The 2021 (and only 2021) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Well the Rays are really up against it now. Matt Peacock was one out away from getting through the 5th at 1-1 but wild-pitched a run home and then gave up a 3-run homer to Jared Walsh, put another man on and then Luis Patino came in and gave up a 2-run shot to Shohei Ohtani, and it was all over. The bats were pretty silent once again, and you could say they were lucky to win one in Anaheim having scored a grand total of 6 runs in the 3 games. So we head back to St. Pete in a couple of days and Yonny Chirinos will need to be better this time if the Rays want to keep their season alive.

In the NLCS:



The two LA teams are now each one win away from a first-ever Freeway Series as Cody Bellinger broke a 2-2 tie with his first homer of the postseason in the 6th to propel the Dodgers to the win.

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The Dodgers were one out away from the World Series when Christian Yelich said "not so fast, my friends" and blasted a 3-run homer off Brad Hand to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th, and Micker Adolfo followed suit with a walk-off winner in the 10th off Hand and now Milwaukee is on a plane to LA to play a Game 6.

[Art Deco]

Well that's all, folks. The Rays lost an early 4-2 lead and never recovered, losing 7-4 and being eliminated from the playoffs as the Angels advance to their first World Series since winning it all in 2002. The game turned in the 3rd inning when the Rays, already up 4-2, loaded the bases with nobody out with a prime opportunity to break open the game. But Willy Adames hit an infield pop, Christian Vazquez (who was a brutal 3-for-36 in the playoffs) flew to shallow left, and Vidal Brujan grounded out to third. Immediately after that LA got a run back in the 4th and then went to town in the 5th as Yonny Chirinos was not ready for prime time this postseason and got rocked again (a 9.95 ERA in 3 playoff starts), leaving with a man on and down 5-4. Lefty Alex Vesia came in to face the lefty Brandon Marsh, and things couldn't have gone any worse when he gave up a homer to make it 7-4. The rest of the bullpen held from there but the offense seemed to wither and die after that blown opportunity in the 3rd and 7-4 is where is stayed and ended.

It was a step further than last year but a step back from two years ago, so the Rays still can't get over the championship hump despite winning an amazing 115 games this year. The main problem is that outside of Tyler Glasnow - and despite leading the league in pitching - the likes of Matt Peacock and Yonny Chirinos aren't going to strike fear in power-laden lineups like the Angels' and Houston's (and the Dodgers', had we gotten that far). Losing Brendan McKay hurt, assuming he continued in the vein he was going, but this club could use another frontline starting pitcher. Luis Patino has that potential, but his control needs to vastly improve. Shane McClanahan also has that potential, but that's assuming he still has his stuff after all his injuries. It will be an interesting off-season.

[Art Deco]

Christian Yelich has put the Brewers on his back and carried them into a Game 7. After his dramatic 3-run homer in Game 5 to stave off elimination, he went deep twice today and drove in 5 as Clayton Kershaw's postseason troubles have cropped up again. It'll be Brandon Woodruff vs Brusdar Graterol in one game to determine who will face the Angels in the World Series.

[Art Deco]

For a time it looked like the Dodgers would have an epic playoff collapse on par with the 1986 Red Sox, having been one out away from going to the World Series and on the verge of losing three straight games to blow it, but after Milwaukee raced out to an early 5-1 lead LA came back and even fought off a blown lead of their own to put up 5 in the 8th inning and win Game 7 of the NLCS 11-6. Corey Seager, who had homered earlier, had the tiebreaking RBI double. So we will get our Freeway Series after all and it should be a good one.

[Art Deco]

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The Angels are one game away from losing their wings, and apparently they can be pitched to.

