The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

I'm new to OOTP, and with no live sports to fill my pandemic time I decided to give it a try after considering and rejecting going back to Strat-O-Matic due to the cost and my sentimental attachment to the cards (having played from the mid 70s through the early 80s) while I wanted to play through the computer. It all seemed like too much so I decided to go with OOTP and it exceeded my wildest expectations. Based on discussions I've seen in the general forum I know quite a few of you who have played for years have gotten a bit jaded with the apparent incremental improvements recently but for someone like me coming in the breadth and depth of what I could do blew me away.

Anyway, I'm obviously a huge Rays fan who lives in the Tampa Bay area and I consider myself pretty darn familiar with the team and its minor league system as well the top prospects around the league having been an avid fantasy baseball player. So I decided to take on the Rays and see how far I can go with them. It's fun to take over a team with so much depth at the major and minor league level and combined with the challenge of a limited payroll it seems like the ideal franchise to take over.

So at this point I'm actually a couple of months into 2021 but I'm going to recap how 2020 went, starting with the next post. Hopefully anyone on the forum reading this will enjoy this look into an alternate universe Rays franchise and feel free to jump in if you think I've screwed up as GM (or manager), both roles which I've taken on. I've gotten so addicted to and immersed in the game that I generally play two series (6-7 games) each day and play the games out, managing them batter-by-batter (except maybe in blowouts where I'll jump ahead a half-inning at a time). I might even get more emotionally involved with these fake games than the real ones I've watched every day over the years.

Next up: the 2020 season in review.

[Art Deco]

So the 2020 season. The TL;DR version is that the Rays went 94-68 and won the AL East, where once again they met up with the Houston Astros and once again were eliminated by them. This year's series was more frustrating as in all 3 games the Rays lost they took a lead of 2 or more runs into the 6th inning or later, only to lose. The only game they won was an epic 2-0 pitcher's duel between Blake Snell and Justin Verlander where Snell twirled a 3-hit shutout and Yandy Diaz supplied the offense with an RBI single and a HR. The bullpen, which had been pretty good all year, came apart in the series. But let's go back to the start.

With Snell starting the year on the DL, I went with Brendan McKay in the rotation along with Glasnow, Morton, Chirinos and Yarbrough. OOTP for some reason wanted to start me with Kevan Smith and Chris Herrmann as catchers, but I went to the more likely combo of Mike Zunino and Michael Perez. Choi, B.Lowe, Adames and Diaz were the mainstays of the infield, and in the OF I started with Renfroe, a Kiermaier/Margot platoon, and Meadows. At DH, I started with a rough platoon of Tsutsugo and Jose Martinez.

Despite the history of the starting rotation, they were a relative disappointment for the year with interestingly the most consistent of the batch being McKay, who ended up winning 15 games with a 3.80 ERA and 200 strikeouts. (It seems like OOTP likes McKay as I've seen him succeed in various sims I've read about already, probably due to his dominating K/BB numbers in AA/AAA last year as opposed to his pedestrian MLB stint). Morton suffered nagging injury after nagging injury and had an ERA a little over 5 (he had a winning record thanks to some fine run support). Glasnow was a rock, leading the AL in strikeouts with 233 although he too had a 4.25 ERA or so. And Snell when he came back was highly inconsistent, having such a bad stretch at midseason that his ERA for awhile was over 6, although he turned it on big-time in the second half culminating in that ALDS shutout mentioned above. Chirinos got hurt and missed a couple of months and Yarbrough was up and down (both in quality of pitching and the St. Pete-Durham shuttle). The staff savior turned out to be Anthony Banda, whom I started off in long relief and then started getting a few starts here and there, and he ended up 10-1 with a 2.09 ERA which included a Maddux thrown against KC (2-hit shutout with under 100 pitches).

Before the trading deadline, San Diego was shopping a healthy for once and very effective (sub-3 ERA with over a K per inning) Garrett Richards (a rental) so I took them up on it and sent A-ball pitchers Brian Shaffer and John Doxaxis to the Padres for him in order to try to get a decent 4th starter for the playoffs since at this point I couldn't count on Morton. Well after a brilliant debut against Detroit, Richards started getting Morton's disease, having to leave more than one start with a nagging injury. (Ironically I turned to Morton in Game 4 of the ALDS with the idea I'd piggyback him with G.Richards, but he pitched great for 6 innings up 5-1 then I let him foolishly start the 7th and things got out of hand after that).

Speaking of the bullpen, I went with the conventional wisdom and made Nick Anderson the closer with Diego Castillo and Jose Alvarado the primary setup men, with Drake and Roe in middle relief. They did quite well during the regular season, with Alvarado having a great comeback season after his lost 2019. Anderson was prone to the occasional blowup which left his ERA a little over 4, but he was good for 38 saves which was second in the AL. One memorable mishap of his was taking over with a 1-run lead at the Trop against the Angels with Trout leading off, and Trout hit the longest HR I'd seen in OOTP to dead center over the old Batter's Eye restaurant, a Pujols vs Lidge-like blast. But of course the pen came up short in the playoffs, a shortcoming I attempted to address in the offseason (more when I get to it). Just before the deadline I picked up veteran lefty Tony Watson from the Giants for another A-ball pitcher to add some depth, his contributions were negligible. Colin Poche also pitched in middle relief, and while he fanned 71 in 51 innings, he allowed 10 HR and a 5+ ERA.

Among the hitters, there was more good than bad. Renfroe was a revelation, ending up with 40 HR and 111 RBI in a full-time role. There was some bad with it (a .248 avg and 184 Ks) but he also played gold-glove defense in right. Meadows regressed a bit from 2019 but still went 26-85-.290 despite missing a couple of weeks with injury. B.Lowe was solid at 19-80-.267 and Choi emerged as a fixture going .292-22-85. The Kiermaier/Margot platoon was quite effective with latter hitting a robust .292 with 15 steals. There was one other exceptional standout which I'll get to in a minute.

The bad on the offense: well let's start with the $7 million man from Japan, Mr. Tsutsugo. Getting regular ABs through late May, he could only muster a .165 average with 2 HR. I finally couldn't take it anymore and sent him to Durham, where he the combination of disappointment and culture shock led him to stink there for quite awhile, before he started hitting AAA pitching at a decent clip. So he got brought back up a couple of times, only to continue to struggle and go back to Durham. Blowing $7M would normally be a disaster for the Rays but to the rescue came Jose Martinez, the man born to DH. Cafecito took the regular job and ran with it (or more accurately, hit with it), ended up the AL batting champ at .332 to go with 19 HR and 88 RBI, and his 4.4 WAR was second only to Choi's 4.6 among hitters.

However, the hitting disappointments came from the left side of the infield. Adames and Diaz had miserable first halves, with OOTP apparently skeptical of Yandy's 2019 power surge leading him to not hit his first 2020 HR until the July 4 weekend. He ended up with 6 although at least it was with a .288 average. With no real alternatives at 3B (Wendle?) the job was his to keep. Adames only managed a 12-74-.260 line and that was *after* he had a scorching August and September. I was thisclose to promoting Wander Franco and benching Willy in early August when Adames suddenly got hot and Franco tweaked something at Durham, causing him to miss a couple of weeks.

Speaking of Franco, the wunderkind, I started him out at AA Montgomery where he was OK but was only hitting .267-8-67 through July. I figured he was bored at AA so I moved him up to Durham, and he caught fire, hitting .400-3-15 in 20 games before the aforementioned injury. After Durham finished its playoffs (they lost 3-1 in the AAA championship round), I brought him up and played him at SS/DH for the final week where he went .429 with 2 HR and 3 SB in 21 AB, including a shot at Yankee Stadium. I added him to the playoff roster, although he rode the pine while Willy played SS (and DH was taken with Martinez). To shake things up in Game 4 he got the start and went 1 for 4 without incident.

The netural among hitters were the catchers. Zunino bounced back somewhat from his awful 2019 hitting .211-11-35, but broke his hand in early September, ending his season. Mikey Perez did a pretty decent job in his stead, and ended up .255-6-30, so the C position wasn't the black hole it was in 2019.

I'm not going to get into how the prospects did (I did have Joe Ryan and Riley O'Brien up briefly with mixed results and Randy Arozarena was terrible early when filling in during brief injury stints for Renfroe and Meadows but fared better in September when he was a roster expansion callup). Nate Lowe was up for a while and hit a couple of HRs but with Choi & Martinez having great years there were no regular ABs to give him.

So that's a wrap on 2020 and now it's on to the 2020-21 offseason.

[Art Deco]

Before I get into the 2020-21 offseason, here's how 2020 ended up around MLB:





In the AL, through early August the toughest competitors for the Rays in the AL East were actually the Blue Jays, who dominated the season series with the Rays to keep them within striking distance for most of the year. The Yankees spent most of the first four months mired around .500 after Gerrit Cole suffered an injury that knocked him out for about 3 months (which is why Glasnow won the strikeout crown). But once Cole came back, the Yanks got blisteringly hot down the stretch and took one of the wild card spots. Over in the NL, the Braves and Dodgers were dominant as expected, and the Reds ended up eking out the Central. The NL wild card race was wild, with 5 teams in it going into the last weekend, but all of them except the Mets fell flat on the last few days.

So in the playoffs, Jake Odorizzi and the Twins beat Cole and the Yanks in the wild card game, while the Padres came back late to beat the Mets in the NL wild card. I mentioned the Astros' 3-1 series win over the Rays in the last post, but in the other matchup Cleveland took a 2-0 lead at home against Minnesota only to see the Twins take 3 straight to complete the comeback. In the NL, after a scare in losing Game 1, the Braves beat the Reds in 5 while the Dodgers did likewise with San Diego.


In the LCSs, the Astros beat the Twins in 6 with little drama, but the mighty Dodgers found themselves down 3-2 to Atlanta before coming back to win Games 6 and 7 in LA to set up a rematch of the 2017 WS. The Dodgers this time got their revenge, going up 3-1 in the series before losing Game 5 but then taking Game 6. Dodgers catcher Will Smith became the fourth player in MLB history to hit 8 HR in a postseason. McKay was jobbed out of ROTY by Luis Robert as the only Ray up for postseason hardware.

So with 2020 in the rear-view window, it was time to see what I could do to get the Rays in position for 2021. First off, despite Stu Sternberg's various entreaties to me during the season, I did not sign Charlie Morton to an extension. In fact I was so spooked by his bad 2019 that I didn't even make a qualifying offer, fearing it might be accepted and I didn't want to waste $17M of a limited payroll on him. With Richards and Watson gone to free agency, I felt like I needed another starter to go with the core 3 of Snell/Glasnow/McKay since I couldn't count on Chirinos or Yarbrough and I wasn't quite ready to give a rotation spot to Joe Ryan or Riley O'Brien yet. While I also had Banda, I knew I couldn't count on him either to duplicate his fluky 2020 success and while Trevor Richards pitched well during a few stints with the big club, his AAA numbers were kind of lousy so I didn't view him as a real option either.

My other goal was to give Wander Franco the regular SS job. The way he hit in Durham and with the Rays (albeit in small sample sizes) reaffirmed my belief in him. This meant it was time to deal Willy Adames. So I killed two birds with one stone, dealing Adames to the Braves (who needed an upgrade at SS) for lefty Max Fried, who seems like the ideal #4 starter. Fried followed up his fine real-life 2019 with an nearly equal 2020 (3.9 WAR) and was a reasonable $3.9M in arbitration. In order to have something a safety net in case Wander struggled, I signed Freddie Galvis to a minor-league deal.

My other concerns revolved around not losing anybody too good in the Rule 5 draft and with a lot of depth in the Rays system, this was a real concern. So first I shipped Lucious Fox, who was doing well at AA but we have a real glut of singles-hitting speedy middle infielders coming through the system (Brujan, Xavier Edwards, Greg Jones) and was able to send him along with rookie-league flyer Franklin Dacosta to the Twins for Trevor Larnach, an excellent prospect with power who didn't have to be protected. I also dealt James Haley, whom I wasn't going to protect, to the Padres for Owen Miller, a SS who Keith Law had ranked as their #9 prospect going into 2020 and hit .308-6-47 in AAA but also didn't have to be protected. Finally and most significantly, with no ABs on the horizon for him in 2021 and stagnating in AAA, I dealt Nate Lowe to the Phillies who were willing to give me elite hitting prospect Alex Bohm who wasn't exactly a disappointment going .297-30-116 at AA. Bohm makes a potential upgrade at 3B for Yandy, and even though he's much better defensively at 1B (a 75 in fact!), he's a 45 to Yandy's 40.

I made sure to keep Josh Lowe (coming off an injury-riddled 2020 at AA but still a potentially excellent prospect) and Taylor Walls on the 40-man, but said goodbye to Sam McWilliams, Ryan LaMarre, Aaron Slegers and Brian O'Grady (who IRL is being touted as a sleeper for the Rays but was more in a coma at AAA for me). I then lost Ryan Boldt to the Astros and Paul Campbell to the Nationals in the Rule 5 draft. Not only did the Astros keep Boldt on their opening day 2021 roster, they started him at leadoff in LF and he hit .320 over the first couple of weeks before getting hurt (then they just traded him to St. Louis a day before where I currently am in late May 2021).

Of course after the bullpen nightmares of the 2020 postseason, I set out to upgrade things there and made free agent Brad Hand, the erstwhile Cleveland closer coming off another fine season, a priority since he was willing to take a one-year deal. He claimed at the outset he was looking for $6M which seemed very reasonable to me (especially after Ken Giles signed an outrageous deal to be the Yankees' setup man for Chapman). So I met this demand, and then he yanked me around from mid-December into mid-January claiming better offers before he finally had me cough up a little over $9M to bring him onboard, making him the team's biggest closer acquisition since Rafael Soriano in 2010 (and hey that worked out). This makes the pen quite deep, allowing me to move Anderson back into the setup role where I think he's better suited, and with Castillo, Alvarado, Roe & Co. it's deep.

Arbitration came around and I ended up settling a few, winning a few, and losing a few, with the big pay bumps going to Jose Martinez ($2M to $8M), Renfoe got 5.8, Choi got 6.1, and Roe got a bump to 3.2. Oh and in the big news we worked out an extension with Tyler Glasnow, 6 years for $81M (3.1 in 21, 8.3 in 22, then 13.9/18.8/18.8/18.8). Here's hoping he doesn't get hurt again like he did in 2019! Going to try to extend Meadows as well.

Anyway after signing Hand in late January, I had to make room on the 40-man roster so it was bye bye Jalen Beeks (another guy who pitched OK in his 25 innings or so with the big club in 2020 but I've never really liked). Rather than DFA him I dealt him to the Dodgers for IF Kody Hoese, a halfway-decent B- prospect somewhere around #15-20 in their system.

Meanwhile now that we were well into February it was time to start picking off decent vets who were left standing in free agency's musical chairs. Among the big names, Mookie Betts went for 9/360 to the Braves (who also signed Robbie Ray to replace Fried in their rotation), JT Realmuto & DJ LeMahieu went to Washington, Anthony Rizzo & James Paxton to the Angels, Trevor Bauer & Cory Kluber to the Yankees, Jake Odorizzi and Marcus Semien to the Phillies, Didi Gregorious to the Reds and for some reason the Dodgers signed every closer on the market (Liam Hendriks, Alex Colome, Trevor Rosenthal) *after* they re-signed Kenley Jansen. Also JD Martinez went back to Houston and Marcell Ozuna took his place in Boston. As for the ex-Rays, Morton signed with the Cardinals (where he's already had a DL stint and has a 4+ ERA so far) where he got 3/35, and Garrett Richards went to Washington for 2/34.

Anyway those passed-over vets I was talking about. One of them was Jason Castro, who I figured as an upgrade over Perez as Zunino's platoon partner, he got a minor league contract at $1.6M. In other vet minor league deals, I grabbed the aforementioned Galvis as Wander insurance, brought back old friend Drew Smyly (who had a nice 2020 comeback season) and added Michael Brantley in mid-March when he was still sitting there and willing to play for peanuts.

Next up: Spring training and the opening day roster. Any thoughts on my offseason?

[Art Deco]

Spring training & opening day roster.

The less said about spring training in OOTP the better, I guess, with the main thing being getting everyone enough AB or IP to shake off the rust and hope nobody gets hurt. Mission accomplished on both fronts.

As mentioned, the only excitement of note was bringing in Michael Brantley (who did drop off in 2020 from his usual hitting excellence hence his availability) but he was always slated to start at Durham. As it came time to fashion the final roster, there wasn't much drama, although I decided to give Tsutsugo another crack at salvaging 2021's $7M.

By Position:

C: Zunino, Jason Castro (Perez had options to send back to AAA)
1B: Choi
2B: B.Lowe
SS: Franco
3B: Y.Diaz
IF: Wendle,
OF: Renfroe, Meadows, Kiermaier, Margot, Tsutsugo
DH: J.Martinez

Rotation:Snell, Glasnow, McKay, Fried, Chirinos.
Bullpen: Drake, Roe, Anderson, Alvarado, D.Castillo, N.Anderson, Hand, T.Richards.

The only drama was the last bullpen spot where Poche had options and Trevor Richards didn't, so Poche went to AAA. With Hand bumping everyone down a spot and being a lefty, Poche wasn't going to pitch much for the big club anyway.

The other issue regarding the final roster involved a player who I didn't mention previously. Brett Honeywell of course IRL is going to miss a third straight season this year but in my universe he came back and pitched at AAA last year. And he didn't pitch that well (ERA of about 5.50 with mediocre peripherals) so he ended up going on waivers as he was out of options. Probably should have tried shopping him for someone I didn't have to put on the 40-man but I was ready to get on with the season. The Marlins claimed him and he's been in their rotation and has pitched OK (better than he did at Durham in 2020) but I see from using the "shop a player" function I often try that he's easy available in trade.

I let the AI handle all the minor league assignments, making a few tweaks as needed, and while I had the AI in charge, it signed Tyler Flowers as a minor league FA and put him in Durham, whom I released early in the season because I wanted catcher-of-the-future Ronaldo Hernandez (who hit really well at AA after a mid-season promotion) to get regular at-bats especially with Perez there as well. (Spoiler alert: Hernandez is hitting about .390 with some power after nearly 2 months in Durham getting about 60-65% of the playing time, giddyup)

Anyway onto the regular season. As I said earlier at the time of writing this I'm in late May already so I'm going to have rely on memory and the boxscores for these early season games. I'll group them by series.

March 25-28, 2021: Home vs Boston (4).
The Sox were mediocre last season with some bad pitching. Chris Sale is still hurt, so their opening day starter is Lance Lynn, acquired in an offseason deal with Texas after reverting to mediocrity in my world in 2020 after a great 2019. Marcell Ozuna replaces JD Martinez as the middle-of-the order bat. Strangely at mid-season last year the AI dealt Andrew Benintendi to the Twins for Willians Astudillo so he's not in the picture any longer.

Anyway, opening day is a heartbreaking 3-1 loss in 12 innings. The game was actually scoreless with Snell (7 3 0 0 2 8) trading zeroes with Lynn, who went 8 1/3, through 10 innings. Top 11, scrap-heap pickup and former Ray Logan Morrison pinch-hit and LoMo went deep off Diego Castillo. But in the bottom of the inning, Meadows did likewise off Matt Barnes. This took us into the 12th where Alvarado and Chaz Roe conspired to allow 2 runs one of which was unearned off a key Castro passed ball. Colton Brewer closed it out for the Sox in the bottom of the 12th.

Game 2 was another excruciating loss. Up 2-1 behind Glasnow (LoMo went deep again for Boston while Meadows and Renfroe had RBI doubles) and his 7 3 1 1 1 10 line, the bullpen blew it again, this time with a bases-loaded walk from Anderson to let Boston tie in the 8th, and then Hand gave up an RBI double to another pinch-hitter, Dustin Peterson in the 9th while the offense came up lame again in a 3-2 loss.

Game 3 was shaping up to be deja vu all over again. McKay in a 1-1 duel with another former Ray, Nate Eovaldi (a Ji-Man HR the only offense), when I left him in one batter too long as he gave up a leadoff HR in the 8th to the immortal Kevin Plawecki to make it 2-1. But down to their last out in the 9th, Meadows came through again with the longball off Cody Carroll to send it to extras. And this time the Rays prevailed in the 10th thanks to a walk-off RBI hit from Jose Martinez to make Alvarado the winner. Still the lack of offense against a mediocre Red Sox staff is an early cause for concern.

Game 4 saw the Rays up 4-3 through 5 as Max Fried was struggling in his Rays debut but still had a lead, which in part came from a 2-run HR from Wander. But the wheels fell off in the 6th as Rafael Devers homered to tie, and Jackie Bradley Jr hit a 2-run triple off last year's hero Anthony Banda and the Rays went on to lose 7-4.

Record after 4 games: 1-3.

March 29-31, vs Cincinnati (3).

Yonny got the nod and things looked bad early as he allowed 3 runs in the 2nd. But the Rays got the 3 runs back in the 3rd including a 2-run double from Wander, and then got 3 more in the 4th including a 2-run double from Renfroe. Yonny couldn't finish the 5th but the bullpen shut it down from there with Banda getting the win with two scoreless innings and Hand nailing down his first Rays save in the 6-3 win.

In Game 2, the Rays built a 3-0 lead on HRs from Martinez and Wander and Snell rolled with an 8 5 0 0 1 12 line. But Hand was shaky in the 9th, allowing 2 runs and Diego Castillo had to bail him out for his first save. The Rays are now at .500 after the 3-2 win.

Game 3 was another nail-biter like the games in the Boston series. Glasnow was great again, taking a 1-0 lead into the 9th with a reasonable pitch count and a somewhat tired pen. But with one out he got into some trouble, and Nick Anderson allowed a tying single. And things looked bleak when Joey Votto took Alvarado deep in the top of the 11th to give the Reds the lead. But the Rays put together a rally against Raisel Iglesias and Phil Maton, capped by Ji-Man's walk-off RBI single to pull out a 3-2 win and a series sweep.

Record after 7 games: 4-3.

WanderWatch: 7-25 (.280), 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB.

April's games in the next post.

[Art Deco]

April 2021:

April 1-4, at Baltimore (3).

Game 1: The Rays spoiled the home opener at Camden Yards with a 13-2 drubbing of the Orioles. Scoreless until the 6th, the Rays broke it open with Meadows ending up with a HR and 5 RBI, and Ji-Man with 4-4 with a 3-run shot included. McKay was outstanding, going 7 1/3 and Chaz Roe actually got the save coming into the 8th at 5-2 and stayed in after the Rays got 8 in the top of the 9th.

Game 2: Max Fried struggled again, allowing 4 runs in 6 innings, but the Rays were in it at 4-4 into the 8th thanks to HRs from Wander and Kiermaier. But Anderson allowed a run in the bottom of the inning, and despite getting 2 men on in the 9th the Rays couldn't score as Baltimore took it 5-4.

Game 3: Rays went up 5-0 early and didn't stop after that, pounding the Os for a 16-2 win including HRs from B.Lowe and Castro and 4 RBIs apiece from Meadows and Wander. Chrinios pitched 7 innings of 1-run, 3-hit ball for the win.

Record: 6-4.
WanderWatch: .270-3-12-1

April 5-6 at Washington (2)

Game 1: Rays went up 2-1 in the mid-innings behind Snell, who was 6 3 1 1 1 10 and drove in one of the runs himself, with a Ji-Man HR for the other run, and the score stayed that way with the bullpen holding on and Hand getting the save.

Game 2: Glasnow wasn't sharp, allowing 3 runs and 8 hits through 5 innings, but down 3-2 into the 6th, Wander smacked a 2-run shot, and then the red-hot Ji-Man added 2 more dingers including a slam, and the Rays rolled 9-5 with Glasnow getting the win.

Record: 8-4.
WanderWatch: .304-4-14-2

April 8-11 vs Cleveland (4)

Game 1: McKay coughed up a 4-1 lead in the 6th as Cleveland tied it, but a Cafecito HR in the bottom of the inning and a 3-run Renfroe shot in the 8th gave the Rays an 8-4 decision with Roe getting the win after relieving McKay in the top of the 6th.

Game 2: It was the Wander Franco show as the rookie hit for the cycle, driving in 4 runs as the Rays romped 12-4. Renfroe, Meadows and Ji-Man added longballs as well, and despite another mediocre outing (4 runs in 6 IP again) Fried got his first win as a Ray.

Game 3: A more Rays-like 4-2 win with Ji-Man going yard again, giving him 7 in 13 games and Franco went 2-4 with an RBI double to back another strong outing from Chirinos and Brad Hand saved against his old mates to make it six straight.

Game 4: The win streak reaches 7 as Snell and Shane Bieber had an old-fashioned pitching duel with the Rays prevailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th on a walk-off bases loaded hit by pitch of Martinez. Diego Castillo notched the win. Snell's ERA sits at 0.65 after 4 starts.

Record: 12-4
WanderWatch: .339-5-19-3

April 12-14 vs Kansas City (3)

Game 1: After 11 wins in 12 games the Rays were due for a clunker and Royals won 7-2 after getting 4 runs in 6 innings off Glasnow despite his 12 Ks. Two Brett Phillips HRs did the key damage.

Game 2: The loss angered the Rays, who pasted the Royals 12-1 behind a filthy performance from McKay, who threw 7 shutout innings of 4-hit ball with a career-high 14 Ks. JiMan hit #8, Meadows added a slam, and Renfroe and Castro went yard as well.

Game 3: Fried was really bad this time, not making it out of the 3rd, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits and 5 walk and putting the Rays in a 4-0 hole. But the Rays chipped away and Wander's 3-run blast in the 7th broke a 4-4 tie to give them a 7-4 win. Drake got the relief win and Hand notched his 4th save.

Record: 15-5.
WanderWatch: .370-6-25-4

April 16-18 at New York Yankees (3)

Game 1: The big test was here as the Yankees had nearly matched the Rays' start and Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Rays over the years. No matter to the 2021 Rays who jumped to a 6-0 lead in the 2nd capped by a 3-run Meadows blast and Yonny rolled from there, holding the dangerous Yankee lineup to 3 hits and 1 run over 8 innings in a 7-1 win.

Game 2: Another big-time pitching matchup with Snell vs Gerrit Cole, and Snell got the better of it as the Rays chipped away for run after run against Cole, including a Cafecito blast on their way to a 6-3 win which wasn't really that close as the Yanks got 2 in the bottom of the ninth. Wander was 2-3 with a pair of steals. Snell's ERA ballooned to 0.78 after allowing 1 run in 7 IP.

Game 3: How sweep it is after the Rays pounded Corey Kluber for 5 runs in the 4th and rode Glasnow's brilliant 7-inning, 2-hit, 0-run, 0-walk, 10-K performance to an 8-1 win in a sweep reminiscent of the Yankees' own Boston Massacre in 1978. Renfroe had 2 HR and 5 RBI to pace the offense as the Rays went to 17-5 and opened up a 4-game lead on the Yanks.

Team record: 17-5
WanderWatch: .369-6-25-7

April 20-22 at Boston (3)

Game 1: Back to play the one team that handled the Rays this season, and Boston jumped to a 6-0 lead behind Jeter Downs, who had a 3-run HR and a 3-run double off McKay, who still hung in through 6 innings allowing 7 runs. Wander went 3-5 with an RBI to raise his average to .382 but it wasn't enough in the 7-3 loss as Boston has now dealt the Rays 4 of their 6 losses on the season.

Game 2: It was the Kevin Kiermaier show as he popped 2 HR off Lance Lynn in the first and 3rd innings (raising his BA to .398!) accounting for all the offense and Max Fried had his best start as a Ray, going 6.1 5 1 1 0 4 in a 4-2 win. Hand with save #5.

Game 3: The Rays jumped on Eduardo Rodriguez for 7 runs in the first 2 innings and won by a football score of 14-3. Ji-Man had another monster game going 4-5 with a HR and 4 RBI to now give him 9 and 29 on the season, Zunino popped his first dinger, and Yonny went to 4-0 with another quality 7 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 ER. Wander added 4 hits and an RBI.

Record: 19-6.
WanderWatch: .388-7-27-9

April 23-25 at Toronto (3)

Game 1: The Rays built a 6-0 lead against the normally tough Nate Pearson and went on to win 7-3 behind Snell, who wasn't himself, walking 6 in 5 innings but still managing to not allow a run, lowering his ERA to 0.68. Renfroe, Meadows (now at 9-32) and Castro went deep.

Game 2: Glasnow was incredible: 7 1 0 0 3 12, but Shun Yamaguchi matched him nearly evenly. Still the Rays took a 1-0 lead into the 8th on a Renfroe HR. But the wheels came off in the 8th for Diego Castillo, walking Rowdy Tellez with the bases loaded to give Toronto a 2-1 win.

Game 3: As so often this season after a rare loss, the Rays came out swinging and blasted the Jays 11-1. The red-hot Renfroe homered again, and Ji-Man swatted his 10th to support McKay, who went 7, K'd 9 and allowed only one run. Wander was quiet in this series.

