The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays kept scoring runs but the Angels kept answering back until they finally pulled away with 3 in the 8th to beat LA 11-6 and make it 7 straight wins. Joe Barker had a huge day, drawing a bases-loaded walk in the 1st, adding a 2-run homer (#21) in the 5th and hitting a 2-run single in the 6th. Bobby Witt Jr added a solo HR (#11) and a sac fly, but it wasn't until the 8th when Nate Clark blasted #35, his first homer since July 12 (not counting the 2 he hit in the All-Star Game), a solo shot, and Jasson Dominguez hit one out (#27) with a man aboard did the Rays finally get some real breathing room. Dominguez and Barker had 3-hit games as did Dayle Jenkins, who now has his average up to .330. And Ricky Widmar had 2 more hits to extend his hitting streak to 20. Jack Leiter got the start, and the win (#10) but wasn't his best at 6 7 4 4 2 4. Brad Ballmann allowed a run in the 7th, and Jordan Diaz allowed a homer in the 8th, only the second he's yielded this year. Evan Godwin had a scoreless 9th to finish it off.

Game 2: Marc Wagner pitched 7 dominant innings and Nate Clark homered and drove in 3 runs to lead the Rays to a 5-0 win over the Angels. The win saw two streaks extended: the team's winning streak of 8 and Ricky Widmar's hitting streak of 21 games, thanks to a single leading off the game. Wagner gave up a few hits early but was untouchable once he settled into a groove, going 7 4 0 0 1 13 to improve to 6-2, 3.03 as a Ray and 10-4, 3.04 overall. Clark had a sac fly in the 3rd and then a 2-run homer in the 8th (#36) to bust it open. The homer put him over 100 RBI at 101, the third straight season he's reached the century mark in that category. Joe Barker's 1st inning RBI single off Shohei Ohtani was all they'd need and Dayle Jenkins added an RBI single in the 3rd. Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 8th for a hold and Jasseel De La Cruz had a 1-2-3 9th to complete the shutout.

Game 3: Well that was ridiculous. Trailing 5-0 with 2 out and nobody on in the bottom of the 8th, the Rays came from behind with 2 runs in the 8th and 4 more in the 9th to shock the Angels 6-5, with Dane Ayers' 2-run walk-off homer (#5) the decider to make it 9 straight wins. Just to demonstrate how ridiculous and unlikely this comeback was, here's the win probability chart:



The comeback started in the 8th when Dayle Jenkins doubled in Ayers with 2 out and Nate Clark singled in Jenkins. Still it was 5-2 going to the bottom of the 9th but Adley Rutschman walked, Jasson Dominguez singled, Bobby Witt Jr tripled them both home, and after Isaac DeLeon struck out Ayers stepped up and drilled one into the RF bullpen. Before all of that the story was going to be how LA's Alfredi Jimenez shut them down and how the Rays' bullpen was terrible. Christian Little started and was filthier than ever, going 6 4 2 2 0 15, unfortunately allowing a 2-run single to Shohei Ohtani in the 3rd with two out. This was Little's 4th straight start with double-digit strikeouts. But the pen was bad, and all three relievers who pitched had a hand in the Angels expanding their lead. Corbin Martin was terrible for the 3rd time in 4 outings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits. And although Mike Mooney got him out of the 7th, Mooney put two on via walk and was pulled for Brad Ballmann, who gave up an RBI single to make it 5-0. Ballmann allowed another hit, but Nate Clark threw the runner out at the plate and he stayed on through the 9th and got a couple of whiffs to end up with his first victory as a Ray. Ricky Widmar singled in the 6th to keep his hitting streak alive at 22 while Jenkins had another 3-hit game, the third time in the last four he's done this and in the other game he had 2 hits, making him 11 for his last 18 and raising his BA to .336.

Team record: 84-27. Next up: We head out west to reunite with old friend Jhon Diaz and his Oakland A's for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was a pretty clinical dismantling of Oakland today as the Rays took a 7-1 win over the A's. Alec Sachais was brilliant, going 7 3 1 1 2 6 to improve to 15-2 (tied for the MLB lead in wins), 3.35. Sachais is now a remarkable 43-9 in his three seasons with the Rays. They scored early and often, getting their first six runs over innings 2-5, starting with Joe Barker's 22nd HR of the year leading off the 2nd. They picked up another run on a wild pitch and Adley Rustchman singled in a run in the 3rd. Bobby Witt tripled to lead off the 4th and scored on Dane Ayers' groundout, and their final three runs came courtesy of a pair of Jasson Dominguez homers, a 2-run shot in the 5th and a solo blast in the 8th to give him 29 for the season. Corbin Martin, who had allowed 9 runs over his last 8 innings, pitched a 1-2-3 2K 8th, and Evan Godwin a scoreless 9th to wrap it up. One bit of bad news, though: Ricky Widmar's 22-game hitting streak was snapped tonight with an 0-5.

Game 2: Jon Hayes wasn't his sharpest and the bats were fairly quiet in a 5-3 loss to Oakland which ended the team's 9-game winning streak. A 2-run homer in the 2nd from the red-hot Jasson Dominguez (#30) and a Nate Clark RBI single in the 5th gave them a 3-2 lead but Hayes came undone in the 6th, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and that was the end of the night's scoring. He finished 6 8 5 5 2 5 and dropped to 13-4. Brad Ballmann had 2 shutout innings in relief while Rays' batters only managed 6 hits on the night and none after the 6th inning.

Game 3: The Rays dropped the series to Oakland with a 2-1 loss in a strange game that saw the ball in play most of time, but going for outs as the two teams combined for a total of 9 strikeouts. They were able to get baserunners against A's starter Lucas Gordon but couldn't push a run across with their only run coming on Nate Clark's 37th HR of the year off the A's bullpen. Their closer Mike Hanley walked Connor Kirkley and Ricky Widmar with one out in the 9th, but Dayle Jenkins' flyball to right only made it to the warning track and Clark grounded out to end the game. Jack Leiter started and pitched well, even if he only managed 2 whiffs in going 6 5 2 2 1 2. The hard-luck loss drops him to 10-7. Jordan Diaz and Mike Mooney combined for the final two scoreless innings and got 3 of the game's 9 strikeouts. Jhon Diaz in his first action against his old team had a quiet series, going 1 for 11, but his sac fly in the 3rd turned out to bring home the winning run.

Team record: 85-29. Next up: An off-day then we head to Wrigley Field for 3 against the Cubs, who are an impressive 67-45 but thanks to St. Louis's great record are stuck in a wild card dogfight. We'll be facing old friends Luis Berdin and Yordan Alvarez.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays thumped the Cubs 10-1 but don't let the score fool you - it was a 3-1 game and the Rays had just gotten out of a jam before they broke it open with 5 two-out runs in the top of the 8th. The Rays took that 3-1 lead with single runs in the first 3 innings off a Nate Clark sac fly, and RBI singles from Ricky Widmar and Jasson Dominguez. Marc Wagner started and was excellent, even if he was being nibbled by the BABIP gods with a few infield hits and bloopers. He left having gone 6.2 7 1 0 2 9 and with two men on. Ex-Cub Jordan Diaz came in to face the tough Francisco Lindor, and got him on a shallow fly ball to end that threat. Then with two out and Adley Rustchman on first in the 8th, Connor Kirkley drilled a double into the gap to make it 4-1. D'Andre Hodges drew a walk pinch-hitting for Diaz to keep the inning alive, and Widmar singled in another run before Dayle Jenkins capped a 3-hit day by unloading a 3-run homer (#16) to make it a rout. Dominguez added a 2-run shot (#31) in the 9th to make the rubble bounce. Evan Godwin went the final two innings in perfect fashion as Wagner is now 7-2, 2.76 since joining the club in June.

Game 2: This time it really was a tight game, and the Rays scored single runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th to pull out a 3-2 win over the Cubs. The bats were completely silenced by Chicago starter Jose Delgadillo, an international signing in 2020 by the Rays who was dealt to Pittsburgh in 2024 along with Trevor Larnach for Mitch Keller, and then the Pirates dealt him to the Cubs a couple of years later for Kyle Tucker. He's developed into one of the more solid starters in the NL, with 5.2 WAR combined over the last two seasons and now has taken it up another notch. After today's 6 2 0 0 1 8 outing he's 10-6, 3.36 and on pace for 5.3 WAR. Sadly for him and fortunately for the Rays, his bullpen couldn't hold a 2-0 lead. Connor Kirkley's RBI double in the 7th made it 2-1, a bases-loaded walk to Adley Rutschman in the 8th tied it up, and Bobby Witt Jr's 12th HR of the season leading off the 9th won it. Christian Little started and was rolling through 5 until the wheels fell off in the 6th when after whiffing the leadoff man, he allowed a single, double and a single for two runs and then walked two more men to load the bases before Mike Mooney got him out of it. Andy Aparicio then got Mooney out of a jam in the 7th, Jose Alvarado pitched the 8th and got win #4, and then in the 9th Jasseel De La Cruz walked one and hit one but got Francisco Lindor on a fly ball to left to end the game and pick up save #11. Kirkley had to leave the game with knee soreness. It's a minimal injury for 4 days but we'll keep him out to be on the safe side.

