The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

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Game 1: The Rays won their first game in Rogers Centre this season with a 7-1 decision over the Blue Jays behind an excellent outing from Andy Aparicio. It didn't start off great for AA as he allowed a homer to the first hitter of the game, and needed 4 double plays in the early-to-mid innings to get through, but around the 5th he went into cruise control and finished 8 6 1 1 2 9. He's now 17-4, 3.04 and leads the league in pitcher WAR at 4.9 so he's got to be the Cy Young frontrunner. Bob Sirna pitched a scoreless 9th and the offensive start tonight was Luis Corpus, 3-4 with a pair of doubles and RBI. Vlad Jr also had a 3-hit night in his old stomping grounds while Victor de Jesus (#42) and Rodolfo Rivas (#32) hit back-to-back jacks in the 8th. The win puts them at 96-24, or with an otherworldly .800 winning percentage. It's also their 11th straight and 19th out of 20.

Game 2: The Rays won another football game tonight, beating the Argonauts, er Blue Jays, 17-7. It was their latest offensive orgy but the Rays would have traded being shut out for the injury news they received tonight when Jon Soranno had to leave in the 2nd inning with what turned out to be shoulder inflammation and he's done for the year. He might have been the best #4 starter in the league and while seeing Nate Thompson struggle in the #5 spot was a luxury they could afford suddenly he's now the #4 starter with the playoffs looming. A couple of pitchers held an impromptu audition for the now-open rotation spot in relief of Soranno. Kevin Kerstetter came in first and was pretty terrible, walking 4 in 1 2/3 innings and allowing 3 runs. He picked up the win by virtue of his timing as the Rays already had an 8-0 lead when Soranno departed but did himself no favors. More reliable as usual was Danny Medina, who went 3.2 4 1 1 0 4 following Kerstetter and is my choice at the moment to take Soranno's spot. Jim Connors went the final two innings and allowed 3 runs. Also Rodolfo Rivas had to come out of the game with a sore hamstring but his injury is considered minimal for a week. On offense, I'm just going to give you the batting section of the box score rather than try to recap 17 runs of offense:



August 17: Placed P Jon Soranno on the 60-day IL with shoulder inflammation, recalled P Chris Hicks from AAA Durham.

Soranno concludes his breakout season with a 15-3 record and 3.08 ERA with 42 walks and 144 whiffs in 137 1/3 innings. Hicks was great last year, struggled this year, but has pitched very well at Durham so he'll get a second chance. He has 65 stamina so he'll get used in long relief as Danny Medina moves into the rotation.

Game 3: The Tampa Bay Rays may lose a game someday, but today was not that day. Nate Schultz pitched a complete-game 2-hit shutout to extend the Rays' winning streak to a baker's dozen as Tampa Bay took a 3-0 win over Toronto. Schultz missed a "Maddux" by one pitch as he ended with exactly 100 pitches going 9 2 0 0 1 8 and the Jays failed to advance a runner beyond first base. He's now 17-1, 3.14 as he continues to duel teammate Andy Aparicio for the AL Cy Young Award. The bats were up against a tough customer in Toronto ace Jimmy Shaffer but their most powerful weapon, the home run, won the day for them. Vlad Guerrero Jr hit HR #8 as a Ray (#27 overall) in the first to make it 1-0 and Bo Angeac hit #37 with a man on in the 4th, his 4th homer in 5 games. That would be all they'd get but it was more than they needed with Schultz on the mound.

Game 4: Bit of a Groundhog Day feel to today's game as the Rays got another shutout and relied on the longball for offense in a 7-0 win that makes it 14 straight. Nate Thompson, perhaps motivated by moving up to the #4 starter slot, pitched his best game of the season going 6 5 0 0 1 7 on 96 pitches to improve to 5-3, 4.72, and Tim Siqueiros, Jordan Diaz and Chris Hicks pitched a scoreless inning each to keep Toronto off the board for the second straight day. Three 2-run homers supplied the offense: Nate Clark's 45th in the 1st, Danny Ayala's 4th in 4th, and Bo Angeac's 38th in the 8th as he can't stop hitting home runs. A 7th run scored on an Jays error in the 9th. Vlad Guerrero Jr singled in his last at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 22 games.

Team record: 99-24. By the way, their magic # to clinch the division is down to 6 here in mid-August. Next up: 3 at home vs Seattle.

MLB News: Cody Bellinger hit his 600th career homer tonight for the Phillies. Also after losing his first three starts since joining San Diego, Alec Sachais had an excellent outing for the Padres tonight, going 6.1 4 0 0 1 4 in a win over Washington.

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The Friday night game was rained out by another summer thunderstorm so we're playing two on Saturday.

Game 1: Seattle hung in there for 6 1/2 innings in the first game of the doubleheader but once again the Rays' bats were too much in a 7-2 win extending their winning streak to 15. Leo Ortega started and was sharp, except for a homer from Devon Tuley, a minor leaguer we traded to the Mariners for Kevin Kerstetter and who's done nothing but rake for Seattle (322/378/513 with 17 HR), and an Adley Rustchman (remember him?) triple. He was 6 4 2 2 1 6. Tim Siqueiros pitched the 7th and was once again the pitcher of record when we took the lead so he gets win #8, Mike Wherry got 2 out in the 8th but put two on when it was 5-2 so Kikuo Kawase got the whiff to end the inning and struck out the side in the 9th for save #15. The hitting star early was Vlad Jr, now with a 23-game hitting streak as he was 4-5 with an RBI single and RBI double for the first two Rays runs. Then in the 7th Nate Clark's RBI double broke the deadlock and Bo Angeac added HR #39 with a man on to make it 4 straight with a longball. And Jaiden Hardaway hit #34, a 2-run shot in the 8th, to provide the final margin.

NOTE: The storms hit again after Game 1, so Game 2 of the doubleheader on Saturday was washed out, meaning we play a doubleheader on Sunday instead.

August 20: Recalled P Gil Wayne from AAA Durham.

Wayne returns as the extra man for another doubleheader. His first such start went quite well, here's hoping this one does too.

Game 2: The game was over in the 1st inning when Seattle starter Willie Gutierrez couldn't get anyone out with the first 9 Rays reaching base and they scored 7 times on the way to a 9-2 win, #16 in a row. Gutierrez loaded the bases and Victor de Jesus started his 4-4 day with a 2-run double (he later singled in another run) and then he walked Omar Rodriguez, Alex Buitrago and Luis Corpus each with the bases loaded. Also having a 4-hit day was Vlad Guerrero Jr. who's on an amazing tear right now (a 24-game hitting streak in which he's 51 for his last 117). He's now hitting .412 as a Ray and .347 overall. Speaking of players on amazing tears, Andy Aparicio continued his dominant run by going 7 6 0 0 0 8 and improving to 18-4, 2.91. Chris Hicks went the final two innings and allowed two runs despite striking out 5. The outing seemed to capture the essence of his time with the big club this year: 46 whiffs in 28 2/3 innings but a 6.28 ERA. He is the victim of a .383 BABIP though.

Game 3: This team. This @#$% team. But before I get into that I'll note that Gil Wayne: The Sequel was about as much of a disaster as Caddyshack II. In the space of 1 2/3 innings he managed to give up four - count 'em, four - 2-run homers to Seattle. Thanks to an Alex Buitrago error, only 3 of the 8 runs he allowed were earned but that was little consolation. What was consolation was that his disaster start didn't end the Rays' 16-game winning streak coming in as Omar Rodriguez's 3-run, 2-out homer in the bottom of the 8th gave the Rays an improbable (although with this team losing seems more improbable) 9-8 win to make it 17 in a row as they continue to chase history in more ways than one. Wayne allowed his first 2-run homer (to former Rays first-round pick Stan Collier) in the 1st but Victor de Jesus immediately equalized with a 2-run shot of his own in the bottom of the first and they added another run to go up 3-2. Of course 3 more 2-run homers later in the 2nd and Seattle was up 8-3. But the Rays chipped away. Danny Ayala hit his 5th (in only 37 AB) to make it 8-4, and de Jesus went yard again with a man on in the 6th to cut it to 8-6 and give him 45 on the year. He was a perfect 6-6 with 2 walks in the doubleheader. This brought us to the bottom of the 8th and with two on and two out, Rodriguez hit the game winner, his 16th. For those keeping track, Vlad was 2-5 and made it 25 straight with a hit, equaling Jaiden Hardaway's season-best streak. Of course the comeback doesn't happen without great relief pitching keeping Seattle off the board for the final 7 1/3, and Kevin Kerstetter (3 1/3 hitless against his old team with 6 Ks) and Jim Connors (3 1 0 0 0 4 and win #5) were brilliant. Kikuo Kawase pitched the 9th, and although he got the Mariners 1-2-3 it was almost a disappointment to see him only strike out one of those hitters in getting save #16.

Team record: 102-24. The magic # to clinch the division is 1. Next up: An off-day then Toronto comes to town for 3.