Record: 21-7.
WanderWatch: .364-7-28-9

April 26-28 vs Boston (3)

Game 1: It's the Red Sox, AGAIN. Seeing Lance Lynn for the 3rd time already, the Rays had him figured out, taking a 7-0 after 7 which suddenly got dicey when a tiring Fried and an ineffctive Anthony Banda let the Sox get within 7-5 in the 8th. A 2-run Meadows shot in the bottom of the 8th calmed the nerves and the Rays won 9-5. Renfroe continued his HR streak as well and Nick Anderson got his first save after ending the 8th inning Sox rally and staying in for the 9th.

Game 2: Make that 5 straight games with a dinger for Renfroe as he went yard twice and the Rays got all of their 9 runs in the first 4 innings on the way to a 9-0 win with Chrinos doing it again going 7 5 0 0 0 5 to up his record to 5-0.

Game 3: All good things come to an end, and Snell was finally touched for some runs (4) despite striking out 12 in 6 innings. Former Ray Nate Eovaldi was tough, and the Sox prevailed 5-2 as Renfroe's HR streak ended.

Record: 23-8
WanderWatch: .378-7-29-10

As there was only one game in the next series in April, it will be in the May post coming up.

[Art Deco]

Before getting into May's games I'll recap the transactions, which will be interspersed chronologically with the game recaps going forward. There weren't many moves of significance in April (the same cannot be said of May).

April 2: Claimed OF Clint Frazier on waivers from the Yankees, demoted OF Yoshimoto Tstusugo to AAA Durham. Designated P Peter Fairbanks for assignment.

You may have noticed Tstustugo's name conspicuously absent from the recaps, and with good reason. Given several starts against righthanders, Yoshi continued to struggle and with few ABs available for him I couldn't resist picking up Frazier for free, whom I've always liked. And although Fairbanks has a great arm, in my game he missed most of 2020 with injuries and never was consistent, plus the bullpen is already pretty deep so he was the guy to come off the 40-man. He was later claimed by Baltimore, where he's had mixed success.

April 5: Signed 1B/2B Howie Kendrick to a minor league contract, assigned to AAA Durham.

Kendrick was a real-life target of the Rays before the 2019 season, but he chose to stay in Washington and it paid off for him with a ring. After a pretty good 20 HR, .290 season in 2020 none of the AI GMs out there wanted to give him a contract so I couldn't pass him up still sitting there at this point. Brandon Lowe has been struggling, and I figure Kendrick might at least platoon with him at 2B for awhile.

April 23: Designated OF Clint Frazier for assignment, purchased the contract of 1B/2B Howie Kendrick.

The last bench bat spot continues to be a revolving door as Frazier did little in his opportunities with the club while Lowe's slump rages on. Time to give Kendrick a go after he got some ABs with Durham to shake off the rust. Frazier cleared waivers and was sent to Durham, where he's hit 9 HR in May.

[Art Deco]

OK, time to recap May so I can finally catch up to where I am.

April 31-May 2 vs Baltimore (3)

Game 1: A weird game in which the Rays only managed 4 hits for entire game despite facing Kendall Graveman, but thanks to 3 Orioles errors and a 2-run shot by the red-hot Renfroe, they managed to take a 6-3 win behind Glasnow who allowed 2 runs in 6 1/3. Wander had 2 RBI and 2 SBs while Hand got save #6. The win capped off an outstanding 20-5 month of April.

Game 2: The Rays jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead behind Kiermaier and Ji-Man HRs, but that was it as they could only managed 5 hits against a Baltimore bullpen day and ended up dropping a 4-2 decision. McKay only allowed 4 hits of his own through 6 1/3, but with 2 of them being HRs he allowed all 4 runs.

Game 3: Further inexplicable inability to hit against the terrible Baltimore staff, as they lose 5-1 only managing 6 hits. Fried with another mediocre start, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs (2 earned) in 5 1/3. Suddenly the good times of running up big run totals and 10+ hits start to seem far away.

Team record: 24-10.
WanderWatch: .372-7-31-12

May 1: Signed P Adam Ottavino to a minor league contract, assigned him to AAA Durham.

The Yankees had surprisingly waived Ottavino a few weeks into the season despite still putting up pretty good numbers. After he cleared waivers, I got him for a $210K contract and figured you can never have enough power pitchers for depth purposes.

May 3-5 vs Toronto (3)

Game 1: The bad times continue to roll as Rays fall 10-5 to the Jays and to add injury to insult Yonny Chirinos has to leave the game in the 4th with a strained forearm as his deal with the devil may have come up due for payment. Trevor Richards and Drake were terrible in relief, and Kiermaier's 7th HR of the season was the only highlight on offense.

May 3: Placed P Yonny Chirinos on the 15-day DL, recalled P Colin Poche from AAA Durham.

Yonny looks to be out a few weeks in a replay of last season where he kept getting hurt, but it's never fun to lose the reigning AL Pitcher of the Month. Poche is next man up, although I still need to decide whether I'll go with Trevor Richards or Banda in his spot or call someone else up from Durham.

Game 2: The 3-game losing streak was nipped in the bud with a 6-2 win behind Snell. He wasn't terribly efficient but managed to only allow he 2 runs in 5 2/3 despite allowing 10 baserunners. The just-recalled Poche got the win getting the final out in the sixth, while the Rays went HR happy in the game getting blasts from Choi (2, giving him 13), Meadows and Zunino.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow had his moments of struggle, but still whiffed 10 in 6 innings despite allowing 3 runs, and the offense backed him up with 2 triples from Meadow driving in a pair, a Wander HR and 3 hits from Howie Kendrick, making his first positive contribution for the team in a 6-3 win.

Team record: 26-11.
WanderWatch: .357-8-32-12

May 6: Traded P Colin Poche and IF Michael Brosseau to Seattle for OF Mitch Haniger and P Austin Adams.

I enjoy the "shop a player" function in the game as it's always interesting to see the players other teams are making available. Haniger and Adams caught my eye, with the former off to a great start, looking like his 2017-18 self and the latter becoming one of the more interesting power arms around, picking up 7 saves with 28 Ks in 14 innings as the M's closer. Both are relatively cheap and Brosseau himself is hurt and out for a few months while Poche was always expendable. As Howie Kendrick has not been working out so far, I figure it's Haniger's turn as the drummer in Spinal Tap, er I mean last man on the bench and he can credibly fill in for Renfroe and Meadows when they need days off. Meanwhile Adams gives me a filthy bullpen now.

May 7: Traded 1B/2B Howie Kendrick to St. Louis for P Jake Woodford and 3B Nolan Gorman, designated OF Yoshimoto Tsutsugo for assignment.

Kendrick had to go so I shopped him around, and surprisingly I was able to get another solid arm in Woodford (who could either be a starter or a power reliever) and 3B prospect Gorman who could be a poor man's Joey Gallo with massive power (36 HR in AA) but also big-time contact issues. Obviously 3B is a position of need for the organization. Both were sent to AAA Durham. I needed room on the 40-man to accomodate both the new guys, and Yoshi was a sunk cost and a lost cause to me, so waiver time for him. Unsurprisingly he cleared waivers and is back at Durham.

May 7: Traded P Oliver Drake and minor league P Gustavo Andujar to San Diego for P Jacob Nix.

With Adams on board, despite a good start Drake became the forgotten man on the pitching staff and was out of options so I couldn't send him back to Durham once Yonny came back. So I wanted to pick up a reliever with options and it was power arm time again with Nix, who in 23 innings of middle relief for the Pads had a 5/35 BB/K ratio and a 1.93 ERA. Andujar was one arm among many in rookie/A ball with nothing in his lines to stand out, but he was enough to get the Padres to take the deal.

May 7-9 at Seattle (3)

Game 1: Of course it didn't hurt to take Haniger and Adams off Seattle before playing them, and the Rays took a tight 3-2 win behind McKay who went 5 2/3 allowing 2 runs but uncharacteristically walked 6 (!) batters. Meadows knocked in a pair, the bullpen held the lead for the last 3 1/3 (including a scoreless inning from Adams) and Hand notched save #8.

Game 2: Max Fried continues to make my Adames deal look bad (although Willy is only hitting around .230 for Atlanta he's up to 9 HR in late May), as he seems to believe being the #4 starter means you give up 4 runs, this time in 5 innings. The only bright spot was he managed a season-high 9 Ks in the outing but the Rays still fell 5-3 with the entire offense coming from Hunter Renfroe's 2 HR as they only managed 2 other hits off the immortal Nestor Cortes. Meanwhile another 0-fer has Brandon Lowe down to .188.

May 8: Optioned P Jacob Nix to AAA Durham, recalled P Ryan Yarbrough.

Yarbrough wins the temporary 5th starter lottery and gets the nod in Seattle, where he had his best game as a big-leaguer shutting out the Ms for 8 2/3 innings before then-manager Kevin Cash inexplicably took him out needing one more out for the shutout.

Game 3: Something about pitching against his old organization brings out the best in Yarbrough, and he threw 7 innings of 1-run, 5-hit ball to lead the Rays to a 4-1 win. Yandy woke from his season-long slumber to club his first 2 HRs of the year to provide 3/4 of the runs and Hand nabbed save #9.

Team record: 28-12.
WanderWatch: .351-8-33-16 (leads AL in steals)

May 10-12 at Los Angeles Angels (3)

Game 1: Another day at the office for Snell (7 5 2 2 1 9) and thanks to 2 RBI apiece from Ji-Man and Yandy the Rays rolled to a 5-2 win. With Hand getting the night off, Nick Anderson notched save #2 and Snell is now 5-1, 1.70.

Game 2: The Rays scored early and often against Griffin Canning and took a 7-0 lead in the 3rd on their way to an 8-4 win. Glasnow threw 6 innings of 3-hit shutout ball but needed 117 pitches. Banda and Roe yielded the 4 runs in garbage time. Meadows and Castro homered as did Mitch Haniger, his first in a Rays uniform.

Game 3: After his strangely wild day in Seattle, McKay snapped back to throw 7 shutout innings with 0 BBs and 6 Ks and Wander went 5-for-5 to pace a 6-2 win and series sweep. Renfroe, Haniger (again) and Zunino went deep.

Team record: 31-12 (man I'm looking like a genius)
WanderWatch: .370-8-33-16

May 13-16 at Chicago White Sox (4)

Game 1: If I told you it was Fried's turn in the rotation and the Rays lost, you wouldn't be surprised but this time it wasn't his fault as he was a hard-luck 2-1 loser with Tim Anderson's 2-run HR being the decisive blow. Apparently jet-lagged after playing in LA the day previous, the offense could only muster 4 hits off newly-recalled journeyman Jake Arrieta.

Game 2: This loss can be attributed to manager error as I accidentally auto-played this game and instead of Yarbrough getting another start, the AI started Banda and he promptly gave up 4 runs in 3 innings before Yarbrough relieved him with 3 scoreless. Those 4 runs were all it took in a 4-3 White Sox win with the only Rays offensive highlight being Manuel Margot's first round-tripper of the season as the team only managed 5 hits.

Game 3: The offense continued to dry up as did the wins in a 3-1 setback that saw the Rays struggled with Dallas Keuchel, who came into the game with a 6+ ERA. Snell's line was pedestrian for him (6 8 3 2 3 7), while Renfroe was the entire offense with a solo shot.

Game 4: They're surely not going to lose 4 straight to the mediocre White Sox, are they? No they're not. The offense woke from its slumber with 8 runs and 13 hits while Glasnow got the win despite not being at his best (6 7 3 3 3 4) and the final was 8-3. Meadows and Renfroe went deep to pace the bats. But there was a dark cloud in this silver lining: early in the game Wander had to leave with a strained calf muscle.

Team record: 32-15 (the Yankees gained ground and are now 1/2 game out)
WanderWatch: .360-8-33-16 and now hurt.

May 17: Placed SS Wander Franco on the 10-day DL, recalled IF Taylor Walls from Durham.

Wander's injury was a 5-day DTD calf strain and rather than risk him getting hurt further I went ahead and put him on the DL. Galvis was still at Durham but he'd have to go on the 40-man and get his MLB salary so for the short term I went with Walls, figuring I'd get a look at him for a week+ even though he hadn't done much at Durham.

May 17: Traded 2B Brandon Lowe to Kansas City for 2B/OF Whit Merrifield and minor league P/DH Dante Biasi.

Well this was the big one. With the team in an offensive slump and Lowe showing zero signs of breaking out of his funk (perhaps this is where playing the games out batter-by-batter can lead to emotional decisions as I couldn't take seeing Lowe's batter icon swing and miss again with 2 strikes and hear the game's ump yell "Strike Three!" one more time). He was at .170 with 57 strikeouts in 141 AB and only one HR. Meanwhile, Merrifield's among the league leaders in hitting and always was a guy I liked. This is obviously a controversial trade with Lowe perceived as a franchise cornerstone and given a long-term contract, and he was coming off a 3.9 WAR season in 2020. But I'm in win-now mode and ran out of patience. Plus outside of Wander this team strikes out a lot and I wanted someone to provide more contact. Also, Merrifield has another year left on his contract and although he makes about $3M more this season, his 2022 salary is only $2.75M, cheaper than Lowe's. Throw in the fact that 2B is a position of depth in the organization (with Brujan at AAA and Xavier Edwards at AA) and I could live with this. But of course the fact remains Lowe could very well regain his form and be a value for years to come and I may regret this deal sooner than I think. Also, Biasi's an interesting lottery ticket, showing some 2-way ability in the minors with power.

May 17-19 vs Oakland (3)

Game 1: Back home after a mixed bag of a road trip, the Rays were blanked for the first time this season as Frankie Montas tossed a 2-hit shutout at them. McKay was the tough luck loser, allowing 3 runs in 6 2/3 in the 3-0 loss. Merrifield was 0-4 in his Rays debut (no waiting for guys to travel around the country to show up in this game).

Game 2: Now that's the Max Fried I thought I was trading for in the offseason as he went 6 2/3, allowing 0 runs, 0 walks, 4 hits, and striking out 10. Unfortunately he didn't get the win as he left in the 7th with the game still scoreless but Kiermaier launched a 2-run shot off Chris Bassitt in bottom half to give the Rays a 2-1 win which was tense at the end after Hand allowed a 9th inning run but he held on for save #10 with Anderson nabbing the win. Taylor Walls had his first MLB hit, a double, and Merrifield was 2-4.

Game 3: Yarbrough got his chance to start again, and well let's just leave it at that as he was torched for 8 runs in 1 1/3 innings as Oakland stomped the Rays 11-3. The only bright spots were longballs from Margot and Renfroe and Trevor Richards' 5 1/3 innings of one-run relief.

Team record: 33-17. No WanderWatch until he comes off the DL.

May 19: Optioned P Ryan Yarbrough to AAA Durham, recalled P Jacob Nix.

After Yarbrough's immolation by Oakland, it was time to add another arm to the pen, at least on a temporary basis.

May 20-23 vs Toronto (4)

It's the Jays once again (and we go to Toronto the weekend following), making it seem like 2/3 of the schedule to date has been Toronto or Boston. With Wander on the DL, the Jays were at least sporting about it as they put Vlad Jr on the DL themselves.

Game 1: When Snell and Nate Pearson hook up, you expect a pitcher's duel. But this one exceeded expectations as Snell tossed a 1-hitter (!) with Randal Grichuk's 2nd-inning single the only safety against him. Pearson was undone by the still red-hot Renfroe who clubbed #20, a 2-run shot that was the offense in a 2-0 win. Snell walked 3 and struck out 11 in the masterpiece, lowering his league-leading ERA to 1.60.

Game 2: Tight and tense was the watchword again as Glasnow was great, going 6 2/3 allowing 2 runs and striking out 12 while Yamaguchi matched him for the Jays. It ended up being a Jose Martinez (who has been in a massive slump) RBI single in the 8th to break the deadlock and give the Rays a 3-2 win. Once again Anderson got the win in relief and Hand got save #11. Kiermaier hit #9 earlier in the game, continuing his red-hot start to the season.

Game 3: Here we went again. McKay was great (7 3 1 1 3 9) but the Rays could only muster 1 run and 4 hits in 6 innings off the mediocre Tanner Roark. Kiermaier played hero again this time with a 7th-inning RBI double to break the 1-1 tie and Rays eked out another one, 2-1. McKay hung around long enough for the win and Anderson got save #3.

Game 4: The Rays went for the 4-game sweep with Fried on the mound, and what they'd get was anyone's guess based on his season so far. But Max was at max efficiency with a 6 3 2 2 3 5 line, getting the win, and Whit Merrifield socked a 3-run homer that was the difference in a 5-2 win. With the matchups favoring use of Hand in the 8th, Austin Adams came on in the 9th for his first Rays save.

Team record: 37-17.

May 25: Optioned IF Taylor Walls to AAA Durham, recalled 1B/3B Alec Bohm. Sent Yonny Chirinos to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Time for the Alec Bohm era to begin for the Rays at 3B, as Yandy was the hot corner equivalent of B.Lowe, going 2-16-.230 in everyday play while obviously offering little defensively. OOTP was apparently never going to buy his 2019 power surge. Diaz stays up and on the bench for the moment. Walls didn't really hit much in his week filling in for Wander and Wendle will get a couple starts at SS until he comes off the DL. Meanwhile, here's hoping Yonny can get back on track and to something resembling his April form soon.

May 25-27 at New York Yankees (3)

The Rays made their statement last month with a 3-game drubbing of the Yanks at the Stadium but otherwise the Bronx Bombers remained red-hot and despite the Rays sitting at 37-17, the Yankees were 39-17 themselves and holding a 1-game lead going into this big series.

Game 1: Well Alex Bohm made an impact, but it wasn't quite the impact he or the Rays wanted. With an off-day the day before, I decided to skip the fifth starter and go with the big 3 and Snell struggled to get out of the first and would have been out with one run scored but Bohm made a key error allowing the Yankees to score twice. Bohm partially made up for it by getting a sac fly in the 3rd to make it 2-1 but that's where the final score ended up as the Rays couldn't solve Luis Severino and Aroldis Chapman. Snell kept his league-leading ERA at 1.60 but only lasted 5 1/3 due to a high pitch count.

Game 2: Glasnow struggled mightily early, and was nearly out of a bases-loaded jam in the 3rd at 0-0 but Gio Urshela of all people smacked a grand slam. The Rays got back within 4-3 when Meadows launched a 2-run shot off Gerrit Cole, but they could get no closer and insult was added to injury when Trey Amburgey (who?) hit a 3-run HR in the 8th off Diego Castillo and the Yanks opened up a 3-game lead with a 9-3 win.

May 27: Activated Wander Franco from the 10-day DL, optioned 3B Yandy Diaz to Durham.

This was the other shoe to drop with Yandy, and Wander will be sorely needed to revive the moribund offense.

Game 3: It was up to Brendan McKay to stop the bleeding, and he was great, going 6 3 1 1 2 7. But as the story has gone often this month, the Rays offense made the other pitcher (this time Yankee fifth starter Jose Urena) look just as good with only Meadows' 15th jack of the year keeping it 1-1 as the game went to extras, and Gary Sanchez's 10th-inning walk-off HR off Nick Anderson almost seemed an inevitability as the Rays fall 4 games behind the Yanks (but still up 7 games over the 2nd wild card). Wander was 0-4 in his return.

Team record: 37-20.
WanderWatch: .352-8-33-16.

May 28: Optioned P Jacob Nix to AAA Durham, recalled P Joe Ryan.

Ryan has earned a shot to get a start, with an otherworldy 5/67 K/BB ratio in 44 innings at Durham. His ERA is 3.69 but that's more bad luck as he had only allowed 3 HR in that span. Of course, the longball is the potential bugaboo with him, having given up 7 HR in 19 IP in some long relief stints in my 2020 sim with the big club. Luckily for him starting tonight in Toronto, at least Vlad Jr is still on the DL for the Jays.

May 28-30 at Toronto (3).

Game 1: Joe Ryan, ladies and gentlemen. In his season debut he struck out 8 of the first 10 hitters (it felt like I was playing with a cheat code) and ended up with a 7 2 0 0 2 12 line (90 pitches) as the Rays won 5-0. I think I need a cigarette. Wander got back in the swing (literally), going 3-for-3 including a triple and then scoring on a wild pitch, and Renfroe kept up his ridiculous May with a pair of solo shots. Yonny Pipp anyone?

Game 2: It was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Fried time again and today Mr. Fried showed up, allowing 3 HR in the first 5 innings to put the Rays in a 5-0 hole from which they couldn't climb out. Maybe he's the one to lose a rotation spot to Joe Ryan if Yonny comes back healthy and effective. The only bright spot on the day was the resurgent Jose Martinez as Cafecito seems to be breaking out of his lengthy slump with a 3-4 day including a 2-run shot for the only Rays offense in the 5-2 loss.

Game 3: It was Snell vs Pearson again, and this time it was Pearson's turn to throw a 1-hitter, albeit over 7 innings. In fact the Rays didn't get their hit until two out in the 6th when Jason Castro went deep. By then, Snell had given up 6 runs (on 4 HR) including 4 in the first highlighted by a Boba Shett, er Bo Bichette 2-run blast and saw his ERA climb half a run to 2.13 in the 7-1 loss. Pearson struck out 10 over the 7 and the Rays didn't manage another hit off Jacob Waguespack in the 8th and 9th. The offensive rot shows now sign of abating, and the team has lost 5 of 6. Ji-Man has gone ice cold, without a HR in weeks and his BA has plummeted to .246, and Kiermaier has regressed from his hot start. Just gonna have to ride it out.

Team record: 38-22 (now 4 1/2 behind the Yankees as Torres and Stanton went deep bottom 9 to give them a 3-2 win over Milwaukee)
WanderWatch: .349-8-33-16.

This concludes the May post as the next series overlaps into June.

[Art Deco]

May 31-June 1 at St. Louis (2)

Game 1: This was truly the lowest point in the season to date as the Rays went up against old buddy Charlie Morton. Not only did Morton hold them to 2 hits and 1 run over 6 innings in a 5-1 loss (Renfroe, the only one still hitting, had the RBI double), but Tyler Glasnow had to leave the game in the first inning after giving up an RBI single and was tagged with the dreaded "injured, diagnosis pending" label. Given his history, one can't but assume the worst.

Game 2: With the Glasnow cloud hanging over their heads the Rays came out firing on all cylinders for once in recent days, finally getting double digits in hits (11) in a 7-3 win against a normally tough customer in Jack Flaherty. Alec Bohm had his best game in a Rays uniform with a pair of RBI doubles, Renfroe did likewise, and Brendan McKay went 6 2/3 strong innings, walking none and striking out 8. Plus McKay got to hit and rapped an RBI single in the 2nd.

Team record: 39-23.
WanderWatch: .357-8-34-18

June 3: Placed P Tyler Glasnow on the 15-day DL, recalled P Jacob Nix from Durham.

The Glasnow diagnosis didn't come in until three days later, and fortunately the worst has been averted for now with the verdict being a strained shoulder with a 4-week timetable. For now this answers the question of whose rotation spot Joe Ryan will fill.

June 4: 2021 Amateur Draft

I don't consider myself a student of amateur baseball so with that and the fact the Rays picked 27th in the first round, I pretty much went with my fine head scout Rob Metzler's recommendations when it came to making picks (and after about the 15th round, I just auto-played it). Here are the top picks:

Round 1, 27th overall: 18-year-old HS C Joe Mack from NY. Has some decent power and good receiving skills, best case he ends up in the mid-level of starting MLB catchers.

Round 2, 65th overall: 17-year-old HS 3B Tucker Toman from SC. Big guy with potential 70 power, hopefully can stay at the position.

Round 3, 100th overall: 21-year old C Jack Alexander from Notre Dame. Fine defensive catcher with line-drive power and good strike zone recognition, could move quickly.

Round 4, 126th overall: 17-year old HS RHP Christian Little from St. Louis. Intriguing slider-changeup combo and the scouting report says "elite stuff" (potential 70). Excited about this pick.

Round 5, 155th overall: 18-year-old HS RHP and UF commit from NY Gage Ziehl. Potential 80 changeup and again the "elite stuff" phrase was thrown around.

Round 6, 185th overall: 18-year old HS 1B Marcus Franco from Miramar, FL. Good plate discipline and potential power.

Round 7, 215th overall: 18-year-old HS RHP Ethan Wood from KY. 6'6" with "frontline starter potential" per the scouting report but will need to cut back on the walks.

June 3-6 vs Los Angeles Angels (4)

Game 1: After Max Fried opened the game allowing double-single-sac fly it looked like it might be another of his long nights but instead he only allowed 2 hits after that through 7 2/3 (fanning 7), and the Rays finally got to Luiz Gohara down 1-0 in the 6th with a Wander RBI single followed by a Meadows 3-run shot. Wander and Meadows each drove in one more in the 7th and the Rays came away with a 6-2 win. Manuel Margot and Whit Merrifield both were 3-4 with 2 runs scored at the top of the lineup.

Game 2: Joe Ryan back on the bump. Can the sequel live up to the original? Apparently the Angels saw the Toronto game and came out swinging away early in the count as Ryan got 3 outs on 4 pitches in the 1st and he had only 1 K through 3 innings, allowing a run. But he dominated from there, striking out 6 in the middle innings and ending up with a 6.1 2 1 1 2 7 line. Which was more than enough for him to go 2-0 as Meadows homered leading off the 2nd and the Rays got their first Bohm bomb with a 2-run shot from Alec later in the inning off Ohtani as they coasted to a 5-1 win, with Alvarado, Anderson and Hand finishing with a combined 2 2/3 hitless relief innings.

Game 3: The Rays made it 6 straight against the Angels this season with an easy 9-3 win. They roughed up James Paxton with HRs from Jose Martinez (who added a 2-run double and had 4 RBI), Meadows again, Wander and Mike Zunino to back Blake Snell who had a typical day at the office (6 4 1 1 2 7) to get his 7th win. Chaz Roe crapped the bed in the 7th in relief of Snell to make it marginally interesting at 7-3, but Anthony Banda shut the Angels out for the last 2 1/3. Bohm had 2 more hits and an RBI as he's coming on after a rough first week. Meanwhile, the Yankees actually lost to Baltimore so the Rays gained ground for the first time in almost 2 weeks and are now 3 1/2 back.

Game 4: Well it's tough to beat a team 7 times in a row and the Angels were due this one, an 8-1 laugher. The Rays solved Ohtani the pitcher two days before but couldn't solve Ohtani the hitter as he went 5-for-5, and Anthony Rizzo was 3-5 with a HR and 5 RBI. Meanwhile, the offense could only muster 3 hits against Tyler Chatwood - and two of them were of the infield variety. Trevor Richards got the start (I could have gone with McKay on normal rest but chose to give him an extra day) and was fair: two runs, 1 earned in 4 innings but had to throw 87 pitches to get that far, and Jacob Nix & Chaz Roe let things balloon from there. Meanwhile the Yankees won so the Rays are 4 1/2 back again.

Team record: 42-24.
WanderWatch: .350-9-38-20 (second to Alberto Mondesi's 22 SB for the league lead and that's after having missed 10 days)

June 8-10 vs Texas (3)

Game 1: Renfroe to the rescue as Home Run Hunter's 3-run blast in the bottom of the 8th (#23) off DeMarcus Evans gave the Rays a 4-2 win. McKay was dazzling as usual, going 7.1 5 2 2 0 9, but he was looking like a hard-luck loser until Hunter's heroics. Nick Anderson got win #3 in relief, and Wander was 3-4 with a triple and a pair of runs scored. Hand locked it down in the 9th for save #12. Unfortunately Ji-Man's massive slump continues, 0-4 tonight to bring him down to .227 and he's been on 13 HR for over a month.

June 9: Traded 18-year-old minor league right fielder Sergio Pagan, 24-year-old minor league starting pitcher Jake Woodford and 21-year-old minor league reliever Daiveyon Whittle to the Chicago White Sox, getting 23-year-old minor league right fielder Alex Kirilloff, 23-year-old minor league third baseman Andrew Vaughn and 23-year-old minor league starting pitcher Cooper Bradford in return.

I feel a bit funny when I make what I term an OOTP Trade vs a Real Life Trade and perhaps that's what this is here. Pagan was my big $5M July international signing last year and OOTP gives him 4 1/2 star potential (IRL I'm not even sure he exists, I tried Googling him). From what I've read on the forums, the game tends to overrate these guys and the suggested move is to trade them for something more tangible. Well, Kiriloff and Vaughn as of May 2020 IRL are considered top-50 (if not top-30) prospects. Vaughn in my sim hasn't hit for the power he was projected but is a huge doubles/OBP machine, and Kirilloff was just acquired by Chicago from Minnesota as one of the pieces in a deal for a now-healthy and somewhat resurgent Carlos Rodon. Pagan could turn out to be Mike Trout or he could flame out in A ball. Big-time solid bats are a must for a budget-challenged team like the Rays so I couldn't pass this up. I liked Woodford after getting him last month but he's already DTD with a sore elbow and I needed him and Whittle to get the deal done and got Bradford (who has a live arm) thrown in. Vaughn could be my full-time DH by 2023 (he's a butcher at 1B and 3B), and Kirilloff could take over for Renfroe when he becomes priced out of the Rays' range. Plus I now have a 40-man spot open for when the trade deadline approaches.

