The 2021 (and only 2021) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow continued to work his magic as the Rays eked past the Alamos 2-1 at Tropicana Field. The power righty went 6 6 1 1 2 7 to improve to 9-1, 2.05 and if there were such a thing as a 2nd half Cy Young, he'd be the frontrunner for it. The troika did its thing in the 7th, 8th and 9th with Ken Giles getting save #36 with a perfect 2K 9th. The bats only managed 3 hits on the day but made them count. Both runs and all 3 hits came in the 2nd on a Christian Vazquez HR (#13) and Manuel Margot's RBI triple after Jarren Duran had singled.

Game 2: It took 16 innings but the Rays got the better of San Antonio again, winning it 4-3 on Jarren Duran's one-out walk-off homer (#6), his third hit of the game. Wander Franco had tied it up in the 7th with an RBI single after the Rays had scored twice in the 1st on a Ji-Man Choi bases-loaded walk and a wild pitch. Joe Ryan started and went 5 7 3 3 1 9, leaving behind 3-2. The Rays' 8th pitcher of the day Josh Fleming picked up the win after pitching the 16th, with Aaron Fletcher the most notable of the bunch with 3 scoreless innings.

Game 3: The Rays walked it off again against San Antonio 6-5, with Christian Vazquez singling in Wander Franco in the bottom of the 9th after Franco had reached with his 4th hit of the game. It looked like the Rays might actually taste defeat trailing 5-2 in the 7th but a 3-run rally got them level after Austin Meadows singled in Franco and Khris Davis blasted a 2-run homer (#8). This was after Matt Peacock's late-season struggles continued as he went 6 7 5 5 2 5. But with a depleted bullpen Josh Fleming went 2 2/3 and Rafael Dolis got him out of a jam in the top of the 9th when with two on and two out, Dolis fanned Phillip Evans and picked up his 5th win in the process.

Team record: 107-43. Next up: Detroit visits for 3 games.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: This was a 2-1 game before it got away from the Rays in the 7th when Colin Poche gave up four runs and Detroit went on to an 8-2 win over Tampa Bay. Luis Patino gave them a good start (6 4 2 2 1 6) but the bats were largely silent with a 5th-inning Willy Adames solo shot (#11) the lone highlight.

Game 2: The Rays bounced back from an infrequent loss with a formulaic 5-2 win over Detroit. Down 2-1, they rallied for 3 in the 6th on a 2-run Randy Arozarena homer (#24) and a Willy Adames RBI single. Willy homered for the second straight day earlier (#12) and Ji-Man Choi added a solo shot (#12). Yonny Chirinos continued his excellent run with a 6 6 2 2 1 5 performance to go to 17-5, 3.36 and the Castillo-Anderson-Giles triumvirate took care of things from there with Giles registering save #37.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow continued his recent run of utter dominance before giving us all a scare in the 7th as the Rays blanked Detroit 5-0. Glasnow was 6.2 1 0 0 4 11 but left grabbing his shoulder after getting the second out in the 7th. It turned out to be mild shoulder inflammation which should set him back a week but with only 9 games left in the season we'll shut him down until the playoffs. He ends his brilliant half-season with a 10-1, 1.92 record with 141 whiffs in 98.2 innings. Rafael Dolis and Devin Williams completed the shutout. On offense Vidal Brujan was 2-3 with a double and an RBI while Brandon Lowe launched HR #33 with the bases empty.

Team record: 109-44. Next up: 3 games in Toronto, where the Blue Jays are locked in a tooth-and-nail battle with Minnesota for the 2nd wild card spot. A week ago the Jays were up 5 games on the Twins but they suffered three straight walk-off losses to the Yankees while Minnesota got hot and cut the deficit to 1 game. Also Kansas City can't be written off as they're within 2 of the Jays. The only other race still going in MLB is for the NL East where Atlanta has pulled within one of the Mets. Both teams are assured of at least a wild card though.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Joe Ryan pitched his best game as a big leaguer and the Rays dealt a blow to Toronto's playoff hopes with a 2-0 win at Rogers Centre. Ryan was in charge throughout, going 7 4 0 0 1 9, improving to 7-5, 3.28 and probably nailing down a spot in the team's playoff rotation. Nick Anderson picked up save #10 by striking out the side in the 9th. Vidal Brujan's RBI double in the 6th and Willy Adames' RBI single in the 8th were all the runs they needed.

