The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It looked like another offensive struggle for the Rays similar to several of the games in the last week, but they exploded in the 7th for 6 runs on the way to taking a 7-3 win over the Reds at Publix Park. The Rays could get very little going against Cincinnati starter David Nunez, who held them to one run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings with the only damage a Jaiden Hardaway solo homer in the 3rd, his 16th. Meanwhile Andy Aparicio was pitching very well but gave up a solo homer in the 6th to put the Reds up 2-1, and he left after striking out the first 2 in the 7th inning to finish 6.2 6 2 2 2 7. Mike Wherry got the final out of the inning and then the bats went to work off Reds reliever Benvenuto Patitucci, whom they had victimized in the past with Baltimore. Pinch-hitter Mike Harms reached on an error and Patitucci walked Hardaway and Omar Rodriguez to load the bases. Nate Clark then ripped a 2-run double off the wall in center to put the Rays ahead and Rodolfo Rivas brought everyone home with a 3-run homer (#18). Bo Angeac added #22 later in the inning and the rally made a winner of Wherry, his 2nd, although he did allow a run in the 8th before Tim Siqueiros went the final 1 1/3.

Game 2: With Nate Clark gimpy from a minor injury and Jaiden Hardaway in need of rest, the Rays fielded a lineup which consisted of 7 players who spent at least a large chunk of last season at AAA Durham with only Rodolfo Rivas and Victor deJesus having been with the team all of last year. And it didn't matter as they scored 8 runs and banged out 14 hits in an 8-2 win over the Reds. The offensive star was the holdover de Jesus, who homered twice including a 2-run inside-the-park job in the 7th to give him 23 for the season, but the other guys contributed too. Omar Rodriguez drove in the first Rays run with a double in the 1st and then had an RBI single in the 5th to put them back ahead to stay 3-2. Will Quintana was 3-4 with a double and 2 RBI, and the light-hitting infield combo of Erik Batchelder and Melvin Gutierrez combined to go 4-8 with an RBI and 2 steals. This was all more than enough to support Leo Ortega, who picked up where he left off last time out and went 7 4 2 2 0 9 with a Luis Campusano 2-run HR in the 5th the only damage off him as he improves to 9-2, 3.21, while Kevin Kerstetter made his first relief appearance and pitched 2 perfect innings.

MLB News: Old friend Jasson Dominguez had a 3-HR game for St. Louis as they crushed Philadelphia 8-1. Dominguez missed a couple of weeks with an injury (sound familiar?) but is hitting 272/295/565 with 17 HR and 58 RBI so he's been as advertised for the Cardinals while Leo Ortega, after a slow start, has been likewise.

Game 3: Another silly game with a lot of homers for the Rays as they crushed the Reds 15-3. Cincinnati started former Rays prospect Jeff Baker (traded to the Reds in 2030 for Danny Medina, a deal that turned out well for us) and while he finally got to pitch in Publix Park he won't have good memories of it as he was torched for 7 runs in 1 2/3 innings including 4 homers allowed. Victor de Jesus, who had 2 homers yesterday, had another brace and the first of his got them on the board in the 1st inning. But the big blow came in the second from Mike McKee, who drilled his first MLB homer with 2 men on off Baker. Jaiden Hardaway hit the first of his two homers in the 2nd as well, and de Jesus went deep again later in the inning to give him 25. Later in the game Nate Boesel also "broke his duck" as the British would say, homering for the first time in the bigs with 2 on in the 4th. While all these runners were circling the bases Nate Schultz was putting together another great game, going 6 3 3 2 1 10 to up his record to 10-0, 3.43. Bob Sirna went the final 3 innings for his 2nd save, whiffing 7 men without allowing a run.

Team record: 60-15. Next up: An off-day then Baltimore comes to town for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Tonight wasn't the Rays at their dominant, but they were good enough to take a 6-2 win over Baltimore at Publix Park. After a blazing April and May it's been a pedestrian June for Nate Clark, but perhaps seeing Victor de Jesus catch up to him for the team lead with 25 homers inspired him tonight as the Rays slugger blasted a pair tonight including a 2-run jack in the 5th which broke a 2-2 tie. He added a solo shot in the 7th to give him 27. Will Quintana had another nice game, going 3-4 with a pair of RBI singles and Mike Harms was 2-4 with a double and an RBI. On the mound Jon Soranno wasn't his sharpest but hung in there long enough to go an AL-best 11-0 with a 5.2 7 2 2 3 6 performance. He put a couple on with two out in the 6th and Danny Medina got a quick whiff and a couple more after that in a perfect 7th. Jim Connors had a 2K 1-2-3 8th but Jordan Diaz couldn't close the deal, walking a pair and loading the bases with one out and bringing the tying run to the plate in the person of Druw Jones. So it was time for another episode of Better Call Kawase, and Kikuo didn't strike anyone out but did even better by getting Jones to hit into a game-ending double play for save #10.

June 25: Activated IF Dane Ayers from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned IF Erik Batchelder to AAA Durham.

Batchelder held his own in his time with the big club, but we're more than ready to welcome Dane Ayers back to the lineup to take over as the regular SS with Widmar out.

Game 2: The Rays were due for a stinker and stink they did tonight, losing 7-0 to the Orioles. Nate Thompson got the start and had a rough couple of innings at the beginning, giving up 3 runs. He settled in from there to go 5 7 3 3 2 6 but the damage was done. The lefty Kevin Kerstetter came in and got the right-handed hitters out, but couldn't retire the lefties as he gave up a Tim Steele single to put two men on in the 7th and gave up a 3-run homer to lefty-hitting Tommy McDougal. Bob Sirna completed the trifecta of doom by walking 3 men in the 9th, including one with the bases loaded, for the 7th Baltimore run. On offense they weren't completely shut down but Oriole pitcher Raul Gutierrez, having a pretty good season (now 7-2, 2.95 since coming over from Toronto), held them to 7 6 0 0 4 3 and was aided by 3 double plays and a caught stealing, not to mention several hard-hit balls right at Oriole outfielders, including a couple from Jaiden Hardaway. Simply a night to forget.

Game 3: Another bad game from the Rays as Andy Aparicio couldn't keep the ball in the park and the bats managed only 4 hits in an 8-5 loss to the Orioles. AA gave up a 2-run homer in the 2nd and back-to-back shots in the 3rd in a schizophrenic 5 8 6 6 0 7 outing that saw him get too much of the plate and drop to 10-4. Danny Medina pitched two scoreless innings but put men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the 8th. With the Rays having clawed back within 6-5 and the game still in the balance, I brought in Kikuo Kawase hoping he could strike his way out of the jam but unfortunately he gave up a single to the first man he faced to score both runners. He then proceeded to get three straight whiffs but too late. Jordan Diaz pitched the 9th and whiffed all 3 men he faced as despite allowing 8 runs on 13 hits, Rays pitchers still struck out 18 Orioles. As mentioned the bats only managed 4 hits but 3 of them were homers to keep them in the game: Nate Clark had a 3-run blast in the 3rd (#28) while Jaiden Hardaway (#19) and Bo Angeac (#23) each went deep. But Tampa Bay hitters struck out 12 times themselves, including the hat trick from Rodolfo Rivas and Victor de Jesus in the middle of the order.

Team record: 61-17. Next up: An off-day then we travel to Pittsburgh for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

June 28: Sent C Luis Corpus to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

Corpus only missed three weeks, so he'll just need a couple of games of rehab before coming back this weekend.

Game 1: The Rays paid their first visit to PNC Park in many years and came away with a 5-2 win as injuries continue to bedevil them. Leo Ortega started and had to leave in the 4th inning with abdominal soreness. Fortunately it won't cause him to miss his next start but it pressed the bullpen into action early. Kevin Kerstetter came in and was extremely wild, walking 4 men in 1 2/3 innings (and whiffing 3) but only allowing one run, enough to claim his first Rays win. Tim Siqueiros pitched the 6th and 7th, and Mike Wherry started the 8th but put two men on with one out to bring the tying run to the plate, so Kikuo Kawase came on and got his 2 strikeouts and then pitched the 9th to net save #11. Not too many fireworks from the offense, but they did get 5 runs thanks in large part to Jaiden Hardaway who was on base all 5 times up with 3 hits and 2 walks, contributing a steal and an RBI. Alex Buitrago's sac fly and Dane Ayers' RBI single put them ahead to stay in the 4th, Will Quintana had an RBI double and Rodolfo Rivas an RBI single. Victor de Jesus had to leave the game in the 4th with knee soreness; it's a 10-day injury but minimal so we'll probably keep him active and limit his playing time.

