The 2024 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Striking back...



Ryan Pepiot was great and the offense finally woke up as the Rays beat the Padres 5-1 and pulled back to 1-2 in the Series. Josh Lowe's 2-run double in the 5th gave Tampa Bay its first lead in the series and they tacked on from there including Jordan Westburg's 2-run homer. Now they have a chance to make it a best-of-3 if Jessie McGee can pitch them to victory tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

In a tough spot...



Game 5 of series tied at 2-2 are always called "pivotal" but so is Game 4 of a 2-1 series as either one team goes up 3-1 or it's a new series at 2-2. Unfortunately it was the former for the Rays as they lost a 2-1 heartbreaker at San Diego and now face elimination tomorrow. None of it was really the fault of rookie Jessie McGee, who took at the Rays at 1-1 into the 7th and was only on 68 pitches before giving up a Graham Pauley homer which was the difference. No the blame was on the offense once again as they could only manage Ryan Cermak's first postseason homer in the 2nd and couldn't convert some late opportunities. They had two with two out in the 8th and couldn't score and then in the 9th Heston Kjerstad's pinch-single put men on 1st and 3rd with two out but Josh Lowe grounded out to end the game. Now it'll be up to ace Taj Bradley to keep the season alive and bring the series back to St. Pete.

[Art Deco]

Not dead yet...



Halloween was a treat and not a trick for the Rays as Taj Bradley and the offense got them a Game 5 win to extend their 2028 season into November and a return to the Trop. Bradley was brilliant, only allowing 2 hits through 6 innings before putting a couple of men on to start the 7th who later came around to score. Meanwhile Christopher Morel's 3-run homer in the 4th broke the ice and the tension and the Rays added on from there with both Jordan Westburg and Luis Campusano hitting their third homers of the series. Ni Guan will need to pitch a lot better than he did in Game 2 if the Rays want this one to go the distance, but at least they still have a shot.

[Art Deco]

We're playing seven!...



Ni Guan. That's the tweet, as they say. The Taiwanese righty was incredible today in a must-win game for Tampa Bay, retiring the first 15 and 24 of the 25 Padres he faced today to lead the Rays to a 4-0 win and a Game 7 to decide it all tomorrow. After a dismal outing in Game 2 Guan was untouchable today and win or lose tomorrow his outing today won't be forgotten but it will be a bit more legendary if they win. Xavier Isaac, in a deep, deep slump, broke out of it with a big RBI triple and Parker Meadows of all people added a 2-run homer to supply the necessary offense. There was one sour note however as Oneil Cruz fractured a finger while sliding into third base on a triple, and is done for the series. With a lefty going Carson Williams might have gotten the start anyway. In any event tomorrow we play for all the Tostitos with Ryan Pepiot taking the ball after a brilliant outing in Game 3 he'll hope to replicate.

[Art Deco]

Amazing!...



Move over Bill Mazeroski and make room for Josh Lowe. The Rays right fielder became only the second man in MLB history to hit a walk-off homer to win a Game 7 in the World Series when he took Kenny Rosenberg deep to left field in the bottom of the 10th to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 win and its first-ever World Championship after coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the series. It was a true classic Game 7 with outstanding pitching from Ryan Pepiot, who tried to make Junior Caminero's 1st-inning solo homer stand up as the game's only run only to see reliever John McMillon give up the game-tying RBI single in the 8th to thorn-in-the-Rays-side Nick Loftin. And San Diego put the first two men on in the 8th before Tanner Scott got a double play and strikeout to escape the jam. Felix Bautista kept the Padres off the board in the 9th and 10th and then Lowe came through in what may very well be his first at-bat as a Ray (he's a free agent-to-be) and made baseball history. Get ready for the parade down Central Avenue in St. Pete and maybe a bonus boat parade in Tampa!

Wasn't the cleanest screen cap, but here's a taste of the celebration:

[Art Deco]

At the moment, the state of the team is quite good:



And it's really good that they won it all this season because this roster is going to look a lot different in 2029. Our free agents this offseason (gulp):



yep that's our #2 starter, 2/3 of the starting OF, both our catchers, our top lefty reliever and our closer. Hoo boy. Cruz as well but Carson Williams is back to reclaim his position. This is who's left and what they're projected to make next year:



Now keeping all of these guys would put us at $127M. With the Series win, Stu Sternberg is giving us $140M for payroll. First off, as good as Guan was I don't think I'm going to pay $27M for him so if we lop off his salary we're down to $100M and I'm not sure about Gasser at $7.5M. Horton and Mead are pushing it too and Contreras is a goner. So we will have some money to spend and might see about re-signing a guy or two.

