The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Advantage Dodgers as they're one win away from getting back to the World Series after being swept by the Rays last year. I'm guessing they're pulling for the Twins. A 5-run 2nd inning against presumptive NL Cy Young winner Fabian Petrovich keyed by a 2-run Nate Martin homer supplied all the runs LA would need tonight.

[Art Deco]

Holy crap, Andy Aparicio!


Andy Aparicio, ladies and gentlemen! The two-time Cy Young winner and one-time MVP has had a miserable (by his standards) homer-prone season which carried over into two terrible playoff starts this postseason. But the talent was still there, and tonight he pitched the third no-hitter in MLB postseason history after Don Larsen's perfect game in 1957 for the Yankees and Roy Halladay's no-hitter in 2010. But the case can be made that this was the best-pitched postseason game of all-time considering Aparicio's dominance and the situation he and his team was in, an elimination game. AA started out by striking out 8 of the first 11 batters he faced and took a perfect game into the 8th before walking Julio Rodriguez on a 3-2 pitch with one out. He hit Dorian Scott with two out in the 9th but then got former teammate Chris Sharp to fly to center to end it. Not only did he fan 13 in the game, he pitched a Maddux, getting through the game on 99 pitches! 99 was also his game score as the walk cost him a rare 100 on that metric. Just incredible. Unlike the last two games the offense wasn't firing on all cylinders but they did put 3 big runs up in the 3rd on Luis Corpus' sac fly and a 2-run homer from Jaiden Hardaway, the one Rays hitter replicating his regular season heroics in the postseason as he's hitting 310/392/714 with 5 HR and 15 RBI in 11 games. He added a sac fly of his own for the 4th run, which gave Aparicio enough of a lead for comfort. Before the game as a rallying cry the team had some T-shirts printed up with this logo on it:



as they're now 5-0 in elimination games in these playoffs and determined to be as hard to kill as the legendary Russian. Of course the no-hitters and the T-shirts aren't going to matter much if they don't win tomorrow's Game 7. But seeing how Aparicio bounced back tonight gives us some faith Nate Schultz can turn things around as well.

(By the way, that OOTP game recap in the box couldn't be any more anodyne. The guy pitched a freaking no-hitter! In the postseason! In an elimination game!)

One more look at the scene at Publix Park (attempting a screen save exits the game to the box score with the recent versions so I had to take a phone pic):

[Art Deco]

Team Rasputin FTW!


They did it! The 2034 Tampa Bay Rays became the second team in MLB history along with the 2004 Red Sox to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a 7-game series after a 9-3 win in Game 7 to advance to the World Series, where they'll play the Dodgers for the second straight season. He didn't bounce back with a no-hitter like Andy Aparicio but Nate Schultz came through with an outstanding performance, going 7 2 2 2 2 8, allowing only a couple of solo homers. The first of those briefly put Minnesota up 1-0 in the 2nd but Danny Ayala, having a struggle this postseason, doubled in a run off Jordan Wicks who had perfect-gamed them for 7 innings in Game 3 and tied it up. Then came the big 6-run 3rd which blew the game open with Victor de Jesus' 2-run triple and Jeff Baez's 2-run double the big blows. Bo Angeac (#5) and Baez (his 2nd in 3 games) added solo homers later to put the cherry on top as the Rays rediscovered their offense just in time during this series. Danny Medina strung out the suspense by walking the first two men in the 9th but struck out the next three to end up on the bottom of the dogpile. The Rays have won 7 World Series in this save, but have never had a postseason like this, going 6-0 in elimination games and this series will likely end up the most memorable of them all, from the 0-3 deficit to Dayle Jenkins' Game 4 inside-the-park homer turning things around to the massive blowout in Game 5 to Andy Aparicio's no-hitter in Game 6, and the completion of the comeback in Game 7. I'm going to recommend they don't go down 0-3 to the Dodgers though.

Speaking of the Dodgers, they took care of business by dispatching Columbus in 6:



They took a 3-2 lead after 4 and that scoreline stood up with the LA bullpen coming through with 4 1/3 scoreless innings to hold on.

[Art Deco]

Leading a series, what a concept...


The Rays took their 9th straight World Series win over the Dodgers, having swept them in 2029 and 2033, with a 7-3 win in the Series opener tonight at Publix Park. Leo Ortega was outstanding, going 6 1/3 scoreless to get the win. It was a struggle late for Mike Wherry and Danny Medina, creating a save situation for Kikuo Kawase with two out in the 9th and he got pinch-hitter Anthony Volpe to fly out to end the game. They jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead with the big hit an RBI double by Jon Jimenez in the 3rd and he scored on Luis Corpus's single. Victor de Jesus had a 2-run homer in the 7th to extend the lead, and Jeff Baez homered for the third time in four games since taking over for an injured Ricky Widmar at SS. Injury was added to insult for the Dodgers as their starting catcher Danny Ramos suffered a hamstring strain and will miss the rest of the Series. Nate Thompson will get the start in Game 2 tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

10 years later, the Dodgers finally have a World Series win over the Rays as they evened the series up with a 5-1 win at Publix Park. The last time the Dodgers beat the Rays in the Series it was to win it in 2024, and the curse of Lewin Diaz continued for Tampa Bay. The veteran 1B, who flopped for the Rays after being acquired in 2026, has managed to torment them at times, most notably in 2027 when he helped lead the Angels to an ALCS win over Tampa Bay. Today he was the star, homering off Nate Thompson to tie in the 3rd and then delivering a big 2-run double off Kevin Kerstetter to break open the game. Thompson wasn't as sharp as he was against Minnesota and Kerstetter was flat-out terrible in his first inning of work in the 6th. Of course with the one run scored it didn't make a lot of difference as the game seemed to turn when the Rays squandered a pair of scoring opportunities. One came in the 2nd after the Rays had scored with nobody out and had men on first and third as Jeff Baez hit a shallow fly ball and Luis Corpus, as he so often does, grounded into a double play. The other was in the next inning when Jaiden Hardaway and Dayle Jenkins singled to put men on 1st and 3rd with no out, but Hardaway was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on de Jesus's fly ball and Danny Ayala struck out. Speaking of Ayala, he's had a miserable postseason. After being 2nd in the league with 42 homers, he's yet to hit one in October and is only .200-0-6. Anyway, Andy Aparicio will look to get the Rays back ahead in Los Angeles in Game 3, coming off his historic no-hitter.

[Art Deco]

Back on top...