Game 2: The Rays got some very late thunder and had to survive some tense situations to take a come-from-behind 5-3 win over Pittsburgh in 10 innings. It was a 1-1 game into the 8th inning as Nate Schultz pitched very well after a few early hiccups (7 5 1 1 2 5) while the offense was frustrated with a couple of runners thrown out at the plate and managed only a Bo Angeac RBI double in the 6th. Jim Connors came in for the 8th and it looked like he cost the Rays the game, giving up a single, RBI double and RBI single to put them in a 3-1 hole without retiring anyone. Mike Wherry came in and got out of the inning and going into the top of the 9th down 3-1 Dane Ayers reached on an error and Jaiden Hardaway continued his MVP-caliber season by hitting a 2-run homer (#20) to left to tie the game. Jordan Diaz got the call for the 9th and immediately did Jordan Diaz things, giving up a walk and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd with one out. But he got a shallow fly ball with the outfield in and then a strikeout to Houdini his way out of it, and in the top of the 10th Rodolfo Rivas (#19) and Mike Harms (#8) went deep back-to-back, with Diaz pitching around another walk in the bottom of the 10th to claim his 3rd victory of the season.

Game 3: It was deja vu all over again at PNC Park as The Toughest Man to Retire in Baseball™, Jaiden Hardaway, came through with another 9th-inning 2-run homer this time giving the Rays a 4-2 win over the Pirates. With two out and nobody on, Pittsburgh closer Chris Reel walked Mike McKee which brought up Hardaway, who already had been on base twice on a walk and a HBP, and he took Reel deep to straightaway CF for his 21st HR of the year. His now-absurd numbers for the season: 373/475/662 with 21 HR, 59 RBI, 19 SB and 5.8 WAR in half a season. If he duplicated his first half, his 11.6 WAR would be the 15th-best season all-time for this metric. The only better WAR season during this save was Cody Bellinger's 2023 which earned him 12.2 WAR, 5th-highest of all-time. And Hardaway is at best an average defender so this is pretty much all coming from his bat. But back to the game. Jon Soranno started for the Rays and it was a struggle for him, walking 5 men in 4+ innings but limiting the damage to one run when he left with Danny Medina giving up a single to score another of his runners. He went 4 6 2 2 5 5 on 101 pitches. Medina turned in three scoreless innings and Tim Siqueiros one to get us to the 9th, and after Hardaway's homer Kikuo Kawase came on for the save. It was a bit of a relative struggle for him as well as he walked a pair but got two whiffs and a grounder to end the game and notch save #12 while Siqueiros tallied his 5th win. The two earlier runs for the Rays came on a Victor de Jesus 2-run shot in the 5th, #26.

Team record: 64-17. Next up: We're officially halfway through the season, so we'll have a midseason report card (spoiler: Jaiden Hardaway gets an A+++) then we head to Baltimore for 3 over the weekend after they beat us twice at Publix Park last weekend.

[Art Deco]

First off a quick look at the standings and leaders at the halfway point:



Now you know why I haven't mentioned the division race. Here are the Rays team stats:



The usual preponderance of 1st-place rankings, and look at that zone rating! Positive! 5th in the AL! What is this new devilry? Rodriguez/Buitrago were a downgrade from Jasson Dominguez defensively, and the only other major positional change has been a lot of Melvin Gutierrez's 75 glove at SS in place of the injured Ricky Widmar, who was a 65. Perhaps that's making the difference, too bad Dane Ayers is back and getting the bulk of the work at SS now.

The hitting stats:



The pitching stats:



The grades:

C (B): Will Quintana has turned to be a little more productive than Luis Corpus, but at the expense of power. Quintana may have earned more of a job-share than he had before Corpus' injury.

1B: (A): Victor de Jesus has been a force with the bat and would be in the MVP discussion if a certain teammate of his wasn't already running away with it. Also he's become a 65 defender at 1B for what that's worth.

2B: (A+++++) Jaiden Hardaway, that's all. By the way he could be one of the few players in MLB history to have a 200-hit, 100-walk season (on pace for 212/98). Only 13 players have ever done it, most recently Cody Bellinger in 2021.

SS: (incomplete) Ricky Widmar was doing this thing until his torn labrum which will have him back right around the end of the regular season/beginning of the playoffs. Melvin Guiterrez gave us great glove but no bat, and now Dane Ayers is taking over. Ayers hasn't hit since he's come back but it's only been a handful of games.

3B: (A): Bo Angeac exceeded expectations last year and he continues to do so as he might be the best 3B in the AL right now.

OF: (B-) Nate Clark hit a lot of homers in the first two months of the season, but hasn't hit that well overall, Omar Rodriguez has slumped badly of late, and Alex Buitrago has had his moments but has also cooled of late. Dayle Jenkins is missed, and he'll be back after the All-Star break.

DH: (C+) Rodolfo Rivas has been a disappointment, with only an .818 OPS and 0.8 WAR in half a season as Mike Harms has earned about as much WAR in a little over 1/3 the at-bats. With Joe Jimenez on the way, Rivas could be trade bait this winter.

SP: (A-) The rotation has been great in spots 1-4, but the minus is for the Alec Sachais spot, which became Kevin Kerstetter for a while and now is Nate Thompson. Leo Ortega and Nate Schultz have been the excellent Little/Hayes replacements we hoped they'd be, and check out Ortega's BB/K ratio. Andy Aparicio is pitching somewhere between his otherworldly 2031 and his pretty good 2032, so that makes him an ace too, and Jon Soranno has continued to blossom. That 5th spot isn't really a source of worry since it won't be used in the playoffs, but I still hold out hope Nate Thompson will turn out to be great.

RP: (A, maybe A+). The bullpen has been incredible this year with Kikuo Kawase turning out to be everything as advertised and then some and is a main reason we're 4 games over our Pythag record. Tim Siqueiros would be getting a lot of ink if he wasn't being overshadowed by the Japanese sensation, and while Jim Connors and Jordan Diaz have had their good and bad moments, they've been decent overall. And Danny Medina is a beast in middle relief, a weapon most teams don't have. Mike Wherry has been OK as the lefty specialist and Bob Sirna has pitched well around all those walks.

Counting down until the days in October.

[Art Deco]

Several of these to report, so instead of cluttering up the next game series post they'll get one of their own.





Down on the farm, we have the much-ballyhooed Jon Jimenez, and a guy I've probably never mentioned before, Jon Wilson. Wilson's a marginal prospect that I doubt will make our team but could end up dealt and pitching for someone else in the bigs.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: For the third straight game the Rays got a 2-run homer in the 9th inning to come back and win, and today it was a blast from Victor de Jesus which turned a 7-6 loss into an 8-7 victory. Nate Thompson started and coughed up two first inning runs but the Rays erased that Oriole lead and then some with 5 in the 2nd on a bases-loaded walk to Nate Clark and a Rodolfo Rivas grand slam (#20). Thompson couldn't stand prosperity, though, and allowed 4 more runs in the next two innings to give Baltimore a 6-5 lead. Alex Buitrago's RBI triple tied it up in the 5th but Thompson, after settling in and retiring 8 straight, was left in too long and gave up a Myles Austin homer to put the Orioles back on top 7-6. Thompson finished an ugly 5.2 7 7 7 3 6 although he had his moments. Jim Connors got the final out of the 6th and Bob Sirna went 2 perfect innings. This brought us to the 9th and after Clark walked and stole second the Rays were down to their final out in de Jesus, and he smoked a Jeff Moyer pitch into the LCF stands for his 27th HR. Jordan Diaz pitched around a single for save #8 while Sirna picked up his first win in 55 appearances since joining the Rays last year at mid-season.

MLB News: It's not quite Hank Aaron in 1974 but Mike Trout hit #713 tonight for the Angels, pulling him within one of The Babe for 3rd place on the all-time HR list.