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Game 1: The Tampa Bay Rays are your 2033 AL East Champions, clinching their 12th straight division title with a 5-2 win over Toronto, which was also their 18th straight victory (and 26th out of 27) as they chase their team (and AL) record of 25 set back in 2022. Tonight marked the first start of the year for Danny Medina, who's been excellent in long relief, and well, it was interesting. He struggled with his command and control, but pitched effectively enough to go 5 4 2 2 6 6 with the walks quite unlike him but still grabbed his 3rd win of the year. Bob Sirna did his usual thing where he loads the bases and strikes his way out of it and went two innings with 4 whiffs, Tim Siqueiros took care of the 8th and Jordan Diaz put a man on in the 9th but still got save #11. The offense scored 4 times in the first 2 innings and pretty much took the rest of the game off, with Nate Clark's 2-run double in the 2nd the big hit along with Luis Corpus's 12th HR of the year. Sadly one streak did end tonight as Vlad Guerrero did not come away with a hit. He did walk his first two times up but went 0-2 to see his hitting streak end at 25, just as Jaiden Hardaway's did earlier this year.

Game 2: The winning streak reached 19 as the Rays took care of Toronto 9-3. Nate Thompson turned in a solid start, going 6 5 3 2 1 9 to improve to 6-3, 4.57, Tim Siqueiros whiffed 3 in the 7th despite putting a pair on, and Jordan Diaz went the final 2 for save #12 as he pitched the 8th then the Rays expanded the lead from 6-3 to 9-3 so he stayed on. Offensively we saw another huge game from Jaiden Hardaway, on base 5 times in 6 trips, going 3-4 with 2 walks, 2 runs scored and an RBI. His OBP is now .486 which would be a top 40 MLB season in that category. Rodolfo Rivas drove in 3 with a 2-run single in the 4th and HR #34 in the 8th, Will Quintana had a 2-run homer (#4), and Omar Rodriguez was 2-4 with an RBI double as the beat goes on.

Game 3: The Rays made it 20 straight wins in the most emphatic of fashions, nearly scoring 20 as they blasted the Blue Jays 19-4. Again this will be one of those games where I let the box score do the talking, although I will note that the 5 homers they hit in that 11-run 4th inning are a team record, and according to Baseball Almanac, ties the MLB record set by several teams (although it's possible 5 has happened somewhere else in this save with another team, or even 6 for all I know). Anyway, here's the box, which is not for the squeamish or Blue Jay fans:



Team record: 105-24. Next up: The win streak will face its sternest test when we head to St. Louis for the weekend to face the NL's best team at 83-44 and we reunite with Jasson Dominguez. Leo Ortega will also pitch against his old team.

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Game 1: The eyes of the baseball world were upon Busch Stadium in St. Louis tonight as the Rays brought their 20-game win streak with them to take on the NL's best team in what pundits were calling a World Series preview. And to further add to the drama Leo Ortega, who won the NL Cy Young last year for the Cardinals, returned for the first time to the mound where he had so much success the last several years. Early on it looked like the Cards would have the better of things as Ortega gave up solo homers in the 2nd and 3rd and St. Louis was up 2-0. Meanwhile Cardinal starter Nick Lodolo didn't allow the Rays a hit until the 5th when Omar Rodriguez doubled. But in the 6th Tampa Bay came out swinging against him. The light-hitting Melvin Gutierrez led off with a single, and with one out, Vlad Guerrero Jr. singled. Nate Clark walked to load the bases and Victor de Jesus (once a prized Cardinals prospect) singled to get the Rays on the board. Then the big play of the game occurred when Rodolfo Rivas's fly ball to center was dropped by none other than former Rays star Jasson Dominguez (traded for Ortega) and two runs scored instead of one as J-Dom was too quick to try to catch it and throw the runner out at the plate. That made it 3-2, a Bo Angeac single made it 4-2, and a Rodriguez fielder's choice upped the lead to 5-2 as the Rays batted around. Jaiden Hardaway and Guerrero hit back-to-back doubles in the 7th to make it 6-2. Meanwhile Ortega was locked in after the homers and went 6.1 6 2 2 0 5. He left with two on in the 7th and Jim Connors came in and immediately got a line drive to Rivas at 1st who stepped on the bag for a double play. Connors cruised through the final 2 innings to get his 6th save while Ortega is now 14-3 as the 6-2 victory made it 21 straight for Tampa Bay.

Minor League News: Gil Wayne, last seen 5 days ago getting hit hard in a doubleheader start for us, unfortunately tore his rotator cuff tonight with Durham and will miss almost a year, taking him out of the picture for our 2034 staff.

Game 2: Unlike yesterday there was little suspense today as the Rays put up a touchdown and extra point in the second inning on their way to a 9-1 thrashing of St. Louis to make it 22 straight wins. The pitching matchup looked great on paper with Andy Aparicio up against St. Louis's Kevin Alexander, 13-2, 2.76 coming in. Coming out Alexander saw his ERA rise by about a half a run as the Rays bombed him for 7 in the 2nd. He loaded the bases for Will Quintana, who cleared them with a triple before Melvin Guiterrez singled Quintana home. Vlad Guerrero added an RBI groundout and Nate Clark put the exclamation point on the inning with a 2-run homer. Clark later hit a solo homer in the 7th to give him 47 and Victor de Jesus added an RBI single in the 9th. Aparicio meanwhile held up his end of the bargain, continuing his hot streak by going 7 2 0 0 3 8 and improving to 19-4, 2.79. Since the All-Star break Aparicio has allowed only 5 runs in 8 starts covering 60 innings for a nifty 0.75 ERA in that stretch and he's lowered his ERA by more than a run, no mean feat this late in the season. Kevin Kerstetter went the final 2 innings and lost the team shutout in the 8th.

Game 3: It took an epic back-and-forth game, but the Rays' win streak is over at 20 after the Cardinals took a 7-6, 10-inning decision. The Rays were let down in large part by their bullpen today, which along with starter Danny Medina had trouble consistently throwing strikes as Tampa Bay pitching issued 10 walks in the 10 innings. And the bottom of the 10th was no exception as after Mike Wherry gave up a single and a sac bunt and the next man was intentionally walked, Jim Connors came in and walked Josh Stowers to load the bases. Connors got a shallow fly ball from Jasson Dominguez but gave up a Royce Lewis single and the win streak was over. But before we got there the problems started in the 5th. The Rays had built a 3-1 lead in part on RBI doubles from Alex Buitrago and Jaiden Hardaway, and Medina had been relatively comfortable through 4. But as in his last start Medina started losing the plate in the 5th, walking 3 in the inning and together with an Erik Batchelder error led to 3 runs and St. Louis taking the lead. A Bo Angeac double tied it back up in the 6th, and a Vlad Jr RBI double restored the Rays lead in the 7th at 5-4. But Bob Sirna, who breezed through the first 4 men he faced in relief of Medina, gave up a leadoff triple. With a man on 3rd and nobody out it seemed like a good time to bring in the strikeout artist known as Kikuo Kawase, but not only did he allow a single to the first man he faced to tie the game, he walked 3 more men to force in a run and give the Cardinals the lead back. But Buitrago made sure the Rays wouldn't go quietly as he hit HR #20 off former Ray Daniel Espino in the 8th to tie the game at 6. Tim Siqueiros pitched himself into and out of a jam in the 8th and Wherry got him out of one in the 9th but it finally caught up to them in the 10th.

Team record: 104-25. Next up: We head west on I-70 to play the 3 against the Royals in Kansas City, which is looking good in the wild card race and only a game behind Detroit for the Central lead.

[Art Deco]

August 29: Optioned IF Erik Batchelder to AAA Durham, activated IF/OF Dane Ayers from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Hopefully the third time's the charm for Ayers staying healthy and not getting beaned again and suffering his third concussion of the year. It's a real shame for him in that he could have been the regular SS for most of the year with Ricky Widmar's injury.

Game 1: The Rays decided to start a new winning streak tonight, taking a 7-1 win at Kansas City. Nate Thompson made his third straight excellent start, going 5.2 4 1 1 1 9 and making it only 3 runs allowed in his last 17 2/3 innings after a disaster start against Cleveland. Kevin Kerstetter also looked good again, getting Thompson out of a jam in the 6th when it was only 2-1 and going 2 1/3 with only one hit allowed and 4 whiffs. Chris Hicks walked the bases loaded in the 9th but got out of it to finish the game off. On offense the Rays took a 2-0 lead on a 1st-inning RBI double from Rodolfo Rivas and an RBI groundout from Jaiden Hardaway after Dane Ayers celebrated his return to the lineup with a double as part of a 2-4 day. They busted it open with 4 in the 7th on an Ayers RBI single and Vlad Guerrero's bases-clearing double which now gives him 41 RBI in 35 games as a Ray. Bo Angeac put the cherry on top with HR #40 in the 8th, joining Nate Clark and Victor de Jesus in 40-HR club on the Rays.

Game 2: It was a rare game in which the Rays really weren't competitive as they dropped a 5-1 decision to Kansas City. Rodolfo Rivas doubled in a run in the 1st inning and it looked like business as usual, but the Royals jumped on Nate Schultz in the bottom of the inning for 3 quick runs (the 3rd came on the first out he got, a sac fly) and it seemed like Rays pitchers were getting out of jams the rest of the way until they weren't when Jim Connors gave up a 2-run homer to Drew Waters in the 7th to put it out of reach. Schultz went 5 8 3 3 1 7 as he lost only his second game of year with his record now 18-2. The bats were somnambulant tonight as they managed only 4 hits (to KC's 14) for the game, shut down for the first 6 innings by Martin Santana who's had success against them in the past. From 20 straight wins to losing 2 out of 3.