Andy Aparicio, clutch pitcher. Coming off his incredible no-hitter in the ALCS he nearly followed that up with a shutout in a 3-2 win over the Dodgers which put the Rays back ahead 2-1 in the series. He held LA scoreless into the 9th and had 2 out before walking Dauri Lorenzo. With his pitch count approaching 120 I probably should have taken him out but with a 3-run lead I left him in hoping he'd get the shutout. Fernando Tatis Jr. had other ideas and took him deep to make things a little too interesting, but Kikuo Kawase came in and whiffed the front-runner for this year's NL MVP, Kevin Crater, on 3 pitches to end the game. The offense struck early and then took the rest of the game off to watch Aparicio, but Danny Ayala, whom I called out for not hitting this postseason, was 2-3 and scored 2 of their runs. Jon Jimenez drove him home twice, once on a single (which saw Bo Angeac thrown out at the plate behind Ayala) and on a sac fly. Nate Schultz will try to replicate his great ALCS Game 7 performance to give the Rays a commanding series lead in Game 4.

[Art Deco]

Heartbreak...


They had a 3-1 series lead in the palms of their hands, but another former Ray did them in as Brandon Marsh hit a 3-run homer off Kikuo Kawase in an excruciating 9th inning to allow the Dodgers to even up the series and assure us of a Game 6 in Tampa. The Rays held a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the 9th but Bo Angeac threw away Kevin Crater's ground ball, Stanley Rosario hit a dying quail over the outstretched glove of Jeff Baez, and after Kawase whiffed Nick Gonzales, Marsh stepped up and hit one into the RF seats that brought back memories of Kirk Gibson to the Dodger Stadium faithful. Before that it looked like the Rays had done enough, getting a decent start from Nate Schultz after a rocky beginning (including a 2-run double from who else, Lewin Diaz) and a big homer from Vlad Guerrero Jr. that put them ahead in the 5th. But they couldn't tack on late again and now we head to a pivotal Game 5 with Leo Ortega looking to duplicate his Game 1 performance.

[Art Deco]

Advantage Rays...


This time the bullpen held on. Just barely, but they held on and the Rays now take a 3-2 series advantage with them back to Tampa for Game 6 in two days' time with a chance to win it in front of the home fans, something they haven't done since 2028. That was at Tropicana Field, and they've yet to do it at Publix Park. Anyway Leo Ortega was outstanding once again, retiring in the first 14 Dodgers before Nick Gonzales doubled with two out in the 5th. He traded zeroes with Ted Jennings until the Rays broke through in the 6th. It looked like it would be for naught when Jaiden Hardaway was thrown out at home on Victor de Jesus's double for the second out, but Danny Ayala delivered an RBI single and Vlad Guerrero Jr. homered for the second straight game to make it 3-0. Ortega ran into trouble in the 7th, allowing a run, but Mike Wherry got him out of it. But Wherry got himself into trouble in the 8th, giving up a 1-out double to score a run with the batter taking 3rd. Tim Siqueiros came on and really made things tough, walking the first two he faced to load the bases. But he got Kevin Crater to hit one at Hardaway with the infield in for the force at the plate and then got a fly ball to end the inning. With Kikuo Kawase unavailable after pitching the previous two days, Siqueiros stayed on for the 9th and got two lazy fly balls (including one from last night's hero Brandon Marsh) and a groundout to get a 33-pitch save and the Rays breathed a sigh of relief. At the moment I'm undecided on the Game 6 starter as I may go to Jon Soranno as Nate Thompson gave up 3 runs and 8 hits in 5 innings against a lineup with a lot of lefties in Game 2.

[Art Deco]

Champions Again! The Rays took care of business tonight in Game 6 to claim their 8th title in 12 seasons, their first ever clinched at Publix Park, and are back-to-back champs once again. It was a lot different than the previous seven successful playoff runs as instead of losing their usual handful of games, they lost 7 times and had to win 6 elimination games including 4 straight against Minnesota in the ALCS. Whereas a lot of the details of the previous titles have become fuzzy (did they beat the Dodgers or the Padres in 2028? I asked myself for example) this one will be unforgettable for those reasons (not to mention Andy Aparicio's no-hitter). Tonight it was another team effort, with Jon Soranno starting and pitching OK but showing a bit of rust with his wildness. The key play of the game came in the 2nd when a couple of walks loaded the bases with nobody out and Rays-killer Lewin Diaz up. Soranno went 3-0 on Diaz and looked like he'd walk in a run and the Dodgers would have a big inning but Diaz swung at the 3-0 pitch and grounded it to Jaiden Hardaway for a double play. The Dodgers scored but Soranno got out of it and then they answered with 4 in the 3rd and were on their way. Soranno ran into trouble in the 5th and it was time to bring in Nate Thompson for what was a semi-planned tandem start and Thompson was brilliant as you can see from the box above. Kikuo Kawase then came on and looked nothing like Game 4 in whiffing the first two Dodgers he faced and then getting Diaz to hit a lazy fly to Danny Ayala in left and it was party time:



Tonight was the likely final time in a Rays uniform for several, including World Series MVP Vlad Guerrero Jr., who gets to add that honor to his extremely long list of awards in his Hall of Fame career. Ricky Widmar will be gone (unless he takes the qualifying offer), and as mentioned before Luis Corpus will be shopped to make room for the overripe Mike McKee. On the staff Kikuo Kawase has a player option for next season and I'm betting he declines it and tests the open market after 2 successful seasons, and it's possible we deal Andy Aparicio as he has one year left with us and it will be at around $25M. He was a playoff hero in the end but I can find another pitcher to make 30 starts with a 4.50 ERA which is what he did for us this year and we still won 122 games.

[Art Deco]

As is tradition, we start with a look at the trophy:



The big news:

*Kikuo Kawase has exercised his player option and will be rejoining us, which surprised me a bit but pleasantly.
*Our market has increased to "tiny", which doesn't sound like much, but I guess it's better than it was before
*The fan interest has shot up to 91, for what that's worth, not sure how much you can do for the fans than win 8 times in 12 years
*As a result of all of this, Stu Sternberg has given me a payroll of $200M. We won't come near this, but money is not a problem so maybe Aparicio stays but I will still shop him. I have also increased the scouting and development budget considerably.

MLB News:

The usual wave of retirements are upon us but the big news is the retirement of Mike Trout, who decided not to come back another season to chase Aaron and Bonds and finishes his illustrious, first-ballot (should be unanimous) Hall of Fame career with 742 homers. The chase would have been the only reason to come back as he's become a replacement-level player with no defensive value, so more respect for him. The Angels of course retired his #27.