Game 2: It was another one of those Camden Yards games which seems to happen once a season where the Rays build a huge lead and then end up blowing it but at least this time around they still prevailed. Andy Aparicio was cruising with an 8-2 lead going into the bottom of the 7th and by the time regulation was over it was 8-8. But Mike Harms went deep in the 11th with his 9th homer of the year to give the Rays a 9-8 win. Earlier Omar Rodriguez snapped out of his funk with a huge day, going 3-4 with a 2-run homer (#6), triple and a pair of sac flies while Nate Clark went back-to-back with him in the 1st for #29 and Victor de Jesus added #28 in the 4th. Meanwhile AA was cruising with 11 whiffs through 6. But he gave up a leadoff homer and put two more men on without retiring anyone, so Jim Connors came in and after getting a couple of outs gave up Druw Jones' 2nd HR of the game, a 3-run shot to make it 8-6 and saddling Aparicio with a marred 6 6 5 5 1 11 line. Mike Wherry came on in the 8th and gave up another homer to a lefty, Tommy McDougal, to make it 8-7. But surely Kikuo Kawase would get us out of this. He did in the 8th after Wherry put two more on, but in the 9th he walked a man and with 2 out he gave up a double to Ryan McKenna and the unthinkable happened as Kawase blew his 1st save. It was also the first run he's allowed in two months, covering a span of 28 scoreless innings. So that sent us to extras, where Tim Siqueiros took over and struck out the side in the 10th and saved his own win (#6) in the 11th despite a walk after the Harms go-ahead homer. A side note: Rodolfo Rivas continues to be painful to watch, getting the platinum sombrero today with 5 whiffs in 6 trips (he managed a single) and he's 1 for his last 15 with 9 strikeouts.

Game 3: The Rays took another huge lead today in the middle innings but there would be no Baltimore comeback as Tampa Bay prevailed 10-2 behind a 3-homer game from the ludicrously hot Victor de Jesus. His first homer in the 2nd inning made it four straight games with a longball, and he added #s 30 and 31 in the 6th (a 2-run blast) and 8th innings. He's now hitting 290/418/664 with 31 HR and 63 RBI in 79 games, and has 4.7 WAR. His 31 HR lead MLB and he's 2nd in MLB to teammate Jaiden Hardaway in WAR and OPS. Also having a second straight huge day was Omar Rodriguez, 3-5 with 2 doubles, a HR (#7) and 4 RBI. Nate Clark joined de Jesus in the 30 HR club with a solo blast in the 8th just before de Jesus went back-to-back with him. Mike Harms and Dane Ayers also had 3-hit days as they pounded out 19 in total with everyone in the lineup getting at least one. It was only a 3-1 game in the 5th, though, so Leo Ortega didn't exactly get to coast for very long. He was brilliant again though, going 7 5 2 1 0 7 and sports a crazy 9/113 BB/K ratio as he improved to 10-2, 3.06. Kevin Kerstetter threw a pair of hitless innings with a couple of Ks to finish out the game. Not every day you get the two stars of the day in MLB:



Team record: 67-17. Next up: An off-day, then we head to Wrigley Field for a pair against the Cubs.

[Art Deco]

NOTES: Victor de Jesus won AL Player of the Week for his 6-HR performance, shocking nobody. Also Jon Jimenez continues to rake at Durham and won the IL Player of the Week. And I'm still surprised we got July 4 off, while Mike Trout played and hit #714 to tie Babe Ruth for 3rd on the all-time homer list. A look at his career stats:



Game 1: Nate Schultz returned to the city in which he plied his trade for the previous five seasons (albeit for the crosstown team) and reminded Chicago-area fans of what they're missing with an excellent 6 4 1 1 1 9 performance to go to 11-0 in a 6-2 Rays win. 6-2 looks like a comfortable scoreline but 3 of those came in the 9th and the offense was limited to 3 hits through 8 innings. Fortunately they made those 3 hits count, with Bo Angeac drilling a 2-run homer (#24) in the 4th to put the Rays up 2-1, and Jaiden Hardaway tripled in the 5th and scored on a wild pitch. Tim Siqueiros took over the 7th and had a rare misstep, giving up a solo HR to former Ray Rafael Devers to cut the lead to 3-2, and Kikuo Kawase did his thing in the 8th, striking out the side. The Cubs brought in their closer Steve Braddock in the 9th but as so often happens the closer struggles in a non-save situation and he put two on ahead of Alex Buitrago, who lofted one into the RF seats for #13 and doubled the Rays' run total. Mike Wherry had a 1-2-3 9th to end it.

Game 2: The Rays have never been no-hit in the 13 1/2 seasons of this save, but they came pretty close today as Chicago's Chris Pendergrast and two relievers one-hit them in a 4-0 shutout loss. Their lone hit came in the 7th inning when with two out Victor de Jesus poked an opposite-field single to right to break up the no-hitter and Pendergrast was immediately relieved after that. It wasn't as if the Rays were being blown away as they only whiffed 4 times (of course 2 of those were Rodolfo Rivas) but there was a lot of weak contact. The Cubs weren't making weak contact in the 4th against Jon Soranno as they scored all their runs in that inning starting with a homer from former Ray Luis Berdin and continuing with a rally that saw 3 more runs scored. Soranno was brilliant in the other 5 innings he pitched for what it's worth, and he finished 6 6 4 4 2 8 in taking his first loss of the season, dropping to 11-1. Bob Sirna went the final two scoreless with his usual 2 walks and 4 Ks.

Team record: 68-18. Next up: Back home for 4 vs Boston before we hit the All-Star break.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: After being 1-hit yesterday the Rays were glad to return to their happy hitting grounds of Publix Park and they took care of the Red Sox 12-7. Nate Thompson started and pitched very well, going 6 5 2 1 2 3 to notch his second win. The guys that followed him weren't very good, though, as Jim Connors continues to struggle, allowing 3 runs and 4 hits in 1/3 of an inning to make it 6 runs and 9 hits allowed in his last four outings covering only 1 2/3 innings. Kevin Kerstetter was a little better, but not much, allowing 2 runs and 4 hits in 2 2/3 enabling Boston to make what was a 12-2 blowout look a little more respectable. But the real story today was the return of the bats, most notably the one belonging to Rodolfo Rivas. The DH, who's been a strikeout machine lately, went 4-5 with a double, 2-run HR (#21) and 3 RBI. Nate Clark hit #31 with a man on in the 1st and drove in another later, and Jaiden Hardaway continues to do his thing going 3-5 with a HR (#22), 3 RBI and a steal. Omar Rodriguez and Dane Ayers were each 2-3 plus 2 walks and an RBI with Rodriguez stealing a pair of bases.

Welp...



Sounds like some medical malpractice involved here. So instead of getting Jenkins back in a week, it'll be 2 more months.

Game 2: Another big early lead over Boston dwindled to at least make it semi-interesting before the Rays came away with an 8-4 win. Mike Harms started the scoring with a 2-run single in the 2nd, and then Bo Angeac went to work. The soon to be all-star 3B (he's leading the balloting) hit a bases-clearing double in the 2nd to make it 5-0, and added a solo homer (#25) in the 6th. His homer was the second of a back-to-back with on-base machine Victor de Jesus, who hit #32 and was on all 4 times today with a pair of walks and a single to go with the homer. The other run came on a bases-loaded walk in the 8th to Nate Clark, who otherwise had a forgettable day getting the golden sombrero and seeing his average dip to .249 as he seems to be home run-or-bust these days. Andy Aparicio started and was cruising until the 7th when after getting the first two outs he gave a string of hits to Boston batters, and he left with the bases loaded and a run in with the score 7-2. Tim Siqueiros came in and gave up a 2-run single but got the final out, and then struck out the side in the 8th before Jordan Diaz did likewise in the 9th. AA won to go 11-4 but saw his ERA rise to 3.87.

