The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays - Page 3

Art Deco · 06-28-2020, 08:21 AM

Game 1: Well I think it's finally time to call the Zack Greinke signing a huge mistake. After loading the bases in the first and getting out of it and getting a 1-2-3 second, I thought momentarily that he might settle down. Nope, a 2-run HR to Tommy Pham was followed shortly by a 3-run HR from Evan White and that was it, a 2.1 6 5 5 2 0 line. He's out of the rotation now, and it's a question of whether he even stays on the roster. The $15 million is a sunk cost. Things weren't better on the other side of things either with the hitters unable to touch Nick Margeivicius through his 5.1 innings, as the final was 9-2 Mariners. Former Ray Mike Brosseau, having a nice year as the Mariners' 2B, had a bases-clearing double off Yonny to add insult to injury. The ice-cold Wander Franco had to sit due to fatigue. The Tigers did us a favor though by beating Toronto.

Game 2: There are all kinds of ways to win games, and then there's a game that's literally given to you, gift-wrapped. And that's what the Mariners did for the Rays today. Joe Ryan and Justus Sheffield were both great and the game went 1-1 to the 8th. Enter Nick Anderson, who served up a HR to Jared Kelenic on a 3-0 pitch and Seattle went into the 9th up 2-1 and brought on closer Wyatt Mills. Mills struck out Alec Bohm to open the inning, then walked Toro. Ronaldo Hernandez hit a ground ball to the SS which should have been a game-ending double play, but JP Crawford booted it, putting runners on first and second. Mills then walked Brandon Marsh to load the bases, but Vidal Brujan popped out to Crawford. But Wander Franco, 0-4 today and down to .244, drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game and then Mills walked Yusniel Diaz to give the Rays the 3-2 lead. Jose Alvarado came in to close with Brad Hand still recovering from his 2-inning outing the other day, and he worked around a leadoff single to close out the game and give the Rays a most improbable win in which they came from behind without getting a single hit in doing so. They had to go with a makeshift lineup tonight as Merrifield, Kepler, and Keibert Ruiz were all showing as fatigued, so Nelson Cruz played LF tonight and fortunately did so without incident. The Jays snapped their 3-game losing streak so the lead stays at 5 1/2.

June 5: Traded 38-year-old starting pitcher Zack Greinke, retaining 15% to the Washington Nationals, getting 37-year-old reliever Will Harris in return.

Greinke had to go with everyone healthy, there was no justifying his spot to stay with a 6-man rotation. And we turned lemons into lemonade by getting Will Harris in return to further bolster a deep bullpen. Harris had fallen out of favor in Washington as their closer although I'm not sure why since his numbers are still pretty good. He's a FA at year's end as well and even with the 15% retention we still come out about $3M ahead in salary. Ironically Harris will join the team in DC for a 2-game set with the Nats; theoretically, Greinke could pitch Wednesday's game. Also expect a move dropping Stanek and bringing up a hitter as we've been going with 14 pitchers.

Game 3: Yesterday the Mariners gifted the Rays a game, today the Rays returned the favor but in much more excruciating fashion. With a 9-3 lead going into the bottom of the 8th and one of the best bullpens in the game, somehow the Rays conspired to throw it all away. With the 6-run lead Stanek came in, figuring I'd get a chance to rest Alvarado and/or Anderson. After getting the first out, Stanek loaded the bases, then walked in a run and that was it for him. Nick Anderson then came in and proceeded to give up a grand slam to Eugenio Suarez to make it 9-8. Then came the bottom of the 9th, Anderson walked the leadoff man and Alvarado came on, gave up a double and a walk to load the bases, and then wild-pitched a run home after getting a force out at the plate. He struck out Kelenic with the game tied for the second out, but then gave up an infield single to Suarez to score the winner for Seattle. The sad part of it is that it wasted a great performance by the offense, getting 16 hits to go with its 9 runs including the welcome sight of Wander Franco breaking out of his slump, going 4-6 with a HR and 4 RBI. Blake Snell snapped his 3-game quality start streak with a not-so-great 4.1 8 3 3 3 4 line but Dany Jimenez and Austin Adams got the team through the 7th, but be assured the next three letters in Stanek's future will be "DFA". Toronto won, so for the first time in quite a while the Jays cut into the lead which is now 4 1/2.

Team record: 42-16.

Art Deco · 06-28-2020, 03:33 PM

June 6: Designated P Ryan Stanek for assigment and placed him on waivers, recalled OF Josh Lowe from AAA Durham.

Stanek gone as promised, Lowe up for now although with Seattle throwing 4 lefties at us in the next series, I may bring Khris Davis up from Durham.

Game 1: Well when your starting pitching stinks, it's a hard thing to overcome. First you have to score tons of runs, your bullpen has to hold them the rest of the way, and of course said bullpen gets burned out. Well Brendan McKay faceplanted again tonight and it was ugly. He retired the first two batters he faced, then issued two walks and gave up a 3-run shot to JT Realmuto. Then after he struck out the side in the second and the Rays rallied for four runs against a tough customer in Patrick Corbin, he got himself in even more trouble in the 3rd, giving up 2 runs and leaving two more on when he was pulled for Yonny Chirinos, who let those two runners score to make it 7-4 Nats. Then Chirinos gave up 4 of his own in the 4th including a 3-run Juan Soto shot and the rout was truly on, with the final 14-5 Washington. Meadows has been missed the last month but even moreso has been any kind of consistent starting pitching as McKay's ERA is now near 6 and Snell's is over that. Really Fried and especially Ryan have been the ones to count on. Anyway another starting pitcher that let them down is their opponent tomorrow night as Greinke is in fact scheduled to start for Washington. Silver linings: Wander is truly out of his slump, 2 for 4 with a 2-run double, and the Jays lost to the Yankees so the lead is still 4 1/2. But perhaps it's the Yankees we should ultimately worry about - after their 0-6 start, they've gone 33-22 and while they're still 10 back they've only played the Rays twice so far.

Game 2: It's Groundhog Day for the Rays as once again the offense does its job but the starting pitching undoes it. Today it was Max Fried who squandered a 3-0 first inning lead off a 2-run HR from Ji-Man and solo shot by Cruz. Fried loaded the bases for JT Realmuto and like yesterday the Nats catcher killed the Rays, this time with a grand slam. Fried then loaded the bases again in the inning but got out of that. It turned out the Rays faced Artie Lewicki instead of Greinke, and after the 3-run first Lewicki settled down while the Nats expanded their lead with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh. Two of those were attributable to newest Ray and former Nat Will Harris, who gave up an RBI double to score one of Fried's runs and then served another homer to Realmuto. But the Rays got back within 7-6 when pinch hitter Whit Merrifield smacked a 2-run homer off Keone Kela, and they put two on in the ninth against Washington closer Tanner Scott but couldn't get the tying run in as they lost 3 in a row for the first time this season. Fried's final line was a butt-ugly 5.2 7 6 6 6 4 (the walks!), offsetting 3 more hits from Wander (who's raised his BA 25 points in 3 games) and a 13-hit overall performance by the offense. The Yankees beat the Jays again which is good in the short term but possibly not in the long term.

Team record: 42-18.

Art Deco · 06-28-2020, 09:02 PM

June 9: Optioned OF Josh Lowe to AAA Durham, purchased the contract of OF Khris Davis from AAA Durham.

Khrush is up to hit .247 and to hit some homers with Seattle throwing 4 lefties at us in this 4-game set.

Game 1: It happened again. After getting the first out of the game, Tyler Glasnow puts the next two on and gives up a 3-run HR. Then he gives up 2 more in the 2nd. And 3 more in the 5th. And for good measure, another run in the 6th when I finally had to pull him because his pitch count was up to 112. With only Alvarado, Anderson and Hand not tired I didn't want to burn these guys in a blowout. But the offense kept doing its thing. Abraham Toro hit a 3-run shot in the 2nd to get it back within 5-3, they got two more on a Vidal Brujan double in the 5th to get within 8-5, and in the bottom of the 7th, Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam off Colin Poche to tie the game at 9. By this point I had to bring in Anderson to get out of the top of the 7th in relief of a tired Zack Britton, so 9-9 with my best relievers available, what could go wrong? Well, Anderson put the first two on and with lefty Kelenic due I brought in Alvarado. He promptly walked Kelenic to load the bases with nobody out, but he got a popup and a strikeout. But he couldn't get the third out, giving up a 2-run single to Kyle Lewis, and then I had to use Hand in the 9th which he got through unscathed but the Rays couldn't score again and they fell 11-9 for their fourth straight loss. I'm at a loss as to why the top starting rotation in the league last year can't get anybody out currently. Tonight Glasnow had 7 Ks (in a 5.2 9 9 9 2 7 line), but I swear the team BABIP against lately is about .750. The team has now given up 7, 10, 8, 9, 2, 10, 14, 7 and 11 runs in its last 9 games. The bullpen is burned out right now so I don't know what will happen tomorrow if Joe Ryan can't go 6-7. Luckily, Baltimore beat Toronto so the lead isn't shaved but the past couple of weeks is not a sustainable model for winning the division.

June 10: Optioned P Dany Jimenez and OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan and P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham.

Chirinos and Hand are the only non-tired pitchers in the bullpen so here come a couple of fresh arms from Durham. McClanahan needs no introduction, but Gray, who came over in the deal with LA that brought Keibert Ruiz, has had an outstanding year at Durham (19 BBs, 71 Ks in 71 IP, 2.66 ERA). The idea is for Gray to pitch long relief if needed and McClanahan to go in the late innings. Jimenez and/or Marsh (who wasn't going to play much this weekend with all the lefties) will be back in the next day or two.

Game 2: What a strange game. Strange in that the Rays starter wasn't bombed early, and strange in how it played out. Joe Ryan was pretty good today, only yielding a 2-run HR to Kyle Lewis in the 4th and finishing with a 7 6 2 2 2 5 line. But the offense couldn't get much going, only managing 2 hits off Justus Sheffield through 8 innings. Sheffield walked 6, and one of them was ahead of one of the two hits, an Alec Bohm 2-run HR. So 2-2 we went into the 8th, and Shane McClanahan had a shutout inning in relief of Ryan and he came out to pitch the 9th, and proceeded to walk the bases loaded, and in a bit of managerial malpractice, I left him still and he walked Tommy Pham to force in the go-ahead run. I then brought Yonny Chirinos in, and he got Mike Brosseau to fly out to end the inning but the damage was done. Taylor Guilbeau came on to close for Seattle and after getting the first out, walked Nelson Cruz. Khris Davis then doubled to put runners at 2nd and 3rd and Alec Bohm then singled through the drawn-in infield to score both of them and the Rays had an improbable 4-3 walk-off win to snap the 4-game losing streak. Yonny gets his fifth win after throwing two pitches and the usual bullpen pieces got a night off. The Jays won so the lead is still 4 1/2.