Game 2: Max Fried was strong again, but trailing 1-0 heading to the bottom of the 5th. Enter Ji-Man Choi who took Brett Kennedy deep for his first HR in over a month to tie it, and then two batters later Whit Merrifield launched his 2nd Rays longball to make it 2-1 and Kiermaier singled home Jason Castro who had doubled. The 3-1 score would stand up the rest of the game, as Fried was extremely efficient going 7.2 7 1 1 0 8 on only 86 pitches. Alvarado got the tough lefties out next, and with righties stacked for Texas in the 9th Anderson got the nod over Hand and nabbed his 4th save. Still 4 1/2 behind the Yanks as they never seem to lose, even with Aaron Judge out for an extended time.

Game 3: There was a distinct Odor to the Rays' 5-3 loss in 10 innings, and it was courtesy of Rougned Odor who went deep twice including a 3-run shot in the 10th off Nick Anderson which won the game for Texas. Joe Ryan was great again, going 6 4 2 2 2 9 but the two runs came on back-to-back 2nd inning HRs from Odor and Trey Mancini. Once again the Rays' bats struggled against a SP who came in with a terrible record, but Cafecito went deep in the 7th to tie the game at 2. Diego Castillo put a couple of runners on in the 10th and was at 27 pitches so I made the decision to go to Anderson (Hand had pitched the 8th and 1 batter into the 9th with lefties stacked) hoping for a quick K despite his name in yellow as tired, and it backfired. The Rays loaded the bases against Jose LeClerc in the bottom of the 10th but could only push across one run. Another Yankees win drops them 5 1/2 back.

Team record: 44-25.
WanderWatch: .348-9-38-20

After the 31-12 start this team has gone 13-13 and the #1 reason is the moribund offense. At one point the Rays ranked in top 5-6 of a lot of these offensive categories but look at the dichotomy with the pitching now:



Not sure what to do other than adhere to the famous saying "when you're going through hell, keep going" and just hope this bunch gets out of its collective slump.

[Art Deco]

June 11-13 at Detroit (3)

Game 1: A laugher turned into a nail-biter thanks to a rare off-night from the bullpen. Up 5-0 through 6 thanks to a 3-run, 5-hit 2nd and 3rd inning solo shots from Martinez and Bohm, Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the 7th when DJ Peters led off with an infield single. He came around to score after a wild pitch, ground out and sac fly but Snell tired in the 8th, and Austin Adams let Snell's runner and one of his own score to make it 5-3. Wander's RBI double top 9 made it 6-3 and Hand came on to close it out but hit the first two batters, walked another, gave a up a hit or two, and it was 6-5 with the bases loaded and 2 out. With Hand tired and the pen exhausted from the day previous, Chaz Roe to came on to face Peters with the game on the line, struck him out, and got save #2. Whew!

Game 2: Things looked good early with a Wander triple and Renfroe HR giving the Rays a 2-1 lead in the 4th but it was all downhill from there as Trevor Richards imploded in the bottom of the inning, and the Tigers went on to win 7-2 behind a 6-hit CG from Casey Mize. The Ji-Man HR a couple of games ago turned out not be a slump-buster as his 0-4 today has him down to .220. The only good that came from the day is that the Yankees lost so we didn't slip further behind.

Game 3: Brendan McKay found himself down 3-1 after 4 by allowing 3 solo HRs but the Rays ralled for 2 in the 5th and Renfroe broke the tie in the 6th with a solo shot. McKay made it into the seventh (despite at one point uncharacteristically loading the bases on walks) and the bullpen shut it down from there with Anderson getting save #4 (Hand was still tired) for a not-too-pretty-but-we'll-take-it 4-3 win.

By the way with the loss Detroit dropped to 33-37 and out of first place. The White Sox now lead the division at 34-36. Yes, that's how bad the AL Central is. In other oddities, St. Louis was losing 13-1 in the 9th against Pittsburgh and ran out of pitchers so brief-ex-Ray Howie Kendrick got the last two outs on strikeouts!

Record: 46-26
WanderWatch: .354-9-41-20, 3rd in AL in WAR with 3.6.

June 13: Optioned P Jacob Nix to AAA Durham, recalled P Yonny Chirinos from his rehab assignment.

June 15-17, vs New York Yankees (3)

The Yankees come to the Trop for a huge series with the Rays 5 1/2 back. Even though it's mid-June anything less than taking 2 of 3 will severely cripple their hopes of taking the division. Joe Ryan will get his biggest MLB test in Game 2 of the series.

Game 1: With the matchup Max Fried vs Gerrit Cole, the Yankees were favorites tonight. And an unfortunate sequence in the 2nd saw Fried walk a pair ahead of a Mike Tauchman longball. But Fried hung in there and the Rays finally got to Cole in the 6th with back-to-back jacks from Meadows (a 2-run shot) and Renfroe and the game was tied. The Rays then strung together 3 straight hits but Cafecito was gunned down at the plate by Aaron Hicks, and top 7th Fried was pulled with two outs after a walk. Diego Castillo then gave up a run-scoring double to Gleyber Torres, and in the 8th Jose Alvarado let the team down by serving up Tauchman's 2nd HR of the game, a 2-run shot. 6-3 was the final and now the next two are must-win for the Rays.

Game 2: With Joe Ryan on the mound, the risk is always HRs vs Ks and with the Yankees you'd expect a lot of both. Sure enough, after Meadows opened the scoring with a 1st inning solo shot off Corey Kluber, Mike Ford did likewise top 2, and in the 3rd Luke Voit had a two-run blast. But that was all Ryan gave up through 6, and ended up allowing only 3 hits while walking 1 and fanning 7. Meanwhile the Rays had a longball party of their own as Jose Martinez made it 3-2 with a solo shot in the 4th and then in the 6th the unconscious Hunter Renfroe went deep yet again (now 3rd in the AL in HRs with 27) with a man on to make it 4-3. The bullpen, which has struggled for its first stretch all year, looked like it would continue to founder as Alvarado walked the bases loaded with 1 out. Nick Anderson was summoned for express purpose of getting some Ks, and that he did fanning Tyler Wade and Voit. Anderson stayed on for the 8th and whiffed Stanton and Gary Sanchez after a Torres single, and then with lefty Ford due up, Brad Hand came on to get him on a pop-up and then Hand fanned the side in the 9th for save #13 as the Rays got a much-needed and satisfying 4-3 win with Ryan now 3-0 in 4 starts.

By the way, check out the triple slash #s for Meadows from 2019-2021. Talk about consistency:



Game 3: Normally if the Rays score 7 runs you can bet your house that they'll win. Well not tonight at the Trop in a 11-7 Yanks victory as they were all over a struggling Blake Snell and the bullpen woes continued, especially with Roe allowing 2 of Snell's inherited runners to score and Diego Castillo the primary culprit in a disastrous 5-run 8th that broke open a 6-5 game. Meadows homered for the third straight game in the series (to give the Rays a brief 4-3 lead) and Wander (#10) took the highly-supported Trevor Bauer (9-3 but with a 4.48 ERA) deep as well. Snell surrendered homers to Stanton (his 30th), Torres and Tyler Wade (who's making Yankee fans forget DJ LeMahieu). The only other bright spot was that Ji-Man doubled and walked. But now the Rays are now 6 1/2 out and might just be looking at playing another 87 games just to get ready for one.

Team record: 47-28.
WanderWatch: .355-10-42-21

June 18-20 at Chicago Cubs (3)

Game 1: The big news in Chicago was that potential FA Kris Bryant signed a 7-year contract extension. I was looking at him as a possible rental come trade deadline time, but that's out the window now. As for the game, Yonny Chirinos got his first start since early May and despite 3 starts in Durham on rehab, the rust showed as he was nothing like his April AL Pitcher of the Month self, allowing 3 runs and 7 hits in 4+ innings, including a 2-run HR to Jason Heyward who only had 1 coming in. Still the Rays had a nice 3-run 4th that started with a Ji-Man HR (out of the slump?) and included a Yonny sac fly to go up 3-2. But he yielded a HR to David Bote, and then in a 3-3 game in the 7th Diego blew up once again, allowing 3 runs without an out (including a 2nd Bote HR) and the Rays couldn't get anything going against the Cubs pen so it was a 6-3 loss. (Note: I went to Diego as Alvarado and Adams were tired and Castillo still showed up in white, the pen is pretty worked over after the Yankees series)

Game 2: The slump continues as the Rays fell 5-2 to the Cubs today. Brendan McKay wasn't terribly sharp, yielding a pair of HRs to Yasiel Puig (getting a rare start) and one to Nico Hoerner, but all were solo shots and he was only down 3-2 with two out in the sixth with one out to get before being pinch-hit for (he whiffed both times up) but gave up a pair of run-scoring hits. Meadows was the entire offense today with 2 RBI singles to bring his season total to 74 (3rd in the AL) while the team let notorious soft-tosser Kyle Hendricks fan them 9 times in 7 innings. And Craig Kimbrel got three straight whiffs for the save. The Yankees are now in another world at 56-22 and 8 1/2 games up. They're still 6 up in the first wild card spot over Oakland and 7 over Seattle, for now.

Game 3: A rare relaxing day at the ballpark as the Rays jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, built on it, and coasted to a 7-1 win over the Cubs. Wander was the star today with his first MLB 2-HR game, a 2-run shot in the first and solo blast in the 5th, both off Cub starter Cory Abbott (he also stole his 23rd base). Max Fried meanwhile shut the Cubs down for a 7 5 0 0 1 4 line with the only Cub run coming on an Ian Happ HR off Trevor Richards who pitched the last 2 innings and helped give the bullpen a much-needed rest. By the way, forgot to mention yesterday that it took a year and a half into this sim, but I finally had a Kevin Kiermaier injury. This one's not too serious though, quadriceps strain DTD for 5 days. With the Rays in NL ballparks through this period I'm going to just leave him on the active roster and not DL him.

Team record: 48-30.
WanderWatch: .349-12-45-23

June 21-23, at Milwaukee (3)

Game 1: Well that was a gut punch. I'm not sure which terrible news to start with first. Guess I'll go with the potentially really bad news and that was Wander Franco suffered some kind of knee/leg injury and had to leave the game. And he's been hit with the dreaded "injured, diagnosis pending" tag that's held through the next day. It was my fault, I guess, as I had him take an extra base on a Meadows single instead of holding him, trying to get him to 3rd with less than 2 outs. And the cruel irony is that it turned out be irrelevant because Renfroe cracked a 3-run HR in the next at-bat. Speaking of the game, in addition to Renfroe's blast, Ji-Man had a 3-run shot of his own as he continues to come out of his slump, and the Rays were up 6-1 behind Joe Ryan after 5. Ryan then gave up a pair of solo shots in the 6th (the second to Christian Yelich is still in orbit) to cut the lead to 6-3. Austin Adams got the K to get out of that inning, but he made a mess in the 7th and then Chaz Roe with two out, gave up a 2-run single to make it 6-5. He couldn't get the next out, and because of the 3-batter rule he had to stay in and face Yelich. You can guess the rest, Yelich made it 8-6 with one swing of the bat, and then in the 8th Jose Alvarado coughed a 3-run HR to pinch-hitter Matt Kemp who had announced his end-of-season retirement the day before. Meanwhile, the offense didn't get a hit after the Ji-Man HR in the 5th and things look dark indeed at the moment.

June 22: Placed Wander Franco on the 10-day DL with (?), purchased the contract of Freddy Galvis from AAA Durham.

Whatever it is with Franco, it probably isn't good, and Joey Wendle isn't the answer at SS so I brought up Galvis, who will at least provide 65 defense at SS, something the infield has lacked. If by some miracle Wander's injury is minor, well he can have a week off to rest.

Game 2: Guess I was blessed in the first year and a half of this sim in that there were no major injuries on the Rays. Still waiting on a Franco diagnosis, and while that happens now Blake Snell is hurt, having to come out after 4 innings with his own dreaded "injured, diagnosis pending" label. Snell was staked to a 7-0 lead for which he was partially responsible by going 2-2 with an RBI, but on the final out of the 4th he had to come out. In the "other than that how was the play Mrs. Lincoln" department the team at least fought through the bad news for a win this time, prevailing 8-4. Alec hit a 3-run Bohm in the first inning and then Manuel Margot went deep for a pair in the 3rd inning chasing Brent Suter. Anthony Banda had to pick up the slack in place of Snell and did well, pitching three strong innings, allowing only one run and striking out 6 to get the win. But now are fingers are crossed for both Snell and Wander, the two guys this team really can't lose perhaps other than Meadows.

June 23: Wander Franco injury update: out six weeks with a strained hamstring. Needless to say this will be most babied hamstring in MLB history. Realistically we're looking at him back in mid-August barring any setbacks. Still no word on Snell.

Game 3: Wondering if any black cats were let into the clubhouse as today was another excruciating day at the ballpark. Yonny took the mound and after allowing runs in the first and second settled down for a nice 6.2 7 2 2 0 4 line. The only problem was that the Rays couldn't do anything against Brewers starter Drew Rasmussen (6 4 0 0 1 9). And so it went into the top of the 9th with perhaps the league's best closer on the mound, Josh Hader. But the Rays got to him, aided by a costly Jose Iglesias error and with two out Margot's 2-run single tied it and Whit Merrifield's followed with an RBI single to give the Rays a 3-2 lead. But in the bottom of the 9th Brad Hand got two outs, but couldn't get the third on as with a man on and after striking out Yelich, he yielded a game-tying double to potential Rays trade target Marwin Gonzalez. And in the bottom of the 10th Nick Anderson's third pitch to Luis Urias was deposited over the wall in left-center to deal the Rays a loss in a game they should have both lost and won. An off-day coming up in which we'll probably get word on Snell.

Team record: 49-32.
WanderWatch: .347-12-45-23 (and now my WanderWatch has ended, to be resumed when he comes back)

June 25: Placed P Blake Snell on 15-day DL, recalled P Ryan Yarbrough from AAA Durham.

The word is shoulder bursitis with a 6-week timetable, so hopefully he's back in mid-August around the same time as Wander. Yarbrough is the logical choice off the 40-man, although I will be in the trade market for help. Meanwhile in hopefully good injury news, Tyler Glasnow is only 5 days from going on a rehab assignment.

June 25: Traded C Mike Zunino to the Kansas City Royals for C Salvador Perez. (Kansas City retains 75% of Perez's salary)

Both of these guys are free agents at season's end, but Perez is a definite upgrade at the bat on Zunino (both are 65 defensively). The salary retention makes the $ a wash. Z was hitting .170 or so just like he did in 2019 (after an acceptable bounceback to the .220s last year) while Perez already has 12 HR and his .235 average looks like Tony Gwynn compared to Zunino and the .195-hitting Jason Castro. Not sure what KC gets out of this as they're something like 29-50 but they seemed happy to make the deal and Perez came up when I shopped Zunino. Plan is to play Perez 2/3 of the time with Castro in against tough righties and when Perez needs rest. As mentioned elsewhere, the 2022 plan is to go with rookie Ronaldo Hernandez, still hitting .335 or so at Durham and to pair him with a vet, unless of course a trade opportunity for someone young and good comes along. (By the way one thing that surprised me was I thought Perez was much older than Zunino but they're 31 and 30 respectively.)

June 25-27 vs Houston (3)

Game 1: Wow! That's all I can say about two guys who had the games of their MLB lives tonight against Houston. First is Brendan McKay, who came out dealing against a Houston lineup whose first five hitters already had at least 20 HR, the #7 hitter has 19, and the #6 hitter is Jose Altuve. But the way McKay pitched it didn't matter if it was the 27 Yankees tonight as he was perfect through 4, striking out 8, and had a one-hit, no-walk, 12-K performance through 7. He allowed a pair of singles to start the 8th and was approaching 100 pitches so he was pulled for Chaz Roe, who got a DP and then a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the shutout. And the reason it was Roe and not someone used in higher-leverage situations was thanks to Alec Bohm who was 3-4, including taking Zack Greinke deep twice with a solo shot in the 4th and a 3-run HR in the 6th which chased the Houston ace. At that point it was our final score of 7-0. Elsewhere, Jose Martinez earlier had a 2-run single and Sal Perez went 0-4 in his Rays debut. But of course we couldn't get through one game without an injury and Kiermaier, who was fully recovered from his quadriceps strain, injured his hand (diagnosis pending) after kicking off the scoring with an RBI double. Meanwhile, lookie here:



June 26: Signed OF Austin Meadows to a 4-year, $43.29 million-dollar extension.

Meadows, who was due for a huge raise in arbitration next year, gets an extension through his age 30 year. Details here:



Game 2: The Friedassance continues as Max picked up where McKay left off the night before, shutting down the hot-hitting Astros with strikeouts galore. He pitched 6 2/3 strong innings, allowing just 4 hits and striking out a season-high 11 and left with a 4-0 lead, although Nick Anderson gave up a Carlos Correa RBI single for the only run the Astros have scored in two nights at the Trop. After the Rays extended the lead to 5-1 going into the 9th, Alvarado came on instead of Hand and proceeded to give up a couple of hits leading Hand to come in anyway and strike out Jonathan Schoop to end the game and get save #14. With the win Fried goes to 8-6 and finally gets his ERA below 4 at 3.83. Meanwhile the Rays jumped on Jose Quintana for their four runs in the first two innings with Jose Martinez 3-4 with 2 RBI and the newly-extended Meadows 3-5 with 1. Still 7 1/2 behind the Yankees but it's better to win than lose. And finallly some good injury news: it turns out Kiermaier only has a thumb contusion and is day-to-day for one day. Had Kiermaier been out an extended time I was prepared to call up the red-hot Josh Lowe from AA to play center in the platoon with Margot.

Game 3: How sweep it is! After losing 2 out of 3 in each of their last 3 series (the last two against the mediocre Cubs and Brewers), seeing Houston looming on the calendar didn't exactly inspire hope of a turnaround, but another solid outing from a starter (though not as impressive as McKay and Fried before) and some timely hitting led to a 6-3 win. Joe Ryan was rolling through 5, allowing 0 runs and 2 hits, but his one bugaboo - HRs - came back to bite him as Martin Maldonado, Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez (#35 for him) all hit solo shots to get Houston within 5-3. Ryan has now allowed 9 HR in his 36 innings pitched so far, but all have been of the solo variety. Meanwhile the shaky-of-late bullpen came through big, shutting down the Astros for 3 1/3 innings and striking out 7. Austin Adams fanned all 4 batters he faced, Alvarado got a big K of Alvarez and with Anderson and Hand tired, Diego Castillo snapped out of his funk with a 2-K 9th inning for his second save. For the offense, it was Bohms away again as Alec went 3 for 4 with a HR, double and RBI single. Whit Merrifield had a bases-clearing double in the key 5th inning when the Rays took advantage of a Lance McCullers Jr. error to break open the game. By the way OOTP apparently thinks the world of McCullers, he's gone 31-7 in the season and a half simmed so far before losing today.

(Incidentally I had a no-hitter today in my MLB world but it was probably the first time a combined no hitter has consisted of the starter going 8 2/3 and a reliever getting the final out. Nate Pearson walked 2, fanned 15 and threw 113 pitches, but the AI let Kevin Ginkel get the final out of Toronto's 2-0 win over Detroit)

Team record: 52-32.

June 29-July 1 vs Chicago White Sox (3)

Game 1: This one was a laugher, the final 13-4 Rays as they jumped on Dallas Keuchel for 4 runs in the 1st and by the time it was done everyone in the lineup had at least one hit except Cafecito, who walked and scored twice. Meadows was 3-4 with a HR and 4 runs scored, Renfroe homered and drove in 4, Bohm had 3 more hits including 2 doubles, Sal Perez had his first two Rays RBIs and even Freddy Galvis launched a HR into the touch tank. The beneficiary of all this support was Ryan Yarbrough. Filling in for Snell, he went 5.2 4 2 1 1 6. Only a couple of the 9th inning solo HRs allowed by Trevor Richards blemished the team pitching line.

Game 2: Well the script got kind of flipped here. Like last night, the Rays jumped out early to a 4-0 lead off brief former teammate Jake Woodford but despite a constant stream of baserunners in the middle innings, couldn't add to the lead. Chirinos meanwhile pitched quite well, leaving with a 4-2 lead after a 6 7 2 2 0 8 line. But the bullpen imploded again, Castillo loaded the bases with one out for Nick Anderson to come in and allow a 2-run single to Yoan Moncada and then a 3-run HR to Yasmani Grandal. The Rays loaded the bases with nobody out against Sox closer Ian Kennedy, but Ji-Man grounded into a DP and Bohm popped out and 7-5 was the final. This despite the team banging out 13 hits including 3 apiece for Jose Martinez and Renfroe (one of which was HR #30 as he seeks to beat last year's total of 41).

Glasnow update: The four weeks passed without incident so he was sent to Durham for a rehab assignment. In his first rehab start against Norfolk he was anything but effective, putting up a 2.2 7 3 3 2 3 line which took him 65 pitches before I pulled him (I managed the game for Durham). We'll see how he fares in five days time on his next rehab start. Meanwhile, top pitching prospect Shane McClanahan relieved him after a recent promotion to AAA and went 3.1 1 0 0 1 6. Not too shabby.

[Art Deco]

Let's start off July with some hardware for a couple of our players, even though June was an up-and-down month:




July 1, Game 3 of 3 vs White Sox:

Turnabout is fair play as it's said, and this time it was the Rays' turn to come back in the late innings. Trailing 3-1 into the 7th, Brendan McKay pitched well but got himself into a jam. Austin Adams came in and whiffed Nick Madrigal (who homered earlier off McKay, making it a rare day for Madrigal with a whiff and a longball) to end the threat. Renfroe had clubbed #31 to get the Rays on the board and Sal Perez hit his first Rays round-tripper in the bottom of the 7 to get within 3-2. And after Adams struck out 2 more in a clean 8th, the Rays went to work. Renfroe and Bohm singled to put runners on the corners, and then Whit Merrifield's ground ball was booted allowing Renfroe to score the tying run. After a Perez single loaded the bases (he went 3-3 with a HBP), former Ray Andrew Kitteredge then uncorked a wild pitch allowing Bohm to scamper home with the go-ahead run. Brad Hand then closed the Sox out 1-2-3 in the 9th for save #15 with Adams notching the win and the Rays took the series 2 out of 3 with the 4-3 win.

Team record: 54-33.

July 2: Traded 30-year-old right fielder Mitch Haniger and 24-year-old minor league reliever Trey Cumbie to the Arizona Diamondbacks, getting 24-year-old minor league left fielder Seth Beer and 18-year-old minor league center fielder Franyel Baez in return. Purchased the contract of OF Michael Brantley from AAA Durham.

Haniger had played so infrequently the last 4-5 weeks that his picture was on milk cartons around Tampa Bay. He was probably going to be non-tendered in the offseason, and I preferred a lefty bat off the bench as right now the team's best lefty pinch-hitter is Wendle (or maybe Brendan McKay). Brantley was hitting .330 at Durham and obviously didn't belong there. Meanwhile, for what I feel is an upgrade on the bench I also managed to add Beer, a noted slugger who is destined for DH-duty and who is currently 296/374/515 at AAA with 15 HR and Baez, who's tearing up the DSL at 367/480/646 in 79 AB this year and whom the scouting report projects as a future .270 hitter with 40-HR power potential. Meanwhile, Cumbie is a mediocre reliever at Port Charlotte without much apparent future utility. So all in all, a nifty piece of business here.

July 2-4 vs Baltimore (3)

Game 1: The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 lead off a Margot RBI groundout and another HR from Bohm, a 2-run shot, and reigning AL pitcher of the month Max Fried was coasting with a 2-hitter 2 outs into the 7th. But 3 straight singles led to a Baltimore run and although Nick Anderson got a 2-pitch flyball out to get out of that jam, he loaded the bases in the top of the 8th. But Chaz Roe bailed Anderson out by getting Anthony Santander on a ground ball, and although Brad Hand gave up a 2-out to double to bring the tying run to the plate he got the final out for save #16 and the Rays managed a tenser-than-it-should-have-been 3-1 win. Fried goes to 9-6, 3.68. His early season struggles now seem like a distant memory and his recent performance has been a godsend for a rotation missing its #1 and #2 starters.

Game 2: Joe Ryan was on the hill and while his HR bugaboo hurt him, it was the six singles before that which got him into trouble as Baltimore got a series of hits in the 4th to score twice, and then he allowed 2 more baserunners with no outs in the 6th after being staked to a 3-2 lead. That was when Jose Rondon went deep for a 3-run shot, and that was the end of the scoring in a 5-3 Rays loss. Earlier, Meadows hit #23, Kiermaier had an RBI triple and debutant Michael Brantley had an RBI double off the top of the wall in right to account for the Rays' 3 runs. In a statistical oddity, the Rays had 9 hits for the game and each player in the starting lineup had exactly one. The only Ray not to hit safely was pinch-hitter Jose Martinez, who struck out to end the game against Rays oldboy Peter Fairbanks, now the Orioles' closer after they traded Tanner Scott to the Nationals. While he was on tonight, he still sports a 6.08 ERA and similar numbers with the Rays are why he was waived off the 40-man. But he's gotta feel good tonight.

Game 3: High drama at the Trop. Ryan Yarbrough got the start and wasn't that great, allowing 3 runs over the first 4 innings while the Rays were stymied by Matthew Boyd (recently acquired by the O's from Detroit). But Yarbrough hung in through 6 and the Rays were down 3-1. Chaz Roe bailed out Diego Castillo again in the 7th and then pitched a scoreless 8th and Baltimore went to veteran Darren O'Day to take over for Boyd. Cafecito drilled a single to right to start the inning and then Meadows took the sidearmer deep for #24 to tie the game and then two batters later Alec Bohm drilled an O'Day offering into the left-field stands (his 8th) to make it 4-3. Brad Hand had an easy 1-2-3 9th to lock down the come-from-behind win and nab save #17. Despite their poor record (32-58) the Orioles have played the Rays extremely tough this season with the Rays only on top 5-4 in the season series after today's win. Meanwhile, we know how hot Meadows has been, but give it up for Alec Bohm. Since bottoming out June 21 in Milwaukee at .173 and keeping me continuing to shop for 3B men, Bohm has gone 18 for 45 with 6 HR and 13 RBI and is now at 256/321/520 in 140 AB. His D has been pretty bad, with 7 errors already and limited range and his long-term future is at 1B but if he hits like this it can be tolerated. After all Yandy wasn't exactly Brooks Robinson at the hot corner himself.

Also in the small miracles department, the Yankees were swept in Pittsburgh (with today's final amazingly a 1-0 Pirates win) meaning the Rays are within 6, the closest they've been in some time.

July 5-7 at Boston (3)

Yonny got the start at Fenway and was in his brilliant April form. His 7.1 5 1 1 0 5 earned him a 6-0 record as the Rays nipped the Red Sox 2-1. With a man on and a slate of lefties due for the Sox, Jose Alvarado came on and put out the fire and with Anderson and Hand tired he got to stay in for the 9th with a 2-0 lead. With two out he yielded a homer to Xander Bogaerts but struck out Brian Dozier to end the game and earn his first save of the season. The offense came early via a 2nd inning HR over the Monster by Whit Merrifield and and 3rd inning RBI double from Renfroe. The Rays had plenty of opportunities to score more getting 12 hits against Boston pitching but luckily did not need any more. They climbed with 5 1/2 of the idle Yankees, 5 back in the loss column. Meanwhile their wild card opponent at the moment would be the Blue Jays, who have won 9 straight and stand at 49-43.

Glasnow rehab update #2: This start went much better at Gwinnett, as he went 5 3 0 0 0 6 in 63 pitches. He'll get one more start this weekend to get him up to 80-90 pitches and then join the rotation after the All-Star break.

July 6: Traded 26-year-old minor league left fielder Clint Frazier and 24-year-old minor league left fielder Garrett Whitley to the Miami Marlins, getting 23-year-old minor league right fielder JJ Bleday in return.

Frazier was tearing it up at Durham but has no future with the club (although he can probably help Miami immediately) and wasn't on the 40-man. Whitley, our first round pick in 2015, never panned out after injuries, etc and was hitting about .200 at Durham. Meanwhile Bleday, although having a bit of a down year in AA after an excellent full debut season in the FSL, remains a quality prospect and as Miami's #1 pick in 2019 doesn't have to be on the 40-man and therefore not Rule 5 eligible.

July 6: Optioned P Ryan Yarbrough to AAA Durham, recalled C Ronaldo Hernandez from Durham.

Sal Perez tweaked something last night after he hit a double so he's going to be day-to-day for a couple. Rather than start Jason Castro against the lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, I've summoned Hernandez from Durham to make his MLB debut at Fenway Park. He'll be up for a couple of days and then go back down for Yarbrough to return for his start. OOTP doesn't enforce the 10-day recall rule and looking at the daily transactions from AI-controlled teams the same guys go back and forth on almost a daily basis on several teams so I'm not going to feel bad about this one.

Game 2: Brendan McKay wasn't his sharpest, giving up HRs to Bogaerts (over the Monster) and Ozuna (around the Pesky pole) but he hung in there in to go 6 6 3 3 2 5. But again the offense had some baserunners but couldn't get the runners home except for a 3-single sequence ending in a Cafecito RBI and a Freddy Galvis HR over the Monster one batter after it looked like Ronaldo Hernandez (0-3) hit one but it was caught at the wall. Boston added an insurance run off Banda in the 8th and the final was 4-2 Red Sox.

July 7: Optioned C Ronaldo Hernandez to AAA Durham, recalled P Jacob Nix from AAA Durham.