Other notable retirements: In the former Rays department there's Austin Meadows, Hunter Bishop, Luke Little, and Jacob Runnels. I'm considering retiring Meadows' #19, as he played 7 years with us, hit 209 HRs, averaged about 4 WAR/season, and was perhaps our key hitter on our first two championship teams in 2023 and 2025.

In the other big MLB names: Corey Seager, Jarred Kelenic, and Mike Soroka (the then-active wins leader with 196).

Our first big trade of the winter:



So who is Daniel Malone? He was the #1 overall pick in the 2032 draft, that's who he is. I was surprised to see him made available when I shopped Corpus and my assistant GM gave me a rare "Jump on this before they withdraw the offer" suggestion as usually he doesn't like my deals or is lukewarm to them. The only negative on Malone is that the Mets prematurely promoted him to the big club last year meaning a) he has to go on the 40-man and b) he only has 2 option years left. That syncs up nicely with when Dayle Jenkins' team control ends so it shouldn't be a problem. Predictably he hit only 188/284/348 with the Mets but he drew walks at least in his 181 AB and hit 4 HR. Here's the skinny on Malone:



Very little not to like here, he just needs to work on his contact and K avoidance some and should be fine. I'm planning on starting him in AA Montgomery, which is the level the Mets should have had him at as they promoted him directly from the Florida State League (Lousy OOTP22 aggressive promotions!).

November 6: The Dodgers made a minor league deal to acquire former Ray Mack Anglin from Cincinnati (cue the Obi-Wan Kenobi "now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time" meme). Anglin's never been the same after tearing his flexor tendon in his first year with Philly in 2030 after we traded him there for Mike Harms and has been bouncing around as a reliever in AA and AAA and is nothing special. But given the name I figured it was worth noting.

November 10: Leo Ortega won the AL Pitcher Gold Glove.



Well-deserved for Kawase, although Tyler Jefferson at 3rd seems awfully generous.

November 12: As usual we dominated the Silver Sluggers, winning at 1B (de Jesus), 2B (Hardaway), LF (Ayala), CF (Jenkins) and DH (Guerrero).

November 13: No surprise here:



Only his teammate Jimenez kept Ayala from winning unanimously (no that wasn't me).

November 15: The Texas/Tampa Bay strangehold on the Cy Young was broken today, but not completely as former Ray Christian Little won his 3rd Cy Young after an 18-5, 2.65 season for the Angels with 289 whiffs. Little won in 2028 and 2032 with the Rays, and amazingly is the first non-Ray or non-Ranger to win in 12 years when Lucas Giolito took home the award with the White Sox in 2022. In that span the Rays had 5 different winners (Glasnow, McClanahan, Matt Manning, Little, Aparicio) and Texas had 3 (Tarik Skubal, Wil Diaz, Victor Presas). Leo Ortega (who got my vote) finished 2nd with 6 first-place votes to Little's 23 and Diaz got the other one. Nate Schultz finished fourth and Nate Thompson eighth.

Over in the NL, the Lightning's Fabian Petrovich won as expected, unanimously after a 15-5, 2.34 year. The Dodgers' Justin Norwood was second.

November 16: Also not a surprise, but nice to see nonetheless:



Back-to-back MVPs for the best player in baseball. As you can see, several other Rays finished high in the voting with Victor de Jesus having the misfortune of playing at the same time as Hardaway or he'd have those back-to-back awards.

Controversy in the NL as Jasson Dominguez was the shock winner of the MVP over there, finishing tied in points with Kevin Crater but getting the nod due to 16 first-place votes vs Crater's 7. The controversy is that Dominguez, despite hitting 51 HR this year, batted only .242, his OBP was only .276 and while he's a Gold Glover, his 4.7 WAR paled in comparison to Crater's 6.5 and wasn't even in the top 7 in NL WAR. Dominguez's batting average was by far the lowest ever for an MVP, .025 lower than Marty Marion in 1944. This one makes no sense to me (I voted Crater and I don't even think I had J-Dom on my ballot).

BIG TRADE ALERT!!



Well I pulled the trigger on an Aparicio deal. It really made no sense not to, because he was gone at the end of 2035 and all we'd have is a draft pick to show for it. In return we get Hanna, one of the better young pitchers in the NL who put up excellent numbers despite pitching in Coors Field. See for yourself:



And he's under team control through 2037. He's in arbitration so he'll be costly by that final year but for this year he's signed to a $5.5M deal and will probably earn in the low teens next year assuming he keeps it up. Meanwhile it's going to be interesting how many homers Aparicio allows next year in Coors.

November 18: Atlanta's Danny Ceja, a former Ray, suffered a fractured eye socket after a poker game fight.

Pretty good free agent class, especially considering the extra year of control that was added a few years ago. A lot of familiar names:



The "wrecked" is why we never bothered trying to keep Widmar.

[Art Deco]

BIG TRADE INCOMING!!



The rationale behind this trade is that we've become way too lefty-heavy in our offense. The young players we've added to the lineup in the last year and upcoming this year are all lefty hitters who have somewhat pedestrian ratings against lefty pitching (Danny Ayala, Jon Jimenez, David Vasquez). Plus we have Buitrago essentially on our bench as a lefty and outside of Omar Rodriguez there's no righty bat to platoon with any of these guys. Thanks to Buitrago's talent and the fact he makes the minimum he was in high demand when we shopped him for a righty bat and boy did we get a righty bat. Titcombe is one of the premier power hitters in baseball as you can see:



He can play 1B or RF at a 50 rating so he's not going to hurt us when we play him in the field but he'll mostly DH, platooning with Vasquez and then filling in elsewhere. He's not going to play every day, but he should manage 400 ABs or so. We just need someone to mash lefties. And in the deal we get a cheap player back in Peters, who was ranked the #40 prospect before falling off the list as he went on the 40-man (I've noticed a few players do this). We're fairly well-stocked at 3B with Bo Angeac entrenched for a few more years and Jim Gebers at AA. But I couldn't pass up the value and I may flip him, especially after finding out afterwards he's kind of a malcontent (I never look at that stuff in the first place). Portillo made the deal work but he's considered a future bench player at best. The deal also worked because the Phillies appeared a bit cash-strapped; we got them to retain 10% of Titcombe's salary but we're taking on about $6M in the deal. Also we made this deal to make room on the 40-man:

December 1: Traded OF Marco Abrego to the San Francisco Giants for OF David Barrera.