[Art Deco]

Marcus Stroman to the rescue once again as the Angels stay alive:

[Art Deco]

Congratulations to the Dodgers, who complete the gentleman's sweep of the Angels after letting them win Game 4. Will Smith will always be 1/1000th as famous as his rapper-turned-movie star namesake but he'll be the most famous Will Smith to Dodger fans after his 10th-inning homer was the Series-winning hit:

[Art Deco]

Time to begin the offseason. The big news is that owner Stuart Sternberg is willing to increase to the payroll to $110M, so that will give us some flexibility. Here is the salary situation going into next year (ignore the 2022 column):



Some thoughts:

1. I will be non-tendering Brian Moran and Cody Reed.
2. I am going to try and deal Ken Giles, I really don't want to pay him $9M, especially since Nick Anderson is due for around $6M in arbitration and Diego Castillo $2.2.
3. Free agents are Christian Vasquez (whom I will give a qualifying offer to which I'm sure he won't take so we can get a pick) and Manuel Margot (who will not get a QO). Khris Davis is also a free agent and Stu wants me to re-sign him. Slight possibility of that because I will need a RH OF bat with Margot leaving, but I'd prefer one who could play CF.
4. Others I really don't want at their projected salaries: Rafael Dolis, Ryan Yarbrough, Ji-Man Choi. A quick check showed there's really no trade market for Ji-Man, so he may get non-tendered.
5. If the return is worth it I may trade Willy Adames as he's becoming expensive. Taylor Walls can play the position and hit almost as well. He's about 80-90% of Willy.

Positional Thoughts:

C: Joey Bart will take over as the starter, with Francisco Mejia backing him up and playing 35-40% of the time.
1B: Big honking question mark. I may move Austin Meadows there and play Hunter Bishop, or play Vidal Brujan in CF and move Jarren Duran to RF. Ji-Man is likely gone, and Oscar Colas was a flop. A dark horse is Heriberto Hernandez, who raked at AA last season.
2B: Brandon Lowe is entrenched on a team-favorable contract.
SS: As mentioned above, Willy may go and Walls may take the job. Also I could move Wander Franco here and deal for a 3B.
3B: Wander's the man, except in the scenario described above.
LF: Randy Arozarena is set.
CF: Some combination of Jarren Duran/Vidal Brujan. Josh Lowe may get another shot as well.
RF: Duran could end up, so could Hunter Bishop, who's ready for the big leagues. Heliot Ramos lurks as well.
Bench: Going to need a RH OF bat, could be Ramos but I'd prefer someone more in the Margot mold (re-sign him?)
SP: Glasnow, Peacock, Ryan, McKay and McClanahan (who should be back around season's start) are my front-runners. This leaves Yonny Chirinos, Ryan Yarbrough and Luis Patino and Brett Honeywell Jr (who is out of options and will have to be kept) as question marks.
Bullpen: Anderson may go back to the closer's role, although he thrived this year in setup so Castillo could be the closer, and Devin Williams will step into a more pronounced setup role. Also Pete Fairbanks is due back around the start of the season. Aaron Fletcher will be the top lefty again. Alex Vesia was a disappointment but still has great stuff.

Notable retirements around MLB: A couple of future hall-of-famers hang it up, Miguel Cabrera (#24 retired in Detroit) and Justin Verlander (#35 retired in Detroit also). Others of note: Nelson Cruz, Corey Kluber, Lance Lynn, old man Oliver Perez, and former Rays Eric Sogard, Stephen Vogt and Wilson Ramos.

Our first (of probably several) deals:



Powell isn't anything that special, but on the other hand neither is Dolis. Powell will pitch at Durham.

The next shoe to drop:



We clear some decent salary *and* pick up a top-notch relief prospect and a decent OF prospect. Sandlin has 70 stuff, 45 movement (potential 50) and 50 control and fanned 70 in 46 IP at AA last season. He's probably ready to step right into our pen. Martinez is a 2.5-star prospect who plays a 70 LF and a 50 CF and RF and is 50-55 in all the hitting ratings. So not a superstar, but a decent player who looks like an excellent 4th OF. He'll likely be at Durham and he doesn't have to go on the 40-man.

November 8: The Gold Glove Awards came out and Christian Vazquez won at catcher for the second straight season. We'll miss his 80 catcher rating as there's no doubt he helped make the staff better this year, but Joey Bart at 65 is no slouch either and should provide a much better bat.

November 9: Another departing player picks up some hardware:



I voted Anderson 1st, Giles 3rd, and didn't vote Fletcher at all but his final numbers were very good.