Game 3: This was a strange one. Despite a brilliant Leo Ortega outing of 7 4 1 1 0 7, the Rays found themselves perfect-gamed through 7 innings by the Royals duo of T.J. Gates (who opened for 2 innings) and Geoff Schiffer. But they got an infield single from Rodolfo Rivas of all people to break it up leading off the 8th, and then Danny Ayala lined a clean single to center. This brought up Omar Rodriguez, and he took a Schiffer offering into the LCF seats for HR #17 and the Rays went from nothing to 3-1 up in 3 batters. Kikuo Kawase whisked through the 8th on 9 pitches getting a couple of whiffs but ran into some trouble with the Royals' lefty hitters in the 9th, giving up a double to Alex Anderson who scored on a Will Quintana passed ball. A walk ensued and with former Rays slugger and lefty-hitter Triston Casas due, Mike Wherry got the call with two outs. KC countered with a righty pinch-hitter but Wherry whiffed him anyway and the Rays eked out a 3-2 win. Ortega is now 15-3, 3.45 while Wherry picked up save #6.

Team record: 109-26. Next up: A day off and then the Midwest road trip continues with a weekend set in Chicago against the White Sox.

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September 1: Recalled P David Sanchez from AAA Durham.

Sanchez is up with September roster expansion to give us another lefty in the pen. He had mixed results with the big club last year but once again pitched well at Durham (18/46 BB/K ratio in 37 innings with 5 saves and a 1.70 ERA). I'm leaving the 28th spot open for Dayle Jenkins, who'll start a rehab tomorrow and be up in about a week.

Meanwhile, on our off day here are some monthly awards we continue to collect:

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September 2: Sent OF Dayle Jenkins to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

Oh by the way we've been playing almost the whole season without the reigning AL MVP. When he comes back in a week or so, it will seriously cut into the playing time for Alex Buitrago and Omar Rodriguez.

Game 1: Andy Aparicio became 2033's first 20-game winner and Jaiden Hardaway had a monster game to propel him over 10 WAR as the Rays beat the White Sox by a deceivingly-close score of 6-4. AA was in command outside of a bit of a rough 2nd inning and a solo homer allowed in the 7th to go 7 4 2 2 1 10 as his incredible post-ASB roll continues, lowering his ERA a tick to 2.78 in the process. He currently leads the AL in wins, strikeouts, WAR and is second in ERA to the Yankees' Eric Peterson. Bob Sirna had a scoreless 8th, but Jordan Diaz was an adventure once again allowing 2 runs in the 9th before putting an end to the game. Hardaway was story on offense. After a bit of a mini-slump that saw his batting average drop about 15 points and his WAR actually slip slightly, he snapped out of it big-time with a 4-4 day which included HR #35, 2 RBI to give him 100 (not bad considering he's usually leading off), 2 doubles and a stolen base (#32 there). Also having a big day was Luis Corpus, who banged out 3 doubles and drove in a pair of runs as he and Hardaway combined for 7 of the team's 9 hits.

Game 2: The Rays took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the 8th inning in Chicago, and ended up having a bullpen meltdown which saw the White Sox take a walk-off 10-9 win in the bottom of the 9th. Danny Medina started and was terrible at the beginning, continuing his control issues since being moved into the rotation and walking a pair in front of Parks Harber, who blasted a 3-run homer, then he allowed another run in the 2nd. But he calmed down and finished 6 3 4 4 5 4 and the bats roared back from a 4-0 deficit with a big 7-run 5th inning which featured a Nate Clark grand slam (#48) and they tacked on two more in the 6th. Chris Hicks of all people turned out to be the only effective member of the pen tonight with a scoreless 7th, but I got too cute with the 5-run lead and brought in David Sanchez who yielded a 3-run shot to old friend Connor Kirkley to cut the lead to 9-7. Tim Siqueiros got the final out of the 8th and I left him in to start the 9th and perhaps get a rare save, which was mistake #2 as he allowed a pair of singles to start the inning. So it was Kikuo Kawase time and he continued his recent run of relative ineffectiveness by giving up an infield single on a bunt attempt, loading the bases, then a 2-run double to tie it and finally an RBI single after a strikeout to blow his 2nd save in 3 appearances, all of which have included a run allowed. Hopefully this is a blip and not a case of him hitting the wall. The blown game wasted a great performance from Clark, who had 4 hits in total.

Game 3: The Rays lost consecutive games and a series for the first time since July 15-17 at the Angels after a 9-1 drubbing at the hands of the White Sox. This game was over early as Nate Thompson didn't have it today, giving up a grand slam to that man Connor Kirkley in the 1st and a 2-run shot to Parks Harber in the 2nd. Thompson managed to go three scoreless innings after that to save the bullpen some, but his 5 7 7 7 2 3 line was hideous however you slice it. David Sanchez bounced back from yesterday's debacle to toss a couple of scoreless innings but Chris Hicks regressed, giving up 2 runs in his inning of work. Although Vlad Guerrero Jr and Victor de Jesus were rested today, that's no excuse for the offense only managing 1 run and 6 hits today with the lone score off the bat of Rodolfo Rivas with HR #36 in the 4th.

Team record: 110-28. Next up: Back to the friendly confines of Publix Park for 3 against the Twins.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: Now that our 20-game win streak was snapped and we've lost 4 games in the last 8 days, the mantle of hottest team in baseball belongs to the Minnesota Twins who rolled into Publix Park on an 8-game winning streak, having fought their way within 1/2 game of the second AL wild card. But in that run the Twins haven't faced anybody quite like baseball's new best all-around player, Jaiden Hardaway. The AL MVP-elect put on a show today, homering to lead off the game and lacing three more hits including a second homer to give him 37 as the Rays disposed of Minnesota 7-1. Today's performance increased his numbers to 376/483/648 with 37 HR, 102 RBI, 31 steals and 10.6 WAR. A couple of our other big bats also came through with the longballs as Bo Angeac hit #41 in the 2nd and Rodolfo Rivas blasted #37 with a man on in the 3rd as they built an early lead for Leo Ortega. The righty was more efficient than overpowering today, going 7 7 1 1 0 3 on 85 pitches and earning his 16th win against 3 losses and lowering his ERA to 3.36. Jordan Diaz struck out the side in the 8th, and Bob Sirna was entrusted with the 9th but walked the bases loaded with one out so Jim Connors came in and got the final two outs. In addition to Hardaway's 4 hits, Angeac and Rivas each had 3 as did Nate Clark who was 3-5 with an RBI double. Haven't really talked enough about what a great season Angeac is having as it's been overshadowed by Hardaway's but the Rays 3B is 322/437/658 with 42 HR, 98 RBI and 8.0 WAR. Any other year and he's the putative MVP but in 2033 he's second fiddle on his own team.

Game 2: Lots of late-inning drama with both teams going back and forth until the Rays came away with a walk-off win thanks to Vlad Guerrero Jr's homer off Minnesota closer Malachi Barber in the bottom of the 10th to give them a 5-4 win. It started off as a duel between Nate Schultz and Minnesota's Jordan Wicks with the teams exchanging single runs through the first five innings. But Schultz gave up a homer in the 6th to put Minnesota on top and another run in the 7th made it 3-1 Twins. Schultz finished 7 4 3 3 1 6 and got off the hook for the loss when Victor de Jesus hit a dramatic 2-out 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th off former Rays farmhand Franklin Dacosta to give Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead. The homer was De Jesus's 46th and together with an earlier RBI single gave him 4 RBI to go over 100 at 103, the third Ray after Nate Clark and Jaiden Hardaway to reach that mark with Bo Angeac and Rodolfo Rivas soon to join at 98 RBI each. So things looked in hand going into the 9th with Kikuo Kawase taking over but the Japanese righty continued his recent struggles. After whiffing the leadoff man he served up a deep homer to CF by Arturo Jimenez and gave up a triple to the next batter. Fortunately he rediscovered his strikeout pitch to get the next two hitters and strand the man at 3rd but still blew his 3rd save in his last 4 outings. The Rays looked like they'd pull off the win in the bottom of the 9th on a Hardaway single but Omar Rodriguez was gunned down at the plate. Jordan Diaz came in for the 10th and made his case for closing over Kawase by striking out the side, and he recorded his 4th win of the year when Guerrero, in a 3-for-27 mini-slump and 0-4 today, hit his walk-off winner off Barber. Yesterday I touted the MVP-caliber season Angeac was having and today I'll single out de Jesus, himself now 285/404/622 with 46 HR and 103 RBI and 6.8 WAR to date, projected for 7.9 but who also picked the wrong season to win an MVP with those kind of numbers.