Abrego was way down the totem pole for CFs in the system especially with the Daniel Malone acquisition so he was the easy choice to go from the 40-man as he would been waived if we had to. But I shopped him and got the modest return of Barrera, who has some pop but not much else, he'll more likely help Montgomery or Durham.

December 3: In the first big free agent signing of the winter Wander Franco inked a 5/138 deal with Seattle. He too is now "wrecked" so it will be interesting to see how much he'll stay in their lineup.

December 5: The White Sox made a big free agent splash by signing former Rays slugger Joe Barker to a 5/167.5 mega-deal. Barker hit 130 homers over the last 3 seasons for Washington after we dealt him, including 56 in 2033.

December 6: Since free agency began in the late 70s no team has signed more aging veterans than the Angels, and they did it again by signing Vlad Guerrero Jr. to a 3/97.5 deal, which is pretty reasonable in terms of length. Plus Vlad isn't really slowing down as he went .335-25-91 for us last year despite missing about a month. Thinking we'll be seeing him in the postseason.

December 7: JJ Bleday, once a Rays property, came to terms with the Dodgers on a 3/80.6 contract while Juan Soto tested the free agency waters and pulled his toe out, re-signing the only team's he's known, Washington, for 2 years at $37.5M per.

December 9: Veteran starter Jack Little, who survived his first big free agent contract which landed him 5 years in Coors Field, signed a nice 3/69 deal with the Cubs.

December 11: Every once in a while Oakland makes a free-agent splash and today they signed one of the better catchers in the league, Francisco Alvarez, to a massive 4/108.8 deal. Alvarez of course spent a half-season with the Rays in 2032, became a free agent and signed a 4/68.8 with San Diego which he opted out from this winter and that decision paid off.

December 12: Bobby Witt Jr. has come full circle by signing for the team he came up with, the Kansas City Royals, to a 4/90.2 pact. Caveat emptor of course as Witt is "wrecked".

December 13: Ricky Widmar has found a new home, inking a 5/141 deal with the Cubs, and again we'll see how many games he plays. We get a compensation draft pick after the 1st round for him.

December 20: Another former Ray is on the move as Toronto traded Dane Ayers to Pittsburgh. Ayers hit 20 HR last season in his first shot at full-time play, but unfortunately it was accompanied by a .189 batting average.

December 22: Added OF Jeff Hayes, P Vinny Willard and P Rayhmer Costa to the 40-man roster, traded P David Sanchez to the Texas Rangers for OF/P Jim Harrell.

I'm convinced we're going to get hosed in the Rule 5 draft, there are several good-looking prospects eligible of ours. Every year I usually worry and either nobody gets taken or it's someone taken I didn't expect, but this year I'm convinced it's different. Hayes had 43 HR and 111 RBI at Montgomery last year and was our #1 pick in 2031 so he gets kept, and Willard is considered a top 30 prospect. Costa is the guy I made room for with the Sanchez deal, I've mentioned his 80 control and 55/60 stuff before and his 25/30 movement. There's no spot for him on the big club right now but at some point I'd like to see what he can do in the majors. Sanchez of course was up briefly in 2032 and 2033 and he's a hard-throwing lefty reliever but he's replaceable. Harrell is interesting, he's eligible for Rule 5 but doesn't have to go on the 40-man, he has good power and the scouts like him as a RF prospect and he's also a decent relief pitcher.

December 23: Lost 3B Stan Melton to Atlanta in the Rule 5 Draft.

Should have known better, we had a guy taken I wasn't worrying about. Not that I'm pleased to see Melton go, and I remain skeptical he'll make the Braves and not be returned. But we have plenty of 3B in the system.

December 23: Kumar Rocker signed a 3/30.6 deal with Atlanta. You can probably tell from the muted numbers that Rocker isn't the ace he was before, his stuff has diminished to average and he's coming off a 5-15, 5.13 season with the Tigers.

December 26: 42-year-old Mookie Betts re-upped for 1 year with the Angels at $17.8M. He's showed no signs of slowing down except for the part where he missed most of last season with injuries. Speaking of injury-prone players, Victor Robles, who spent most of the last five years on the Yankees' IL, inked a one-year-deal for $11.2M with the Cubs where he and Ricky Widmar can have a race to be the first put on the IL.

December 28: A couple of all-star 2B signed big contracts today. Former Ray Connor Kirkley heads to the Pacific Northwest on a 4/72.8 deal with Seattle, while former Columbus standout Auggie Ziegler joins the Phillies for 5/57.3. One of the better starting pitchers on the market, former Red Sock and Angel Nelson Berkwich, went for 4/68.5 to Atlanta.

[Art Deco]

January 3: The Hall of Fame voting is in:



January 5: The White Sox signed former Rays reliever Jordan Diaz to a 1-year, $11.6M deal.

January 13: Jeremy Odle, late of the Diamondbacks and the best starter on the market, signed a 6/170 deal with the Rockies. Normally not a great place to sign as a free agent starter but Odle is a sinkerballer.

January 15: Francisco Lindor signed a 3/49.2 deal with Arizona, which is pretty optimistic on their part given Lindor is 41. Although he hit .229, he had 21 HR and played excellent D at 3B, so he earned 3.6 WAR last year. They're going to need him to keep that up, though.

Trade time!



Not thrilled about making Texas a little better, but they had the best offer for Jefferson. Why trade Jefferson? Two reasons, one bigger than the other. First reason is that Willie Bertone has to come off the 60-day IL as he's recovered now. Remember Bertone was the guy we traded Rodolfo Rivas for last winter then got hurt on opening day and missed the rest of the season. He should be our 7th-inning righty this year and down the line looks like he could be a quality starter. Anyway, I needed room on the 40-man for him and the second reason I traded Jefferson is that he's a free agent at year's end and I need his active roster spot as well as his 40-man spot for Bertone (I'll need another 40-man spot soon when Ron Adams comes off the 60-day IL as well). We got a couple of interesting players for him, with Nethercutt the most interesting. He was the Rangers' 2nd round pick in 2030 and is a legit two-way player. He looks like a decent lefty starter who'll probably go to Durham but he can play 1B and hit, too: he hit 291/360/544 with 9 HR in 158 AB in AAA and combined for 20 HR and 66 RBI at AAA and AA. Mederos was the Rangers' 3rd round pick last year and is a decent 2B prospect. Probably never going to see the light of day with us but he's an asset. Calderon was a "make it work" guy who's not highly rated by the scouts.