Game 3: Alec Sachais had the first bad start from a Rays starter in quite a while as the Cubs pummeled the Rays 8-3. Sachais gave up a 2nd inning solo shot to Matt Chapman, and then four more runs in the 3rd capped by a 2-run blast from old friend Yordan Alvarez. He finished 4 6 5 5 0 2 as he had only allowed one homer in his last 4 starts coming into today but his old nemesis returned. Corbin Martin gave up a run in his two innings of work, and Brad Ballmann allowed Chapman's 2nd HR of the day, a 2-run blast in the 8th, in his two innings. The offense had trouble getting anything going against a Cubs starter once again as Cole Ferguson shut them out over 5 1/3 before they broke through for a couple later in the 6th on Nate Clark's 38th HR of the year and an RBI double from Bobby Witt Jr. Clark added a sac fly in the 8th. There were dreams of an improbable comeback when they loaded the bases with nobody out in the 9th but Ricky Widmar whiffed and Dayle Jenkins lined into a double play to end the game.

Team record: 87-30. Next up: 4 games in Texas, who have won 5 in a row and scored 47 runs in the process. Wander Franco is back after missing most of the season due to injury and they have a lineup of tough hitters.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rangers' bats were red-hot coming into this game but Jon Hayes cooled them off in one of his best starts of the season and the Rays took a 5-2 win over Texas. Hayes went 7 4 2 1 1 6 with the only run of his doing being a Wander Franco homer. He's now 14-4, 3.23 with 4.5 WAR, second best in the league to the guy they beat tonight, Victor Presas. Jordan Diaz whiffed a pair in a perfect 8th, and JDLC (finally coming around? 6 straight scoreless appearances now) had a perfect 9th for save #12. The offense was supplied by Ricky Widmar's 2-run HR in the 5th to give them the lead (#11 and his first since July 8), a Bobby Witt Jr RBI single in the 6th, and a 2-run shot from Dayle Jenkins (#17) in the 9th which provided some much-needed breathing room.

Game 2: Another great pitching performance led to another win over Texas 6-1. Jack Leiter and Andy Aparicio combined on a 2-hitter as Leiter went 7 2 1 1 3 4 to improve to 11-7 while Aparicio whiffed 3 in 2 perfect innings to get save #5. Nate Clark kicked off the scoring with HR #39 leading off the 4th and that propelled the team to a 4-run inning which saw Bobby Witt Jr get an RBI double and Isaac DeLeon bring in two more with a double of his own. Gabriel Moreno, giving Adley Rustchman a breather, hit a 2-run shot (#9) in the 9th to pad the lead. Everyone in the lineup had a hit except Dane Ayers, coming back to Earth in a 3-29 slump dropping his average to .314.

Game 3: The homer-prone Marc Wagner, who had curbed his excesses in that department recently, was prone again allowing three 2-run homers to Texas in an 8-3 loss. Wagner was victimized by Dylan Carlson and a couple of former Rays as Wander Franco and Carlos Perez also took him deep. Perez has suddenly decided to start hitting since joining Texas and is now 300/364/675 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in 40 AB since the trade a few weeks back. Wagner got his strikeouts and ended 7 8 6 6 1 10. Corbin Martin continues to stink, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits in 1/3 of an inning and making it 12 ER allowed in his last 11 1/3, as Mike Mooney had to get the final two outs of the 8th. The Rays offense came via the HR as well, with Jasson Dominguez hitting #31, a 2-run shot in the 5th to briefly tie it up at 2, and Isaac DeLeon added #11 with the bases empty in the 7th as they were otherwise shut down by reigning AL Cy Young winner Wil Diaz. Diaz leads MLB in HR allowed with 31, and Wagner is not too far behind him now at 28, so the five combined longballs tonight were not a surprise.

Game 4: Well that was something. The Rays blew leads of 5-0 and 7-3 and nearly blew a 10-7 lead in extras before holding on to beat Texas 10-9 in 11 innings. And the biggest thorn in their side was none other than Carlos Perez, who continues to channel Johnny Bench since we traded him to Texas. Perez did the unthinkable: he hit a 2-run 9th inning homer off Jose Alvarado to tie the game, only the 2nd homer Alvarado has allowed all season and the first time all year he's blown a save. And then Perez homered again in the 11th off Jasseel De La Cruz to start a Ranger rally which just fell short. It all started nicely enough for the Rays as they built a 5-0 lead on a 3-run Joe Barker homer in the first inning (#23), a Jasson Dominguez infield RBI single in the 2nd and a D'Andre Hodges solo homer (#6) in the 6th. Christian Little meanwhile was mowing 'em down until he ran out of gas as usual in the 6th, giving up a solo HR to Edgar Medina and then a 2-run HR to Dylan Carlson to cut it to 5-3. But it looked like the Rays would coast when they got two back in the 8th off Chris Youngpeter, the other guy we traded with Perez to Texas, on RBI doubles from Barker and Hodges. And with Andy Aparicio on the mound and dominating Texas through the 7th, things looked good. But AA was touched for a 2-run Bobby Owens homer to make it 7-5, and that set up Alvarado's rough 9th. Not only did Alvarado give up the 2-run HR to Perez but with nobody out Nico Hoerner tripled. At that point it all looked lost and Jordan Diaz was brought in, as was the infield and outfield. Diaz then heroically got two strikeouts, including one of Adrian Ramos, and then got Wander Franco to line out to end that threat. After Diaz shut Texas down in the 10th as well, Isaac DeLeon led off the 11th with HR #12 and the Rays kept the rally going, culminating in a 2-run Nate Clark double that proved to be essential. That's because JDLC, after giving up the leadoff homer to Perez, had a man reach on a Connor Kirkley error between getting two outs and then gave up an RBI single to Franco to make it 10-9. But he got Medina, 2nd in the AL in batting average at .337, to line to center to mercifully end the game. Diaz picked up the win, which he more than earned, and JDLC muddled through for save #13. I've seen enough of Texas for a while now, but we could very well face them in the playoffs for the third straight season.

Team record: 90-31. Next up: Back home to Publix Park to host the Yankees for a 3-game weekend series.

[Art Deco]

August 16: Optioned IF Mike Lammers to AAA Durham, activated 1B/OF Victor de Jesus from his rehab assignment there.

Good to have de Jesus back, and yes that's not a typo above, he can play 1B as well as OF and while he's no Keith Hernandez (a 45 rating), he's better than Barker (35 or 40, depending on which scout you believe) who will DH.

Game 1: It was the Alec Sachais show, even if the Yankees' Joe Allen tried his best to spoil it. The Rays righty went 8 2 2 2 0 11 with the two runs against coming on a pair of solo homers from Allen in a dramatic 4-2 win. Allen's first homer in the 2nd put New York up 1-0 but the Rays fought back to take the lead on an Adley Rustchman sac fly in the 4th and Ricky Widmar's RBI double in the 5th. But Allen struck again in the 7th to tie it and despite his brilliant performance it looked like Sachais would be denied a win despite making it through the 8th. Jasson Dominguez had other thoughts, though, as he ripped a 2-run blast (#33) in the 8th to win the game for the Rays. Jose Alvarado came on for the 9th, and after yesterday's debacle, well this meme comes to mind:



Although he gave up a leadoff walk, Alvarado then proceeded to strike out Victor Robles, Vladimir Guerrero Jr and Allen all swinging to end the game and pick up his 16th save. And also nabbing #16 was Sachais, whose win total now leads all of MLB. Meanwhile the Rays are now an astounding 51-9 at Publix Park.

Game 2: For the second straight day the Rays had a truly outstanding outing from a starter but today there was no suspense as to whether he'd get the win as Jon Hayes and the Rays blasted the Yankees 9-0. New York didn't get a runner past second base as Hayes went 7 5 0 0 0 9 to go to 15-4, 3.09 and bring his season WAR total to 4.9. Corbin Martin went two scoreless innings despite allowing 3 hits to finish the team shutout. The primary offensive backer of Hayes' effort was Connor Kirkley, who blasted a pair of 2-run homers to give him 17 for the season with the first capping a 3-run 2nd which saw Bobby Witt Jr triple in a run, and the second coming in the 6th to make it 8-0. Also homering were the team's two top power hitters with Nate Clark hitting #40 and Jasson Dominguez #34 in the 3rd inning. Dominguez added an RBI fielder's choice and Gabriel Moreno doubled in the final run in the 8th.

Game 3: Jack Leiter was brilliant as the Rays got by the Yankees 3-1 today to sweep the series. He went 7.2 3 1 1 2 12 on a season-high 111 pitches. Unfortunately the 111th pitch resulted in a Victor Robles homer, but Jordan Diaz whiffed Vlad Jr to end the 8th. Leiter is now 12-7, 3.46 as the Rays rotation continues its great run. The bullpen made things interesting in the 9th when Diaz allowed a one-out hit and with a lefty up and Jose Alvarado tired, Brad Ballmann was put into his first save situation as a Ray. He immediately allowed a double to the lefty to put men on 2nd and 3rd, walked the next batter to load the bases, but got a strikeout and ground out to escape the jam and get his first Rays save and his 10th of the year overall. Ballmann becomes the 10th Rays pitcher to record a save this season. The offense all came in the 3rd inning when it looked like they might be on their way to another rout but it turned out to be all they'd get. Connor Kirkley had an RBI single, Ricky Widmar doubled him home, and Jasson Dominguez singled in Widmar. I'll take this moment to point out that while Carlos Perez has been raking for the Rangers, Adley Rutschman was 0-2 today and is only hitting 255/368/309 as a Ray, still looking for his first homer and only with 3 doubles in 55 at-bats. Seems like over the years whenever we've picked up a big "name" player they've disappointed with the exception of Gavin Lux's 2028, but of course there's still plenty of time left for Rutschman to get hot and what really matters is what he does in the postseason since we were going there with or without him.