Game 2: Brett Honeywell Jr. made his MLB debut with a start today in Toronto and came away a winner as the Rays edged the Jays 5-4. The rookie righty, who has battled arm problems and numerous surgeries over the last 5 years or so, had a rough baptism in the 1st allowing a 3-run homer to Teoscar Hernandez. But he settled in from there while his teammates came back, and he got the win going 6.1 8 3 3 1 2. They scored 3 in the 5th to equalize behind RBI doubles from Jarren Duran and Wander Franco, and Austin Meadows gave them the lead to stay in the 7th with HR #19. A run scored on an error made it 5-3 and that was important as Nick Anderson surrendered a Vlad Guerrero Jr longball in the 8th before Ken Giles came in for save #38 in the 9th.

Game 3: With their playoff hopes beginning to hang by a thread, Toronto salvaged a game from his series with a walk-off homer from Vlad Guerrero Jr. leading off the 9th against Rafael Dolis as they beat the Rays 3-2. Matt Peacock had a solid start, going 5.2 4 2 2 2 7 and Devin Williams got him out of a jam in the 6th but the bats were limited to 2 runs and 5 hits. Both runs came in the 2nd on a Christian Vazquez sac fly and Taylor Walls' RBI single.

Team record: 111-45. Next up: Our final regular season home series as Oakland comes to town for 3.

Playoff race update: With the Jays losing 2 of 3, the AL Wild Card race is just that: wild. The Jays, Minnesota and Kansas City are in a 3-way tie for the second wild card spot. KC is favored with their remaining games against San Antonio and Detroit while Toronto has to play Houston and Baltimore with Minnesota facing Boston and San Antonio. The only other race is in the NL where the Mets lead Atlanta by a game for the NL East, with both already assured of a wild card.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was "Sean Day" at Tropicana Field as Sean Manaea shut the bats down and Sean Murphy homered twice to give Oakland a 3-1 win. Luis Patino started and was pretty good at 6 4 2 2 3 8 but a 2-run Murphy homer erased an early 1-0 Rays lead on an Austin Meadows groundout. Murphy then homered off the struggling Rafael Dolis in the 7th.

Playoff race update: Toronto continued its free-fall with another loss as Kyle Tucker homered 3 times in a Houston win while Minnesota and KC stayed tied one game ahead for the second WC spot. The Mets won while Atlanta lost so they now have a 2-game lead in the NL East with 5 games left.

Game 2: Oakland routed the Rays 8-2 today. It was a 3-1 game going into the 7th and I left Yonny Chirinos in too long as he gave up a pair of 2-run homers in the inning and finished 6 11 7 7 0 3. Not much offense again today with a Christian Vazquez RBI single and Brandon Lowe's 34th HR of the year accounting for the two runs. Despite the loss, a Dodgers loss later in the day assured the Rays would finish with MLB's best record.

Playoff race update: Things have gotten so bad for the Blue Jays that they were no-hit today by Houston's Francis Martes. Martes walked 4 and whiffed 5 in the 119-pitch no-no. And Minnesota and Kansas City both won to stay tied for the 2nd wild card spot while Toronto is all but dead at 2 back with 4 games left. Meanwhile the Mets won, Atlanta lost, and New York is now 3 up so I won't even bother updating that one unless things radically change.

Game 3: Joe Ryan! The rookie righty pitched the game of his life, a 2-hit shutout in which he walked none and fanned 10 for a Game Score of 93 as the Rays took a 4-0 decision. He nearly pulled off a Maddux as he finished with 101 pitches and might have had Brandon Lowe not booted a grounder in the 9th. That error and a leadoff single put men on 1st and 2nd to start the inning but Ryan finished with a flourish, whiffing the next 3 A's to complete the shutout. It's the first CG and shutout of Ryan's career and he finishes 8-5, 2.99 with an impressive 19/121 BB/K ratio in 102 innings. Michael Fulmer was matching Ryan 0 for 0 until the 6th, when Austin Meadows unloaded a 3-run shot (#20) and Manuel Margot added a sac fly.

Team record: 112-47. Next up: we close out the regular season with 3 in Cleveland after an off-day.

AL Wild Card update: Minnesota and KC each won to remain tied for the second slot. Toronto won as well to stay 2 back but really a case of too little, too late for them.

[Art Deco]

Breaking from my one-series-a-day routine to get the regular season over with.

Game 1: In a bit of an upset, Brett Honeywell Jr. outdueled former (and perhaps future) Cy Young winner Justin Bieber today in a 7-3 Rays win. Honeywell was an impressive 6 5 2 2 0 5 and moved to 2-0 in his second MLB start with Nick Anderson notching save #11. Vidal Brujan was the hitting star, going 3-4 with 3 RBI including one in the 6th to break a 2-2 tie. Wander Franco also doubled twice and drove in 3, and he now has 58 doubles on the season which is tied for the 10th-most in a single season in MLB history (he's tied with 2019 Nick Castellanos).