Game 3: Deja vu all over again as the Rays got another walk-off homer to beat Minnesota 4-3 and sweep the series. Alex Buitrago led off the 9th against a lefty and although I briefly considered pinch-hitting the rested Nate Clark, I remembered Buitrago's success against lefties this year and sure enough he came through with HR #21. We got to that point as Andy Aparicio wasn't his sharpest today and lost a 3-1 lead in the 6th, finishing 6 8 3 3 1 9. A pretty good start for 90% of the pitchers out there, but the 3 runs he allowed today were the most he's surrendered in a game since July 8, almost two months to the day. Jim Connors turned in two pretty good innings and Tim Siqueiros got through the 9th and picked up his 9th relief win of the season. The three earlier Rays runs came on a double play grounder, a Luis Corpus RBI double and a Victor de Jesus sac fly.

Team record: 113-28. Next up: An off-day then we head to Fenway Park for 3.

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September 9: Activated OF Dayle Jenkins from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Jenkins returns tonight for his first MLB action in a little over 3 months after his cheekbone was fractured in Seattle and he ended up requiring surgery for it. He'll be wearing a Phantom of the Opera-style mask (only clearer) in his return to action. He'll take the open 28th roster spot.

Game 1: The Rays overcame a bad start from Danny Medina and got a big game from the returning Dayle Jenkins to take a 10-6 win at Fenway over the Red Sox. Jenkins immediately got back in the swing with a single in his first at-bat and then stole second before Vlad Guerrero Jr. launched a massive HR over the Monster (#12 as a Ray, #31 overall) to give Tampa Bay a quick 2-0 lead. Jenkins ended the night 3-5 and it was if he was never gone. Unfortunately Medina gave back the lead with 3 runs in the 2nd and another in the 3rd without retiring a batter as he went a brutal 2 8 4 4 1 3; the man who was so good in long relief can't seem to replicate that success as a starter. Kevin Kerstetter took over and got out of Medina's mess in the 3rd and ended up going 3 scoreless innings with 3 whiffs and got credit for win #3 when Dane Ayers drove in 3 with a bases-clearing double in the 4th. Nate Clark later added a 2-run double and Jaiden Hardaway hit a 2-run homer (#38) to pad the lead. Jim Connors pitched the 6th and 7th, Bob Sirna got through the 8th but ran into trouble in the 9th, thanks in part to Luis Corpus's passed ball on a third strike and Boston managed to get the tying run on deck with 2 out in the 9th so Kikuo Kawase came in and whiffed Nick Senzel on 3 pitches to end the game and get his 17th save.

Game 2: The Rays took a 6-1 win over Boston behind what was perhaps Nate Thompson's best start of the season. The righty, who's currently being counted on to be the #4 starter come playoff time, was in control today going 7 4 1 1 0 5 to improve to 8-4, 4.57. Tim Siqueiros pitched the 8th and as usual when I tried to get through the 9th with one of the last men on the staff it became a problem as David Sanchez loaded the bases in the 9th with two out, bringing the tying run on deck just like yesterday. And also just like yesterday, the final Boston hitter was whiffed on 3 pitches with Jordan Diaz doing the honors today and getting save #13. On offense they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st on RBI singles from Nate Clark and Rodolfo Rivas and it stood at 2-1 until the 7th when the Rays broke it open with 3 runs. Victor de Jesus's 47th HR supplied the first two runs of the inning and Dane Ayers delivered an RBI single for the other. Vlad Guerrero Jr. homered in the 8th for the final run, #13/32.

Game 3: The Rays came out on the short end of a 5-4 decision today to Boston as Leo Ortega was too hittable and the bats could only convert 20 baserunners into 4 runs. After the Rays opened the game with HR #39 by Jaiden Hardaway, Ortega gave Boston 2 runs right back in the bottom of the inning and after they scored 3 more times in the 4th on a bases-loaded walk to Hardaway and a Dayle Jenkins 2-run single to go up 4-2, Ortega gave it right back again in the form of a 3-run Danny Kovacs homer. That turned out to be it for the scoring as the Rays had baserunners galore but couldn't bring them home, hitting into 3 double plays on top of it all. The 9th inning summed things up when Vlad Guerrero Jr and Victor de Jesus singled to lead it off, but Bo Angeac, Rodolfo Rivas and pinch-hitter Omar Rodriguez all struck out to end the game. Ortega went 6 9 5 5 1 4 while Jim Connors had 2 perfect innings in relief. Jenkins, who needed to rest yesterday, had his second 3-hit game in as many games since his return.

Team record: 115-29. Next up: Back home for 3 vs the Yankees.

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Game 1: Nate Schultz was in command and the Rays did all their scoring with 3 big homers in a 7-4 win over the Yankees at Publix Park. Outside of an Ivan Vega homer in the 3rd, Schultz completely shut down the Yankees on 85 pitches through 8 innings only allowing 3 hits. Things went a bit sour in the 9th, a single was followed by Luis Corpus throwing a grounder in front of the plate into CF and Mario Aguilar tripled both runners home. Jordan Diaz came in and got a fly ball which scored Aguilar and a groundball to end the game. Schultz finished 8.1 5 4 2 0 6 and improved to 19-2, 3.23. The offense consisted of three homers off Yankee shortstop-turned-starting pitcher Cade Horton, with Victor de Jesus (#48) hitting a 2-run shot in the 1st, Jaiden Hardaway's 2-run blast in the 5th (#40), and Vlad Guerrero's 3-run homer (#14/33) in the 6th against his former team. They actually had more runs today than hits (6).

Game 2: It was a premium pitching matchup with Andy Aparicio going against the Yankees' Eric Peterson, two of top starters in the AL, and it was advantage Peterson tonight as the Yankees took care of the Rays 7-2. Aparicio was in trouble early when the first two Yankee hitters bunted their way on and he served up a 2-run double to Sal Mota as part of a 3-run first inning. He'd get touched for another run in the 5th and finished 6 6 4 4 0 8. Meanwhile Peterson retired he first 10 Rays before Dayle Jenkins hit his first homer since coming back from injury, his 8th of the year, to get the Rays on the board and Will Quintana's fielder's choice brought another run home in the 5th. But the Rays bullpen wasn't very good today as Tim Siqueiros gave up a run in the 7th and Chris Hicks continued to stink by serving up a 2-run homer in the 9th. Jaiden Hardaway did manage his 200th hit of the season in the 8th to go with 103 walks, making him only the 15th* player in history to have 200 hits and 100 walks in the same season, including luminaries such as Lou Gehrig (7x), Wade Boggs (4x), Babe Ruth (3x), Todd Helton (2x), and Stan Musial (2x).

*Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux in 2021, and Juan Soto in 2021 and 2022 are the only ones in this save I'm aware of accomplishing the feat.

Game 3: Danny Medina took a no-hitter into the 7th inning and then it all went wrong as the Yankees took the series from the Rays with a 6-5 win. Medina walked the first man he faced and it was "here we go again" with his control issues since moving to the rotation but he retired 18 straight Yankees from there. He only held a slender 1-0 lead thanks to Victor de Jesus' 49th HR of the year in the bottom of the 6th, but things went sour in the 7th. Medina's control issues resurfaced and he walked the bases loaded. Normally he'd be pulled at this point but with the no-hitter still intact he got a longer leash. He got Mario Aguilar to hit a shallow fly ball to right to hold the runners but Monday's Yankee starting pitcher Cade Horton drilled a 2-run single to break up the no-hitter, the shutout and the lead. Tim Siquieros was then summoned and he was unusually terrible, giving up a 2-run single to score Medina's other two runners then two more hits to score two of his own runners and suddenly it was 6-1. The Rays valiantly fought back, starting with a 2-run Dayle Jenkins homer in the bottom of the inning (#9) and after Nate Clark singled, de Jesus doubled him home to make it 6-4. We got a scare when de Jesus had to leave after going into 2nd, but it's just DtD back soreness. Clark equaled de Jesus for the MLB HR lead by hitting his 49th in the 9th off Yankee closer Ji-Hoon Yoo but that would be as close as they got. David Sanchez turned in a nice outing relieving Siqueiros, retiring all 4 men he faced and Kikuo Kawase pitched the 9th to get him some work.

Team record: 116-31. Next up: An off-day then Boston comes for a weekend visit.

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The Durham Bulls were a regular-season juggernaut as usual, going 90-50 and running away with their division. As a result, they were matched up with the wild-card Charlotte Knights for Round 1 of the International League Playoffs.

Meanwhile the (Port) Charlotte Stone Crabs made the Florida State League playoffs for the first time in this save and they were matched up against the Bradenton Marauders in an I-75 series for the first round. Bradenton went up 3-1 (the FSL plays 7-game series for some reason) but Charlotte fought back to win the last two, setting up Game 7.

Durham, Game 1: The series opener saw Mike Champagne start for the Bulls against White Sox MLBer Danny Knight, rehabbing for Charlotte tonight. Durham took a 2-0 lead in the 5th against Knight but the Knights (Danny Knight & the Knights, would make a great band name) rallied to take a 3-2 lead behind former Ray Bramdon Perez, who doubled and tripled in runs. The Bulls struck back, though, against former Bull pitcher Jeremy Allen (part of the Connor Kirkley-Nate Schultz deal) when Jon Jimenez homered off him in the 8th to tie it at 3. And on we went from there. And on and on and on. All the way until the 16th inning when leading off the inning against a lefty, Brandon Applebee went yard to give the Bulls a 4-3 walk-off win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

(Port) Charlotte: Things got off to a great start for the Stone Crabs when 2028 first-round pick Robbie Salazar hit a 3-run jack in the 1st inning to make it 3-0 Charlotte, but Bradenton crept back into the game against Jarrod Cox to tie it up in the 6th. And like in the Durham game above, it went 3-3 to extras. Charlotte thought they had it won in the 10th only to have a man thrown out at the plate with 2 gone, but in the 11th they got a leadoff walk, a steal from the pinch-runner, and a single from Jorge Herrera to get the walk-off win and complete the comeback from being down 3-1 in the series. Vinny Willard, the team's #2 pitching prospect and ranked 40th overall by BNN, went 4 innings of 1-hit relief to get the win. The Stone Crabs will take on the Daytona Tortugas for the FSL title.