Team record: 93-31. Next up: An off-day at home then the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers come to town for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: My pursuit of getting a win for Marc Wagner probably ended up costing the Rays in a 4-3 loss to Detroit. Wagner was the furthest thing from efficient tonight, taking 102 pitches to get through 4 innings yet he was up 3-0. He walked the leadoff man in the 5th but got a quick double play so he stayed in, walked the next man, then gave up a double to score him. At 3-1, I figured one more out, but he gave up single to score that guy, and that point I pulled him when he should have been gone at least a batter or two earlier. Wagner ended with a bizarre 4.2 3 2 2 7 10 line. Andy Aparicio came in, got out of that inning with the 3-2 lead, but gave up a homer in the 6th, and then put a man on in the 8th with one out. Jose Alvarado took over, got the second out on a whiff but gave up a single to lefty Michael Conforto to score the go-ahead run and the bats couldn't get it done. Aparicio had an interesting line of his own, 2.2 2 2 2 1 8, getting all of his outs via the whiff and giving him an 8/101 BB/K ratio for the year. JDLC pitched the 9th 1-2-3 without a strikeout so Rays pitching had 19 for the night. All of the offense came in the 2nd when Ricky Widmar hit a bases-clearing double off Kumar Rocker but despite multiple baserunners in multiple innings thereafter they couldn't get the runners home. And Adley Rustchman's woes as a Ray were on display when Nate Clark was on 2nd with two out in the 9th but he hit a weak pop to end the game.

Game 2: The Rays rode the wildness of Detroit pitchers (10 walks) and some key hits to take an 8-5 win over the Tigers. Mike McCollister, having a great year (12-5, 3.01) did not have a great day as he walked the bases loaded in the 3rd and then walked Joe Barker and Adley Rustchman to force in runs with Jasson Dominguez adding a sac fly to put the Rays up 3-1. After some ex-Rays wreaked vengeance on Christian Little with Rafael Devers hitting his 2nd HR of the game and Spencer Torkelson going deep, the Tigers went back ahead 4-3. Nate Clark's RBI double in the 4th tied it, and then in the big hit of the game, Victor de Jesus blasted a 2-run HR (#3) in the 6th to put the Rays in front for good 6-4. And Tiger wildness gave them another run when Connor Kirkley walked with the bases loaded in the 7th and a second run scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-4. Little was the second straight Rays starter to strike out people left and right but have problems otherwise; after Wagner killed himself with wildness yesterday Little allowed those three homers and ended 6 5 4 4 1 12. But thanks to the de Jesus homer he picked up the win to go to 11-2, 3.72. Brad Ballmann had a scoreless 7th but put a man on in the 8th who Jordan Diaz allowed to score. JDLC came on for the 9th and put two men on himself, but wriggled out of it for save #14.

Game 3: A 6-run 3rd inning sent the Rays on their way to an 11-4 win over the Tigers to take the rubber game of the series. The big hit came courtesy of Isaac DeLeon, whose grand slam (#13) turned a 2-1 game into a 6-1 game after Adley Rutschman's sac fly and Jasson Dominguez's RBI infield single started the scoring. Joe Barker added a 2-run shot (#24) in the 4th, Dane Ayers made it 9-1 in the 5th with #6 and Nate Clark hit #41 with a man on in the 8th for his 4th hit of the day to round out the scoring. Alec Sachais started and was brilliant through 6, allowing only one run on 83 pitches, but tired in the 7th, allowing a 2-run homer and putting a man on who Corbin Martin allowed to score. Sachais went 6.1 6 4 4 2 7 and still picked up his MLB-best win #17 as he looks likely to win 20 this year. Martin went an inning and Evan Godwin the final 1 2/3 to wrap it up.

Team record: 95-32. Next up: A trip north of the border to face the Jays for three this weekend.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Tampa Bay Rays, your 2030 AL East champions. The Rays clinched the division today with 34 games to spare after scoring 5 times in the 9th inning to beat Toronto 10-5. Connor Kirkley led off the 9th with HR #18 to give the Rays the lead and after Dayle Jenkins had an RBI double Joe Barker hit a 3-run shot (#26), his second homer and 5th RBI of the game, to cap the inning. The Rays had built a 4-2 lead in the 5th on Barker's first homer and his sac fly, a Jenkins RBI single and a Jasson Dominguez run-scoring hit, but Jon Hayes gave it back and then some in the bottom of the 5th by allowing 3 runs and finishing with a mediocre 6 8 5 5 1 6 line. Ricky Widmar singled to lead off the 7th, stole his MLB-high 48th base of the year and scored on a Nate Clark sac fly to tie it up, and Jordan Diaz and Mike Mooney pitched scoreless innings to get them to the 9th. Mooney got win #2 and stayed on for the 9th getting the first two out, but gave up three straight singles and with power-hitting righty Nestor Ramirez due, JDLC came in and whiffed Ramirez on three pitches to pick up save #15. The division win is the team's 9th straight and 10th in the last 11 years.

Game 2: The Rays coasted to a 9-3 win over Toronto in a game that got briefly close at 5-3 before they put it away. Joe Barker and Jasson Dominguez were for the most part the offense, with Barker going 5 for 5, tying the team single-game hits record, and driving in 3 with a pair of doubles while Dominguez went 3-5 with a homer (#35) and 4 RBI. Domiguez's homer came in the 1st and Victor de Jesus followed with a 2-run single to give the Rays a 4-0 lead before Jack Leiter took the mound. Barker got an RBI double in the 2nd to make it 5-0. Leiter pitched fairly well but couldn't get Drew Bowser out (3-3 with a 2-run HR off him and ending 4-4), going 6.2 8 3 3 0 6 to improve to 13-7 and win his 3rd straight start. Brad Ballmann came on for him in the 7th with a man on and the score 5-3, and he finished out the game while it was blown open so he notched his 2nd Rays save and 11th of the year overall. Meanwhile the Adley Rutschman watch continues as he was 0-4, dropping his average to .229 since joining the team.

Game 3: The bats took the afternoon off as the Rays dropped the final game of the series 3-1 to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Toronto's Will Childers held them in check for 6 innings, going 6 3 1 1 2 5 with the only run coming on a D'Andre Hodges sac fly in the 2nd. Marc Wagner started and pitched decently, but Alejandro Kirk was his nemesis today, homering to tie the game in the 3rd and singling in a run in the 4th. Wagner ended 7 8 3 3 3 8 and left with two men on in the 8th but Corbin Martin retired the 3 batters he faced to get him out of that. The Rays had their chances late against the Jays bullpen: in the 8th they had 2 on and 2 out and Adley Rutschman failed to come through again to finish off an 0-4 day (he's now 4 for his last 35, great pickup eh?), and in the 9th they had the bases loaded with 2 out but Jasson Dominguez grounded to first to end the game. The main feeling after the game though was relief, as Joe Barker left in the 5th legging out a double with an apparent knee injury but tests after the game revealed it just to be soreness and he shouldn't miss any time, a good thing as he's the team's hottest hitter right now.

Team record: 97-33. Next up: The road trip continues in Baltimore with four games in four days.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The big news was Adley Rustchman's return to Baltimore, where he had spent almost a decade in Oriole colors before being dealt a month ago to the Rays. He received a mix of cheers and boos when introduced to the crowd, and they turned to mostly boos when he finally hit his first homer in a Rays uniform in the 4th inning. It was his only hit of the day but the Rays didn't need more from him in an 8-6 win. After Christian Little had a rough first inning which saw him give up back-to-back homers and then walk the bases loaded before getting out of it, Connor Kirkley hit the first of his two homers with a man on to tie it and Dane Ayers went back-to-back with #7. And then a 3-run 4th courtesy of Rustchman's homer and Kirkley's 2nd two-run shot (#20) made it 6-2. Jasson Dominguez, who has taken over the AL WAR lead at 5.1, added a 2-run HR in the 8th (#36) which made it 8-3 but turned out to be the difference. Little recovered from his tough 1st inning to go 5 5 2 2 3 10 on 104 pitches, and nabbed win #12. It was hoped Andy Aparicio could go the final four innings, but he turned out to be unusually wild (3 walks after walking 8 all season) and could only get through 3 with 1 run allowed. With a 5-run lead, Mike Mooney came on but gave up a single, saw Dayle Jenkins drop a fly ball and then Druw Jones hit a 3-run HR to suddenly make it 8-6 and bring back memories of a game 4-5 years back when the Rays blew a similarly large lead in the 9th in this ballpark. But Jose Alvarado put an end to the nonsense with 3 straight outs to get save #17. The win was costly, though. Bobby Witt Jr, stretching a double into a triple in the 4th inning, tore a thigh muscle and is out for the season. This marks the 2nd time in 3 years Witt's missed the last month or two of the season and the playoffs but thankfully we have a more than capable replacement in Isaac DeLeon.

August 27: Placed 3B Bobby Witt Jr on the 10-day IL with a torn thigh muscle, recalled 1B/3B Mike Lammers from AAA Durham.

I could have put Witt on the 60-day IL, but we already have 3 40-man roster spots open due to dealing 2-for-1 in the Marc Wagner and Brad Ballmann deals and with Rodolfo Rivas already on the 60-day. With Witt out Lammers will play a little more than last time he was up.