Game 3: Well the good starts seem to be exclusive to Joe Ryan these days as Snell struggled out of the gate again, giving up 3 runs in the 2nd and a 4th in the 3rd. But as so often the early hole doesn't deter the offense and in the bottom of the 4th last night's hero Alec Bohm hit a bases-clearing double to pull the Rays within one. And after Wander Franco tripled in the 6th, Nelson Cruz singled him home to tie the game. Snell settled down after his early struggles and made it to 2 outs in the 6th, going 5.2 6 4 4 5 6 as his ERA rises to 6.26. Josiah Gray made his Rays debut and got the final out in the top of the 6th, and then with the game tied, the Alvarado-Anderson-Hand trio returned to form and shut the Mariners out. Unfortunately the Rays couldn't get another across in regulation and we went to the 10th. After Hand whiffed the leadoff lefty Sam Hilliard, Yonny came in for the long haul if needed, and he had to do some hauling through the 12th but kept the game at 4-4. And in the bottom of the frame Yusniel Diaz took Taylor Guilbeau deep leading off the inning to give the Rays their second straight walk-off win. Vidal Brujan was 3-3 but strained his quadriceps legging out his second infield hit of the game and is DTD for 5 days. Might be wise to put him on the 10-day DL but we'll see. Toronto lost, so despite going through by far their roughest patch of the season the Rays extend their division lead to 5 1/2.

June 12: Optioned Ps Shane McClanahan and Josiah Gray to AAA Durham, recalled P Dany Jimenez and OF Brandon Marsh.

Game 4: Not sure why the AI just doesn't start the game at 3-0 Seattle, because the first inning woes continued as Brendan McKay served up a 3-run shot to Eugenio Suarez before most were in their seats. He settled down pretty good after that and I shouldn't have brought him out for the 7th as he gave up HRs to Sam Hilliard and Wilmer Difo of all people to make it 5-2 at that point. Dany Jimenez and Austin Adams each gave up 2 more runs in relief, sandwiched around a pretty good Will Harris outing where he got all 4 outs on strikeouts and didn't allow a run. Meanwhile the offense couldn't do much against Nestor Cortes and the final was 9-3 Seattle. Fortunately the Jays lost again (and the Yankees were swept by the Mets this weekend) so the lead remains 5 1/2 ahead of the 3-game series with Toronto starting tomorrow.

Team record: 44-19.

Art Deco · 06-29-2020, 04:42 PM

Game 1: The big series with the Jays commences and for once we had a starting pitcher get through the early innings unscathed. It wasn't easy as Fried was battling baserunners throughout but he held Toronto off the board until the 6th, ending with a 5.2 6 2 2 3 5 line on 119 pitches. By then the offense had put up 5 runs with the highlight being Nelson Cruz's 20th HR of the season, a 2-run shot. Zack Britton and Jose Alvarado were the only rested relievers and they got the Rays through the final 3.1 innings with Alvarado getting a 2-inning hitless save, #4 on the season. The final was 6-2, Fried goes to 6-4 and the lead expands to 6 1/2 games.

June 14: Optioned OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham.

Game 2: It's been so long I forgot what a dominant outing from a starting pitcher looked like but Tyler Glasnow reminded me, mowing down the Blue Jays over 6 innings. He only went 6 because he struck out so many (12) that his pitch count was approaching 110, allowing only 4 hits and one walk. The offense didn't do a lot against lefty Anthony Kay, but they didn't have to as Glasnow's performance and some fine bullpen work gave the Rays a 3-1 win. In fact between Glasnow, Shane McClanahan, Will Harris and Nick Anderson the Rays staff had 18 strikeouts tonight. The only trouble came in the 7th when McClanahan gave up a 2-out hit, wild-pitched the runner to 2nd, and Teoscar Hernandez singled the man in. But Harris came on to whiff Bo Bichette, as well as the two of the three men he faced in the 8th including Vlad Jr. Nick Anderson then got a pair of Ks in a perfect ninth for save #2 with Hand still recovering from that 2-inning outing a few days back and what was impressive is that all 3 hitters were lefties. On the offensive side of things, in the 1st Wander walked and came around to score on Khris Davis' sac fly, his first Rays RBI. In the 5th Merrifield singled, stole second and scored on Nelson Cruz's RBI single and then they added an insurance run in the 7th when Kepler and Wander doubled. The lead is now a gaudy 7 1/2 games.

June 15: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled OF Brandon Marsh from AAA Durham.

Game 3: After holding the explosive Jays offense to 3 runs in 2 games, the dam burst today as erstwhile Jays-killer Joe Ryan had the tables turned on him as his main bugaboo, the longball, came back to haunt him as the Jays took him deep 4 times in a 9-5 loss. They had a brief 2-1 lead through 3 as Ronaldo Hernandez's 2-run double put them in front and Ryan was getting his strikeouts, but in the 4th Lourdes Gurriel Jr homered to tie it and a couple batters later Ryan Noda had a 2-run shot to put the Jays in front to stay. Cavan Biggio added a solo shot in the 6th and Yonny Chirinos let 2 more runners Ryan put on score and that was that. Ji-Man had a solo homer (#7) and Wander had 2 sac flies to account for the Rays' other runs. Still we're happy with what former Rays manager Joe Madden called "Meat Loafing" them, as in two out of three ain't bad, and they're still up 6 1/2.

Team record: 46-20.

Art Deco · 06-30-2020, 09:13 AM

A few news items from the previous week I'd neglected to mention. First, Kevin Kiermaier is not recovering as expected from his hamstring strain and has an uncertain return date. Second, the draft took place a little over a week ago and here were our top 5 picks:

Round 1: P Mack Anglin. Power pitcher from Clemson, struck out 172 in 120 innings his senior year, potential #2-#3 starter.

Round 2: P Tyler Gough. High school pitcher with 3 pitches potentially 70 or better.

Round 3: C Luke Heyman. Power-hitting HS catcher with decent defense.

Round 4: P Erick Figueroa. 20-year-old pitcher out of a JuCo, more of a finesse guy with good command.

Round 5: 3B CJ Neese Jr. NC State product with some decent power.

On to the Yankees series:

Game 1: This was a tough one to lose, as the Rays fell to the Yankees 3-2 with New York walking it off in the ninth. The primary culprit here was the offense being held in check by Luis Severino and the Yankee bullpen as they only managed 6 hits for the night and struck out 13 times, unusual for a team that strikes out the least in the AL. Brandon Marsh's RBI double tied it in the 6th after they had been down 2-0, and it was the Rays bullpen which blinked in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Anderson allowed a leadoff single after getting through the 8th, and Alvarado came on to wild pitch him to second and although he got the next two batters out, Giancarlo Stanton singled pinch-runner Tyler Wade home to end the game. Blake Snell pitched reasonably well with a 6 8 2 1 2 9 line, battling baserunners throughout but making big pitches. Toronto was off so the lead shrinks to 6.

Game 2: Rained out, doubleheader tomorrow. This will mess up the rotation a bit as we don't have an off day until Thursday, meaning either Yonny or someone from Durham (maybe Josiah Gray) would get the start on Wednesday at Houston. Elsewhere, Toronto came from behind to beat Washington 8-7 in the 9th so we're back down to 5 1/2. Zack Greinke still can't help us as he gave up 6 runs in 6 innings for the Nats, only striking out 2.

June 17: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher Conner Menez and 25-year-old minor league center fielder Michael Smith to the Oakland Athletics, getting 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 22-year-old minor league shortstop Brandon Dieter in return.

So while we were sitting out that lengthy rain delay that tuned into a postponement, I got on the phone with the A's and swung a deal for Puk, who has fallen out of favor in Oakland but we're talking a guy who was 14-9, 3.22 with 191 Ks in 164 IP and worth 3.3 WAR last season in MLB. Control of course is the problem with him, as he walked 4.0/9 last year and that was up to 6.1/9 at AAA Las Vegas but I'm going to chalk that up to a small sample and frustration. Anyway he's a far better version of Menez, and Michael Smith was stuck at A+ Charlotte for a few years now and is 25, plus we have a boatload of outfielders in the system so he was expendable. Plus we get Dieter, Oakland's 1st round pick last year, in the deal and while his pro career has been mixed so far, he's worth a shot. Thanks to OOTP's powers of teleportation, I'm going to have Puk pitch tonight for Durham so he's lined up as a possibility on Wednesday in Houston.

Game 2 (first of doubleheader): This one started off like so many others recently as Brendan McKay couldn't retire the first five batters on his way to allowing 4 runs in the first inning. Add in a Gleyber Torres solo homer in the 3rd and the Rays were in a 5-0 hole after 3. But even without Meadows this offense can be relentless and they got 3 back in the 4th on a 2-run triple by Marsh and a sac fly from Brujan. Meanwhile McKay held in there continuing to shut down the Yanks and in the top of the 6th Nelson Cruz led off with a majestic homer to dead center off Corey Kluber, making his first start of the year, to make it 5-4. The homer rattled Kluber and with men on 2nd and 3rd, Brujan singled them both home to put the Rays ahead and Keibert Ruiz brought Brujan home. In the 7th Cruz hit another homer, a solo blast to LF, and in the 8th Ruiz knocked in Wander, who had singled and stole second, to make it 9-5. With the 4-run lead the troika got the 1st game off and although Dany Jimenez allowed a Miguel Andujar shot in the 9th, Zack Britton got Aaron Judge to ground out for his first Rays save against his former Yankee teammates in a 9-6 win.