November 10: Austin Meadows won the Silver Slugger Award in the AL for RFers, but we have some even bigger Austin Meadows news!



We've got Austin locked up for at least 3 years, this buys out his 2 arb years left and a free agency year. He has an option in Year 4 and we have one in Year 5.

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Congrats to Matt Peacock!



He just beat out Blake Rutherford and hopefully it was my first place vote which put him over the top.

November 13: Justin Bieber won his 2nd Cy Young Award in the AL which wasn't a surprise, but what was a surprise is that Tyler Glasnow finished 2nd despite only pitching half the season, and Brendan McKay, despite missing the final month due to injury, finished 3rd. Corbin Burnes won in the NL for a 16-6, 2.22, 221-whiff season.

November 14: Mike Trout won his 4th AL MVP award, with Wander Franco finishing 7th, and Ozzie Albies narrowly took the award in the NL, edging out Fernando Tatis Jr. (my choice).

November 30: Well I thought the second half of November would be more active or I wouldn't have spun it off into its own post, but we haven't had any big free agent signings and I haven't swung any deals. Part of it on my end is due to a significant free agent offer I've made as I'm waiting to see if it gets accepted before making some trades.

[Art Deco]

I guess everyone was waiting for the calendar to change.

December 1: Two huge free-agent deals. Jacob deGrom signed a 4/119.9 deal with the Astros and Jose Abreu went for 3/71.4 to Boston.

December 2: The Dodgers signed Xander Bogaerts to a massive 7/162.4 contract. I guess they're moving him to 3B as they have Corey Seager signed through 2025.

December 9: The Cubs signed 3B Justin Turner to a 2/42 deal.

December 10: Christian Vazquez went back to the Red Sox on a huge 5/125 deal.

BIG NEWS!



Possibly the biggest free agent signing in club history, Lakeland native Chris Sale returns home on a 4/60 deal. Well it's really a 3/46.5 deal because we have a team option for the 4th year with a $1.5M buyout. I wanted a frontline starter for the playoffs, and I got one, even though he's a bit of a checkered injury history. He came back strong last year in the 2nd half with Boston, making 13 starts. Although a 2-6, 4.10 record looks pretty mediocre, he had a 15/84 BB/K ratio in 74.2 innings and only allowed 6 homers, so those 13 starts were good for 2.3 WAR. Yes it's a gamble but one worth taking. And we won't do any throwback jersey nights when he pitches.



Let the dominoes fall:



The rare "everyone in agreement" trade. Ona is a lefty-masher with serious power (65-rated) who fills our need for a RH OF. He's really more of a DH though as he's a 45 fielder and he'll likely be our full-time DH against lefties and occasional righties. Also we recoup some of the money we're spending on Sale.

December 17: The Mets signed Corey Knebel, who closed for Seattle last year, to a nice 1/6.9 deal. The Yankees also traded Domingo German to the Mariners for C Luis Torrens and Kyle Schwarber signed a minor league deal with Kansas City. Speaking of guys who can't hit for average but have great power, we've offered Joey Gallo a minor league contract.

Time for another big Rays trade:



So long Ji-Man, you were a fan favorite (although I didn't get a "fan interest decreased" message) but you just didn't produce enough the last couple of years at 1B. So we swing an intrastate deal to acquire his much younger, cheaper, and (should be) better replacement in Lewin Diaz. Although Diaz has yet to take MLB by storm, his ratings are impeccable:



Based on this he should hit for average and power, although he won't draw a ton of walks. Not shown here is that those ratings really don't dip much against lefties, so he shouldn't need to be platooned. He's also an excellent defensive 1B for what that's worth. We had to retain about $1.4M of Ji-Man's contract so Miami could afford the deal, and we gave up some mid-level prospects in Basabe (acquired in the Nate Lowe deal in early 2021) and Paulson, as well as Barnhart who has good stuff but no idea where it's going.

December 18: Added OF Heliot Ramos and C Blake Hunt to the 40-man roster.

The Rule 5 Draft is upon us, and I've given up on predicting who will be taken. Ramos and Hunt where the only guys I didn't want to lose anyway.