Position-by-position:

C: Well as mentioned both catchers are gone and if neither are re-signed we have Dominic Keegan and another bat-first guy in AAA, Cade Hunter. We'd definitely need to add someone with a better defensive profile.
IF: The starting infield of Isaac, Westburg, C.Williams and Caminero will all be back. Mead and Brayden Taylor are in the mix for backup roles as well.
OF: Meadows returns in CF after a miserable year at the plate, but Morel and J.Lowe are potential goners. Cermak and Kjerstad could take the corners after DHing quite a bit last year but they're a step down from the incumbents. And there's little depth behind them.
DH: Mead could factor here, and a couple of wild cards are 2-way guys who were #1 picks: Kruz Schoolcraft and Kyle Johnson. The former was viewed as a pitcher first but has prodigious power and blasted 54 homers at 3 minor league stops last year. Johnson's bat isn't quite as good but he could make the team as a SP.

SP: Potentially we lose Pepiot and Guan, leaving Bradley, McGee and Hagen Smith. Maybe one of Schoolcraft/Johnson gets a shot and other candidates include Spencer Schwellenbach, Horton, and Jackson Baumeister, who was excellent in the pen as a R5 guy.
RP: McMillon, Maldonado, and M.Rodriguez are top men left standing so we're going to need help there too.

The bottom line is that it's going to be quite a rebuild this winter with needs everywhere except the infield.

[Art Deco]

Notable retirements: Trevor Story, Sandy Alcantara, Michael Conforto, Ian Happ, Ryan O'Hearn, Kyle Hendricks, Adolis Garcia, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Cal Raleigh, JT Realmuto.

Former Rays: Tyler Glasnow, Trevor Richards, CJ Cron, Jalen Beeks, Jake Odorizzi.

We made a couple of quick trades to start the offseason, moving a couple of pitchers we didn't want to pay in arbitration:



We filled a couple of expected holes with this deal, acquiring C/OF Irish, who has a good bat (27 HR in AAA) although he's an average catcher at best, and OF Ramos, who has 55 power and belted 22 HR for San Diego last year, earning 1.7 WAR. He'll figure into the corner mix while Irish will battle Dom Keegan for a catching spot.



We sent Gasser (and a non-prospect in Rivera) to Seattle and acquired another power-hitting corner OF in Montes, who isn't quite the phenom he was a few years earlier but still mashed 53 HR between AA and AAA and dominated the Texas League enough to be named their Player of the Year despite only spending the first half of the season there. He's still yet to play in the bigs but he'll also be in the corner OF mix.

And why not, one more trade:



We say goodbye to another Ray of the last few years in Mead, who mainly was a short-side platoon player who mashed lefties but still has potential to be a full-time hitter. We were able to snag a rotation replacement in return in Sheehan, who's earned 5.5 WAR the last two years with the Dodgers in only 51 starts and boasts 65 stuff as a starter. There's no salary savings here as Sheehan signed a $5.6M contract for this year to avoid arbitration and Mead was projected for about the same amount.

Awards season:

Gold Glove: No Rays winners.

Reliever of the Year: AL winner was Cleveland's Trey McLoughlin, who had 40 saves with a 2.20 ERA; our Jackson Baumeister finished 3rd. The NL nod went to Milwaukee's Luke Jackson, who compiled 37 saves and a 1.69 ERA.

Silver Slugger: Junior Caminero won at 3B in the AL.

Rookie of the Year: Minnesota OF Walker Jenkins was the clear AL winner after a .267-33-89, 4.7 WAR season (our Ryan Cermak finished fourth) and the unanimous NL winner was Arizona's Jansel Luis who hit .281-22-76 with 4.2 WAR.

Cy Young: The AL winner:



Congrats to Taj, and as you can see we had the #3 guy too in Pepiot. Over in the NL, the recipient was San Diego's Dylan Lesko, who was 18-7, 2.93 with 217 K in 193 IP and earned 4.8 WAR, taking 29 of 30 first-place votes.