Durham, Game 2: The Bulls turned a 2-0 game in the 5th into a 16-2 rout with 14 runs in the 5th through 8th innings to take a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-5 IL First Round series with Charlotte. And leading the way again was Brandon Applebee. Fresh off his walk-off winner in the 16th inning of Game 1, he had an RBI single in the 2nd, a triple in the 4th and scored, a 2-run double in the 5th and another 2-run double in the 6th to give him a 4-hit, 5-RBI day. Mike McKee (3 hits) and Stan Melton (4 hits) each homered and drove in 3 runs as the Bulls pounded out an astonishing 24 hits. In the Stone Crabs recap above I referred to Vinny Willard as the Rays' 2nd-best pitching prospect; on the mound for the Bulls was the organization's top pitching prospect and the #1 prospect overall according to BNN (He had been #3 the other day) and that's Ron Adams, whom I really haven't talked about much here. Adams was a 13th-round pick in 2030 that just kept blossoming. Here are his ratings:



These are some mighty impressive ratings and if he lives up to the potential ones he'll be one of MLB's best starters. The results haven't been quite in sync with those ratings: he pitched 99 innings and made 12 relief appearances before moving into the Durham rotation where he made 12 starts. He also had a couple of minor injuries although his injury rating is "normal". He whiffed 129 in those 99 innings but walked 44 and had a 4.35 ERA, partially due to an inflated .345 BABIP. Anyway, to circle back to tonight's game, Adams was brilliant and may have had his best pro start. He took a 3-hit shutout into the 8th, when he ran out of gas and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits but still finished 7.1 6 2 2 1 8 to get the win. Right now there's no spot in the projected 2034 rotation for him and since he's a 2030 draftee he doesn't even need to be put on the 40-man yet, so another season at Durham looks likely until and unless he's needed in Tampa.

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Game 1: Nate Thompson turned in his second straight excellent start and the bats supplied some late thunder to give the Rays a 6-3 win over Boston in the series opener. Thompson was outstanding over 7 innings, making only one bad pitch: a 2-run homer to Nick Senzel in the 3rd. That tied the game at 2 and that's where it stood when Thompson left the game in the middle of the 7th having gone 7 3 2 2 2 7. He got the win to go to 9-4 thanks to a 3-run blast from Jaiden Hardaway (#41) in the bottom of the inning, and Vlad Guerrero Jr. added #15 as a Ray and #34 overall in the bottom of the 8th. Earlier Rodolfo Rivas had an RBI single and Vlad an RBI groundout in the 1st to put the Rays up early. Kikuo Kawase pitched a scoreless 8th and Jordan Diaz gave up a leadoff double in the 9th which came around to score but nothing else to finish out the game.

Charlotte Playoff Update: The Stone Crabs opened their FSL Championship Series against Daytona, which is apparently a best-of-5 (even though the first round was best-of-7, which was good for them since they fell behind 3-1), with a 4-1 win over the Tortugas. 32-year-old vet Junior Santos turned in 8 shutout innings while Andy Vazquez (a prospect we traded to Oakland years ago in the Blake Money deal and then re-claimed on waivers) and Robbie Salazar homered with first round series MVP Juan Herrera delivering a 2-RBI single.

September 17: Sent SS Ricky Widmar to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

He's been out 4 months with a torn labrum but Ricky Widmar is finally ready to play baseball again, and he'll give the Bulls a boost in their IL playoffs. Would like to see Widmar play 5-6 games before activating him. When he comes back he's going to have to adjust to hitting low in the order (8th) as Jaiden Hardaway and Dayle Jenkins are entrenched in the 1-2 spots.

So I checked the player development report, and Durham star (and likely IL MVP) Jon Jimenez just got an ratings upgrade from my head scout Rob Metzler. This is what he looks like now, along with his season numbers at Durham:



The pipeline continues to gush talent, and we'll need to find a place for him on the big-league roster next year. His only weakness, not shown here, is that he has a significant platoon split and is only 50 contact/55 power against lefties. Not terrible, but something to note. Rodolfo Rivas is a candidate to be dealt, especially as he's arb-eligible starting next year, and Nate Clark is all but certain to be traded going into his final year of arbitration. Our college-like model of turning over talent after 5-6 seasons continues to work well, and those two are the next to graduate.

Game 2: The scoreboard at the end of the game said Rays 8, Red Sox 1, but it was highly deceiving as just like yesterday it was a low-scoring tie game going into the bottom of the 7th before the Tampa Bay bats broke through. Leo Ortega and Chris Hullinger hooked up in a duel and Ortega was excellent after a first-inning homer going 7 4 1 1 1 8. It was shocking to see the walk, only his 17th in 30 starts. Omar Rodriguez had doubled in the only Rays run and that's where we stood in the bottom of the 7th when with one out Dane Ayers and Jaiden Hardaway reached ahead of Dayle Jenkins, who blasted a 3-run homer to make it 4-1. After Tim Siqueiros got 2 whiffs in a scoreless 8th to give him 100 on the season, the Rays really blew it open in the 8th when Luis Corpus doubled in a run and then with two on for the second straight inning Jenkins went deep again for #11 to give him a 6-RBI day. With the score 8-1, Chris Hicks got the nod in the 9th and had a rare 1-2-3 inning.

Durham Playoff Update: This one hurt. The Bulls were up 6-1 in the 4th and looked to be on their way to a sweep, only to cough up the lead in the middle innings and lose in 10 by the score of 7-6. Nate Boesel, who was up with the Rays earlier this season, had a homer and 3 RBI and Erik Batchelder, also up with the Rays for much of the year, went 4-5 with 2 RBI to help open up a big lead. But starter and former Ray and Bull Emerson Hancock, who was re-signed by the Bulls a few weeks ago, had to leave in the 4th inning with a sore elbow, and Mike Fields could not get the job done in middle relief, allowing 4 runs. The Bulls had a great chance in the top of the 10th, loading the bases with two out, but Ricky Widmar struck out to cap an 0-5 day (he did draw a walk and steal a base) and the Knights scored the game-winner off Eric Carter in the bottom of the inning. Carter ended up throwing 37 pitches so he won't be available for Game 4, so hopefully the Bulls can win by a healthy margin.

(Port) Charlotte Playoff Update: The Stone Crabs are one win away from the FSL title after winning a wild 8-7 game over Daytona. Bob Yusaf Khel's 2-run homer off the LF foul pole in the bottom of the 8th was the margin of victory after Charlotte blew an early 4-1 lead and found themselves behind 7-6 when Daytona scored in the top of the 8th. Kjeld Visser and Michael Valdez (the key prospect acquired when we dealt Joe Barker and Marc Wagner) had 2-run homers in the 2nd to give them that 4-1 lead and Yusaf Khel (acquired from Arizona earlier this year for Felix Bejerano) had an RBI single that had them up 6-5. Stone Crab closer Harry Enriquez got the win as the Stone Crabs travel to Florida's East Coast to try and wrap up the series in two days' time.

Game 3: Nate Schultz won his 20th game of the season in spectacular fashion as he and two Rays relievers combined on a 4-0 shutout of Boston. Schultz was dominant throughout, going 7 5 0 0 1 11 and moving to 20-2, 3.11 on the season with a career-high 228 strikeouts in 185 innings. He joins Andy Aparicio to give the Rays a pair of 20-game winners, something they've done as recently as 2031 with Aparicio and Jon Hayes. Kikuo Kawase struck out the side in the 8th and Jim Connors had a scoreless 9th to complete the team whitewash. The offense was quiet by Rays standards but Alex Buitrago's 22nd HR of the year in the 2nd, a 3-run shot, was all the offense they'd need with Rodolfo Rivas contributing an RBI double in the 4th for the other run.

Team record: 119-31. Next up: An off-day then the Cubs come to town for a pair.

Durham Playoff Update: We're heading back to Durham for a Game 5 as the Bulls were shut down by Charlotte's Juan Fuentes and a pair of relievers in a 3-1 loss which evens the series at 2 games. Jon Jimenez's RBI double in the 5th was the only run for the Bulls while Ed Thomas struggled allowing 3 runs in 4 2/3 innings. Ricky Widmar was 0-4 today to make it 0-9 on the rehab assignment, not quite the ringer Bulls fans hoped he'd be. Mike Champagne will take the mound in the series decider in two nights for Durham.