Game 3 (second of doubleheader): How sweep it is! The Rays beat the Yankees in another football-score game 13-7 to take both ends. And both games were eerily similar in that a Rays starter blew up in the first inning and settled down. This time it was Max Fried, who after the Rays put 3 on the board against Trevor Bauer with a Wander 2-run shot and Khris Davis' first Rays homer, gave up 5 runs in the 1st on a 2-run homer from Aaron Judge and a 3-run blast by Miguel Andujar. But of course the Rays fought back and Davis homered again with a man on to put the Rays up 6-5 in the 5th. The funny thing was that I almost went with Nelson Cruz in the second game since he had hit 2 in the first game, but going with Davis made me look good. The Rays tacked another couple on, and after Gleyber Torres' HR off Austin Adams got the Yanks back with 8-7 they blew it open in the 8th with 5 runs. The only negative (aside from the disastrous first inning) was that Adams had to come out with biceps tendinitis and will be out 1-2 weeks so an IL trip is coming. With everyone in the pen used at some point today, another arm or two or three will be needed for tomorrow's game. And thanks to Toronto's loss mentioned earlier, the division lead is up to a season-high 7. Random notes: Wander gets a Slurpee for going 7-11 today, and Ronaldo banged out 3 more hits in the nightcap to raise his average to .377.

June 19: Placed P Austin Adams on the 15-day IL with biceps tendinitis, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham.

Schmidt had a decent year in the rotation for Durham in 2021 after being acquired from the Yankees in a 2020 deal, and had been mostly pitching in relief for some reason thanks to the AI, although I was ready to force him into the rotation there.

Game 4: The Bucs put two touchdowns on the board against the Giants today..wait, I'm being told the Rays scored 14 against the Yankees and beat them 14-4. It looked like a great pitching matchup on paper with Tyler Glasnow against Gerrit Cole but Cole didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Another move I was close to making but didn't was putting Alec Bohm in at 1B in place of Ji-Man, who was 0-5 in the first game of the doubleheader yesterday and has been slumping. But I decided I liked Ji-Man's lefty bat against Cole and it paid off with a solo homer in the 2nd and an RBI single in the 3rd ahead of another slumper, Max Kepler, who took Cole deep for a 3-run shot and the Rays would have all the runs they'd need. Glasnow was dealing again, striking out 5 in the first two innings and aside from a brief interlude where it looked like he was pitching to the score, ended up 6 5 2 2 1 8 to go to 3-0. By the time he left it was 14-2 Rays after a 6-run sixth and Clarke Schmidt took over in his MLB debut against his original organization. He was a bit shaky, allowing 2 runs in 2 innings with 1 walk and 1 K, but it didn't matter. Wander had 3 more hits and is back up to .288 after bottoming out at .244 a couple of weeks back. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and everyone except Brujan drove in a run and everyone except Marsh scored one as the Rays have enjoyed hitting in Yankee Stadium this season and have taken 5 of 6 from the Bombers, all in New York. Toronto won big so the lead stays at 7.

Team record: 49-22.

Art Deco · 06-30-2020, 04:11 PM

Game 1: Joe Ryan was on the hill today and with his penchant for giving up HRs and all the power in the Houston lineup, things stood a chance of being ugly. Well he did give up 2 solo HRs (to former Rays prospect Jesus Sanchez and Yordan Alvarez) but it was a series of singles that did him in, including a sequence in the 5th where he got two tough hitters out but gave up singles to Francisco Cervelli and Taylor Walls of all people ahead of Jose Altuve, who drove in a run. He got his strikeouts but ended up with a 5.1 8 4 4 1 6 line with Zack Britton wild-pitching in what proved to be the winning run in a 4-3 loss. The Rays jumped out quickly in the first on a Brujan single & SB and a Wander double but after that they couldn't get anything going against Jairo Solis, who had an ERA near 6 coming in. They loaded the bases with 0 outs against Raisel Iglesias in the 8th but could only get one run and Wander hit one into the Crawford boxes in the 9th off another former Ray, Taylor Rogers, but it wasn't enough. Toronto was idle so the lead is 6 1/2.

Game 2: It was Home Run Derby time at Minute Maid Park with the Rays hitting 5 and the Astros 4, and the Rays came out on top 7-5. It's not often you can say a pitcher gave up four HRs and pitched a pretty good game, but Blake Snell did so with a 7 5 5 5 1 8 line - outside of the homers, he was practically unhittable. Of course that would have been a problem if the Rays weren't teeing off themselves, but tee off they did, with Max Kepler opening the scoring with a 3-run first inning shot, Keibert Ruiz with a pair of solo homers, Ji-Man coming through again, and Abraham Toro going deep against his old mates. Nick Anderson and Brad Hand shut it down in the 8th and 9th with Hand getting save #17 in his first action in a while. The Jays won their own HR derby against the Braves 10-9 (Atlanta had 6 and they had 4) so the lead remains 6 1/2. HRs were flying everywhere tonight - the White Sox hit 8 in a 13-12 extra-inning loss and there were a total of 73 hit in all games which shattered the MLB record of 62 on July 2, 2002.

June 22: Optioned P Clarke Schmidt to AAA Durham, recalled P A.J. Puk from AAA Durham.

Puk gets the start tonight in Houston, with Yonny ready to go long if things don't go well.

Game 3: Well AJ Puk was great until he wasn't and the end result was an 8-4 Astros win. Puk held the Astros hitless through the first 3 innings as the Rays built a 2-0 lead on Max Kepler's solo HR and RBI single, but the wheels came off in the 4th when Alex Bregman took him deep to tie the game, and then a dropped fly ball by Brandon Marsh opened the gates for the Astros to add 2 more. Then in the 5th Bregman took Puk deep again with a man on and that was that. He did only walk one and struck out 5 in his 5 innings but obviously the longball killed him. Kepler homered again for his third in two days and Ji-Man added one for the second straight day as well in the 8th, but that only gave us the final score. The Jays won big against Atlanta so the lead is down to 5 1/2.

Team record: 50-24.

Art Deco · 07-01-2020, 08:59 AM

June 24: Sent Kevin Kiermaier to AAA Durham for injury rehab.

Gonna be interesting when Kiermaier comes back as to who 1) loses his roster spot, there haven't been that many at-bats for Khris Davis but he would have to go on waivers, and 2) who comes out of the lineup, Brujan was the beneficiary of the injury with Merrifield sliding to LF, that arrangement could stay with Marsh going to the bench or some rotation of those 3 for the LF/2B spot could happen as well.

Game 1: The Rays took advantage of some early Yankees miscues and a strong outing for Brendan McKay to beat the Yankees 10-5 in the first game of their weekend series. With two out and two on in the bottom of the first, Aaron Hicks dropped a fly ball, allowing a run to score and Nelson Cruz followed with a 2-run single to give the Rays an early 3-1 lead after Gleyber Torres homered in the top of the inning. And then in the 2nd, Torres' error was the key play leading to a Wander RBI double and Ruiz sac fly and it was 5-1. Meanwhile, McKay was looking good, ending with 10 Ks over 6 innings. He would have allowed 2 runs instead of 3 had I not let him pitch to one batter in the 7th who scored when Dany Jimenez served up a Gary Sanchez HR. Wander drove in two more with a triple in the 6th and Brandon Marsh was 3-3 with a walk and an RBI triple of his own in his bid to stay in the lineup. Toronto won so the lead remains 6, but we're another day closer to the end.

June 25: Optioned P AJ Puk to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham.

Time to bring McClanahan back to the role he was successful in, middle/long relief.

Game 2: Tonight's game can be summed up pretty simply: Gerrit Cole had it and Max Fried didn't. The Rays had gotten to the Yankee ace in the past (in fact as recently as last weekend) but he was on tonight going 7.2 5 2 0 2 9. Fried meanwhile, although striking out 7 in 3.1, walked 3 and allowed 6 hits to give up 5 runs. Only a Gio Urshela in error in the 8th allowed the Rays to get 2 runs on singles from Nelson Cruz (a team-leading 59 RBI) and Abraham Toro. Mike Trout went deep twice in a 7-6 Angels win over Toronto so at least the lead stays at 6.

Game 3: What started out as a pitcher's duel between Tyler Glasnow and Deivi Garcia ended up a 7-5 game, but one in which the Rays came out on top. Glasnow was down 2-0 three batters into the game after a walk and a Gleyber Torres HR but that would turn out to be the only hit he allowed in his 6 innings, walking 3 and striking out 8. He left down 2-1 as Ronaldo Hernandez once again homered in his backup role to provide the Rays run, which brought us to the bottom of the 7th. The Rays exploded for 6 runs bookended by a 2-run shot by Yusniel Diaz to put them in front and a 3-run blast from Max Kepler. This made it 7-2 going into the 9th, and after getting the last two outs of the eighth, Zack Britton put the first two men on (one via walk, giving him 16 in 15 2/3 innings with the Rays, not good, but he still has a 2.30 ERA after today), so Nick Anderson had to come on and after whiffing the first two he faced he yielded a 3-run homer to Aaron Hicks that gave us the final margin. Will Harris, who came on in the 7th, got the win but had to leave after getting the first out in the 8th (he came back out because he only threw 9 pitches in the 7th) with shoulder tendinitis that's a 1-2 week DtD injury which will probably necessitate an IL stint for him. Justin Upton led the Angels to win over Toronto so the lead is back up to 7.

Team record: 52-25.

Art Deco · 07-01-2020, 04:49 PM

Game 1: What should have been a laugher turned out to be a nail-biter as the Rays nearly completely squandered an 8-2 lead and hung on to beat Washington 8-7. Joe Ryan got the start and gave up his obligatory HR, a first-inning solo shot by Carter Kieboom. But against Patrick Corbin in the bottom of the inning the first three Rays reached to load the bases for Khris Davis, spelling Nelson Cruz at DH, and Khrush khrushed one into the left-field stands for a grand slam. They added one in the second, two more in the 4th including a Wander homer, and then another one in the fifth. Ryan had also given up a solo HR to Juan Soto, but ran out of gas in the 6th as he and Shane McClanahan combined to allow 2 runs around a Toro error. McClanahan gave up one of his own in the 7th, but Alvarado bailed him out and pitched a perfect 8th. With the score 8-5, Hand came on but was shaky, walking Soto, giving up a double to Robles and seeing them both score on a sac fly and a single, but he got the final two outs to stay a perfect 18-for-18 in saves. Ryan goes to 7-2, and the Jays won in Houston to keep the lead at 7.

