Game 1: Jon Hayes was in control and the Rays hit three early homers to waltz past Cleveland 6-1. Hayes went 8 7 1 1 2 6 and nearly pitched a complete game, coming out for the 9th but seeing two men reach on a Bobby Witt Jr error and a single, so Tim Siqueiros came on against his old team and got the next three batters, two via strikeout, to finish it off. Hayes is now 11-2, 3.50. Victor de Jesus got the Rays on the board in the 2nd with #14, and after Cleveland tied it in the 3rd Luis Corpus hit #9 with Alex Buitrago (who had his first MLB 3-hit day) aboard to make it 3-1, and Nate Clark blasted #23 later in the inning to make it 4-1. Dayle Jenkins added a 2-run single in the 7th for some insurance.
This makes two straight months with the award for Clark:
We also take pitcher of the month:
Meanwhile, look who was NL Pitcher of the Month:
It started with a perfect game on Opening Day and Jack Leiter hasn't looked back as his Reds are atop the NL Central. Perhaps we see him in the World Series.
And the awards are flowing in on the farm as well:
Jaiden Hardaway is the #1 prospect in baseball, and he's definitely playing like it. He has to be up next year, so there could be a Connor Kirkley deal this winter. Kirkley played the first two months of the season like an MVP candidate but has cooled off some so it'll a tough sell to move him, but time waits for no one.
Gil Wayne is an excellent prospect (#60 per BNN) and got off to a rough start this year thanks to some really bad BABIP luck as his BB/K numbers were fine and he wasn't giving up an inordinate # of homers. But the results caught up with his peripherals and he had a great month. He's still behind Danny Ceja and Jon Sorrano in the prospect pecking order among starters and isn't on the 40-man yet, so his ETA is quite uncertain.
Game 2: It was a high-scoring affair at Publix Park, but as is typical the Rays came out on top by a score of 12-7. Marc Wagner was staked 3-0 and 5-3 leads but couldn't hold them, and left going 4.2 9 5 5 2 6. Nate Thompson took over and picked up his second win in middle relief despite allowing a run, and Evan Godwin allowed a run in his two innings of relief before Brad Ballmann pitched a scoreless 9th. The star on offense was the red-hot Luis Corpus, whose 3-run homer in the bottom of the 6th (#10) gave the Rays the lead to stay at 8-6. This was part of a 3-5, 5 RBI day for the rookie Rays catcher who now has 3 HR and 13 RBI in his last 5 starts and 7 HR and 22 RBI in his previous 14. Alex Buitrago, another rookie, had his second straight 3-hit day as well, scoring three times and driving in a pair while Bobby Witt Jr was 3-4 with 2 RBI before picking up a mild calf strain and Rodolfo Rivas was 3-5 with an RBI.
Game 3: The Rays took their second 6-1 win of the series behind yet another outstanding effort from Andy Aparicio and a 5-run 6th inning. Aparicio was masterful as he usually has been this year, taking a shutout into the 9th before giving up a leadoff homer to Jordan Evangelista and departing with an 8 5 1 1 1 9 line on 120 pitches to go to 11-1, 1.43. He's certainly the first half Cy Young winner if nothing else. The offense took a while to get going; although they led 1-0 through 5 on Ricky Widmar's sac fly, they only had 1 hit off Cleveland starter Jay Copping. That changed quickly in the 6th when Dane Ayers hit the third of three straight singles to score a run, a second scored on a wild pitch, and then Rodolfo Rivas cleared the fence in LF for HR #10 with two on to make it 6-1. Mike Mooney finished up for Aparicio in the 9th, striking out a pair.
Game 4: A ridiculous game for a ridiculous team to close out a ridiculous first half of the season as Christian Little pitched a 5-hit shutout and the Rays curb-stomped Cleveland 10-0 to reach the midway point of the season 67-14, which is a 134-win pace. With the game out of hand the only suspense was whether Little would finish the shutout and I have to admit I got carried away and let him throw 130 pitches but he did it, going 9 5 0 0 1 9 and finishing out the first half 12-2, 3.17. Mike Lammers got a rare start at 3B with Bobby Witt Jr still a big gimpy and blasted a 2-run HR (#3) in the 2nd to put the Rays on the board and Rodolfo Rivas hit his own 2-run shot in the 3rd (#11) to double the advantage. Joe Barker tripled in a run in the 5th and then in the 8th Alex Buitrago hit his first MLB homer, with a man on and Ricky Widmar did likewise for #14 as it seems to matter not whom we plug into the lineup these days.
Team record: 67-14. Next up: My midseason report card, which basically should just be all A+s and the team heads to Yankee Stadium for the July 4 weekend.