The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

October 19:



The Tigers got the better of the Rays in the season series, 4-3, and they served notice they'd continue to be a problem for them in Game 1 of the ALCS. Walker Buehler didn't quite have it today, and aside from a couple of homers, neither did the offense against Casey Mize. Buehler was knocked around for 4 hits and 2 runs in the 1st, and then suffered the same fate in the 5th, ending with a 6.2 10 4 4 1 8 line in one of those starts of his where he was too hittable. Will Smith and Sandy Gaston kept Detroit at 4 the rest of the way. Austin Martin and Gavin Sheets led the way with 3 hits apiece as Detroit had 13 on the night. Wander Franco hit his first HR of the postseason in the 4th to get the Rays within 2-1, and Brandon Marsh got the two runs Buehler gave up in the 5th right back in the bottom of the frame with a 2-run shot of his own, but they could only manage 6 hits on the game. Wander's 2-out double off Kyle Crick in the 8th was the closest they came to scoring the rest of the game and they'll need Tyler Glasnow (and the offense) to come through in Game 2. Counting wild card games, the Rays have lost 7 of the 8 Games 1 of series I've managed since 2020 so this is nothing new I suppose.

October 20:



Tyler Glasnow to the rescue as the Rays beat Detroit 6-1 to even up the ALCS at a game apiece. The righthander, who has had his issues in postseasons past, turned in his second excellent start of this year's playoffs going 9 6 1 1 0 10 on 116 pitches in his first postseason complete game. He did fall behind 1-0 in the 3rd when the pesky Austin Martin singled in a run but that was all he would yield. Meanwhile the offense got going after last night's sluggish performance as Alec Bohm and Spencer Torkelson had RBI singles in the 4th to give the Rays the lead to stay, and Austin Meadows had one of his own in the 5th to make it 3-1. They broke it open with 3 more in the 8th as Bohm came through again with an RBI single and Brandon Marsh singled in two more. They had 14 hits for the night and 13 were singles as Rafael Devers' leadoff double in the 8th was the lone exception. It's on to Comerica Park for Game 3 where we should have an electric matchup of young aces with Matt Manning squaring off against his old team and Kumar Rocker.

NLCS Game 1:



MLB doesn't have an MVP award for the entire playoffs like the NHL does with the Conn Smythe Award, but if they did the frontrunner would be Brusdar Graterol, who went 7 2 1 1 1 8 in his third dominant performance of the playoffs and is now 3-0, 0.38 in those three starts. Jack Flaherty was pretty good for St. Louis too (6.2 8 2 1 1 6) but Cody Bellinger's HR broke a 1-1 tie in the 6th and the Dodgers grabbed Game 1 away from home.

October 21:



Like the ALCS, the NLCS is now tied at 1 after a battle of pitchers who were both in the Rays' World Series-winning rotation last season. Noah Syndergaard got the best of Max Fried in a 3-1 win as Thor went 6.2 7 1 1 1 7 to pace St. Louis's winning effort. Paul Dejong had an RBI double off Fried in the 2nd and Joey Gallo (another ex-Ray) and Ian Happ had RBI singles in the 5th.

[Art Deco]

October 22:

Welp.


Up 4-1 with Matt Manning on the mound, you have to like your chances of winning. Austin Meadows hit a solo HR in the 1st and a 3-run HR in the 3rd off Kumar Rocker and the Rays looked to be rolling. Manning wasn't his sharpest but got out of some jams and made it to the 7th up 4-2. I left him a little too long, as after he got the first out he gave up a single to Austin Martin. Jose Alvarado came on and gave up a Riley Greene RBI double to score Martin to make it 4-3. Nick Anderson got through the 8th unscathed, but Jasseel De La Cruz could not preserve the lead. He got Yasmani Grandal on strikes to open the inning but Martin reached on an infield single, and then he gave up an RBI triple to Victor Reyes. He walked a couple to load the bases and then got Isaac Paredes to hit one at a drawn-in Brujan for out #2 at the plate but the relay to first wasn't in time. And then former Ray Alex Kirilloff, who hadn't had a hit in the series, singled to right to drive in the winning run and give Detroit a 2-1 series edge. The Rays could never get anything going off Rocker after the 2nd Meadows homer, and they squandered a golden opportunity in the 2nd when they loaded the bases with nobody out before Spencer Torkelson whiffed and Brandon Marsh hit into a double play. They'll try to avoid a 3-1 hole tomorrow as they're scheduled to face the other guy they traded to Detroit, Shane Baz, who apparently is back in the rotation. Daniel Lynch will go for the Rays but will be on a very short leash.

October 23:



And now they're on the brink. Who'd have thought the Matt Manning for Shane Baz & Alex Kirilloff trade would end up the Rays' undoing, especially after Manning led the AL in ERA and Kirilloff had an OK but unspectacular season and Baz lost his rotation spot? After Kirilloff had the game-winning hit yesterday in a game Manning started for the Rays, Baz completely shut down the #1 offense in baseball on a night when the Rays' bats were as cold as the temperature (44 degrees) to give Detroit a 3-1 series lead. Baz had a perfect game going until two outs in the 7th when Austin Meadows beat out a slow roller hit about 10 feet from the plate. Spencer Torkelson doubled in Nick Schnell in the 8th to avoid the shutout but Baz ended up going 9 3 1 1 1 4 on 100 pitches in a brilliant performance. Daniel Lynch made it through the first inning but was battered in the 2nd, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and was pulled for Shane McClanahan. (And should we miraculously make the World Series, let it be known now that McClanahan will start Game 4 instead of Lynch). McClanahan and Ian Hamilton did well, allowing only 1 run over the next 4 innings, but the useless Will Smith came on in the 7th and gave up a 3-run HR to Jonathan India (Go Gators, i guess). So now the Rays have to do what they did last year in the ALDS against Seattle: win three straight elimination games. Walker Buehler is tasked with saving the season tomorrow and he'll need to pitch better than he did in Game 1. The blown lead in Game 3 is looking like the moment this series was lost, much as Max Fried's coughing up a 4-0 early lead in Game 4 of the 2022 ALDS was.

NLCS Game 3:



Ryan Helsley was great for St. Louis and Tommy Edman and Nick Senzel had big run-scoring hits as the Cards take a 2-1 lead. Are we headed for a 2006 World Series rematch?

October 24:

Cue the Bee Gees:



The Rays staved off elimination with a closer-than-it-looked 8-2 win over Detroit to get within 3-2. Alec Bohm got the Rays on the right foot early with a 3-run homer off Alex Faedo (another former Gator) in the 2nd to give them a quick 3-0 lead. Faedo took the place of Casey Mize, who started Game 1 but is now out for the year with shoulder inflammation. Walker Buehler got the start and pitched much better than he did in Game 1. He almost made it through the 7th but gave up a 2-out run-scoring single to the still-pesky Austin Martin which cut the lead to 3-2, after a Rafael Devers error was responsible for a Tigers run in the 5th. Buehler went 6.2 6 2 1 1 6 and Jose Alvarado got him out of the 7th and got two outs in the eighth, before putting a couple on for Jonathan India. Cue Nick Anderson and he whiffed India to end the inning and stayed on to finish the 9th (only throwing 11 pitches in total) for his first career postseason save. The offense went quiet after the Bohm homer, and for the second time in three games loaded the bases with nobody out and failed to score, this time in the 5th when Spencer Torkelson and Brandon Marsh singled, and Vidal Brujan had an infield hit but Wander popped to the 2B and Austin Meadows hit into a double play. It looked like a Game 3 repeat might be in the cards when the Rays saw their early lead pecked at but they added some big runs in the late innings. With one out in the 8th, Wander and Meadows atoned for the 5th inning by each hitting doubles that produced a run and then Devers took Tyler Duffey deep to make it 6-2. And in the 9th Meadows (who now has 14 RBI in 9 playoff games this year) and Devers had RBI singles to make it 8-2. So we head back to St. Pete for Game 6 and Tyler Glasnow will face Eduardo Rodriguez in a rematch of Game 2 that saw the Rays win 6-1. They'll need something similar to keep playing.

NLCS Game 4:



The NLCS will be going at least 6 games as well with the Dodgers' win to even the series against St. Louis. Alex Wood pitched seven strong innings and Wilmer Flores and Will Smith homered for LA.

October 25:

NLCS Game 5:



It's Brusdar Graterol's world and we're all living in it. The Dodger righty went to 4-0 in the postseason with a 6 5 2 2 0 8 performance, and Wilmer Flores (who homered earlier) and Mike Moustakas had RBI singles in the 6th to put LA in front to stay. The Dodgers now look to win one of the final 2 games in St. Louis to advance to another World Series.

[Art Deco]

October 26:

Bring on Game 7!



Austin Meadows continued his ridiculous postseaon and Tyler Glasnow went 7 strong innings to propel the Rays to a 6-3 win over the Tigers to even the ALCS at 3 and force a Game 7 at the Trop tomorrow. Meadows, who had already driven in 7 runs in the first 5 games of this series and 14 overall in the playoffs, hit a 5th inning grand slam that turned the game around after Detroit had taken a 2-0 lead. Glasnow pitched well but surrendered a 2-run HR to Gavin Sheets in the 4th and the Rays looked to be in trouble. And after Meadows had the grand slam Sheets homered again leading off the 6th to make it 4-3. But Glasnow hung in there and made it through the 7th, ending 7 4 3 3 2 9 on 118 pitches. The Rays got some insurance in the 7th when Rafael Devers tripled and scored on Keibert Ruiz's sac fly, and after Jose Alvarado got them through the 8th they added another run in bottom of the frame after Keston Hiura doubled and scored on a Vidal Brujan groundball. This set up a dicey 9th inning for Jasseel De La Cruz, who blew Game 3. De La Cruz walked Alex Kirilloff to lead off the inning, hit Jonathan India with a pitch, struck out David Bote, but then walked Yasmani Grandal to load the bases. He then whiffed the tough Austin Martin on a 3-2 pitch and got Victor Reyes to ground to Brujan to mercifully end the game. It took him 34 pitches to get through the 9th so his Game 7 availability is in question. Speaking of Game 7, it will be a Matt Manning-Kumar Rocker rematch from Game 3, which of course Manning got the best of but didn't win because of the blown lead.

October 27:

They did it again!