Game 3: For the third straight day a Rays romp turned into something else before it was over as Tampa Bay saw a 9-0 lead cut to 9-7 before hanging on to win again. A Luis Corpus RBI and Jaiden Hardaway's sac fly gave them a 2-0 lead in the 2nd, and Alex Buitrago broke it open with a 3-run shot (#14) as part of a 4-run 5th. And after Omar Rodriguez's 2-run double made it 9-0 in the 6th with Leo Ortega 2-hitting Boston, all seemed well in hand. But Ortega tired and gave up a 2-run homer to the second batter of the inning and came out for Bob Sirna, who got the next three out to finish the inning still up 9-2. Sirna ran into trouble in the 8th, giving up a homer and putting a couple more on, so the slumping Jim Connors was given a chance in a 9-3 game. It appeared he'd get the third out when he induced a grounder to Bo Angeac, but the Ray 3B booted it to load the bases and sure enough Pierson Gibis took Connors deep for a grand slam to make it 9-7. Connors finally did get the third out after another Rays error and Kikuo Kawase came in for the 9th. As usual Kawase put a quick end to the nonsense by striking out all 3 Sox he faced for save #13 and he now has 93 Ks in 44 innings. Ortega went to 11-2 with a still-great 6 4 2 2 0 8 performance and his ERA holds at 3.06. Some really bad news did come out of the game: Dane Ayers was beaned again in the 6th and suffered his second concussion of the season, which will put him out for 6-7 weeks. He had earlier missed 3 weeks with a concussion after being hit in the head and then missed 6 weeks with a fractured wrist after getting plunked on a rehab assignment with Durham. Just an unbelievable run of bad luck for Ayers, who's only managed to play 16 games this season for the Rays. Looks like Erik Batchelder will be back up to job-share SS with Melvin Gutierrez.

July 11: Placed IF/OF Dane Ayers on the 10-day IL with a concussion, recalled IF Erik Batchelder from AAA Durham.

Game 4: In the reverse of the first three games of this series, it was the Rays who fell behind 9-2 and came back to make it 9-7 before falling short. Nate Schultz had his worst start as a Ray, getting lit up to the tune of 4.1 8 7 6 2 4, and Kevin Kerstetter continued his trend of striking out a bunch of people (5 in 1 2/3) but giving up runs (a 2-run homer). Meanwhile all the bats had to show through 5 were an RBI double from Rodolfo Rivas and an RBI single from Bo Angeac. But they struck for 5 in the 6th, first on a 3-run homer from Omar Rodriguez (#8), then on a Rivas solo shot (#22) and finally on a Mike Harms RBI double. Harms was thrown out at 3rd on the play to end the threat and the inning. Mike Wherry, Jordan Diaz and Tim Siqueiros each pitched a scoreless inning to keep it close, and the Rays did put two on with two out in the 9th but pinch-hitter Victor de Jesus (who was given a day off) struck out against Boston closer Bobby Carman to end the game.

Team record: 71-19. Next up: The All-Star break, which given the number of Rays in the ASG might as well be on our regular schedule. We then start a west coast swing in Anaheim over the weekend.

MLB News: Mike Trout hit career HR #715, so he moves into third all-time behind Barry Bonds (762) and Hank Aaron (755). Outside chance he threatens them late next season. He turns 42 in a few weeks but he's under contract until 2036 so we'll see.

[Art Deco]

So the final voting came in for the All-Star teams, and the Rays dominated like no team I've seen before. The entire infield of Victor de Jesus, Jaiden Hardaway (the overall top vote-getter), Ricky Widmar and Bo Angeac won the voting at their respective positions, while Nate Clark and Dayle Jenkins won at the outfield corners. Widmar and Jenkins of course, will not be playing due to injury. Also Danny Medina won at reliever and I still don't know why Kikuo Kawase wasn't on the ballot nor was he picked for the All-Star Game which is a travesty.

Here are the teams:





Some interesting selections here (Tanner Witt?) including Tim Sandstrom, the former Ray farmhand whom Colorado just put on waivers, which raises* the question: Can you play in the All-Star Game while you're on waivers? What if someone in the other league claims you?

(*Notice I didn't use "begs the question", which does not mean "raises the question" like most people seem to think it does.)

The Home Run Derby:



Three Rays among the eight selected, and two matched up against each other! (That would never happen IRL). Thanks to a side bet, Nate Clark owes Bo Angeac a steak dinner. Despite having three Rays in it, none of them made the final but at least a former Ray won it all, congrats to Joe Barker.

The game itself:



It was a strange game as the AL didn't have a hit through 7 innings when Edgar Medina led off the 8th with an infield single. Then the AL went nuts in the 9th with three homers, including a 3-run shot from Rule 5 draftee and former Rays farmhand Jose Escobar. Four Rays hitters started (in spots 1-4 in the lineup) and went a combined 0-8 with Jaiden Hardaway and Bo Angeac (twice) reaching via bases on balls. Danny Medina got the surprise start and gave up a run when Mike Kovalak tripled off him and old friend Joe Barker singled him home while Andy Aparicio had a 1-2-3 inning with a whiff. Nate Schultz and Leo Ortega did not pitch, having been on short rest.

[Art Deco]

July 14: Sent P Alec Sachais to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

Not sure how much I want Sachais back in the rotation after the scouts downgraded his already bad movement to 35, although with the huge lead there's probably not much harm in using him. He did go 6 4 2 2 1 10 in his first start, and will likely force our hand shortly.

Game 1: Coming out of the break the Rays' first opponent was none other than Christian Little and the Los Angeles Angels, and Little reminded them of the ace he was over the previous 6 seasons with Tampa Bay in a 1-0 victory. Little no-hit them through 6, although "no-hit" is an interesting term considering he decided to terrorize his former mates by hitting them 4 times with pitches. Victor de Jesus ended his no-base-hit bid with a single leading off the 7th and Little was replaced after going 6 1 0 0 1 6. They got the first two men on in the 8th but couldn't bring them home, and ended with only 2 hits on the night. Jon Soranno, unbeknownst to himself, was doomed once he allowed a first-inning run and he did struggle but limit the damage. He left in the 5th with 2 on having gone 4.2 7 1 1 2 5 on 95 pitches and ended up with his 2nd straight loss after winning his first 11 decisions. All-Star Danny Medina came on in relief and was scintillating, going 2 2/3 hitless with 6 strikeouts, and Jim Connors had a perfect 8th to maybe snap out of his downward spiral.

Game 2: For the past few years the Rays unleashed the 1-2 punch of Christian Little and Jon Hayes on the league and now the Angels are doing it after signing both to huge free agent contracts last winter. And the Rays got a taste of their own medicine as Hayes pitched well on the heels of Little last night and led LA to a 5-2 win, Tampa Bay's third straight loss. Although not as dominant as Little last night, Hayes went 6 5 2 2 2 6 and kept the Rays off the board until Rodolfo Rivas hit HR #23 in the 6th. Mike Harms doubled off Hayes leading off the 7th and he was replaced before Erik Batchelder delivered a double to score Harms. That got the Rays within 3-2 and Nate Thompson survived a rough first three innings to settle down and go 6 6 3 2 1 5, almost matching Hayes if not for a Jaiden Hardaway error which led to a run. But Mike Wherry coughed up a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 7th to restore LA's 3-run lead, and that was that. Kevin Kerstetter had a 1-2-3 8th with a pair of strikeouts. They did manage to put two men on after two out in the 9th with Nate Clark as the tying run at the plate, but his fly ball to deep left wasn't deep enough and it was game over.

Game 3: After being done in by two of their former aces in the first two games of this series, the Rays countered with one of their new aces and it was Leo Ortega's turn to dominate as the bats came to life in a 10-1 rout of the Angels. Ortega was brilliant, 1-hitting the Angels until the 7th inning when he started running out of gas and gave up a solo homer before exiting with a 6.2 2 1 1 1 9 line as he goes to 12-2 and lowers his ERA to 2.96. Tim Siqueiros got a couple of outs and Bob Sirna went the last 1 2/3 to mop up. The bats served notice they were back in the 1st inning when Nate Clark took Danny De Jesus deep to left with a man on (#32) to give the Rays a quick 2-0 lead, Alex Buitrago added an RBI double in the 4th and Melvin Gutierrez of all people went deep (actually his 3rd of the year) in the 5th to make it 4-0. Jaiden Hardaway capped a 3-hit day with a 2-run blast (#23) in the 7th and Buitrago put the cherry on top with an 8th-inning grand slam, his 15th round-tripper of the year.