December 19: Lost 2B/C Ford Proctor to San Antonio in the Rule 5 Draft.

Proctor can get on base (he's probably a .280/.370 guy) but has no power or defensive skill so despite hitting .309 for Durham last year I never really entertained recalling him.

We're going all-in, dammit:



Never pass up a chance to acquire an ace, and after we saw St. Louis put Jack Flaherty on the trading block (mainly because he's a free agent at year's end) we had to see what it would take. It took Chrinos, who was surplus to requirements after the Sale signing anyway and probably won't replicate his 2022 regular season, and prospect JJ Goss. Goss is a highly-regarded prospect, but underwhelmed (133 hits allowed and only a 42/63 BB/K ratio in 104 innings) in A+ ball, and we have other starting pitching prospects (Alexander Alberto, Neraldo Catalina, Josh Hartle, Nick Bitkso) plus now we have young pitchers like Joe Ryan and Luis Patino without rotation spots (as the rotation is Glasnow-Sale-Flaherty-McKay-Peacock). Also we got St. Louis to pick up half of Flaherty's salary so it's only costing us about $1M with Yonny off the books, and while it's highly unlikely we'll sign Flaherty to an extension he'll at least net us a compensatory 1st round draft pick, so that will make up for the loss of Goss).

December 20: After pitching for 7 different teams since leaving in 2017, Trevor Rosenthal has come full circle and signed a deal with the Cardinals.

December 24: Buster Posey signed a 3/45 deal with the Cubs and Mike Minor went for 2/7.3 to the Rockies.

December 27: The Phillies inked veteran SS Miguel Rojas to a 5/95.6 deal and starter Zach Eflin went for 4/41.3 to Minnesota.

December 28: The Cardinals sign former Minnesota closer Taylor Rogers for 3/20.7.

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January 5: Zack Britton moves from the Bronx to Queens as he signs a 2/7.3 deal with the Mets.

January 8: The Yankees sent pitcher Michael King to the Padres for catcher Austin Nola, as they needed a catcher with Gary Sanchez a free agent. King pitched well for New York with a 3.42 ERA in 152 innings.

January 9: SP Joe Musgrove went for 3/21.2 to the Phillies.

January 11: Veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel signed with the Twins for 1/2.7 while starter Robbie Ray joined the Astros for 3/40.8.

January 12: The Reds dealt OF Jesse Winker to Texas for 3 middling prospects.

January 14: Signed 1B/OF Joey Gallo to a minor league contract.

Gallo had 24 HR and 65 RBI last year, but it came with a .181 average and negative WAR so this isn't the coup it might appear to someone reading this in July 2021. Still he'll give us some depth at Durham.

January 18: The Hall of Fame voting results are in, and there won't be any inductions at Cooperstown this year. First-year nominee Carlos Beltran came the closest at 65.7% but the next after him was Manny Ramirez at 41.3%.

January 28: Atlanta send a pair of minor leaguers to the Red Sox for 1B Bobby Dalbec.

February 1: The Blue Jays sent 5 minor leaguers to Oakland for SP A.J. Puk. Kenley Jansen, let go by the Dodgers, signed a 1-year, $2.36M deal with the Mets.

February 5: The Memphis Spirit sent a couple of prospects to Oakland for SP Frankie Montas while 3B Kyle Seager signed a 2/26 deal with the Cardinals.

February 6: Not sure what the Rockies were thinking but they sent SP Kyle Freeland and well-regarded OF prospect Zac Veen to the Marlins for 3 middling prospects.

February 7: Another curious deal where the Yankees sent #10 overall prospect Jasson Dominguez - and two other prospects - to Atlanta for 36-year-old reliever Chris Martin. I have the trading slider set to about 60-65% of the way over to "favor prospects", guess it's not far enough.

February 11: Manuel Margot signed a minor league deal with Seattle. I probably should have more attentive to this.

February 17: Signed SS Freddy Galvis to a minor league contract.

Our middle infield depth is pretty poor, with Tristan Gray, a corner guy, projected to start at SS for Durham so we went out a got a legit MI.

February 24: After rebuilding his value with a .290-32-106 season aided by Coors Field, Nomar Mazara signed a whopping 5/64.3 deal with San Diego.