It wasn't easy and full congratulations to Detroit on a great series and a great year, but for the second straight season the Rays won three straight elimination games to win a series and for the second straight year they won the ALCS in walk-off fashion as Wander Franco singled home Vidal Brujan in the bottom of the 9th inning for a 6-5 win that shouldn't have come down to the 9th inning. The Rays jumped out to a big early lead, in large part due to some bad fortune for the Tigers when their young ace Kumar Rocker had to leave in the 2nd inning with a shoulder issue after walking Alec Bohm to lead off the inning. Jordan Mills came on in relief and gave up a single to Nick Schnell, walked Spencer Torkelson to load the bases, and surrendered a 2-run double to Brandon Marsh. Wander Franco followed with a sac fly and a 4th run scored on a Jonathan India error. Matt Manning was dealing early, and it looked like the Rays would coast to victory. Although Manning allowed a run in the 5th, Rafael Devers got it right back with a solo HR in the bottom of the inning. But like in Game 3, Detroit starting chipping away at the lead and they picked up 2 in the 7th off Manning on an Austin Martin RBI groundout and a 2-out single by Victor Reyes and suddenly it was 5-3. Jose Alvarado came in and got Manning off the hook, and then pitched a perfect 8th. So we went to the 9th and Nick Anderson got the nod with righties due up and Jasseel De La Cruz tired from Game 6. Anderson got the first two outs quickly, but then Yasmani Grandal and Martin each picked up slow-rolling infield hits. And then Reyes stepped up and doubled into the gap, scoring them both and tying the game after the Rays were one out away from a pennant (as I yelled obscenities at my computer). Fortunately for the Rays, Reyes was thrown out at 3rd on the play so we went to the bottom of the 9th and Detroit brought on closer Kyle Crick. Vidal Brujan, who had a very quiet ALCS up to now after winning the ALDS MVP, greeted him with a triple off the top of the LCF wall, and then Wander singled to right through the drawn-in infield and once again it was delirium at the Trop as the Rays head to their 2nd straight World Series. Unsurprisingly Austin Meadows was named Series MVP despite a relatively quiet 1-3 with a walk today. It remains to be seen if the Cardinals or the Dodgers will be coming to town in a few days.

NLCS Game 6:



And it will be the Dodgers the Rays face in the World Series as they had their own series-winning game in which they built a lead, blew it, yet still ended up winning as they overcame St. Louis tying in the 9th to score 3 times in the 10th for the win. After Ian Happ hit a dramatic 9th inning leadoff HR off Jack Little to complete the Cardinals' comeback from a 3-0 deficit, their closer Connor Jones had a bout of wildness, walking a couple and giving up RBI singles to Gavin Lux and Mike Moustakas. Max Fried pitched well for the Dodgers but was denied the win. So it'll be an interesting World Series with the last two winners going head-to-head, plus the storyline of the traded pitchers (Walker Buehler and Max Fried) facing their old teams with a championship at stake. Gonna be fun.

[Art Deco]

October 29:

Tonight the Rays continued their flair for the dramatic and their knack for losing opening games of playoff series in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Trop. Down 3-0 and being completely dominated by LA starter Mitchell White, the Rays got a one-out walk from Brandon Marsh in bottom of the 9th and White left in favor of Taylor Rogers despite allowing only two hits. Rogers got Vidal Brujan on a fly ball for the second out, but Wander Franco singled to left and then Austin Meadows singled to center to load the bases for Rafael Devers, who ripped a double into the gap clearing the bases and tying the game. Keibert Ruiz couldn't bring him home so to the 10th we went, and with 3 lefties due up Jose Alvarado got the call. After retiring Corey Seager on a fly ball, Alvarado lost the plate and walked two men and the righty Wilmer Flores stepped to the plate. I could have gone to Nick Anderson but lefty Mike Moustakas was on deck and there was only one out, so I stuck with Alvarado and it backfired as Flores delivered a single to score the go-ahead run. And Rogers recovered from his 9th inning calamity to get the Rays 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th and the Dodgers have a 1-0 series lead. Until the 6th it was a scoreless duel between White and Walker Buehler, but Buehler's old teammates treated him rudely in the 6th when Seager doubled, Cody Bellinger hit one into the RF stands to make it 2-0, and Gavin Lux went back-to-back with a HR down the LF line. Meanwhile all the Rays had to show against White until the 9th was a Keibert Ruiz single to left and an infield single from Marsh. They'll try to bounce back in Game 2 but it won't be an easy task as they'll have to face the red-hot Brusdar Graterol who's 4-0 with a sub-1 ERA in these playoffs. Shane McClanahan, making his first career postseason start, will oppose him.





October 30:

If you had told me before the game that the Rays would get 5 off Brusdar Graterol by the 3rd inning and chase him from the game, I'd be feeling pretty good about the series being even. But that was all the Rays could manage while the Dodgers teed off continuously against Rays pitching for 13 runs and 15 hits (including 11 extra-base hits) in a 13-5 blowout to put the Dodgers ahead 2-0 in the Series as we head to Los Angeles. Shane McClanahan got his first MLB playoff start and it was a rough beginning. After giving up an Orlando Mercado double to lead off the game it looked like he might get out of it, especially after striking out Cody Bellinger for the second out. But Gavin Lux tripled and Will Smith homered, and Mac was down 3-0. But the Rays got 5 on a Rafael Devers triple followed by a Keibert Ruiz RBI groundout, an RBI single from Spencer Torkelson, and a 2-run HR by Brandon Marsh in the 2nd and tacked on a Ruiz RBI single in the 3rd while McClanahan had appeared to settle down through the 3rd. But the wheels came off in the 4th and LA put 5 on the board off McClanahan and Daniel Lynch, who didn't make the decision to bypass him for the start look that bad. We stayed at 8-5 as Lynch settled down through the 7th, but the Rays couldn't get anything going against old friend Scott Barlow for a couple of innings and then rookie Jean Herrera, who shut them down over the last 4 2/3 innings. Then Ian Hamilton got hit for 3 in the 8th and in the 9th Sandy Gaston gave up a 2-run HR to Joc Pederson who had a monster day with 3 doubles to go with that dinger. It turned out to be a good, old-fashioned beatdown and the Rays will now have to pull out yet another improbable series comeback to win this thing. Tyler Glasnow will likely face another ex-Ray, Max Fried as Game 3 is a virtual must-win.

[Art Deco]

November 1:

It's often said that catchers have great success at the plate against pitchers they caught for a long time, and Keibert Ruiz was out to prove that adage true in Game 3 of the 2024 World Series. Facing Max Fried, whom he caught for the last 2+ seasons, Ruiz took the lefty deep in his first at-bat against him for a 2-run HR to cap a 3-run 1st inning which along with the fine pitching of Tyler Glasnow propelled the Rays to their first win in the series 5-2 and kept them from falling into a nearly-insurmountable 0-3 hole. Vidal Brujan led off the game with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a Wander Franco single. Austin Meadows' groundout scored Brujan and Franco came home on the Ruiz homer. This turned out to be enough for Tyler Glasnow, who was excellent in going 7.1 4 2 2 3 9 as he goes to 4-0, 2.15 in the postseason, a 180-degree turnaround from his past postseason struggles. The Rays did continue their unfortunate habit of scoring early runs only to sit back and watch the other team creep back into the game, and that's what the Dodgers did into the 7th as it was 3-2. But some sloppy play from LA gave the Rays two big insurance runs in the 8th. Wander hit a squibber in front of home plate but Will Smith (the catcher) threw wildly allowing Franco to reach second. Rafael Devers then doubled him home and scored a batter later when Mike Moustakas threw one away from third. This allowed Glasnow to start the 8th, and after getting an out he yielded a single to Corey Seager. Jose Alvarado came on and did his job against a couple of tough hitters, getting Cody Bellinger to ground to 1st and striking out Gavin Lux. Jasseel De La Cruz eschewed the drama that's accompanied his recent outings and got the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the 9th to close it out and make it a new series. Matt Manning will man the mound for Game 4 and will face Alex Wood.






November 2:

Apparently this team isn't happy unless their backs are against the wall, and against the wall they are after the Dodgers beat the Rays 3-1 to take an equivalent series lead. Matt Manning and Alex Wood were hooked up in a scoreless duel until the 6th, when Austin Meadows hit a 442-foot shot to dead center to put the Rays on top 1-0. But LA struck back immediately in the bottom of the inning when Will Smith (the catcher) led off with a homer, and then after Joc Pederson singled, Oscar Mercado homered as well to make it 3-1, and that was it for the scoring. Manning, who wasn't very homer-prone during the regular season, has been so in the playoffs and ended today 6 4 3 3 0 5. Will Smith (the pitcher) and Mitch Keller each threw a scoreless inning to keep it close, but outside of Meadows and Spencer Torkelson (with two more hits today including a double) the offense just hasn't been producing. Vidal Brujan did walk to lead off the game today but is only at .254 - and that's after being the MVP of the ALDS. Wander has been very quiet this postseason as well, hitting .226 and since the ALDS it seems like the only time these two have done anything was in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS. Without these two getting aboard, it's usually 1 run and done at best. As a result they've wasted some pretty good pitching performances in Game 1 and this one and will need to do a lot better against Mitchell White tomorrow than they did in Game 1 or their season will be over. It was one thing to come back from 3-1 down against a young Detroit team which hadn't been in the playoffs; it's another to do it against a perennial playoff team that's won two of the previous four World Series.

[Art Deco]

November 3:

Well it's all over. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, world champs for the third time in five seasons thanks to a 4-3 win over the Rays to take the World Series in 5 games. They've become the Giants of the 2020s, winning it all in 2020, 2022 and now 2024. Once again the Rays jumped out to a lead and once again they gave it back, dropping a 4-3 decision. They nearly tied it in the 9th (and perhaps could have, had a certain someone not held a runner at 3rd with one out), but Wander Franco popped out and Austin Meadows struck out against Archie Bradley. The Rays started out better against Mitchell White this time, getting 2 runs in the 3rd as Brandon Marsh singled, stole second, and scored when Walker Buehler's sac bunt was thrown away by Mike Moustakas, and then Buehler scored on a Meadows single. But perhaps that baserunning took something out of Buehler as Will Smith (the catcher) did it again, homering off him to lead off the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 2-1, and then in bottom of the 4th Moustakas made up for his error by launching a 2-run HR to make it 3-2 Dodgers. We stayed there until the 8th when Cody Bellinger doubled in a run off Jose Alvarado, and that run proved big when the Rays rallied in the 9th. After Alec Bohm grounded out, Spencer Torkelson singled, Marsh singled, pinch-hitter Seth Beer (in his first postseason at-bat) was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Vidal Brujan singled scoring Torkelson. I was given the option to try to score Marsh but demurred with Franco and Meadows still to come. The decision backfired as outlined above, and that was that. Smith (the catcher) was unsurprisingly named Series MVP.