Ronaldo had his cup of coffee (Dunkin I guess since we were in Boston) with Perez now OK, and Nix is an arm until Yarbrough is needed back.

Game 3: Almost a carbon copy of Game 2, Max Fried looked like his April self with his first poor start in a couple of months, going 5.1 6 4 4 3 3 and allowing the Red Sox a 4-2 lead at that point. The Rays got within 4-3 on a Jose Martinez RBI single but the game stayed there until Austin Adams allowed Boston an insurance run in the 8th and somebody named Jamie Callahan came out of the Sox pen to strike out the side in the 9th for the save. The Boston offense was led by former Ray Logan Morrison, still kicking in MLB and having a decent season (.249-19-62), who drove in 3. For the Rays, Meadows hit #25 in the 1st inning and I knew I'd jinx Alec Bohm by going on about him before the series as he went 0-for-Fenway. On to KC to see old friends Brandon Lowe and Mike Zunino.

July 8-11 at Kansas City (4)

Game 1: Man that was frustrating. Joe Ryan and the Rays were coasting into the 6th up 4-0 on a HR and 3 RBI from Meadows and Ji-Man blast. Ryan ran into trouble in the 6th, loading the bases including a couple of walks in an uncharacteristically wild 4-walk performance (and a season-low 2 Ks). Chaz Roe allowed all 3 runs to score and after he was done came off with a sore elbow which will keep him out two weeks. In the 7th, Diego Castillo allowed the tying run (with a key Brandon Lowe double involved to add insult to injury), and in the 8th, Nick Anderson allowed an Adalberto Mondesi single, Mondesi's league-leading 27th steal and then a RBI single to put KC up 5-4 and although the Rays had runners and 1st and 3rd in the 9th, Renfroe grounded out to end the game for a painful loss.

July 9: Placed Chaz Roe on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness, recalled P Ryan Yarbrough from AAA Durham.

Ha! It turns out I could have made this move after all in real-life MLB thanks to the Roe injury. Nix gets to stay up as the extra arm.

Game 2: Friday night's game was rained out so it was time for a Saturday doubleheader. With the All-Star break looming this won't have any effect on the rotation as Yarbrough is just bumped to game 1 of the DH. And once again the Rays jumped out to a healthy early lead but this time after Meadows went deep with a 3-run shot to make it 4-0, the Rays added 3 more in the next inning to make it 7-0 highlighted by a Michael Brantley 2-run single. This was more than enough for Yarbrough, who took a 4-hit shutout into the 9th with 0 walks and 11 Ks. After he gave up a 2-run HR to Mac Williamson and went past 110 pitches, Jacob Nix whiffed the last two Royals to finish the 7-2 win.

Game 3: The second game of the doubleheader looked bleak for Rays fans as Yonny just didn't have it tonight, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits (4 of which were longballs, including one from our good friend Brandon Lowe) in 3 2/3 and the Rays were down 6-3 despite another 3-run Meadows jack. But it was Tampa Bay's night to turn the tables on KC as a Margot RBI single got them with 6-4 and then Meadows did it *again*, his third 3-run homer of the day to make it 7-6. Two batters later, Ji-Man went deep with a solo shot. Meanwhile, Anthony Banda came on in relief of Chirinos in the 4th and allowed the Royals nothing the rest of the way, going 5.1 1 0 0 0 5 for the win. Kauffman as well was the site of Banda's finest moment last season for the Rays, a 2-hit "Maddux". Joey Wendle added an RBI double followed by a 2-run Freddy Galvis shot as the ball was flying out of Kauffman tonight to make the final score 11-6 and give the Rays a sweep.

Unsurprisingly, Meadows walked his last two times up, and here is his season line at the moment: 329/392/655 with 29 HR and 90 RBI in 95 games, good for 1st in the AL in OPS, second in RBIs, and second with 4.6 WAR as we approach the All-Star break. MVP anyone?

Game 4: It was pitcher's duel time as lefties Brendan McKay and Danny Duffy were dealing through 5 at 0-0. Unfortunately Duffy's elbow started barking and Kevin McCarthy came on for the 6th and the Rays broke through on a solo HR by guess who? I'll give you one hint, his initials are A.M. And 1-0 it stayed until the 9th inning as McKay went 7.2 5 0 0 1 8 and Nick Anderson got the last out in the 8th. The Rays got some insurance after they loaded the bases in the 9th. After Sal Perez barely beat the throw to keep KC from a 5-2-3 DP and getting out of the inning, Freddy Galvis delivered a single up the middle scoring a pair. And those insurance runs were needed when with two out in the 9th Brad Hand surrendered a HR to Lewis Brinson but still picked up save #18 in a 3-1 win. McKay goes to 10-5, 2.98 with the win as the Rays head into the all-star break.

Team record: 60-37.

Here's a look at the standings and offensive leaderboards around MLB as we hit the break with 60% of the schedule played.



Right now it's the Jays who have a 3-game lead on Seattle for the privilege of traveling to the Trop for the AL Wild Card game. And how about that AL Central? The Rays are 11 1/2 games better than the Tigers, who if the season ended today would get a full playoff series while the Rays flipped a coin. Over in the NL, the Braves got out to a great start and looked like the class of the division again, but the Mets have been great and swept the Braves this weekend to open up that 3-game lead. And how about the Reds? They backed into to the division last year with 85 or so wins but this year they're no fluke, led by a great year from P Tyler Mahle. Meanwhile one trend I've noticed this year is the emergence of the AAAA slugger thriving in MLB; Detroit has about 45 HR combined from Kennys Vargas and DJ Peters, I mentioned LoMo's big year for the Red Sox, and Eric Thames, while maybe a cut above these guys, is among the NL leaders in HR and RBI for Washington. And you can see what a year Meadows is having over on the far left.

As for the All-Star Game, the following Rays were selected (or elected): Snell (who's hurt and will miss the game), Meadows, and then the 2 KC acquisitions, Sal Perez and Whit Merrifield (who won the 2B balloting undeservedly). Although he's been out 3 weeks Wander could have been named, and Renfroe and McKay could be considered snubs as well. Oh well, the already meaningless All-Star Game means even less in a fictional universe.

Final Tyler Glasnow rehab update: I think he's ready. He went 6 3 1 1 2 10 on 90 pitches for Durham (and was backed by a Tsutsugo HR!). He'll rejoin the rotation at home again Minnesota after the break.

[Art Deco]

FWIW, here's the report on the Rays in the All-Star Game. Meadows was 0-3, Sal Perez came on in the 9th to catch (the AL won 7-4 on an Eloy Jimenez HR), and Whit Merrifield had a sac fly and a walk. Renfroe was in the HR derby but bowed out after the first round.

July 15: Activated P Tyler Glasnow from the 15-day IL, optioned P Joe Ryan to AAA Durham.

Yarbrough or Nix will be the ultimate demotee here but with Ryan not scheduled to pitch until the 5th game after the break on the following Tuesday, he got a start at Durham and threw 5 shutout innings to keep him sharp and on schedule.

July 16-18 vs Minnesota (3)

Game 1: What a pitcher's duel between Max Fried and Jose Berrios, with Sal Perez's 3rd inning HR the game's only offense in the 1-0 win. Fried was brilliant of course, going 7.2 4 0 0 0 10. After Mitch Garver doubled with two out in the 8th, Nick Anderson came on to whiff Byron Buxton (whom due to injury was making his first appearance of the season). Brad Hand had a 1-2-3 9th to lock down save #19 as Fried goes to 10-7 and his ERA stands at a season-low 3.58. For the night the Rays only managed three hits with singles from Perez and Freddy Galvis the other two safeties.

Game 2: A 7-0 Rays romp as they jump on Kenta Maeda for a 6-run second inning highlighted by a true Bohm bomb, this one deep to CF at the Trop (no mean feat) and a 2-run Cafecito double. Brendan McKay (now 11-5, 2.86) was the beneficiary here and although he wasn't efficient, he was effective, needing 109 pitches to get through 5 2/3. Austin Adams and Jacob Nix pitched the last 3 1/3 without incident and the Rays now have won five straight and if not for the HR Hand allowed in KC they'd be looking at three straight shutouts. And don't look now but the streaking Blue Jays beat the Yankees for the second straight day and the division deficit is down to 5 games.

Game 3: Welcome back, Tyler Glasnow. In a game that was almost a carbon copy of yesterday's the Rays jumped out to an early 6-1 lead and never looked back for their 6th straight win. Glasnow was dominant at 6 4 1 1 1 11 with the only blemish a 2nd inning HR from Josh Donaldson, the Twins' first run of the series (Andrew Benintendi added a 9th inning shot off Trevor Richards for their second). After a 2-out Meadows triple in the 1st, Renfroe went deep for #32 and then the Rays erupted for 4 more off Carlos Rodon in the 2nd capped by the Meadows special, a 3-run shot (#31 for him). Sal Perez added an RBI single in the 3rd (he's now 364/391/568 in 13 games with Tampa Bay) to finish the scoring as the Rays rolled to the series sweep 7-2. Meadows ended up finishing a double short of the cycle and took over the MLB lead in RBI with 94 while Glasnow now goes to 7-3 and lowers his ERA to 2.73. And while this was going on the Jays stomped the Yankees 13-5 and the Rays are now within 4 games of the Bronx Bombers.

Team record: 63-37

July 19-21 vs Boston (3)

Game 1: Ugh. This one got away early as Yonny, who had pitched two gems against the Red Sox at Fenway this season, did not have it tonight. After escaping the first two innings allowing just 1 run (a game-leading off HR from Jose Peraza) the wheels came off in the 3rd as Boston ran up a total of 7 hits and 4 runs for the game with nobody out. Anthony Banda did a great job cleaning up Yonny's mess and went on to throw four scoreless innings but the Rays were never going to win tonight as they couldn't score at all, held to 5 hits by Sox reliever-turned-starter Marcus Walden through 7. The only real threat they had was loading the bases in the 4 with 2 out and Meadows at the plate, but he looked at a called third strike. Yarbrough tipped his farewell cap (he's going down for Joe Ryan) by allowing a run in the 8th to make the final score 5-0 Boston, which dealt Chirinos his first loss of the season at 6-1. At least the Yankees fell at Cleveland so no ground was lost although another day comes off the calendar.

Game 2: Well this was a bizarre game. The Rays started Joe Ryan and the Red Sox Jimmy Nelson, the latter making his Boston debut after being acquired from the White Sox. Nelson had just pitched against the Rays on July 1 and was tough on them (2 runs allowed in 6 2/3 although the Rays went on to win). Ryan had to leave in the 2nd inning after retiring the first 5 batters with what turned out to be a 1-day hamstring strain, so Trevor Richards was called on for some long relief. And he responded, going 3.1 2 1 1 0 6 with the one run a Rafael Devers HR. The problem was that the Rays once again were stymied by Nelson, who took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th. But Tampa Bay then managed to string five singles against him, the last three coming with two out as they went station to station but came away with two runs courtesy of Kiermaier and Cafecito. Whit Merrifield tripled in Alec Bohm in the 8th to get a big insurance run, and Brad Hand worked around a leadoff single to close it out for save #20. Diego Castillo, who has been hot and cold this season, came through with 2 clean innings in relief of Richards to get credit for the 3-1 win. And the best news of all is that the suddenly-slumping Yankees were waxed 10-1 by Cleveland (thank you former Rays Jake Bauers and Derek Dietrich for your combined 3 HR today) so the Rays are now only three games out. Winning the division is becoming paramount as the Rays do not want to face Nate Pearson and the Jays in a one-game winner-take-all.

Game 3: Another tough game with the line score completely in binary form. Max Fried got the start and although he didn't have a 1-2-3 inning until his final one in the 7th, he hung tough without his best stuff to go 7 6 1 1 2 3. However the Rays could do next to nothing against Chris Sale, finally back in his 4th start after missing a year and a half of action. Sale went 6 1/3 allowing only one Rays run on a Freddy Galvis* RBI single. So 1-1 it went until the bottom of the 8th when Jose Martinez took an Austin Brice pitch the opposite way into the rightfield stands. With several of the bullpen tired, it fell to a mix and match of 2/3 innings apiece from Austin Adams, Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson to finish it off, with Alvarado getting the win and Anderson save #6 as the Rays finally even up the season series with Boston at 8 with most of the 16 games being nail-biters. And the Yankees continue to slide, dropping a 6-4 decision to Cleveland with ex-Ray Dietrich providing the game-winning HR to pull the Rays within 2 (!).

*Let's give it up for Freddy Galvis. While not making us say "Wander who?" the veteran SS bided his time at Durham, didn't hit much there (227/270/311) but when called upon to replace an MVP candidate he's gone 321/356/444 in 24 games with 3 HR and 9 RBI, coming as close to replacing Franco's production as humanly possible. And he's a 65 defender at SS making plays Wander doesn't make.

Team record: 65-38.

Tampa Bay Rays, Tradepalooza edition:

July 21: Traded OF Yoshimoto Tsustugo to San Diego for P Shane Greene.

First, the least of the deals. Tsutsugo was already off the 40-man, but this deal frees up some cash for further deals (spoiler alert: one involving money is coming up). Greene is probably going to end up on waivers, but during my 7 days to do something with him I'm attempting to ship him off for an A-ball body. Yoshi will get a chance with the big club in San Diego and I'm actually hoping he does OK.

July 22: Traded OF Manuel Margot to Baltimore for OF Yusniel Diaz.

Another cost saving move (Margot was making $5.5M, Diaz gets the minimum) but even better to me as a baseball trade. While Margot's 70 D will be missed in CF, he was only playing on the wrong side of a platoon with Kiermaier. And offensively he's no great shakes (his .292 in 2020 looks like a fluke, this year's .220 average is more line with his career #s). Meanwhile Diaz may only be a 50D in CF but again he'll only need to play there 1/3 of the time, otherwise he adds power (15 HR with 260/329/451), is two years younger and a 65D in RF to spell Renfroe and perhaps ultimately replace him. For now I can see Diaz playing CF against lefties, spelling Renfroe and Meadows, and getting some DH at-bats.

July 23: Traded P Anthony Banda and minor-league OF JJ Bleday to the Chicago Cubs for SS Javier Baez (Cubs retain 50% salary).

And here it is. This is my "all-in" move for 2021 as Baez is a FA at season's end, but he was clearly the best rental on the market. He'll play SS while Wander recuperates for 2-3 more weeks and then he'll play 3B the rest of the way. The team needs an impact bat and while Bohm has promise he's reallly run hot and cold. Still Bohm could play 1B against lefties and is still looked at as next year's 3B despite his defensive shortcomings. Banda will be missed and although he hasn't been as spectacular as he was last year in a swing role, he's come on lately but we have the arms (plus he was going to be a FA himself at year's end). I turned AAAA guy Clint Frazier into Bleday earlier and now especially with Yusniel Diaz I still have a boatload of OFs on the way (J.Lowe, Kiriloff, Larnach to name a few) so JJ was expendable. And for what it's worth, the fan reaction to the deal was described as "amazing" and fan interest increased significantly.

July 23: Optioned IF Joey Wendle to AAA Durham, recalled P Ryan Yarbrough.

Yarbs takes over Banda's lefty long-relief role, while Galvis gets to stay with the team over Wendle on both a) merit and b) the fact that Wendle has options while Galvis would have to go through waivers. Galvis still probably goes when Wander comes back, but that was always in the cards.

July 23-25 at Texas (3)

Game 1: Everything was a bit off tonight, including McKay. He allowed 9 hits and 4 runs in 5 1/3, and came out trailing 4-2. The Rays then tied it up at 4 in the top of the 7th (the rally include Javier Baez's 2nd double of night, he was 2-4 and scored twice, so a good debut for him) before Alvarado blew up in the bottom of the inning and the Rays ended up falling 8-4 as the Rays OFs got their exercise chasing 14 Texas hits. Ji-Man had a pair of RBI to pace the Rays and the only good thing to come of the night was the Yankees losing their 7th straight game, this time to Matt Manning (3rd in AL pitcher WAR) and the Tigers so they remain 2 back.

Game 2: The new-look Rays offense with Yusniel Diaz making his debut against a lefty and Javy Baez in there looked really good today, to the tune of 11 runs and 17 hits (and that's with no HRs) in an 11-5 win. Everyone in the lineup got a hit - in fact, everyone in the lineup except Cafecito and Ji-Man had at least two hits. Baez was the star, going 3-4 with 2 triples(!) and 4 RBI. Diaz was 2-5 with 2 RBI while Alec Bohm was 3-4 with a pair of doubles and 2 RBI. The Rays jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the 4th and with Glasnow on the mound it looked insurmountable, but surmount the Rangers did try and after a sequence in which Glasnow loaded the bases with a couple of walks, the immortal JT Riddle just cleared the right-field fence with a grand slam to make it 6-4. The Rays piled on the offense after that to put it out of reach, although it was still close enough (8-5) in the 8th that Brad Hand came in as Texas had a string of lefties due (he struck out the side). 3 more in the 9th, though, meant Jacob Nix finished the game instead of Nick Anderson. And in even better news, the Yankees' skid reached 8 games as those pesky AL Central-leading Tigers whupped them 8-2 meaning the Rays, who seemed dead in the water with respect to the division a month ago, are now within 1 game which is the closest they've been since they went to New York in May and were swept. The Yankees are getting Aaron Judge back as he just went on a rehab assignment. But hey, we're getting Wander back in a few weeks.

Game 3: If the Rays end up losing the division by a game, they're going to look back on this painful - both mentally and physically - 16-inning loss to the Texas Rangers. Up 7-3 with Yonny getting the first out in the 7th, Austin Adams was called on with men on. He got the strikeout but had to leave the game with an injury (diagnosis pending, yipee!) and then yours truly made the disastrous decision to bring in Ryan Yarbrough with a slew of lefties due up. Well, the Rangers beat Yarbrough like a pinata, capped by a 3-run Joey Gallo blast, his second HR of the day to tie it at 7. But wait - in the top of the 8th Javy Baez went deep for his first Rays HR and the lead was restored. But in the bottom of the 8th an Alec Bohm error and a Nick Anderson wild pitch allowed Texas to tie, and from there we went, inning after inning. Brad Hand threw 3 innings (but only about 22 pitches), the Rays had a great chance in the 12th when Merrifield led off with a double. I did something I almost never do, calling for Jason Castro to sacrifice. It failed of course and after Merrifield was out at 3rd, Kiermaier (who homered earlier, his first of the year off a lefty), doubled sending Castro to 3rd but after Meadows was intentionally walked, Ji-Man hit a ground ball to the drawn-in infield and they couldn't score. Finally in the 16th with Trevor Richards starting his third inning of work, James McCann led off the inning with a HR that was that. And to further the injury woes, Yusniel Diaz was also hurt with a diagnosis pending. And now the bullpen is exhausted going into a series with the Houston Astros, a recipe for disaster. Oh yeah, and the Yankees finally won, so the lead is back to 2. This game is going to haunt the team.

Team record: 66-40.

July 26: Placed P Austin Adams on the 15-day IL with (?), recalled P Riley O'Brien from AAA Durham. Placed Josh Fleming on the 60-day IL, optioned P Ryan Yarbrough to Durham. Purchased the contract of P Shane Greene.

I probably should go out and trade for a reliever. I don't know what's wrong with Adams but with his diagnosis still pending it can't be good so it's time to shut him down for a couple of weeks at least. Chaz Roe is on rehab but looked terrible in his first game so Riley O'Brien, the only non-tired arm on my 40-man, gets the recall. Meanwhile, the Tsutsugo salary dump actually yields a benefit just in time as Greene was one day away from going on waivers, and now he's part of the bullpen. It helped that Fleming was out for the next 6 weeks and was on the 40-man to make room. So O'Brien and Greene join Jacob Nix as the other non-tired pitchers in my bullpen in support of Joe Ryan (O/U on HRs to be allowed to the Astros: 3.5) tonight. Also no word on Yusniel Diaz's injury but I can play down a hitter while I wait.

July 26-28 at Houston (3).

Game 1: Based on the situation coming in this loss felt inevitable, but it didn't have to be so painful on top of yesterday's game. The Rays actually took a 4-2 lead through 5 off Verlander with Javy Baez continuing to rake as a Ray with 2 more HRs and Ji-Man adding one. Ryan was hanging in there until the 6th when the inevitable HR came, a 2-run shot by Alex Bregman. But Michael Brantley put his old team behind again with his first Rays HR off Verlander to make it 5-4, only for Jacob Nix to allow a 2-run shot by Yordan Alvarez. With the Rays down to their last out in the 9th, though, Whit Merrifield rapped an RBI single to make it 6-6. A tired Alvarado got them through the 9th but when it went extra innings Riley O'Brien had to come on, and it doesn't take much imagination to figure what happened next: the second batter he faced, JD Martinez, took him deep to give the Astros a 7-6 win. Shane Greene pitched a perfect 8th in his Rays debut, while the dynamic duo of Meadows and Renfroe were a combined 0 for 10. The Yankees were idle so the Rays drop 2 1/2 back.

July 27: Placed OF Yusniel Diaz on the 15-day IL, recalled OF Randy Arozarena from AAA Durham.

The verdict on Diaz is a hamstring strain which will keep him out 4 weeks. Meanwhile, the Austin Adams diagnosis came in, and he has bone chips in his elbow which will shelve him for 6 weeks. Meanwhile, I was eyeing free-agent-to-be Corey Knebel as an addition for the bullpen but before I could make my move Milwaukee dealt him to the Yankees (ugh) for Mike Ford. Hey, at least Snell and Wander are a week away from rehab assignments.

July 27: Traded 26-year-old minor league starting pitcher Phoenix Sanders to the Minnesota Twins, getting 30-year-old closer Taylor Rogers, retaining 100% in return.

I like Sanders, but he had three strikes against him: 1) he was going to be Rule 5 eligible this winter and 40-man roster spots are at a premium, 2) he has shoulder inflammation and is out for four months, and 3) he's 26 and hasn't advanced past AA ball. Wanted another lefty in the pen and now I got a pretty good one, also managed to get Minnesota to retain 100% of his 2020 salary. He's been the Minnesota closer for 3 years now and he's projected for $7.5M in arbitration. With Hand gone to free agency at year's end he could serve as next year's closer for less than I paid Hand this season (although Hand's a little better).

July 27: Traded 32-year-old reliever Shane Greene to the Kansas City Royals, getting 23-year-old minor league starting pitcher Grant Gambrell in return.

To free up a 40-man spot to add Rogers, I had to get rid of somebody and I had to deal Rays legend Shane Greene (we'll always have that scoreless inning last night). KC was surprisingly willing to deal me Gambrell, their 3rd round pick in 2019 who's done nothing but pitch well and has a 65 curveball and 65 fastball and could either start or relieve. And the key here is that he isn't Rule 5 eligible.

Game 2: The nightmare trip through Texas continues with another heartbreaker. Max Fried got the nod and gave up a 2nd inning HR to JD Martinez but Meadows hit #32 with Kiermaier on to make it 2-1 in the 4th, giving him an MLB-leading 97 RBI. Nelson Cruz (recently acquired from the White Sox as if the Astros need MORE power) tied it with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning but Fried and Zack Greinke shut it down from there (Fried ended a quite good 7 7 2 2 0 6 considering the opponent) until the bottom of the 8th. That's when Taylor Rogers came on for his Rays debut and perhaps the jet lag got to him as the first batter he faced, Jose Altuve, took him deep. The Rays got two on with two out in the 9th against Houston closer Dellin Betances, but Kiermaier struck out to end the game and the Rays fell 3-2. At least the bullpen got some more rest, and at least the Yankees lost in extra innings to the Braves. Perhaps the Rays should look in the other direction, though, as Toronto continues blazing hot and is now within 5 of the first wild card and they come to town this week.

Game 3: Never for a moment was it easy, but the Rays salvaged the Houston series with a 6-5 win. After going up 1-0 on Bohm's 10th HR, Nelson Cruz killed the Rays again with a 3-run shot off Brendan McKay. Meanwhile Jose Urquidy was mowing down the Rays over the first four innings with 7 Ks, but he ran out of the gas in the 5th when he loaded the bases with nobody out. Whit Merrifield laced a 2-run double, and then two batters later Javy Baez went deep again with a 3-run shot and the Rays led 6-3. And they needed every one of those runs as McKay put a man on in the 7th and came out, only for Diego Castillo to allow 3 singles and the inherited runner to score. But with two on and two out Nick Anderson bailed him out with a fly ball. Hand came on with a 2-run lead for the save and promptly allowed George Springer to take him deep to make it 6-5, then with one out he walked Carlos Correa and wild pitched him to second. But he struck out Cruz and pinch-hitter Alex Bregman to nail down save #21 and win #12 for McKay who put up an OK 6.1 7 4 4 1 6 line. By the way Javy Baez in 6 games with the Rays is now 11 for 26 with 4 HR and 11 RBI, I guess morale does play a role in this game as he was having a pedestrian-by-his-standards season with also-ran Cubs. The Braves also beat the reeling Yankees so we're back within a game and a half.

Team record: 67-42

July 29: Traded 33-year-old left fielder Jose Martinez and 24-year-old minor league reliever Simon Rosenblum-Larson to the Chicago Cubs, getting 23-year-old minor league right fielder Chase Strumpf, 28-year-old left fielder Kyle Schwarber, retaining 65% and 17-year-old minor league third baseman Jesus Herrera in return.

Another biggie, this is in essence a rental-for-rental deal with some minor leaguers throw in. Cafecito has gotten out of his early season funk, but he shows no signs of repeating 2020 as his 2021 numbers are more in line with his 2019. Schwarber (an actual rental) was born to DH and he will provide a clear power upgrade over Martinez (100 pts of SLG). This also balances the offense a bit more with someone who will go deep into counts, Choi and Meadows are really the only ones who do that. Martinez wasn't coming back at the $9M he was going to command in arbitration and the trade market was extremely limited for a bat-only guy with an OPS of around .800 at his salary. Rosenblum-Larson is the best of the prospects (essentially the cost for Schwarber alone) but he's far from a sure thing while Martinez brought the two prospects back and made the room on 40-man. All-in, baby!

July 30-August 1 vs Toronto (3)

Game 1: Can never thank Neil Huntington enough for the 2018 trade that brought Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows (as well as Shane Baz, still a pretty good prospect) to the Rays for Chris Archer. I mention this as it was the Tyler & Austin show as Glasnow went 7 3 0 0 0 7 and Meadows smacked a pair of 2-run homers, making him the first in MLB over 100 RBI this season. Javy Baez added an RBI double in his first Trop debut while in his Rays debut DH Kyle Schwarber was 0-3 with a walk in the 6-0 win.

July 31: Traded P Ryan Yarbrough to the San Francisco Giants for P Conner Menez.

The last of my many trades was a swap of lefties and a swap of contrasts. Yarbrough of course is a finesse control pitcher, but Menez is his opposite, a high-strikeout, questionable control type. Menez, despite a 1-8 record for the worst team in MLB, has pitched extremely well this year for the Giants with a 3.26 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 85 innings including 4 starts of 10+ Ks. He has walked 41 so that can be an issue but he has options next year unlike Yarbrough and might be useful in a multi-inning relief role if he doesn't make the rotation. For now he goes to Durham but may be seen by year's end.

Game 2: Another gut punch game in a 7-10 day span that has seen its share of them. With Yonny allowing 15 runs in 12 innings over his last 3 starts going up against one of the league's best in Nate Pearson I wasn't expecting much going in. But it was the Rays who jumped on Pearson. Javy Baez (again) and Renfroe went deep in the first inning, Meadows went deep later, and the Rays had a 4-1 lead into the 6th. Yonny was much better and although it looked like "here we go again" when he allowed a run after the first three batters, he settled in after that and the Rays looked headed to victory. However the Rays bullpen had other thoughts. The 7th was a disaster as Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson combined to allow 3 runs to let the Jays equalize. But Kyle Schwarber had his second double of the day to lead off bottom of the inning and Merrifield doubled him home to put the Rays back up 5-4. Taylor Rogers pitched a scoreless eighth (the only Ray reliever not to allow a run) and things looked good with Hand coming in to close. But in an inexplicable bout of wildness, Hand walked the first three batters he faced to load the bases. He miraculously got out of it allowing only a sac fly but the game was tied again. And in the 10th, the now unreliable Diego Castillo served up a longball to Cavan Biggio while the Rays did nothing against Keith Ginkel so a game they had looked to have won twice turned into a loss.

Game 3: Well when the Rays have lost recently it hasn't been for a lack of runs, but today that was the case as they fell 2-0 to Shun Yamaguchi and the Blue Jays. Yamaguchi held them to 6 hits and 0 walks over 8 innings, and although the Rays got a couple of men on with two out in the 9th off Keith Ginkel, Alec Bohm lined out to center to end it. Joe Ryan couldn't duplicate his otherworldy season debut against the Jays but was still damn good, going 6 3 2 2 1 7 (yes the obligatory HR was in there, a solo shot by Bo Bichette). The bullpen followed with scoreless innings from Alvarado, Rogers and Nix (where were those yesterday?) but it was in a lost cause. The ex-Cubs continued to hit - Baez doubled and Schwarber had a pair of singles. The Yankees lost to the Reds today so the Rays remain 2 1/2 out going into a stretch where they play the Yankees 7 times in the next 10 days (3 here, 4 in New York the following week). It's imperative the Rays at least take 4-5 out of those 7.