Game 2: It was a great pitchers' duel between Alec Sachais and former Ray Steve Givens, traded to Baltimore in the Adley Rutschman deal. The two had the game scoreless until the bottom of the 6th when Ed Howard hit a 2-run homer off Sachais to give Baltimore the lead. The Rays answered back against Givens in the 7th on a Connor Kirkley RBI double, but it wasn't until the 8th after Givens left (going 7 4 1 1 3 5) that the Rays broke through. After Ricky Widmar doubled and Dayle Jenkins singled to start the 8th, Joe Barker blasted a 3-run homer (#27) to dead center to make it 4-2 Tampa Bay. Sachais made it through two outs in the 7th when he put two on to finish a still-excellent 6.2 5 2 2 0 11 and was relieved by Jordan Diaz. Diaz got the final out of the 7th and pitched through the 8th. JDLC came on for the save in the 9th and it was another spin on the Jasseelocoaster as he loaded the bases before finally getting Howard on a fly ball to deep center to end the game as the Rays hung on to the 4-2 victory. Diaz got win #2 as Sachais missed out on win #18 by one out and it was save #16 for JDLC. The Rays now have a nicely symmetric 99-33 record.

Game 3: Despite striking out 10 Jon Hayes had a rough game and the Rays fell 6-3 to Baltimore. After D'Andre Hodges singled in a run in the 2nd to give the Rays a brief 1-0 lead, Hayes was hit for an RBI double from former Ray Yusniel Diaz and then a 3-run HR from CJ Chatham in the bottom of the inning. He gave up another homer in the 4th and although he settled in from there the damage was done as Hayes finished 6.1 7 5 5 1 10. Corbin Martin got him out of a jam in the 7th but gave up a homer of his own to Diaz. The Rays added a couple of runs on solo HRs from Victor de Jesus (#4) and Joe Barker (#28) but couldn't get much else going. Dayle Jenkins was 0-5 and is in a mini 1-19 slump.

Game 4: The Rays blasted 6 homers today in an 8-1 triumph over Baltimore, their 100th win of the year in game #134. Ricky Widmar set the tone by homering to lead off the game, and he added another later to give him 13 as part of a 3-hit day which also saw him steal his 51st base of the season. I called out Dayle Jenkins yesterday for being in a bit of a slump and he responded by going 4-5 with a HR (#18) and 2 RBI as he doubled in the first and scored on Adley Rutschman's sac fly. Later in the 6th, Victor de Jesus (#5), Connor Kirkley (#21) and Widmar went back-to-back-back, and Nate Clark hit #42 in the 9th. All this offense backed Jack Leiter, who was pitching great (a 4-hitter) until the 7th when he allowed a run and 4 hits to finish 6.1 8 1 1 2 9 and notch win #14. Jordan Diaz got him out of his bases-loaded jam with a pair of strikeouts, Brad Ballmann struck out the side in the 8th, and Evan Godwin had a scoreless 9th to round things out. We'll see if calling out Rutschman gets him going - despite the homer in Game 1, he was 0-3 with that sac fly today and is only hitting .212 as a Ray.

Team record: 100-34. Next up: Back to Tampa for a lengthy homestand starting with 4 against the Red Sox which wraps around through Monday, Labor Day.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays were beset by some lousy pitching in an 8-5 loss to Boston at Publix Park. Marc Wagner continued to cough up homers, giving up a pair in the early innings and then two more runs in the 6th, so despite 11 whiffs he was hit for 5 runs and 7 hits in 5 2/3 innings and dropped to 7-5, 3.53 as a Ray. They've lost Wagner's last 4 starts and he's allowed 16 ER in his last 24 1/3 innings. Mike Mooney wasn't much better, giving up 3 runs in the 7th. Evan Godwin and Corbin Martin each had a scoreless inning to salvage some pride for the staff tonight. Offensively they got a first inning homer from Dayle Jenkins (#19) and one in the 2nd from Connor Kirkley (#22), RBI groundouts from Jenkins and Jasson Dominguez, and an RBI single from Nate Clark in the 5th which briefly put them ahead 4-3. Ricky Widmar had a 3-hit night as well.

Game 2: It's not a cliche to say Christian Little has no-hit stuff most times he takes the mound, but he's usually pitch-inefficient enough that he rarely goes past 6 innings. That was not the case tonight though, as Little went the distance in a performance for the ages, a 1-walk, 16-strikeout no-hitter over the Red Sox on 119 pitches as the Rays won 9-0. And it wasn't like he was coasting or Boston was uninterested while getting blown out because the Rays held only a slender 1-0 lead after 5 and 2-0 after 6. Little lost his shot at the perfect game in the 4th when Bob Kelly reached on a Victor de Jesus error, and he did walk David Dahl with two out in the 8th. But they were only the Red Sox to reach base as he had everything working today, and when Thairo Estrada flew to Dayle Jenkins to end the game, he was mobbed at the mound. The 16 whiffs tied a team record set in the last Rays no-hitter, a gem pitched on September 16, 2024 by Walker Buehler, who had the same exact line (1 walk, 16 whiffs, game score of 102) in his. Offensively, things started slow as mentioned but my calling out of Adley Rutschman two days ago worked (he needed to rest yesterday) as he hit two doubles, the first of which led to the first run when he scored on Isaac DeLeon's sac fly in the 2nd. The Rays doubled the lead in the 6th when Ricky Widmar led off with a triple and scored on Joe Barker's sac fly, then they broke it open with 4 in the 7th on D'Andre Hodges' 7th HR of the year, a Widmar sac fly, Dayle Jenkins' RBI single and Barker's RBI single. Finally they tacked on 3 more in the 8th on Connor Kirkley's 2-run single and Jenkins' RBI double. The reason Hodges was in the game was because we suffered another key injury which put a little damper on the night. Jasson Dominguez fractured a finger making a diving catch in the 5th and will be out a little over a month, making it a very close call as to whether he'll be back for the ALDS. He finishes another great season at 292/322/555 with 36 HR, 107 RBI and 5.1 WAR and would have been a front-runner for AL MVP if he had been able to finish out the season. Dayle Jenkins will become the full-time CF. Anyway, here's the box score for the no-hitter:



And here's a look at the game screen:



September 1: Placed OF Jasson Dominguez on the 10-day IL with a fractured finger, purchased the contract of OF Josh Naylor from AAA Durham; recalled 1B Caleb Picciotti and P Danny Ceja from AAA Durham.

A lot of moves here with September roster expansion. Naylor is a 33-year-old vet who wasn't exactly tearing it up at Durham but he's a live body with some pop in his bat who will fill out the bench. Picciotti and Ceja get rewarded for great seasons at Durham. Picciotti was 317/384/540 with 26 HR and 74 RBI and should be starting for an MLB team. The problem is he doesn't move the needle much in trade talks despite being rated 65 contact/55 power/55 eye/60 defense at 1B so right now I'd rather hang on to him. The same thing happened with Chris Sharp last year and he ended having value in the winter off a big season, so we'll see what the offseason brings. Ceja is a polished righty with average 50 stuff but 60 movement and 60 control and was 13-7, 2.98 at Durham with a 39/156 BB/K ratio in 175 innings. I'm going to put him in the rotation starting today and see how he does and go to a 6-man rotation for a bit to give the other starters a bit more rest. Lord knows we've suffered enough injuries (Rivas, Witt, Dominguez) already and there's still another month to play out.

Game 3: The kids were alright in a 13-1 Rays bombing of Boston. Danny Ceja made his MLB debut with the start, and aside from a rough second inning when nerves got the best of him and his 60 control when he walked the bases loaded and Boston got a run on a sac fly, he was outstanding going 6 4 1 1 4 5 for his first MLB win. Those 5 whiffs included getting Boston's all-star catcher Pierson Gibis three times. And Caleb Picciotti got the start at first and reached base three times in his four plate appearances on two singles and a walk, scoring 3 runs in the process as there were plenty of game balls to go around as souvenirs today. Speaking of souvenirs, Ricky Widmar provided one for the fans in LF with a 2-run HR (#14) in the 4th off old friend Tyler Glasnow as part of a 3-4, 4 RBI day. It was sad to see Glasnow mopping up in relief as injuries and age have turned him into a shell of his former self, and after allowing 2 runs and 4 hits in 1 2/3 innings he had to leave with back spasms. He's only managed 13 1/3 innings this year as that 5-year, $150M deal he signed with Boston after 2026 looks really bad in retrospect. He game them one Cy Young-caliber (7.6 WAR) season in 2027 and he's thrown a grand total of 205 innings in the three seasons since with his stuff down to 40 - as a reliever. This is where Arrested Development's J. Walter Weatherman would chime in with "And that's why you don't sign a 30-something starting pitcher to a long-term, big-money deal". Back to the game, Nate Clark was 3-5 with 2 RBI, Joe Barker was 2-5 with a 2-run HR (#29) and a 2-run double and Adley Rustchman had 2 hits and an RBI as maybe he's warming up. Corbin Martin went the final 3 innings and struck out 5 to get his 3rd save of the year.