Up next: A post-mortem and a look at what our offseason plans are to gear up for 2025.

[Art Deco]

Well, it was disappointing to lose the World Series, but still an achievement to win 106 games and get there as anything can happen in a short series. So now on to build a team for 2025. The good news is most everyone is back, with a few key exceptions. Unsurprisingly, Rafael Devers and Walker Buehler opted out of their current contracts and decided to become free agents. Also I had kind of forgotten Jose Alvarado had a player option on this year's contract and he opted out too. Speaking of Alvarado, his running mate Nick Anderson is a potential free agent as well and I offered him a 2-year, $14M extension as it would be tough to lose them both. Alvarado is probably is a lost cause as he wants a 4-year deal. If Anderson takes my offer, I probably don't give Alvarado the one-year qualifying offer to get a pick as he might take it. I will get a supplemental pick for Devers, though.

As for replacing Devers, the plan is still to go with Triston Casas at 3B. His defense is adequate if not as good as Devers' and he should be a 30-35 HR guy (especially now that I'm going to juice the ball back to 2023 standards after dejuicing it too much in 2024). Still I have concerns about him hitting LHP, so I'm thinking about signing a right-handed hitting 3B, a Rylan Bannon-type (but not Rylan Bannon - the White Sox just signed him to an extension). I'm eyeing a guy I've eyed before, Marwin Gonzalez, for this role. He's a free agent but he shouldn't be too expensive. Buehler won't be directly replaced, of course, but a Glasnow-Manning-May-McClanhan-Lynch rotation ain't too shabby and we'll see what else the offseason brings. Asa Lacy is a starting possibility as well, and we'll see if any minor leaguers can make a run at it. I'll be on the lookout for a lefty reliever as well.

Some contract news:

(I'm having problems with imgur, so I'm going to have to type this out)

Keibert Ruiz has received a 5-year contract extension, through the 2029 season. We're buying out two years of free agency, giving him what he would get in arbitration the next 3 years and just adding 2 more years of what he'd get in year 3, so it's a total of 5/66.8 with the following salaries:

2025: 10.5
2026: 12.5
2027-2029: 14.5

We do have a lot of catching in the system, but Ruiz is the rare catcher who can handle a staff, hit over .300 and hit for power, he's probably the AL's best. Speaking of the position, while Meibrys Viloria did well as Keibert's caddy, I'm thinking it's time for Chris Betts. He has legit 35 HR power and should be more productive offensively than Viloria. He is a bit of a defensive sacrifice but we're only talking about 40-50 games a season.

Among our arbitration-eligibles, Ruiz of course was the big one, but close behind is Vidal Brujan, whom we're expecting to jump from the minimum to $7.2M, and Brandon Marsh, who will jump to around $4.8M. Going to non-tender Ian Hamilton as I don't want to pay him the expected $7.2M, and Dany Jimenez was great at Durham but I'm not sure I want to pay him $2.6M. Those two alone would clear almost $10M we can spend elsewhere. Stu Sternberg gave me a payroll budget of $150M, and if Anderson takes his offer, we'll still have about $33M to spend. Everyone currently on the team can be back in 2026, except a big one: Austin Meadows, whose contract runs out this year. I'll give another extension a shot but he will cost a fortune.

November 14: Re-signed Nick Anderson to a 2-year, $14M contract extension.

One of these years Anderson (who's 34) is going to lose his fastball, but I'm betting 2025 or 2026 isn't one of those years. He remained dominant last year with 14 Ks per 9 innings and showed no second-half tail-off. It's not a huge amount of $ in case it does go south.

November 15: Austin Meadows wins the AL Platinum Stick Award for RF.

November 18: OK, Imgur is working again, big honors incoming:



You know who the idiot was that didn't make the award unanimous? Yeah, it was me, I voted for Walker Buehler as his WAR was basically Manning's equivalent plus he had the great first month with LA. Sandy Alcantara won in the NL, going 14-10, 2.75.

November 19: MVP! MVP! MVP!



Wander becomes the first-ever Tampa Bay Ray to win MVP, and #2 in the voting was Austin Meadows. Vidal Brujan finished fifth. Ozzie Albies won the NL MVP.

November 26: Non-tendered Ps Joe Ryan, Ian Hamilton and Dany Jimenez. Offered P Jose Alvarado the 1/15 qualifying offer.

Ryan was going to be jettisoned from the 40-man after an awful season at Durham. Maybe he bounces back this year, maybe he doesn't. As mentioned before Hamilton is too expensive at $7.2M for a middle man, and Jimenez at a projected $2.7M is too much too for a guy who spent the year at AAA. The Alvarado QO was a tough choice, if he accepts I'm thrilled to have him back but it puts a big crimp in the money available and might necessitate a trade. Of course since he's looking for 4/42 he probably turns it down and we get another comp pick.

November 27: Jose Alvarado accepted the 1-year, $15M qualifying offer.

Welp. As I just said, it's great to have him back and my bullpen security blanket remains intact. On the other hand, that's a huge amount of money to pay a reliever.

So here's the payroll. Anyone you don't see listed who was cut off is making the minimum. The payroll right now is $134M, and we have 6 40-man spots open so add about another $3-4M to that. So that leaves us $12-13M to add in salary on the $150M budget Stu gave us, so there won't be any big free agent signings.



December 8: Walker Buehler signed a 6/133 contract with the Giants in the first big free-agent signing of the winter. "The fan interest almost crashed", eh another 100-win season and they'll be fine. Meanwhile, the Red Sox might be our biggest competitor this season, and they went and traded a couple of minor leaguers for Didi Gregorious, still going strong at 34. In a somewhat puzzling move, though, they also then signed C Yasmani Grandal who had a great year for Detroit last year (more a great first half) to a 2/33 contract. I found it puzzling because the Sox have Pierson Gibis, a top-10 MLB prospect and a power-hitting catcher who played for them in September last year.

December 10: Ramon Laureano, who's developed into a premier OF with Oakland over the last few years, signed a 6/146 contract with Arizona.

December 11: Traded minor-league SS Yordys Valdes to the San Francisco Giants for minor-league 2B Connor Kirkley.

I feel fairly confident Valdes will be taken in the Rule 5 draft given his 80 glove and experience playing at the AAA level, so with no room for him on the MLB level (some guy named Wander), I dealt him to the GIants for Kirkley, who was the #2 overall pick in 2022. He obviously hasn't lived to that draft position so far but remains a 2B with some pop, and potential to be better, maybe a Nick Gonzales-type (which means he'll end up blocked in AAA in a couple of years).

December 15: Our old friend Chris Paddack signed a 2-year deal with the Cubs just shy of $20M. I wish him luck there. Speaking of the Cubs, they signed SS Amed Rosario to a big deal as he was underutilized with the Mets and the emergence of Ronny Mauricio, and the Phillies signed SP Dakota Hudson to a 4/45 deal.

Meanwhile, I'm mulling over a pair of deals of some import. Considering sending Seth Beer and Mebrys Viloria in exchange for a impact RH bat who plays a key position, and if that deal goes through, I'm considering dealing Keston Hiura, who's really a luxury on this team, for a front-line starting pitcher. The first deal would also free up a 40-man spot, and in both deals I'm eyeing getting a decent pitching prospect thrown in. I still need to do some more due diligence in the next few days.

Trade time:



So instead of the two deals I was considering above, I re-evaluated things and eliminated the middle man. The deals I considered were to send Beer & Viloria to the Cubs for Austin Riley, who hit .290 with 31 HR last year and is a RH 3B. But there were two catches with Riley: 1) he's a free agent at year's end, and 2) he's only a 45 contact hitter and the BA was a real outlier in the context of his career, he's been more of a .230-.250 hitter during his career. The other deal would have been to send Hiura to Oakland for Jesus Luzardo. Instead we kept Hiura, and added Mitchell White, and after looking into it more, I feel confident Hiura can play a passable 3B when we would need to either rest Triston Casas or bench him against a tough lefty. So anyway in a case of "if you can't beat 'em, trade for 'em" we acquired White who owned us in the World Series just passed. White put up sterling #s with the Dodgers last year, a .2.80 ERA in 170 IP with a 54/167 BB/K ratio. Those numbers will take a hit in the DH league and his FIP was 3.93 so I'm not expecting ace numbers but #4 starter stuff. He probably supplants Daniel Lynch in the rotation as I prefer Dustin May and Shane McClanahan. Speaking of May, this marks about the 5th trade in the last 2 years where I've acquired pitchers from the Dodgers (last year's May deal, the Buehler-Fried-Paddack deal, a minor league deal to pick up Jack Perkins and the deal for Mitchell Verburg). Just can't quit those Dodgers pitchers. And there's one more on the way (I think) in Chamberlain, who has filthy stuff as a reliever but is Rule 5 eligible. He barely pitched at AA last year so I'm expecting he gets ignored, but I'm not going to put him on the 40-man. The deal of Viloria as I've mentioned before makes Chris Betts the backup catcher, and I'll probably sign a good-defense vet to a MiLB contract come the spring. Beer was completely expendable with Spencer Torkelson taking an everyday job, taking Beer's job as the DH against righties.

December 18: In former Rays news, Ian Hamilton signed a 2-year, $6M deal with Colorado and Ty Buttrey, who helped our run to the WS in 2023, was traded by the Cubs to the Giants where he can hang out with former Rays Walker Buehler and Ryan Yarbrough.

December 19: Added C Noah Cardenas, 3B Tanner Witt, SS Alejandro Pie, Ps Dean Christidis, Luke Little, Jack Perkins, and Emerson Hancock to the 40-man roster.

Little was the last add: he's a power lefty for the bullpen who could be the successor to Alvarado. Cardenas I like the best of my catching glut, because he can play multiple positions and is a solid hitter, Witt is still the 3B of the future (although Casas is only 24), Pie is a power-hitting shortstop who can play the position, and Christidis, Perkins and Hancock are pitching prospects too good to lose.