February 7: Big News! MLB has increased the active roster to 27 players from 26. September roster expansion will still be by 2 players, so the rosters then will be 29. Most teams will probably use an extra pitcher, I'm guessing. Also in free agent news starting pitcher Jose Delgadillo, once a Rays farmhand and a stalwart of the Cubs rotation the last several years, signed a 4/77.6 deal with Houston.

February 8: The Astros have also signed Rays legend Jose Alvarado to a 1-year, $6.8M deal. The 2035 schedule was just released and we'll be opening with 4 at home against Houston.

Yet another trade:

February 8: Traded 28-year old minor league RF Nate Boesel to the San Diego Padres, getting 24-year old minor league LHP Mike Thomas in return.

Needed to make room on the 40-man again, this time for Ron Adams, and Boesel frankly wasn't going to get a real shot with us and he ain't getting any younger. He deserves to play in the majors and if the Padres play him he'll hit 30 HR, 30-40 doubles and hit about .250, a very useful player. In return we got Thomas, who's actually a legit prospect. He was their first-round pick out of Michigan in 2032, and if he can get his control from its current 35 to its 50 potential, he could be a very good lefty starter.

February 14: Brief former Ray Alexander Beltre signed a 3/18.6 deal with Texas, where we traded him after the 2032 season for Jim Connors.

February 16: Old friend Jasseel De La Cruz was signed to a 1/8.5 deal by the Angels, while the Red Sox traded 38-year-old legend Gleyber Torres to the Tigers for 3 minor leaguers. Torres had a bounceback year with the Sox last season, going .270-40-108 and has 638 career HR.

February 17: After making the playoffs last year, Oakland continues to go for it by sending their 2033 1st-round pick, 3B Brendan George, and another prospect to the Rockies for 37-year-old and Ray-for-a-season-in-2028 Gavin Lux, still getting it done with a 3.8 WAR season last year.

February 25: To replace Gleyber Torres, the Red Sox signed veteran SS Amed Rosario to a 2/36.6 deal.

March 20: Spring Training was pretty uneventful, with the only injury of significance to Bo Angeac who has hamstring soreness and will miss Opening Day and maybe a couple more games. Chris Peters will start at 3B while Angeac is out.

[Art Deco]

No surprises on the OD roster, now with 27 players this year:

C-Quintana, McKee
1B-Jimenez
2B-Hardaway
SS-Baez
3B-Peters
IF-Gutierrez
OF-Ayala, Jenkins, de Jesus, O.Rodriguez, Titcombe
DH-D.Vasquez
SP-Schultz, Ortega, Hanna, Thompson, Soranno
LR-Adams, Kerstetter
MR-Hoyte, Medina, Sirna
SU-Bertone, Wherry, Siqueiros
CL-Kawase

IL-Angeac

Here are the preseason predictions, another good year is on tap:

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays looked dead and buried on Opening Day down 5-1 to Houston going into the bottom of the 8th. But a Danny Ayala 3-run homer in the inning and a two-run rally in the 9th gave the Rays an exciting 6-5 walk-off win at Publix Park to open the 2035 season. Nate Schultz got the start and had a couple of rough innings early, allowing 3 runs, but settled down to go 6 5 3 3 2 11. Danny Medina wasn't very good in the 7th, giving up a triple that led to 2 runs, but Billy Hoyte went the final 2 2/3 on an efficient 28 pitches and ended up with the win. That's because with one out Will Quintana singled, Jaiden Hardaway flew out, but pinch-runner Melvin Gutierrez stole second and scored on Dayle Jenkins' 2nd RBI single of the day to tie it, a bad pickoff throw allowed Jenkins to go to 2nd, and Victor de Jesus singled home Jenkins for the win. Here's the commemorative Opening Day boxscore:



Departed Rays News: Andy Aparicio made his Colorado debut today and he was brilliant, going 8 3 1 1 1 12, but ended up the losing pitcher as he allowed a leadoff single in the 9th which came around to score for Columbus in the bottom of the 9th and gave the Lightning a 1-0 win. We'll see AA next week as the Rockies come to town next. Among other departing Rays, Ricky Widmar homered in his Cubs debut but that was their only run in an 8-1 loss to Texas and Vlad Guerrero Jr. also went deep and drove in 3 although the Angels lost 7-5 to Oakland. And maybe Stan Melton will stick with the Braves after all, he got the OD start at 3B and hit a 2-run homer in the 8th to tie the game up for Atlanta as they went on to beat Philadelphia 4-2 in 10 innings. The Phillies were up 2-0 on a 2-run homer from - you guessed it - Alex Buitrago.

Game 2: No late dramatics necessary today as the Rays routed Houston 14-2. Chris Peters hit a bases-clearing triple in the 1st, Danny Ayala hit his 2nd homer in as many days, a 2-run shot in the 2nd as part of a 3-RBI day and Jon Jimenez had a 3-run homer in the 3rd (#1) to propel the Rays to a big early lead and they coasted from there. Victor de Jesus had a 4-hit, 2-RBI day and Dayle Jenkins had 3 hits and a pair of ribbies himself. Leo Ortega started and unusually for him ran a lot of deep counts, but went 5 7 2 2 1 4 to pick up the win. Impressive was Ron Adams, who came on and went 3 1 0 0 0 6 and will be a weapon out of the pen this year. Bob Sirna struck out the side in 9th to mop up. One big blow to the Rays, though - Daniel Vasquez, seeing his first action of the year, beat out an infield single in the 1st for an RBI but somehow on the play he broke a bone in his elbow and is done for the year, a shame for him after biding his time waiting for Vlad to play out his contract last year. This will pretty much make Eric Titcombe the full-time DH so it's not much of a setback for the team.

March 31: Placed 1B Daniel Vasquez on the 60-day IL with a broken elbow, activated 3B Bo Angeac from the 10-day IL.

Chris Peters gets to stay up for now as we don't need a 1B with Jon Jimenez, Victor de Jesus and Eric Titcombe all capable of playing the position. And since the latter two are outfielders as well, we don't need to call up an OF. Peters gives Angeac a legit backup at 3rd as Melvin Gutierrez was the only other one on the roster who plays it.

Game 3: Josh Hanna won his Rays debut and Danny Ayala homered again as Tampa Bay made it three straight wins to start the year, downing Houston 6-1. The lefty acquired from Colorado was in command most of the way, finishing 6.1 4 1 1 4 6. Mike Wherry went 1 1/3 and Tim Siqueiros whiffed 3 over the final 1 1/3 to finish it out. Ayala remains on pace for 162 homers after hitting his 3rd in 3 games, a 3-run shot in the 1st off Jose Delgadillo. Jon Jimenez hit his 2nd later in the inning to give the Rays a quick 4-0 lead and doubled in another in the 3rd. Dayle Jenkins had an RBI single a part of a 3-hit day and is 8-14 to start the season while Jaiden Hardaway got his first 3 hits of the season today.