June 28: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, activated OF Kevin Kiermaier from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

I put off the reckoning of which position player to drop from the active roster with Kiermaier's return by sending down McClanahan, who wouldn't have been available tonight and also with a rare Wednesday off coming up. Khris Davis's grand slam last night earned him a reprieve and eventually either he or Brandon Marsh will be the one to go. Davis, of course, would have to pass through waivers.

Game 2: Washington rolled out Zack Greinke to pitch, and it was almost inevitable he'd pitch well against the Rays despite being pounded by everyone else. He uncharacteristically walked 2 Rays in the first but both were caught stealing (Brujan and Franco) by JT Realmuto, who was a thorn in the Rays' side throughout the 4 games they've played against Washington this season. And sure enough it was Realmuto who took Blake Snell deep in the fourth inning when Snell was on a roll, striking out 8 at that point, and put Washington up to stay 2-0. Meanwhile, Greinke got past that wild first inning and set the Rays down until the 6th, when Kiermaier homered, Brujan doubled and came around to score on Wander's AL-leading 9th sac fly of the season. But by then Washington had added two more runs against Snell in the 6th, who was tiring and put two men on that AJ Puk allowed to score. And 4-2 was the final as Greinke got the win with an 8 7 2 2 2 3 line, his best outing since shutting out Boston early in the season for the Rays. Toronto was pounded by Houston 13-5 so they gained no ground.

Team record: 53-26.

Art Deco · 07-01-2020, 10:06 PM

Game 1: Offense is completely out of control in this year's version of my save, I think next year I'm going to set the offensive environment to 1988 just to keep my sanity. Tonight was a great example as what was a 4-2 game in the 6th inning ended 14-10. Fortunately it was the Rays with two touchdowns again but I can't say that I enjoy these games that much. Anyway, McKay was largely terrible again and bailed out by 4 double plays (they turned a 5th after he left, has to be a season high), although he hung in there after a 4-run second and kept it that way until the Rays could come back. And come back they did. Cristian Javier had kept them pretty much in check through 5 with a Kepler HR being one of the two runs, but the wheels came off for him in the 6th when he issued a single and four walks consecutively, another run scored on a passed ball and then Kiermaier hit a grand slam, his second homer in as many games since coming back (he's slugging .711, folks!) to cap a 7-run inning to make it 9-4. With a huge lead (not really that huge these days) McKay stayed in and of course gave up a couple of runs, but the Rays added 4 more in the 7th and Wander homered in the 8th (he had a double, triple and HR but no single) to make it 14-6 and surely I could leave Zack Britton in with an 8-run lead. Nope, he got into trouble, brought in AJ Puk and he didn't do much better and suddenly it was 14-10 and I finally had to bring in Alvarado to stop the nonsense, which he did with a pair of Ks. Toronto had lost the night before but was idle today, so the lead is up to a season-high 8.

Game 2: Ah it was nice to have a game that wasn't arena baseball for a change as Max Fried dominated an extremely dangerous Astros lineup to the tune of 8 5 0 0 1 8 in his best outing in several games as the Rays took their second straight over Houston by a 7-3 score. You'll notice the "3" in there for the Astros; as the saying goes "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and with a 7-0 lead in the 9th I brought in Zack Britton once again, and once again he crapped the bed and this time Nick Anderson had to clean it up. Austin Adams is due back in a couple of days and I was going to send out a position player but I may just drop Britton if he can't be trusted with 7 and 8-run leads. This was a 3-0 game for most of its duration with runs off a wild pitch, a Kepler sac fly and a Nelson Cruz RBI single by the 3rd inning. The Rays finally busted it open in the 8th with 4 more runs including a Cruz solo shot (his team-high 23rd) to get things going. Elsewhere, Keibert Ruiz and Ji-Man each had 4 hits tonight with Choi driving in a pair in the 8th. The win takes the team to the halfway point of the season at 55-26 and a 110-win pace will always play. The Jays won so they stay 8 behind.

July 2: Designated P Zack Britton for assignment and placed on waivers, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Signed P James Paxton to a minor league contract.

As mentioned above, I've had it with Britton and would rather go with McClanahan in the role of middle-inning lefty. Paxton's a long shot to contribute to the Rays but he will bolster the Durham rotation. The Angels let him go in the second year of a big contract they gave him but he cost me nothing now.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow just didn't have it tonight, and against a team like Houston they will make you pay and they did to the tune of an 11-6 win over the Rays. Glasnow went 5 9 7 6 2 3 and although the Rays took a 3-2 lead after 1 on a 2-run Kepler double and RBI single by Cruz, he let Houston tie it up in the 2nd and gave up 3 more in the 4th. Meanwhile after that first inning the offense couldn't get anything going against Cuban free agent signee David Villegas and a 7-4 game was broken open with 4 Houston runs in the 9th against Shane McClanahan, doing his best Zack Britton impression. Toronto lost so the lead remains 8.

Game 4: It was the Joe Ryan show at the Trop on a Sunday afternoon as the Rays righty pitched one of the best games of his career, going 7 4 1 1 0 12 against a very good offensive team (one that admittedly was without Bregman and Springer who had to rest due to fatigue). He received plenty of backing from the offensive in a 10-2 win, with his only blemish a homer allowed to former Ray Randy Arozarena as he goes to a team best 8-2. The offense scored early and often against Bryan Abreu and the star of the game with the bat was Brandon Marsh, who's on the bubble to go to Durham when Austin Adams comes back tomorrow (we've been only going with 12 pitchers since Kiermaier came back). Marsh was 4 for 5 with a HR, 3 RBI and a stolen base spelling Kiermaier. Khris Davis, the other hitter in jeopardy, got the start and went 1-4 with an RBI infield single. As it was Sunday other benchwarmers got to play and Alec Bohm took advantage also, spelling Ji-Man and going 3-5 with a HR and 3 RBI. Abe Toro had 3 hits too as the Rays banged out 17 on the day. In Toronto, reigning Cy Young winner Nate Pearson led the Jays past Detroit to keep the lead at 8 games. Pearson had been struggling and his 6 2/3 shutout innings lowered his ERA to 5.08. So it's not just the Rays "aces" who are struggling with tennis balls this season.

Team record: 56-27.

Art Deco · 07-02-2020, 05:21 PM

At 56-27 and tied with the Dodgers for the best record in baseball, it's certainly been a successful first half. Here's a look at the team's stats:

First of all, there's really nothing bad to say about the offense. Averaging 6.63 runs/game and leading the AL there can be no complaints, especially since the last 55 games or so have been played without Austin Meadows who at the time of his injury was the best player in MLB, amassing 3.6 WAR in early May. This is not a big HR-hitting team but that's fine because they can get on base and make contact, and in this day and age of the strikeout to average only 6.6 whiffs per game as a team is extraordinary. This is why they're never out of games this year and can easily come back from 3 and 4-run early deficits without blinking an eye. The team speed is excellent and they're not a bunch of singles hitters either.

The pitching, on the other hand, has been a disappointment. With the exception of the back end of the pen (Anderson/Alvarado/Hand) and Joe Ryan, it's been brutal at times and is the reason why they've had come back from a lot of 3 and 4-run deficits. The problems here are twofold: wildness (the big 4 are all up about a walk per 9 innings) and balls in play (they've allowed more of them than last year, and the defense hasn't been turning them into outs). They're still getting their strikeouts (and that ranking will probably go to #1 with more Glasnow starts in the mix after he missed the first two months), but any non-strikeout is a problem. This is not a very good defensive team as you can see from the stats and while Toro has been a defensive upgrade on Bohm at 3B, there are no elite defensive players here except for Kiermaier, and he missed a month and a half. Kepler for Renfroe has been a slight downgrade, and everyone else is average at best. Not sure how much to blame Keibert Ruiz for the staff's slump as he's a 60 defender. Perhaps the 6-man rotation with the days off got them out of whack but I haven't noticed that much improvement since they've been back in a regimented 5-man.

Anyway, here are my grades with a few comments.

C: Keibert Ruiz (A-) 319/371/520 makes him an all-star, and Ronaldo Hernandez (A) (361/430/723) has been ridiculous when he's gotten to play. It's hard to believe this was the same team that had the likes of Mike Zunino and Jason Castro at or below the Mendoza line the last couple of years.

1B: Ji-Man Choi (C+) 268/359/434 is really not the production of an upper-division 1B these days and I don't know if OOTP has this built in or not but I swear he's the streakiest player I've ever managed. Alec Bohm has struggled in intermittent play but might start getting more at-bats (he would have already if we ever faced any lefties, only 20 in 83 starts). Barring a huge second half I'm having a hard time seeing Ji-Man back next year as his salary approaches eight digits.

2B: Vidal Brujan (A-) 310/387/394 makes him the prototypical leadoff man. Yes, it'd be nice if he had a bit more power but for a rookie I can't complain. He was in danger of being overtaken by Xavier Edwards in the grand scheme of things after a disappointing 2021 in the minors but with Edwards missing April, he grabbed the opportunity and (literally) ran with it and then kept it up as a true regular after Meadows got hurt and Merrifield moved to LF. My only qualm is that he's been caught 9 times in 23 steal attempts which is a net negative sabermetrically.

SS: Wander Franco (B+) This grade is by Wander standards after a brutal May that saw him drop to .244. He's back up to 294/337/531 after a red-hot June and he should be just fine.

3B: Abraham Toro (B+). He was who we thought he was, his 278/384/440 slash is virtually identical to what he did in two extended periods with Houston the last two seasons filling in for Bregman and he's soldified the Spinal Tap drummer of a position 3B had been the last few years.

LF: Whit Merrifield (B)/Austin Meadows (A+). It would have been nice to see what Meadows could have done this year after he appeared to be bringing it up a notch after he brought it up a notch last year. An MVP wouldn't have been out of the question. Merrifield has filled in well, though, and as long as he's hitting over .300 he's useful and he's hitting .312 right now.

CF: Kevin Kiermaier (A-)/Brandon Marsh (B-). Kiermaier got off to a red-hot start at the plate this year just as he did last year, except this time he got hurt in mid-May and missed about 6 weeks so regression hasn't had a chance to kick in as he's still slugging about .700. I've been wary of exercising the $12M team option for him next season with Marsh and Josh Lowe as heirs apparent, but if he keeps this up, I'm going to have to. Marsh has been pretty good but with less power than hoped for - perhaps yesterday's game is a start in that direction and if so he can get some ABs playing LF as well.