Team record: 68-44.

[Art Deco]

Well now that the trading deadline has passed, the rosters are set and it's time to see if the Rays can make hay with their upcoming stretch of seven games in ten days against the Yankees, whom they trail by 2 1/2.

August 2-4 vs New York Yankees (3)

Game 1: The game did not get off to an auspicious start for the Rays as Gleyber Torres took Max Fried deep for a 2-run first inning shot. But the Rays responded immediately in the bottom of the inning with 5 runs on 6 hits, chasing Luis Severino as they batted around. And they weren't done as they added solo homers in the 2nd (Meadows), 3rd (Bohm) and 4th (Choi) then two more on a Meadows triple in the 5th to open a 10-2 lead. Fried ran out of gas and into trouble in the 6th as a couple of runs scored and had a mediocre 5 3 4 4 4 1 line but got the win to go 11-7 as the Rays ended up prevailing 10-5. They rapped out 17 hits with everyone in the lineup getting at least one, led by Meadows' 4. So it's 1 1/2 games back now with McKay on the mound tomorrow.

Aug. 2: Sent Blake Snell to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

The six-week timetable for his shoulder bursitis was up so off to Durham for Snell, who started for the Bulls tonight against Gwinnett so I made sure to manage the game. How'd it go? Well after 2 innings Snell had to leave with "injury, diagnosis pending" so yeah, it did not go well at all (and by the way Mrs. Lincoln, the Bulls were 1-hit by Sean Newcomb). I'm on to the next day and still no diagnosis so I'm already mentally writing him off for the season (and hoping it doesn't stretch into 2022).

Game 2: Last night the Rays were the windshield, tonight they were the bug. After an early 1-0 lead on back-to-back doubles from Meadows and Renfroe off Trevor Bauer, McKay got knocked around for 2 runs in the 4th and then in the 5th he loaded the bases with nobody out and was up to 94 grueling pitches. With Aaron Judge due up, Jacob Nix came on and promptly gave up the grand slam to make it 6-1 and then allowed 2 more in the inning. The Rays quickly answered with 3 to make it 8-4 on a Kiermaier HR and a 2-run single by Ji-Man, but all they could muster the rest of the game was a second Kiermaier solo shot of the night and the Yankees won 8-5. The bullpen has been so overworked that I had Diego Castillo and Taylor Rogers each go 2 innings in order to save Anderson and Hand for use tomorrow. Here's hoping Glasnow can work another 7-inning outing like last time out, as the pen needs it.

August 4: Option P Jacob Nix to AAA Durham, recalled P Conner Menez. Sent SS Wander Franco to Durham on a rehab assignment.

With the bullpen on fumes, an arm was needed. At least Menez is a better option than Riley O'Brien at the moment. Here's hoping Wander's rehab goes a lot better than Snell's (still no diagnosis on day 3 ::gulp:: ). Wander will play 2-3 games and then join the team this weekend in Oakland if all goes well.

Game 3: Welp. This might have been the worst performance of the year, and here I was thinking with Glasnow on the mound this game was winnable. Glasnow struggled through a 31-pitch first, loading the bases, but got out of it with a couple of Ks. He settled down from there through four with the game scoreless. Then with 2 on and 2 out in the 5th, he served up a 3-run HR to Stanton. At 91 pitches I took Glasnow out for the 6th and brought in Menez in his AL debut* and boy did it not go well. Gio Urshela greeted him with a HR, and then after he put a couple of more on, Gleyber Torres took him deep and it was 7-0. None of that really mattered as the offense was 2-hit by Corey Kluber in a complete game shutout. It was almost a Maddux but he ended up with 101 pitches in what turned out to be a 9-0 Yankees win. So now they're 3 1/2 out and immediately playing at Oakland tomorrow in a 4-game series and on to Yankee Stadium for 3 more with no off days. Meanwhile, it's now Thursday morning after Snell came out Monday night and still no diagnosis. I'm expecting amputation to be recommended at this point. Really, though, just give me the bad news so I can put him on the 60-day and bring up anybody I want.

*Talk about a cursed trade. Yarbrough made his debut tonight for the Giants and went 5.1 12 7 7 0 4 against the Dodgers.

Team record: 69-46.

August 5-8 at Oakland (4)

Game 1: Someday the Rays will win again, but today is not that day. Yonny got the start and gave up 2-run HRs to Matt Olson and Ramon Laureano and allowed a total of 5 runs in 4 innings before having to leave the game with a tender elbow and a 2-week timetable so he's off to the IL. Trevor Richards pitched the final 4 innings and allowed 1 run on 3 hits and he will be Yonny's replacement when his turn comes up at Yankee Stadium (oh boy). The final was 6-4, as the Rays offense showed some life especially in the person of Whit Merrifield who went 4 for 5, homering and driving in a pair. Alec Bohm also went deep and Javy Baez was 1-2 with an RBI and 3 walks but the middle of the order (Meadows, Renfroe, Schwarber) went 0 for 12 to keep them from doing more. With lefty AJ Puk on the mound, Randy Arozarena finally got to play and went 0-4 with a run scored. And now Toronto is closer to the Rays than they are to the Yankees although their lead over Seattle for the final wild card is healthy at 9 1/2 games. For now.

August 6: Placed P Yonny Chirinos (tender elbow) on the 15-day IL, recalled P Jacob Nix from AAA Durham.

Nothing newsworthy on this move, but the big news is on Snell, who has a strained abdonimal muscle and will be out another 6 weeks. So it's possible he could come back for the playoffs, provided it's more than one game but that return date will be mid-September so hopefully Durham or Montgomery is in the playoffs for him to rehab.

Game 2: The Rays ran into a buzzsaw with Jesus Luzardo on the mound for Oakland. He went 8 3 0 0 2 7, but thanks to a fine start from Joe Ryan (5.2 3 1 1 0 7) the A's only led 1-0 through 8 thanks to old friend Matt Joyce who took Ryan deep in the 2nd. Jake Diekman came on to close it out for Oakland and the Rays loaded the bases against him with 1 out. Ji-Man hung in there and drew the walk to tie the game but Renfroe was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on Jason Castro's fly to left. In the bottom of the 9th, Taylor Rogers came up with lefties due up 2nd and 3rd in the inning. He got the righty Chapman to ground out then proceeded to give up three singles to the next four batters although the runner was held at 3rd. Nick Anderson came out to bail him out with a whiff of Chad Pinder, and then the Rays loaded the bases against the next Oakland pitcher, Daniel Hudson, in the 10th and this time the generosity of the Oakland bullpen came through again as Meadows walked, forcing in the go-ahead run. Alec Bohm followed with a 2-run single after Renfroe whiffed, and the Rays were suddenly up 4-1. With three righties due up, Anderson (4-4) stayed in and struck them all out and the Rays got an improbable win, giving the other team a gut-punch loss for a change. With the Yankees losing to Boston, the Rays are now 3 back (although 4 in the loss column).

August 7: Activated SS Wander Franco from the 15-day IL, optioned OF Randy Arozarena to AAA Durham.

Wander was only 1-12 in his 3 games at Durham, but Javy Baez played tired last night so I brought Wander back for this game and will give Javy a night off.

Game 2: A strange game in which pitchers dropped like flies. The Rays jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 1st against Daulton Jefferies when Kiermaier led off the game with a HR, two outs later Renfroe followed suit with #34 and then Schwarber doubled home Ji-Man who had walked. Jefferies then had to come out with an injury and his replacement, Tyson Ross, had to leave the game two innings later. Meanwhile Max Fried was dealing, striking out 7 A's in the first 3 innings before running into trouble in the 5th as he allowed a 2-run HR to Franklin Barreto and a solo shot to Matt Chapman and suddenly we were tied. Max settled down and got through the 6th (with 11 Ks), and then in the top of the seventh the Rays got their strangest run of the season when with men on 2nd and 3rd Grant Holmes struck out Kiermaier but it was on a wild pitch that allowed Alec Bohm to score and Kiermaier to reach. And then Wander, in first game back in nearly 2 months, deposited a Holmes fastball into the left field stands to make it 7-3. Castillo and Taylor Rogers had scoreless innings and then with no save situation, Jacob Nix came on for the 9th. After allowing another Matt Joyce HR, Nix struck out the next two batters and then he himself had to leave with an injury (shoulder tendinitis, 1-2 weeks) so Hand came on after all to get the final out and preserve the 7-4 victory in which Fried goes to 12-7.

Game 3: Sean Manaea was a tough customer today, pitching a complete game against the Rays with a 9 5 3 2 2 10 line in 117 pitches. The only real offense the Rays got off him came early when Wander walked to lead off the game and Javy Baez went oppo just inside the right-field foul pole. The Rays added another run when Brett Gardner dropped a fly ball. And despite the efforts of Manaea that was all the Rays needed because Brendan McKay was even better, going 7.1 5 0 0 0 4 in a bounceback from a couple of mediocre starts. He did run into trouble in the 8th, allowing two hits, but the Human Eraser Nick Anderson whiffed David Fletcher and Matt Chapman to end the threat, and Hand had a clean ninth for save #22. McKay goes to 13-6, 3.12 with the win as the Rays take the season series from Oakland 4-3 with their third straight win as they fly cross-country to New York for a 4-game set at Yankee Stadium 3 games behind. One amusing moment from the game: for the first time in my 1 2/3 seasons managing the Rays I had a player ejected as Meadows, in a week-long slump, argued a called third strike in the 5th and was tossed.

Also of note in my MLB world: Cleveland's Oscar Mercado had two hits today to extend his hitting streak to 30 games, the longest I've seen so far as well.

Team record: 72-47.
WanderWatch: .342-13-48-23

August 8: Placed P Jacob Nix on the 15-day IL, recalled P Riley O'Brien from AAA Durham.

O'Brien was the only choice off the 40-man to call up with now Snell, Chirinos, Adams and Nix all on the IL. O'Brien will be the emergency long man taking over for Trevor Richards who received a battlefield promotion to the rotation. I considered waiving either Galvis or Brantley to bring up Shane McClanahan, who's looked real good at times since a mid-season promotion to Durham but has had his inconsistencies. A starting pitcher option I could have used at Durham was old friend Drew Smyly, but he too was hurt again recently as I'm fighting a war of attrition with the staff at both the MLB and AAA level.

August 9-12 at New York Yankees (4)

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow was dealing tonight, no-hitting the Yankees through 5 while the Rays built a 3-0 lead on solo HRs by Kiermaier and Renfroe and an RBI double from Wander. But after a leadoff walk in the 6th, he lost the no-hitter on an infield single and then a wild pitch moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, and a soft single by Tyler Wade scored both when Renfroe misplayed it. Meanwhile the Rays could not add to their lead while Glasnow was pitch-efficient enough to get through the 8th on about 100 pitches. With limited choices in the bullpen I made the call to leave Glasnow in and he retired Wade to lead off the 9th. But then Luke Voit went deep to tie the game and that was that (his final line: a sparkling 8.1 3 3 2 1 12). I brought in Chaz Roe with righties due up and he promptly gave up a double to Gleyber Torres, and then intentionally walked Stanton. Torres and Stanton pulled off a double steal, so I intentionally walked Judge. With the bases loaded and infield in, Aaron Hicks hit into the rare 3-2-3 double play and the Rays were miraculously out of it. They still had to face Aroldis Chapman in the 10th, he of the MLB-leading 34 saves and a 1.49 ERA. But of all people, the lefty-hitting Kiermaier lined one into the short porch in right for his second homer of the night, a semi-tired Nick Anderson got a 1-2-3 inning despite no strikeouts, and the Rays had a crucial 4-3 win to pull within 2 of the Yankees (3 in the loss column). A team that was a terrible 2-7 in extra innings (no doubt contributing to being 3 games below their Pythagorean record) now has won two big extra inning games in the last four days.

Side note: Reigning AL Player of the Month for June and July Austin Meadows, is now in an 0-24 slump. Considering giving Brantley a start in LF.

Game 2: Well with Trevor Richards going up against Corey Kluber (who 2-hit the Rays last week) you figured the Rays would have to outscore the Yankees tonight instead of winning a pitcher's duel. But Richards performed credibly well, going 4 3 2 2 5 6 (the walks were unusual for him but given the lineup he negotiated it well), and the bullpen shut the Yankees out from there. But aside from Wander's RBI single in the 2nd the Rays could not get anyone home despite having many, many more baserunners against Kluber this time around. They left 10 on base and the key sequence came in the 8th when they loaded the bases with one out, only for last night's goat Chapman to come in and whiff Sal Perez and Whit Merrifield. The Rays went 1-2-3 in the 9th and that was it for a game they should have won considering the pitching effort, losing 2-1. By the way it turned out Renfroe had tired and needed to sit so Meadows stayed in the lineup moving over to RF, and he broke out of his slump by reaching three times (two singles and a walk). Joe Ryan goes tomorrow and I'm sure a Yankee fan or two in the outfield seats will be going home with a souvenir. Back to 3 behind.

Game 3: Joe Ryan can survive HRs, but he can't survive walks. And when he walked a man in the 1st, that made Aaron Judge's dinger a 2-run homer instead of a solo shot. However a solo shot would have been enough tonight anyway as the Rays could barely touch Gerrit Cole, who went 7.1 3 0 0 1 9 against them in a 5-0 loss. Judge added an inside-the-park HR off Ryan who had a symmetrical 4.1 4 4 4 4 4 line. The only bright spots were Riley O'Brien's 2 scoreless innings, striking out 4 and getting Ryan out of a jam when he left in the 5th, and Merrifield with 2 of the Rays' 4 hits on the night including their first in the sixth inning. Max Fried will have to salvage a split tomorrow for the Rays to stay in the division race. By the way Ji-Man is slumping again, down to .215. Bohm was the odd man out of the lineup when Franco came back but it might be time to give him some time at his natural position.

Game 4: This one got ugly early after the Rays took a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd. Max Fried got knocked around for 6 runs in the 2nd on what seemed like single after single. He settled in for the next three innings and ending up fanning 7 but it really didn't matter. Gleyber Torres was unstoppable, going 5 for 5 with 3 RBI as the Yankees prevailed 10-4, pounding out 15 hits. Only Rays who covered themselves in anything but shame today were Merrifield with 3 more hits and an RBI and Kiermaier was 2-3 for with a pair of ribbies. Meanwhile Javy Baez struck out all 5 times up as it's bring on the Blue Jays for one game at season's end since the division is really looking like a lost cause. I know I've said that before and they've made up ground but I'm not expecting the Yankees to go on another stretch where they lose 10 of 11.

Team record: 73-50.
WanderWatch: .339/.412/.570, 13-50-24, 4.3 WAR.

August 13: Claimed LHP Lucas Sims on waivers from Cincinnati; waived IF Joey Wendle; demoted LHP Connor Menez to AAA Durham, added Sims to the active roster.

Sims had been in the Cincinnati rotation most of the season and had fanned 127 in 100 innings so there's no doubting his stuff. He ended up on waivers because he had 52 walks and a 5.10 ERA but I see a multi-inning lefty reliever in there with stuff. Of course I saw the same thing with Menez and he stunk in his 3 outings (albeit all against the Yankees). Wendle has no future other than as a utility player and he's 31 and out of options next year so he either gets waived now or waived in March. There were plenty of decent utility infielders out there for minor league contracts this year (Galvis was one) so I'll pick up one to back up Wander and Merrifield next year (heck it could even be Vidal Brujan).

August 13-15 vs Pittsburgh (3)

Game 1: More frustration for the Rays as they fall to the Pirates 4-3 in 10 innings. McKay pitched pretty well, but a couple of key moments hurt him. One was the solo HR allowed to Socrates Brito and another came after he had struck out a Pirate to apparently end the inning but the ball got away from Sal Perez putting runners on 1st and 3rd and then he gave up an RBI single. He still ended up with a fine 7 7 3 2 0 10 line but the offense couldn't do much for him. Back-to-back doubles from Renfroe and Ji-Man accounted for a run, and then down 3-1 solo homers by Meadows and Javy Baez got the game tied but with a couple of men on in the 8th and 1 out, they couldn't get the go-ahead run (Wander was 0-5 with a couple of rare strikeouts). So in the 10th Brad Hand struck out the first two Pirates but yielded a HR to lefty Adam Haseley and the Rays went down 1-2-3 in the bottom against Pirate closer Nick Burdi for their fourth straight loss. Meanwhile the Blue Jays beat the Yankees, which I'm not sure is good news as it pulls the Jays within a game and a half while keeping the Rays 5 back (they're still 10 ahead of Oakland and Seattle for the 2nd wild card, though).

News from my MLB: Look out DiMaggio, Oscar Mercado's hitting streak is at 34, and Boston's Jose Peraza had a 6-hit game in the Red Sox's 13-2 thrashing of Seattle.

Game 2: The Rays continue to circle the drain, dropping their fifth straight 5-2 to Pittsburgh. Glasnow, after his gem at Yankee Stadium, couldn't get it done against his old team, allowing 5 runs in 5 innings despite whiffing 7. Meanwhile the offense continues in its funk, having no easy time against Hector Noesi, only getting 2 runs in 7 1/3 off him. They had a chance with the bases loaded in the 8th down 5-2 but Alec Bohm hit a weak grounder back to the pitcher to end the threat and they went down meekly 1-2-3 again in the 9th. The bright spots: Meadows was 3-for-3 with a solo shot (#38) and a walk, Wander bounced back with a couple of hits, and Riley O'Brien looked good in 2 innings of relief. Elsewhere, Mercado extended his hitting streak to 35 and right now I'm more excited about that than the Rays.

Game 3: They just keep finding new ways to lose. Trevor Richards got the start, and had trouble with his control, not making it out of the 4th throwing 84 pitches, including three walks, 2 hit batters and a balk with a man on 3rd. Still Lucas Sims in his Rays debut cleaned up his mess and looked good, going 2.1 1 0 0 1 4, and the Rays managed to take a 3-2 lead in the 7th when Kyle Schwarber finally hit his first Rays longball. But the bullpen blew it again. Anderson only needed 6 pitches to get out of the 7th so he started the 8th and gave up a leadoff double that Jose Alvarado allowed to come around and score. And it was probably my mistake to go with Diego Castillo in the 9th with righties due up instead of Hand, giving up two hits and putting runners on first and third. Hand came in, and with the infield in somehow still managed to allow an infield hit to score the winning run. The Rays had the bases loaded and two out in the 9th, but Javy Baez grounded out on a 3-1 count and now it's six in a row. The good news: they won't lose tomorrow. Of course they don't have a game tomorrow. Luckily Seattle and Oakland both lost so their WC magic # is down to 29. Meanwhile, with the Jays beating the Yankees the Rays are only 1/2 game up on Toronto (it probably doesn't matter where the wild card game is played, but still). And hey, Mercado's at 36! That ties him for 10th all-time, and the longest since Jimmy Rollins' 38 in 05-06 if you count streaks over two seasons, or Paul Molitor's 39 in 1987.

Team record: 73-53.
WanderWatch: 334/408/560 13-50-24

[Art Deco]

August 16, off-day news: IF Joey Wendle cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA Durham.

Glad to see Wendle stays around, although I don't see a place for him on next year's 40-man. Meanwhile, Oscar Mercado's hitting streak is up to 37 for Cleveland. Also, I tried making a deal with Arizona for free-agent-to-be closer Archie Bradley for a 26-year-old A-ball pitcher but unsurprisingly Bradley did not make it through waivers. And the Jays won, dropping the Rays to 3rd on percentage points.

August 17-18 vs St. Louis (2)

Game 1: Joe Ryan pitched his heart out and so did Dakota Hudson for the Cardinals as both took dueling 1-hit shutouts into the 7th. Probably not my best decision to let Ryan face Paul Goldschmidt the third time around in the 7th but his pitch count was reasonable. Mistake, of course as Goldy doubled, then I *still* left Ryan in and Tommy Edman singled Goldschmidt home. Chaz Roe came on and then things got messy as Howie Kendrick's sac bunt was thrown away by Ji-Man, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd, Harrison Bader singled in Edman, and then Paul DeJong hit a sac fly to make it 3-0 and consecutive loss #7 seemed all but assured. But a Cardinals error of their own by Hudson put Renfroe on after Javy Baez's single, and Ji-Man drilled one into the rightfield stands to tie the game. Nick Anderson came on in the 8th and did his striking-out-the-side thing, and then in bottom of the eight Merrifield and Kiermaier made outs but Wander drew a walk, Baez singled, and Meadows then singled but Wander couldn't score. The AI manager left Hudson in and he proceeded to walk Renfroe, forcing in the run that should have scored on the Meadows single. Brad Hand gave up a one-out single but that was it, and the losing streak is over! Anderson (5-4) gets the win, save #23 for Hand. The Blue Jays lost so the Rays are back in 2nd, still 5 1/2 behind the Yankees though. And Mercado's at 38!

Game 2: Man, I needed this one for my mental health. The Rays put a couple of touchdowns on the board and walloped the Cards 14-1. Kevin Kiermaier and Hunter Renfroe were the stars tonight, with the former going 5-for-5 with 3 doubles and 2 RBI, and the latter hitting two home runs, one inside and one outside the park and driving in 5. The Cards actually led this game 1-0 in the top of the 4th before Renfroe hit a 2-run inside job and Sal Perez followed with a massive solo blast. They then tuned it on for 8 more in the 5th highlighted by the 3-run Renfroe shot. They pounded out 17 hits on the night with everyone in the lineup except Schwarber getting at least one (he walked twice and scored, but is only at .213 with 1 HR since joining the team). The beneficiary of all this run support was Max Fried, who wasn't at his most dominating (7 5 1 1 3 3) but pretty efficient. He goes to 13-8 and ties teammate McKay for 2nd in the AL in wins. Riley O'Brien had 2 nice innings with 3 Ks in garbage time. The only negative was that Ji-Man suffered a bruised hand and is DTD for 6 days after being hit by a pitch. The Jays keep the heat on with an ever bigger blowout: 23-5 over Ohtani and the Angels.

Team record: 75-53.
WanderWatch: 332/407/550, 13-51-24.

August 19: Placed 1B Ji-Man Choi on the 10-day IL, recalled IF Yandy Diaz from AAA Durham.

Welcome back Yandy. With 8 of the next 11 games against projected lefty starters, I wanted to add a decent RH bat. Bohm will play the majority at 1B, but Yandy could fill in there or at DH against lefties to give Schwarber a break. He was at 288/364/498 at Durham after being sent down in May.

August 19-22 at Baltimore (4)

Game 1: A terrible loss to a terrible team (Orioles now 48-80, but 5-5 vs the Rays) as they fall 6-1. The game was a pitcher's duel between McKay and Matt Shoemaker going into the bottom of the 6th, but McKay served up a HR to Adley Rutschman and then after a walk, one to Renato Nunez and it was 3-0. Meanwhile Shoemaker stole the Rays' sole, limiting them to 3 hits through 7 before Kyle Schwarber took him deep to make it 3-1. The Rays got 2 more on with 1 out but last night's hero Kiermaier grounded into a double play. Then Taylor Rogers flopped in his ongoing audition to be next year's Rays closer by serving up a 2-run HR to Austin Hays and then the second of the night for Nunez (who now has 45 HR). With yet another Blue Jays win, the Rays drop back to 3rd in the division. And sadly Oscar Mercado went 0-4 tonight to end his hitting streak at 38 games.

Game 2: Wasn't sure they could play worse than they did last night, but they topped themselves. While the final was only one run worse (7-1) than last night, the play in the field was atrocious, two errors in the first inning led to two unearned first inning runs off Glasnow, but plenty of it was his fault as well as he was knocked around for 9 hits and 6 runs (4 earned) in 4 2/3 innings. But of course as bad as the fielding and pitching was, the offense stunk it up yet again as a great lineup on paper failed to live up to its billing as they've now lost 8 of 10. Of the 5 hits they did manage (granted they were going up against Caleb Smith who has been tough this year, but still), 3 came from Merrifield including a solo HR for the only Rays run. But even he managed to get himself picked off down several runs, as did Meadows after a walk. I'm getting to point where I feel like autoplaying the remainder of the season than spending 15 minutes at a time watching play like this unfold. Right now the only thing going for them is a 9-game lead on Oakland for the second wild card and with the A's losing their magic number drops to 26.

August 21: Sent P Yonny Chirinos to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Hopefully he comes back better from this injury than the last one. His rehab start at Durham was successful: 5 4 0 0 0 5 on 63 pitches. He's in turn with the 5th spot in the Rays rotation and will get one more start at Durham and if all goes well he'll get a start for the Rays in 10 days.

Game 3: After Trevor Richards' adventures last time out, Lucas Sims got the start for the Rays and he pitched well, shutting out the O's through the first five innings. The Rays caught a break when Baltimore starter Blaine Hardy had to leave in the 4th with injury as he too had not allowed any runs. The Rays were given a gift in the 5th when reliever Zac Lowther loaded the bases with walks and Wander hit a sac fly to put the Rays up 1-0, and then in the top of the 6th a Renfroe single was followed by a Javy Baez HR to make it 3-0. Sims ran out of gas in the bottom of the inning when he gave those two runs right back on an Anthony Santander HR and then he was pulled after a walk. Chaz Roe got out of it, Anderson and Castillo pitched scoreless innings, but it was still tense at 3-2 when Wander added some insurance in the top of the 9th with a 2-run HR, his 14th. Wander had been pretty unproductive since returning from the DL (hitting only .200 in 65 AB) so maybe he'll get going now. Hand worked around a Wander error in the bottom of the 9th to nail down the 5-2 win with save #24 and Sims got the win in his Rays debut start and will get another shot in 5 days. Another A's loss to the Angels coupled with today's win knocks the WC magic # down to 24.

Game 4: The Rays salvaged a split of this 4-game series with a 10-1 shellacking of the Orioles. Joe Ryan was absolutely brilliant with his best start since his season debut at Toronto, going 7 4 0 0 1 8 for his fifth win. The Rays got to Matt Boyd, who gave them trouble at the Trop last month, with 3rd inning HRs from Merrifield and Meadows (a 2-run shot), and then broke it open in the 4th with a Bohm blast and then after a Rio Ruiz error kept the inning alive, Renfroe capped it with a grand slam off old friend Alex Cobb making it 9-0. Riley O'Brien couldn't get it done in relief of Ryan and his bases-loaded walk to Rutschman cost the team the shutout; Trevor Richards was shaky but finished it off (those two walked 5 between them in the last two innings). A's won so the magic number for a wild card drops to 23.

Team record: 77-55.
WanderWatch: 327/403/545 14-54-25

August 23: Traded 24-year-old minor league reliever Michael Plassmeyer and 20-year-old minor league right fielder Jason Hodges to the Boston Red Sox, getting 23-year-old minor league right fielder JJ Bleday in return.

And you thought I was done trading for the season. Of course minor leaguers not on the 40-man can be dealt after the MLB deadline, so I got Bleday back. After I traded him to the Cubs in the Baez deal, the Cubs turned around and traded him to the Red Sox for Dansby Swanson (guess they needed a SS, wonder why?). Anyway I noticed he was on the block of sorts for the Red Sox so I shipped out Plassmeyer (a semi-intriguing lefty but there's no room to keep him on the 40-man this winter) and Hodges, who's kind of a lottery ticket. The key with Bleday (aside from him being a fine prospect) is that he doesn't required Rule 5 protection. Expect several more of these type of deals as I have about 8-10 guys I'd like to keep but don't have room for on the 40-man.

August 23-25 at Cleveland (3)

First time the Rays have played Cleveland since they swept a 4-game series from them at the Trop way back in late March, and the game started out weird as the Rays apparently left their gloves in Baltimore. Four errors in the first three innings, all but one of which Max Fried worked around (Sal Perez's throw into centerfield on a Jose Ramirez steal attempt allowed a runner to score from third, but that runner reached after Hunter Renfroe dropped a fly ball). But they did not forget their bats as they scored all 6 of their runs on 5 longballs in a 6-1 win. Wander Franco and Renfroe blasted solo shots in the top of the 1st (#39 for Renfroe, tying him with Meadows for the team lead), a 4th-inning solo blast from Schwarber, a truly mammoth blast from the red-hot Merrifield (392/425/595 in August) which Oscar Mercado didn't even turn around to look at in the 5th, and then a 2-run Bohm in the 6th. Fried, once he didn't have to keep getting 4 or more outs every inning, rolled from there, going 7 5 1 0 0 5 and getting his 14th win to move into second in the AL in that category. Taylor Rogers finished with two uneventful innings. Oakland lost again so the Rays are 10 up on them with a magic # of 21. Barring a Yankees collapse the only suspense left in this season is whether the wild card game will be at the Trop or the Rogers Centre.

Game 2: Talk about your pitcher's duels. Brendan McKay and Tyler Anderson each went 8 scoreless, and then their respective bullpens each went 3 more scoreless before the Rays broke through in the 12th off Aaron Bummer. With one out Bohm walked, Perez singled, and then after a Schwarber groundout advanced them to 2nd and 3rd, Kiermaier doubled over the head of Oscar Mercado scoring them both. Merrifield then singled home Kiermaier, and Brad Hand got save #25 by setting his old teammates down 1-2-3 with a pair of Ks. McKay was 8 4 0 0 1 8 to lower his ERA to 2.99 and Anderson, Alvarado and Castillo all pitched scoreless innings with Diego getting the win. Oakland lost again, wild card magic # down to 19. Meanwhile thanks to the Rays' two defeats of Cleveland, the AL Central stands like this: Cleveland 67-65, Detroit 67-65, White Sox 66-65.