Game 4: The Rays only managed 5 hits today, but that was four more than Houston as Nate Thompson and 3 relievers combined on a one-hit shutout in a 2-0 Tampa Bay win to start the year 4-0. Thompson was dominating, going 5 1 0 0 3 9 on 97 pitches for the win and Kevin Kerstetter went 2 innings with 3 whiffs. Tim Siqueiros gave us a scare in the 8th by walking the first two men but then struck out the next three to get through the 8th and Kikuo Kawase whiffed a pair around a Bo Angeac error to end the game and get his first save of the year as Rays pitching combined for 6 walks and 17 strikeouts. The bats didn't do much but they did strike two big blows in the 3rd on solo homers from Jaiden Hardaway and Victor de Jesus, the first of the year for each and all the offense they'd need.

Team record: 4-0. Next up: Colorado and Andy Aparicio come to town for 3 as I believe this is the Rockies' first trip to Publix Park as we've played them at Coors the last couple of times.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays mounted an exciting comeback win over the Rockies 7-6 at Publix Park tonight on Jon Jimenez's 2-run homer in the bottom of the 7th, his 3rd of the young season. But the win was overshadowed by the fact Jon Soranno came out of the game after 2 innings holding his elbow, and an MRI confirmed the worst: he's done for the year with a torn elbow ligament. The Rays have played only 5 games this season but have already lost two regulars for the year with Soranno being a much bigger blow. Ron Adams is the likely choice to take his place in the rotation and he came on in the 3rd, but unlike his brilliant first relief outing this one wasn't so good as he allowed all 6 Colorado runs in 2 1/3 innings although Danny Medina allowed two of his runners to score. Medina ended up with the win with 2 2/3 scoreless, Willie Bertone, who himself missed the rest of 2034 after his first appearance last season, pitched the 8th and Kikuo Kawase got away with giving up a 2-out triple for save #2. Earlier Bo Angeac hit his first homer of the year, a 2-run shot which put the Rays up 4-0 and Dayle Jenkins continued his hot start to the season going 2-4 with an RBI.

April 3: Placed P Jon Soranno on the 60-day IL with a stretched elbow ligament, recalled P Raymher Costa from AAA Durham.

With Ron Adams getting a shot at the rotation, I've decided to call up Costa and see what he can do in long relief with his 70 stuff, 80 control and 25 movement. Expect some solo homers and not much else, I guess as last year with Durham he had an 11/120 BB/K ratio in 107 innings as a swingman (with only 8 homers allowed surprisingly). And good on him to make the majors after being a 35th-round pick in the 2029 draft.

Game 2: The Rays made it six straight wins to start the season with a comfortable 7-2 win over Colorado and Andy Aparicio. The Rays' ace of the last five years before his trade to the Rockies last winter, Aparicio started off impressively by retiring the first 5 Rays with 3 on strikeouts. But then he suddenly couldn't get anyone out. A pair of singles and a wild pitch brought a run home, Jeff Baez and Will Quintana singled in runs, and Jaiden Hardway capped the 5-run inning with a 2-run homer, his 2nd. And another man of his was on in the 4th before he left, and Quintana brought him home with a 2-run homer for his first of the year. Meanwhile Nate Schultz looked to cement his status as the Rays' new ace and went to 2-0 with a 6.2 4 1 1 2 4 performance. With the big lead, Raymher Costa came on for his MLB debut and was electric, striking out the first four Rockies he faced. He did allow a 1-out triple in the 9th and the runner scored on a groundout but Costa finished out the game.

Game 3: They weren't going to go 162-0 and now they definitely won't after losing 5-2 to Colorado today. They were done in by a couple of vets, on the pitching side Jeremy Odle went 6 5 1 1 2 6 for the win and on the offensive side Cody Bellinger had the game's biggest hit, a 3-run homer to cap a 4-run 5th against Leo Ortega, turning a 1-0 Rays lead into a 4-1 deficit. The homer was the 642nd of Bellinger's illustrious career and it made Ortega a loser as he finished 5 6 4 4 1 5 to drop to 1-1. For the Rays a few regulars like Victor de Jesus and Jeff Baez rested, which didn't help but wasn't the main reason they lost. Jon Jimenez continued his ridiculous start to the season with his 4th HR in 5 games (he sat Opening Day against a lefty) which gave the Rays that early lead and their other run came in the 8th when Dayle Jenkins tripled and Bo Angeac singled him home. Bob Sirna went 2 innings with 4 whiffs but gave up a run in relief of Ortega and Kevin Kerstetter pitched 2 perfect innings with 3 Ks.

Team record: 6-1. An off-day then we head west to visit San Francisco for the first time in many years for a 3-game weekend set. Marco Abrego, whom we dealt to them to make room on the 40-man over the winter, has won the CF job for the Giants.

[Art Deco]

April 6: Claimed P Dusty Cross on waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays, optioned him to AAA Durham.

Now that we have a couple of 40-man roster spots open from Vasquez and Soranno going down for the year we decided to take a chance on Cross, whom our head scout Rob Metzler says has "frontline starter potential" despite being 1.5 rated as a starter with 2.5 potential. I wouldn't go that far but he looks like he might be a useful arm and he had options so we'll try him out at Durham.

Game 1: It took the Rays until their 18th hit of the day, but they finally secured a 5-4 win over the Giants in 11 innings at Oracle Park. They left 16 men on as a team, hit into 3 double plays and were generally unable to come up with the big hit until Dayle Jenkins singled home Eric Titcombe with 2 out in the top of the 11th. We were in extras because Kikuo Kawase blew a 2-run lead in the 9th, giving up a walk, a hit and then a 2-run double to a righty(!). Josh Hanna started and was a bit wild, going 6 4 2 2 4 4 (both his starts this year have featured 4 walks) but should have had the win. Willie Bertone and Tim Siqueiros looked great in the 7th and 8th before Kawase imploded. Mike Wherry went 1 2/3 in relief of Kawase for the win and Billy Hoyte had a 1-2-3 11th for his first save. Earlier Bo Angeac had their only two hits with RISP, an RBI single in the 1st and a 2-run single in the 3rd, and Will Quintana hit his 2nd HR of the year with the bases empty in the 4th.