MVP: Detroit's Max Clark was the clear AL winner, outpointing Baltimore's Jackson Holliday 379-300 and 23-6 in first-place votes. Clark hit .288-32-90, played Gold Glove D in CF (15.6 ZR) and earned 8.6 WAR. Our Caminero finished fifth. The NL honoree is St. Louis OF Jordan Walker, a unanimous choice after a massive .355-41-113, 8.9 WAR season.

November 25: Arizona dealt SS Jordan Lawlar to Seattle for a couple of pitching prospects.

November 26: Texas and Cincinnati made a massive deal with a couple of stars and former very high picks heading in each direction - OF Wyatt Langford is going to the Reds and IF JJ Wetherholt is headed the other direction. It's a 7-player deal in total with two pretty good prospects also going to Texas.

November 27: We lost all three of our arbitration cases to players who wanted long-term deals (Caminero, Isaac, Bradley), so those three will collectively cost us about $2.5M more than expected.

December 1: The Cubs traded long-time starter Hayden Wesneski to Seattle for a trio of prospects.

December 6: The Dodgers offered us Pete Fairbanks, but we said no.

December 8: LA ended up sending Fairbanks to Cleveland for a couple of minor leaguers. He's more of a middle reliever these days.

December 15: The Marlins won the draft lottery, moving up from 4th. Pittsburgh, who would have picked first, dropped to 5th.

December 16: I have a couple of free agent offers out, including one for a foreign import. Stay tuned. Also the first of our free agents signed elsewhere with Christopher Morel joining Arizona for 3/46.

December 21: Well that foreign import won't be coming to Tampa Bay. I was trying to secure star Korean catcher Jin-Man Kim, who boasts 70 defense to go with 50 contact and power. Negotiations started around $15M/year and I was willing to go as high as $20M (reluctantly), but now he just came back and said the Dodgers topped that and he wants $22M/year so I'm out. We have about $50M to spend but I ain't dropping half of that on a 29-year-old C for 5 years.

December 23: Added 1B Enzo Paulino, P Juan Mercedes, P Santiago Suarez, P Nash Wagner and OF Samuel Munoz to the 40-man roster.

With all the free agents we had, even after adding this quarter we have 6(!) slots open so we'll see if something interesting is available in Rule 5. Last year we got Baumeister, who was great.

December 24: The Xmas Eve Rule 5 Draft saw 28 players picked from under the tree, but none of them were ours nor did we pick up anyone.

December 28: A couple of former pitchers of ours signed free-agent deals with SP Kodai Senga joining Toronto for 3/41 and reliever Sam Hentges landing in Philly for 3/26.

December 29: Another of our free agents goes as Ryan Pepiot is a Giant on a 6/125 deal. Former Ray Shane Baz goes to Arizona for 4/79 and starter-turned-closer George Kirby signed a 4/81 deal with the Blue Jays, who I imagine for that money are going to make him a starter again.

December 31: Longtime star Minnesota closer Jhoan Duran joined the free-spending Giants on a whopping 2/62 deal.

[Art Deco]

January 1: Veteran Ketel Marte signed a 3/45 deal with the Giants, who continue to flash the cash.

January 2: Busy day for free agent signings with Pete Alonso headed to Milwaukee on a 4/34 contract, 37-year-old Nolan Arenado hooking up with Cleveland for 1/3.2, Jarren Duran to the Royals for 1/1.8 and 36-year-old Kris Bryant inking a minor league deal with San Diego.

January 3: After 15 seasons in Cleveland, club legend 36-year-old Jose Ramirez signed with (who else?) San Francisco for 1 year at $4.7M.

January 6: Richard Lovelady, in our pen the last couple of years, joined the White Sox on a $1.2M one-year deal.

January 10: And there he goes - long-time Rays OF fixture Josh Lowe joins former namesake teammate Brandon in Seattle on a 4/79 deal, and the Mariners also added 37-year-old former NL MVP Christian Yelich for 3/28. Lowe wasn't the also free agent we lost today - reliever Manuel Rodriguez signed a one-year-deal for an even $1M with Kansas City while veteran Alex Bregman inked a minor league pact with Toronto.

January 12: Closers are fetching top dollar (and I mean top dollar) as our stopper of recent vintage Felix Bautista joined Houston for 2 years at just under $30M(!) a season. This was a guy coming off an 0.1 WAR season! Also the Giants shipped Josh Naylor to Boston for a prospect.

