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Art Deco · 02-25-2023, 10:30 AM

The Rays split their four games north of the border as we now enter the season's final week.

Tampa Bay rallied from 7-4 down to tie it in the 9th, only to eventually lose 8-7 in 13 innings to Toronto in an extra-inning affair nobody wanted. Dong-hwan Kim homered (#38) to start the 9th making it 7-6, and Nate Strickland, who had hit HR #23 earlier, drove in his third run of the game with his third hit, an RBI double. Wander Franco also had 3 hits including HR #22. Francisco Morales' late-season funk showed no signs of abating as he was hit hard at 4 8 6 6 2 3 and the loss went to Tommy Burpee (1-4) in his third inning of relief.

The Rays' only things left to play for in the regular season are the quests of Joe Marlette and Kevin DiCostanzo to reach the 20-win mark and tonight Marlette took the mound with 19 wins. And it was Mission Accomplished as Marlette and the Rays took a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays making him the team's first 20-game winner since James Hays' 22 in his Cy Young/MVP 2027 season. The lefty went 6 5 1 1 2 7 in a typically outstanding performance but needed some help as the game went 1-1 into the 6th. That's when Joshua Baez stepped up and drilled a 3-run homer (#31) to break the deadlock and provide the winning margin. Wander Franco homered earlier (#23) for the second straight night and DeMarcus Evans had a 1-2-3 9th for save #8/38.

With only start remaining after tonight's and sitting on 18 wins Kevin DiCostanzo had to get the win to keep his hopes of reaching 20 alive, but unfortunately his teammates couldn't support him and the Rays lost 3-2 to Toronto. DiCostanzo (18-6) wasn't his best but did his part given the offense's usual standards this year as he went 6 9 3 3 1 6. But they only scored one run while he was out there and their attempted 9th-inning comeback fell short after Jonathan Gutierrez was stranded at third after tripling in a run.

The Rays came out of Toronto with a split of the series after taking a 5-4 win in the finale. Wes Mendes (14-9) was sharp again at 5.1 3 1 1 2 5 although the pen did its best to nearly squander the game as Garrett Crochet served up a 3-run homer in the 8th and DeMarcus Evans loaded the bases in the 9th (including putting a man on 3rd with nobody out) but got out of it for save #9/39. Jonathan Gutierrez led the offense with a 2-run double in the 3rd which put the Rays ahead to stay and Diego Cartaya's ridiculous season as the backup catcher continued as he went 2-4 with an RBI. He's now hitting 368/429/534 in 133 AB.

Team record: 103-53. Next up: An off-day then our final road series of the regular season takes place in Chicago against the White Sox.

Playoff race update: As it's been for a while it's all over but the shouting in the AL as the Rays, Twins and Rangers (in that seed order) have or virtually have won their divisions with the Yankees, Guardians and A's set as the three wild cards in that order, so Cleveland will be at New York and Oakland at Texas in the wild card round. Things are more fluid in the NL as Washington and Arizona are safe as divsion winners and in the Central Cincinnati leads Milwaukee by 2 games. San Francisco is set as the top wild card but after that Milwaukee leads the Mets and Miami by 1 game in the second spot and those two are 1 1/2 up on San Diego and 2 on the Cubs.

02-25-2023, 10:30 AM	#1017
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,607	September 23-26, 2032: at Toronto (4) The Rays split their four games north of the border as we now enter the season's final week. Tampa Bay rallied from 7-4 down to tie it in the 9th, only to eventually lose 8-7 in 13 innings to Toronto in an extra-inning affair nobody wanted. Dong-hwan Kim homered (#38) to start the 9th making it 7-6, and Nate Strickland, who had hit HR #23 earlier, drove in his third run of the game with his third hit, an RBI double. Wander Franco also had 3 hits including HR #22. Francisco Morales' late-season funk showed no signs of abating as he was hit hard at 4 8 6 6 2 3 and the loss went to Tommy Burpee (1-4) in his third inning of relief. The Rays' only things left to play for in the regular season are the quests of Joe Marlette and Kevin DiCostanzo to reach the 20-win mark and tonight Marlette took the mound with 19 wins. And it was Mission Accomplished as Marlette and the Rays took a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays making him the team's first 20-game winner since James Hays' 22 in his Cy Young/MVP 2027 season. The lefty went 6 5 1 1 2 7 in a typically outstanding performance but needed some help as the game went 1-1 into the 6th. That's when Joshua Baez stepped up and drilled a 3-run homer (#31) to break the deadlock and provide the winning margin. Wander Franco homered earlier (#23) for the second straight night and DeMarcus Evans had a 1-2-3 9th for save #8/38. With only start remaining after tonight's and sitting on 18 wins Kevin DiCostanzo had to get the win to keep his hopes of reaching 20 alive, but unfortunately his teammates couldn't support him and the Rays lost 3-2 to Toronto. DiCostanzo (18-6) wasn't his best but did his part given the offense's usual standards this year as he went 6 9 3 3 1 6. But they only scored one run while he was out there and their attempted 9th-inning comeback fell short after Jonathan Gutierrez was stranded at third after tripling in a run. The Rays came out of Toronto with a split of the series after taking a 5-4 win in the finale. Wes Mendes (14-9) was sharp again at 5.1 3 1 1 2 5 although the pen did its best to nearly squander the game as Garrett Crochet served up a 3-run homer in the 8th and DeMarcus Evans loaded the bases in the 9th (including putting a man on 3rd with nobody out) but got out of it for save #9/39. Jonathan Gutierrez led the offense with a 2-run double in the 3rd which put the Rays ahead to stay and Diego Cartaya's ridiculous season as the backup catcher continued as he went 2-4 with an RBI. He's now hitting 368/429/534 in 133 AB. Team record: 103-53. Next up: An off-day then our final road series of the regular season takes place in Chicago against the White Sox. Playoff race update: As it's been for a while it's all over but the shouting in the AL as the Rays, Twins and Rangers (in that seed order) have or virtually have won their divisions with the Yankees, Guardians and A's set as the three wild cards in that order, so Cleveland will be at New York and Oakland at Texas in the wild card round. Things are more fluid in the NL as Washington and Arizona are safe as divsion winners and in the Central Cincinnati leads Milwaukee by 2 games. San Francisco is set as the top wild card but after that Milwaukee leads the Mets and Miami by 1 game in the second spot and those two are 1 1/2 up on San Diego and 2 on the Cubs.