RF: Max Kepler (B-). Kepler's drawing walks and hitting for power but his average of .227 is even worse than Renfroe's (although he still has a higher OBP than Hunter did the last 2 seasons). His RBI total is misleadingly high with all the baserunners the team puts in front of him. I'm hoping for positive regression the second half but have to say I'm disappointed so far.

DH: Nelson Cruz (A). Nellie keeps going and at age 42 he's still slugging .561. He's been pretty consistent as well. At some point I have to go with Seth Beer and/or Kirilloff here so I doubt he gets re-signed, but at $7M he's been a bargain so far.

SP: Blake Snell, Brendan McKay (C-). I'm lumping these two together as they've been the biggest disappointments. I expect some wildness from Snell but a 5.99 ERA is bad and it isn't all bad luck either as his FIP is far and away a career-worst 4.96. I can only hope for better. With only one year left on his contract, he could be moved in the offseason. McKay's 6.15 ERA is also supported by his bad 5.35 FIP and the alarming thing with him is that his BB/9 has gone from 2.1 to 3.9, almost doubling. His stuff isn't that overpowering to be walking that many hitters.

SP: Tyler Glasnow, Max Fried (B-). Glasnow's a bit of an incomplete. Since coming back in late May he's shown flashes of his normal brilliance but has had some real clunkers in there too. In his case though it's been bad luck and bad defense as his 4.84 ERA belies his 2.62 FIP. After a slow first 4-6 weeks last year Fried was one of the most consistent pitchers in the league the rest of the way but this year has been consistently inconsistent. His BB/9 has also spiked, from 2.5 to 4.1 and that's been the big killer here. His FIP each season has been in a narrow 3.69-4.05 range but with the walks up it's 4.41.

SP: Joe Ryan (B+). He was a B until that brilliant outing against Houston yesterday. He's been the one starter who's followed up what he did last year with more of the same, although with his K's down about 1 per 9 and HR allowed slightly up he's the one starter outpitching his FIP.

RP: Nick Anderson (B-), Jose Alvarado (A), Brad Hand (B+). Anderson's yet another of the Rays whose control has deserted him this year - in years past he's been between 2.0 and 3.3 BB/9 but it's up to 4.3 this season and there's been a slight erosion in his K/9 from around 15 in years past to 13 this season. Alvarado on the other hand has been money, and while his 0.56 ERA isn't sustainable, his 1.74 FIP says it's not that far off. Hand has been pretty reliable (yet to blow a save) so no complaints there.

Overall team grade: A.

Art Deco · 07-02-2020, 06:30 PM

Game 1: It may have been July 4 but there really weren't many fireworks as traveling to Marlins Park seemed more like time travel to an era where pitching and defense reigned supreme. It was a duel between Blake Snell and follower Pablo Lopez, and after the Rays scored against opener Jonathan Holder in the 1st on a Ji-Man RBI single, Bryson Brigman came around to score on a Dom Smith sac fly after doubling in the 6th and 1-1 was where we stood through 8 innings. Snell went 7 5 1 1 1 3 on only 76 pitches and would have gone longer except he was pinch-hit for in the top of the 8th, while Lopez had shut the Rays out for 7 innings. Finally in the 9th (after a scoreless 8th from Alvarado) the Rays broke through. After Alec Bohm (who came in for Ji-Man after he was ejected for arguing a called third strike) grounded into a DP they staged a 2-out rally. Max Kepler singled, Abe Toro walked, and then Brandon Marsh stayed hot by ripping a 2-run double to the gap in left-center and the Rays were up 3-1. Hand had a 1-2-3 9th for save #19 and the Rays go to 57-27. To make the holiday even more festive for the Rays and their fans, Detroit clubbed the boys from Canada 12-6 to make the lead a season-high 9 games. Going to have to start talking magic numbers before long.

Game 2: It's not too often the bullpen blows a game, but tonight it happened as the Rays fell 5-4 to Miami after leading 4-2 most of the game. Brendan McKay wasn't sharp but he got a couple of double plays and was 6 8 2 2 3 4 through 6 and I should have taken that and run. Instead my personal managerial bugaboo of leaving guys in one batter too long backfired as he gave up a double to a leadoff lefty who came around to score in the 7th to make it 4-3. Still with Anderson and Hand to follow it shouldn't be a problem but Nick was greeted by a Nomar Mazara HR and then Hand came on in the 9th and gave up a 1-out walk-off solo blast to Dominic Smith and the Rays let one slip away. Keibert Ruiz was the offense, with a first-inning solo HR and an RBI single in a 3-run 3rd, but they couldn't get anything going after that and it cost them. Brandon Marsh had 3 more hits and a steal given an opportunity to lead off and is going to be tough to get out of the lineup. The Jays beat Jacob deGrom and the Mets to pull back within 8.

Game 3: It was all Max Fried and Brandon Marsh today as the Rays routed the Marlins 8-1 to take the first all-Florida series this year. Fried ended up one out away from a shutout but lost it on Wander Franco's error after Monte Harrison had tripled with 2 out in the 9th. His final line was 9 8 1 0 1 9 on 116 pitches and early on a shutout or a complete game looked unlikely after he had several baserunners to deal with in the first four innings, including a bases loaded, one-out situation in the 4th which he escaped with a strikeout and getting the pitcher Sixto Sanchez to ground out. At that point it was only 1-0 on Marsh's solo shot in the 1st, but the Rays broke it open in the 4th when after Ronaldo and Kiermaier singled, Fried bunted them over (the first sac bunt of the season, making the Rays the last team in MLB to get one) and then Brujan, Marsh and Wander hit consecutive run-scoring singles to make it 4-0. And then they further opened things up in the 6th when they added 3 more including Marsh's 2nd HR of the game, a 2-run round-tripper. Kepler added #16 for the final Rays run in the 7th. Marsh, who was thisclose to being demoted to Durham 5 days ago, suddenly has gone 11 for 19 with 3 HR and 9 RBI over his last 4 games. The only dark cloud from the game was that Ji-Man had to leave with a bruised wrist after being hit by a pitch, and is DTD for 7 days, so Alec Bohm will get a run at 1B for a little while. Fried's win is a team-high 9th. North of the border, Pete Alonso hit 3 HRs to give him an MLB-leading 33 as the Mets trounced the Jays 13-3 to put the division lead back at 9 games. Unfortunately it's those first-place Mets the Rays will face next for 3 games this weekend at CitiField after tomorrow's off-day.

Team record: 58-28.

Art Deco · 07-03-2020, 11:54 AM

Game 1: The Rays were Thor'd as Noah Syndergaard shut them down allowing only 1 run and 4 hits over 8 innings and fanning 8 in a 3-1 loss to the Mets. The lone run Rays run came off the bat of - you guessed it - Brandon Marsh with a HR to right in the 2nd. Tyler Glasnow got the start for the Rays and wasn't that bad except for two pitches - HRs allowed to Michael Conforto (solo) and Pete Alonso (a 2-run shot, his MLB-high 34th of the season) and that was that, his final line 5 4 3 3 2 7. Shane McClanahan had two shutout innings in relief and Austin Adams saw his first game action in eons, pitching a scoreless inning around 2 walks. Also, Keibert Ruiz extended his hitting streak to 16 games so that's a thing to mention now. The Yankees beat the Jays so the lead remains 9.

Game 2: This was a game to forget as the Mets bludgeoned the Rays 15-6. Joe Ryan started off the game single, HBP, 3-run homer to Pete Alonso, solo HR to Joey Bart, and then gave up another HR to Bart in the 2nd to make it 6-2. The Rays actually pulled to within 6-5 in the 3rd thanks to some Mets errors, but Yonny Chirinos came on and stunk as well, giving up 5 runs in the 3rd which included a sequence where he balked in a run and then threw a pair of wild pitches allowing runners to score. AJ Puk came on and gave up 4 more runs on 2 HRs in his 2 innings with only Dany Jimenez able to walk off the mound with some pride as he threw a pair of scoreless frames. I knew as soon as I mentioned Keibert Ruiz's hit streak it would end, and it did. Abe Toro had a pair of RBI singles to pace the offense and red-hot Brandon Marsh drove in one as well. Ryan actually had an RBI single of his own but that was offset when Yonny allowed Hector Rondon to do likewise. The other New York team won as well, which means the lead stays at 9 despite losing two straight.

July 10: Optioned P AJ Puk to AAA Durham, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham.

Puk's stats for the Rays can best be described by adding an "e" to the end of his name: 9.1 innings, 12 hits, 10 walks, 10 ER, 4 HR allowed. I've noticed from some of my trade shopping that Puk still is in demand, and he is better than this, but I don't think I'll hesitate trading him if he's the key piece in a deal I might want to make. He's part of a bad LHP trade tree that started with Ryan Yarbrough dealt for Conner Menez (Yarbrough has a 5.00 ERA with the Giants) and then Menez dealt for Puk. Schmidt, meanwhile, who made his MLB debut in New York a few weeks back gets to visit the Big Apple again but hopefully he's not needed today. He's keeping the roster spot warm for Will Harris who will be back in a couple of days.

Game 3: This one's going to hurt. The Rays and Mets went scoreless through 11 innings before Alec Bohm singled home Yusniel Diaz, who had pinch-doubled, to give the Rays a 1-0 lead in the 12th. With Brad Hand having pitched the previous 2 innings (which will probably put him out for 4-5 days) Austin Adams came on, allowed the leadoff guy to get on but got a double play, then hit Andres Gimenez with a pitch and then let Brandon Nimmo double him home to send us to the 13th, and then Adams again got two out, but walked Joey Bart and then gave up another RBI double, this time to Michael Conforto for a Mets win. So not only did they lose but they burned through the pen with Alvarado (28), Anderson (23), Hand (36) and Adams (36) all throwing quite a few pitches. This also marks the first time they've been swept in a 3-game series this year. Obviously the pitching outside of Adams was a bright spot, with Blake Snell going 6 1-hit innings, walking 4 and striking out 4. The offense struggled with the big culprit being Wander, who was 0-5 today with several key RBI situations on top of being 0-5 yesterday. The Jays were swept also, so the lead remains 9 but it was the Yankees doing the sweeping so they've crept to 11 back.