March 9: The Phillies signed OF Michael Brantley to a 1-year, $3.8M deal, while Arizona signed former Ray Wil Myers to a 1/2.5 deal and slugger Miguel Sano had to settle for a minor league deal with the Marlins.

March 12: Marcus Semien signed a minor league deal with the Phillies and 2021 Ray Alex Wood signed a 2/30(!) deal with the Mets.

March 13: A couple of former Rays OFs found new homes on minor league deals: Kevin Kiermaier with the Marlins, and Yoshi Tsutsugo with Atlanta.

March 26: Our first significant injury of Spring Training: Vidal Brujan strained a hamstring and is out 7 weeks.

March 27: Wow. The Dodgers traded SS Corey Seager (they did sign Xander Bogaerts earlier this offseason) to the Memphis Spirit for Michael Chavis and a minor leaguer of no distinction. Memphis also signed former Rays 1B Jesus Aguilar to a 1/3.7 deal.

April 2: Max Muncy signed a 2/30.8 pact with Colorado, where I'm sure he'll hit plenty of homers.

April 4: Traded 33-year old RHP Andrew Kittredge and 26-year old 3B Kevin Padlo to the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting 25-year old RHP Landon Knack in return.

Kittredge and Padlo were out of options, so I had to deal or waive them, and I think I got a good return in Knack, LA's 2nd-round pick in 2020 who looks like a legit 4/5 starter in MLB.

April 5: Didi Gregorious signed a 1/8.1 deal with the Angels.

[Art Deco]

The opening day roster:

C-Bart, Mejia
1B-L.Diaz
2B-B.Lowe
SS-Adames
3B-Franco
IF-Brosseau, Walls
OF-Arozarena, Duran, Meadows, H.Ramos
DH-Ona

SP-Glasnow, Sale, Flaherty, McKay, Peacock
LR-Ryan, Honeywell
MR-Vesia, Sandlin, D.Williams
SU-Fletcher, D.Castillo
CL-N.Anderson

With Vidal Brujan hurt, Heliot Ramos makes the team as a RH bat who can play CF (not well, but can at least play it) and Jorge Ona will get a shot to be the everyday DH. Also with Brett Honeywell Jr out of options, Luis Patino goes to Durham.

Here are the preseason predictions. They do not like us for some reason (I guess they don't think we're going to hit enough):

[Art Deco]

Opening Day:



(the original version of this game also ended 4-3 Twins, but I had last saved the game after Lowe's homer in the first and then my laptop had an unexpected reboot so I lost that version, amazingly I ended up with the same final score)

Not the best way to start the season as we opened against the team we've played in the last two playoffs. Tyler Glasnow lost an early 2-0 lead on a Brandon Lowe homer, giving up 4 in the 2nd and 3rd before settling down. The damage was done, though, as all we could get back was a Randy Arozarena RBI single after a Lowe double. Alex Vesia and Nick Sandlin were impressive in relief, and Joey Bart had to leave the game after being hit in the 2nd inning. He has a knee contusion he can play through over the next week.

Game 2: The Rays overcame an early injury to Chris Sale in his debut and took a 5-3 win over Minnesota to even their season ledger. Sale has a rotator cuff strain and will be out 5-6 weeks. Taking his spot in the rotation will be the guy who took his spot on the mound tonight, Joe Ryan, who pitched as if it were his start going 6 2 3 3 1 9 after Sale pitched a perfect first. Ryan was victimized by a pair of Byron Buxton homers but gave up nothing else. Nick Anderson got the save, striking out the side after giving up a leadoff double. On offense, Randy Arozarena hit his first homer, Lewin Diaz had an RBI double, Brandon Lowe singled in a run and Willy Adames drove in a pair with a fielder's choice and a bases-loaded walk as all the scoring came in the first three innings.

April 8: Placed P Chris Sale on the 10-day IL with rotator cuff tendinitis, recalled P Luis Patino from AAA Durham.

Patino will take over a long relief role while the Sale contract is off to an inauspicious start.

