Made one last trade at the deadline:
Traded 37-year old RHP Liam Hendriks to the Boston Red Sox, getting 30-year old RHP Garrett Whitlock (retaining 100%) in return.
My frustration with Hendriks has been well-chronicled here and when the Red Sox were willing to offer a quality swingman like Whitlock and pick up 100% of his salary for this year and the rest of the next season I couldn't pass it up. Whitlock will go into the pen for now but could make some starts. He's earned 3+ WAR the last two full seasons and was 5-14, 4.15 this year in the Boston rotation but has had some bad luck.
Game 1: 11-9 W. WP-Sears (1-1). S-Moran (1). Starter-McClanahan (0.1 0 0 0 0 1). HR-Torkelson (25/29), Franco (18), Suzuki (2/5), N.Santana (3/17). A weird, wild game which saw Mac leave after one batter with hamstring soreness (a 2-day injury), meaning we'd have to piece together a bullpen game. Jumping out to early leads of 7-0 and 9-3 helped but it was an adventure til the end when Texas scored 4 times in the 9th, and Alex Verdugo was a remarkable 6-6 with a homer and 5 RBI for the Rangers. Nathaniel Santana continues to impress and he was 4-5 with a 2-run homer and 3 runs scored to pace the offense.
Game 2: 2-3 L (11). LP-Fairbanks (2-4). Starter-Ashby (5.2 4 0 0 0 9). HR-Torkelson (26/30). A brilliant spot start from Aaron Ashby was wasted as the bats couldn't get anything going outside of a 2-run Tork homer in the 8th which sent us to extras (which we didn't need after yesterday's bullpen game) where we lost. Alex Verdugo killed us again with a 2-run single in regulation.
Game 3: 1-6 L. LP-Bradley (8-6, 4 5 4 4 2 3). Just an ugly day all around as the slog of mediocrity continues.
Team record: 51-55, still only 2 1/2 back in the division somehow. Next up: 3 games in Cleveland.
Just to show how stuck around .500 most of the league is, here's a look at the latest standings:
Despite being 4 under .500 if the Rays go on a hot streak they can put themselves in good position. Of course that hot streak hasn't come and may very well never.