Game 2: The Rays took another one-run victory at Oracle Park, edging the Giants 4-3 behind the strong pitching of Nate Thompson. Danny Ayala's 4th homer of the year, off former Rays farmhand Daniel Olarte (part of the Jaiden Hardaway deal) broke a 3-3 deadlock in the 8th and made a winner of Thompson, who went to 2-0 with an 8 5 3 3 1 6 outing. Had he had a larger lead he might have gone for the complete game as he was only on 88 pitches through 8 but Tim Siqueiros came on for the 9th and pitched around an infield single for his 1st save of the year. The first three Rays runs came courtesy of Victor de Jesus; he hit HR #2 with a man on in the 1st and then singled in a run in the 3rd.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of San Francisco with a 7-2 win behind an up-and-down first start of the year for Ron Adams and the hot bat of Omar Rodriguez. Adams was overpowering at times but it also seemed like every time the Giants put the ball in play it went for a hit as he finished 6 10 2 2 1 9. His ability to get whiffs limited the damage as well as a defense that helped him at times (2 men thrown out at the plate) and hurt him (a misplayed popup for a hit). He picked up the win and was also helped by some fine bullpen work as Mike Wherry struck out the side in the 7th and Willie Bertone whiffed two in the 8th. After the Rays expanded the lead from 4-2 to 7-2 in the 9th, Bertone stayed on to try and finish for the save but loaded the bases with two out, necessitating Kikuo Kawase to come in and fan the first man he faced to end the game and pick up save #3. Rodriguez was the offense early, driving in 3 runs on a pair of RBI singles and his first homer of the year in the 6th. Danny Ayala had an RBI double in the 4th and Jon Jimenez's 2-run single in the 9th helped break it open.

Team record: 9-1. Next up: The road trip continues as we had back east with a stop in Chicago for 3 with the White Sox.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays got some late thunder to rally in the 9th and beat Chicago 4-2 at Guaranteed Rate Field or whatever they're calling it in 2035. Trailing 2-1 going into the top of the 9th with only Bo Angeac's 2nd HR of the year in the 4th to show for the day, the Rays got an Eric Titcombe HBP and pinch-runner Melvin Gutierrez stole second. Perhaps this rattled Chicago's Mike Vasil as he then served up a no-doubter 2-run HR to Jon Jimenez to right to give the Rays the lead. And Jeff Baez went back-to-back with Jimenez for his 1st of the year to give them a cushion. Jimenez is off to an unbelievable start, hitting 444/487/889 with 5 HR and 12 RBI in 36 AB. The rally kept Nate Schultz from being a hard-luck loser as he went 6 5 2 2 1 6 on the mound he used to call his own. Danny Medina picked up his 2nd win with a pair of scoreless innings and Kikuo Kawase had a 1-2-3 9th with two Ks for save #4.

Game 2: Once again the Rays took a win over the White Sox with 2 homers in their final at-bat, holding on to beat Chicago 6-5 in 10 innings. It was a 3-3 game after 9 and the White Sox brought on former Rays reliever Jordan Diaz who was treated rudely by his former teammates, most of whom couldn't stand him when he was with the team. Jaiden Hardaway led off the inning with a single, stole second and one out later scored on Victor de Jesus' 3rd HR of the season. Danny Ayala then hit #5 to go back-to-back and give the Rays a 3-run lead. Raymher Costa had pitched the 9th successfully and with Kikuo Kawase tired I could have gone to Tim Siqueiros, but I remain endlessly fascinated by Costa and sure enough his penchant for homers took over as he gave up a pair of solo shots, including one to former Ray Joe Barker. I finally and reluctantly brought in Siqueiros and he got the final two outs for save #2 while Costa did record his first MLB win. Earlier the Rays had built a 3-1 lead on a 3-run shot from Omar Rodriguez (#2) and great pitching from Leo Ortega, who went 7 6 1 1 0 4. But Willie Bertone coughed up a couple of runs in the 8th to allow Chicago to tie before the Rays came back again.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Chicago to get off to a franchise-best 12-1 start with a 7-1 win today. Josh Hanna got the win but it was a struggle as it took him 112 pitches to get through 5 innings although he didn't allow a run. He went 5 3 0 0 5 6 and he's been effective (now 2-0) but wild (13 walks in 17.1 innings) so far as a Ray. Raymher Costa went two innings and allowed a run while Danny Medina pitched 2 scoreless to finish. Jeff Baez and Jon Jimenez were the stars on offense with each hitting a homer (#2 for Baez, #6 for Jimenez, who can't stop hitting them) and Baez tripling while Jimenez doubled and drove in 3 in total.

Team record: 12-1. Next up: An off-day then the road trip continues in Toronto for the weekend. The Jays just signed veteran free-agent 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes, who's still a Gold Glove-caliber fielder.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Jon Jimenez continues to lay waste to MLB pitching and his 2 homers today were among 7 hit by the Rays in a 14-5 rout of the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The second-year first-sacker drove in 5 on the day and now has 8 homers, 3 more than anyone in the AL and 2 more than anyone in MLB. Also homering: Jaiden Hardaway (#3), Jeff Baez (#3), Mike McKee (#1), Omar Rodriguez (#3), and Bo Angeac (#3). Rodriguez added a sac fly for a 4-RBI day. All nine starters had at least one hit and they provided plenty of support for Nate Thompson, who finished 6 5 4 4 2 4 with his final line marred by 2 runs allowed with nobody out in the 7th before leaving. Bob Sirna went the final 3 for the save, his first of the year while Thompson improves to 3-0, 3.32.

Game 2: The Rays tasted defeat for only the second time this season as they fell 5-3 to Toronto. Ron Adams had a rough second start, going 5.1 8 5 5 1 2, and the bats could have used some of the extra runs they scored yesterday. They did get solo homers from Danny Ayala (#6), a majestic 453-ft shot to dead center, and at long last Eric Titcombe, his first Rays round-tripper after having been a perennial 40-homer guy for Philadelphia. Danny Medina went 1 2/3 scoreless innings and Billy Hoyte added one of his own in relief.

Game 3: After yesterday's aberration the Rays are back in the win column with a 9-2 thrashing of Toronto. Eric Titcombe, whose Rays career got off to an extremely slow start before homering yesterday, blasted a pair of homers and drove in five as apparently yesterday's breakthrough opened the floodgates for him. His first put the Rays ahead to stay 2-1 in the 4th and a 4-run 5th blew it open with 2-run homers from Dayle Jenkins (#1) and Danny Ayala (#7). Meanwhile on the mound Nate Schultz was masterful, going 8 5 1 1 0 4 on 89 pitches and had the game been a little closer he might have finished it. Instead we got Mike Wherry some work and he gave up a leadoff triple which scored in the 9th. Schultz is now 2-0, 2.36.