Game 3: Well as mentioned when they played the Angels, it's tough to sweep a team in 7 games for the season and tonight Cleveland finally got the better of the Rays behind Mike Clevinger. Glasnow was OK, but Oscar Mercado deposited his first pitch of the game into the rightfield stands and that would be all Cleveland would need in a 3-0 win. Glasnow also gave up a Daniel Johnson HR after a walk and was great outside of those two pitches (albeit a bit wild for him), going 6 3 3 3 3 7. Meanwhile Clevinger shut down the Rays, whiffing 11 through 6 2/3 and while the Rays had some baserunners (they actually outhit Cleveland 7-4) it was usually one per inning. It didn't help I had to sit Wander and Perez due to fatigue and Kiermaier himself played with it as I realized I don't have anyone else to play CF on the roster (expect a callup tomorrow). The A's won so no reduction of the magic number.

Team record: 79-56.
WanderWatch: 325/399/548, 15-55-25

August 26-29 vs Seattle (4)

Game 1: The Rays played HR Derby in a 7-4 win with Baez (2), Meadows, Perez and Schwarber all going deep. The Rays built a 4-0 lead on Baez's 2-run shot in the first, Baez's sac fly in the third and Perez's solo shot in the 4th, and Lucas Sims was rolling along in his second Rays start but ran into trouble in the 5th. He allowed a 2-run HR to Robinson Chirinos and then I left him in one batter too long trying to get through the inning when Jarred Kelenic also hit a 2-run blast. Trevor Richards had to come in and clean up, and whiffed 4 in 1 1/3 innings. Baez restored the lead in the bottom of the inning with his 2nd HR and then Meadows (#40) and Schwarber later homered to pad the lead. Richards got the win, his first of the season (he's now 1-5 despite a 3.71 ERA) and the bullpen shut it down from there with Hand notching save #26. The magic number drops to 18 as Oakland won.

Game 2: A tough loss in extra innings (which haven't been kind to the Rays this season) as the Rays squandered a golden chance to win in the 10th before falling 4-3 in 11. Randy Arozarena finally got his first MLB hit of 2021 with a leadoff triple, but Kiermaier struck out, Merrifield hit a grounder right at the drawn-in 2nd baseman, and then Wander popped out. Diego Castillo then surrendered an RBI double to Kyle Lewis in the 11th. Before then, the Rays got 5 mixed innings from Joe Ryan, his line was 5 3 2 2 4 8 so he ended up throwing 95 pitches in those five innings. Chaz Roe allowed a run to make it 3-1 Seattle before Baez had an RBI double and Renfroe a sac fly to tie it. He had homered in the 1st for the Rays initial run, joining Meadows on 40 HR and making it what I believe is the first time in Rays history two players hit 40 in the same season. The negative from this game aside from this loss is that 6 relievers ended up getting used with Ryan's short start and the game going 11 so Fried will need to be on his best tomorrow. Oakland won so no reduction of the magic number.

August 28: Optioned OF Randy Arozarena to AAA Durham, recalled P Riley O'Brien.

With Fried, Richards and Anderson the only non-tired arms for today's game, I needed another one. I should have thought of this yesterday and not let Conner Menez go for Durham last night. He did, though, and took a no-hitter into the 8th striking out 11, so good for him.

Game 3: It was a day of rest for about half the team, given all the bullpen arms that were tired and then I saw that Baez, Merrifield and Perez all needed to rest, so welcome Freddy Galvis and Yandy Diaz to the lineup. And whaddya know, they came through. After Max Fried gave up a first inning 2-run HR to Eugenio Suarez (traded by the Reds mid-season for Shed Long), he settled in after that, and while he didn't get the very long outing I was hoping it was because he was striking out everyone, 12 in 6 1/3 to be precise at 106 pitches. Meanwhile Wander answered Suarez's first-inning HR with one of his own, and then in the 3rd the Rays added 3 more with RBI doubles from Galvis and Yandy. Schwarber who's finally heating up, added another with his fifth Rays homer, a solo shot, and the score was 5-2 when Fried came out. And that's where it ended as well with Trevor Richards coming on and pitching the last 2 2/3 and only allowing a walk, giving him his first save to go with his first win with both coming this week. He's the seventh different Ray to pick up a save this year while Fried gets win #15 which keeps him second in the AL behind Lance McCullers Jr.'s 16. The A's keep winning so the magic number only dropped to 17, and the Rays moved back ahead of Toronto after the Jays lost in Anaheim. The Jays also lost Vlad Jr to a fractured foot but it's only a 3-week injury so we still should see him the wild card game.

MLB oddity of the day: The light-hitting Royals outslugged the Yankees today 14-12 with Gerrit Cole starting. They hit 8 HRs and chased Cole with 7 runs (on 5 homers!) in the 1st. YCPB. No Mike Zunino (on the bench) or Brandon Lowe (on a long-term injury) involved. The Yankees actually came back to tie the game at 11 in the 6th before KC put up 3 more in the 7th. Also remember how I mentioned Aaron Judge missed three months? Well he still has 25 HR and they've come in 207 AB. Yowsah.

August 29: Activated 1B Ji-Man Choi from the IL, optioned IF Yandy Diaz to AAA Durham.

Game 4: Ouch. McKay was popped for 5 runs in the 1st on 49 pitches, and given that the bullpen remains tired, he hung in there for 3 innings and 93 pitches down 6-0. Riley O'Brien came on in the 4th, gave up a 3-run HR to Kyle Lewis, and got the privilege of pitching the rest of the way in the 11-1 loss. Only #41 for Renfroe denied Justus Sheffield a shutout. We'll put this one in the rear-view mirror and enjoy tomorrow's day off to get the bullpen rested. Oakland and Toronto were shut out, though, leaving the Rays in 2nd and dropping the magic # to 16.

Team record: 81-58.
WanderWatch: 322/395/546, 16-57-25

August 31: Activated P Jacob Nix from his rehab assignment, optioned P Riley O'Brien to AAA Durham.

Nix had two nice 2-3 inning "starts" in Durham, so he's ready to come back as a middle/long man, and O'Brien gets to pitch for Durham as they approach the playoffs which they are a lock to make. Bad news on the minor league injury front though as 2B prospect Vidal Brujan suffered a torn labrum and is out for 6 months. This will bring him back around the beginning of spring training but it might set him back relative to other 2B prospect Xavier Edwards, one of which may be the utility infielder next year playing a lot of 2B with Merrifield getting some OF starts. I'm also eyeing DH next year as a revolving door with one of these two rotating in, Seth Beer or Alex Kiriloff (both of whom are raking at Durham). Brujan does have an edge over Edwards in that he's already on the 40-man.

[Art Deco]

August 31- September 2 vs Detroit (3)

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow had a few hiccups early, allowing a 1st inning HR to DJ Peters (#29 for him, best Rule 5 pickup of the year) and a 2nd inning run when Jeimer Candelario doubled to lead off and came around to score on a sac fly. That gave Detroit an early 2-0 which the Rays emphatically wiped out in the bottom of the inning with 5 runs, highlighted by a bases-clearing double from Javy Baez and they chased young Detroit ace Matt Manning. Schwarber and Merrifield added solo HRs later while Glasnow went into Operation Shutdown, finishing with a 7 4 2 2 0 8 line in the Rays' 7-2 win. The Tigers, in first most of the season, continue to circle the drain and now have dropped to fourth place in the AL Central. The Rays remain 6 behind the Yankees (they come to town this weekend and a sweep is required to have a prayer) but the win brings their magic # for a wild card down to 15.

September 1: Recalled P Yonny Chirinos from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

September roster expansion is upon us, so Yonny comes back to start tonight. I'm leaving the other spot open for now with no pressing need, Austin Adams probably takes the spot once he's ready in about 10 days after some rehab.

Game 2: Yonny took the mound and was excellent in his first game back after his second stint on the DL. Although after Kiermaier hit a massive 2-run blast to dead center, Yonny did yield a 2-run HR to Jacob Rogers to tie the game in the 3rd. But that was all he allowed for the night, turning in a 7 6 2 2 0 7 line. A Kyle Schwarber RBI triple (that had to be a sight) immediately restored the Rays' lead and then Kiermaier went deep again in the 7th with his career-high 17th HR of the season to make it 4-2 (he also stole a base for good measure as he went 3 for 4). The Rays tacked on two more in the eighth highlighted by doubles from Schwarber and Merrifield, and cruised to a 6-2 win. Yonny now goes to 7-2. Magic # at 14.

Game 3: The Rays get the sweep with a 5-3 win. Joe Ryan started and was dominant until he ran out of gas as usual in the 6th, allowing a couple of runs and having to leave with 2 out. Ryan left with the score tied at 2 (Sal Perez had a 2-run HR for the Rays' runs), having struck out 10. The Rays as they did yesterday immediately got the lead back in the bottom of the inning off a 2-run double from Merrifield. Alvarado, who got the win, got himself into some trouble in the 7th and Taylor Rogers walked in his run before closing out the inning. Then Rogers made a bit of mess of his own in the 8th before Nick Anderson ended the inning with a K, and Hand got save #27. Not thrilled about having to use so many relievers with the Yankees series coming up, but you gotta win the game in front of you first. Oakland keeps winning so the magic # is only going down one at a time, now at 13.

Team record: 84-58.

September 3-5 vs New York Yankees (3)

Game 1: Any thoughts of a miracle run to win the division were dispelled immediately at the Trop, as the Yankees got a 2-run double by Miguel Andujar and a 2-run HR from Aaron Hicks off Max Fried in the first inning to jump out to a 4-0 lead before the fans settled into their seats, and then for good measure Luke Voit added a 2-run shot in the 2nd as the Yankees rolled 7-1. Fried allowed all 7 runs in 3+ innings, putting an end to his effective run of late. The only bright spot was Lucas Sims, who came on in relief and went 4 2 0 0 0 8. Meadows had has 111st RBI to account for the lone Rays run in the 8th as they couldn't get anything going against reliever-turned-starter Chad Green. The wild card game with Toronto awaits, and should they prevail in that they get to face these Yankees (who have beaten them 11 of 14 since an April sweep at Yankee Stadium) in the best-of-5. Wheeee! Oakland won so the magic number remains 13.

September 4: Activated OF Yusniel Diaz from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Yusniel becomes the 28th man on the roster. In his 2nd rehab game at Durham the night before, he merely went 4 for 5 with 3 doubles, a homer and 5 RBI. I think he's ready. Diaz had only played 2 games for the Rays after coming over from Baltimore for Manuel Margot before injuring his hamstring. Speaking of rehabbers, Austin Adams threw another scoreless inning in his 2nd appearance, and I'll give him one more before bringing him back next week and sending Nix down in all likelihood. And while on the topic of Durham, the Bulls clinched a playoff spot in that 9-5 win featuring Diaz and are tied for the division lead with Gwinnett. Maybe they'll play long enough to get Snell a rehab start in a couple of weeks.

Game 2: The Rays jumped out to a 3-1 lead in this one behind McKay after 5, off HRs from Baez and Jason Castro, but he ran into trouble in the 6th, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Chaz Roe promptly allowed both runners to score, but Jose Alvarado got the Yankees 1-2-3 in the 7th to keep the game tied at 3. In the bottom of the inning the Rays then proceeded to put up a 5 spot capped by an Austin Meadows grand slam off Yankee trade deadline acquisition Corey Knebel. They needed all 8 of those runs as Diego Castillo gave up a run in the 8th, and then Taylor Rogers couldn't close down a 4-run game in the 9th, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and necessitating Brad Hand to come on and get the final out with the tying run on base for save #28 to nail down the 8-6 win. Alvarado picked up his fifth win, and Castro was 4 for 4 with a double, 2 singles and 3 runs scored to go with the homer. Magic # down to 12 as Oakland won't lose.

Game 3: Well it was Tyler Glasnow's turn in the dunk tank as he gave up a couple of runs in the third and then yielded a 2-run shot to Gio Urshela and a 3-run blast to Luke Voit and just like that it was 7-0 in the 4th on the way to a 9-0 Yankees win. The Rays' bats couldn't get anything going against Trevor Bauer, with only Wander acquitting himself well going 2 for 3 with a walk. The only highlight of sorts was Jacob Nix whiffing the first five Yankee hitters he faced in 2 perfect innings but it was garbage time. Oakland decided to lose so the magic # is down to 11, but Toronto didn't so the Rays drop back to 3rd and the 2nd WC.

Team record: 85-60.
WanderWatch: 326/396/535, 16-58-26

As we hit Labor Day, here's a look at where things stand in our MLB universe. The defending champion Dodgers are sick again, winning 13 straight and at 98-45. They should easily win 110. The NL East is similar to the AL East in that the two wild cards will come from the division, but the difference is that the race for the lead is wide open. The Reds were running away with NL Central through the first half of the season but have collapsed and allowed the Brewers to jump ahead. The Astros have been up big wire-to-wire in the AL while the poor sister Central at least has a leader over .500. As mentioned earlier the Tigers had led most of the season at a few games over or under .500 until their August collapse. Cleveland got Bieber back from injury and Mike Clevinger has started pitching like Mike Clevinger after seeing his ERA balloon to over 6 at mid-season, so I like them to win the division. And there's a chance someone hits 60 HRs looking at those leaderboards.



September 7-9 at Toronto (3).

Game 1: Well this one turned to be something of an epic. Yonny got the start and struggled early, allowing 4 runs on 7 singles in his first two innings, while the Rays had solo homers from Meadows and Ji-Man. Yonny settled down though and didn't allow anything else until he left in the sixth, by which time the Rays had tied the game on 5th inning solo homers from Sal Perez and Kiermaier. And then the Rays took the lead in the 7th on doubles from Schwarber and Kiermaier and Alvarado and Anderson shut down the Jays in the 7th and 8th. But the normally reliable Brad Hand allowed a one-out 9th inning HR to Shogo Akiyama and off to extras we went. And went and went and went until we reached the 15th when Schwarber and Choi (again) went deep to make it 7-5, and Diego Castillo in his 2nd inning of work closed it down from there. However, it was a costly win as Chaz Roe in all likelihood has thrown his last pitch for the Rays. In his 2nd inning of relief in the 13th he strained a biceps tendon and will be out 5 weeks, effectively ending his season. And as he's a free agent this offseason, his return was unlikely. Oakland lost at Houston so the magic number is 9. The Yankees lost, too, keeping the Rays' faint division hopes on life support at 6 behind.

September 8: Placed P Chaz Roe on the 60-day IL, recalled P Conner Menez from AAA Durham.

Sorry to hurt Durham's playoff fortunes by taking Menez out of their rotation (where he whiffed 40 in 24 innings), but the big club takes priority especially after a 15-inning game. I now have an open spot on the 40-man in case any interesting reliever goes on waivers.

The Rays catch a break here, as Vlad Jr will miss the wild card game:



Game 2: Joe Ryan returned to the mound where he made his season debut in spectacular fashion, 2-hitting the Jays over 7 and striking out 12. Well he essentially repeated the feat, going 7 3 0 0 1 10 as the Rays destroyed the Jays 11-0. Maybe Ryan should pitch the Wild Card game given how he's subdued Toronto. Ji-Man continued scorching hot, hitting 2 more HRs and giving him 4 over the last two days, Sal Perez got the Rays going with a 3-run blast in the 2nd, and Hunter Renfroe, dropped to 7th in the lineup due to a deep slump, responded with a 2-run shot of his own while Schwarber added another and it was an easy day at the ballpark. Conner Menez finally got to face someone other than the Yankees and finished with 2 hitless innings, fanning 3. Oakland fell again, reducing the magic # to 7.

Minors Playoff Update: I'm managing these games, and AA Montgomery opened its best-of-5 series at Biloxi and came away with a 6-3 win. JJ Bleday had a 3-run inside the park HR and Andrew Vaughn also homered and doubled. Tommy Romero struggled through 5 but got the win. Durham opens their playoff series tomorrow.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep with a 6-3 win, and while it doesn't mean they'll beat the Jays in the wild card game, it goes a long way to making it more likely that game will be at the Trop. The Rays got to Cy Young front-runner Nate Pearson for 4 runs in 5 2/3 although he did get his 9 strikeouts. Ji-Man remains unconscious, taking Pearson deep in the second and adding a double, and Javy Baez was 3 for 4 with a 2-run homer, RBI double and a steal. Wander also rapped out two doubles against Pearson and scored twice. Max Fried looked shaky early, giving up 3 runs in the second on a Grichuk HR and Biggio 2-run triple, but hung in there the rest of the way to go 6 2/3 and get win #16. Alvarado, Anderson and Hand (save #29) took care of business to finish it off. Oakland was idle, so magic # down to 6.

Team record: 88-60.

Minors playoff update: A mixed bag. Durham, the hottest team in the league over the last week weeks lost their opener to Gwinnett (a team they swept to won the division the previous weekend) 7-3 as Riley O'Brien was hit hard and early and to make matters worse Xavier Edwards was injured. Joey Wendle had a 2-run HR to highlight the offense. But Montgomery went up 2-0 in their best-of-5 with an 8-3 win over Biloxi in which Shane Baz might have had his best game of the year, a 6.2 2 0 0 2 5 line. Nolan Gorman homered, tripled and drove in 3 while Taylor Walls went 3 for 4 with an RBI.

September 10-12 at Baltimore (3).

Game 1: Brendan McKay came out without his best stuff, and yielded 3 solo HRs to put the Rays down 3-2 after 4 (Wander had a HR and Renfroe an RBI single). But the Rays exploded for 5 runs in the 5th, highlighted by a Meadows grand slam and still another HR for Ji-Man, his sixth in four days (gotta be front-runner for AL Player of the Week). Meadows is now up to 43 HR and 121 RBI. And aside from a Rio Ruiz solo shot off Diego Castillo that was it for the scoring in the Rays' 7-4 win. McKay wound up going seven, only striking out 3 but got win #14. And Castillo's HR allowed meant Anderson and Hand had to finish with the latter picking up save #30. Merrifield had 3 more hits as he also remains hot. Good news elsewhere: the Yankees lost so the Rays longshot division hopes remain alive there at 4 1/2 back while Oakland lost as well, making the Wild Card magic # only 4. And at 89-60 their longshot hopes of winning 100 remain alive as well.

Minor league update: Order restored in Durham as the Bulls blew out Gwinnett 9-0 to even their best-of-five series at 1. Jacob Nix started and went 5 1 0 0 0 4, Tristan Gray and Josh Lowe homered while Seth "Hold My" Beer had a key 2-run double.

September 11: Claimed P Dany Jimenez on waivers, optioned P Conner Menez to AAA Durham.

Jimenez is an intriguing arm with 70 stuff who for some reason the Giants waived despite two straight seasons in relief with ERAs under 2.50 and over a strikeout per inning. His command is a mixed bag, but we'll take the live arm since we had the 40-man roster spot open. Menez can now start Game 4 for Durham in their playoff series.

Game 2: Well that was kind of a dud, as the Rays only managed 3 hits on the day and fell 4-1 to the Orioles. After starter Matt Shoemaker had to leave with an injury after 3, the Rays only managed 1 hit over the final 6 innings against a parade of Baltimore relievers capped off by old friend Peter Fairbanks who got save #16 for the O's. Ji-Man, of course, had the lone RBI although it was on a groundout. Glasnow, coming off a beating by the Yankees, wasn't his best either today although he gutted out a 7 6 3 3 2 4 outing. Dany Jimenez made his debut in the 8th and promptly served up Renato Nunez's 51st HR of the season. In good news, Mike Trout had 2 HR and 5 RBI to lead the Angels to a 12-9 win over Oakland dropping the magic number to 3. The Yankees won though, so the division chances are about nil right now.

Meanwhile, check out this race in the AL Central with 14 games to go:



Minor League Playoff Update: Montgomery won a back-and-forth 6-5 game against Biloxi to sweep their first-round series. JJ Bleday had the big hit again, a 3-run HR after the Biscuits fell behind 3-1. The winning run scored on a wild pitch. They'll play the winner of Rocket City-Tennessee in the Southern League championship, with the Smokies up 2-1 in their series against the Trash Pandas.

Minor League Injury Update: Welp, Xavier Edwards got his diagnosis and it's bad. He'll be out 9 months with a broken bone in his elbow. Edwards had hit .300 with OBPs over .400 at every stop in the minors including Durham and was under consideration for making the big club next spring as a super-utility type. That's out the window now as he won't be back until June 2022. The other great middle infield prospect, Vidal Brujan is himself out until March, so he's got a shot at taking that role.

Game 3: For a team 30+ games below .500 and mired in last place, the Orioles gave the Rays fits all year and today was no exception as they beat Tampa Bay 5-1. Yonny was pitching well, and the Rays took a 1-0 lead on a Baez RBI single in the top of the 5th but in the bottom of the inning Chirinos had one bad sequence where he put two runners on and gave up a 3-run shot to Ryan Mountcastle. It stayed that way until the 8th when the struggling Diego Castillo served up a 2-run HR to Rio Ruiz in the 8th. Caleb Smith shackled the Rays offense again and Peter Fairbanks managed another save when the Rays got 2 on with 2 out in the 9th and he was brought in. Oakland lost again, so the magic number is 2. And now they have to win their final 11 games to win 100, although 6 will beat last year's 94.

Team record: 89-62
WanderWatch: 323/390/532, 17-60-27

Minor League Playoff Update: Durham lost the critical Game 3 to Gwinnett 5-4 in 10 innings after a Michael Perez 2-run single tied it for them in the 9th. Starter Clarke Schmidt left injured in the 3rd, and Shane McLanahan yielded 3 HRs to fall behind 4-2 despite striking out 6 in 3 1/3 innings. Yandy was the goat today as his error came around to score in the 10th and he went 0 for 5 and left 8 runners on base. Randy Arozarena had a HR to put Durham up early as the Bulls must now win the next two in the series.

September 13 Minor League Update: Durham stayed alive with a 8-5 win in Gwinnett to force a deciding Game 5 in two nights. Nolan Gorman (who was called up from Montgomery after X.Edwards went down) was 3 for 4 with a HR and 2 RBI, Arozarena was 3-4 with a run scored and a steal and the bullpen came through after Conner Menez had a shaky 4-inning start in which he allowed 3 runs, walked 6 and fanned 7. The Bulls will need a better effort than they received in Game 1 from Riley O'Brien in Game 5. Meanwhile Montgomery opens the SL championship series tomorrow against Tennessee.

Meanwhile, around MLB Phillies legend Cole Hamels retired from baseball, as did longtime middle reliever extraordinaire Yusmiero Petit.

September 14-15 vs Washington (2)

Game 1: The Rays faced old friend Jalen Beeks, pitching for a Nationals team which has been without Scherzer and Strasburg due to injury but still holding down the 2nd NL wild card. Joe Ryan was on the bump for the Rays, and it was the full Joe Ryan experience (although without a HR allowed) as he went 5 5 2 1 3 11, but left with a 3-2 lead after Sal Perez's 2-run HR in the bottom of the 5th after the still red-hot Ji-Man went deep earlier. But Austin Adams was greeted by a sky bolt off the bat of Skye Bolt to tie it in the top of the 6th. After Jose Alvarado shut things down in the 7th, the Rays went to work against Beeks in the bottom of the inning with the key hit a 2-out, 2-run double from White Merrifield, which was followed by RBI hits from Wander and Meadows and the Rays went on to a 7-3 win closed out by Dany Jimenez and Taylor Rogers. The win makes them 3-0 against the Nationals and Max Fried tries for the season sweep tomorrow, but of more important note the Rays clinched the wild card as both the Angels and Oakland, who were tied in the standings, lost.

Minor League Playoff Update: Montgomery opened its series with Tennessee at home and dropped Game 1 6-3. Taylor Walls was the Montgomery offense with a 3-run HR among his 3 hits on the night while Shane Baz was nowhere near as effective as he was in the previous round, getting tagged for 4 runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Game 2: A pitcher's duel between Max Fried and another Nationals ex-Ray, Garrett Richards went the Rays favor for most of the game with a 2-run HR from Renfroe in the 2nd giving them a 2-0 lead which held until the 9th, when Brad Hand uncharacteristically melted down. He gave up two hits, two walks and hit Victor Robles with the bases loaded to force in the tying run with two out before Austin Adams cleaned up his mess. I left Adams in a bit too long, though, as Carter Kieboom lowered the boom with an 11th inning solo shot off him and the Nationals salvaged a game against the Rays in the season series with the 3-2 win. The Rays only managed 7 hits on the night after clinching the wild card. Renfroe reached the 100 RBI mark for the second straight season with the HR, his 43rd. Toronto lost, so the Rays' magic # for clinching home field for the wild card game is 6.

Team record: 90-63.

Minor League Playoff Update: What a game! What a comeback! The Bulls were down 7-2 in the 6th inning and looking dead to the world before they came all the way back to beat Gwinnett 8-7 in Game 5 to win the series 3-2 and advance to the championship round. They were down 7-3 going into the bottom of the 7th when they picked up 3 runs to close the gap to 7-6, the big hit being a 2-run HR by Seth Beer. Then with two out in the bottom of the 8th, Yandy Diaz (who was 4 for 4) singled, Beer walked and then Randy Arozarena singled in Diaz to tie the game and then Tristan Gray singled, scoring Beer and the lead was 8-7. With regular closer Sam Wolff tired, Michael Pineda (a free agent signing about a month ago), slammed the door in the 9th and Durham will play the Columbus Clippers in the IL championship. Significantly for the Rays, this will give Blake Snell a rehab start.

Minor League Playoff Update 2: Montgomery took a 3-0 lead in the 1st after the first 2 reached and Andrew Vaughn went deep, and those 3 runs stood up in a 3-2 win to even their SL championship series with Tennessee at 1 despite only getting 4 hits on the night. Tommy Romero was great, going 7 4 2 2 0 6, and SL saves leader Alexander Guillen got the final out to preserve the win.

[Art Deco]

September 17-19 vs Baltimore (3)

Game 1: Baltimore is 56-97, but you'd never know that watching them against the Rays as they take a 9-8 lead in the season series. For the third time this year Caleb Smith shut down the Rays as the Orioles took a 4-1 decision. The more ominous outcome from the game is that Brendan McKay had to leave in the 4th inning with a sore elbow which will keep him out 1-2 weeks and therefore end his regular season. Trevor Richards came on for him and promptly gave up an RBI double to Anthony Santander, and then when Richards put two men on to start the 7th, Dany Jimenez immediately gave up a 3-run HR to Pat Valaika. Yusniel Diaz' first HR in a Rays uniform in the 8th accounted for the lone Tampa Bay run.

Minor League Playoff Update: Durham won Game 1 of their IL Championship Series in dramatic fashion when Joey Wendle tripled with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th and Cal Stevenson singled him home for a 3-2 win over Columbus. The Clippers loaded the bases with nobody out in both the 6th and 7th and had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the 8th and couldn't score any of those times. Josh Lowe and Wendle had the other Bulls RBI.

Minor League Playoff Update 2: Tennessee rocked Seth Johnson for 7 runs in the first inning and the Biscuits lost 8-4 to go down 2 games to 1 in their SL Championship Series, meaning tomorrow's Game 4 is a must-win for Montgomery.

September 18: Placed P Brendan McKay on the 15-day IL, recalled P Jacob Nix from AAA Durham.

This probably means Glasnow starts the wild card game, although with Joe Ryan's success vs Toronto this year he's a possibility as well. The issue becomes what to do if they win the WC game and who would start against the Yankees. Snell will go on a rehab in 5 days but he probably won't be ready to start one of the ALDS games, meaning Glasnow, Fried and Ryan would get the starts along with a mix & match of Chirinos, Snell for a few, etc.

Game 2: Tyler Glasnow passed his audition for starting the wild card game with a dominant performance in a 9-3 Rays drubbing of the Orioles. He three 8 innings of 3-hit ball with one walk and 9 Ks and with his pitch count just shy of 100 I left him in to see if he could get the shutout, but he gave up a walk, a single and then a Chance Sisco 3-run homer and his day was done. Meanwhile the Rays scored 4 second inning runs off Matt Shoemaker in all kinds of ways - a Merrifield RBI groundout, a Kiermaier RBI double, a Shoemaker balk and then on a wild pitch from the rattled Baltimore hurler. Austin Meadows capped the scoring in the 4th with a 3-run shot off Kohl Stewart to give him 44 HR and 125 RBI on the year. He had already broken Carlos Pena's team record of 121 RBI in the 2007 season and is one HR shy of Pena's team record from that same year. The Rays' magic # for clinching home field in the wild card is now 2 after Toronto lost.

Minor league playoff update: Conner Menez was pretty bad, and so was the bullpen in a 14-5 loss to Columbus which evens the IL Championship series at 1. Durham fell behind 6-2 and got it within 6-5 and it looked like another of their patented comebacks was in progress but a Jose Rondon grand slam put an end to those thoughts. Seth Beer and Cal Stevenson each homered for Durham. Game 3 in Columbus will see Blake Snell making a rehab start.