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Game 1: The Rays followed their familiar recent script of breaking open a low-scoring tie game in the bottom of the 7th as a pair of homers gave them a 5-3 win over Chicago. Victor de Jesus's 50th of the year (joining Nate Clark as the only other Ray to ever hit that mark) broke a 2-2 deadlock in the 7th and Rodolfo Rivas followed later in the inning a 2-run shot (#38). Danny Medina got the start and was much better today, cutting back on the walks and going 6 5 2 2 2 3. He stayed even with the Cubs' Raul Robles, one of the best young pitchers in the game today. Robles gave up another Dayle Jenkins HR (#12) and a Luis Corpus RBI double in his 5 1/3 innings of work, whiffing 6. Mike Wherry (who picked up his 3rd win) and Tim Siqueiros got them through the 7th and 8th, but Kikuo Kawase struggled mightily in the 9th, giving up a run on 2 hits and 2 walks and loading the bases before getting a groundout to end it and pick up save #18. Lefty hitters continue to give him trouble and Chicago sent up several of them against him in that inning.

Charlotte Playoff Update 1: Like Durham, the Stone Crabs couldn't complete the sweep and dropped a 4-2 decision to Dayton to force a Game 4.

Durham Playoff Update: Mike Champagne was masterful and the Bulls took the decisive Game 5 over Charlotte 4-1 to advance to the IL Finals against either Toledo or Buffalo. Champagne went 8.1 4 1 1 2 9 and left after giving up a one-out single in the 9th. Eric Carter came in and got an immediate double play to end the game. Trailing 1-0 in the 2nd, elite catching prospect Mike McKee drilled a 3-run homer to give the Bulls the lead to stay, and Stan Melton added a sac fly. Nate Boesel was named series MVP for hitting .417 with 1 HR and 5 RBI but it should have been Champagne, who also won Game 1. Ricky Widmar continues to look for his first hit on rehab, going 0-4 although 3 of them were line drive outs. He'll now get at least 3 more games to iron things out.

Charlotte Playoff Update 2: A 2nd-inning 6-2 lead evaporated and the Stone Crabs were thrashed 14-8 to even the series at 2 games, forcing a deciding Game 5 in Port Charlotte in two days. 3 Stone Crab errors led to 5 unearned runs in a sloppy game. Ricky Loya drove in 4 with a 2-run homer and 2-run double to lead Charlotte.

Game 2: The Rays outlasted the Cubs 8-6 to sweep their 2-game series at Publix Park. Chicago was mainly in it due to some shoddy fielding by the Rays which led to three unearned runs. They jumped out to an early 6-1 lead on homers from Victor de Jesus (#51, a 2-run shot) and Dayle Jenkins (#13, also a 2-run shot and his 6th in his last 7 games) and a 2-run double from Jaiden Hardaway. The Cubs crept back within 6-4 in the 6th against Andy Aparicio with the last run unearned as AA went 6 5 4 3 0 5 and notched his 21st win of the year, one shy of his career high during his Cy/MVP season of 2031. Rodolfo Rivas hit #39 to make it 7-4 in the bottom of the 6th but then Chicago got 2 more unearned runs off Jim Connors in the 7th thanks to a dropped fly ball from Omar Rodriguez and a throwing error from Vlad Guerrero Jr. Vlad got one of the runs back with an RBI single in the bottom of the 7th and Connors had a 1-2-3 8th before Jordan Diaz struck out 3 Cubs around a double in the 9th for save #14.

Team record: 121-31. Next up: 4 games in Baltimore.

MLB News: A couple of retirements of note: longtime Oakland 3B Matt Chapman who bounced around the league the last few years, has retired as has former Rays prospect and 4th OF type Josh Lowe.

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Game 1: Nate Thompson starred again and Alex Buitrago hit a big homer to propel the Rays to a 4-2 win over Baltimore. Thompson went 7 3 2 2 2 5 to mark his third straight start of 7 innings with 2 or fewer runs allowed and improved to 10-4. Mike Wherry pitched the 8th and allowed a Thompson runner to score while Kikuo Kawase bounced back from some recent shakiness to retire the Orioles 1-2-3 in the 9th for save #19, including two lefties. Bo Angeac hit an RBI single in the 1st and Danny Ayala an RBI double in the 3rd but it remained a tense 2-1 game until the 6th when Buitrago unloaded #23 with a man on to give the Rays some breathing room. Jaiden Hardaway had a rare 0-5 game and failed to reach base.

Durham Playoff Update: Although the final score was 8-5, the Bulls took Game 1 of the International League Finals over Buffalo at Durham Athletic Park tonight behind an absolutely dominant performance from Ron Adams. The #1 prospect in baseball lived up to that pedigree with a 7 3 0 0 0 11 line as the Bulls built a 5-0 lead. Then things got a little too interesting for the tastes of Bulls fan as the Bisons first got 3 off Josh Hader (another late-season vet signing) in the 8th to make it 5-3 before Durham scored 3 times in the bottom of the 8th to make it 8-3. Bulls closer Eric Carter had come on to get the final out of the 8th but was sat back down to preserve him tomorrow with the lead 5 again and that almost backfired when Joel Lee gave up 2 runs on 3 hits without retiring anyone. Edgar Rios (acquired on waivers earlier this year) ended up finishing things for the save. Ricky Widmar finally broke his duck with 3 hits, a walk and two steals tonight while Brandon Applebee homered and Nate Boesel and Mike McKee each drove in a pair.

Charlotte Playoff Update:



Congrats to the Charlotte Stone Crabs, 2033 Florida State League champs, thanks to a 3-2 win over Daytona. Bob Yusaf Khel's 2-run first inning homer put the Stone Crabs ahead to stay, and 2033 3rd round pick Jeremy Masek delivered a big RBI double to back 6 innings of 1-run ball from Chris Powell and a 2-inning save from closer Harry Enriquez in a tight, tense affair.

Game 2: A tough loss for Leo Ortega and the Rays at Camden Yards today when the Orioles rallied for 2 in the bottom of the 9th to edge the Rays 2-1. Dane Ayers hit his first homer of the year leading off the game and that run stood until the bottom of the 9th inning. Ortega took an 88-pitch, 2-hit shutout into the 9th and retired the first batter on a fly ball but gave up a rare walk and then a single on which Victor de Jesus made the poor choice to try to get the lead man at 3rd, allowing the hitter to move into 2nd. In need of a strikeout, Kikuo Kawase came in and whiffed Druw Jones for out #2, but lefty-hitting Tim Steele singled off Kawase to bring both runners home and Baltimore had the walk-off win. It was Kawase's 5th blown save and his fourth in the last 26 days. Ortega took the hard-luck loss, going 8.1 3 2 2 1 9 and dropping to 17-5, effectively ending any hopes of winning 20 games. Baltimore's quality lefty Zack Farese held a full-strength Rays lineup (sans Jaiden Hardaway, but Ayers homered as his replacement) to 4 hits and 0 walks in 7 innings.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls rallied to take a 2-0 series lead with a 4-3 win thanks to a 3-run Danny Roush homer and great bullpen work which featured an old, old face returning. Mike Fields started for Durham and although he whiffed 8 in 4 2/3 he left down 3-0 and with men on 2nd and 3rd with one out. With a lefty due the Bulls turned to 38-year-old Matt Krook, who pitched for the Bulls all the way back in 2021 (ha!) but spent the last 10 years pitching for the Yankees' AAA affiliate in Scranton. Krook got a whiff and out of the inning without further damage, had a 1-2-3 6th and got the win as Edgar Rios and Eric Carter combined to pitch the final 3 innings. The four Bulls runs came in the bottom of the 5th on a Ricky Widmar RBI single (his only hit today) and Roush's homer. Mike Champagne will look to pop the bubbly in two nights in Buffalo.

September 24: Optioned OF Danny Ayala to AAA Durham, recalled C Mike McKee from AAA Durham.

Luis Corpus got food poisoning and is completely unavailable for 3 days, so we needed a catcher to back up Will Quintana. Durham loses their star catcher for the playoffs but gains a major slugger for Game 3 of the IL championship series.

Game 3: A wild-scoring game in the early innings calmed down in the Rays' favor as they bounced back from last night's loss with a 9-4 win over Baltimore. Nate Schultz was hit hard over the first three innings, allowing four runs on three Oriole homers and trailing 4-3. But former Ray Steve Givens got off to an even worse start, walking 8 Rays hitters in his 3+ innings, as Tampa Bay scored 3 times in the 4th to go ahead to stay 6-4. Omar Rodriguez had the big hit in that inning, a 2-run double. Dane Ayers homered for the second straight day and second time this year with a 2-run blast in the 5th and Bo Angeac added his 43rd homer, a shot that made him the 5th member of the 100-RBI club for the Rays this season. This makes the 2033 Rays only the second team in MLB history to have 5 100-RBI guys, joining the 1936 Yankees in the record books. Alex Buitrago is next at 81 so they won't be setting the record. Schultz meanwhile settled down after his rough first 3 innings with 3 really good ones to finish 6 6 4 4 1 9 and improve to 21-2. Kevin Kerstetter, who hadn't pitched in 15 days, tossed 3 shutout innings with 4 whiffs to pick up his first save of the season.