Team record: 58-31.

Art Deco · 07-03-2020, 06:54 PM

Game 1: Brendan McKay started off rolling, pitching two scoreless innings and striking out 4. Then he couldn't get anyone out and a 2-0 Rays lead became a 9-2 deficit by the time the middle of the third rolled around. Now if you've been following this team all season you won't be surprised the Rays came back and made a game of it, but unfortunately they fell just short at 10-9 for their first 4-game losing streak of the season. They had a couple of good chances to tie or win - in the eighth they got the first two on but couldn't get them around, and then Tigers closer Joe Jimenez walked two with two out but Abraham Toro flew to right. McKay's line ended an abysmal 2.1 3 8 8 5 4 as Clarke Schmidt allowed the last couple of his runners to score but settled down to go 3 2/3 allowing only one run. Unfortunately it turned out to be the decisive 10th run but it was unearned due to a Wander error. Wander's new slump continues on as well as he was 0-4. But Brandon Marsh stayed boiling lava hot, going 3-5 with a HR and 4 RBI while Vidal Brujan was 3-5 with a HR and 3 RBI although he was caught stealing for the 10th time. Somehow they scored 9 runs despite the Franco/Ruiz/Cruz/Kepler 2-5 spots going a combined 0-17. Toronto finally gained ground, but that was because they were idle so the lead is 8 1/2.

Game 2: The painful losses continue, with this one another game the Rays were one out away from winning and ultimately lost. It was an unlikely pitcher's duel between Max Fried and Zac Godley for 6 innings (the Godley part was unlikely) until Detroit broke through for 2 runs in the top of the 7th off Fried, who ended with a still-good 7 6 2 2 2 6 line. But the Rays answered right back in the bottom of the frame on a solo shot by Kepler into the rays tank and then a 2-run shot from you know who, Mr. Marsh. The Rays took the 3-2 lead into the 9th after Nick Anderson had a 1-2-3 8th and with Brad Hand still tired from his long outing Sunday, Jose Alvarado came on for the save. Alvarado, who has been almost untouchable this year, gave up a 1-out double to Kennys Vargas and after getting the second out, yielded a game-tying single to Cesar Puello. On to extras we went, and in the top of the 10th Will Harris served up a 2-out HR to Daz Cameron to make it 4-3. But in the bottom of the 10th, the Rays rallied with Whit Merrifield driving in the tying run. With only Yonny left in the pen, Harris came out for the 11th, immediately got into trouble with runners at 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, and Yonny came in and allowed Jakson Reetz an RBI single to make it 5-4. Marsh got on with a walk in the bottom of the 11th, but the slumping Kiermaier hit into a double play to end the game and cap an 0-5 day, and the losing streak now stands at 5. But behind a big game from our old buddy Willy Adames, Atlanta beat Toronto, who seems determined not to get back in the race as we still sit with an 8 1/2 game lead.

Game 3: The Rays snapped their losing streak in emphatic fashion with a 11-4 drubbing of the Tigers and the star of the game was Ronaldo Hernandez, whom I keep waiting for to regress but doesn't. All he did today was hit a bases-clearing triple to give the Rays a 6-3 third inning lead that put them in front to stay, and then followed that with a pair of HRs on his way to a 6-RBI game. His triple slash numbers are now 358/419/758 with 11 HR and 27 RBI and maybe he isn't regressing because he only has 95 ABs and plays every third or fourth day. Regression is still going to happen but I'm enjoying the ride. Also regression hasn't caught up with Brandon Marsh either, as he hit yet another HR to tie the game at 3 after Tyler Glasnow gave up a 3-run HR in the 3rd to Willie Calhoun. That was all Glasnow allowed as he went 7 4 3 3 4 7 for his 4th win of the season. Max Kepler homered again as well, a 2-run shot in the 1st to put the Rays on top early as part of a 3-hit, 3-RBI day for him. 2021 2nd overall pick Kumar Rocker made his MLB debut in relief for Detroit and showed good (4 Ks in 1 1/3 IP) and bad (2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs, one earned). Speaking of high draft picks, #1 overall 2020 pick Austin Martin has been up for about a month and was on base 3 of 4 times today for the Tigers with 1 hit and 2 walks and is 277/312/465 so far. Toronto snapped their own 5-game losing streak today, so the lead still sits at 8 1/2.

Team record: 59-33.

Bonus graphic: Brandon Marsh's game log over the past 10 games (18-48, 7 HR, 18 RBI, 4 SB, 4 BB)

Also, speaking of football scores showing up this year (from today):

And finally, those same Nats just DFA'd Zack Greinke after he put up a 6.82 ERA in 34 innings for them as well. Sad to say, it looks like his career could be done.

Art Deco · 07-04-2020, 08:31 AM

(It's actually 4 games against Minnesota but I can't edit the header)

Game 1: The Rays league-leading offense failed to show up tonight, but until the 7th inning the one run they scored was enough behind Joe Ryan, who after getting the first out in the inning was 6.1 2 0 0 0 11. But he gave up a single to Jorge Polanco and then the inevitable HR to Mitch Garver and Minnesota was up 2-1. Ryan allowed another hit which Will Harris allowed to score on a Hunter Renfroe (remember him?) double, and then Harris put a man on in the 8th that Alvarado allowed to score and the final was 4-1 Twins. The Rays could only manage five hits for the game and of course their one run was courtesy of Brandon Marsh, who walked, stole second and scored on a Wander (who was hitless again) sac fly. Marsh also doubled. Kiermaier also took the collar again as the team has now lost 6 of 7. Toronto finally cut into the lead with a win as it's down to 7 1/2. We still have 12 games to play with against them.

Game 2: When a team is going poorly they find new ways to lose and tonight was an example. Tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the 9th, Brad Hand came on and walked the leadoff hitter Nick Gordon but then Keibert Ruiz threw away Byron Buxton's sacrifice attempt into left field, putting runners and 2nd and 3rd and Andrew Benintendi delivered the game-winning single. In some respects they were fortunate to get to the 9th at 3-3 since the offense was largely quiet with only 4 hits on the night. Brujan doubled to lead off the game and came around to score on a Ruiz groundout and then in the 4th, a pair of walks and a Kepler single loaded the bases for Abraham Toro, who doubled in 2 with Kepler thrown out at the plate by his counterpart Hunter Renfroe. And that was it for the offense. In fact Tyler Duffey, who came on to pitch the final 2 2/3, struck out 6 consecutive Rays at one point and the team fanned 13 times for the night. Blake Snell started and was OK (6 8 3 3 1 5) but yielded HRs to Benintendi and Addison Russell. And Toronto won again so they've cut 2 1/2 games off the lead to get it down to 6 1/2 now.

July 16: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 24-year-old minor league second baseman Nick Sogard to the Texas Rangers, getting 28-year-old right fielder Joey Gallo, retaining 80% in return. Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with a back bruise.

Just grabbed the biggest prize on the rental market for a fairly modest cost. Don't need to reiterate my feelings on Puk although with his stuff he could still repeat his 2021 and be a pretty good pitcher. Sogard is a C+ prospect at a position that's way overcovered in the organization (Brujan/Edwards/G.Jones), and it's only costing us about $1.1M in salary since Texas retained 80%. So basically an offer I couldn't refuse. Gallo of course is kind of the antithesis of the offense as currently constructed (low average, strikes out, big power) but still gets on base at a .350-.370 clip and provides a massive infusion of power. Ultimately he's taking over for Ji-Man at 1B down the stretch but for now I kick that can down the road by putting Marsh on the IL. Although I probably didn't have to put him on the IL, I'll err on the side of caution and with the all-star break coming up he'll only miss 6 games instead of 10 so Gallo will play LF for now. Going to see how the trade market develops over these last two weeks but Ji-Man will likely be moved.

Game 3: The rot continues as they drop their eighth in nine games, this time 6-3. McKay was terrible again, walking two and giving up a 3-run HR to Mitch Garver in the first and then allowing a 2-run HR to Royce Lewis in the 2nd. He settled down from there, pitching 3 2/3 scoreless but the damage was done, and 3 guesses as to who goes fifth in the rotation after the break. Meanwhile the offense stunk again although Joey Gallo in his Rays debut wasn't to blame as he had an RBI single in the 1st and drew a walk in his 4 plate appearances. No, it was the usual suspects like Wander (0-4 again, I've never seen anyone with such a rollercoaster season and I've been managing Ji-Man Choi), Ji-Man (0-3), Kiermaier and Nelson Cruz. As for those latter two, Kiermaier did actually get a base hit in the 7th, and Cruz hit a 2-run HR in the 9th to make the final margin what it was but they all have snowflakes next to their names. Any team that lets the immortal Jaime Barria 3-hit them over 7 innings is slumping. Boston did us a favor and beat the Jays so things could have been worse, although Seattle won today giving them the best record in the AL (60-36 vs the Rays' 59-36) meaning if the season ended today the Rays would play these same Twins in the first round.

Game 4: This game had all the hallmarks of another Rays loss. Early HR allowed by starting pitcher? Check. Defensive mistake leads to unearned run? Check. Offense can't hit its way out of a paper bag? Check. All of this was true through 5 innings at Target Field after Max Fried allowed a 2-run first inning HR to Miguel Sano (you didn't think we'd get out of a 4-game series with Minnesota without him hitting one, did you?) and a solo shot to Jorge Polanco to go with a run scoring after an Alec Bohm error at 3B as he filled in for the slumping Toro. So it was 4-1 Twins after 5 and it was going to be 9 losses in 10 games. But (the) sixth happened. Joey Gallo led off with a double, Nelson Cruz singled him to 3rd, Ji-Man doubled Gallo home sending Cruz to 3rd, Bohm walked, Yusniel Diaz (playing for Kepler) singled to score Cruz to make it 4-3, but then Ronaldo flied to shallow left and the runners had to hold, and Kiermaier hit into a force at the plate. But just when it looked like the Rays would squander the opportunity to take the lead, Vidal Brujan doubled into the RCF gap to clear the bases and give the Rays a 6-4 lead. With Fried having to leave after five having thrown 106 pitches, the question was to how to get the bullpen big 3 through 4 innings. With two lefties due up in the 6th, Alvarado got the first call and despite allowing a couple of hits, made it through. With three straight righties looming in the 7th, Nick Anderson came on and got the job done, and with 4 days off looming Nick pitched a second inning and was perfect there too (he only threw 25 pitches total) so that left it to Hand, who if he allowed a baserunner would face Sano as at least the tying run at the plate. Well sure enough he walked Royce Lewis on 4 pitches to lead off the inning, but then he struck out a pair of tough hitters in Benintendi and Polanco, setting up the confrontation with Sano with the game on the line. Hand proceeded to strike Sano out to strike out the side and get his 20th save. Fried hung in there through 5 to earn his 10th win with a Dyatlov-esque ("not great, not terrible") 5 7 4 3 2 6 line. The win was critical because Toronto prevailed as well (as did the Yankees who are now only 9 back).