January 16: Both of our catchers from last year find new homes as Luis Campusano, off a brilliant season for us, goes to Cleveland on a lengthy 7/108 deal, a long tenure for a 30-year-old catcher, while Jonah Heim joins the Cardinals for 2/8.5. Meanwhile the Cubs dealt 2B Nico Hoerner to the Athletics for prospects.

January 17: A big day for the Hall of Fame as the voting is in and four players are enshrined:



Close calls for A-Rod, Yadi and Mauer as well with the former running out of time. Quite a dropoff after the top seven.

January 24: Well after waving goodbye to one player after another we finally said hello to someone:



We now have our closer as Klein has saved 80 games for the Angels the last two seasons and boasts 70 stuff with 65 movement (albeit with 35 control).

And we also signed someone to dream on, one of the top amateur international free agents:



January 30: Time for some whopping free-agent deals:

Gabriel Moreno (NYM), 7/321
Riley Greene (COL), 5/209
Jacob deGrom (NYM), 2/86 (he's back!)
CJ Abrams (WAS) 5/168 (he's back as well after a year w/PHI)
Garrett Whitlock (SF), 5/69 (them again)

Also the Rangers signed Japanese import SP Wakaki Hatanaka to a 5/138 deal.

And in some personal news Stu Sternberg bumped up the payroll $6M. Right now we still have way more than we can spend, unless we want to sign some ridiculous contracts on guys who wouldn't be a big upgrade on what we already have.

February 4: More free agent news. First the last of our big free agents from last year, Oneil Cruz, signed with Arizona for 4/72. Jin-Man Kim, the star catcher coming over from South Korea whom we were in on until his demands went over $20M/year, ended up getting 5/132 from the Angels. And we made a small signing adding free agent C Agustin Ramirez, who had been in the Yankees system, to a minor-league deal with a $1.5M MLB option. Ramirez is a 55-rated catcher, with 50 contact, 50 power and a 50 eye and will battle with Ike Irish and Dom Keegan for a spot. It's also possible we use one of them as the DH vs LHP.

February 9: SP Matt Brash signed with Washington for 2/27.

February 28: We made a minor trade:



Hennen is a veteran lefty and Jacob Lopez was the only one we had in the pen. He's more of a control type so he'll take the Richard Lovelady role.

Time to head into the preseason schedule.

[Art Deco]

Spring Training saw us go 12-9 in the preseason games, and we signed a couple of veteran RH bats to minor league deals: Austin Hays and Eloy Jimenez. Hays made the team as the DH against LHP while Jimenez is headed to Durham. Luckily there we no injuries of note.

So this is the Opening Day Roster:

C-Keegan, Irish
1B-Isaac
2B-Westburg
SS-C.Williams
3B-Caminero
IF-B.Taylor
LF-Montes
CF-P.Meadows
RF-Cermak
DH-Kjerstad
OF-Hays, J.Ramos

Ramos will platoon with Montes in LF while Kjerstad and Hays will platoon at DH.

SP-Bradley, McGee, Sheehan, H.Smith*, Schwellenbach
LR-Horton, J.Mercedes
MR-Baumeister, J.Lopez*, Hennen*
SU-McMillon, Maldonado
CL-Klein

*lefties

That's Juan Mercedes, a veteran pitcher who was at Durham last year and was out of options but seems promising enough to keep.

And here they are, up close and personal:



This team did not wow me on paper and seemed significantly inferior to last year's so I was bit leery of what the preseason predictions would show.



Well that was a shock. Despite losing key members of the rotation, bullpen, 2/3 of our starting OF and both catchers, OOTP thinks we'll be as good or better this year. And they really like our pitching with McGee projected as the AL's top pitcher. I'm still skeptical though.

[Art Deco]

March 29: The Opening Day box:



The Rays opened defense of their surprise 2028 title with a 5-3 win at Baltimore behind a solid start from reigning AL Cy Young winner Taj Bradley, quality work from their retooled bullpen, and homers from the unsurprising (Xavier Isaac) and the surprising (Ike Irish in his team debut).

