[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays topped the Jays 6-4 in Nate Schultz's Tampa Bay debut but it was the power bats which stole the show. Schultz started off strongly with 3 scoreless innings and 4 whiffs and only 1 run allowed through 5 but began to get hit hard in the 6th and he left going 5.1 10 3 3 0 6 as it seems whenever we have a batted ball against it's a 50-50 chance it's a hit instead of the normal 30-70. Danny Medina came in and pitched great through the 7th, but ran into some trouble allowing a run in the 8th and Jim Connors got the final out then stayed on through the 9th for save #2 as he might just be our 9th inning guy now. Schultz still got the win, though. Having blasted 10 homers as a team through the first 3 games, they added 3 more today. Dayle Jenkins hit his first in the first to make it 1-0, and after a Jaiden Hardaway fielder's choice doubled the lead in the 3rd, Rodolfo Rivas had the game's big hit, a 2-run shot in the 5th, his 1st of the year as well. And after the Jays pulled within 4-3 in the 6th, Luis Corpus hit his 2nd round-tripper with a man on in the bottom of the inning. No homer for Alex Buitrago today as he didn't play with Toronto starting a lefty. I know it seems cruel to have benched him after 4 HR and 13 RBI in his first 3 games but Omar Rodriguez was 4-6 with 2 HR in his last game as well.

Game 2: One thing I neglected to mention at the outset of the season is that I tweaked the offensive settings to add a little more, about 10% in the home run department. Apparently this now means we're going to have to win slugfests almost every night as today the ball was flying out of the park again in a 10-6 Rays win. Either that or our starters are still not stretched out enough because once again a Rays starter looked great through the first 4 before imploding. Tonight it was Jon Soranno who held the Jays to one run through 4 before giving up 4 runs in the 5th, including back-to-back homers. He finished 4.1 6 5 5 3 2 before giving way to Tim Siqueiros, who was outstanding in a longer outing than normal, whiffing 5 in 2 1/3 scoreless. As he tired with two out in the 7th Jordan Diaz came on and promptly put the first two men on before getting a strikeout to get out of it. Mike Wherry started the 8th, got a couple of outs but gave up a homer of his own, so enter Kikuo Kawase who got a whiff for the third out and two more in finishing the 9th for his first MLB save. Diaz picked up the win when the Rays went back ahead in the bottom of the 7th. The star on offense today was Nate Clark, who was 4-5 with 2 HR and 4 RBI. He had solo shots in the 1st and 7th (#s 2 and 3) and a 2-run single in the 8th to make a 7-6 game a 9-6 one. Rodolfo Rivas hit his 2nd HR of the year in the 7th back-to-back with Clark, and Dayle Jenkins was 2-4 with an RBI. No homer for Alex Buitrago, although he did hit a double, draw a walk and steal a base. 3 Jays errors at key times also contributed to the 10-run total.

MLB News: Jose Alvarado had a very rough outing in his Philly debut, facing 6 batters and failing to retire any of them allowing 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs. The Phillies still won the game 15-9, hitting 7 homers. Did I mention I turned up the offense? And Jose Escobar, the guy we lost in Rule 5 that looked like a power hitter but only hit 2 HR at Durham last year in 221 AB, hit his 2nd HR already for Cleveland as part of a 7-RBI day.

Game 3: At last, an outstanding effort from a Rays starter in a game that looked like regular baseball and not arenaball as Tampa Bay made it 5 of 6 with a 5-1 win over the Jays, who are still looking for their first win of the year in 5 outings. Ironically it didn't start that way at all as Toronto got its run after the first two batters of the game. But Andy Aparicio gave Toronto nothing after that, finishing 7 5 1 1 1 9 to make it 2 wins in 2 starts. Bob Sirna whiffed a couple of lefties in a scoreless 8th and Jordan Diaz got the 9th and snapped back with a 2K 1-2-3 inning. The Rays only had 8 hits on the night but did a great job of sequencing in the 3rd inning when they scored 4 times. After the bases were loaded with nobody out, Nate Clark had an RBI single, Rodolfo Rivas a 2-RBI double, and Jaiden Hardaway added a sac fly. Clark added an RBI groundout in the 7th for the final run and he now has 9 RBI in 6 games.

MLB News: Talk about getting paid. Former Ray Nick Gonzales, coming off an MVP season, saw his salary raised from its current $9M/year to $36M/year as he received a 5/180 extension from the Dodgers who seem to have an unlimited budget.

Game 4: The Rays lost to Toronto today 9-7 in what seems to be a typical 2033 game. The score is a bit misleading since the Rays trailed 9-3 going into the bottom of the 9th but managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Dayle Jenkins, who unfortunately grounded into a 3-6-3 double play to end the game and give the Jays their first win of the season. Alec Sachais fell into the 5th inning trap so many Rays starters have this year as he had limited the Jays to 1 run in 4 innings before the walls came down in the 5th. He allowed 2 runs and left with 2 on as Bob Sirna came in to face the lefty Dan Phipps, who took Sirna into the RF bullpen to make it 6-0. And the Jays had 6 runs before the Rays had their first hit as Forrest Whitley was pitching a no-hitter until Omar Rodriguez singled with two out in the 5th. Will Quintana doubled him home to get the Rays on the board, and while Danny Medina pitched well in relief for 3 innings with 6 whiffs, he did give up a run, and then the Jays tacked on 2 more against Chris Hicks in the 9th which turned out to be decisive. That's because Quintana came through again with a 2-run double in the 7th to add runs 2 and 3, and in the 9th Mike Harms and Omar Rodriguez did it again, each homering as they did on Wednesday to get the Rays closer, Rodriguez's coming with a man on to make it 9-6. And then Quintana hit his first MLB homer to cap a 3-hit, 4-RBI and cut it to 9-7, and Ricky Widmar walked to bring Jenkins up as the tying run which didn't work out. It was funny as regulars Victor de Jesus, Jaiden Hardaway, Alex Buitrago and Luis Corpus were all rested today but the regulars who stayed in the lineup didn't hit as Widmar, Jenkins, Clark and Rivas were a combined 0-15 while the four subs went 7-15 with 3 HR and 7 RBI. Meanwhile it's two bad starts in two outings for Sachais, and hopefully we don't have a problem there.

Team record: 5-2. Next up: 3 games over 4 days in New York to play the Yankees as Game 1 is their home opener.