Here's who I left off of note that I could lose to Rule 5: Cs Zach Britton, Logan Driscoll, Patrick Bailey, Enrique Romero, 2Bs Nick Loftin, Christian Knapczyk, OF Zack DeLoach, 3B Wyatt Langford, OFs Jasson Dominguez, Petey Halpin, Shane Sasaki, Ps CJ Van Eyk, Tommy Mace, Tyler Brown, Grant Gambrell, Colin Bosley-Smith, Christian Chamberlain, JJ Goss. It would probably be most disappointing to lose Langford (a power-hitting 3B but as not as good defensively as Tanner Witt), Dominguez (70 CF + power bat), Bosley-Smith (like the arm) and Chamberlain (another great arm who I just got in the Beer deal).

December 20: As always I spend way more time worrying about the Rule 5 draft than is justified given how few players are picked as we didn't lose anyone again this year. In 5 years the only guy I was lost that I was disappointed to lose was Tommy Romero, and well he really wasn't anything that special. I will have to put somebody on the current 40-man on waivers in a few months when Aaron Ashby gets healthy and comes off the 60-day IL.

December 27: Happy Holidays everyone! They're happy for Dany Jimenez, who just signed a 3/3.5M deal with Arizona, so we won't be yo-yoing him back and forth from Durham this year.

December 29: The Red Sox signed Yoan Moncada to a 7/64 deal, which is surprising on two fronts: 1) that's only about $9M/year and 2) they had already extended Abraham Toro after his big 2023 for them (in fact they're paying Toro more - $9.9M this year, then $12M from 26-28). Toro's numbers were down last year to a little better than what he did with the Rays in 2022 but a lot of that has to do with the tougher offensive environment. Now I guess Toro is on the block, because they already have Didi Gregorius at DH with Bogaerts at SS so I don't know where else they put him. Also Edwin Diaz, who has been a vagabond lately, signed a 1-year, $6.2M deal with the Cardinals.

[Art Deco]

January 3: Rafael Devers has finally signed - with the 66-win Cincinnati Reds. He's getting 4/75, a far cry from the 9-year deal he was asking for when I inquired.

This is shaping up to be the quietest offseason in the history of this save as I consider the 26-man roster fairly set, shaping up like this:

C: K.Ruiz, Betts
1B: Bohm
2B: Brujan
SS: Wander
3B: Casas
IF: Hiura, G.Jones
OF: Meadows, Schnell, Marsh, Bishop
DH: Torkelson
SP: Glasnow, Manning, M.White, May, McClanahan
LR: Lacy, Lynch
MR: Keller, Gaston, Verburg
SU: Alvarado, Anderson
CL: De La Cruz

I liked what I saw from Greg Jones in September and he can play both middle infield positions and a passable CF. He brings speed and a little pop, making him an ideal utility player. Hunter Bishop deserves a spot after 2 years at Durham and he showed much better in his MLB run last year than Heston Kjerstad.

On the staff, McClanahan has the early nod as 5th start over Lacy and Lynch, the latter one guy I could see trading. I'd also like to get a power lefty for the middle innings. Lacy might fill that role, but I'd still like to see him ultimately as a starter. Luke Little would be a possibility to come up as he fits that bill but I might try to see if I can acquire someone more proven via trade or free agency. One other option of course is Aaron Ashby, who will be back from his surgery in mid-March. We have about $9M to spend either in free agency or to take on via trade, but at best we're in tinker mode now.

January 6: The Angels traded Marcus Semien to the Cardinals for Ryan Helsley.

January 13: The Angels signed OF Alex Verdugo to a 7/127 deal.

January 15: CC Sabathia (with 78.9%) was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot, as wasa Carlos Beltran (77%) in his third year. Just missing were Ichiro in his first year (68.4%) and Manny Ramirez (64.9%) in his ninth, so he gets one more chance.

January 17: The Mets continue to be Rays north as they sign Ryan Yarbrough to a 2/3.6 contract where he joins Blake Snell, Yonny Chirinos, Kevin Kiermaier and Josh Lowe on the roster.

January 23: Madison Bumgarner, now 35, signed a 1-year, $1.3M deal with the Minnesota Twins.

January 28: More former Rays on the move: Andrew Kittredge, who's closed for Cincinnati the last few years, signed a 1/2.7 deal with Texas and in order to make room for him they waived Colin Poche. The White Sox signed Anthony Banda to a minor league deal. Also the Pirates signed Archie Bradley, who had a troubled tenure with the Yankees, to a 3/9.1 deal.

February 7: More former Rays sign: Will Smith (the pitcher) goes to the Cubs on a 1/1.2 deal and Diego Castillo will ply his trade in Coors Field at 1/1.8.

February 19: The Cubs were busy, bringing back Will Harris and more notably, Anthony Rizzo (on a 2/18.8 deal) after he spent 4 years with the Angels. And they traded Austin Riley to the Dodgers for CF Jeren Kendall and a minor league SS.

March 20: Spring training games have been underway (I only went with a 3-week spring training) with nothing of note to report. The Cardinals dealt Joel Brewer, a 75-defender CF who can't hit, and a prospect to Boston for Xander Bogaerts. Not sure how this makes sense since they already traded for Marcus Semien this winter, but we'll see. Guess this deal will allow Yoan Moncada and Abraham Toro to co-exist in Boston.

April 2: Spring training is over, the season begins tomorrow. No injuries during spring training (yay!), and the opening day 26-man roster is the one at the top of the post. BNN projects us at 101-61 with the best record in MLB, 18 better than Baltimore in the division. Play ball!

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays bashed 4 homers and Tyler Glasnow was perfect through the first 3 innings, and that's about where the good news ends as they fell 7-4 in their 2025 season opener against the White Sox. Vidal Brujan led off the game for the Rays with a blast, and then Nick Schnell took Lucas Giolito deep in the 2nd and it looked like they were rolling. But things came a-cropper as soon as the 4th inning started when Nick Madrigal led off with a homer against Glasnow and then he lost the plate, walking 3 in the inning and leaving down 3-2. Things didn't get better in the 5th as he allowed 2 more runs and left with an ugly 4.2 5 5 5 4 6 line. Sandy Gaston got him out of the 5th but allowed a run of his own in the 6th. Meanwhile, the Rays tried to chip away with a couple of more homers as Spencer Torkelson hit one in the 5th and Alec Bohm (who had a monster spring) went deep in the 7th. Mitchell Verburg pitched 2 scoreless innings but Mitch Keller gave up 3 hits around his own throwing error to allow Chicago a run in the 9th. The Rays did put 2 on against Jacob Webb in bottom of the 9th, but Triston Casas lined out to center as the tying run at the plate with 2 out. They only managed 3 non-homer hits, a single by Wander in the 1st and singles by Torkelson and Schnell in the 9th. This is the first opener they've lost since 2021.

Game 2: You can't win if you don't score, and Chicago's Brett Cederlind shut down the Rays for 9 2/3 innings (yes you read that right) as the White Sox beat the Rays 3-0 in 10 innings and consigned them to an 0-2 start. The Rays wasted a brilliant start from reigning AL Cy Young winner Matt Manning, who went 7 5 0 0 1 12, and Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson got them through the 8th and 9th. But Jasseel De La Cruz gave up a leadoff double in the 10th to Andrelton Simmons, and although he got the next two out he yielded an RBI single to Eloy Jimenez, and Collin Montez followed with a mighty 2-run blast into LCF seats to make it 3-0. Nick Schnell tripled in the bottom of the inning but was left stranded at 3rd as the Rays only managed 6 hits and one walk on the night. 2 of those were from Spencer Torkelson, 4-7 in the first 2 games. The Rays actually had a decent chance to win it in the 9th when Keibert Ruiz and Austin Meadows singled with one out, but Alec Bohm grounded into a double play to end that threat.

Game 3: The Rays got their first win of 2025 thanks to a dominant performance from Shane McClanahan and an offense that finally woke up. Mac went 7 3 1 1 2 10 on 98 pitches and the Rays rode a big 3-run HR from Alec Bohm to win 8-1. We were scoreless going into the bottom of the 4th and looked like a repeat of yesterday's game before the Rays managed their first run of the year that didn't come from a longball. Wander Franco walked, stole second, went to third on an Austin Meadows single and Keibert Ruiz singled him home. And with those two on base, Bohm went deep for the 2nd time this season to make it 4-0. After Luis Robert homered off McClanahan for the lone White Sox run to cut it to 4-1, Spencer Torkelson hit his 2nd as well, a 466-foot blast that restored the 4-run lead. They tacked on 3 more in the 7th when Wander singled in a run and Tork added a 2-run single. Mitchell Verburg pitched the 8th but after getting the 3rd out he had to leave with forearm soreness that will put him out a week so look for an IL move. Daniel Lynch pitched the 9th and gave up a couple of hits but neither runner scored as the Rays avoided an 0-3 hole.

Team record: 1-2. Next up: 3 games in Houston.

[Art Deco]

April 7: Placed P Mitchell Verburg on the 15-day IL with forearm soreness, recalled P Nick Frasso from AAA Durham.

Eventually Aaron Ashby may claim this spot, as he'll rehab at Durham once their season starts in a few days. For now Frasso gets the call.

Game 1: The Rays evened their record on the season thanks to the arm of Dustin May and the bat of Keibert Ruiz with a 4-2 win in Houston. The Rays jumped on the Astros' Forrest Whitley for 3 runs in the 1st on a 2-run HR from Ruiz and an RBI double from Spencer Torkelson, who remains red-hot to start the year. And after Wander Franco tripled in the 5th, Ruiz singled him home for the 4th Rays run. That was more than enough for May, who shackled the 'Stros with a 7 7 2 2 0 9 line, the main damage coming on a solo HR by Yordan Alvarez. Jose Alvarado had a 1-2-3 8th for his first hold, and Jasseel De La Cruz bounced back from Saturday's rough outing with a 1-2-3 9th to pick up his first save.