Team record: 72-21. Next up: We had up the Pacific coast to take on Oakland for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Andy Aparicio turned in his best start of the season and he needed to as the Rays scratched out just enough offense to take a 2-1 victory in Oakland. AA pitched a complete-game 2-hitter on 100 pitches with only run against coming when Omar Rodriguez dropped a two-out fly ball allowing a man to score in the 7th. His final line was 9 2 1 0 2 10 to improve to 12-4, 3.59 and he now leads the AL in pitcher WAR, wins and strikeouts. The bats were held in check into the 5th by Sean Miller, a one-time Rays farmhand who was part of the Jhon Diaz/Blake Money/Marc Wagner deal a few years back (as was Nate Boesel, currently on the Rays' bench) and who has pitched well to the tune of a 1.82 ERA in 34 innings. He had to leave with a tired arm after 4 1/3, however, and they finally broke through in the 7th on RBI singles from Melvin Gutierrez and Jaiden Hardaway. Meanwhile Nate Clark went 0-4 and has seen his batting average plummet to .240 so despite being in a tie for the MLB lead in homers, he's only sitting on 1.9 WAR at the moment.

Game 2: The Rays bashed 7 homers and got another great start from Nate Schultz in a 9-0 pasting of Oakland tonight. All 9 runs scored on the 7 homers, which I'll just paste from the box score:



That was your scoring, and Nate Schultz went 6 4 0 0 1 8 to go to 12-1, 3.37 while Bob Sirna hurled 3 hitless innings with only one walk and five Ks to get his 3rd 3-inning save of the year.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Oakland, not exactly a shocker given that they're 42 1/2 games better than them but it beats the hell out of losing as they took a 6-1 win today. It was a two-man offense today with Rodolfo Rivas delivering a 2-run homer (#24) in the 1st inning and adding an RBI single in the 5th before Bo Angeac smashed a 3-run longball (#27) in the 7th to put the game away. Jon Soranno got the start and was fine, going 6.1 7 1 1 1 5 and is now 12-2, 3.12. It was time to get some work in for Jordan Diaz and he went 2/3 with a couple of whiffs to finish the 7th, Mike Wherry pitched the 8th and Kikuo Kawase saw his first action in 11 days with a 2K 1-2-3 9th.

Team record: 75-21. Next up: An off-day then the World Series champion Texas Rangers come to Publix Park for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Because when you're 75-21, big changes are necessary:



Yes Vlad Jr. is coming to town. Where am I going to play him? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That's the manager's problem.

Oh wait, I am the manager too.

This deal was made for a couple of reasons. One, to get owner Stuart Sternberg off my back. Among his goals was to trade for an MVP candidate. See those blue and yellow medals on the far right? Yeah, those are 7 MVP Awards.



The second reason the deal was done was that the price was right. Sandoval's a former supplemental 1st round pick and has MLB-ready power and should hit 25-30 HR for Atlanta as soon as they insert him into their lineup, but in our system he was a footnote. DuBose has a great first name but mixed results and I'm not sold he's MLB material and Ramirez is pure filler. But isn't Vlad Jr. still on a $41M contract through next season? Why yes he is but the Braves have graciously offered to pick up 80% of it, meaning we're only paying him about $8M next season and $3.5M this year.

But where am I going to play him? I dunno. Bo Angeac's entrenched at 3B as he should be, so that leaves DH, for when I'm tired of watching Rodolfo Rivas strike out or when I play Rivas at 1B and move Victor de Jesus to the OF to take Alex Buitrago's place (or Nate Clark's, when I'm tired of watching him hit .239 despite all the homers). And this isn't even taking into account Dayle Jenkins coming back in September, you know, the reigning AL MVP? I could play Jenkins in CF, de Jesus in RF and bench Buitrago and Omar Rodriguez. And then there's this other guy I traded for:



After getting Vlad, there's really no country for Mike Harms any longer, as good as he is. So I made him the centerpiece to acquire Danny Ayala. "Who the @#$% is Danny Ayala?" you're probably saying. This is who Danny Ayala is:



Those are some eye-popping blue bars there where it matters. This is a .300-40 double-40 homer guy who plays adequate defense. Where is he going to play? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The answer for the rest of the season is likely the bench. But I'm eyeing him as a Nate Clark replacement, the same Nate Clark who is projected to get $23M in arbitration next year and right now is projected to get only 3.4 WAR this season, an above-average player but not $23M worth (Hell, Ayala could be better than Nate Clark right now, although he does have something of a negative platoon split against lefties). Also my scouts just downgraded his contact tool to 60, which jibes with his low BA right now. He's probably better than this still, and I expect the average to go up. But I can save $22.5M next year and get some decent prospect(s) or fill some other area of need by dealing Clark, who becomes a free agent after 2034 anyway. Back to the deal, Baltimore got some decent prospects in addition to a top-notch 1B who can play right now. Connell, acquired from Washington in the Joe Barker sell-off the winter before last, still projects as a high-quality reliever or closer, and Grant could be a decent #4 starter. Keck however is filler. Once a high draft pick, he's never really developed and isn't expected to ever have better than 35 control or 40 stuff with 60 movement his only calling card.

[Art Deco]

July 21: Optioned OF Nate Boesel to AAA Durham.

This makes room for Ayala on the roster as Guerrero takes Harms' spot.

Game 1: The defending champion Rangers came to town and spoiled the Rays debut of Vlad Guerrero Jr. with a 4-2 win. Guerrero doubled his first time up but had some rough moments afterward, short-circuiting a rally by hitting into a double play and looking at a called third strike in the 9th as the tying run at the plate. The main problem tonight was that the Rays offense couldn't string hits together while the Rangers did. And that stringing together of hits for Texas came in the 5th when they scored three times off Nate Thompson, with the big hit a 2-run Bobby Owens double. Thompson ended a mediocre 5 5 4 4 3 4 and might be giving way to Alec Sachais before long. Jim Connors came in against his old mates and with his 70 stamina he became tonight's long man going 4 4 0 0 1 5 on 60 pitches. Both Tampa Bay runs came on solo homers: #25 for Rodolfo Rivas in the 4th to briefly tie the game at 1, and #34 for Victor de Jesus in the 8th. Danny Ayala also made his Rays debut as a pinch-hitter in the 7th and walked. Meanwhile Mike Harms homered in his Orioles debut of course.

Game 2: The Rangers hit Rays ace Leo Ortega hard for 6 runs and 8 hits in 4 innings (with Ortega only managing one whiff) and took a 6-1 lead, and then they roughed up another Rays all-star, Danny Medina, for 3 runs and 6 hits in 2 1/3 innings. Meanwhile, Texas starter Tony Cardozo was blowing away the Rays with a line of 5 4 1 1 1 10. And despite all of that the Rays won the game in 10 innings 10-9, overcoming Ranger leads of 6-1 and 9-5. Obviously it was rough in the early going, with the only Tampa Bay run off Cardozo Vlad Guerrero's first Rays RBI on a double. And although they got to old teammate Jon Whiteleather for a Victor de Jesus HR (#35) in the 6th and a bases-clearing double by Will Quintana to cut the lead to 6-5, Texas answered right back with 3 in the 7th off Medina to make it 9-5. But the Rays immediately responded with another 4-run inning on a 2-run double by Rodolfo Rivas and a 2-run homer from Bo Angeac (#27) off another former Ray, Alexander Beltre. Jordan Diaz came in and went 1 2/3 scoreless, and Kikuo Kawase pitched the 9th and 10 and struck out 4 Rangers to keep it tied going to the bottom of the 10th. Quintana singled and was pinch-ran for by Erik Batchelder then Danny Ayala pinch-hit for Melvin Gutierrez and stroked a double to the RF corner. Batchelder looked like he'd score the winning run but Bobby Owens' throw nailed him at the plate to keep the game tied. No matter, Jaiden Hardaway laced a single to right and this time Owens' throw was no match for Ayala, who came home with the winning run in his first big contribution for the Rays. Kawase notched his 5th win of the season in the process.

Game 3: Coming off a 2-hit complete game against Oakland, Andy Aparicio continued his dominant post-ASB run with 7 brilliant innings against a much tougher lineup as the Rays waxed Texas 9-2. Aparicio went 7 3 1 1 0 12 on 113 pitches to go to 13-4, 3.46 as he's looked like his Cy Young/MVP 2031 self lately. Kevin Kerstetter went the final 2 innings and allowed an unearned run. The bats jumped all over Ranger starter Keider Montero for 6 runs in the first 3 innings starting with yet another Victor de Jesus homer, #36 with Vlad Jr on base. de Jesus has now matched last year's HR total of 36 in approximately 200 fewer ABs. Speaking of Vlad, he had an RBI single in the 2nd to make it 3-0 before Rodolfo Rivas (solo, #26) and Alex Buitrago (2-run, #17) homered to key a 3-run 3rd. Danny Ayala got his first Rays start today in LF, giving Nate Clark a day off, and went 1-3 with a double, a walk and 2 runs scored.