Nice to see Connor Kirkley get some recognition:



Game 4: The injury bug has gotten so ridiculous that it's to the point where I'm thinking to playing my remaining key starters once or twice a week the rest of the regular season. The latest to go down was the team's most valuable player, Ricky Widmar, with a torn hamstring that will keep him out 6-7 weeks, so goodbye ALDS and probably ALCS as well. We've already lost Rodolfo Rivas and Bobby Witt Jr for the season, lost Jasson Dominguez for the rest of the regular season and perhaps the ALDS, and now Widmar's regular season is over at 311/369/479, 14 HR, 62 RBI, and 51 SB, all good for 5.8 WAR. He suffered the injury beating out an infield hit in the 2nd inning. So how was the game, Mrs. Lincoln? Well the Rays won 10-6 in a game that saw the ball flying out of Publix Park as the teams combined for 8 homers. Fortunately the Rays hit 5 of them and that was enough to get Alec Sachais his 18th win on a day he really didn't deserve one (this makes up for his last start where he was great but missed a win by one out). They handed Sachais a 5-0 lead in the 1st on 2-run HRs from Dayle Jenkins (#20) and Isaac DeLeon (#14) around a Victor de Jesus sac fly, but by the 5th inning he gave it back entirely as Boston tied it up with 3 homers off him. Fortunately, Nate Clark led off the bottom of the 5th with #43, de Jesus hit #6 and Caleb Picciotti had an RBI single to make it 8-5. Picciotti added a sac fly in the 7th and Clark hit his 2nd of the game and 44th of the year in the 8th. Sachais made it into the 6th, leaving with two on and a 5.1 7 6 6 1 7 line. Andy Aparicio allowed Sachais' final run to score but was otherwise his usual dominating self, going 2.2 3 0 0 1 7. Brad Ballmann pitched a scoreless 9th.

Team record: 103-35. Next up: The Blue Jays come to town for 3.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The good news is that nobody got hurt today, except for the baseballs Jon Hayes was throwing as the Blue Jays lit him up like a Christmas tree in a 9-3 win over the Rays. After a 1-2-3 1st and Connor Kirkley staking him to a 1-0 lead with HR #23, Hayes allowed two runs in the 2nd and then a 3-run HR to the same-handed former Ray Seth Beer and that was that. He allowed 3 more in the 6th with the last one coming on a homer Mike Mooney allowed, to finish a dreadful 4.2 10 8 8 0 6 and fall to 15-6, 3.70. Mooney pitched a scoreless 6th, and scoreless innings were thrown over the final 3 by Evan Godwin, Brad Ballmann and JDLC. Meanwhile the makeshift lineup was shut down by Carmen Mlodzinski for 6 innings and their final two runs came in the 9th on a Victor de Jesus homer (#7) and a Dane Ayers RBI single.

Game 2: Jack Leiter went a strong 7 2/3 innings and the Rays got just enough hitting in a 4-2 win over Toronto. Leiter wasn't overpowering but he was effective, allowing only one unearned run in a 7.2 5 1 0 0 5 outing. The performance improved his record to 15-7, 3.25 and he now leads the club in ERA. Jose Alvarado got him out of a mini-jam in the 8th after a runner reached via error with score 3-1, getting a strikeout. Alvarado stayed on for the 9th, gave up a leadoff triple to Heliot Ramos who scored on a fly ball but finished off the game for save #18. The bats were quiet until a 3-run 5th which saw Dayle Jenkins' sac fly tie the game and later in the inning Joe Barker hit a 2-run single with the bases loaded. Dane Ayers added some insurance in the bottom of the 8th with an RBI double.

September 5: Signed 2B/SS Nick Gordon to a minor league contract, added him to the active roster.

Just some veteran depth for the final month to give us another middle infield option. Gordon hasn't played since 2028 and I'm not expecting much here, just someone to spell Isaac DeLeon and Connor Kirkley.

Game 3: Marc Wagner broke out of his recent slump by turning in his best and most dominant performance as a Ray in a 6-0 win over the Blue Jays. Wagner took a no-hitter into the 5th before it was broken up by a Brady McConnell single with two out and he went 7 2 0 0 1 14 to go to 8-5, 3.30 with the Rays and 12-7, 3.20 overall. The 14 whiffs also tie him with Wil Diaz for the MLB strikeout lead at 257, as Diaz had 10 Ks today for Texas. Corbin Martin pitched the final two innings to combine with Wagner for the shutout. Nate Clark was the star on offense, with a first-inning sac fly to put the team on the board and then a 3-run HR (#45) in the 5th to make it 6-0. The 4 RBI today increase Clark's MLB-leading total to 125. Caleb Picciotti hit his first MLB homer in the 3rd to make it 2-0 and Connor Kirkley had an RBI groundout later in the inning.

Team record: 105-36. Next up: 3 more home games with Baltimore coming to town for the weekend.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Christian Little was channeling Johnny Vander Meer into the 5th inning today as he was following up his no-hitter against Boston with one against Baltimore through 4 2/3 innings before Matt Olson singled. That would be the only hit Little gave up as he continued on his dominant roll by going 6 1 0 0 2 15 in a 5-0 win to improve to 14-2, 3.36. The 31 strikeouts in his last 15 innings give him 256 this year in 158 innings, and leave him one off the MLB lead behind teammate Marc Wagner and Texas's Wil Diaz. Andy Aparicio pitched three hitless innings (for save #6) with four whiffs of his own to finish the combined 1-hitter and the team's second shutout in as many days. If you gave Little and Aparicio's combined 9 1 0 0 2 19 performance a game score, it would be the same as Little's 102 in his no-hitter last time out. The Rays picked up their runs early off former teammate Steve Givens, hitting him much harder than last time out. Victor de Jesus kicked things off with a solo homer in the 2nd (#8), and in the 3rd Nate Clark and de Jesus had RBI doubles wrapped around Joe Barker's RBI single. Isaac DeLeon singled in a run in the 5th to finish the scoring. Nick Gordon made his Rays debut as a defensive sub in the 9th and had the first batter hit one at him which he fielded cleanly, only for the second batter to also hit one at him which he booted.

Game 2: Thanks to seven strong innings from Danny Ceja and 2-run HRs from Mike Lammers and Caleb Picciotti, the Durham Bulls won tonight 6-2. Wait, what? Oh, the Rays beat Baltimore 6-2 due primarily to three guys who spent most of their season playing baseball in the International League. Ceja made it two straight winning starts to begin his MLB career as he went 7 7 2 2 2 4. He did it on 94 pitches and I have to say it's almost refreshing to see a Rays starter use his defense behind him and allow the ball in play early in the count. He got a couple of double plays and had a few rough moments but in the end he got the job done just as well as our flamethrowers. Speaking of flamethrowers, Jordan Diaz had a 1-2-3 8th when it was 5-2 and JDLC pitched a scoreless 9th even though a run in the 8th took away the save situation. The offense took a while to get going but Lammers came through big in the 5th, drilling a 2-run HR (#2) to give the Rays a 2-1 lead. And after Baltimore tied it in the top of the 6th, Picciotti answered with his 2nd HR with a man on to make it 4-2. The rookie 1B has impressed since playing every day after his recall, going 300/444/600 with 2 HR, 5 RBI and 6 walks in his 7 games. Another guy with quite a bit of time at Durham over the last two years came through as well with D'Andre Hodges hitting #8 in the 7th and adding an RBI double in the 8th. He's hitting 289/333/633 with 8 HR and 18 RBI in 90 AB this year. Meanwhile "normal" regulars like Dayle Jenkins, Connor Kirkley, Nate Clark and Adley Rustchman combined to go 1 for 15 tonight.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep with a fairly easy 8-2 win over Baltimore that saw Alec Sachais improve to 19-3. Sachais was excellent today, retiring the first 12 Orioles before Lewis Brinson homered leading off the 5th, and ended 7 4 2 2 1 10. Corbin Martin and Mike Mooney finished up with scoreless innings. The game was pretty much over in the 2nd when the Rays went up 5-0 (although in his last start Sachais blew a 5-0 lead) with Isaac DeLeon's 15th HR of the year leading off the second one of the big hits, along with Caleb Picciotti's RBI single and Dayle Jenkins' RBI double. Dane Ayers also added an RBI single as part of a 3-4 day (he's hitting .327) and Connor Kirkley had a 2-RBI single as he was on base four times with two walks and two singles. Adley Rustchman continues to struggle, going 0-4 to drop to .223 as a Ray just when it looked like he was starting to heat up, but he did bring in two runs, one by grounding into a double play in the 1st and the other on a sac fly in the 2nd.

Team record: 108-36. Next up: An off-day, then we kick off a road trip in New York to face the Yankees for 3.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays turned in a business-like dismantling of the Yankees today 10-3. Connor Kirkley set the tone as the second batter of the game when he took Yankee starter Eric Peterson deep with HR #24 to give the Rays a quick 2-0 lead. Kirkley had 3 hits today and is having a low-key very good year at 276/381/538. Victor de Jesus added an RBI single in the inning and although the Yankees got within 3-2 after 4, Dayle Jenkins' sac fly and Joe Barker's RBI single made it 5-2 in the 5th. With the score 5-3 in the 8th, Dane Ayers' RBI double and Jenkins' RBI groundout put it away at 7-3 and in the 9th Adley Rutschman, staring at another collar at 0-4, blasted a 2-run homer, only his 2nd as a Ray and 25th overall. Isaac DeLeon then made it double digits with his 17th longball. Jon Hayes started and picked up win #16 with a fine 7 5 3 2 2 8 performance in which he allowed a couple of solo HRs. Jordan Diaz and Evan Godwin followed with scoreless innings.