AL Wild Card race update: Advantage Minnesota as the Twins beat San Antonio while Kansas City lost to Detroit. The Twins now only need a combo of 2 of their own wins or Royals losses to clinch. Toronto was shut out in Baltimore and is now officially eliminated.

We also had a combined no-hitter as Kumar Rocker and 2 Texas relievers silenced Boston. Rocker (5 IP), Hyun-jong Yang (2.1) and Jose Leclerc (1.2) walked 5 and whiffed 6 in total.

Game 2: Wander Franco continued to make history as his 2-run double, his 59th of the season, broke a 3-3 tie in the 8th and led the Rays to a 6-4 win over Cleveland. Franco also singled in a run in the 9th. Here's where he stands on the all-time single-season doubles list:



Taylor Walls brought home the first 3 Tampa Bay runs with a homer (#3) while Josh Fleming picked up the win in relief of Matt Peacock, who struggled mightily at 4.2 8 3 3 5 2. Ken Giles notched save #39 despite allowing a Jose Ramirez homer.

AL Wild Card update: Minnesota is almost there after a 4-1 win over San Antonio, while Kansas City won to stay alive, a game back. Only a Twins loss and a Royals win will force a tiebreaker now.

Joe Ryan getting his due:



Game 3: The Rays concluded the regular season with a sweep of Cleveland to give them a remarkable 115 wins. Today's 8-5 triumph came largely from the bats of Jarren Duran, Randy Arozarena and Taylor Walls. Duran was 4-5 with 4 RBI, Arozarena was 3-4 with a HR (#25) and 3 RBI, and Walls was 2-3 with a double, a walk, 2 runs scored and an RBI. Luis Patino got his 5th win despite a shaky 5 7 4 4 2 5 outing thanks to Arozarena's go-ahead 2-run HR in the 6th and Nick Anderson struck out the side in the 9th for save #12, capping a brilliant season which saw him fan 114 in 63.2 innings with only 13 walks and good for 2.8 WAR, a whopping total for a reliever.

Final Regular Season Record: 115-47. Next up: the ALDS against the wild card winner.

AL Wild Card Race: And the Rays will face either Houston or Minnesota, as the Twins secured the second wild card with a win over San Antonio, which was needed because Kansas City beat Detroit.

[Art Deco]

The playoff tree:



Rays team stats:



Impressive run prevention both in terms of pitching and defense, while the offense was good, albeit not great. We outplayed our Pythagorean record by a whopping 10 games, thanks in large part to a great bullpen as we were 33-15 in 1-run games. I'm certain a good deal of luck was involved, but there's nothing wrong with even a 105-win team.

Hitting stats:



What a season for Wander Franco in his first full year, living up to billing even if he didn't have massive power numbers. I'm expecting some of those doubles to become homers next season but he can keep doing what he did this year every year. Jarren Duran was an inspired acquisition as he played a 4-WAR pace over a full season. There were some disappointments. Brandon Lowe took a step back from his MVP season of last year but was still very good, but the real problem was the black hole at 1B where Ji-Man Choi and Oscar Colas were pretty awful. They each had a disappointing .671 OPS and I could be looking at either acquiring a first-sacker in the offseason or perhaps moving Austin Meadows there and bringing up one of our OF prospects (Josh Lowe, Hunter Bishop, Heliot Ramos). Also Joey Bart had almost as much WAR in about 1/3 of the playing time that Christian Vazquez got as the veteran catcher was great for the staff (he's 80-rated) but he seemed to have left his bat in Boston.

Pitching stats:



Not much to complain about here, other than the injury that robbed us of Brendan McKay. The playoff rotation will be Glasnow-Peacock-Chirinos-Ryan. I'm hopeful that Peacock arrests his late-season swoon while Ryan continues his late-season run.

[Art Deco]

We knew we'd be getting a playoff rematch with one of these teams...



...and it turns out it will be the Twins, who unceremoniously dumped us out of last year's playoffs in a sweep. Unfinished business and all that.

[Art Deco]

In one of the more exciting wild card games of recent years, the Padres took a back-and-forth tussle from Atlanta to advance to the NLDS to take on Southern California rivals L.A.

[Art Deco]

Here we go again...