Jesus Luzardo of the A's pitched the best game of the season so far with a 9 1 0 0 0 16 shutout of the Giants for a Game Score of 101. Granted the Giants are one of the worst offenses in MLB, but still quite a performance.

Team record: 60-36.

Art Deco · 07-04-2020, 05:11 PM

Here are the AL All-Stars. Unsurprisingly the Rays made a good showing with 6 representatives although one is injured (Meadows) and the other was just acquired the other day (Gallo). Those with asterisks won the voting at their position (Cruz was at DH). Will update with how the game went when I play it shortly. Meadows' numbers bring a tear to my eye.

And here's the game:

As far as the participating Rays go, Gallo was 0-3 with a walk and a run scored (3 Ks otherwise), Keibert Ruiz had a pinch-hit single, Nelson Cruz was 0-2, and Jose Alvarado pitched a scoreless 9th, striking out Christian Yelich to end the game. Hand was not used. The AL's rout was led by Vlad Jr. who had a bases-clearing double and a 2-run HR and Alex Bregman who had a pair of 2-run HRs.

And for those wondering, Miguel Sano beat Pete Alonso in the finals of the HR Derby.

Art Deco · 07-04-2020, 09:45 PM

Game 1: Tyler Glasnow was brilliant in the Rays' first game after the All-Star break, twirling 6 shutout innings with 2 walks and 10 Ks in a 7-1 win over Miami. Wander homered in the first to give the Rays a 1-0 lead and for a while that was all Glasnow had to work with. But they broke it open in the 5th when Wander walked, stole second and scored on a Keibert Ruiz single and then Joey Gallo followed with his first Rays HR to make it 4-0. Nelson Cruz made it 7-0 in the 7th with a 3-run shot, his 25th. Will Harris pitched a scoreless 7th but with a 7-run lead Austin Adams shat the bed with four consecutive walks before Dany Jimenez bailed him out with a pair of strikeouts and finished off the game. The Blue Jays continued their habit of shadowing the Rays result with a win of their own, so the lead remains 6 1/2.

Game 2: Joe Ryan was in command as was the Rays offense as they once again took it to the Marlins to the tune of 10-3. Ryan went 7 5 3 3 0 11 which would have been 7 3 1 1 0 11 had I not done my usual thing of bringing starters out one inning too long with a big lead. Wander has decided to get hot again, reaching base all 5 times up, going 3-3 with 2 walks, a HR for the second straight night and 2 RBI. Joey Gallo continues to have at least one big hit a night since joining the Rays, tonight it was a bases-clearing triple in the 2nd that put the team up 5-0 and chased Sixto Sanchez. Vidal Brujan was also 2-5 with a pair of RBI, the job-endangered Ji-Man had a solo shot, and Shane McClanahan whiffed 5 Marlins in his 2 scoreless innings in relief of Ryan, who is now 9-4. The Rays winning of course meant the Jays won, lead stays 6 1/2.

July 24: Traded 22-year-old minor league reliever Rodolfo Sanchez and 31-year-old reliever Austin Adams to the Cincinnati Reds, getting 30-year-old closer Giovanny Gallegos in return.

Adams has been a huge disappointment this season after he looked like the real deal last year, but he dropped from a 4.5-star guy to a 3.0 star guy this year and his control has been atrocious (23 BB in 26 IP). In return I get Gallegos, the Reds' closer this year who has a 10/45 BB/K ratio in 39 innings and has 60 control. Also, he's projected to only make about $3.4M next year in arbitration and he could serve as the team's closer next season if I don't bring Hand back yet again. The price of the upgrade was Sanchez, a potential 2-star middling prospect pitching at High-A Port Charlotte who hasn't distinguished himself so far.

Game 3: Today was a case of the offense not showing up, as they only managed 4 hits on the day in a 6-2 loss. Brendan McKay got the start because I preferred to save Fried and Snell for the Yankees and he had his usual disaster inning, this time in the third when he walked a pair and gave up three singles in a 3-run inning. His final line was 6 4 3 3 3 3, medicore consider the opposition This put the Rays behind 3-0 but Gallo hit his 2nd Rays HR to make it 3-1, and a Nelson Cruz sac fly cut it to 3-2 in a situation the Rays should have scored more runs. It stayed this way until the 9th (Giovanny Gallegos had a 1-2-3 8th in his Rays debut) when the recently-reliable Dany Jimenez got into trouble of his own making with a throwing error on a comebacker and then he yielded a 2-run HR to Jorge Alfaro and then put a couple of more on, one of which who went on to score. Vidal Brujan had 2 of the Rays' 4 hits today. The Jays gained ground with a sweep of Baltimore, so the lead is trimmed to 5 1/2 with the Yankees coming to town for 3.

Team record: 62-37.

Art Deco · 07-05-2020, 11:34 AM

Game 1: Blake Snell got the start, and it didn't start off too well as he walked Kolten Wong and Aaron Judge to lead off the game. But he bounced back to get the next 3, and rolled the rest of the way as the Rays pounded the Yankees 9-1. Snell ended with an excellent 6 4 1 1 3 7 line as he looked his old dominant self, the only blemish a 6th inning solo HR by Gleyber Torres. Meanwhile the offense got to work right away with (who else?) Joey Gallo clubbing a 2-run first inning HR off Deivi Garcia, Wander doubling and scoring on a wild pitch in the 3rd, and Nelson Cruz hitting #26 for 2 more in the 4th. Later on, Vidal Brujan had a 2-run double and Keibert Ruiz hit a solo shot, his 15th HR of the year, and everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. The Twins, who killed us right before the break, did us a favor by beating the Jays and bringing the lead back up to 6 1/2.

July 26: Activated OF Brandon Marsh from the 10-day IL, optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham.

I continue to kick the can down the road with respect to Ji-Man, as McClanahan pitched two innings yesterday and was an easy choice to send down.

Game 2: Max Fried pitched well, but it wasn't enough as the Yankees eked out a 3-2 win over the Rays. He was staked to a 2-0 lead after Toro walked, was doubled to 3rd by Marsh, then scored on a wild pitch and Marsh came home on Brujan's sac fly. Aaron Hicks homered to cut the lead in half in the 5th, and then Luke Voit hit a 2-run shot off Fried in the 6th to put the Yankees ahead to stay. The Rays had a chance to tie or win in the bottom of the 9th off Aroldis Chapman when with two out, pinch-hitter Alec Bohm and Toro singled, and pinch-hitter Whit Merrifield walked to load the bases, but Brujan struck out to end the game. Joey Gallo had his first unproductive day as a Ray with an 0-4. And Toronto beat Minnesota to cut the lead back to 5 1/2 games.

July 27: Claimed P Trevor Gott on waivers from the Chicago Cubs, optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham.

Gott has been an excellent reliever for the past 2 1/2 years now, and I'm not sure why the Cubs waived him (and the Mets waived him at the start of the season and the Cubs beat me out for the claim back then). He saved 29 games for SF in 2020 with a 2.85 ERA and then after a rough start in 2021 in SF, he was traded to the Mets and had a 1.52 ERA in 41 IP with a 13/41 BB/K ratio. And this year with the Cubs he had a 1.45 ERA in 18 innings with a 3/20 BB/K ratio. So no I'm not going to turn down a free pitcher of this caliber, and I had a 40-man roster spot open. Jimenez has been great this year but only went down because he was tired, he'll be back up very soon.

Game 3: Tyler Glasnow was not sharp to start this game, to say the least. With one out and a man on first to start the game, Glasnow walked Torres, struck out Stanton, but then walked Luke Voit and Aaron Hicks to force in a run and followed that with a walk to Gary Sanchez, forcing in another run. Then in the 2nd he allowed two singles for first and third to lead off the inning and a Judge sac fly made it 3-0. Max Kepler hit a 459-ft HR to make it 3-1 in bottom of the inning but Glasnow gave it right back with Aaron Hicks going to deep top 3 to make it 4-1. It was going to be one of those nights. Wander singled in Toro who had doubled to cut it back it 4-2 after 3, and Glasnow finally got through an inning unscathed in the 4th, setting the stage for a 6-run sixth inning that amusingly enough started and ended with a Joey Gallo strikeout. In between Kepler tripled, Cruz singled him home, Ji-Man walked, Toro singled in Cruz to tie the game, Marsh singled to load the bases and then Vidal Brujan stepped up with his specialty, the bases-clearing double. Wander singled him home, and it was 8-4. And that was the final score as Glasnow made it through 6 to get the win with a semi-ugly 6 5 4 4 5 4 line, and Trevor Gott (in his Rays debut), Alvarado and Nick Anderson all pitched scoreless innings to finish it out. Unlike last season, when the Rays struggled to beat the Yankees after an early season sweep at Yankee Stadium, the win makes the Rays 9-3 so far this year against the boys from the Bronx. And the good news continued in Toronto, where the Twins knocked off Toronto 3-2 to put the lead back up to 6 1/2.

Odd note: In a game between Washington and Milwaukee that went 7-7 to the 15th inning, the Brewers won on a grand slam from pitcher Sean Doolittle with two outs after they had exhausted their bench. The blast came off former Rays closer Emilio Pagan, who was known to give up a HR or two in his time.

Art Deco · 07-05-2020, 05:52 PM

July 28: Traded 31-year-old first baseman Ji-man Choi, 24-year-old minor league left fielder Matthew Barefoot, 24-year-old minor league reliever Graeme Stinson and 21-year-old minor league second baseman Curtis Mead to the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting 29-year-old first baseman Josh Bell and 23-year-old minor league second baseman Nick Gonzales in return.