Game 2: A costly error and the inability to get men on base home cost the Rays in a 5-3 loss to the Yankees today. Jack Leiter was pitching well, down only 3-2 in the 7th when he got the first two out before Caleb Picciotti booted a Tyree Reed grounder, bringing up Vlad Guerrero Jr. who promptly deposited a Leiter pitch into the LF stands to make it 5-2, which would prove to be the difference. The only way the Rays could score today was via the Nate Clark homer. His 2-run shot in the 5th tied his season high and the Rays' single-season record with #46 and gave them a 2-1 lead before Guerrero's RBI single in the bottom of the frame tied it. And in the 8th Clark broke his own (from 2028) and Carlos Pena's (from 2007) team record with HR #47. Otherwise, they had 10 baserunners but hit into four double plays including one fittingly to end the game after Isaac DeLeon and Picciotti had both singled to lead off the 9th. Leiter pitched pretty well, going 7 8 5 3 1 9 while Corbin Martin had a 1-2-3 8th.

Durham Playoff Update: After missing the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years last season Durham left no doubt this year going 91-49 to easily win their division. Unfortunately for the Bulls, we've had to deprive them of several of their key players with all the injuries suffered by the big club, so they're without their ace (Danny Ceja) and two of their best hitters (Caleb Picciotti and Mike Lammers). Also, CF Alex Buitrago who was 310/363/552 with 19 HR and 88 RBI strained his hamstring late in the season and is out for the playoffs, so this is a short-handed team. I did bring up 1B Mike Harms and CF Omar Rodriguez from AA Montgomery (both top 100 prospects) to replace Picciotti and Buitrago. Anyway they were matched up against who else but Gwinnett, who's always good enough to take the wild card. They played Game 1 tonight and Malachi Benford, who was converted back to a starter and had an excellent year (12-6, 3.35, 174 whiffs in 161 IP), got the call. And Benford had a nightmare first inning, allowing 5 runs including a 3-run shot from grizzled veteran Anthony Rendon, and the Bulls couldn't recover losing 6-4. Luis Corpus, our likely starting catcher next year, was 2-4 with 2 RBI to lead the Bulls offense. Tim Siqueiros will get the call for what's now a must-win Game 2.

Game 3: The Rays made it two out of three over the Yankees with an 8-3 win. D'Andre Hodges and Isaac DeLeon were the offensive stars tonight as Hodges' 2-run double in the 1st gave the Rays a quick lead, and he added an RBI double in the 3rd before DeLeon went deep with two on for #17 to make it 6-0. DeLeon and Connor Kirkley (who scored 3 runs) each had a 3-hit night, and Adley Rustchman capped the scoring with a 2-run single in the 9th as the Rays put 8 on the board despite giving their top two hitters Nate Clark and Joe Barker a night off. Marc Wagner did his usual thing: lots of strikeouts, walks and deep counts with at least one HR allowed and that was the case with tonight's 6 3 2 2 4 12 line that saw both Yankee runs come on a Derek Crum homer in the 3rd. He's now 9-5, 3.28 as a Ray and 13-7 overall. Brad Ballmann took over with a 1-2-3 7th, got two outs and gave up a single in the 8th, and JDLC let the man score by giving up a walk and hit of his own. Mike Mooney finished with a 1-2-3 9th.

Team record: 110-37. Next up: Off to Toronto for 3.

Durham Playoff Update: After Durham was set back with a 5-run 1st inning against yesterday in their Game 1 loss, they turned the tables today by scoring 6 in the 1st inning on the way to a 9-1 rout of Gwinnett to even up their first round IL series at 1 apiece. Osmy Gregorio, a one-time Rays farmhand in the early '20s who finally made it the majors as a 31-year-old with Washington last year, drove in three including a pair in that first inning. And Tim Siqueiros showed why he was the centerpiece of the Julio Cedillo deal with Cleveland and why he'll probably have a spot on next year's staff by going 8.1 4 1 1 0 12 in the win. The series shifts to Gwinnett in two days' time with the other guy we got from Cleveland in that deal, Tim Sandstrom, getting the start.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: After a no-hitter and a 6-inning one-hitter, Christian Little didn't have it tonight and nor did the rest of the team in a 7-3 loss to Toronto that wasn't even that close. Despite getting his strikeouts Little was hit hard, often and early going 3 9 7 7 1 7. The loss was only his 3rd of the season as he drops to 14-3. Andy Aparicio went 4 4 0 0 1 7 in relief of Little, and allowed his last couple of runners to score. Evan Godwin had a 1-2-3 8th mopping up. The bats were AWOL as well; before Dane Ayers hit a 2-run HR (#8) with two out in the ninth, they only had one run and four hits to show for the game with the first run scoring on a Nate Clark groundout, his 130th RBI of the season. One game closer to the playoffs I say.

Game 2: The Rays dropped another one thanks to another anemic performance from the offense, losing a walk-off 3-2 to the Blue Jays. Danny Ceja started and made it 3-for-3 in dazzling starts, shutting out the Jays through 6 before putting the first two men on the 7th. Jordan Diaz came in and made a mess, wild-pitching both runners into scoring position and then giving up a 2-run single to put Toronto up 2-1. But with two out and nobody on in the top of the 9th, Caleb Picciotti walked and Dane Ayers hit a dramatic RBI double to tie it up. But after JDLC got Toronto in the 8th, Jose Alvarado came in and proceeded to give up a leadoff double. He got two out, and as often seems to happen with Rays pitchers in these situations, after doing the hard work to get to 2 out he gave up an RBI single and that was that. The Rays took an early 1-0 2nd inning lead on Adley Rustchman's 3rd homer with the team and 26th overall, but Rustchman failed to come through a couple of innings later when he whiffed with the bases loaded and 2 out. Ceja meanwhile was excellent yet again, and ended up 6 4 2 2 1 4 despite Diaz letting his runners score in the 7th. Still, two runs and six hits isn't going to cut it most nights and today it was the regular lineup in place, albeit the regular lineup without Witt, Widmar and Dominguez.

Durham Playoff Update: What a game and what a performance from Tim Sandstrom as the Bulls beat Gwinnett 1-0 to take a 2-1 lead in their first round IL playoff series. The lefty was brilliant in pitching a complete game shutout under the most pressure-packed of circumstances, going 9 2 0 0 2 9. Things got a little tense in the bottom of the 9th when he walked the leadoff man, but he got former Rays farmhand Garrett Whitley to ground into a 5-4-3 double play and induced a popup for the final out. The game was scoreless until Mike Harms led off the 7th with a homer to deep left for the game's only run. #1-ranked MLB prospect Jaiden Hardaway had 3 hits for Durham.

Meanwhile, WTF?



How did a 3-4 week injury go to a 3-month one? Did he try to smash the cast off with a hammer or something? Welp, there goes my hope of getting one of the injured back for the ALDS which leaves Ricky Widmar maybe available for the ALCS. Looks like the present group is going to have to get it done on their own.

Game 3: Take a bow, Alec Sachais. The Rays righty became the sixth pitcher in club history to win 20 games and has a shot at breaking the team record of 21 set by Blake Snell in 2018 and Blake Money in 2028 after a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays today. Sachais was 6.2 5 2 2 1 9, running out of gas late with homers allowed in the 6th and 7th innings and leaving with a man on in the latter. Jordan Diaz got him out of that and made up for blowing Danny Ceja's lead yesterday by whiffing a pair in a 1-2-3 9th. And also making up for yesterday was Jose Alvarado, who lost that game in the 9th but struck out the side in a 1-2-3 9th for save #19. The other three Rays to win 20 were David Price in 2012, Tyler Glasnow back-to-back in 2025 and 2026, and Shane McClanahan in 2027. Chris Paddack won 20 in 2022 as a Ray, but 10 of them came with San Diego. Sachais (20-3) also sports a ridiculous W/L record of 48-10 in his 3 seasons with the Rays. His run support came early today, as the red-hot Dane Ayers hit HR #9 in the 3rd to make it 1-0, Nate Clark tripled in the 4th and scored on Joe Barker's sac fly, and Adley Rutschman clubbed a 2-run HR in the 6th to make it 4-0. That was Rutschman's 4th HR as a Ray, 27th overall, and third in his last five starts as he's finally looking like the guy we thought we acquired (and we'll need him like this in the playoffs with all the injuries). Mike Lammers added a shot to dead center in the 9th (#3) to give them a little insurance.

Team record: 111-39. Next up: Back home to entertain the Yankees for 3 at Publix Park.

Durham Playoff Update: We're heading back to Durham as this series will go the distance after Gwinnett edged the Bulls 5-4 in Game 4. The Bulls took a 2-0 lead on an RBI double and an RBI single from Mike Harms, but a Melvin Gutierrez error leading off the Gwinnett 4th proved costly. This led to a 3-run homer, and then with two out, a 2-run homer as the Stripers scored all 5 of their runs in that inning but only two were earned against Gil Wayne, one of the Rays' top young pitching prospects. The 21-year-old struck out 10 in 6 2/3 but the two longballs and the error cost him. Kyle Tucker hit a 2-run homer in the 9th to bring them close but the next two batters couldn't reach so Game 5 it is, with Malachi Benford on the mound.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was a top-notch pitchers' duel at Publix Park as Jon Hayes went up against the Yankees' Deivi Garcia. Garcia allowed only 1 run and 2 hits through 6 innings, with the run coming on Isaac DeLeon's 18th HR of the season, while Hayes had a 1-hitter going through 8 innings. With the score 1-0 going into the bottom of the 8th, the Rays finally broke it open with six runs, starting with Adley Rustchman's RBI single, and followed by 2-run singles from Joe Barker and Dane Ayers along with a DeLeon RBI single. So all eyes turned to Hayes in the 9th to see if he could complete the shutout, and although he gave up two hits to put men on 2nd and 3rd and hit Miguel Sano to load the bases, he got a popup from Anthony Siegler to earn his first MLB shutout, a 3-hitter as he ended 9 3 0 0 2 11. Hayes is now 17-6, 3.49 with a 44/218 BB/K ratio in 193.1 innings.