Game 2: Sloppy defense in the person of Vidal Brujan was the difference today in a 4-3 loss to Houston. After Austin Meadows hit his first HR of the season in the 1st to give the Rays a 2-0 lead, Yordan Alvarez hit a ground ball to Brujan who threw it away, allowing Brice Turang to score. And then after the Rays went up 3-1 in the 3rd when Brujan scored on Keibert Ruiz's RBI single, Alvarez hit another ground ball with 2 out and nobody on to Brujan, who threw that one away. And of course the next batter, Kyle Tucker, went deep off Mitchell White in his Rays debut to tie the game. White later gave up a run completely of his own doing in the 7th that was the game-winner, when he issued his only walk of the game to Jordan Brewer, who scored on a Turang double. The Rays offense continued its sluggish start to the season as they whiffed 15 times against Houston pitching today, mostly Jonathan Loaisiga and Aroldis Chapman. The bottom of the order, Triston Casas and Brandon Marsh, were 0-6 today with 5 whiffs and are a combined 2-36 this season. White deserved a better fate with a 6.2 5 4 1 1 4 line, Mitch Keller got the final out in the 7th, and Asa Lacy had a scoreless 8th in his season debut as the team falls to 2-3.

Game 3: It was the Tork and Tyler show this afternoon in a 6-3 win over Houston to take the series from Astros and even the Rays' season record at 3-3. After Austin Meadows gave the Rays a 1-0 lead in the 1st on a sac fly, Spencer Torkelson broke it open with a 3-run shot off Francis Martes in the 4th to make it 4-0. Hunter Bishop, giving the slow-starting Brandon Marsh a day off, drilled an RBI double later in the inning in his first action of 2025 and it was 5-0. Tork then deposited a Kyle Kubat fastball just inside the LF foul pole to make it 6-0. Torkelson now has 4 HR and 9 RBI in the team's first 6 games. Meanwhile Tyler Glasnow was dealing, holding the Astros to 3 hits and 0 runs through 6 before he ran out of gas a bit and gave up a 2-run HR to Alex Bregman. Glasnow ended 7 5 2 2 0 11, a far cry from his wild opening day start. Sandy Gaston came on in the 8th and allowed a Jordan Brewer HR to make it 6-3 but struck out the next three, and Jasseel De La Cruz got save #2 with a pair of whiffs in the 9th. Chris Betts got a start at catcher today and went 0-3 with a walk, while Keston Hiura filled in for the slumping Triston Casas at 3B and hit a pair of doubles.

Team record: 3-3. Next up: 4 games in Camden Yards against Baltimore, which I'm sure has Tork licking his chops.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays put 5 on the board in the first inning and cruised to a 7-3 win over Baltimore behind another outstanding outing from Matt Manning. Alec Bohm's sac fly in the 1st put the Rays on the board and after a walk to Spencer Torkelson loaded the bases, Nick Schnell took Vladimir Gutierrez deep for a grand slam. Wander Franco added an RBI in the 4th on an infield single and Triston Casas jump-started his 2025 with a solo shot in the 6th. Despite allowing a first-inning run, Manning was in control, going 8 5 1 1 1 5 to get his first win of the season and has allowed only one run in 15 innings this year. Nick Frasso came on for his season debut in the 9th and gave up a couple of HRs and only got one out, so Sandy Gaston had to finish up and get the final two outs.

Game 2: A costly error and some cold bats were the culprits in a 2-1 loss to Baltimore at Camden Yards. Jo Adell led off the 4th inning with a grounder at Wander Franco, and he booted it. After a walk, CJ Chatman doubled in Adell and then with one out, rookie Druw Jones' sac fly scored another, making both runs unearned against Shane McClanahan. It was an unfortunate sequence in an otherwise second excellent outing from the Rays lefty as he went 6.1 5 2 0 3 8, and Mitch Keller looked good in his 1.2 innings finishing up. But the offense couldn't do much against Kevin Abel, who held them to 7.1 6 1 1 0 5 with the only breakthrough a 6th inning RBI single by Keibert Ruiz driving in Brandon Marsh. In addition to his costly error, Wander was 0-4 as was Vidal Brujan, and when these guys don't get on base it can be problematic, as the team drops to 4-4 in its unusually sluggish start.

Game 3: Some bad pitching and a lack of timely hitting put the Rays below .500 again as they dropped an 8-6 decision to the Orioles. Dustin May, after walking nobody in his first start, was wild today and hittable, going 4 7 5 5 5 4. Still, after Triston Casas hit a 2-run HR and Wander went deep the Rays came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game at 3 in the 5th. But May got in trouble, giving up another run, and then Asa Lacy came on and was horrible himself allowing 5 hits and only retiring one batter as a 4-3 game became an 8-3 game in the blink of an eye. Daniel Lynch was very good mopping up the rest of the way, going 3.2 1 0 0 1 4. The Rays got 3 back in the 7th to make it a game, loading the bases to start the inning and getting runs on Wander and Keibert Ruiz groundouts and a Hunter Bishop RBI single. They put 2 on in the 8th and 2 on in the 9th but couldn't get a key hit and the batter who didn't come through in the 8th was Vidal Brujan, now 4-35 (.114) to start the season as he takes the mantle from Casas and Brandon Marsh as the main season-starting slumper. Casas was 2-4 with the 2-run HR and Marsh was on base all 4 times today with a single and 3 walks. And the reason you saw Bishop's name above is because Austin Meadows had to leave early with an oblique strain, which will put him out a week and send him to the 10-day IL. Heston Kjerstad is the likely call-up.

Game 4: It was a lost weekend in Baltimore as the Rays drop to 4-6 courtesy of an 8-5 defeat. Mitchell White just didn't have it today, and when I say "he didn't have it", he didn't have it to the tune of 2.2 14 8 8 1 1. Normally I would have pulled him quicker but we burned through our long relief yesterday in Lacy and Lynch and I was hoping he'd at least settle down. No such luck, and that line could have been worse had the Orioles not had 2 runners thrown out at the plate. I finally called on Nick Frasso out of desperation, and he responded with an excellent 3.1 0 0 0 0 4 performance, and Sandy Gaston had 2 scoreless innings. This allowed the Rays to creep back into the game. Wander had homered in the top of the first to put them up 2-0 and singled in a run in the 5th, and then in the 6th Alec Bohm (#3) and Chris Betts (his first MLB homer) went deep to make it 8-5. They had the bases loaded in the 9th with two out and the go-ahead run at the plate but Bohm flew out. Greg Jones got his first action of 2025 today filling in for the slumping Vidal Brujan and responded, going 2-4 with a walk. Tork (hitless for the first time this season) and Hunter Bishop were 0-8 in the middle of the order. I've also held off putting Meadows on the IL as he'll only miss 4 days after today and one is an off-day.

Team record: 4-6. Next up: 3 at home vs Toronto.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays relied on another strong pitching performance from Tyler Glasnow to snap their 3-game losing streak and beat the Blue Jays 5-2 at Tropicana Field. Glasnow went 6 7 2 2 1 11 and now has 28 whiffs in his first 17 2/3 innings this year. Still he was behind 2-0 going into the bottom of the 4th when Wander Franco walked and Alec Bohm stepped up and hit his 4th HR of the year to tie the game. The homer rattled Jays starter Julio Urias, who proceeded to walk the next 4 batters with Brandon Marsh's bases on balls forcing in a run. Vidal Brujan followed with an infield single to score a run and the Rays were up 4-2. Keston Hiura homered off Brody Westbrooks in the 8th for his first of the year to provide some extra breathing room. With Glasnow at 112 pitches after 6, the troika came in and did its job with Anderson and Alvarado throwing perfect innings and Jasseel De La Cruz picking up save #3 around a walk. Brujan later doubled for his first 2-hit game of the season so perhaps he will be getting going.

Game 2: For 7 1/2 innings it looked like the Rays would waste another brilliant outing from Matt Manning, but some late inning thunder turned a painful 2-0 loss into a thrilling 3-2 win. Manning had gone 8 6 2 2 1 5 on 114 pitches and had frustratingly allowed a pair of 2-out RBI singles earlier in the game to fall behind. Meanwhile, Simeon Woods Richardson was mowing down the Rays on 4 hits through 7 but with one out in the 8th he yielded an infield single to Vidal Brujan. Tyler Johnson came on for the Jays and immediately served up a 2-run HR to Wander (#3) to tie it up. And after Keibert Ruiz was retired, Spencer Torkelson drilled one into the LF seats for #5 to make it 3-2. Tork had been slumping over the last several games and had struck out the previous 3 trips against Richardson to extend his mini-slump to 2-19, but the fact he can deliver a HR at any time makes him valuable in the lineup. Jasseel De La Cruz gave us some heartburn by allowing a leadoff double in the 9th but he stranded the runner there, striking out Vlad Jr. and then Cavan Biggio to end the game and pick up save #4 as the Rays get back to .500 at 6-6. Manning is now 2-0, 1.17 with a 3/22 BB/K ratio in 23 innings with designs on another Cy Young.

Game 3: It was deja vu all over again at the Trop tonight as for the second straight night the Jays took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 8th and for the second straight night the Rays rallied to win it in the inning, this time 5-2. Nate Pearson is back in the Toronto rotation these days, and he was brilliant, 1-hitting the Rays through 7 with the only hit (and baserunner) coming when Brandon Marsh doubled with two out in the 6th. But Alec Bohm and Nick Schnell led off the 8th with singles, and after Triston Casas hit into a force play to put men on 1st and 3rd, John Brebbia came in and crapped the bed, in the parlance of the day. He walked Hunter Bishop to load the bases, Marsh singled to score Bohm, and then he walked Vidal Brujan to force in Casas with the tying run. Wander Franco then delivered a 2-run single and Keibert Ruiz singled in Brujan and suddenly it was 5-2. Shane McClanahan had yet another excellent start, undone only by a bout of wildness in the 4th when he walked 3 batters, including one with the bases loaded, to put Toronto up 1-0. His 6 3 1 1 3 6 line actually raised his ERA to 0.98, although he's 1-1 with a no-decision to show for it. Mitch Keller also walked in a run in the 8th, but he shouldn't have been in that position as Wander booted a 2-out grounder by the previous batter. Jose Alvarado got Keller out of that bases-loaded jam and stayed on for a scoreless ninth to "save" his own win, his first of the season. The win puts the Rays back over .500 in the early going.

Team record: 7-6. Next up: An off-day, followed by an odd 4-game "wraparound" series at Yankee Stadium, playing Friday through Monday. The Yankees are now 1-10 after losing tonight to Baltimore (who's 9-3 and 2 1/2 up on the Rays). I don't even want to imagine the media meltdown in New York and nationally with the Yankees doing this poorly.