Game 3: Jack Flaherty had a successful Rays debut in a 5-2 Rays win to take 2 of 3 in the opening series. Flaherty was 6.1 6 2 2 2 8 and pitched out of a jam or two but got the job done. The bullpen was excellent with Diego Castillo picking up the save with a scoreless 9th. The new boys led the offense with Jorge Ona having a big day, 3-5 with 2 doubles, one which drove in a run and another in the 9th which provided insurance when he doubled and scored on Willy Adames' single. Lewin Diaz also had a pair of doubles including one which drove home a run.

Team record: 2-1. Next up: We have our home-opening series against the Cleveland Guardians.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays' home opener with Cleveland was a classic pitchers' duel between Brendan McKay and Carlos Vargas, and Vargas was rewarded for hanging in there for 9 innings when Jordan Luplow homered off Nick Anderson in the 10th to give the Guardians a 1-0 win. McKay was solid, going 6 3 0 0 2 4 and Alex Vesia and Devin Williams turned in scoreless innings, but Anderson was victimized in his 2nd inning of relief. The bats only managed two hits in the 10 innings.

Game 2: Despite a furious 9th-inning comeback the Rays dug too big a hole against Cleveland and lost again 9-7. Matt Peacock had a rough 2nd giving up 3 runs but finished 7 6 4 2 1 5 as he pitched around his own error and one from Francisco Mejia and left down 4-2. The Guardians broke it open in the 8th with 4 runs on a pair of homers off a former pitcher of theirs, Nick Sandlin, and Brett Honeywell Jr gave up one in the 9th. This had them down 9-3 going to the bottom of the 9th when Brandon Lowe hit a 2-run homer (#2), Randy Arozarena went deep and Heliot Ramos had a pinch-hit RBI double in his first MLB at-bat to cut the deficit to 2. But with the tying runs in scoring position, Mejia grounded out to end the game.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow put the Rays into an early hole before the Rays came back dramatically to tie, only to see Cleveland get a 3-run homer in the 8th to take a 6-4 win as Tampa Bay is swept in its first series at home in 2023. Glasnow went 6 3 3 3 4 8 and left one batter into the 7th with Aaron Fletcher allowing that runner to score. The Rays struck back in the bottom of the 7th to tie it on an RBI double from Austin Meadows and a 2-run homer from Lewin Diaz off Shane Bieber, his first as a Ray. But Devin Williams put 2 on with 2 out in the top of the 8th, and pinch-hitter George Valera took him deep to give Cleveland the win. Jarren Duran homered (#1) off Bieber in the 8th to make it a little closer.

Team record: 2-4 (maybe those preseason predictions were on to something). Next up: 3 games in Oakland.

MLB News: The Angels' Jorge Soler became the 19th player in MLB history to have a 4-homer game, as he accomplished the feat against Baltimore. Also John Gant of the Giants hurled a no-hitter against his former team, the Cardinals, walking 1 and fanning 8 in a tidy 91-pitch effort.

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Game 1: The Rays' slow start to the season continued with an 8-2 loss at Oakland. Back-to-back homers in the 2nd from Jarren Duran (#2) and Wander Franco (#1) gave them a quick 2-0 lead in the 3rd, but Joe Ryan's bugaboo, the long ball, came back to haunt him as he gave up a pair of homers which brought 5 runs home and he finished a bad 6.2 6 7 5 2 6 in his first start of the year.

Game 2: The losing streak reached 5 and not only did the Rays lose 7-6 to Oakland but they lost two pitchers to injury. Luis Patino suffered shoulder inflammation and is lost for 5 months while the injury-plagued Brett Honeywell Jr. tore his UCL and is done for the year. They were both on in relief of Jack Flaherty, whose second start as a Ray didn't go so well as he was hit for 5 in the 4th and 2 more in the 5th, allowing 3 homers and finishing 4.2 6 7 7 4 8. A 4-run rally in the 9th including a 3-run homer from Jarren Duran (#3) gave them a chance but they fell short.

April 14: Placed Ps Luis Patino and Brett Honeywell Jr. on the 60-day IL, recalled Ps Josh Fleming and Colin Poche from AAA Durham.