Game 2: Another low-scoring, low-hit game between these teams as the Rays and Jack Leiter eked out a 3-2 win over the Yankees which saw each team muster only four hits. Leiter was excellent, going 6 3 1 1 2 7 and improving to 16-8, 3.22. Numbers like that might have a pitcher thinking Cy Young but here he's our fifth (or fourth, if you want to place him ahead of Marc Wagner) starter. Brad Ballmann came on and struck out three batters in his inning of work around a Caleb Picciotti error, Andy Aparicio was touched for a Joe Allen homer in the 8th, and JDLC looked like the JDLC of yore by striking out the side in the 9th for save #17. More impressive was that all three batters he faced were lefties, normally a Jose Alvarado situation but Alvarado was tired tonight. It was his 9th straight scoreless outing and 15th in his last 16 as he's finally brought his ERA under 3 (2.92) after it had ballooned to 7.59 on May 23. He hasn't blown a save since July 3 either. As mentioned with only four hits there wasn't a lot of offense, but they did churn out three runs on Gabriel Moreno's sac fly in the 2nd and the game's big hit, a 2-run double from D'Andre Hodges in the 5th which made it 3-0. They were aided by 7 walks and a hit batter, though.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls lost a tough Game 5 to Gwinnett to end their season with the Stripers coming out on top 3-2. As in Game 4 the Bulls took an early 2-0 lead, tonight on RBI doubles from Melvin Gutierrez and Jaiden Hardaway. But Gwinnett crept back in the middle innings, with Anthony Rendon taking Malachi Benford deep again after doing so in Game 1 to get them on the board and a triple in the 6th knocked in a run and scored for the go-ahead run. The Bulls had a shot in the 9th to tie it when Danny Rivera singled Mike Harms to 3rd with two out, but Osmy Gregorio lined out to left to end the game and the season. There's little doubt Durham could have won this series had we not taken Caleb Picciotti and Mike Lammers away from them and Alex Buitrago not gotten hurt. Here's hoping Durham's fate doesn't become the Rays' fate with their missing stars this MLB postseason.

Game 3: Another fine outing from a starter and some timely hitting led to a 6-2 win over the Yankees and a sweep of the series. Marc Wagner went 6 4 2 2 3 10 with his obligatory homer allowed (today to Vlad Jr), to go to 10-5, 3.27 as a Ray and 14-7, 3.18 overall. He now has 279 whiffs and has moved one ahead of Wil Diaz for the MLB lead. Jordan Diaz, Evan Godwin (3 whiffs) and Corbin Martin each had a scoreless inning in relief. The star at the plate was Nate Clark, who went 4-4, singling in a run in the 1st and adding RBI doubles in the 5th and the 7th. The other big blow was Joe Barker's 3-run HR in the 1st which followed Clark's single, #30 of the year for the first baseman.

Team record: 113-39. Next up: An off-day then the White Sox come to town for the weekend. Chicago is in a dogfight for a wild card spot with Cleveland and Oakland. At the moment they're tied with Cleveland and a game and a half up on the A's.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was the first time the Rays had played a meaningful game in a while with the White Sox in the thick of a 3-way race for the 2 wild card spots, and the Rays were uncharacteristically bad on the mound in a 10-9 loss. Christian Little had his second straight horrible start after the two starts with 1 hit allowed in 15 innings including the no-hitter, giving up 7 runs again and going 4 8 7 7 3 5 with 3 homers allowed. This put the team in a 7-2 hole, and although Nate Clark's 48th HR of the year with two men on cut the lead to 7-5, an unearned run off Brad Ballmann (who was otherwise great over 3 innings) and a 2-run homer off Mike Mooney in the 8th in his 2 innings of work made it 10-5 Chicago. But the Rays loaded the bases with nobody out in the 9th and Dane Ayers drilled a grand slam (HR #10) to suddenly make it a game again. The Sox brought on closer Tim Manley and he walked Clark with two out but Clark was cut down attempting to steal 2nd and get into scoring position to end the game. Clark and Dayle Jenkins earlier had RBI singles to get the Rays on the board, and his 4-RBI night gives Clark a whopping 137 RBI. The loss was the team's 40th, mathematically ending any outside chance they had of breaking their 2028 record of 122 wins.

Game 2: Danny Ceja finally came down to earth in his fourth start, getting rocked for 6 runs in the first 2 innings although he hung in there to go 4 2/3 and actually struck out an MLB-career high 6. Still he put the Rays in a 6-0 hole as the White Sox jumped all over a Rays starter for the second straight game. But it didn't matter in the end as the Rays stormed back and ending up winning the game in a ridiculous 16-8 blowout. The Rays scored 4 times in the 4th to make it 6-4, and then went off for 8 runs in the 5th and never looked back. It was a team effort as 6 different players each had at least 2 RBI, with Caleb Picciotti leading the way with 3. Isaac DeLeon was 4-5 including his 19th HR, a 2-run shot, and Nate Clark hit #49 for the Rays' first run before driving in another run later. In fact Joe Barker was the only Ray in the lineup not to drive in a run. Corbin Martin took over for Ceja (who missed an undeserved win by one out) in the 5th and picked up his 5th win, pitching through the 7th and allowing 2 runs. Andy Aparicio finished out the game with two scoreless innings. Cleveland won but Oakland lost, meaning the White Sox are hanging on to the 2nd wild card, a game ahead of the A's and 1/2 game behind Cleveland.

September 22: Optioned P Danny Ceja to AAA Durham, recalled P Jon Whiteleather from AAA Durham.

Ceja impressed in his September audition, but with the bullpen used quite a bit the last two days it was time to summon a fresh arm. And it's been a long time coming for Whiteleather, our 4th round pick in 2025 who's spent most of the last three years at Durham with this year being his best as their closer. He had an impressive 11/55 BB/K ratio in 39 1/3 innings, getting 35 saves and only allowing 3 homers. He has 70 stuff to go with 50 movement and control, so he's a legit MLB pitcher.

Game 3: The Rays picked up where they left off the day before, bludgeoning White Sox pitching in a 13-2 rout to take the series as well as the season series 4-3. After scoring 16 yesterday the Rays took a 13-0 lead by the 5th to give them 38 runs for the series. Nate Clark was one of the stars today as he became the first Ray to have a 50-HR season with a first-inning solo shot and then made it 51 with a 2-run HR in the 3rd. Victor de Jesus had a 2-run HR (#9) in the 2nd, while Dane Ayers and Adley Rutschman each knocked in a pair, the latter with his first Rays triple. Also making club history today was Alec Sachais, who became the first non-Blake to win 21 games in a single season as a Ray, tying Snell in 2018 and Money in 2028 for the club record with one more start left to try to break it. He was excellent today with the big lead, going 6 4 0 0 0 9 and lowering his ERA to 3.56. Jon Whiteleather made his MLB debut and it didn't start well, walking the first man he faced and then serving up a 2-run HR to Ray killer Collin Montez, but calmed down from there to go 2 innings with 3 whiffs. Evan Godwin mopped up for the final inning. Cleveland and Oakland each won today, dropping Chicago into a tie with the A's for the second wild card and leaving them both 1 1/2 behind Cleveland.

The Rays concluded their inaugural regular season at Publix Park an astounding 68-13, an .840 win percentage which shattered the MLB-best home record set by the 1932 Yankees, who went 62-15 for an .805 percentage. The team's previous best home record was in 2023 at 63-18, .778. Also we're on track to set the best run differential in MLB history. The 1939 Yankees had a +411 differential, and we're at +410 right now after these last two routs. Of course the 39 Yankees did it in 151 games meaning their run differential per game was 2.72 while ours is 2.63 so we're really only in position to break the "raw" record.

Team record: 116-40. Next up: An off-day, then we close out the season with 3 in Boston and 3 in Cleveland, where we may have some say in who potentially plays us in the ALDS.

Update from the league office:

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays were handed a decisive 11-6 defeat by Boston today as they play out the string before the playoffs start. Jon Hayes wasn't sharp at all tonight, going 4 6 5 5 5 4 with the walks being out of character, and Brad Ballmann had a nightmare inning, giving up a run, loading the bases, and then allowing a grand slam to Enrique Bradfield, he of the 3 homers coming into the game. They actually took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 4th after Mike Lammers' 2-run HR (#4) followed a 2-run HR from Joe Barker (#31) in the 1st. But it was all Boston from there, including 3-hit games from Ryan Mountcastle and David Dahl, long-time Rays killers. They added a couple of runs in the 9th on a bases-loaded walk to Barker (now giving him 97 RBI and 5 more games to get 3 more for 100) and an RBI single from D'Andre Hodges.

Playoff Race Update: Cleveland and Oakland won again, and the White Sox lost again, so barring something radical over the final 5 days, it's looking like a Cleveland-Oakland wild card game as the A's now lead the Sox by 2 games. If the A's hold on it would mark the first time they've made the playoffs in this save going back to 2020, and would leave Boston, Colorado, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco as the only teams never to make the playoffs from 2020 forward. Texas and Detroit have clinched their divisions for the third straight year and will meet each other in the ALDS for the third straight year.