March 30: at Baltimore 7-9 L (8). LP-McGee (0-1, 3.1 9 6 6 3 4). HR-Montes (1). OOTP's preseason picks had McGee as the top starter in the AL but in his season debut he was anything but, getting shelled and helping to put the team in a 9-3 hole. They fought back to get within 9-7 and were deprived of a 9th-inning comeback opportunity when the rains came and shortened the game. Westburg was 2-3 with a double and 2 RBI while Montes had a 2-run shot for his first Rays homer.

Transaction: Claimed IF Cade Doughty on waivers from San Francisco, optioned IF Brayden Taylor to Durham.

Doughty can play IF and OF although his glove is a bit light he hit 18 HR in 308 AB for the Giants last year while slugging .503 and earning 1.6 WAR. He's a RH bat too which I prefer for the backup IF.

March 31: at Baltimore 6-4 W. WP-Sheehan (1-0, 5 7 3 3 0 4). S-Klein (2). HR-Isaac (2), Caminero (1). Sheehan won his Tampa Bay debut after a 4-run 6th erased a 3-0 Orioles lead thanks to Doughty's 2-run double (in his Rays debut) and an Isaac 2-run homer. Klein had the shakiest of saves, giving up a run in the 9th on two hits and a walk, but held on.

April 1: at Baltimore 6-0 W. WP-H.Smith (1-0, 5.2 6 0 0 1 9). S-Baumeister (1). HR-Westburg (1), J.Ramos (1). Rays took the series with their most impressive win yet thanks in large part to Smith, who looked his 2027 self rather than the mediocre 2028 version while Baumeister went 3 1/3 allowing only a hit for the save. Two former Orioles gave the Rays a quick 2-0 lead as Austin Hays led off the game with a single and Westburg belted a 2-run homer, and then Ramos drove in 3 with a solo homer and 2-run single.

Team record: 3-1, 1/2 game behind the 3-0 Yankees. Next up: 3 games in Texas as we play our first 10 games on the road for some reason despite playing in a dome.

[Art Deco]

April 2: at Texas 4-2 W. WP-Horton (1-0). S-Klein (3). Starter-Schwellenbach (2.1 1 0 0 1 3). HR-Montes (2), P.Meadows (1). Montes' 3-run homer in the 4th was the difference as the Rays had to put together a bullpen game with Schwellenbach leaving early with a minor tweak.

April 3: at Texas 2-6 L. LP-Bradley (1-1, 5 7 4 4 2 7). HR-Westburg (2). Taj was touched for 4 runs in the first two innings and the Rays never recovered from there, managing only five hits.

April 4: at Texas 7-1 W. WP-McGee (1-1, 7 5 1 1 1 7). HR-Cermak 2 (2), Westburg (3). That was more like it from McGee as the Rays took their second straight series to open the season. Cermak was 3-5 with the two homers and 3 RBI to lead the offense.

April 5: Off-Day.

April 6: at Boston 5-2 W. WP-Sheehan (2-0, 5 2 1 1 3 5). S-Klein (4). HR-Keegan (1). Keegan's first MLB homer was a 2-run homer off Blake Snell in the 2nd that got the Rays on their way to another win as Ramos doubled and singled in a pair of runs as well to back Sheehan and good work from the pen.

April 7: at Boston 2-3 L. LP-Mercedes (0-1). Starter-H.Smith (5 4 2 2 2 3). HR-Westburg (4). Rays came back to tie in the 7th on a pinch-RBI double from Doughty but Mercedes surrendered a homer to Marcelo Mayer in the bottom of the inning to lose it.

April 8: at Boston 2-3 L. LP-McMillon (0-1). Starter-Schwellenbach (4.2 6 1 1 2 5). HR-Caminero (2). Rays lost another heartbreak and the series as they took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 8th only for McMillon to face 4 batters, retire none of them and allow the tying and losing runs.

Team record: 6-4. That's actually tied for first with Boston and no team in the AL has a better record, believe it or not. Next week: The Rays finally get to open their home schedule with 3 against the two teams from the "other Bay area", the A's and Giants with an off-day in between.

Players of the Week:

AL: Max Clark (DET), 12-26, 4 HR, 9 RBI
NL: Will Benson (CIN), 9-19, 3 HR, 6 RBI

Also winning PotW honors in the IL was our Agustin Ramirez, who is off to an insane start with the Bulls: 18-33, 5 HR, 15 RBI in 8 games (with 4 walks as well).