Team record: 77-22. Next up: Mike Harms and the Orioles visit for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

One of our famous Florida thunderstorms hit on Monday night so we were rained out, meaning a Tuesday doubleheader.

July 26: Recalled P Gil Wayne from AAA Durham.

Time to finally get a look at Gil Wayne, our 3rd round pick from 2027 who was once our top pitching prospect and ranked in the 30s-40s overall in MLB. He's lost some of his luster and is now ranked as the overall #183 prospect and #13 on our team list. He's battled some nagging injuries, several of which haven't been arm-related but has pitched well for Durham this year when healthy, 5-3, 3.25 with a 15/66 BB/K ratio in 72 innings and coming off an 11-5, 2.28 season last year. He has average stuff, but decent movement (55) and 70 control which is his calling card. He'll start Game 2 as the 27th man and go back to Durham after the game.

Game 1: Young Oriole lefty Zach Farese shut down the high-powered Rays lineup in a 3-0 shutout win for Baltimore in the day game of the doubleheader. He wasn't overpowering but he was effective, going 7.2 4 0 0 4 4, getting 3 double plays and the beneficiary of a lot of at-'em balls. Oriole closer Jeff Moyer was overpowering, though, striking out Vlad Jr, Nate Clark, Victor de Jesus and Rodolfo Rivas in order to close out the game. Jon Soranno wasn't his sharpest, going 5 8 3 3 2 5 and dropping to 12-3, with one of the Baltimore runs coming on a Mike Harms sac fly. Jim Connors has cottoned to his new role as a long man and went 3 1-hit shutout innings while Kevin Kerstetter struck out the side in his.

Game 2: The Rays bounced back to split the doubleheader with Baltimore thanks to an impressive MLB debut from Gil Wayne and the evergreen bat of Jaiden Hardaway to take a 7-2 win. Wayne was excellent, going 5.2 6 2 2 0 6, showing off his pinpoint control and an excellent curveball which brought several swinging strikeouts. The only damage against him was a 2-run Luis Urias homer in the 4th which briefly put Baltimore ahead and he allowed a single with 2 out in the 6th ahead of the lefty slugger Tommy McDougal who already had 2 hits off Wayne, so Mike Wherry came in and got McDougal on a fly ball. By then the Rays were ahead 3-2 thanks to an infield RBI single from Erik Batchelder, a bases-loaded walk to Hardaway, and a solo HR (#27) from Rodolfo Rivas. Tim Siqueiros got 5 outs between the 7th and 8th and Kikuo Kawase was summoned to face his teammate of last week, Mike Harms, and whiffed him for strikeout #100 this season. And then in the bottom of the 8th the Rays broke it open on a 2-out grand slam from Hardaway, his 25th HR of the season. With a 5-run lead, Kawase sat back down and Bob Sirna came in to get all 3 outs in the 9th on strikes after a McDougal single to preserve the win for Wayne in his first MLB start.

Game 3: Once the Rays put 5 on the board in the 2nd this became a laugher and the final was 12-0 Tampa Bay. Nate Schultz was completely dominant, going 7 2 0 0 1 8 to improve to 13-1, 3.18 with an AL-best 160 strikeouts in 124.2 innings. Danny Medina pitched two hitless innings to finish it out. Omar Rodriguez led off the 2nd with HR #11, and Alex Buitrago started a further rally with a double which saw Melvin Gutierrez single in a run, Vlad Jr. single in two more, and then Rodriguez batted for the second time in the inning and singled home its 5th run. Victor de Jesus truly broke it open with a 3-run shot (a career-high #37) in the 5th, and a 4-run 7th saw Danny Ayala hit his first MLB homer, a 2-run blast just clearing the wall in LF which could have been a grand slam had Baltimore's Joseph Charles not thrown consecutive wild pitches to score runners earlier in Ayala's at-bat. The Rays had 19 hits in all with every starter collecting at least one, including 4 from Vlad Jr. in his best day as a Ray.

Team record: 79-23. Next up: 4 games at Yankee Stadium.

[Art Deco]

This anodyne summary doesn't do the memory of Alec Sachais as a Ray justice, but here's the news:



Keeping Sachais on rehab was just kicking the can down the road and with the trade deadline approaching it was in everyone's best interest to move him since I had no real intent of plugging him back into the rotation. The return wasn't much but I didn't expect it to be for a pitcher with diminished stuff who's making $11M/year in arbitration. I actually shopped him with us retaining 100% of his salary but the offers were pretty much the same with or without retention. Baldwin is an intriguing RH bullpen arm whom the Padres had acquired 16 days earlier from Minnesota. He has 60 stuff (75 potential), 60/60 movement, but the catch is 35/40 control and he has 4-star potential as a reliever. He's at High-A and had been the Twins' 2nd round pick from USC in 2030. He's probably unlikely to end up with the big club but you never know. The deal also opens up a 40-man roster spot which we'll need in September with both Ricky Widmar and Dayle Jenkins coming off the 60-day IL.

Anyway, it's a sad day to part with Sachais, who was one of my favorite pitchers in this save and was a big-time contributor to 3 consecutive championships in 2028-2030. He had the rare combination of 70 stuff with 70 control at his peak, and even though he was homer-prone he put up some great numbers as seen here:



For 4 1/2 seasons before he developed his arthritic elbow, he was a paragon of consistency averaging 4-4.5 WAR per season and that's despite that metric not liking all the homers he allowed. Those BB/K ratios were pure pitcher porn and it was tough to see him back this year without the stuff to go with the control. But baseball is an unforgiving sport when it comes to pitchers and their stuff and we were never going to offer him arbitration next season with a projection of $15M. So he'll get a chance to start for San Diego, which is in the thick of the division and wild-card races in the NL and who knows, maybe we'll see him in the World Series.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Perhaps because he knew his rotation spot was safe with the trade of Alec Sachais, Nate Thompson was in a groove today at Yankee Stadium and took a "Maddux" into the 9th inning before running out of gas but still getting a 5-1 win. Thompson had a one-hitter on 84 pitches into the 9th and retired Tyree Reed on strikes before giving up a triple. I brought the infield in to try and preserve his shutout but the Yankees managed an infield hit to score the run and a double to put men on 2nd and 3rd and suddenly not only was the shutout gone, the lead was potentially in jeopardy. So with the Yankees' tough 1-2 punch of lefties Mario Aguilar and Ivan Vega due, Mike Wherry came in and got them both to end the game. Thompson finished 8.1 4 1 1 0 6 and is now 4-2, 4.17 while Wherry got save #5. It was a scoreless game until the 6th when the Rays got a man on against Michael Flores, who held them for 5 1/3. They took immediate advantage of the pitching change with both Victor de Jesus (his MLB-leading 38th) and Bo Angeac (#29) blasting 2-run homers off reliever Julio Zarate. Nate Clark, who was on base 4 times today with 2 hits and 2 walks, added an RBI groundout in the 9th for the final run.

Game 2: Leo Ortega didn't have his best stuff and the Rays fell behind the Yankees 3-0 after 4 and trailed 3-2 after 6, but it didn't matter as the home run bats came out and by the time it was over the Rays had a 10-3 rout of the home club at Yankee Stadium. Ortega gave up a bunch of hits but at least had his sinker working as he induced 11 ground ball outs in a 6 9 3 2 1 1 performance and after the offense took over he managed the win to go to 13-2, 3.29. They trailed 3-0 and didn't even get a hit until the 5th inning when Erik Batchelder hit a one-out double and two batters later Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit his first Rays homer at the place where he plied his trade the last several years to cut the deficit to 3-2. And then Batchelder of all people gave them the lead in the top of the 7th with a 2-run shot, his 2nd of the year. Ortega gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the 7th so Tim Siqueiros came in and he gave up an infield single with that runner stealing 2nd so he had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. No problem for him, though, as he struck out the next three Yankees, including Mario Aguilar and Ivan Vega. The close call emboldened the bats further and they struck for 5 in the top of the 8th on a 2-run homer from Omar Rodriguez (#12) and a 3-run blast from Nate Clark (#34). Bo Angeac hit #30 for good measure in the 9th and Kevin Kerstetter went the final 2 innings to finish out the game.