Some very bad news from Durham: Mack Anglin, our top pitching prospect, will have to undergo Tommy John Surgery and will be out until May 2026.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Well it was pretty clear this game wasn't played at Tropicana Field as the Rays won a wild one over the Yankees 16-9 to make it 4 straight. They jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the 3rd, but Dustin May couldn't get it done, allowing the Yankees to get back within 8-6 in the bottom of the inning. Daniel Lynch did get it done again in long relief, getting the game into the 7th and picking up the win before Jose Alvarado took over and got the last two outs of the 7th to keep it at 8-6. The Rays added 4 in the 8th to make it 12-6, but Sandy Gaston served up a 3-run HR to Aaron Judge, his 2nd of the game, to make it 12-9. That brought on Nick Anderson, who loaded the bases for Giancarlo Stanton, but Anderson got the whiff and then the Rays added another 4 in the top of the 9th to make it 16-9. This time Asa Lacy got the job done with a 1-2-3 inning and the game was finally over. Alec Bohm led the hit parade with a pair of HRs in a 3-4, 4-run, 5-RBI performance; Wander Franco also hit two solo HRs in a 3-6 day, Keibert Ruiz was 4-6 with 3 RBI and Nick Schnell, Keston Hiura and Hunter Bishop each drove in a pair of runs. May was awful for the second straight start, going 3.2 6 6 6 2 3 allowing 3 HRs including Judge's first of the day and 300th of his career.

April 19: Optioned P Nick Frasso to AAA Durham, activated P Aaron Ashby from the 60-day IL; placed P Seth Johnson on waivers and designated him for assignment.

Ashby's rehab time was up, and he did OK at Durham. If he's back to where he was at the beginning of last year before getting hurt, I'll be happy. I really didn't want to waive Seth Johnson but I had to make room on the 40-man. As the lowest star-rated player (**) on the 40-man I'm hoping he'll clear waivers but if not he'll likely get more of a shot than I'll probably be able to give him.

Game 2: Compared to yesterday's 16-9 slugfest, today's game was a completely different affair. But the outcome was the same as the Rays won 3-2 to extend their winning streak to 5, and extend the Yankees' losing streak to 10 as the boys from the Bronx are now a dismal 1-13 to start the season. Mitchell White got his first start since last Sunday's 8-run, 14-hit debacle and it too was a completely different affair. Aaron Judge's HR leading off the 5th was the first hit and only run the Yankees managed off him today as he went 7 3 1 1 3 8 to grab his first win as a Ray. Jose Alvarado allowed his first run of the season in the 8th to allow the Yankees within 3-2, but Nick Anderson struck out Aaron Judge to end the inning and Jasseel De La Cruz struck out a pair around a walk to nail down save #5. The Rays manufactured a run in the 1st when Vidal Brujan led off the game with a single, stole second, and scored on a Nick Schnell groundout, and in the 2nd their legs led to another run when Keston Hiura stole second after singling and Chris Betts singled him home with two out. And Brandon Marsh got what turned out to be a very important insurance run in the 8th when he hit his first homer of the year off Zach Pop into the RF stands. Austin Meadows returned to the lineup after missing about a week with an oblique and went 0-4, while Spencer Torkelson showed more signs of getting out of his mini-slump with 3 hits today including a double.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow wasn't his best again, and Gerrit Cole shut down the Rays after some early struggles as the Yankees managed their second win of season 5-3. After being staked to a 3-1 lead in the 2nd, Glasnow gave up a 3-run HR to Giancarlo Stanton in the 2nd and another run in the 3rd as he went 6 7 5 5 1 6 and despite 34 whiffs in 23 2/3 innings this season he sports a 5.32 ERA. The Rays got to Cole courtesy of a 2-run HR by Alec Bohm (among the MLB leaders now at 7) and an RBI single from Vidal Brujan. But Cole settled down and shut them out the rest of the way, going 8 8 3 3 0 5. The young power hitters Spencer Torkelson and Triston Casas had rough days, going a combined 0-8 with 5 strikeouts. One bright spot was Aaron Ashby, making his first appearance in nearly a year. The lefty pitched a perfect 7th inning with a strikeout, and he will be a valuable piece of the bullpen if he can regain his form. Mitch Keller pitched a scoreless 8th. Meanwhile Austin Meadows continues to suffer nagging injuries and had to leave in the 4th after legging out an infield hit. Just after missing 6 days with an oblique, he'll now miss 4 games with a mild hamstring strain.

Game 4: This time they did waste a great Matt Manning outing as there was no last-minute rally in a 1-0 loss at Yankee Stadium. Manning went 7 3 1 1 2 6, giving up a run in the 7th on a sac fly while his teammates with the bats couldn't get anything done against Luis Severino, who himself went 7.2 4 0 0 2 4. It looked like they might have a chance when Keibert Ruiz led off the 9th with a double against Yankee closer Nick Paciorek, but Alec Bohm whiffed, Spencer Torkelson grounded out sending Ruiz to 3rd, and Nick Schnell struck out. Triston Casas took another collar today as his 0-3 dropped his average to .118 and the main reason he wasn't out of the lineup today was that Keston Hiura was DHing and taking Austin Meadows' spot in the lineup rather than starting for him at 3B. Aaron Ashby had another nice 1-2-3 inning on a back-to-back so there's at least that as the team drops to 9-8 and the mediocre start continues.

Team record: 9-8. Up next: 3 games in Minnesota.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The game scheduled for Monday night was rained out, so we're playing a doubleheader on Tuesday. As for Game 1 of that, the Rays dropped their third straight and fell back to .500 at 9-9 with a 4-2 loss. Shane McClanahan had a very rough first inning, putting two men on but getting two out before JD Martinez took him deep for a 3-run HR which would turn out to be all Minnesota needed. Mac then loaded the bases after the homer but got out of it, only to allow another run in the third, ending 5 9 4 4 3 6 to raise his ERA from 0.98 to 2.22. Sandy Gaston had 2 perfect innings with three whiffs and Daniel Lynch had a scoreless inning. The offense, meanwhile, was moribund again scoring its runs on a Keibert grounder and a Schnell GIDP. Vidal Brujan continued his sluggish start by twice making outs in key situations with men on base, leaving 5 runners on.

Game 2: This team is really playing some bad baseball and the Twins scored 11 (!) in the first inning off Dustin May and Asa Lacy in a 15-1 thrashing of the Rays to sweep the doubleheader and send the Rays to the four straight defeat and below .500 at 9-10. May had nothing today in his third straight terrible start after a nice opener in Houston, allowing 7 hits and 9 runs (7 earned) and only retired one batter, who hit a deep sac fly. Asa Lacy came on and gave up a 2-run HR to Matt Olson to cap the inning. The offense banged out 10 hits, but as per usual virtually none of them came at the right time. Nick Schnell went 4-4 but neither scored nor drove in a run; the lone run came when Triston Casas and Brandon Marsh doubled in the 7th. Surely Austin Meadows being out of the lineup isn't the reason for 4 straight losses or we'll be in real trouble next season.

April 24: Optioned P Dustin May to AAA Durham, activated P Mitchell Verburg from the 15-day IL, assigned P Seth Johnson to AAA Durham.

The May move is temporary to get an extra arm up after the doubleheader. Johnson cleared waivers so we get to keep him.

Game 3: The Rays brought out the boomsticks today to back the solid pitching of Mitchell White in a 7-0 win that snapped their 4-game losing streak and brought them back to .500 again. Wander Franco set the tone with a first inning blast off Dakota Chalmers, the Rays got a run in the second inning when Brandon Marsh stole second, went to third on the bad throw and scored on a wild pitch, and then in the 3rd Alec Bohm and Spencer Torkelson (#6) went back-to-back to make it 4-0. With Austin Meadows aboard, Bohm went deep again for his MLB-leading 9th HR, and Wander hit his second of the game and 7th of the year in the 7th off Michael Fulmer. White, meanwhile, was effective if not overpowering, going 8 4 0 0 4 2, with one of those hits and one of those walks coming to lead off the 9th when we tried to get him the shutout. Mitch Keller finished up for him with a 1-2-3 outing, striking out a pair. Vidal Brujan's season-long funk continues as he was 0-5 to lower his average to .171.

Team record: 10-10. Next up: 4 at home vs Kansas City in another weird wraparound series that goes through Monday.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was your typical, tight, low-scoring affair at the Trop and thanks to Tyler & Tork it was a 2-1 Rays win. Glasnow survived a first inning HR by Rowdy Tellez and went 7 5 1 1 0 9 for the win to get his ERA out of 5s (now 4.40) after a string of mediocre starts. Jose Alvarado did a good job of earning his $15M tonight with a 2K perfect 8th and then getting Tellez on strikes to start the 9th before giving way to Jasseel De La Cruz, who got the final two batters for save #6. Former Ray (for about a month and a half in 2021) Lucas Sims held their bats largely in check as the offense only managed 4 hits. Fortunately two of them were for extra bases courtesy of Spencer Torkelson, who haunted his former organization with an RBI double in the 2nd and a solo HR (#7) in the 4th to supply both Tampa Bay runs. Triston Casas was 0-3 once again, and he's just about lost the 3B job to Keston Hiura and the other serious slumper, Vidal Brujan, was 0-4. At least they're back over .500 (for now).

Game 2: It was good to have a low-pressure, laugher of a game with how the season has started and the Rays supplied one by jumping on KC starter Logan Allen for 6 runs in the first, and scoring 11 in the first 3 innings on the way to a 12-1 pasting of the Royals. KC actually took the lead in this game when former Rays farmhand JJ Bleday singled in a run in top of the 1st off Matt Manning but that would be all the reigning Cy Young winner would allow as his 7 4 1 1 0 10 outing was yet another brilliant outing which saw actually saw his ERA rise ever so-slightly to 1.22 as he looks to repeat the honor. Unlike their rout of Minnesota a couple of days ago which saw them hit 5 homers, today they didn't hit any, just hit after hit (with only 3 for extra bases) as they pounded out 15 for the game. It started at the top of the order where Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco led off with singles, Austin Meadows scored Brujan with a groundout, Keibert Ruiz and Alec Bohm had RBI singles, and then Nick Schnell had the biggest hit of them all, a bases-clearing double. Bohm had another RBI single and Keston Hiura laced a 2-run double in the second, and Brujan had an RBI triple in the 3rd and scored on a Wander grounder. Keibert added his 2nd RBI single in the 7th for the final run. Mitchell Verburg finished with 2 scoreless innings in his first action since returning from the IL. Boston lost so the Rays now move to within 2 of the division lead.

