The Rays got their long-delayed revenge for being beaten by Houston in the 2019 ALDS as they effectively eliminated the Astros from postseason contention this year, sweeping them at Minute Maid Park and dropping them 3 games behind Seattle with only 3 games left to play. Boston officially clinched the second wild card and will go to Yankee Stadium to play for the right to meet the Rays in the ALDS with Seattle at Detroit in the other series. Over in the NL, it's pretty much over too as the Phillies lead the Mets by 3 with 3 to go for the second wild card there; they'll play at Washington in the NL game. Atlanta and Arizona are tied on 104 wins so we'll see who gets the top seed over there.
Joe Ryan closed out his regular season in outstanding fashion as he hurled 7 shutout innings in a 6-2 Rays win over Houston. Ryan went 7 3 0 0 1 6 to finish the year 18-8, 2.48, numbers which would be good enough most years for a Cy Young if not for the existence of teammate
James Hays. Ryan could theoretically start one more game and would have had he been going for 20 wins but instead he'll sit the finale and
Slade Cecconi will start.
Andrew Greckel drove in 3 including a 2-run triple and
Adley Rutschman had a 2-run homer (#24) to lead the offense.
JT Ginn had his ups and downs this year, but they were mostly ups as he completed his first season in the rotation 14-7, 3.87 after going 6 4 2 2 1 5 in a 3-2 Rays win over the Astros.
Yasunari Uehara notched his 16th save, and
Jelfry Marte was the surprise offensive star as the light-hitting infielder hit his first homer of the season to break a 2-2 tie in the 7th and added a triple in the 9th inning to cap a 3-hit day. This was his farewell game as
Kelly Crumpton comes off the IL tomorrow, but he'll join Durham in their quest for the Governors' Cup.
Well
James Hays just finished what was probably the best season of pitching by anyone in the 21st century in a 3-0 Rays win to sweep the Astros. Hays went 6 1 0 0 1 13 and finishes the regular season with these numbers:
Yowza. That last category is WAR and as mentioned in the previous post, it's the best season by that metric since Dwight Gooden's 1985. He's a lock for the Cy Young and should be a lock for MVP as well as the nearest AL hitter in WAR is Houston's Francisco Lindor at 7.9. His 24 wins are the most since Justin Verlander won 24 in 2011, the year he was Cy Young and MVP. Hays will head into the postseason perhaps the most feared pitcher since Mike Scott in 1986. As to the game
Kelly Crumpton homered (#27) in his first at-bat off the IL to put the Rays ahead to stay and
Yoelqui Cespedes (a great under-the-radar pickup this year) was 2-5 with an RBI double.
DL Hall closed out Hays' win and the 18-strikeout team shutout with his team-high 18th save.
Team record: 105-54. Next up: We close out the regular season with 3 games in Baltimore after an off-day.
Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls commenced the IL Championship round against Scranton WB and took the first two games to pull within one win of the title. Both games were won in dramatic and unusual walk-off fashion, with a Scranton error allowing the winning run to score in the 14th inning of Game 1 to break a 3-3 tie, and a walk-off walk bringing home the winner to cap a 4-run rally in the bottom of the 9th to take Game 2 by a 6-5 score. The Bulls trailed 5-2 going into the final frame and Diego Cartaya's 2-run double tied it before the bases-loaded walk to Kole Enright.