Game 3: It was a premium pitching matchup in the Bronx between Andy Aparicio and the Yankees' Eric Peterson, two of the AL's top starters. And it lived up to billing as the teams traded zeroes through 5 innings. But Peterson blinked first in the 6th, giving up a solo homer to Nate Clark (#35), and Omar Rodriguez added #13 in the 8th off the New York bullpen to back Aparicio, who twirled a 5-hit complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win. AA went 9 5 0 0 1 7 on 116 pitches and in the 8th and 9th was a baserunner away from being lifted for Kikuo Kawase but he retired the Yankees in order in both frames to get his first whitewash of the year and fifth of his career. Aparicio is now 14-4, 3.24 and leads MLB in pitcher WAR at 4.6, with his 167 strikeouts nosing 3 ahead of Christian Little for the league lead. His 2nd Cy Young in 3 seasons is not out of the question as he's been on an incredible roll since the All-Star break, allowing 1 earned run (and only 10 hits) in his last 3 starts covering 25 innings. There wasn't much to write home about with the offense outside of the two homers but Alex Buitrago was 3-3 with a double, walk and stolen base even if he was stranded all 4 times.

Game 4: The Rays completed the sweep with another dominant pitching performance and more homers as they took an 8-1 decision over the Yankees, holding the Bronx Bombers (perhaps a misnomer these days) to 5 runs in the series. Today's excellent start was courtesy of Jon Soranno, who took a shutout into the 7th and finished 6.2 6 1 1 2 6 and is now 13-3, 3.12. Despite the lopsided score, Jordan Diaz came in for some work and went 1 1/3 scoreless while Jim Connors pitched the 9th. Unlike yesterday the offense didn't wait to get going: Nate Clark hit a 2-run homer (#36) in the 1st and Alex Buitrago singled in a run as part of a 3-hit day which saw him get 6 consecutive hits over two games. Clark was then hit with the bases loaded in the second to force in a run, Erik Batchelder (who had a 3-hit game) homered for the second straight start with a 2-run blast in the 5th (#3), Bo Angeac added #31 and Clark capped a 4-RBI day with a run-scoring single.

Team record: 83-23. Next up: 4 games in Houston.

Look at our boys dominating the offensive leaderboards in the AL:

[Art Deco]

Monthly awards time:





Prized 1B prospect Jon Jimenez won the Batter of the Month award in the IL again, and Phil Hable, the outfielder we got from Texas for Jon Whiteleather, won the Southern League Batter of the Month award with a .337-5-26 July; for the year he's hitting 289/369/489 with 16 HR and 61 RBI.

Game 1: Another day, another comfortable win for the Rays as they ended up blasting the Astros 12-3 for their 7th straight victory. Nate Schultz got the start and began in dominating fashion, whiffing 8 Astros in the first 4 innings and allowing only one hit. They did string a few hits together off him in the 5th, though, and a 3-run homer from highly-regarded Astros SS prospect Hector Cortes cut the lead to 4-3. But that would be all Schultz would allow, going 7 4 3 3 0 8 and now 14-1, 3.21. Bob Sirna and Danny Medina each got in an inning of work; with the starters so good recently and going 6-7 innings there hasn't been a lot of bullpen use. On offense the big early blow came from Vlad Guerrero Jr as his 3-run shot in the 3rd, his 2nd as a Ray and 21st overall, made it 3-0 and Omar Rodriguez added a solo shot (#14) in the 4th. And after Houston had closed the gap to 1, Jaiden Hardaway immediately responded in the top of the 6th with a 3-run homer (#26) while Nate Clark added #37 with a man on in the 8th.

Game 2: These games seem to be getting more ridiculous with this team as they bashed 9 - count 'em, 9 - homers today in a 16-6 beatdown of Houston, falling just one short of the single-game team MLB record set by the Blue Jays in 1987. What is a record is that 9 different Rays homered, including 8 of the 9 starters (Melvin Gutierrez, you slacker) plus Danny Ayala as a pinch-hitter. Not going to try to recap them, instead here's the relevant section of the box score:



Nate Thompson started and pitched pretty well, even if he did give up 4 runs in 6 2/3, 2 came on a homer and 2 were the result of an RBI triple which scored on a sac fly. Jim Connors and Kevin Kerstetter were the mop-up guys, with Kersetter giving up a 2-run homer of his own in the 9th. In case you were wondering like I was how many HR they've hit as a team it's 242 so far in 105 games or 2.3/game. That average has come up considerably lately no doubt.

MLB News: Alec Sachais made his San Diego debut tonight. He gave up a 2-run home in the 1st then had to leave in the 2nd with a blister, so not exactly a roaring success.

Game 3: After being smoked by a combined score of 28-9 the last two nights, Houston turned the tables with an 11-2 beatdown of the Rays. Leo Ortega just didn't have it tonight, giving up a 3-run homer in the 1st inning on his way to a 3 9 5 5 1 4 night, and the relief wasn't much relief tonight. Danny Medina gave up a pair of homers despite being rated for 70 movement and while Bob Sirna had a scoreless inning the decision to give Kikuo Kawase his first work in 8 days backfired when he was hit hard for 4 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks in 2/3 of an inning, with his ERA rising from 0.95 to 1.69. And since he threw 22 pitches he's probably not available tomorrow. Meanwhile the bats were mostly silent, in part due to Nate Clark, Bo Angeac and Jaiden Hardaway all getting the night off. Vlad Guerrero Jr had a 2-run double for the only Rays scoring as part of his 3-4 night - he's 345/356/603 since being acquired so he's held up his end so far unlike some other big-name mid-season acquisitions in the past.

Game 4: The Rays bounced back from yesterday's debacle by taking a 5-2 decision over Houston in a rare game between the teams which featured a save situation. Andy Aparicio was on the bump for the Rays looking to continue his hot run and he did so, at least for the first 6 innings when he held the Astros to two hits and made it 31 innings with allowing only one earned run. But he gave up a leadoff homer to Danny Rivera, who had 1 longball coming into this series but homered for the third straight game, and then loaded the bases with nobody out with the score 5-1. Mike Wherry came in, struck out old Rays favorite Austin Meadows, and then induced a 5-3 double play to keep the game at 5-1. Wherry stayed on for the 8th, gave up a 2-out homer, and Tim Siqueiros notched the final out. Jordan Diaz then came on for the 9th and got a 1-2-3 inning on 8 pitches for his 9th save. Aparicio improves to 15-4, 3.17 after a 6 4 1 1 3 6 outing. The offense was a 2-man affair with all 5 runs coming thanks to the bats of Jaiden Hardaway and Vlad Guerrero Jr. Vlad homered in the 1st to make it 1-0, Hardaway hit #28 in the 3rd to double the lead, then in the 5th Hardaway singled in Melvin Gutierrez and Guerrero followed with 2nd homer of the game, #5 as a Ray and #24 overall. After his 3-4 night, Hardaway is now up to 7.9 WAR.

Team record: 86-24. Next up: Back home for some interleague action against Milwaukee for 3 this weekend.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Another Tampa Bay beatdown as the Rays clobbered Milwaukee 15-2 at Publix Park. An 8-run 3rd inning turned a 1-0 Rays lead into a 9-0 rout, thanks both to the usual suspects and some unusual ones. In the former category was Jaiden Hardaway, whose insane season continued today with a 3-3, 2-walk performance which included a 3-run homer in that 3rd inning (#29). His batting slash is 372/481/642 and there's no sign of him slowing down. The unusual suspect was Melvin Gutierrez, who had a bases-clearing double in that 3rd inning and later hit a solo homer (#4), going back-to-back with Luis Corpus (#10). In the middle of all this Nate Clark homered twice and drove in 3 to hit the 40-dinger mark and Victor de Jesus had a bases-clearing triple. Coasting with all the run support was Jon Soranno, who was 6 4 1 1 2 8 to up his record to 14-3, 3.05. Kevin Kerstetter gave up a run in his 2 innings, and Jim Connors mopped up with a 1-2-3 9th.