Game 3: It was revenge of the former Rays in an 11-7 Kansas City win. Xavier Edwards led off the game with a homer, JJ Bleday homered later in the inning, Ronaldo Hernandez homered in the 7th, Tyler Zombro got the win in relief and Drew Strotman pitched a scoreless inning. Daniel Lynch got the spot start because of the Wednesday doubleheader, meaning neither Shane McClanahan nor Dustin May had enough rest. Lynch was horrible, going 1.2 8 5 5 4 1, but miraculously the Rays managed to tie the game after falling behind 5-0, largely on a 3-run HR from Alec Bohm, #10 in 23 games. But Sandy Gaston in relief gave it right back in the top of the 5th as he was probably pressed an inning too long, giving up a 3-run HR to Khalil Lee as part of a 4-run inning that put KC ahead to stay. Wander had a couple of sac flies, and Vidal Brujan had an RBI double but flew out to end the game as the tying run at the plate. The Rays had plenty of chances in addition to that one to score more than the 7 they did, including a bases-loaded nobody out situation in the 1st that saw Bohm whiff, Torkelson pop out, and Nick Schnell ground out. Chris Betts got the start at catcher and was 0-4. In 5 starts Betts has a CERA of 7.33 as opposed to Keibert Ruiz's 2.87. He's a 45 at catcher but this is kind of ridiculous. Another couple of bombings with him starting and I need to start looking for another catcher.

Game 4: For once the Rays didn't respond to a loss with another loss as they edged Kansas City 4-3, although the win was a bit costly. After Dustin May and his 11+ ERA coming in recovered from a "here we go again" first inning allowing 3 hits and a run, he settled down and went 6 6 1 1 1 7 and left with a 2-1 lead. Jose Alvarado came on for the seventh, got the first two men out but sprained his ankle and will have to go on the IL as it's a 1-2 week injury. Nick Anderson came in with three lefties due up, and all three of them picked up hits, including 2 doubles and KC regained the lead 3-2. Khalil Lee was thrown out at 3rd on the second double so Anderson left without retiring a batter yet still picked up the win when the Rays got those 2 runs back in the bottom of the inning. They loaded the bases with nobody out and it looked like it might be another wasted opportunity when Vidal Brujan grounded into a force at the plate but Drew Strotman threw a wild pitch to score Nick Schnell and then Wander hit yet another sac fly to give the Rays the lead. With more lefties due up, Asa Lacy came in with Aaron Ashby tired and gave up a pair of hits but got Rowdy Tellez to ground into a DP, and Jasseel De La Cruz came in to face the righty Thairo Estrada and got him to ground out, then pitched the 9th, getting a DP of his own after walking the leadoff man for save #7. Earlier Alec Bohm hit his MLB-leading 11th homer to give them the 2-1 lead in the 6th inning and Wander had an RBI double in the 3rd for the Rays runs.

Team record: 13-11. Next up: 3 big games vs Boston at the Trop against the 14-7 Sox, whom they trail by 2 1/2.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays only managed 4 hits tonight but made them all count in a 5-2 win over the Red Sox to pull within 1 1/2 games of the division lead. Justin Dunn was actually no-hitting the Rays through 6 1/3 innings with a 1-0 lead until Austin Meadows drilled a HR into the LCF stands (only #2 this season but he's missed some time), and then after Dunn walked Alec Bohm, Spencer Torkelson doubled up the LCF gap to score Bohm to put the Rays in front. Durbin Feltman came in for the Sox and then gave up a 2-run HR to Keston Hiura, also his 2nd, and it was 4-1. The fourth Rays hit came in the 8th when Vidal Brujan tripled and scored on a GIDP. Shane McClanahan got the start and went a strong 6 7 1 1 0 7, and Mitch Keller got the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Aaron Ashby took over the Alvarado role and got 2 big whiffs in the 8th but allowed a run when the stayed on in the 9th, and Jasseel De La Cruz had to get the final two outs for save #8.

Game 2: A tough loss for the Rays as the depleted bullpen couldn't hold a 2-1 lead in the 8th as the Red Sox took this one 4-2. Mitchell White, in his home debut, pitched very well allowing only a Yoan Moncada HR through the first 7 innings. With Alvarado on the IL and Aaron Ashby and Jasseel De La Cruz unavailable, White started the 8th and allowed a leadoff single to Niko Goodrum. Mitch Keller came on and got a popup, but Alec Bohm dropped it and after Keller looked like he might get out of it getting Jesse Winker to hit into a double play, Moncada struck again with an RBI single to tie the game, leaving White with a 7 5 2 1 2 4 line. Keller stayed on in the ninth and then gave up a 2-run HR to Pierson Gibis and that was that. The Rays had taken a 2-0 lead in the fifth when Nick Schnell doubled in Keston Hiura and scored on a Wander Franco RBI single, but that was all they could manage. As it always seems when they lose, they had a chance to tie or go ahead in the 9th but with 2 on and 2 out Vidal Brujan looked at a called third strike to end the game.

Game 3: A hard-fought and big win for the Rays today as Tyler Glasnow was great and Wander Franco supplied the big hit of the game as the Rays downed the Red Sox 5-3. Glasnow went 117 pitches in going 8 6 3 3 3 9 with Yasmani Grandal the thorn in his side with a pair of HRs. But Wander Franco's 3-run HR (#8) off Rick Porcello, now in his second tour of duty with Boston, capped a 4-run 5th that propelled the Rays to the win. Brandon Marsh's infield single had scored Keston Hiura with the first run of the inning, and in the 8th Alec Bohm provided a big insurance run as he continues his power surge with HR #12, tops in the majors. Jasseel De La Cruz walked the leadoff man but struck out a pair for save #9 as the Rays got back within 1 1/2 instead of falling behind 3 1/2. It's early and it's a long season but this is a position the team has found itself unaccustomed to since 2021.

Team record: 15-12. Next up: 3 at home vs Minnesota for the first traditional weekend series in 3 weeks.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Matt Manning proved he was human, allowing 5 runs in 7 2/3 innings, but the Rays provided him with some run support for a change in a 7-5 win over Minnesota. Cruising with a 2-0 lead behind a Keibert Ruiz RBI double and a Nick Schnell homer (#3), Manning suddenly couldn't get anyone out in the 5th as a series of hits with a walk mixed in were capped off by a 3-run Travis Swaggerty HR to make it 4-2 Twins. But the Rays responded in the bottom of the inning off Joe Musgrove with a 3-run blast from Wander (#9) and an Alec Bohm sac fly after an Austin Meadows triple. Triston Casas, after getting another chance and whiffing his first two times up, had an RBI double in the 7th to get an insurance run, needed after Manning yielded a bodacious 500-ft blast to Mitch Garver in the 7th to cut it to 7-5. Aaron Ashby got the third out of the 8th but gave up a single to a lefty leading off the 9th. With Jasseel De La Cruz having pitched 3 of the last 4 nights, Nick Anderson came on and got save #1 with a pair of whiffs around a hit. Is Vidal Brujan snapping out of it? He had 2 hits, 2 runs scored and a steal today, perhaps so.

Game 2: This game was the baseball equivalent of the Final Destination movies; no matter how many times the Rays kept cheating death, Minnesota kept coming for them and won 8-7 in 10 innings. Three times the Rays came back to tie, including most dramatically with a 9th-inning grand slam from Triston Casas when they trailed 7-3, but Aaron Ashby gave up a leadoff homer in the 10th to pinch-hitter Yu Chang, and the Rays couldn't mount a fourth comeback. Dustin May got the start against the team that clobbered him in Minneapolis a week and a half ago, and it looked like more of the same when Matt Olson took him deep for a 2-run shot in the 1st. But he settled down, and the Rays got homers from Austin Meadows (#3) and Keibert Ruiz (#2) to tie the game up. Minnesota got to May in the 6th with a run, and he left with a bare-minimum quality start of 6 6 3 3 2 5. But the Rays came right back in the bottom of the frame as Keston Hiura and Greg Jones both singled (Brujan and Wander both required a rest today) to start the inning and Keibert's sac fly made it 3-3. After Asa Lacy had a 1-2-3 7th, he came back out for the 8th with Minnesota's lefty-stacked lineup and the wheels came off as he allowed 4 runs, including a 3-run blast by Colton Welker. A Hiura error (his second of the game) didn't help and one of the runs was unearned. This set the stage for Casas' dramatic blast in the 9th, his 3rd of the year, but it turned out to be for naught. Hate to sound like a broken record but this was another instance where Jose Alvarado was missed as he would have pitched the 8th (or pitched the 10th) and couldn't have done much worse than Lacy or Ashby. Suddenly that $15M I'm paying him looks like a bargain considering the alternatives.

Game 3: The mediocre start to the season continues as the bullpen blows another one with the Rays falling again in extra innings, 4-3. Shane McClanahan was brilliant, going a career-high 8 innings with an 8 4 2 2 2 4 line on 98 pitches and left ahead 3-2. But Jasseel De La Cruz was greeted by a Matt Olson HR to lead off the 9th and then the Twins got a run off Mitchell Verburg in the 11th to get the win. Aside from the bullpen, the culprit was a largely quiet offense. Nick Schnell, Keibert Ruiz and Brandon Marsh all had to rest today, meaning Chris Betts started against a lefty and Greg Jones got the call in center. The makeshift lineup accounted for only 4 hits through the 11 innings but it was almost enough. Wander drew three walks and scored on two of them, in the 1st on an Austin Meadows RBI double and on the fifth on a 2-out single from Spencer Torkelson that put them up 3-2. The other run scored when Nick Gordon threw away a Betts grounder allowing Triston Casas, who had doubled, to score. But Vidal Brujan was up to his old tricks again, going 0-5, leaving 4 on base and dipping back below the Mendoza Line. Boston got 4 in the 9th to beat the Yankees 5-4 so they are now 3 1/2 up on the Rays.