MLB News: Former long-time Ray and current Oriole Yandy Diaz has announced his retirement effective at the end of the season. He'll be 38 in August. Also St. Louis SP Kyle Wright is done for the year with a torn flexor tendon.

[Art Deco]

April 9: vs Oakland 5-2 W. WP-Bradley (2-1, 6.2 3 1 1 3 6). S-Klein (5). HR-Westburg (5). Westburg's torrid start to the season continued with a 2-run homer in the first, Irish doubled and tripled and drove in a run, and Taj was terrific.

April 10: vs Oakland 8-4 W. WP-McGee (2-1, 6 6 2 2 0 7). HR-Irish (2), C.Williams (1), Montes (3), Westburg (6). Rays actually trailed this one 2-1 going into the bottom of the 6th before erupting for four runs including Williams' 2-run shot and never looked back, bashing four longballs in all.

April 11: vs Oakland 3-2 W. WP-Klein (1-0). Starter-Sheehan (6.1 5 1 1 2 3). Rays went up 2-1 in the 8th only for Klein to blow his first save as a Ray but his teammates picked him up with Ramos' sac fly in the bottom of the 9th walking off a win and completing a sweep of the A's. All three Tampa Bay runs came on sac flies as it turned out.

April 12: Off-Day.

April 13: vs San Francisco 6-1 W. WP-H.Smith (2-0, 6 3 1 1 2 5). HR-Isaac (3), Kjerstad (1). Smith continues to look like his 2027 self and Isaac was 3-4 with a double, homer and 3 RBI to lead the attack.

April 14: vs San Francisco 1-2 L. LP-Schwellenbach (0-1, 3.2 3 1 1 2 6). HR-Caminero (3). Rays were dominated by the Giants' Kyle Harrison, who held them to two hits over 7 1/3 and they only added one more in a tough loss. Schwellenbach has had a hard time making it through games without leaving due to injury and today he strained his back but should make his next start.

April 15: vs San Francisco 9-3 W. WP-Bradley (3-1, 5 6 3 3 5 7). HR-Isaac (4), Cermak (3), Montes (4), Kjerstad (2), Caminero (4). Isaac's solo homer in the 5th broke a 3-3 tie and the Rays piled on from there with four more homers as they won today despite Taj's wildness and took 5 of 6 this week off the two teams from the "other Bay area". Cermak was 3-4 with a homer and 2 RBI.

Team record: 11-5, a game up on Baltimore and two on Boston in a good start to 2029. Next week: We conclude the homestand with 3 against those Red Sox before taking a day off to travel to Arizona for 3 as the schedule seems front-loaded with interleague games.

Players of the Week:

AL: Vlad Guerrero Jr (TOR), 9-23, 4 HR, 8 RBI
NL: Curtis Mead (LA), 12-24, 2 HR, 5 RBI (if Sheehan wasn't pitching so well this would bother me)

Rays news: Down on the farm pitching prospect Jose Urbina pitched a no-hitter for AA Montgomery.

[Art Deco]

April 16: vs Boston 4-1 W. WP-McGee (3-1, 6 3 0 0 1 6). S-Klein (6). An excellent outing from McGee backed by 3-hit, 1-RBI games from Ramos and Meadows, the latter doubling twice.

Transaction: Jordan Westburg, he of the red-hot start (6 HR and 14 RBI in 17 games) strained his back and will get 10 days off after which he should be ready to return. Coming up for him is Brayden Taylor, who will platoon with Doughty at 2B.

April 17: vs Boston 2-6 L. LP-Sheehan (2-1, 5 5 3 3 3 8). HR-C.Williams (2). Not the Rays' night as the offense couldn't do much and the bullpen couldn't keep it close.

April 18: vs Boston 3-0 W. WP-H.Smith (6 3 0 0 1 8). S-Klein (7). HR-B.Taylor (1), Doughty (1). The Hagenaissance continues as Smith lowered his ERA to a microscopic 1.19 and Taylor tripled and homered in his first start since being recalled.

April 19: Off-Day.

April 20: at Arizona 6-2 W. WP-Schwellenbach (1-1, 6.1 4 0 0 1 2). HR-Cermak (4), C.Williams (3), P.Meadows (2). Schwellenbach picked up his first Rays win in an impressive outing (and he didn't have to leave early for once) while Williams doubled, homered and drove in a pair to lead the offense in yet another win.