The Rays find themselves behind again in an ALDS after losing 5-4 to Minnesota in the series opener at Tropicana Field. Tyler Glasnow's late season injury apparently robbed him of the Cy Young form he was flashing this year as he was hit hard by the Twins. Nick Gordon led the game off with a homer of him which set the tone for the rest of his appearance. Devin Williams and Aaron Fletcher did a great job of holding Minnesota at 5, and that enabled the Rays to get back into it with a 4-run rally in the 7th. But another rally in the 9th fell short as Wander Franco was stranded after a 2-out single (his 4th hit of the game). Now the Rays face pretty much a must-win game with Matt Peacock taking the hill tomorrow.

In the other ALDS:



Mike Trout did his part but Angels pitching didn't as what looked like a great pitching matchup between Lucas Giolito and James Paxton turned into anything but, and LA blew an early 4-0 lead to allow the White Sox to get a leg up in the series.

[Art Deco]

Finally...



The Rays won their first playoff game in this save and evened up their ALDS with Minnesota thanks to a 5-1 win. Just as Tyler Glasnow didn't carry over his great second half to Game 1, Matt Peacock didn't carry over his mediocre first half to Game 2 and pitched a great game, going deep into the 7th. Peacock's heroics were necessary because after scoring 3 quick runs off Jameson Tallion in the first, the offense went dormant until the 7th when Wander Franco (now 7 for 9 in these playoffs) singled in a huge insurance run and Randy Arozarena blasted one out to make it 5-1. Diego Castillo got a big whiff after Peacock walked Josh Donaldson with two out in the 7th before leaving, and Nick Anderson and Ken Giles did their thing in the 8th and 9th. One injury note: Austin Meadows had to leave the game early due to wrist soreness. It's listed as "moderate" and normally he'd go on the IL, but it's playoff time so we're going to try and play him through it as we now go to Minnesota even with Yonny Chirinos on the bump.

In the other DS games:



The Angels evened up their series as well behind Shohei Ohtani, while the Brewers and Dodgers took their series openers, Milwaukee more convincingly.

[Art Deco]

The Dodgers are one win away from another NLCS while the Mets' title defense got on track with a win to even their series with Milwaukee thanks to an 8-run 2nd and a fine game from Thor.

[Art Deco]

Backs to the wall...



Ugh. What a heartbreaker as the Rays lost the lead twice and then lost the game in the 10th to fall behind 2-1 in the best-of-5 series. As the game recap headline above notes, Mitch Garver really killed the Rays today, homering off Nick Anderson in the 8th to tie the game at 5 and then doubling in the 10th before scoring on Nick Gordon's double off Ken Giles. The homer came after the Rays mounted a big 3-run rally off Twins closer Taylor Rogers to erase a 4-2 deficit and take a 5-4 lead on Randy Arozarena's clutch two-out single. The game featured a one-hour rain delay in the 5th which led to Yonny Chirinos being removed, and Ryan Yarbrough was not very good in middle relief. The Rays were also a bit done in by their failure to score more runs early in the game when they had Lance McCullers Jr. on the ropes and they left 13 on base. So now it's up to rookie Joe Ryan to save the season tomorrow in Game 4. No pressure, kid.

In the other ALDS:



The Angels like the Twins are one game away from the ALCS after a great game from Andrew Heaney and another Mike Trout homer.

[Art Deco]

Stayin' alive...



Joe Ryan pitched his heart out and the Rays scored twice in the 7th to break a 2-2 tie, taking a 4-2 win and sending their ALDS back to St. Petersburg for a decisive Game 5 in two days. Wander Franco, who is now 12 for 20 in the series, tripled for the third of his three hits tonight, driving in a pair to give the Rays the season-preserving win. Ryan, meanwhile, was excellent in going 7 4 2 2 1 7 with a Miguel Sano 2-run homer the only damage against him. With Nick Anderson unavailable after going 2 innings yesterday, Diego Castillo came in and pitched around a couple of runners to fan 3 Twins in the 8th and Ken Giles nailed down the save. Earlier the Rays got runs on a Willy Adames (hitting a cool .563 in this series himself) RBI double and an incredibly impressive 490-foot blast from Ji-Man Choi into Target Field's upper deck in RCF. So we head back to the Trop with Tyler Glasnow looking to rebound from a rough Game 1 start.

The other DSs:



We move closer to a possible Freeway World Series as both the Dodgers and Angels advanced to their respective LCSes. Marcus Stroman was the postseason hero again after throwing a no-hitter last season for the Mets. Today he shut out the White Sox for 8 2/3 to win the series for the Angels while the Dodgers got three in the 9th including a tie-breaking 2-run pitch-hit single from Matt Davidson to eliminate the Padres. And Milwaukee has moved to within one game of ending the Mets' title defense and getting revenge for last year's NLCS.