Minor league playoff update 2: The Montgomery Biscuits couldn't recover from the 4 runs Caleb Sampen allowed in the 2nd inning and fell 5-3 to Tennessee with the Smokies taking the Southern League Championship 3 games to 1. The only bright spot for the Biscuits was top Rays prospect Nick Schnell homering to cap off a fine 3-game AA debut in which he went reached base 8 times in 11 plate appearances, going 4 for 7 with 4 walks.

Game 3: Yonny Chirinos was brilliant today, holding the Orioles to 2 hits (solo HRs by Ruiz and Mountcastle) over 8 innings as the Rays rolled past the Orioles 10-2, eking out the season series 10-9. Javy Baez kicked off the festivities with a 3-run HR in the first, Wander added one in the 4th, and Yusniel Diaz hit a pair of solo shots against his former team to lead the offense. We were even treated to the sight of Kyle Schwarber trucking around the bases with an RBI triple. Meanwhile Chirinos retired the first 10 Orioles before the Ruiz HR and allowed only one walk while notching 6 Ks to go 8-3. The Yankees won to officially clinch the division but the Rays meanwhile clinched home field in the wild card game. And actually it's not quite assured that the Jays will be the opponent - the A's swept them this weekend to pull within 3 games with each team having 7 games remaining.

Team record: 92-64
WanderWatch: 321/385/535, 18-63-28

A look at 2021 MLB as we go into the final week of the regular season. The Central races are lit, and the Rays will have some say in the AL Central race as they finish this weekend in Minnesota:



September 20 Minor League & Blake Snell rehab update: This rehab start went much better for Blake Snell than the one six weeks ago where he pulled an abdominal muscle. Snell went 3.2 3 0 0 1 5 in 60 pitches, and along with 3 strong innings from top Rays pitching prospect Shane McLanahan the Bulls are one win away from the International League championship after coming out on top tonight 5-1. Tristan Gray and Nolan Gorman had solo homers while Josh Lowe had 3 hits, a stolen base and a run scored. They go for the gold tomorrow night in Columbus. Snell meanwhile will pitch in long relief in Minnesota this coming weekend and will have a shot to start a game in the ALDS should that stint go well and the Rays advance.

September 20 MLB update: The Jays lost again, this time to the Yankees and they got a scare when Nate Pearson had to leave after an inning. It's an abdominal pull that doesn't appear serious (DTD for a day) but their tailspin continues as they've now lost 13 out of their last 14. Luckily for them those pesky Orioles knocked off Oakland 9-5 to reduce the Jays' magic number to 4. Meanwhile the top 4 in the AL Central went head-to-head. The Tigers, who probably don't have a real shot, played spoiler if nothing else by chasing Shane Bieber in the 4th after 5 runs on 3 HRs in a 8-5 win over Cleveland. The White Sox then took sole possession of first place thanks to a brilliant outing from Jose Quintana with 8 shutout innings in a 3-0 win over the Twins. Adam Eaton and Yasmani Grandal homered and Ian Hamilton struck out 56-HR man Miguel Sano with two outs and two on in the 9th to preserve the win. In the NL Central, both the Reds and Brewers lost by identical 4-3 scores to Atlanta and St. Louis respectively, with the Braves' win coming on a 9th inning RBI single from our old friend Willy Adames so it's as you were there. The Mets (who clinched a playoff spot and likely a 2nd straight trip to the wild card game) beat Washington, though, possibly opening the door to the Brewers-Reds division loser to grab the 2nd wild card.

Also long-time journeymen John Axford and Daniel Nava announced their retirements.

September 21-23 at Boston (3)

Game 1: Joe Ryan's first start at Fenway was one he'd like to forget, allowing 6 runs in 4 innings as the Rays fell to the Red Sox 6-2. Ryan struck out 6, but walked 4 and gave up a 2-run homer to Xander Bogaerts in the 1st and a 3-run shot by Willians Astudillo in the 3rd. Meanwhile, Chris Sale's first start against the Rays this year after coming back in mid-season found him mowing down the Rays early before some wildness in the middle innings ran up his pitch count and gave the Rays a run (he walked Sal Perez with the bases loaded, no mean feat) while Javy Baez had an RBI double for the other Rays run. Elsewhere the Jays lost their 14th in 15 games but seem destined to back into the 2nd wild card as Oakland is seeing its season die in Baltimore with another loss and the Angels (who had tied Oakland) lost to Seattle, making the Jays' magic number 3.

MLB Pennant Race Update: In the wild and wacky AL Central, Cleveland effectively ended Detroit's Cinderella run with a 5-2 win behind 7 strong innings from Carlos Carrasco while the White Sox bombed the Twins 10-4 behind Eloy Jimenez' 7 RBI (including his 48th HR of the season, a grand slam off ex-teammate Carlos Rodon). Miguel Sano hit his 57th HR of the season for Minnesota. This means Chicago is in first, 1/2 game up on Cleveland and 2 on the Twins, who are in real trouble now. In the NL Central, Milwaukee and Cincinnati each won, meaning the Brewers remain 1/2 game up on the Reds. The Nationals got a big win to reduce the chances the loser of the NL Central race gets a shot at the second wild card.

Minor League Playoff Update: Well that was painful as Durham got a taste of their own comeback medicine tonight. Up 4-3 going into the 9th just three outs away from a title and with closer Sam Wolff on the mound, a Tristan Gray error allowed the leadoff hitter to reach second, where he scored on a sac fly with one out to tie the game. And then Jose Rondon drilled a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 10th off Justin Grimm and the Columbus Clippers evened the series, forcing a decisive Game 5 in Durham in two nights.

And then there's this lovely little nugget:



That would seem to rule him out of the ALDS should we make it.

Game 2: Another listless effort from the Rays as they fell 5-2 despite a fine performance from Max Fried. Fried went 7 6 2 2 1 7 but not shown in that line were the two consecutive batters he hit, one to load the bases after a walk and the next to force in a run. Jose Alvarado came on in the 8th, put 2 men on and then served up a 3-run HR to Marcell Ozuna to make it 5-1. Schwarber hit his 9th Rays HR in the 9th to bring on Craig Kimbrel, who got his 400th career save in closing the door on any further rally. Ji-Man was 2 for 3 with a walk for the only Ray to really distinguish himself at the plate tonight against Jimmy Nelson who went 8 strong innings and bedeviled the Rays once again. The win gives Boston the season series at 10-8 with one more game tomorrow. Fried ends his season at 16-10, 3.71 with 184 Ks in 194 innings. He exceeded expectations as the 4th starter and will be part of the playoff rotation if there is one. And in the 2nd wild card that nobody seems to want, Toronto dropped their 15th in 16 but Oakland got swept by Baltimore (seriously how do you lose a 2-1 game to the Orioles?) and the Angels lost again to Seattle, so the Jays' magic number drops to 2. Of course just watch them come alive against the Rays in the wild card game.

MLB Pennant Race Update: In the crazy AL Central, Minnesota got a must-win 9-2 decision over the White Sox behind 7 strong innings from Andrew Heaney and Miguel Sano's MLB-leading 58th HR of the year. Detroit pounded Aaron Civale and Cleveland 10-5, so it's White Sox 81-78, Cleveland 80-78, Minnesota 80-79 and Detroit 79-79. Detroit and Cleveland will play tomorrow while the other two are idle. In the NL Central, our old buddy Charlie Morton pitched a 5-hit shutout for St. Louis, beating Milwaukee 2-0, but the Reds lost 4-1 to Atlanta meaning the Brewers stay in front by 1/2 game. The Mets and Nationals had their game suspended to be completed tomorrow, and OOTP does not give me the score so I don't know who's in front there.

Game 3: The Rays were pretty punchless in the first two games of the series, but this might have been the worst of all. First of all, it was Glasnow's last start before probably getting the nod in the Wild Card game and after two dominant innings striking out four, he fell apart in the 3rd, allowing 5 runs and then barely got through the fourth without allowing another before he was pulled. Not exactly an inspiring outing leading into the most important start of the season. But the Rays battled back from being down 5-0 and actually took the lead 6-5 with Wander getting a sac fly and then later hitting one over the Monster, and Sal Perez's over-the-Monster shot gave them the lead in the top of the 8th. From there it was the bullpen blueprint of Anderson and Hand to finish it off and Anderson did his job with a 2-K scoreless 8th. And then Hand came on in the 9th and got Verdugo and Bogaerts but with two out he let Rafael Devers take him deep to dead center to tie the game. Kevin Plawecki's 2-run homer off Austin Adams in the 10th was almost a fait accompli at that point and the Rays suffer the sweep. Plawecki was a thorn in the Rays' side, hitting two doubles off Glasnow. Javy Baez was 4 for 5 with 3 doubles and an RBI.

Team record: 92-67
WanderWatch: 318/380/533, 19-65-29

MLB Update: The Jays finally won but Oakland did as well so the magic # is down to 1 for Toronto. The Angels lost so they are eliminated. Cleveland edged Detroit 4-3 to move into a tie with the White Sox for first with the Twins one game behind them both and the Tigers 2. The White Sox go to Detroit, the Twins host the Rays and Cleveland hosts Kansas City, so advantage Cleveland but we'll see. The playoff probabilities according to OOTP 64 Cleveland, 30 Chicago, 4 Minnesota, 2 Detroit. And we have a tie in the NL Central as the Reds split a doubleheader with the Cubs and the Brewers lost in Arizona. The Reds are at the Cubs for 3 more as is Milwaukee at Arizona and OOTP thinks it's 68-32 that Cincinnati will prevail. The Nationals also got a split of their suspended game and the regular game vs the Mets so they are 2 up on both the Central teams for the second NL wild card.

Minor League Playoff Update: The Bulls dug themselves an early hole they couldn't get out of and lost the IL Championship to Columbus 9-3 in Game 5. Clarke Schmidt, who had been on a roll, gave up 2 in the first inning then a 3-run homer to the third batter of the 2nd and it was never close from there. Logan Allen dominated for the Clippers, and it wasn't until he left that Yandy Diaz's 3-run homer put Durham on the board. From one inning away from the title in Game 4 to a blowout loss in Game 5, it was a tough end to Durham's playoff run. Here's hoping the parent club does better in their do-or-die game next week.

September 24-26 at Minnesota (3)

Game 1: With these games meaningless for the Rays, I rested some regulars (Galvis in for Merrifield, Brantley for Meadows, the two ended up a combined 5 for 10) and gave Lucas Sims the start in place of Yonny. Still, the offense rapped out 17 hits include Hunter Renfroe's 44th HR of the year. Sims struggled allowing 4 runs in 5 innings including Miguel Sano's 59th HR but a 4-run Rays rally in the 6th capped by a Wander RBI single (he was 3-4 with 2 intentional walks on the night) gave them a 5-4 lead. Yonny came on in extended relief, and allowed the Twins to tie in the 8th. The Rays then loaded the bases with one out in the 9th, but couldn't score. Then they loaded the bases in the 10th with one out, and couldn't score again. So for the second night in a row they lost in extra innings with Austin Adams on the mound as Jorge Polanco's one-out bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th won the game for the Twins 6-5. The Rays left 15 runners on base as a team, with Baez leaving 9 and Choi 8 individually. Meanwhile the Jays lost at Boston while Oakland won at Phillly so Oakland could still force a 1-game playoff for the wild card if they win the next two and the Jays lose the next two.

MLB Playoff Race Update: Well we know the Twins won their game, but so did Cleveland who beat Kansas City 4-1 behind a 7-inning, 4-hit, 10-K performance from Luis Castillo. Cleveland trailed against Danny Duffy 1-0 through 6 on a Brandon Lowe (remember him?) HR but Duffy had to come out of the game injured and Cleveland feasted on the Royals bullpen. Meanwhile in Detroit Casey Mize and Lucas Giolito didn't allow a hit through the first 4 innings but the White Sox jumped on Mize for 3 in the 5th and went on to win 11-2 behind 7 2/3 strong innings from Giolito, so Detroit is officially eliminated but the status quo remains for the top 3 with Cleveland and Chicago tied and Minnesota one game back. In the NL Central, Cincinnati beat the Cubs 4-2 behind 7 strong innings from Nick Lodolo while Milwaukee had a dramatic contest with Arizona. Christian Yelich's first inning homer had the Brewers up 2-1 going into the bottom of the 8th but Brett Phillips hit a 2-run HR off Josh Hader to give Arizona the lead. Milwaukee tied it up in the 9th but in the bottom of the inning a Luis Urias throwing error with 2 out let the winning run score and the Brewers are now one game behind Cincinnati with 2 to go.

September 25: Activated P Blake Snell from rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned P Jacob Nix to AAA Durham.

Snell will get the start today, looking for him to go 4-5 innings and about 75-80 pitches max.

A wave of retiring vets today: Hunter Pence, Nick Markakis, Andrew Cashner, Trevor Cahill, Clay Buchholz, Mark Reynolds, Josh Reddick, plus onetime closer Jim Johnson and former Rays Lucas Duda, Emilio Bonafacio and Carlos Gomez.

Game 2: The Rays ended their 4-game losing streak and pretty much dealt the Twins' playoff hopes a death blow with a 5-4 win, but boy did they do their best to give it away. Once again they had baserunners galore (in every inning to be precise) but could only score 5 while leaving 15 on. This mattered less today as Blake Snell got the start and pitched quite well, so well that I left him in a little longer than planned trying to get him through 5. He ended up 4.2 3 1 1 3 5 on 86 pitches and was pulled after a walk. Dany Jimenez got out of the inning and pitched a scoreless sixth to get his first Rays win, but then the bullpen made it an adventure. Having got the last out of the 8th, Nick Anderson stayed on and promptly served up HR #60 to Miguel Sano to make it 5-2, then his throwing error allowed a batter to reach and with two out Byron Buxton went deep to make it 5-4. Brad Hand came on to face Max Kepler and gave up a double, and then Royce Lewis hit a line drive to center that Yusniel Diaz had to make a diving catch on to preserve the win so Hand got a shaky save #31. Offensively the star was Ji-Man, who was 4 for 4 and walked to reach base all five times up including a 2-run HR in the first, his 30th. After a day off, Whit Merrifield had 3 hits and an RBI. Meanwhile the Jays finally wrapped up the wild card but had to use Nate Pearson to do it, ruling him out of the Wild Card Game. Pearson shut the Red Sox out for 8 innings in an 8-0 win.

MLB Playoff Race Update: Well the Twins were officially eliminated later in the day with Cleveland's 8-0 drubbing of the Royals behind 8 3-hit shutout innings from Shane Bieber who whiffed 14. The White Sox stayed tied with Cleveland for the division lead with a tense 2-1 win over the Tigers behind 6 strong innings featuring 12 Ks from Dylan Cease who had missed most of the year due to injury. If these two match results tomorrow, we'll have a one-game playoff Monday. Meanwhile the Reds and Brewers both lost blowouts so the Reds remain in first by a game. Milwaukee's loss clinched the second wild card for Washington, who will play the Mets in the NL Wild Card Game.

Game 3: Made liberal use of the bench again but the one thing you don't want in a meaningless Game 162 is an injury, and sure enough we got one: Kiermaier hurt himself beating a double play ball at first and is "diagnosis pending" at the moment. If he can't go at least his replacement Yusniel Diaz is getting it done as he had 3 hits in 5 at-bats today to go 18-45 (.400) with 3 HR in his brief Rays tenure. The game? The Rays won 9-8 in as ugly a fashion as the score implies. Meadows had the chance to protect his .301 average by sitting today but decided to play and blasted a 2-run HR in the first. He didn't quite catch Pena for the team HR record at 45 but he did go 3-4. Ji-Man continued unconscious, going 3-3 on top of yesterday's 4-4 with 3 RBI of his own and Jason Castro had a 3-run shot against his ex-mates. Joe Ryan was scheduled to start but given his success against Toronto I held him out in case Glasnow runs into early trouble in the WC game so Trevor Richards got the start. He pitched great for 5 innings and ran into trouble in the 6th, letting the Twins get back within 9-4. And that's where it stood until the 9th, when Diego Castillo came on to finish it. Instead he crapped the bed, putting four runners on who scored and Jose Alvarado had to summoned to finish it up and he allowed two hits to score Castillo's baserunners and just got out of it with Josh Donaldson lining out to the OF. Miguel Sano tied Roger Maris with HR #61 earlier in the game, hitting a HR in all 3 games in the series. The Rays end 94-68, the same as their record last year but this time around it only buys them one playoff game.

MLB Playoff Update: In the NL, the Reds beat the Cubs 5-2 behind Sonny Gray to win the NL Central. In the AL Central, the Indians were going up against 20-game loser Brad Keller, he of the 6.83 ERA, and while they got 4 runs off him their pitching staff allowed 10 to Kansas City, with Adalberto Mondesi and Mike Zunino (!) each with 3 hits and 4 RBI. Cleveland got within 10-6 in the bottom of the 9th and had the bases loaded with Lindor at the plate as the tying run with one out, but he grounded into a double play to end the game. That opened the door for the White Sox, who walked right through it with a tense 3-2 win over the Tigers. Jose Quintana was great for the Sox but had to leave after the 4th with injury, so former Ray farmhand Sam McWilliams followed with 3 scoreless innings of relief to bridge the gap and help the Sox to the AL Central title, where they'll play the Astros in the ALDS despite a record 10 games worse than the Rays. Over in the NL, the Braves and Reds will meet for the second straight year while the Dodgers await the winner of the Mets-Nationals Wild Card Game. The Rays-Jays winner of course will face the Yankees.

[Art Deco]

Before starting the postseason, here's a look at the final 2021 MLB Standings and hitting leaders:



September 28: NL Wild Card Game - Washington (Garrett Richards 12-5, 3.34) at New York Mets (Jacob deGrom 16-4, 2.74)

Scherzer and Strasburg both suffered season-ending injuries so Richards becomes the de facto ace of the Nationals staff. He too, like he did during his stint with the Rays last year, has a habit of leaving games early with minor injuries so who knows how long he'll last in this game. deGrom, of course, is deGrom, so it may not matter. The Mets are in their second straight wild card game, having lost in the 9th inning in San Diego last year.

The Mets drew first blood in the bottom of the 2nd when JD Davis took a Richards fastball into the left field seats to make it 1-0. The Nats tied it in the top of the 6th when consecutive singles by Trea Turner, Juan Soto and Victor Robles starting the inning produced a run, but despite runners at first and third with one out they couldn't push across another. Richards walked two men in the bottom of the 7th with one out, but Ian Kennedy came on to get out of the inning as deGrom was pinch-hit for. The game was then turned over to the closers in the 8th, with Edwin Diaz (who had nearly 2Ks per inning this season) got a 1-2-3 eighth with two Ks, and Will Harris came on in the bottom for the Nats and did likewise. Diaz then fanned 2 more in a 1-2-3 ninth, and in the bottom Brandon Nimmo singled with one out, stole second, but was stranded there when Harris fanned Wilson Ramos and pinch-hitter Ahmed Rosario so off to extras we went. Seth Lugo came on for the Mets and had a scoreless inning, and Tanner Scott came on for the Nats and immediately allowed a leadoff double to Andres Gimenez. Tommy Pham was intentionally walked and then Michael Conforto was unintentionally walked to load the bases with no outs. And then the wild Scott walked Pete Alonso to force in the winning run and give the Mets a 2-1, 10-inning win setting them up to be the sacrificial lambs for the 110-win Dodgers. deGrom was named MVP of the game for his 7 6 1 1 0 6 line.

Kevin Kiermaier injury update: He has a fractured hand and will miss 3-4 weeks so he's done for the season. For some reason OOTP won't let me add anyone to the playoff roster because I guess I set it on the Monday, leaving Kiermaier on because I wasn't sure of the extent of his injury. I tried adding Randy Arozarena and then Josh Lowe with no luck despite both being on the 40-man all year. I guess I'll have to play shorthanded for the WC game. Hopefully it will let me add someone if we win.

September 29: AL Wild Card Playoff Game - Toronto (Shun Yamaguchi 13-5, 3.93) at Tampa Bay (Tyler Glasnow, 11-9, 3.79)

Both starters fared quite well against their opponents this year, with Yamaguchi going 1-0 in 3 starts with a 1.88 ERA over 24 innings while Glasnow was 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 26 2/3, walking 8 and striking out 41.

Starting lineup for the Rays: Franco SS, Baez 3B, Meadows LF, Choi 1B, Renfroe RF, Schwarber DH, S.Perez C, Y.Diaz CF, Merrifield 2B.

Top 1st: (I'm going to "live-blog" as I play this, I doubt anyone's following but what the heck). Glasnow allowed a one-out single to Bo Bichette, who stole second but was stranded there when Lourdes Gurriel Jr struck out.

Bottom 1st: 1-2-3 go the Rays as Wander grounded out, Baez lined out and Meadows grounded out.

Top 2nd: 1-2-3 for Glasnow with a strikeout. He only needed 18 pitches over the first 2 innings.

Bottom 2nd: Ji-Man's consecutive streak of reaching base ended at 10 with a fly to left, Renfroe whiffed and Schwarber grounded out.

Top 3rd: Welp, Shogo Akiyama led off the inning with a homer to right, hopefully Glasnow is not mirroring his last start where he was sharp through 2 and fell apart in the 3rd. And now he walks Grichuk but gets Biggio to hit into a force out. Biggio proceeds to steal second and then Bichette bloops a single to center to score him. Rowdy Tellez grounds out but then Gurriel singles up the middle to score Bichette and it's 3-0. Glasnow strikes out Fisher but the damage is done.

Bottom 3rd: Perez grounds out, Diaz looks at a called third strike and Merrifield grounds out as the Rays are 9 up 9 down against Yamaguchi.

Top 4th: Glasnow allows a one-out single but gets Akiyama to roll into a double play.

Bottom 4th: Wander leads off the inning with a single up the middle but Baez lines out to center. Meadows bloops a single to right putting men on 1st and 2nd, and Ji-Man walks to load the bases for Renfroe, who hits a deep fly to left to score Wander and make it 3-1 Jays. Schwarber looks at a 2-2 strike to end the inning.

Top 5th: Glasnow walks Grichuk to start the inning, not a good omen, then wild pitches him to second and then proceeds to walk Biggio. Glasnow's day is over as Jays-killer Joe Ryan comes on. After striking out Bichette, he walks Rowdy Tellez to load the bases. Ryan gets Gurriel to hit a shallow fly to left forcing the runner to hold at 3rd and then whiffs Derek Fisher to end the inning.

Bottom 5th: After Sal Perez is robbed in center by Akiyama, Yusniel Diaz walks and then Merrifield laces a single to right sending Diaz to third. Wander then makes it 3-2 with a sac fly to center and Javy Baez follows with a single to put runners on first and second with two out but Meadows hits an infield pop fly to end the inning. Still, though, we creep back into it.

Top 6th: Ryan strikes out Espinal but gives up a single to Reese McGuire. After a strikeout of Akiyama he allows a single to Grichuk putting runners on 1st and 2nd but gets Biggio to ground out to end the threat.

Bottom 6th: The Rays go 1-2-3 as Ji-Man flies out, Renfroe strikes out and Schwarber flies to left.

Top 7th: After Bichette flies out, Ryan allows a Tellez single and then a Gurriel single. With the left-handed Fisher due up, Jose Alvarado is summoned from the pen. He gets Fisher to fly to deep center allowing Tellez to tag and go to 3rd and then walks Espinal to load the bases. But McGuire lines to Meadows and we're out of the inning.

Bottom 7th: Sal Perez looks at a third strike, and the Jays bring in Elvis Luciano to pitch to Diaz whereupon Yusniel greets him with a single to center. After a Merrifield whiff Wander lines out to left, and the inning is over as things are getting late.

Top 8th: Alvarado stays in to face the lefty Akiyama and gets him to ground out, and Nick Anderson comes on. He whiffs Grichuk but walks Biggio and Bichette yet gets out of it with a Tellez grounder to 2nd.

Bottom 8th: As the OOTP AI likes to do in playoff games, it brings the closer on to start the 8th and here comes Keith Ginkel, whom the Rays couldn't solve during the regular season. Sure enough, Baez hits a weak grounder to the mound, Meadows strikes out, and Ji-Man flies to center so the Rays are down to one last chance.

Top 9th: Anderson got Gurriel to fly out to start the inning, but with lefty Fisher due up Brad Hand comes in as it's all Hand(s) on deck. Hand whiffs Fisher and Santiago Espinal to send us to the bottom of the 9th where it's Renfroe, Schwarber and Perez.

Bottom 9th: Renfroe whiffs (for the third time today), Schwarber hits a pop to shallow right run down by Espinal, and not liking this Ginkel vs Perez righty-righty matchup I bring in the venerable Michael Brantley to pinch-hit. Well Perez couldn't have done any worse as Brantley whiffs to end the game and the Jays take the Wild Card Game 3-2 and will play the 105-win Yankees. Good luck guys, you'll need it!

Postscript: A disappointing end to a season that started with so much promise (32-13 and a division lead) that kind of devolved into mediocrity for the last 3-4 months of the season. 94 wins is nothing to sneeze at, but the promise was there for so much more. Baez and Schwarber produced as trade-deadline acquisitions but neither was a factor in today's game. I know that's unfair but the Rays were already a playoff team when these guys were picked up. The inability to beat the Yankees after the early season series sweep was big (although they finished 11 behind that juggernaut). Injuries didn't help either - Snell missed the 2nd half of the season, Glasnow missed about 6 weeks as did Wander and wasn't quite as consistently effective when he came back, as seen tonight.

But in reality it would have taken 106 wins to take the division and be assured of a full playoff series so getting this one-game shot was probably the most realistic outcome available (OK, maybe 102 or 103 wins if they beat the Yankees a few more times). That they lost it was disappointing but they probably weren't getting past the Yankees anyway. Ah such is the curse of playing in the AL East.

Most of this team of course comes back next year. The rentals Baez and Schwarber are gone, of course, as is Sal Perez, Chaz Roe, and Brad Hand. You saw how active I was during the season (and last off-season) so expect more wheeling and dealing. Right now the only positions truly open are C and 3B. Alec Bohm didn't quite hit enough to justify his 40 defense at the position and though I still like Bohm going forward I'm not putting all my eggs into his basket. Ronaldo Hernandez will get every chance to win a time-share at catcher after a strong AAA season and a vet will be brought in to join him (if Sal Perez's contract demands are reasonable he could be back). DH is open and I have several internal options there. Ji-Man could move there if I stick Bohm at 1B (he's a 70 defender there), or I could go with rookies Seth Beer (who had 28 HR and nearly 100 RBI in AAA last year) or Alex Kiriloff (less power but he hit well above .300). I'd also like Yusniel Diaz to get more at-bats than he'd have simply being Kiermaier's platoon partner so he could figure at DH as well. A lot will depend on how 3B shakes out and there are some guys I'm targeting in potential trade. I'll need a backup middle infielder next year as Galvis is a free agent. Wendle could come back but he's not that exciting, and I have my doubts about how much Taylor Walls can hit. I had originally targeted Vidal Brujan or Xavier Edwards for that role but both have long-term injuries with Brujan back in March and Edwards not until mid-season. There were a lot of middle infield options available for minor league contracts when the free agency musical chairs stopped last offseason, so that's an option too (especially one who can credibly play 3B). The overall key will be to get the offense out of its middle-of-the-AL pack ranking. There were too many games this year with 1, 2 or 3 runs (like today when they managed 2 runs on 5 singles). The other goal is for the Yankees to come back to Earth in some measure.

On the pitching staff assuming everyone stays healthy (a big if) I return the best 5-man rotation in the league with Snell, Glasnow, McKay, Fried and Ryan. And there's plenty of starting depth with Yonny, Trevor Richards, Conner Menez and Lucas Sims who all would be in about 25-27 other MLB rotations right now. Not to mention guys knocking on the door like Riley O'Brien, Shane McClanahan and Clarke Schmidt. In the bullpen, I'm leaning toward trading Taylor Rogers and the $7.5M he probably gets in arbitration as I was a bit underwhelmed with him in his Rays stint. I'd bring Hand back if he took that amount, but otherwise the bullpen is fairly deep with some of the starting candidates who don't make the rotation joining the 3 As, Adams, Alvarado and Anderson. If neither Rogers nor Hand comes back, I could go back to making Anderson the closer as he was in 2020 or Adams could take the role which he fared well in at Seattle before coming here. Diego Castillo had a terrible second half but relievers are volatile and I still hope he can have a significant role next year. Plus there's Jacob Nix and Dany Jimenez around too. McClanahan intrigues me as a power multi-inning lefty if he can't find a spot in the rotation as well.

With 40-man roster spots at a premium, there's a good chance some of this depth can be dealt in some 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 trades to bring back some impact players. I will get into the "who gets kept" aspect of the 40-man as the Rule 5 draft approaches. Homes probably need to be found for Randy Arozarena and Yandy Diaz, who are too good for AAA but probably not good enough to get at-bats for this team. Tristan Gray, who had a nice year at Durham, falls into this category too.

[Art Deco]

September 30:



The Braves stuck to their blueprint in Game 1 of the NLDS behind a strong start from Soroka, Riley's early 2-run HR, a solo shot from Freeman and then Inciarte put it away in the 8th.