April 21: at Arizona 5-1 W. WP-Bradley (4-1, 5 3 1 1 1 9). S-Baumeister (2, 4 2 0 0 0 4). Taj was back in Cy Young form, Baumeister was excellent in long relief, and Taylor stayed hot since his callup by going 3-4 with a double and 3 RBI.

April 22: at Arizona 7-4 W. WP-Mercedes (1-1). S-Klein (8). Starter-McGee (4 7 4 4 2 5). HR-Doughty (2), Caminero (5), Cermak (5). A very strange game that saw the Rays jump out to a 6-0 lead in the 4th only for McGee to nearly give it all back in the bottom of the inning, but the bullpen held strong with 5 scoreless. The other strange aspect is that Rays hitters, despite scoring 7 runs on 15 hits including 3 homers, struck out a whopping 19 times on the day including a golden sombrero from Williams who was 0-5. Nevertheless it still added up to a 5-1 week and a sweep in the desert.

Team record: 16-6, 3 1/2 up on the Yankees and Baltimore. You might think that 16-6 is the best record in MLB but no, the Rockies (yes, the Rockies) are off to an absurd 19-3 start. Next week: 4 games in Chicago against the White Sox before returning home for 3 against that very Colorado team, which should be interesting.

Players of the Week:

AL: Gunnar Henderson (BAL), 11-23, 2 HR, 9 RBI
NL: Benny Montgomery (COL), 10-21, 2 HR, 16(!) RBI

[Art Deco]

April 23: at Chicago White Sox 4-7 L. LP-Sheehan (2-2, 5 3 2 2 1 7). HR-C.Williams (4). A close on (down 2-1 in the 6th) got away when J.Lopez allowed 4 runs.

April 24: at Chicago White Sox 2-4 L. LP-H.Smith (3-1, 4.2 7 4 4 2 4). Another loss in the Windy City as Smith had his first bad start of the year, giving up a couple of homers.

April 25: at Chicago White Sox 8-2 W. WP-Schwellenbach (2-1, 6.1 4 2 2 0 7). HR-Cermak (6). The offense came alive with 8 runs on 17 hits as everyone in the lineup collected at least one base hit with Isaac and Kjerstad each banging out three.

April 26: at Chicago White Sox 5-4 W. WP-Bradley (5-1, 5 5 1 1 2 9). S-Klein (9). HR-Doughty (3). Doughty's 2-run homer in the 5th was the big hit and the Rays hung on for a series split after taking a 5-1 lead. Taj was great but needed 98 pitches to get through five.

Transaction: Activated IF Jordan Westburg from the IL, optioned IF Brayden Taylor to AAA Durham.

April 27: vs Colorado 4-2 W. WP-McGee (4-1, 6 6 2 2 1 7). S-Klein (10). HR-C.Williams (5), Isaac (5), Montes (5). The Rockies came into this series off to an MLB-best 21-4 start but they tasted defeat at the Trop thanks to McGee and a trio of homers which accounted for all four Rays runs.

April 28: vs Colorado 3-1 W. WP-Hennen (1-0). S-Baumeister (3). Starter-Sheehan (6 1 0 0 1 7). Sheehan was absolutely brilliant but was denied the win when Hennen lost a 1-0 lead in the top of the 7th, only for Cermak to rescue the Rays with a 2-run single to win it in the bottom of the inning. Baumeister went the final two innings for the save as the "A" bullpen needed a rest.

April 29: vs Colorado 3-4 L. LP-Horton (1-1). Starter-H.Smith (5 4 2 2 2 7). HR-Montes (6), C.Williams (6). Rockies got a homer in the 6th to break a 2-2 tie and didn't look back from there. A late rally saw a Williams homer to lead off the 9th but they couldn't get the tying run home.

Team record: 20-9, four games up on the Yankees and Orioles. Next week: 3 at home against the White Sox and then after an off-day 3 in Philadelphia.

Players of the Week:

AL: Bo Naylor (CLE), 9-15, 3 HR, 8 RBI
NL: Bryce Harper (PHI), 10-20, 3 HR, 6 RBI

MLB News: Randy gonna Randy as Seattle's Arozarena will miss two months after suffering a torn labrum while moving furniture into his new home. Elsewhere the oft-injured Yordan Alvarez is hurt again - the Houston slugger will miss six weeks with a broken finger.