bellinger, who missed about 3/4 of the season but just was activated, was 2-4 with 2 RBI. The Diamondbacks jumped all over Noah Syndergaard, one of last year's playoff heroes for the Rays, for 6 runs in 1 2/3 innings including a Max Muncy 2-run HR. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-07-2020 at 03:00 PM.

09-07-2020, 03:47 PM	#220
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,933	The 2024 Division Series Round, Part 2 October 14: Giddyup: The Rays jumped on Marco Gonzales early and never let up as they cruised to a 9-3 win over Seattle to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-5 ALDS. Unlike the first two games when the Rays had to wait a while to score, they got going in the 1st with a manufactured run when Vidal Brujan singled, stole second, went to third on a Wander groundout and scored on a Meadows groundout. No need for small ball in the 2nd inning, though, as Spencer Torkelson did it again taking Gonzales deep for a 2-run shot to make it 3-0. Right after that Keston Hiura doubled and scored on a Brujan single to up the lead to 4-0. That would be all Matt Manning would need. Although he's been more dominant he was more than good enough tonight going 7 7 3 3 0 5. The Mariners made it interesting with a pair of runs in the 3rd to make it 4-2, but Wander tripled to lead off the 5th and scored on a Meadows single and then in the 6th Brujan had a 2-run double and was singled home by Wander and it was 8-2. Seattle scored in the 7th off Manning but Keibert Ruiz got that run back with a solo homer in the 9th. Mitch Keller went 6 up, 6 down with a pair of whiffs to close the game out. Brujan, who had a massive postseason last year, was 3-6 with the 3 RBI and 2 stolen bases, while Keibert and Hiura joined the 3-hit club too as the team pounded out 17 for the game, happy I suppose to get away from the stifling offensive environment of the Trop. Daniel Lynch, who pitched a great game in this ballpark in Game 4 of last year's ALDS, will look to do the same again in this year's Game 4. I keep getting told Julio Urias will start the next game so maybe it will actually happen tomorrow. Game 3 of the other ALDS: Jonathan India had 3 hits, including a HR and 3 RBI, Gavin Sheets had 3 hits and 3 RBI, and AL wins leader (with 17) Eduardo Rodriguez went 7.1 5 2 2 1 7 to lead the Tigers to within 1 game of the ALCS. October 15: Woo hoo! Austin Meadows was the man as the Rays defeated Seattle 7-4 to take their ALDS 3 games to 1. The Mariners finally did start Julio Urias after all, and after a first inning where the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out only not to score and then saw Julio Rodriguez take Daniel Lynch deep to make it 1-0 Seattle, Meadows drilled a 3-run shot off the former Dodger lefty in the 3rd to put the Rays in front to stay. Vidal Brujan continued to rake with an RBI single in the 4th, and after Seattle got one back to cut it to 4-2 Meadows ripped a 2-run double to cap a 3-run 6th inning and the Rays' scoring. Seattle wouldn't go quietly though, as they grabbed 2 more off Lynch in the 6th, chasing him and making it 7-4. Lynch picked up the win, but his 5.1 6 4 4 1 5 wasn't his greatest. Ian Hamilton got the final two outs of the 6th, and then the final 3 innings were turned over to the troika. Jose Alvarado had a perfect 7th, including getting Jarred Kelenic for the final out of the inning, giving him a 2-1 edge in their personal battle this series. Nick Anderson had his typical 1-2-3 2K inning in the 8th, but Jasseel De La Cruz made it interesting in the 9th. After getting two quick outs, he gave up a single to Game 1 hero Keegan McGovern and then walked JP Crawford to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Michael Siani with Kelenic lurking on deck. Fortunately De La Cruz got Siani to fly out to Meadows to end the game and end the series as the Rays righty found himself at the bottom of another dogpile. As you can see from the game story, Brujan was named MVP of the series and in addition to the stats cited above he had 4 steals including one tonight. The rest of the DS games today: We don't know yet who we'll be playing in the ALCS as the Astros forced a Game 5 with Detroit thanks to a 4-2 win. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the unlikely hero for Houston today with a 2-run double and an RBI single. Joey Gallo and Paul Goldschmidt drove in a pair of runs each to back 7 strong innings from Ryan Helsley to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead over Arizona, and Brusdar Graterol followed up his gem in the wild card game with an even better performance (8.2 2 0 0 0 11) against the Mets with Gavin Lux driving in the only run of the game as the Dodgers go up 2-1 on the Mets. October 16: It's the Cardinals and the Dodgers in the NLCS as Joey Gallo's 2-run HR in the 8th and 2 more runs in the 9th allowed St. Louis to come from behind and beat Arizona 6-5 to take the series. And Will Smith (the catcher) drove in all 5 Dodgers runs on a 3-run HR and a 2-run single to give them the game and series win over the Mets and Yonny Chirinos tonight. Those following along might be interested to know that Josh Lowe had an RBI triple off Clayton Kershaw for the Mets in that game. Lowe had become the 3rd-string CF behind Kevin Kiermaier after the Mets signed Lorenzo Cain this year but Cain was injured late in the season, bumping up the 2 former Rays in the Mets' pecking order. October 17: Well we now know the Rays' opponent in the ALCS: The Detroit Tigers. They rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to edge Houston 3-2. Kumar Rocker had pitched a great game but it looked like he'd be a hard-luck loser after David Bote booted a ground ball allowing the Astros to take the lead in the 5th. Rocker was 7 7 2 1 1 10 and former Ray Shane Baz, moved back to the bullpen after a rough second half in the rotation, picked up the win in relief. We'll be seeing Baz and Alex Kirilloff in this series and of course Matt Manning will be pitching at Comerica again in Game 3. Last edited by Art Deco; 09-07-2020 at 06:47 PM.