Over in the NL, the divisions have been sewn up by Columbus, St. Louis and Los Angeles, with Arizona solidly in the first wild card, leaving the remaining race for the second with the Cubs 1 1/2 up on San Diego. If the Cubs hang on it would mean the same 5 teams make the playoffs in the NL as last season with only Arizona and LA flip-flopping the division and wild card.

Game 2: It was looking like a rerun of last night's game when Jack Leiter had his lunch handed to him by Boston batters to the tune of 8 runs and 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings as his ERA rose from 3.22 to 3.53 in the space of one game very late in the season, and the Rays trailed 8-2. But they scored 5 times in the 7th to tie the game at 8, and then added 7 more in the 8th to end up winning by a football score of 15-10. Joe Barker came into the game needing 3 RBI for 100 and he picked up 4 tonight on a pair of homers to give him 33 with a 3-run shot coming in that 7-run 8th. Also having a big night, perhaps the biggest of his young Rays career, was Victor de Jesus with a solo homer (#10) and a bases-clearing double in the 7th which tied the game at 8 among his 3 hits. Also homering were Isaac DeLeon (#20) and Gabriel Moreno (#10). Andy Aparicio took over for Leiter in the 4th and did Andy Aparicio things, going 3.1 3 0 0 0 7 to up his record to 8-1, Jordan Diaz had a scoreless inning and Evan Godwin allowed 2 runs in the 9th, amazingly the first runs he's allowed of any kind since July 1.

MLB News: Some notable retirements: After helping knock Durham out of the IL playoffs, Anthony Rendon has retired. Freddie Freeman has hung up the cleats and the Braves are retiring his #5. Once-promising pitchers whose careers were wrecked by injuries, MacKenzie Gore and Jesus Luzardo, said farewell. In the former Rays department we say goodbye to Dany Jimenez, who pitched in middle relief for us in the early-to-mid 20s, and Renato Nunez, who famously flopped for us in his 2025 stint but still ended with 331 homers.

Game 3: Rained out, so now we're going to have a play a makeup game on the Monday after the season ends for everyone else. I may just have Marc Wagner, tonight's scheduled starter, start it so we can keep Little-Sachais-Hayes on track for the weekend ahead of the ALDS.

Team record: 117-41. Next up: 3 games in Cleveland, which looked a while back like they'd mean something but now they don't as they clinched a wild card.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays dropped a 3-2 decision to Cleveland in Christian Little's final tuneup before the playoffs, and he was dominant through 5 before running into 6th inning trouble, a not uncommon occurrence. He put two men on in the inning and then served up a 3-run homer to Jordan Evangelista, a one-time Rays farmhand who was one of the pieces dealt to Cleveland four years ago for Daniel Espino. Evangelista has turned into a legit MLB power hitter, and is now .287-28-115. Of course if we still had him he'd probably be in his third year at Durham right now. Anyway, his homer was enough to offset Joe Barker's sac fly and Dane Ayers' 11th HR of the year. Little ended 6.1 8 3 3 1 11 and the reason why there's a third of an inning in there was because I brought him back for the 7th to get one more out so his ERA would end up at 3.99 instead of 4.00. Little finishes the year 14-5 with a 38/279 BB/K ratio in 171.1 innings. Jon Whiteleather made his 2nd MLB appearance and this one went a little better with a scoreless inning while Brad Ballmann got the final 2 outs in the 8th.

Playoff race update: Things have suddenly gotten interesting in the 2nd AL wild card playoff race as Oakland lost for the second night in a row and the White Sox won, putting Chicago only one game back with two to play. And a similar development has occurred in the NL with San Diego winning and the Cubs losing, so the Padres are now within 1 game of the 2nd wild card as well.

Game 2: Alec Sachais was denied in his bid for a Rays team-record 22nd win as Cleveland shut down the Rays 4-1. The bats could only manage 4 hits against Cleveland pitching, with the only run coming on a Joe Barker RBI double. The anemic offense the last two nights gives me pause as they'll be going against good teams in the playoffs and won't be able to feast on the bad pitching of lesser teams as they've done lately. Ricky Widmar and Jasson Dominguez are going to be missed no matter how capable Caleb Picciotti and Dane Ayers are, so it would really help if Adley Rustchman were Adley Rutschman, but he went 0-4 again today to drop to 213/302/335 as a Ray. Hopefully he has a switch to flip on come playoff time. Sachais pitched well (6 4 4 3 1 6) but the key hits against him were a homer and a couple of well-timed doubles. He finishes the season 21-4, 3.59 with an outstanding 29/227 BB/K ratio, the first time he's gone over 200 Ks. Mike Mooney and Evan Godwin had scoreless innings in relief.

Playoff Race Update: Congrats to Oakland for making the playoffs for the first time since the Rays beat them in the 2019 wild card game as they won 4-3 over Texas behind a Jhon Diaz homer while the White Sox lost. Things went the opposite way in the NL where the Cubs lost and the Padres won to move into a tie with Chicago for the 2nd NL wild card going into the season's final day.

Game 3: The bench was emptied today as the only true regular playing (not counting those who are playing more regularly thanks to injuries) was Dayle Jenkins, but that had nothing to do with Jon Hayes' bad day as the Rays were swept in their final regular season series 7-4 by Cleveland. After allowing 2 runs in the first 4 innings, Hayes was bombed in the 5th without getting an out, giving up a 2-run single to Julio Cedillo and a 3-run homer to Austin Hendrick, both lefties. Hayes left with an ugly 4 10 7 7 1 1 line and between this start and his last one which was also bad, his ERA ballooned from 3.49 to 3.89 to end the season. Still it was a good first year as a Ray for him, going 17-8 and finishing 2nd in MLB in pitcher WAR at 5.4. Dane Ayers was the offense today, staying hot with a pair of homers and driving in 3 to give him 13 dingers on the season. Mike Lammers was on base all four times with 3 hits and a walk, and drove in the other run with a double. On the mound Brad Ballmann had 2 scoreless innings while Jon Whiteleather and JDLC contributed one each.

Team record: 117-44. Next up: A quick trip to Fenway to make up last Wednesday's game and close out the regular season, hopefully on a winning note.

Playoff race update: The Cubs and Padres each lost today, setting up a 1-game playoff for the 2nd NL wild card tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

It was the game nobody wanted to play, but at least the Rays came out on the winning end of a 5-4 decision to end the regular season on a winning note after being swept in Cleveland. It was a similar makeshift lineup to yesterday with most of the still-healthy big guns riding the pine. Marc Wagner started and outside of a 3-run HR allowed in the 3rd, pitched well in his regular season finale going 6 5 3 3 1 8 and picking up the win to end 11-5, 3.33 as a Ray and 15-7, 3.22 overall. Jordan Diaz and Evan Godwin pitched the 7th and 8th with Godwin allowing a run, and Jose Alvarado got some work in for the first time in days, throwing a scoreless 9th to get his 20th save. On offense things started slowly with Dane Ayers' double to lead off the game (he scored on a Victor de Jesus groundout) the only hit they had until the 6th when they scored 3 times to take the lead. D'Andre Hodges' RBI single made it 3-2 and Isaac DeLeon's 2-run single put them ahead. Josh Naylor got his first (and likely last) Rays RBI with a single in the 8th.

Final Regular Season Record: 118-44, their second-best regular season in club history behind 2028's record-setting 122 wins. Next up: Game 1 of the ALDS at Publix Park against either Oakland or Cleveland.

The NL tiebreaker game (played on October 1):



San Diego will travel to Arizona for the wild card game as three teams from the NL West ended up in the playoffs.

[Art Deco]

Looks like Vlad Jr. is set for yet another MVP award. Widmar and Jasson Dominguez each would have had a shot had they stayed healthy.

The final team stats:



Our starters' ERA took a hit over the last week or two of the season as Little, Hayes and Leiter (in his last start) were really lit up at the end. This is by far the best bullpen I've had in the 11 seasons of this save.

The hitting stats:



What could have been if everyone stayed healthy. Even at that we had 4 players with 5 or more WAR. Connor Kirkley had a great season, and accumulated about 65-70% of that WAR in the second half. Debating whether to start Picciotti (better D, OBP) over Lammers (more power) at 1B come playoff time, or whether to play Barker and his 35 D at 1B and let D'Andre Hodges DH.

The pitching stats:



Another tremendous season from Jose Alvarado, perhaps his best. And Andy Aparicio remains a weapon.

Playoff roster surprise: With all of the injuries to hitters we had, I had to put catcher Luis Corpus on the playoff roster since the two hitters we added in September due to injuries, Nick Gordon and Josh Naylor, were added to the 40-man after September 1. Corpus and catching prospect Will Quintana were my only choices among hitters with Rivas, Widmar, Dominguez and Witt all out with injuries.

[Art Deco]

It'll be the A's vs the Rays in the ALDS after this blowout:



Good to see a couple of Bulls finish 1-2 for IL Reliever of the Year. Carter isn't on the 40-man but probably will be protected. There's going to be some turnover in the pen next year as I doubt Corbin Martin or JDLC comes back, opening up a couple of slots for righty relievers and Carter and Whiteleather are top candidates, as is Tim Siquerios and/or Malachi Benford. We have too many good pitchers (Danny Ceja deserves a spot as well but where?) so there will be some trades as well.



The Padres take the NL Wild Card Game and will face the 111-win Cardinals in one NLDS, with Columbus against the LA Dodgers in the other.