Game 3: The Rays continue to circle the drain, dropping their 6th straight and falling to 2-7 (suddenly that 83-79 projected record is starting to look good now) after being blown out 12-1 by the A's. Today's piñata was Brendan McKay, allowing two homers and going 3.1 6 10 6 5 4 with a Willy Adames error not helping him out. And to compound the nightmare the one guy hitting for us, Jarren Duran, suffered an elbow strain and will be out 4 weeks. I'm not really sure how things could get worse, but I guess we'll find out.

Team record: 2-7. Next up: Back home for 3 vs Toronto.

[Art Deco]

April 15: Placed OF Jarren Duran on the 10-day IL with an elbow strain, purchased the contract of OF Joey Gallo from AAA Durham.

Gallo is getting the nod as hopefully hit can hit a homer or three to get this offense going.

Game 1: Toronto scored 3 times off Matt Peacock in the first inning and it didn't get any better from there as the Rays dropped their 7th straight game 8-2 and remain winless at the Trop. Peacock was lit up to the tune of 4 10 7 6 1 5 and Lewin Diaz was the only one hitting, 2-3 with an RBI.

Game 2: Tyler Glasnow pitched a great game, but he had to be perfect and he wasn't and the Rays lost yet again, 2-0 to the Blue Jays. He went 6 5 1 1 1 8 but the suddenly anemic offense only managed 5 hits.

Game 3: Home runs seem to be up around the league (except for the home team) and that's not a good thing for Joe Ryan as he was taken deep twice in a 5-2 loss to Toronto, the club's record (for me in OOTP at least) 9th straight defeat. Lewin Diaz hit HR #3 to tie the game at 1, so for at least 3 innings the Rays weren't losing, until George Springer took Ryan deep for a 2-run shot in the 4th. Heliot Ramos's pinch-single in the 9th brought in the other run.

Team record: 2-10. It's only 12 games, but it's hard to believe this is largely the same team which won 115 games last season. Was Christian Vazquez and his 80 catcher defense the key to the pitching staff? Even if it was that doesn't explain why nobody can hit. We upgraded at 1B, and Lewin Diaz has been one of the few consistent hitters on the team, otherwise we're the same at every position except C (Bart) and CF (Ramos and Gallo right now with Duran hurt). Apparently those preseason predictions saw something I didn't. Anyway it's a day off to lick our wounds then we head to Texas for 3.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: A win! The Rays snapped their 9-game losing streak with a 5-3 win in Texas. Willy Adames' 2-run double in the 9th snapped a 3-3 tie after Diego Castillo allowed an Aaron Fletcher runner to score to tie in the 8th. Jack Flaherty was kinda awful but very fortunate, going 5.1 9 2 2 3 2. Castillo vultured the win and Nick Anderson got save #2.

Game 2: A bizarre game which saw the Rays fall behind 11-3 early, come back with an 8-run 5th to tie it, and then lose 15-11. Brendan McKay was horrid again, allowing 9 runs (8 earned) in 2 innings but homers from Jorge Ona, Joey Bart (their 1st) and Brandon Lowe (his 3rd) helped get them level before Josh Fleming surrendered Brian O'Grady's 2nd HR of the game (he had earlier hit a slam off McKay), a 3-run shot in the 6th.

Game 3: The Rays held on for a 5-4 win over Texas to take their first series since the opening set at Minnesota. Matt Peacock wasn't that sharp (5.2 7 4 4 4 6) but notched his first win thanks to excellent bullpen work from Alex Vesia, Aaron Fletcher and Diego Castillo, who picked up save #2. Austin Meadows (#1) and Randy Arozarena (#3) homered early, but Jorge Ona's 2nd of the season, a 2-run shot, broke a 3-3 tie in the 6th. As bad as the pitching's been so far, I have to make special note of Vesia: his combined line for the season is 9 3 1 1 0 16 over 6 appearances.

Team record: 4-11. Baby steps, but we're not the only team off to a horrible start. Kansas City, which contended for a wild card last year, is 1-13 and even the Mets are 5-10. Next up: 3 at Detroit, whose Spencer Torkelson already has 7 homers.