Game 4: The Rays took a 5-3 win over Baltimore today with the star of the game being rookie catcher Mike McKee. McKee's 2-run homer in the 4th, his 2nd in the bigs, broke a 1-1 tie and put Tampa Bay ahead to stay. Danny Medina started, and while he wasn't super-sharp he was good enough to go 5.1 6 2 2 2 4 and earn his 4th win of the season. Bob Sirna got the final two outs of the 6th, Jim Connors went 1 2/3 and allowed a run, Mike Wherry got the final out of the 8th and Jordan Diaz did his usual 9th inning thing putting a couple of men on but getting out of it for save #15. Nate Clark hit HR #50 in the 8th, joining Victor de Jesus in that club. The Rays now need to win 4 of their 6 final games to break their own record of 127 wins set in 2031.

Team record: 124-32. Next up: An off-day then 3 games at Yankee Stadium.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls won their third straight Governor's Cup as they swept the International League finals from Buffalo with a 7-1 win tonight. Mike Champagne was lights-out once again as he was in his 2 starts in the previous round, going 8 4 1 0 2 9 for the win. Ricky Widmar was 2-4 with an RBI and after an 0-fer in the first round was named MVP of the finals having gone 6 for 12 with 3 steals in the 3 games. They broke open a 2-0 game with a 5-run 6th that was death by 1000 cuts for the Bisons, with a couple of infield singles and an error leading to a parade of Bulls baserunners. After the game a couple of vets playing for Durham this season, Miguel Andujar and Josh Hader, announced their retirements.

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September 27: Optioned C Mike McKee to AAA Durham, activated SS Ricky Widmar from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Game 1: A game that was 3-2 in the 7th inning ended up a wild 8-6, 11-inning affair with the Rays prevailing by scoring the first runs of the game that didn't come on homers in the top of the 11th. The homer barrage started in the 3rd inning when Ricky Widmar, seeing his first MLB action in over 4 months and hitting in the unaccustomed 8-hole, drilled a homer to LF in his first at-bat back, #6 to make it 1-0 Rays. The Yanks hit back-to-back jacks off Andy Aparicio in the 4th but Nate Clark's 51st with a man on made it 3-2 Rays in the 6th. Things looked to be in hand when Rodolfo Rivas hit a 2-run shot off former Ray Asa Lacy in the 8th to make it 5-2, his 40th of the year and the 5th Ray to reach the mark this season. The 5 Rays with 40+ homers is an MLB record. But after Aparicio left going 6.1 5 2 2 2 6 to complete his regular season at 21-5, 2.98 with 244 Ks in 205.1 innings, Tim Siquerios took over and got the next three outs but Mike Wherry gave up a Mario Aguilar homer to make it 5-3. And in the bottom of the 9th Kikuo Kawase's struggles continued when he gave up a 2-run homer to Ryan McMahon to tie the game, blowing his sixth save and fifth in the last month. Bo Angeac hit HR #44 in the top of the 10 to restore the Rays lead, but Jordan Diaz was touched for Aguilar's second of the game in the bottom of the inning to re-tie it. Finally in the 11th Jaiden Hardaway doubled, a couple of walks loaded the bases, and Vlad Guerrero Jr's sac fly gave the Rays the lead again, and Angeac followed with an RBI single to make it 8-6. Diaz stayed on and got the Yankees 1-2-3 to mercifully end the game.

Game 2: A strange game for Nate Thompson and the Rays as they fell behind the Yankees 7-0 and were no-hit into the 6th inning yet almost came all the way back before losing 7-6. Thompson had his strikeout pitch going (8 in 4 innings) but unfortunately had his gopher ball pitch going (3 Yankee homers for 7 runs). His 4 8 7 7 1 8 meant a .667 BABIP tonight. Meanwhile the Yankees' Pedro Avila wasn't dominating them so much (1 whiff) but got an .067 BABIP as he allowed just one hit, a Nate Clark single, through 5 1/3. He did walk 4 and came out with the bases loaded in the 6th thanks to Clark's single, a walk and a Yankee error. Vlad Guerrero's grounder scored a run and then Bo Angeac hit #45 with two on and it was 7-4. And in the 8th Vlad went deep (#16/#35) after Victor de Jesus doubled to cut it to 7-6, but they stranded Dayle Jenkins in the 9th and couldn't quite complete the comeback. Holding the Yankees at 7 after Thompson departed were David Sanchez (2 innings), Bob Sirna (1) and Jim Connors (1). The Rays now have to win 3 of their final 4 to break their own wins record of 127.

Playoff Race Update: With four days left in the season, most everything is settled. In the AL, the usual suspects have won or should win their divisions: the Rays and Rangers have clinched, while Detroit is 2 up on Minnesota. The Angels have clinched a wild card and the Twins are 3 up on Kansas City, which picked a bad time to go on a bad stretch, for the second wild card. In the NL, Columbus, St. Louis and the Dodgers have won their divisions, Washington has clinched a wild card and the Padres are 2 up on Arizona for the other wild card.

Retirements! Get your retirements!: A whole slew of players hung up the cleats today. Some former Rays: Walker Buehler (that 2024 season) who spent the last 6-7 years battling injuries, Abraham Toro (that 2022 season) who brought us back Rafael Devers and our first title in 2023, Ronaldo Hernandez (who had a great couple of years as the backup catcher before he was dealt to bring us Jack Leiter) and longtime farmhand who had a few cups of coffee in the bigs Nick Loftin. Other notables: Pete Alonso, Austin Hays, Luis Robert, Kyle Tucker, Joey Bart, Bobby Dalbec. All these guys are young stars or up-and-comers IRL right now in 2021 which tells you how time flies.

Game 3: Rays pitchers will be glad to see Yankee Stadium in their rear-view mirror as they gave up 5 more homers tonight, making it 13 in the 3 games in this series. But the Rays had a big homer of their own, Victor de Jesus's 52nd of the year in the 9th, and it gave them a 7-6 win. It was similar to Tuesday's game in that the lead went back and forth and Tampa Bay blew another lead late. At the beginning though it was more similar to last night's game as Leo Ortega was giving up homers by the bushel, three in the first three innings to put New York up 4-0. But Rodolfo Rivas' 3-run homer (#41) in the 4th cut it to 4-3, and Bo Angeac's 2-run single in the 5th made it 5-4 Rays. Ortega, though, wasn't done giving up homers and he surrendered one more in the 6th to Yankee rookie slugger Mike Long to tie it up again at 5. Ortega finished 6 9 5 5 0 4 and ends his regular season at 17-5, 3.49 with an impressive 18/197 BB/K ratio in 193.1 innings. He was in line for the win, though, when Angeac hit an RBI triple in the 7th to restore the Tampa Bay lead, and Tim Siqueiros had a 1-2-3 7th. But Jordan Diaz blew it again, giving up a homer to Long to tie the game once again in the 8th, before de Jesus came through in the 9th to finally put the Rays ahead for good. Kikuo Kawase got the ball in the 9th, and although he hit a batter with 2 out, he whiffed a pair and looked much better than his other recent outings, picking up save #20 while Diaz vultured his 6th win.

Team record: 126-33. Next up: The final 3 games of the regular season are at Publix Park against Baltimore; take at least 2 of them and the Rays make regular season history.

Playoff Race Update: The Twins are in as they won and Detroit beat Kansas City, the only crumb of suspense is whether the Twins can sweep Detroit in their final regular-season series to steal the division as Minnesota is 2 games behind the Tigers. Over in the NL, San Diego leads Arizona by 2 games for the second wild card with 3 games left; alas they do not play each other.

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Game 1: The Rays tied their own regular season wins record by notching #127 with a 9-4 decision over Baltimore at Publix Park, and now have two shots to break it. Speaking of tying records Nate Schultz picked up win #22, which ties the team record set by Andy Aparicio and Jon Hayes in 2031, thanks to a 6 4 2 2 3 4 outing which concludes his regular season at 22-2, 3.19 with 241 whiffs in 197.1 innings. Chris Hicks continued to struggle, allowing 2 runs in 1 inning of work while Bob Sirna went the final two scoreless. On offense a 6-run 2nd inning put the game away early with the big hit a bases-clearing double from Nate Clark. Jaiden Hardaway drew a bases-loaded walk in the inning and later hit HR #42 with the bases empty, and Will Quintana was 2-4 with a couple of RBI singles.

Playoff race update: Everything is fully set in the AL after Detroit beat Minnesota to clinch the Central. The Twins will travel to Anaheim to play the Angels in the wild card game with the winner facing off against the Rays in the ALDS, although the Angels just suffered a huge blow when Mookie Betts strained his hamstring and is done for the year. Betts had one of the great age-40 seasons, going .308/362/569 with 38 HR. Detroit will start their ALDS in Texas as these teams square off for the 30th straight year, or something like that. Things did get more interesting in the NL when Arizona won and San Diego lost, pulling the D-backs within 1 game of the Padres for the second wild card.