Team record: 14-2. Next up: An off-day then back home against Baltimore for 3.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays took care of the Orioles 4-2 in the first game back at Publix Park after a long road trip. Leo Ortega was excellent, going 7 5 2 2 0 7 to improve to 2-1, 3.38 and the usual 8th/9th combo of Tim Siqueiros and Kikuo Kawase got the job done with Kawase striking out the side in the 9th for save #5. The offense was primarily the result of Baltimore's Zack Farese walking the bases loaded in the 1st, then walking Bo Angeac to force in a run and giving up a 2-run single to Omar Rodriguez. Victor de Jesus added HR #4 in the 3rd before the bats took the rest of the night off, something Ortega & Co. allowed them to do.

Game 2: Bo Angeac's dramatic 2-run, 2-out walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th (#4) gave Rays a 6-5 win over Baltimore to improve their franchise-best start to 16-2. Dayle Jenkins had walked to lead off the inning but looked to be stranded when the next two batters were retired before Angeac hit one just over the fence in RCF. Prior to that the Rays had fallen into a 5-3 hole when Josh Hanna continued struggling with his control. He was brilliant through 4, whiffing 7 and allowing only one hit and 2 walks, but he gave up a single and then walked the next two to load the bases for Brady House, who took him deep for a grand slam. By this point Hanna was at 100 pitches so Raymher Costa came on and immediately served up a homer to Mike Harms. Costa got the next 7 outs without incident while Willie Bertone took care of the 8th and Mike Wherry notched win #2 by pitching a 1-2-3 2K 9th. Hanna, meanwhile, has now walked 17 in 22 innings over 4 starts, 7.0/9 while he averaged 3.3/9 the previous two seasons, so hopefully this is a blip. Danny Ayala drove in 3 of the first 4 Rays runs, 2 on a homer (#8) and one on a bases-loaded walk, while a rare Will Quintana triple brought the other one home.

Game 3: Unlike yesterday the Rays couldn't outscore their pitching problems and fell 9-6 to Baltimore for only their third loss of the season. Nate Thompson was rolling through 3 2/3 and suddenly loaded the bases and gave up a double to clear them, then coughed up a homer in the 5th, put two more on who scored, and finished with an ugly 4 7 6 6 1 4 line as he tasted defeat for the first time this season. Kevin Kerstetter wasn't much better, wild-pitching one of Thompson's runners home then later giving up a 3-run homer himself. Only Bob Sirna with 2 1/3 scoreless could hold his head high today on the Rays' staff. The offense tried their best to keep up with a couple of slightly more unlikely guys the hitting stars: Jeff Baez was 4-5 with 2 doubles and an RBI and Mike McKee was 2-5 with a 2-run double and an RBI single. Dayle Jenkins was 3-5 with an RBI as well but several of the bigger names (Hardaway, de Jesus, Angeac, Jimenez) wore the collar today.

Team record: 16-3. Next up: 3 at home vs Boston.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: In the space of two games the Rays have doubled their 2035 loss total as they were shut out 5-0 by Sean Nelson and the Red Sox. Nelson didn't exactly pitch a gem as the Rays had 13 baserunners (9 hits/4 walks) against him in 6 2/3 innings but either made outs on the basepaths (4 of them) hit into double plays, or just generally didn't sequence things right. Sequencing wasn't a problem for Boston against Ron Adams as they had a string of hits against him in the 4th for 3 runs and added two more in the 5th. Adams boasts an impressive 4/26 BB/K ratio through 21 innings after walking 0 and whiffing 6 today but has given up a whopping 33 hits including 4 homers and now sports a 7.29 ERA thanks in part to a .446 BABIP. Raymher Costa came in and was impressive, retiring all 7 batters he faced with 5 whiffs, but left with a dead arm as I've broken my new toy. It's a one-week injury so he'll go on the IL.

April 21: Placed P Raymher Costa on the 10-day IL with a dead arm, recalled P Eric Riley from AAA Durham.

Riley impressed last September for us, and looked good in his first couple of appearances for Durham, whose season is only about 8 games old.

Game 2: The team which couldn't stop winning has become the team that can't stop losing as they dropped their second straight game to Boston and third straight overall 7-6 in a scoreline which flattered them, or at least flattered the pitching staff. That's because Boston batters torched Rays pitchers for 17 hits and 8 walks and they should have scored in double digits but all three of the Rays outfielders threw out a runner each at the plate to keep it close. Nate Schultz took the brunt of it, going 4.2 10 5 5 3 2 but Billy Hoyte and Willie Bertone both looked terrible and were lucky to only allow a run each. Hoyte took the loss as the Rays came back to actually take a 5-4 lead in the 4th before Schultz allowed the equalizer in the 5th and Hoyte's run allowed in the 7th put the Sox ahead to stay. On offense they got homers from the two guys they acquired from Philly for Alex Buitrago as Chris Peters (#1) and Eric Titcombe (#4) went deep. Jaiden Hardaway drove in a pair as well. The reason Peters was playing was because Bo Angeac strained his hamstring on a double he hit in the 2nd. It's a day-to-day type injury for 2 1/2 weeks so we won't run the risk of aggravating it and he'll be sent to the IL.

April 22: Placed 3B Bo Angeac on the 10-day IL with a strained hamstring, recalled 2B Robbie Salazar from AAA Durham.

The infield choices on the 40-man were Salazar and 3B Jim Gebers. Gebers isn't quite as advanced as Salazar, and Salazar has already been up.

Game 3: For the first time I can remember since they moved into Publix Park in 2030, the Rays were swept as Boston took a 5-1 win. And quite often by now, even 20-25 games into the season, the Rays are typically well ahead in the division but the Red Sox are now only 2 games back of the Rays at 14-8. Today the offense was the primary culprit, getting only 3 hits through the first 8 innings and not scoring until Danny Ayala led off the 9th with his 9th HR of the year to avoid being shut out. For a change they got an excellent start as Leo Ortega went 6 4 2 2 0 7. Mike Wherry followed that up with 2 scoreless innings but Danny Medina wasn't good in the 9th, allowing 3 runs to put the game out of reach for his teammates.

Team record: 16-6. Next up: Kansas City visits for 3 games.