Game 1: For the third straight game the Rays got a 2-run homer in the 9th inning to come back and win, and today it was a blast from Victor de Jesus which turned a 7-6 loss into an 8-7 victory. Nate Thompson started and coughed up two first inning runs but the Rays erased that Oriole lead and then some with 5 in the 2nd on a bases-loaded walk to Nate Clark and a Rodolfo Rivas grand slam (#20). Thompson couldn't stand prosperity, though, and allowed 4 more runs in the next two innings to give Baltimore a 6-5 lead. Alex Buitrago's RBI triple tied it up in the 5th but Thompson, after settling in and retiring 8 straight, was left in too long and gave up a Myles Austin homer to put the Orioles back on top 7-6. Thompson finished an ugly 5.2 7 7 7 3 6 although he had his moments. Jim Connors got the final out of the 6th and Bob Sirna went 2 perfect innings. This brought us to the 9th and after Clark walked and stole second the Rays were down to their final out in de Jesus, and he smoked a Jeff Moyer pitch into the LCF stands for his 27th HR. Jordan Diaz pitched around a single for save #8 while Sirna picked up his first win in 55 appearances since joining the Rays last year at mid-season.
MLB News: It's not quite Hank Aaron in 1974 but Mike Trout hit #713 tonight for the Angels, pulling him within one of The Babe for 3rd place on the all-time HR list.
Game 2: It was another one of those Camden Yards games which seems to happen once a season where the Rays build a huge lead and then end up blowing it but at least this time around they still prevailed. Andy Aparicio was cruising with an 8-2 lead going into the bottom of the 7th and by the time regulation was over it was 8-8. But Mike Harms went deep in the 11th with his 9th homer of the year to give the Rays a 9-8 win. Earlier Omar Rodriguez snapped out of his funk with a huge day, going 3-4 with a 2-run homer (#6), triple and a pair of sac flies while Nate Clark went back-to-back with him in the 1st for #29 and Victor de Jesus added #28 in the 4th. Meanwhile AA was cruising with 11 whiffs through 6. But he gave up a leadoff homer and put two more men on without retiring anyone, so Jim Connors came in and after getting a couple of outs gave up Druw Jones' 2nd HR of the game, a 3-run shot to make it 8-6 and saddling Aparicio with a marred 6 6 5 5 1 11 line. Mike Wherry came on in the 8th and gave up another homer to a lefty, Tommy McDougal, to make it 8-7. But surely Kikuo Kawase would get us out of this. He did in the 8th after Wherry put two more on, but in the 9th he walked a man and with 2 out he gave up a double to Ryan McKenna and the unthinkable happened as Kawase blew his 1st save. It was also the first run he's allowed in two months, covering a span of 28 scoreless innings. So that sent us to extras, where Tim Siqueiros took over and struck out the side in the 10th and saved his own win (#6) in the 11th despite a walk after the Harms go-ahead homer. A side note: Rodolfo Rivas continues to be painful to watch, getting the platinum sombrero today with 5 whiffs in 6 trips (he managed a single) and he's 1 for his last 15 with 9 strikeouts.
Game 3: The Rays took another huge lead today in the middle innings but there would be no Baltimore comeback as Tampa Bay prevailed 10-2 behind a 3-homer game from the ludicrously hot Victor de Jesus. His first homer in the 2nd inning made it four straight games with a longball, and he added #s 30 and 31 in the 6th (a 2-run blast) and 8th innings. He's now hitting 290/418/664 with 31 HR and 63 RBI in 79 games, and has 4.7 WAR. His 31 HR lead MLB and he's 2nd in MLB to teammate Jaiden Hardaway in WAR and OPS. Also having a second straight huge day was Omar Rodriguez, 3-5 with 2 doubles, a HR (#7) and 4 RBI. Nate Clark joined de Jesus in the 30 HR club with a solo blast in the 8th just before de Jesus went back-to-back with him. Mike Harms and Dane Ayers also had 3-hit days as they pounded out 19 in total with everyone in the lineup getting at least one. It was only a 3-1 game in the 5th, though, so Leo Ortega didn't exactly get to coast for very long. He was brilliant again though, going 7 5 2 1 0 7 and sports a crazy 9/113 BB/K ratio as he improved to 10-2, 3.06. Kevin Kerstetter threw a pair of hitless innings with a couple of Ks to finish out the game. Not every day you get the two stars of the day in MLB:
Team record: 67-17. Next up: An off-day, then we head to Wrigley Field for a pair against the Cubs.