Game 2: The 2033 Tampa Bay Rays, your all-time single-season wins record holder. They managed win #128 by outlasting Baltimore in a wild 14-10 game to break their own record of 127 set two years ago. They overcame early-game deficits of 4-0 and 8-5 as the Big Ray Machine continued to lay waste to Oriole pitching. Danny Medina was terrible today in his final start, giving up a 3-run homer to Tommy McDougal and an inside-the-park homer to Luis Urias in the 1st (the animation was hilarious by the way, it looked like a ping pong ball bouncing around the outfield). After a 3-run Victor de Jesus homer in the 3rd (#53, tying Nate Clark for the team record) gave the Rays a 5-4 lead in the 3rd, Medina lost it again in the 4th, giving up 4 more runs with an error mixed in and he was pulled for David Sanchez. Sanchez turned in the best performance of his brief Rays career by going 2.1 1 0 0 1 3 (and deservedly getting his first MLB win), allowing the offense to come back. Bo Angeac's 3-run homer in the 5th (#46) tied it up at 8 and Jaiden Hardway's 2-run HR (#42) in the 6th put them ahead to stay. Rodolfo Rivas added a 2-run shot (#42) in the 8th as well. de Jesus ended the day 4-4 with the HR and 3 RBI and has hit in 20 straight games while Hardaway capped his MVP season (he'll be rested tomorrow) with a 4-hit game as well. Jim Connors and Tim Siqueiros pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th but Mike Wherry struggled in the 9th, allowing 2 runs before finally closing it out. I think I might turn offense back down next season.

Playoff Race Update: It's all over in the NL now as well as Arizona lost at Kansas City and San Diego won, clinching the second wild card for the Padres who will travel to Washington to play the NL Wild Card Game. The winner of that will play St. Louis in the NLDS while the other one sees the Dodgers opening in Columbus.

October 2: Optioned P David Sanchez to AAA Durham, recalled OF Danny Ayala from AAA Durham.

Just a paper move to get another bat up to give Nate Clark a rest in the season finale.

Game 3: It looked like the Orioles might get a consolation win against a lineup of Rays bench players as they took a 3-2 lead into the 8th but the team that refuses to lose refused to lose, scoring 3 times in the 8th to take a 5-3 win over Baltimore and season win #129 to add to their MLB record. Kevin Kerstetter got the start for the Rays and he pitched very well, shutting Baltimore out through 5 with 7 whiffs before a combination of tiring and bad luck cost him in the 6th. Baltimore loaded the bases with a couple of infield hits and Luis Urias hit a bases-clearing double to put the O's up 3-0. Kerstetter ended 5.2 4 3 3 2 8 and concluded a season which saw him pitch much better over the last couple of months and he figures to be a key part of the 2034 staff. Rodolfo Rivas, one of three regulars playing today, cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the inning with HR #43, while Bob Sirna went 1 1/3 and Chris Hicks had a rare 1-2-3 8th inning. This set up the bottom of the 8th, which saw the Rays tie it up with a Rivas single and then with two out and the specter of unwanted extra innings looming, Alex Buitrago came through with a 2-run double. Jim Connors got the call in the 9th and scared us by giving up a single and double to put men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but got two shallow fly balls and a strikeout of Druw Jones to end the game and the regular season, notching his 7th save while Hicks picked up his first win of the year.

Final Regular Season Record: 129-33. Next up: Game 1 of the ALDS later this week at Publix Park against either the Twins or the Angels.

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The final regular season standings and leaders:



Final Rays team stats:



One of owner Stuart Sternberg's goals was to improve the defensive efficiency. We just barely did, moving up from 13th to 12th in the league. We actually had a positive zone rating for the most of the season but we lost it probably due to Melvin Gutierrez and his 75D at SS going back to the bench when Dane Ayers and Ricky Widmar came back.

Individual batting stats:



So yeah, Jaiden Hardaway. He merely had the 11th-best season in MLB history by a position player:



He might have been as high as 4th all-time had he not had a mini-slump in September as at the beginning of the month he was on pace for 12.2 WAR. You also have to feel a little bad for Bo Angeac and Victor de Jesus; in normal years, they'd be MVP winners with those kind of numbers, better than many past MVPs. Speaking of MVPs last year's winner Dayle Jenkins had 4.0 WAR in less than half a season and he'd have been right up there with Angeac and de Jesus if he played a full season.

Final pitching stats:



We definitely had 3 aces this year, with Aparicio the presumptive Cy Young winner for the second time in three seasons. It's really a shame we lost Jon Soranno, he had a breakout season and would have been a great 4th starter come playoff time. Despite Danny Medina having better overall numbers than Nate Thompson, it will be Thompson in Game 4 as he pitched better as a starter than Medina did. And even though he tailed off in August and September, Kikuo Kawase had a truly remarkable season for a reliever. So did Tim Siqueiros for that matter, 3.1 WAR is an excellent number for a relief pitcher.

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October 4, the NL Wild Card Game:



Yes that's former Rays starter Marc Wagner getting the win for Washington. He finally returned to action after missing 2 years with Tommy John surgery that didn't quite take the first time around, and surprisingly was back to his old form, striking out 164 in 115 innings and turning in a 3.05 ERA, meaning Washington's gamble of a 6/115 contract extension while he was rehabbing paid dividends for them this year. Of course we were never going to pay him 8 figures while he rehabbed for 2 years with an uncertain outcome, which is why we traded him along with Joe Barker in the offseason before last. Barker meanwhile took advantage of the juiced ball to lead MLB with 56 homers this year. Our return for those two was Michael Valdez, still an excellent CF prospect ranked about #60 overall who played this year with A+ Charlotte but had some slightly disappointing numbers. He's still only 21 and highly regarded by the scouts but right now Washington got the better end of that deal, not that it's set us back or anything.

October 5, the AL Wild Card Game:



So it will be the Angels once again. We faced them several times in the playoffs during the 2020s, although the last time they upset us in the 2027 ALCS so there's some unfinished business there. We'll also be seeing Jon Hayes and Christian Little, who'll be no fun to try to advance against, although we'll only see Little once since had to pitch the wild card game, and pitch it well he did. Of course the Angels will be the sentimental favorite here as most of the country wants to see 42-year-old Mike Trout get a ring with the closest he came having been in 2027 when they lost to St. Louis in the World Series. Trout can still play (ok, DH) - although he only hit .210 he had 24 HR to bring his career total to 725 and still drew 114 walks.

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Before we get into the NLDS games, congrats to Eric Carter on another fine season as Durham's closer:



I'm sure he'd trade this hardware for a spot in the Rays bullpen, and he might just have the chance next spring as Jordan Diaz and Jim Connors will heading out of town as they're both projected for 8 figures in arbitration which, uh....no. So that's two spots and with Chris Hicks struggling this year with us, Carter will get another long look.



What a game in Columbus as Jorge Perez's grand slam in the bottom of the 9th off....wait for it....Jasseel De La Cruz gave the Lightning a 1-0 series edge. Perez had a breakout season for Columbus this year, going .274-27-67 and earning 3.5 WAR as their SS, he was only a highly-prized Rays prospect whom we traded all the way back in 2023 to the then-Miami Marlins in a deal for Asa Lacy. It took 10 long years, but Miami/Columbus finally got the better end of the deal. This was all after Lightning closer Pat Gatlin blew a 5-3 lead in the 8th. Much less drama in St. Louis where Pat Brownell and the Nationals surprised 102-win St. Louis in Game 1 with the ageless (OK, 34) Juan Soto having a big game.

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The Rays' stars came out to shine tonight:



Jaiden Hardaway and Andy Aparicio showed the nation why they're the AL MVP-elect and Cy Young-elect for 2033 with dominant performances in a 9-1 thrashing of the Angels to open the ALDS in winning fashion. Nobody in the Tampa Bay area isn't getting too excited yet as we all remember that the Rays won their ALDS openers in romps in both of the last two seasons before going on to lose each series. But it's better to be up 1-0 than down 0-1 and Hardaway set the tone right away beating out an infield single as he and his teammates jumped all over an ex-teammate in Jon Hayes. Dayle Jenkins followed with a seeing-eye single and Victor de Jesus doubled home Hardaway before Nate Clark's groundout scored Jenkins. Then this year's MVP and last year's MVP went to work in the 2nd when Hardaway and Jenkins hit back-to-back homers off Hayes, and they really busted it open with 4 runs in the 3rd on a Rodolfo Rivas sac fly, a 2-run Luis Corpus double and a Hardaway RBI single. And to add salt in the wound, Hardaway went deep again in the 8th off one-time Ray farmhand Chris Youngpeter. Meanwhile Aparicio was dealing, even if he did run up a high pitch count. His 6 4 1 1 3 10 line was impressive nevertheless, and Bob Sirna and Danny Medina (back where he thrived in the bullpen) didn't allow LA a hit over the final 3 innings. Bo Angeac had to leave with back spasms, which seems to be a day-to-day thing but we'll see tomorrow. If he can't go Vlad will play 3B and Alex Buitrago or Omar Rodriguez will go into the lineup. So the question now is can Nate Schultz and the bats diverge from the 2031/2032 script and take Game 2? Stay tuned.



Detroit and Texas renewed their annual playoff battle and the Tigers came out on top thanks to a Shohei Ohtani homer in the 9th. Ohtani was someone whom I was looking at possibly acquiring for the Rays before Detroit dealt for him at mid-season, and in the end I'm glad I picked up Vlad instead. Columbus goes up 2-0 on the Dodgers, reminiscent of how they knocked them off in 2030 on their way to the World Series before the Rays took them down, and the Rays are all for 2030 repeating as well. Finally, the Cards evened up their series on homers from former Rays Isaac DeLeon and Jasson Dominguez.