Game 1 of the Mets-Dodgers series didn't follow anyone's blueprint though as the Mets chased potential Cy Young winner Walker Buehler in the 2nd inning and hit back-to-back-to-back HRs by old friend Tommy Pham, Michael Conforto and Pete Alonso off Buehler and reliever Dylan Bundy. Still, though, 8 was going to be needed to beat back the Dodgers and the Mets let LA chip away and away with 2 Mark Canha HRs and one from Joc Pederson, the latter two of which came off closer Edwin Diaz. Will Smith was up as the tying run with 2 out but Diaz struck him out. Great position for the Mets with Syndergaard and deGrom still to pitch, this would be an upset for the ages if they pulled it off.

October 1:



Well how about those Blue Jays? Or maybe that should be Boom Jays as they rocked Gerrit Cole for 4 HRs including Cavan Biggio's which led off the game. What the line score doesn't show is how much Nate Pearson struggled early, putting on numerous runners in the first few innings but the Yankees couldn't get them home. He ended up going 5 and striking out 8 but had to leave due to a high pitch count. It didn't matter though as the Jays kept bopping home runs and now the Yankees have to win 3 of 4.

Lucas Giolito had a rough start for the White Sox but they went up on a 3-run shot by Eloy Jimenez before Houston did its thing and kept hammering away to take the opener.

The Braves rolled behind an absolutely dominant performance from Robbie Ray, the guy Atlanta signed to take Max Fried's place in the rotation. Ray whiffed 13 in 7 1/3 shutout innings to set a team playoff record (at least that's what the PxP said) as the Braves are one game away from the NLCS. Good to see our old buddy Willy Adames go deep.

And the Mets had a great chance to go up 2-0 with Thor on the mound. While he held the Dodger bats in relative check (3 runs in 6 innings), his teammates could get nothing going against Brusdar Graterol and then the bullpen turned it into a rout. In fact after putting 8 on the board in the first two innings of Game 1, the Mets have now gone 16 innings without scoring.

October 2:



It was the day of the veteran pitcher as Corey Kluber and Zack Greinke turned in brilliant performances. Kluber's was the most important as the Yankees went 12 2/3 innings in this series before finally scoring on a Giancarlo Stanton HR. Kluber made that and another Stanton HR stand up as he pitched a complete game, 4-hit shutout, walking none and striking out 10 and saving the Yanks from a 2-0 hole. Greinke, meanwhile, outdueled Dylan Cease over the first 4 innings and the Astros got some traction against the White Sox pen to take a 2-0 series lead to Chicago.

October 3:



We'll get the Reds-Braves out of the way first, as you can see from above Sonny Gray was brilliant to keep the Reds alive. But how about that Dodgers-Mets game? It was a duel between Kershaw and deGrom and it lived up to all the billing. Both went 7 great innings as you can also see above but the Dodgers run came about when Kershaw singled off deGrom and came around to score on a Cody Bellinger RBI single. That tied the game and set the stage for Amed Rosario's dramatic game-winning pinch-hit HR off Kenley Jansen to put the Dodgers one game away from elimination despite being clearly the best team in MLB this year. The Dodgers were in a similar situation last year in the NLCS down 3-2 to Atlanta before coming back to win that series and the World Series so we're certainly not counting them out.

October 4:



If I had told you 5 days ago that the first series to end would be Dodgers-Mets, you'd probably buy that, figuring a Dodgers sweep. But the Mets had other ideas and have shocked the defending WS Champs by taking their NLDS 3 games to 1. Tonight's game was a nailbiter that started off weirdly for the Mets, who lost starter Rick Porcello to injury after the first inning. This effectively made it a bullpen game for them and their relievers most certainly came through, especially Trevor Gott who threw 4 perfect innings. Still the Dodgers led 2-1 behind an excellent game from Alex Wood, and Kenley Jansen came on for the eighth. With one out, Corey Seager booted an Andres Gimenez ground ball and Tommy Pham followed with a HR to put the Mets up, making Jansen the goat again. In the 9th, Edwin Diaz was unavailable so Trevor Megill had to come on for the save. He walked Cody Bellinger to lead off the inning, who eventually found himself on third before Megill whiffed Max Muncy to send the Mets to the NLCS in surprising fashion.

In the other games, there will no sweeps as the White Sox fought from 5-1 down to beat the Astros on a rare Nick Madrigal homer to stay alive, while the Reds and Braves got into a ridiculous slugfest that saw the Reds up 11-3 after two innings on their way to a 13-8 win to even their series and force a decisive Game 5 back in Atlanta. Shed Long had a grand slam among his 6 RBI as the Reds torched Folty and Touki Touissant in relief. And the Yankees got a gem from Luis Severino and HRs from Judge and Gary Sanchez (an inside-the-parker!) among others to roll past the Jays and go up 2-1 there.

October 5:



Well one series stays alive while the other ends in the AL as the Yankees, after falling behind 3-1 early, bludgeoned Blue Jay pitching for 5 HRs including a pair from Giancarlo Stanton (named series MVP) in an 8-4 win. Trevor Bauer wasn't sharp but as he has all season received a ton of run support as the Yankees advance to the ALCS. Who they'll play remains an open question as Dallas Keuchel rolled back the years to deliver 7 shutout innings over his old team to send the series back to Houston for a decisive Game 5. Yesterday's hero for the White Sox, Nick Madrigal, had the key hit again today with a 2-run single to break up a pitcher's duel in the 5th inning.

With the two New York teams advancing to their respective LCSs, could we have another Subway Series like 2000?

October 6:



For the second straight year the Braves make it to the NLCS after disposing of Cincinnati, but this year it was a bit tougher. A couple of ex-Rays got the Braves going when Willy Adames singled and Travis d'Arnaud followed with a 2-run homer. Mike Soroka was rolling along until the 7th when he allowed 3 runs to get the Reds within 4-3, but the Braves got those 3 right back in the bottom of the inning and took the win and the series. They'll now play the Mets this time instead of the Dodgers in an all-NL East matchup.

October 7:



Well this one wasn't in the script, as the White Sox overcame a 2-0 series deficit (and a 4-run deficit in the middle of Game 3) to upset the Astros 6-5 and head to the ALCS against the Yankees, depriving us of a matchup between the two most hated teams in baseball. Chicago got off to a great start with 2-run HRs from Eloy Jimenez and Tim Anderson, but Houston battled back to take the lead in the 6th. But Lance McCullers Jr ran out of gas in the 7th, and Forrest Whitley gave up a 2-run double to Yoan Moncada for the White Sox to take the lead back. And then they got 3 shutout innings from Jose Alvarez and Ian Hamilton to preserve the win. Suddenly the White Sox go from 83-79 and eking out the AL Central on the final day of the season to a best-of-7 with the Yankees for a trip to the World Series.

[Art Deco]

October 8:



The Mets jump out in front behind Jacob deGrom. Like last time out, Robbie Ray got the strikeouts, but unlike last time out he gave up a bunch of runs including the Conforto HR that would be all the runs the Mets would need.

October 9:



The White Sox continue their upset ways, winning their fourth straight by taking Game 1 against the Yankees. It was a tense 2-1 affair through 8 innings before the AI manager went all Grady Little and left Gerrit Cole in the game in the 9th despite allowing 2 hits. Sure enough Eloy Jimenez took him deep for a 3-run shot and a 5-1 lead. But the Sox needed every one of those runs as the Yankees mounted a rally off Ian Hamilton and Jake Woodford. Codi Heuer finally put out the fire but not until the Yankees had made it 5-4 with the tying run on base.

Meanwhile, the Mets looked good early to go up 2-0 as Conforto homered again in the first and the Mets were rolling behind Noah Syndergaard into the 6th. But $324 million dollar man Mookie Betts got the Braves going as he led off the 6th with a single, stole second and went to third on a bad Wilson Ramos throw, went on to score and then Freddie Freeman went deep to tie it. Two innings later, the Braves erupted against Edwin Diaz with Freeman continuing his red-hot postseason by capping the 4-run rally with a bases-clearing double so the series is now tied at 1 going back to New York.

October 10:



OK there can be no question now that OOTP is basing its AI version of Aaron Boone on Grady Little (note the irony). For the second straight game a Yankee pitcher was left in way too long in the 9th, this time Corey Kluber. I can maybe see him starting the 9th when he was pitching a shutout and was right around 100 pitches. But after two straight singles to lead off the 9th? After a walk to load the bases? Nope, still in there and sure enough he served up a grand slam to Eloy Jimenez. He still stayed in, allowing an infield hit after getting an out and finally Chapman came in. And thanks to a great outing from Jose Quintana (9 Ks in 5 2/3) and 3 1/3 hitless innings of relief from Rowan Wick and Ian Hamilton, the White Sox are up 2-0 going back to Chicago and the Yankees now have to win 4 out of 5.

October 11:



A good old-fashioned tightly-played low-scoring playoff game that sees the Braves take a 2-1 series lead. Mookie Betts' HR off Sandy Alcantara in the 3rd stood up as enough to win, although Austin Riley added one off Seth Lugo to make it 2-0 in the 9th. The bad news for the Braves, though, is that ace starter Mike Soroka had to leave the game in the 4th inning with a yet-to-be-diagnosed injury. That could be costly for this series as well as the World Series should they make it. Today, though, Drew Steckenrider, Ian Anderson and Will Smith picked up the slack and helped combine for the shutout. Meanwhile, the Mets could use some more production from their star power hitter Pete Alonso, who's only hitting .133 with 1 HR (in the Dodgers series) so far in the playoffs.

October 12:



The unthinkable is about to happen. The White Sox, who were down 0-2 in their series to Houston and down 5-1 in the middle innings of Game 3, have now won 6 straight and are one game away from the World Series. Lucas Giolito was great for Chicago, striking out 11 in 6 2/3, and the rag-tag White Sox bullpen came through again. The only dark cloud for Chicago was that Yoan Moncada had to leave the game with an injury. The Yankees now have to do what the Red Sox did to them in 2004, the only time in MLB history a team has come back from 0-3 down to win a best-of-7.

Speaking of being one step away from the World Series the Braves beat the Mets in what was essentially a carbon copy of Game 3, as Mike Foltynewicz went 7 2/3 shutout innings to lead the Braves to a 3-1 game win and series lead. Willy Adames had a big RBI double to put the Braves up 1-0 where it stood for 6, Austin Riley produced run #2 once again, and Jasseel de la Cruz got his first postseason save despite allowing a Pete Alonso HR to lose the team shutout. But unfortunately for Atlanta one aspect of Game 4 that was also a copy of Game 3 was that they lost a key player to injury; this time it was Mookie Betts joining Mike Soroka on the shelf. Both of their diagnoses are pending, so potentially not good news. Also coming out of the game hurt was Mets emergency starter Steven Gonzales (filling in for the injured Rick Porcello) who threw 5 2/3 innings of one-hit, one-run ball before having to leave. If the Mets don't win the next 3, though, he'll have all off-season to recover from whatever ails him.

October 13:

KEY INJURY UPDATES: Soroka is still "diagnosis pending" which 3 days later is never good for a pitcher so I'm not expecting him back this postseason. Mookie Betts is day-to-day (moderate) for 5 days with a strained back, we'll see if the AI tries to play him, and Yoan Moncada is "diagnosis pending" the day after so he won't be in today's lineup.

Before we get into the Braves-Mets game today, here's Game 4 of White Sox-Yankees in a little more detail, complete with win probability chart:



Holy Crap! I'm not sure I've seen a crazier game. I watched this game play out over the first two innings with the Yankees going up 11-0 so I decided to jump ahead to the 6th inning. My jaw dropped when I saw it was 11-10. And then Nick Madrigal homered to tie it, and Greg Garcia (filling in for the injured Moncada), drove in the winning run in the 7th and the White Sox completed the most improbable sweep in the most improbable fashion. Gleyber Torres and Thairo Estrada chased Dallas Keuchel in the 2nd with three-run homers, Stanton hit one and the Yankees kept pounding as it looked like they'd emphatically keep Chicago from sweeping. Even after the Sox got 4 in the 3rd off Trevor Bauer you had to figure it wasn't going to mean anything. But then they had the big 6-run 5th to get back within a run with Jose Abreu hitting a 3-run shot after his solo blast earlier, and that White Sox bullpen did it again, shutting out the Yankees over the last 7 1/3. If this were real life "11-0" would become the new "28-3" among sports fans, most of whom have a healthy dislike of the Yankees.



Before that insane Yankees-White Sox game, Game 5 of the Mets-Braves series would have been notable in its own right. The Braves had to feel like they had one foot in the World Series when they got to Jacob deGrom for 3 runs by the 4th to go up 3-1 but a key Willy Adames error and a meltdown from Robbie Ray let the Mets jump ahead in the bottom of the frame. Ray walked three straight, the last two coming with the bases loaded, and then reliever Ian Anderson walked in another run and the Mets were up 6-3. But the Braves weren't done against deGrom and touched him for two more runs in the 6th to claw back within 6-5. But then Tommy Pham went to work with a 2-run shot, Billy McKinney followed suit with a solo shot of his own and the Mets were on their way to an 11-5 win. Mookie Betts did play hurt, and was 1 for 4 with an RBI single. Noah Syndergaard will try to keep the Mets alive in a couple of days in Game 6 in Atlanta.

October 14:

No games today, but some injury updates: Lost in the crazy 11-10 White Sox Game 4 win over the Yankees was that Luis Robert had to come out injured, and he's headed to the IL with a sore groin so count him out of the World Series. He was one of the few Sox struggling this postseason so it's unsure how much he'll be missed. Moncada's diagnosis is still pending which isn't good. The same goes for Atlanta's Mike Soroka and it's day 4 after his injury.

October 15:

Today's injury updates: Soroka was finally diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back and will be out 2 weeks. While this is bad news, keeping him out of the World Series and/or a Game 7 with the Mets, at least it's not a serious arm injury. Moncada has a fractured foot and is also out two weeks so he will miss the WS as well.



After the Yankees blew an 11-0 lead to be swept by the White Sox, Edwin Diaz said "hold my beer". With the Mets seemingly in control and ready to force a Game 7, Diaz was torched for 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th as the Braves came back to win 8-7 and take the NL pennant in 6 games, where they will play the Cinderella White Sox. Travis d'Arnaud was the hero for Atlanta, homering in the 7th off Noah Syndergaard to get the Braves within 7-4 and then hit a bases-clearing double off Diaz to tie the game before Mookie Betts doubled him home. What I'd give for OOTP to have a sports talk module as the New York airwaves would be going ballistic with this game and the Yankees' meltdown. The unsung heroes here were the Atlanta relievers, who shut the Mets out over the final 5 1/3 innings to allow their teammates to come back after Bryce Wilson and Tooki Toussaint put them in the hole.

[Art Deco]

October 19, Game 1:

Well it's time for Game 1 of the World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, er White Sox and Braves. Can the Cinderella run for the White Sox continue? Can the Braves finally win it all for the first time since 1995? Read on to find out.



The White Sox train keeps a-rollin' in Game 1 of the World Series as they take their eight straight behind a great outing from Lucas Giolito and more shutdown relief from Ian Hamilton. A couple of Jose Abreu sac flies and a Tim Anderson RBI single was all the offense that was needed. Robbie Ray pitched a fine game, allowing only two earned runs over 6 4-hit innings but Giolito was better.

October 20, Game 2:



Really out of words at this point when it comes to the White Sox. I will note that this team played almost all season without their two top pitchers (Giolito and Cease) and their starting CF and last year's AL Rookie of the Year (Luis Robert) so they were really a better team than their 84-78 record indicated. But yeah, I'm just as surprised as you here.

October 22, Game 3:



The 9-game winning streak is over for the White Sox as there's no miracle comeback this time around. Folty was efficient and threw 109 pitches in the CG shutout (he would be the Game 7 starter if we get there). Braves had HRs from Acuna, Camargo and Adames to back him. Mike Minor, off the IL, had a poor start and was unusually wild, walking 2 and hitting 1 in the first inning the White Sox never recovered from.

October 23, Game 4:



We're tied now after another Atlanta outburst. The team which combined for one run in Games 1 and 2 has now put consecutive 10-spots on the board. Although the White Sox bounced back after another poor start, Atlanta eventually just kept bludgeoning them, getting 6 HRs on the night. Albies, Camrago, Betts, Inciarte, d'Arnaud and Riley all wound up going deep. The White Sox have to hope they can get repeat pitching performances from Giolito and Cease the next two games.

October 24, Game 5:



The White Sox are now one game away from being the team with the second-worst regular season record (84-78) to win the World Series. Only the 2006 Cardinals at 83-78 had a worse record and they didn't play 162 games. Today it was the White Sox who jumped out early against Robbie Ray with 2-run HRs from Michael Chavis and Enrique Hernandez, both mid-season pickups. Lucas Giolito was coasting up 6-1 in the 6th before loading the bases with 2 outs ahead of Freddie Freeman who took him deep for a grand slam. After that the White Sox bullpen did its thing again, although not without some tense moments as they got out a bases-loaded situation in the 8th and a 2-out, 2-on situation in the ninth, but Codi Heuer got the save after bailing out Ian Hamilton as the series goes back to Atlanta in a must-win game for the Braves.

October 26, Game 6:



Yes, I'm even having a hard time typing it: The 2021 World Champion Chicago White Sox. The team that looked like cannon fodder for the Astros through 2 1/2 games in the ALDS suddenly got hot, winning 11 of its next 13 to take it all. The made a statement of intent early, bombing Bryse Wilson for 4 runs in the first on 5 hits, and then things really got ridiculous when Chicago pitcher Dylan Cease took Wilson deep for a solo shot in the 2nd, which was enough to chase Wilson. The Braves bullpen held it close afterwards, especially after Atlanta got a break when Cease had to desist pitching in the 4th, leaving with back pain. The Braves jumped on Jorge Lopez for 4 runs in the 5th and it stayed 5-4 until the 9th, when Yasmani Grandal gave the White Sox insurance with a solo homer off Jasseel de la Cruz to make it 6-4. They needed that run because the Braves wouldn't quit, as Ozzie Albies led off the bottom of the 9th with a homer of his own. After two outs followed, Travis d'Arnaud worked a walk, Ian Hamilton wild pitched him to 2nd, and it took a leaping grap from defensive replacement Tony Kemp in LF to snare a Drew Waters line drive to preserve the win and the title.

[Art Deco]

Set forth most of my goals in the post-mortem after the wild card loss to Toronto, but it's no secret that C and 3B have been problem spots for several years now. Papered over that with rentals last year in Baez and Sal Perez, but would rather have a longer-term solution. So I identified two young players with enough experience to step right in who are blocked with their respective teams: The Dodgers' Keibert Ruiz and Houston's Abraham Toro, who are blocked by Will Smith and Alex Bregman respectively.

Ruiz was good enough to force his way on LA's post-season roster, and Toro had filled in admirably in a couple of extended stretches the last two years when Bregman was injured.

Here are Ruiz's numbers (he's a 60 defensively so we're not talking about a bat-only guy):



As you can see there's nothing to sneeze at here, and in some ways Ruiz is the Wander Franco of catchers in that he rarely strikes out as well, just 47 times in 870 at bats between AA, AAA and MLB. But since Smith is entrenched and they have Diego Cartaya behind Ruiz, he was available for trade.

Toro, meanwhile, in 441 AB over 2020 and 2021 hit 25 2B, 18 HR, 52 BB and a .270 average, playing 50 defense, good for 2.6 WAR - not Brooks Robinson but not Alec Bohm either.

So yes, I acquired them both. Here are the details on the two trades:

November 1: Traded 26-year-old minor league starting pitcher Riley O'Brien and 23-year-old minor league starting pitcher Joe Gobillot to the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting 23-year-old catcher Keibert Ruiz, 27-year-old reliever Tony Gonsolin, 25-year-old minor league third baseman Luke Heyer, 20-year-old minor league starting pitcher Jimmy Lewis and 23-year-old minor league starting pitcher Josiah Gray in return.

Gobillot turned out to be the key here for LA to get the deal done, he's a control lefty in low-A who I guess could grow up to be Ryan Yarbrough but he seems to come up in a lot of "make this deal work" lists. I could have O'Brien back for Heyer making this a 4 for 1 (I shopped Heyer and O'Brien came up). Heyer is an interesting case. He's listed at the #1 prospect in MLB right now but neither I nor the Dodgers seem to believe it as he's been available in trade. He's 25 and played the last two years in the Midwest league, but he has 4-star potential and the scouting reports are glowing and he plays a position of need (although only with 45 D). I've always liked Gonsolin and he's a power arm for the pen, Gray has fine potential as a starter, and Lewis is a flamethrower. Obviously I really like this deal.

November 1: Traded 30-year-old reliever Taylor Rogers, 25-year-old minor league second baseman Taylor Walls and 26-year-old minor league left fielder Randy Arozarena to the Houston Astros, getting 24-year-old third baseman Abraham Toro, 24-year-old minor league right fielder Matthew Barefoot and 21-year-old minor league starting pitcher Jayson Schroeder in return.

Had to give up more here for Toro, but Walls and Arozarena had no real shot at a role and it was unfair to keep him in AAA for a third (fourth?) straight season. Walls hasn't hit above the AA level but will make a decent backup for Altuve and Correa. Rogers was going to command $7.5M in arbitration, a reasonable number, but he's not the dominating closer he save totals imply and I have lots of bullpen arms as discussed earlier. Meanwhile, Barefoot is kind of an Arozarena-lite, a 15-HR, 20-SB type potentially who gets on base, has good speed, etc. Schroeder is another arm with potential. Neither of the last two are Rule 5 eligible, which is good considering Gonsolin, Gray and Heyer from the Dodgers trade all are.

Meanwhile, this travesty of justice took place:



Kelenic did have the slightest of WAR edges on Wander, 5.2 to 5.1, but that was because Wander missed 6 weeks. The vote was close at least, but still a joke. Maybe it will give him some motivation for 2021. Sadly in another injustice, I lost out on Manager of the Year to Aaron Boone, who should really give it back after those two games he left his starters in too long against Chicago in the ALCS. C Joey Bart won the NL Rookie of the Year, but it was with the Mets, not the Giants, who inexplicably traded him to New York for Luis Guillorme mid-season. Man, if I had known I could have offered San Francisco better.

In other awards, Nate Pearson won the AL Cy Young while Jake deGrom took yet another in the NL. Gavin Lux (.357-49-140) was unsurprisingly the NL MVP, but in a bit of a shock Yordan Alvarez won the AL MVP award. I voted for Ohtani, who had a combined 9.1 WAR (more than anyone else in the AL) thanks to 27 HR and a 307/402/604 triple slash to go with a 17-10 record and 237 K's in 211 innings. He really is the modern-day Babe Ruth but myself & only 2 others voted him #1. Meadows finished third (which is where I had him, behind Ohtani and Trout), ahead of Ohtani who placed fourth.

December 5: Traded 30-year-old third baseman Yandy Diaz to the Chicago Cubs, getting 23-year-old minor league catcher Adam Kerner in return.

Farewell to Yandy, clearing a 40-man spot for Shane Baz and picking up a nice catching prospect in the process. We'll always have the 2019 Wild Card Game. Meanwhile, what was once an organizational weakness is fast becoming a strength, with Ronaldo Hernandez, Chris Betts, Kevin Melendez and now Kerner in the pipeline behind Keibert Ruiz. Kerner's good defensively, and hit over .300 at every level until a 30-game promotion to AA where he did struggle.

In FA news around the league, Houston signed Max Scherzer to a 2-year $58M deal, something they pretty much had to do since Verlander and Greinke became free agents, while the Cubs signed Trevor Story to a 5-year, $117M deal to fill their hole at SS (guess Dansby Swanson wasn't the answer) created by the departure of Javy Baez, and the Red Sox signed Buster Posey to a 4-year $75M deal which I'm guessing isn't going to age too well.

December 6: Traded 20-year-old minor league reliever Taj Bradley, 29-year-old right fielder Hunter Renfroe and retaining 50% to the Minnesota Twins, getting 28-year-old right fielder Max Kepler and 23-year-old minor league reliever Garrett Gooden in return.

Here's a biggie. While I appreciate the 84 HR and gold-glove defense Renfroe has provided in RF the past two seasons, it came at the expense of an OBP in the .280s and he's only been a little over a 2 WAR player. Kepler is an upgrade of about 50 points in OPS, about 1 WAR, very little dropoff in defense (60 to Renfroe's 65) and is on a team-friendly contract (6.75 this year, 8.5 next, and a team option for 10 in 2024). The upgrade in RF came at the expense of Bradley, a fine prospect who was Rule 5 eligible and not currently on the 40-man so he was bound to be taken. Gooden is a live arm who fanned 128 in 108 innings at regular-A and 11 more in 7 innings at High-A. If he's 1/10 of Doc Gooden, I'll be thrilled. Incidentally in a rare reversal of fortune, I was the one retaining $ here, 4.1M to be precise. That's OK because we still have close to $30M to spend this winter.

More FA News: Former Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez signed a 5-year, $54M contract with Colorado. Don't think he'll be challenging for any ERA titles soon. Former Ray Avisail Garcia signed a 1-year, $7.7M with the Cubs and Ryan Pressley re-upped with Houston for 3 years, $30.6M.

December 7: The Tampa Bay Rays traded 29-year-old minor league catcher Michael Perez to the New York Mets, getting 23-year-old minor league catcher Saul Garza in return.

Minor deal, but I am trading away the catcher on my 40-man with the most MLB experience. Garza looks like he could grow up to be Michael Perez. Key here is that opens a 40-man spot for 3B Osmy Gregorio, who is often sought in "make this work" trades which tells me he'd be taken in the Rule 5 draft.

No big FA signing today, but the Blue Jays acquired Aaron Nola from the Phillies in a deal that saw Derek Fisher in return. Nola hasn't been quite what he was in 2018-19 recently but still a good move for them.

December 8 transactions of note:

Los Angeles Angels: Signed free agent SS Marcus Semien to a 4-year contract worth a total of $82,400,000.
Los Angeles Dodgers: Signed free agent RF Jorge Soler to a 3-year contract worth a total of $28,800,000.
The Seattle Mariners traded 25-year-old catcher Cal Raleigh and 24-year-old minor league reliever Levi Stoudt to the Atlanta Braves, getting 25-year-old reliever Touki Toussaint and 24-year-old minor league second baseman Braden Shewmake in return.

What's interesting here is that Semien signed a 4-year deal with the Phillies last year for $16M/season but it had a player opt-out and he bet wisely as his 2021 was a bounceback to his MVP-caliber 2019 season, and he was able to parlay that into about another $4-5M/year from the Angels. LA had lost Andrelton Simmons to free agency last winter when he signed with the Marlins, and ironically they picked up former Miami SS Miguel Rojas. However Rojas had a serious injury and is going to miss a good chunk of this season, hence the signing. In the Seattle-Atlanta deal, Raleigh was a young catcher I was eyeing for acquisition at times last year but I'm glad I held out for Ruiz.

December 9 MLB moves of note:

Kansas City Royals: Signed free agent RP Martin Perez to a 2-year contract worth a total of $2,070,000.
San Francisco Giants: Signed free agent SS Javier Baez to a 5-year contract worth a total of $149,800,000.
The Kansas City Royals traded 26-year-old closer Tyler Zuber to the New York Yankees, getting 20-year-old minor league center fielder Everson Pereira in return.
The Philadelphia Phillies traded 25-year-old minor league reliever Colton Eastman to the Miami Marlins, getting 23-year-old shortstop Jazz Chisholm in return.

The big name of the 2021 FA class finally signed, as Javy is going to get just under $30M a year from the Giants of all teams. San Francisco has maybe been the worst team the past couple of years so this is clearly about the money. Got a message about how fan interest decreased significantly now that Javy's gone but grow up people, he was always a rental. Meanwhile the Yankees get a good arm for the pen in Zuber, who won KC's closer job last year and saved 24 games, while the Phillies fill their Semien-sized SS hole by getting a good young SS on the rise in Chisholm. Saw that the Marlins were making him available in trade, but I already have a guy named Wander so I had to pass.

December 13: Lost IF Joey Wendle to Colorado in the Rule 5 draft.

Wasn't expecting this, and was considering bringing Joey back in the spring to be the backup MI, but oh well. I was more worried about losing Kevin Melendez or Tommy Romero and I didn't. There were only 6 players taken in the whole Rule 5 draft as it turned out.

December 19 News:

Our good friend Chaz Roe ended up with the Mets, getting 2 years/11.2M, so good for him that's more than I would have been willing to pay. Speaking of what I'm willing to pay, I have two free agent offers out there for 1-year deals: trying to bring back Brad Hand at $7.75M (I know he'll hold me up for more but that was his current ask), and veteran starter Zack Greinke at $15.2M (I have $30M to spend on free agents). Hand is more of a need since right now Jose Alvarado is the only lefty late-inning option in the pen, but Grienke seems like a good deal even though we have 5 fine starters, albeit 5 who have trouble staying healthy at the same time. That and the fact he claims he's leaning to an offer from Boston motivated me. We'll see.

December 22 News

The Mets lost their minds and signed Justin Verlander to a 3-year, $52.4 million contract. Verlander's now 38 and he's coming off two very mediocre years with Houston and missed the playoffs with injury. Early this past season he looked like his old self but faded badly in the second half before getting hurt (or while getting hurt). Meanwhile, I added veteran hurler A.J. Cole on a minor league deal to give us some depth.