[Art Deco]

And it's the Brewers and Dodgers in the NLCS after Milwaukee avenged their NLCS loss last season to the Mets. New York was done in tonight by one of their former players, Luis Guillorme.

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Angels!



The Rays are on their way to the ALCS after a 3-0 shutout of the Twins in the decisive Game 5 of the ALDS. Tyler Glasnow atoned for his terrible Game 1 start by utterly dominating the Twins over 8 innings, allowing 5 hits and whiffing 10. Nick Anderson had a 1-2-3 9th for the save after Ken Giles was still fatigued from Game 4. It was a typical 2022 Rays game: low-scoring with Tampa Bay winning in the end and today the offense didn't come until the 6th when with two out Wander Franco walked, stole second and scored on a 2-run homer by Brandon Lowe, his first of the postseason. And in the 8th they got a bit more breathing room when Christian Vasquez's missing bat reappeared and he homered for the first time this October as well to make it 3-0. Tampa Bay will now take on the Angels in the ALCS with Matt Peacock slated for Game 1.

[Art Deco]

The Rays got off to a roaring start in the ALCS with a 10-1 rout of the Angels and their ace James Paxton. After LA took a brief lead in the top of the 1st on a Mike Trout homer off Matt Peacock, Randy Arozarena reminded everyone of 2020 with a 3-run shot off Paxton in the 1st, and two innings later Austin Meadows doubled the lead with a 2-run shot of his own. It was all Rays from there, and Wander Franco did the only thing he hadn't done this postseason and that was homer as he added a 2-run blast in the 8th. Despite his superficially good-looking 5 4 1 1 3 6 line, it was something of a struggle for Peacock who went 3-2 on seemingly every batter and it took him 106 pitches to get through those 5 innings. Luis Patino came on and was electric, striking out the first 5 men he faced, and hung around for 3 1/3 before he needed Alex Vesia to get the final two outs of the game. Yonny Chirinos will face Shohei Ohtani tomorrow as the Rays look to take a 2-0 series lead.

[Art Deco]

The Rays fought back but they couldn't overcome a poor start from Yonny Chirinos, whom as the recap above notes, was tormented by Mike Trout. Yonny put them in a 5-0 hole and despite the best efforts of the bats (especially Vidal Brujan, 4-4 with a double and a triple), the Angels held on to win 6-4 and even the ALCS at a game apiece. Aaron Fletcher was also victimized by an inside-the-park homer from Jared Walsh in the 8th. So we head to Anaheim in two days with Tyler Glasnow taking the ball and hoping to replicate his Game 5 ALDS performance.

In the NLCS opener:



The Dodgers break open a tie game in the 7th and take a 1-0 series lead as they take advantage of Milwaukee's bullpen after Corbin Burnes departed.

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The Brewers bomb Clayton Kershaw for 7 runs in the 4th to even up the NLCS.

[Art Deco]

What. A. Game. Tense from start to finish, it was classic playoff baseball as Tyler Glasnow and Andrew Heaney hooked up in a pitchers' duel that came up Rays 3-1. Glasnow picked up where he left off in Game 5 of the ALDS, 1-hitting the Angels until the 7th when Jo Adell took him deep. The bullpen took over from there with Aaron Fletcher getting out of a little jam later in the inning and Nick Anderson and Ken Giles doing their thing with perfect innings. The bats didn't generate a lot of offense but Manuel Margot was instrumental in 2 of the 3 runs, doubling to lead off the game and scoring on Brandon Lowe's single, and then singling in a huge insurance run in the 9th after Ji-Man Choi, who had homered for run #2 in the 4th, walked and pinch-runner Taylor Walls stole second. Randy Arozarena had to leave the game after being hit in the shoulder but it's only a bruise and he'll be back in the lineup tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, another pitcher who will be looking to replicate his previous performance will be Joe Ryan, taking the mound in Game 4 after saving the Rays' season in the ALDS's Game 4.

[Art Deco]

Well that was brutal. The Rays actually should have scored more than once in those first 3 innings as they had baserunners galore, but it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway after the beating Joe Ryan took. The rookie could not replicate his ALDS performance, as homers from Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh contributed to him allowing 5 runs in 2 2/3. Ryan Yarbrough wasn't much better, although a dropped fly ball from Austin Meadows didn't help either. So now we know there will be a Game 6, and Matt Peacock will be hoping to keep up the good work from Game 1 tomorrow in Game 5.

In the NLCS:



Advantage Dodgers as they bring out the lumber with 4 homers.