Game 2: Yeah, I'm not going to bother trying to recap this ridiculous game from this ridiculous team:



I will say to give it up for Milwaukee's Robby Campbell, who somehow managed to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings in all this. Unsurprisingly, we took all 3 spots for the players of the day:



Game 3: We had something resembling a normal baseball game today with Milwaukee ahead 2-1 in the 6th and the game 3-3 in the 7th but in the end the Rays' hitting attack was too much for the Brewers once again and Tampa Bay came away with a 7-3 win. It was 1-1 through 4 on a Luis Corpus RBI double and then the Brewers took a 2-1 lead off Nate Thompson in the 5th when former Ray Ryan Jeffers went deep. Thompson put the first two on in the top of the 6th but Jim Connors came to his rescue, striking out the next 3 Milwaukee hitters and in the bottom of the inning Corpus struck again with a 2-run homer (#11) to put the Rays in front 3-2. But the battle of the hitting catchers continued when Jeffers went deep again in the 7th, this time off Connors, to tie it at 3. The Rays then responded in the bottom of the 7th as Omar Rodriguez's RBI double broke the deadlock and Corpus had the last laugh on Jeffers by adding a sac fly to give him a 4-RBI day. After Tim Siqueiros had a 1-2-3 2K 8th, Nate Clark hit HR #41 with a man aboard in the 8th to make it comfortable. Jordan Diaz followed with a 3-up, 3-down 9th to close it out to preserve win #3 for Connors.

Team record: 89-24. Next up: An off-day then Boston comes in for 2 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays overcame a mixed bag of a start from Leo Ortega and scored big in the middle innings to take an 8-4 come-from-behind win over Boston. Ortega was given a 2-0 lead in the 1st after a Red Sox wild pitch and an error brought home the runs but he gave up 4 hits and uncorked a wild pitch of his own to allow Boston to even it up. It looked like he had settled in until the 5th when after a Bo Angeac error Ortega served up a 2-run homer to Eric Knatz which put the Red Sox in front. Leo finished 5 7 4 3 1 7 but the Rays immediately got him off the hook for a loss after a 2-run double from Nate Clark and then they made a winner of Tim Siqueiros who pitched the 6th when Alex Buitrago blasted a 3-run homer (#18) in the bottom of the inning. Clark added #42 in the 7th for the final run. After Siqueiros got win #7 for pitching the 6th, Jim Connors, Kikuo Kawase and Jordan Diaz pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th. Diaz as is his wont made things interesting by loading the bases with a single and two walks to bring the tying run to the plate but got a popup and a groundout to end things. Jaiden Hardaway had another 3-hit game to bring his average up to .378 and his WAR total to 8.7 with almost 2 months left in the season.

Game 2: The one thing you can't do against the Rays' historically potent lineup is give them extra outs. But that's what the Red Sox did today as 3 Boston errors led to 8 unearned runs as the Rays pounded Boston 11-2. It was 1-1 in the 4th when an error opened the door for an Erik Batchelder RBI double followed by a 3-run Jaiden Hardaway homer (#31) to make it 4-1 and the Rays never looked back. A Boston homer made it 4-2 in the 6th but then the Rays took advantage of another Red Sox miscue to have a 6-run bottom of the 6th which featured a 2-run Vlad Jr double and a grand slam from Victor de Jesus (#40), who had sat the last few games with minor knee soreness. And Nate Clark added yet another cherry-on-the-top homer (#43) in the 8th. Andy Aparicio started for the Rays and pitched well outside of allowing two solo homers, going 7 7 2 2 0 8 and is now 16-4, 3.14. Kevin Kersetter had 2 perfect innings to finish with 4 whiffs which included striking out the side in the 8th.

Team record: 91-24. Next up: Cleveland visits Publix Park for 4 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays took a 7-3 win over Cleveland to start their 4-game series, although one milestone went by the wayside tonight. Jaiden Hardway's 67-game on-base streak came to an end when he went 0-4 today. I wasn't even aware of it until I got a notification after the game was over, but it was one of the longest such streaks in MLB history as Ted Williams (who holds the record at 84) had been the only player to exceed 70. As for the game itself the Rays faced Jimmy West, whom they traded along with Jordan Evangelista in 2027 to get Daniel Espino. West set the Rays down through 3 on only 23 pitches but he lost the plot in the 4th, loading the bases and forcing in a run by walking Bo Angeac, and Omar Rodriguez delivered a 2-run single before a Luis Corpus RBI groundout and it was 4-0. Jon Soranno was cruising along against a lefty-heavy Cleveland lineup (7 of the 9) until he ran out of gas in the 6th and put two on ahead of Evangelista, who took him deep to cut the lead to 4-3. Soranno finished 5.2 4 3 3 2 7 and went to 15-3. Danny Medina relieved him and pitched through the 7th, but Mike Wherry made a mess with one out in the 8th by loading the bases, so Kikuo Kawase rode to the rescue and got a strikeout and a fly ball to preserve the lead. Then in the bottom of the inning Nate Clark had his daily 8th-inning homer (#44, his fourth straight game with one) with a man on and Victor de Jesus followed him with #41. Kawase stayed on for a 1-2-3 9th and picked up save #14.

Game 2: It was nice to get a low-scoring game for a change but one thing that didn't change is the outcome as the Rays took their 8th straight with a 3-1 win behind Nate Schultz. The Cy Young candidate in a rotation with other Cy Young candidates improved his already-gaudy record to 16-1 with a 6 4 1 1 2 9 outing that lowered his ERA to 3.34. The only damage he suffered was Jordan Evangelista homering for the second straight game. After Schultz left, the "A" bullpen took over with Tim Siqueiros going 1-2-3 with a pair of whiffs, Kikuo Kawase doing likewise in the 8th and Jordan Diaz getting save #10 in the 9th despite a hit batter and a single. The offense was very quiet by its standards but Jaiden Hardaway responded to seeing his 67-game on-base streak end yesterday by starting a new one immediately and getting on all four bases with HR #32 leading off the game. Rodolfo Rivas singled in a run in the 3rd and Bo Angeac did the same thing in the 8th to provide a little insurance.

Game 3: In what was officially the craziest game of the year the Rays beat Cleveland 13-12 in 10 innings. Nate Thompson was rocked for 7 runs in 2 1/3 innings to put the Rays in a 7-0 hole, but the first 8 hitters of the 5th inning reached for Tampa Bay and scored to give them the lead and they added 3 more in the 6th to go up 11-7, where things stood until the 9th. But Mike Wherry gave up a 3-run homer to make it 11-10 in the 9th and Jordan Diaz allowed a game-tying homer to send it to extra innings after the Rays loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th with two out but couldn't score. Diaz gave up a leadoff double in the 10th, which came around to score on an infield hit off Bob Sirna to put Cleveland ahead 12-11, and then in the bottom of the 10th Victor de Jesus led off with a single and it looked like he'd be stranded but with two out Bo Angeac stepped up and of course hit a game-winner HR (#34). Whew! Too much to recap individually, so I'm presenting the box on this one, complete with one of the wackiest win probability charts you'll see:



Also, check out today's leaderboards. I've never seen the same team have all 3 top spots in hitter and pitcher WAR:



Game 4: Once again Cleveland gave the Rays all they could handle, and the Rays handled it again it walk-off fashion after blowing a 9th-inning lead with a 4-3 win today in a game markedly less insane than yesterday's. Leo Ortega got the start while in the throes of a 16 ER allowed in his last 18 IP slump covering his last four starts, and he was tagged for a couple of runs in the 2nd. But he did calm down from there, with help from Danny Ayala throwing out a runner at the plate, to go 6 7 2 2 1 8. The Rays quickly got the 2 runs in the 2nd back in the bottom of the frame when yesterday's walk-off HR hero Bo Angeac picked up where he left off by hitting #35 and Danny Ayala went back-to-back with him with #3. And then Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit #7/#26 in the 3rd to give the Rays a 3-2 lead which stood up going into the 9th. Tim Siqueiros was brilliant yet again with 2 scoreless innings to help save a tired pen. He whiffed 4 and now has an astounding 84 whiffs in 47 innings, overshadowed by Kikuo Kawase's 100+ Ks. But Jim Connors couldn't get it done in the 9th, giving up a 2-out double to former Yankee Joe Allen to tie the game. But just like yesterday the Rays responded after blowing the lead and with two out in the bottom of the 9th Alex Buitrago and Will Quintana hit back-to-back doubles to walk it off again for the Rays, who just refuse to lose and now have won 10 straight and 18 of 19. Connors vultured his 4th win of the year.

Team record: 95-24. Next up: 4 games in Toronto, a hard place to win for us the last two seasons including 0-2 this year.