Team record: 16-14. Next up: A rare off-day, followed by 3 games at Texas, where the surprising Rangers are 19-10.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Austin Meadows provided the bat and Mitchell White provided the arm as the Rays beat Texas 5-2 for a successful start to their road trip. Meadows was 3-4 with a double, triple and homer, driving in a pair of runs and White went 8 4 1 1 2 6 to improve to 3-2 as that 8-run, 14-hit nightmare in Baltimore becomes more and more of a distant memory. In fact since that game he's allowed only 3 runs in his last 30 innings and picked up all 3 of his wins. He did fall behind, though, in the 2nd on a Sam Huff homer but the Rays equalized in the 4th when Alec Bohm singled in Meadows after his double. They took the lead for good in the 6th when Meadows tripled in Keibert Ruiz and then scored on another Bohm RBI single, Wander doubled in Triston Casas in the 7th, and Meadows hit HR #4 to make it 5-1 in the 8th. Mitch Keller came on for the 9th and served up another homer to Huff but gave up nothing else. Boston lost again in Minnesota so the Rays are now within 2.

Game 2: It was another edition of the Tork and Tyler show tonight at Globe Life Field as the Rays made it two straight over Texas with a 6-1 win. Glasnow was his usual brilliant self, going 7 5 1 1 1 8 to improve to 5-2, with Asa Lacy pitching two scoreless innings to finish it off. Glasnow's only blemish was a HR to - you guessed it - Sam Huff. Meanwhile Spencer Torkelson snapped out of a recent mini-slump to drill a 3-run homer (#8) in the 4th off Juan Pablo Lopez to break a 1-1 tie and the Rays coasted thereafter. Wander and Nick Schnell had RBI doubles and Keibert Ruiz had a sac fly for the other Rays runs. Meanwhile our long national Vidal Brujan nightmare continues with an 0-4 to drop to .189. Even when he did something right (drew a walk), he did something wrong (was caught stealing). Boston did win in Minnesota so the deficit stays at 2.

News from the farm: Jack Leiter, the key pickup in last year's Ronaldo Hernandez deal, combined with Nathan Price on a no-hitter for Class A+ Port Charlotte last night. Leiter was 8 0 0 0 3 5 on 113 pitches. He's been a bit up and down this year, but last night he was definitely up.

Game 3: I think I've used the phrase "wasted a good outing from Matt Manning" enough this year that I should create a macro, and that's what the Rays did today in a 2-1 loss. It was a matchup of two of the top pitchers in the AL, both of whom came up with Detroit, as Manning faced Tarik Skubal. And Skubal got the better of Manning, not in the least because he could field his position. Texas's 2 runs came in the first on a Lewin Diaz double which came after two Rays fielding errors, one by the normally excellent at 1B Alec Bohm and the second from Manning throwing away a groundball. These two errors loaded the bases for Diaz, and Manning did well to get out of it with 2nd and 3rd and nobody out. That was all he'd give the Rangers going 8 7 2 1 0 8 and lowering his ERA to 1.88 in a 109-pitch complete game but Skubal was even better, allowing only Bohm's MLB-best 13th HR of the year in the 4th as he went 7.2 5 1 1 3 8 to lower his ERA to 1.70. Bohm (who also singled and walked) and Keston Hiura (two singles) were pretty much the extent of the offense (the fifth hit came from Vidal Brujan - yay!). Boston was off so the Rays fall 2 1/2 back.

Team record: 18-15. Next up 3 games in Anaheim against the Angels.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Regression to the mean is usually used in a negative context, but today for the Rays it was a good thing as 2025 slumpers Vidal Brujan and Triston Casas broke out with a pair of homers each as the Rays crushed the Angels 9-1. Brujan set the tone by leading off the game with a HR (#2) off Ryan Helsley and then in the 2nd the Rays picked up a pair on a wild pitch and an infield RBI single from Wander Franco. After LA picked up a run in the 3rd, the Rays answered back in the 4th on solo shots from Casas (#4) and Brujan (#3) to make it 5-1 and then in the 5th Casas hit a 3-run blast (#5). Wander added #10 in the 6th to cap off the Rays' HR derby. Dustin May was the beneficiary of the bombs and he made it through 6 despite not pitching that well as he walked an equivalent # of batters to end with a 6 3 1 1 6 4 line. Daniel Lynch, the forgotten man of the staff who's finally over his nagging back injury, looked good over the final 3, allowing 1 hit and whiffing 3 to pick up his first save.

Game 2: Another comfortable win in Anaheim as the Rays took care of the Angels 10-4. Alec Bohm continued his power surge with his MLB-leading 14th HR of the season in the 4th, a 2-run shot to give the Rays a 3-2 lead, and then followed with an RBI double in the 5th while Keibert Ruiz rapped a pair of RBI doubles in the 1st and the 5th. Wander Franco and Spencer Torkelson each drove in a run, and Vidal Brujan turned it into a blowout with a bases-clearing triple in the 8th. Shane McClanahan got the start and wasn't particularly sharp, allowing 2 runs in the 1st and lucky not to have allowed a 3rd as Austin Meadows threw out Anthony Rendon at home. And then Mac had to leave in the 3rd with a mild calf strain which won't cause him to miss his next start, so Asa Lacy came on and was very good, going 3.1 2 0 0 0 3 to get his first win of the season. Aaron Ashby had a nice 1-2-3 2K inning when it was 6-2 in the 7th, and then Mitchell Verburg got through the 8th before having a hard time getting the final out in the 9th, allowing a couple of runs and necessitating Sandy Gaston to come in and get a game-ending popup. Meanwhile Boston won't go away as they improve to 21-11 after scoring 2 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to beat Toronto 4-3 and stay 2 1/2 up on the Rays.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep with a 6-4 win over the Angels behind the bat of Wander Franco. He blasted HR #11 off Shohei Ohtani in the first with Vidal Brujan aboard in the 1st to give the Rays a quick 2-0 lead, and added an RBI single in the 8th for some insurance as part of a 3-5 day. Brujan looked like his usual self today going 2-4 with a walk and scoring twice, Alec Bohm added an RBI double and Triston Casas had a sac fly. Also having a big day in his first action in weeks was Hunter Bishop, who gave Nick Schnell a day off and was 3-5 with an RBI triple. Mitchell White got the start and while he wasn't as sharp as his previous 4 outings, he was still good enough to go 7 7 3 3 2 5 and pick up win #4 with his only rough patch in the 6th putting 2 men on in front of Mike Trout, who hit a 3-run shot to dead center. Nick Anderson had a scoreless 8th in his first outing in a while and Jasseel De La Cruz had an adventurous ninth, allowing a couple of hits and suffering an error behind him which led to an Angel unearned run but nothing else as he grabbed save #10. Those damn Red Sox walked it off again today against Toronto after trailing nearly the entire game so no ground was gained, although the Rays are holding down the top wild card at the moment.

Team record: 21-15. Next up: An off-day and then back home for 3 vs Detroit.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays' renaissance (Raynaissance?) continued tonight with a 5-2 win over Detroit, making it 4 straight, 5 of 6 and 13 of their last 18. Tyler Glasnow did not have his best stuff (only 3 whiffs!) but managed a 6-hit complete game, going 9 6 2 2 2 3 on 112 pitches for his MLB-best 6th win. All the offense came in the first two innings off Kumar Rocker, with an RBI single from Austin Meadows and a 2-run double from Alec Bohm in the first, and a 2-run double by Keibert Ruiz in the 2nd. Also Vidal Brujan continued to shows signs of getting going by reaching base 3 times in 5 trips on a hit and 2 walks. The Tigers did all their damage against Glasnow in the first 3 innings and it looked like he might be lucky to go 5 but he settled down after that, allowing only 2 hits and 0 walks over the final 6 innings. And yes, Boston won again.

May 14: Activated P Jose Alvarado from the 15-day IL, optioned P Sandy Gaston to AAA Durham.

Needless to say, it's great to get Alvarado back as his absence may have cost the team a couple of games at least. Gaston was the surprise choice to go down but he didn't seem to be as overpowering so far this year and he'll get more regular work at Durham instead of the mop-up appearances he had been getting.

Game 2: The wins keep on comin' as Matt Manning had an fine start against his old team and the Rays took a 5-1 win over Detroit. Manning continues his campaign to repeat as AL Cy Young winner with a 6 2 1 1 1 8 outing lowering his ERA to 1.84, but the Rays didn't strike for the lead until after he left. Detroit eked out a run in the 5th, but Alec Bohm went Bohms away once again with #15 in the bottom of the frame to tie it up. Manning came out after 98 pitches through 6 and gave way to Mitch Keller in the 7th, and then the Rays went to work in the bottom of that inning with some help from the Detroit defense. Bohm reached on a Sandy Alcantara error to lead it off, Spencer Torkelson doubled him to 3rd, and then Bohm scored when Jonathan India booted Nick Schnell's grounder. Triston Casas then hit a sac fly to score Tork, and Brandon Marsh homered scoring Schnell, his 2nd of the year. With the lead 4, Keller stayed in and pitched so well he finished the game going 3 2 0 0 0 4 and picked up his 2nd win in the process. Boston lost to Washington so the Rays pull to within 1 1/2 games.

Game 3: The Rays only managed 4 hits but thanks to the pitching of Dustin May and some opportunism in the 7th the Rays managed a 3-1 win to sweep the series and make it 6 on the trot, as the English would say. May was fabulous, taking a shutout into the 8th before giving up a 2-out hit. Jose Alvarado came on in his first appearance since coming off the DL and showed a little rust, allowing 2 hits to score the runner but getting a break when Brandon Marsh threw out Gavin Sheets trying to go to 2nd on his single to end the inning. Alvarado stayed on for the 9th and got a whiff before walking former Ray Alex Kirilloff, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on to strike out Jonathan India and pinch-hitter Kody Clemens to end the game and grab save #11. May's ERA is still an unsightly 5.53 largely due to the 7 runs allowed in 1/3 of an inning at Minnesota but he's reeled off 4 fine starts since then, only allowing 6 runs in his last 25 2/3. Vidal Brujan got the offense off to a great start when he led off the 1st with a HR into the RF seats against old friend Shane Baz, but Baz shut down the Rays after that until things went haywire for him in the 7th. It looked like he had struck out Austin Meadows to start the inning but catcher's interference was called and it rattled him as he hit Alec Bohm with a pitch. The two runners moved up on a groundout and Jake Rogers' nightmare inning continued when he committed a passed ball allowing Meadows to score and Spencer Torkelson hit a sac fly to score Bohm as the Rays managed 2 runs without a hit or a walk. Boston was idle so the Rays creep within 1 game of them ahead of their 3-game series at the Trop.

Team record: 24-15. Next up: As I just said, 3 games at home vs Boston.