Whoa Nelly, this is the big one. I was originally going to trade Ji-Man for a prospect but after playing him in the lineup the last few days I realized the team is probably better with Kiermaier on the bench and Marsh in CF with Gallo in LF since Choi is a better overall hitter than Kiermaier and the dropoff in defense with Marsh is not that much. So I circled back to the Pirates since Bell was the other big rental along with Gallo and while the Pirates are out of it too, they had not been as reasonable as Texas was w/r/t Gallo. Well with a few days until the deadline they got reasonable. Choi of course is still arbiration-eligible so they get their 1B for next season, Barefoot could hit 25 HR right now in the big leagues but I have an excess of OF prospects. Mead hasn't shown the ability to hit higher than single-A two years running now but still has some offensive potential. Stinson was the one I reluctantly parted with, but like the other two prospects he's Rule 5 eligible this year and that's always a concern with this franchise. Meanwhile I'm not selling out completely by getting 2020 #1 pick Gonzales in the deal. Don't really need another 2B prospect but he's a good one, doesn't have to be put on the 40-man and he will always make good trade bait in the future. So I get another massive middle-of-the-order bat who's a clear upgrade on Choi and the Pirates get some pieces for a guy they probably don't re-sign. All-in but not really mortgaging the future.

July 28: Optioned 1B/3B Alec Bohm to AAA Durham, recalled P Dany Jimenez from AAA Durham.

This was the other shoe to drop from the deal. With Bell being a RHB, Bohm's primary role as Ji-Man's platoon partner evaporated. At the moment I'm still looking to make Bohm my 1B next season but for now at least he'll get to play every day even if he won't be too happy about it. The irony is that back in the 20-21 offseason I traded Nate Lowe to the Phillies for Bohm, thinking he'd be my new 3B. Well this was one deal that backfired on me as Lowe over the last two seasons has become of the premier power hitters in the NL, hitting 37 HR last year and already with 30 this season. Had I known he'd pan out this well I would have kept him and dealt Choi for a 3B back then but at the time I didn't see PT for Lowe as Choi was coming off a (unbeknownst to me anomalous) 4-WAR season and Jose Martinez was the DH and just won the batting title. I still have two OFs riding the bench (assuming I stick with Marsh in CF that puts Kiermaier and Yusniel on the pine) so if Toro needs a breather at 3B I'll just have to have Merrifield fake it there.

Game 1: Well I knew the addition of Bell would further boost an already elite offense, but I didn't think it would have this kind of effect. Of course the horrible Orioles pitching staff had a lot to do with it too but the Rays pounded out a 26-5 win, scoring at least one run in every inning (and at least 2 in every inning except the 2nd and 6th). Wander had 3 HR and 9 RBI among his 5 hits to lead the way (he even stole a base too, when it was briefly semi-close), Bell was 3-6 with 2 RBI in his debut, and hell, I'll just post the screencap of the Rays hitters portion of the box score right here:

What I want to know is how Keibert Ruiz managed to go 0-7 among all this. I was planning on starting Ronaldo tomorrow anyway. Joe Ryan was the beneficiary of all this run support to go 10-4, he went 6.1 6 3 3 1 8 giving up a pair of obligatory HRs, and Yonny finished the game out allowing a pair of runs himself. Of course this all means they probably lose 4-3 tomorrow. Toronto was idle so the Rays are now up 7 games.

Game 2: Well they didn't lose 4-3 as predicted. That would have been respectable. Instead, Brendan McKay melted down yet again and has made his last start for the time being as Baltimore got their revenge for last night with a 16-6 drubbing. McKay was wild again, walking four in the 1 1/3 innings he lasted as he gave up four hits as well and six runs total. Had to burn through Jimenez, Gott and Gallegos just to get through the game, having used Yonny for 2 2/3 last night. And I ended up going to Yonny again in the 8th when Gallegos couldn't make it through a third inning and the tired Chirinos gave up four more runs. The O's were up 10-0 after 3. Of course the Rays still got their runs, although they all came late in garbage time - Toro had a 3-run HR and Josh Bell hit his first Rays HR in the 9th and Marsh followed with one of his own. Oh, and I left out the best news: Joey Gallo had to leave in the 4th legging out an infield single, he's DtD for 5 days with knee soreness so Kiermaier will be back in the lineup. As for McKay's spot in the rotation, Monday is an off day so he can be skipped next time through. He may be sent to Durham in the interim so I can get a long man up. At least the White Sox kept the night from being worse by beating Toronto 5-4 so the lead remains 7.

July 30: Traded 26-year-old minor league starting pitcher Brendan McKay and 24-year-old minor league right fielder JJ Bleday to the San Diego Padres, getting 26-year-old starting pitcher Chris Paddack, 23-year-old minor league left fielder Reese Albert and 23-year-old minor league right fielder Tim Tawa in return. Recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham.

It was easy and it wasn't easy trading McKay. The easy part is not dealing with the frustration of his 2022 poor performance any longer and a look under the hood convinced me to deal him. His ratings are down across the board (45 in control for example), giving me little hope of a quick turnaround. The hard part was the fact that he was good for 8 WAR the previous two seasons and I've traded away another link to Rays reality circa 2020. Bleday is an excellent prospect as well and will be a good player for San Diego (or wherever he ends up as the AI likes to trade him too) but is more of a doubles guy than a pure power hitter and we have so much OF prospect depth I could afford to part with him. Of course the big news is Paddack coming in return, a guy with 60 stuff and 70 control and who sports a 5:1 K/BB ratio over his career. The drawback is that he's somewhat homer-prone, not Joe Ryan level but close and his numbers should drop a bit coming over to the DH league. Also he's a year ahead of McKay in service time so he'll cost a few million more next season. But he looks like an improvement, on his way to a 4 WAR season this year. Albert and Tawa were throw-ins, B-/C+ OF prospects but you never know. Before the deal I had sent McKay to Durham, and brought up McClanahan. I'll leave McClanahan up until Paddack is ready for his next start which would be have been on the same schedule as McKay.

July 30: Traded 21-year-old minor league reliever Rafael Garcia, 19-year-old minor league shortstop Odalys Peguero and 24-year-old minor league first baseman Dante Biasi to the San Francisco Giants, getting 23-year-old minor league catcher Patrick Bailey, 24-year-old minor league left fielder Hunter Bishop and 25-year-old minor league starting pitcher Kyle Wilson in return.

And one of the reasons I had no problem trading Bleday is that I had this deal lined up, getting Bishop, the Giants' #1 pick in 2019 and who has some serious power. He his 29 in A+ ball last year and already has 28 in AA. He's a fine defensive LF and the "editor" thinks he could hit 30-35 HR in the majors right now. His flaw is that as a power hitter, he will strike out and he's more of a 55-60 walk guy. Bailey was the Giants' #1 pick in 2020 and more of a bat than a glove catcher (although he's a 55, so there's some glove) but the bat really plays and he immediately becomes the organization's top catching prospect even though I have a couple of good young ones at the MLB level. Wilson was a throw-in, a finesse righty putting up OK numbers. The key for the Giants was Peguero, who should be a defensive wiz at SS but the question remains how much he'll hit, Garcia has a live arm, and Biasi has some power potential of his own and was hitting quite well at AA Montgomery but he's a 1B at best, DH at worst.

Game 3: My powers of prognostication were one game off. After the 26-5 win in the first game, I mused they'd lose 4-3 the next night and it turned out to be 16-6. Well tonight the Orioles won 4-3 after a poor start from Blake Snell and an almost as poor performance by the offense. Gallo was out, but c'mon you've got to do better than 3 runs in 8 innings off Kohl Stewart and his 6.64 ERA coming in. Snell was 4 9 4 4 2 3, giving up a pair of HRs in his first bad outing in about 5 starts. Shane McClanahan came on and finished with 4 perfect innings, striking out 5 and preserving the rest of the bullpen. Maybe he should be in the rotation. As for what passed for the offense, Kiermaier had a big game in Gallo's place, doubling in their first run and hitting a solo homer in the 7th. Keibert Ruiz, who was 0-7 in the 26-5 win, homered for the other Rays run. Oh, and while Josh Bell was 0-3 with a walk tonight, Ji-Man went 4-4 with a HR and 4 RBI for Pittsburgh. The Jays got by Chicago 2-1 so the lead is back down to 6.

Game 4: Well this turned out to be probably the worst game of the season as the Rays blew a 9-0 third-inning lead and lost 12-10. It was looking like Thursday night when they jumped out to the big lead buoyed by a 3-run HR from Brujan and a solo shot from Keibert Ruiz. But Max Fried couldn't stand prosperity. He gave up a run in the 3rd which seemed like no big deal but he coughed up 6 runs in the 4th including a 3-run HR from Manuel Margot and a 2-run HR from Rio Ruiz to cut it to 9-7. Fried ended up leaving with a horrible 4 10 7 7 4 6 line after being staked 9 runs. Brandon Marsh added a solo HR in the 5th to make it 10-7 and Will Harris pitched very well in relief, going 2 2/3 to get them to 2 outs in the 7th and let the big boys of the bullpen take over. But Nick Anderson had nothing today despite being well-rested as after Harris put a man on he gave up a HR to Pat Valaika to make it 10-9, gave up a triple to Margot, wild-pitched him home to tie it, gave up a hit to Gavin Sheets and then a 2-run HR to Austin Hays and 12-10 it was. It's hard to criticize the offense for putting up 10 runs but it would have helped if they scored more than once over the final 6 innings but the blame for this one is squarely on Fried and Anderson. On a day they didn't deserve to be bailed out, though, the White Sox did them a favor to keep the Jays from gaining ground. But losing 3 of 4 to Baltimore is inexcusable and this team has been treading water for 2 months now since the great start, a similar trajectory to last season. Fortunately they're not behind a runaway juggernaut like last year's Yankees were but until and unless the starting pitching achieves some semblance of consistency, the rest of the season is going to be like this.

Team record: 65-41.

Art Deco · 07-06-2020, 01:56 PM

Game 1: After blowing a 9-0 lead yesterday and losing, the Rays nearly blew a 7-0 lead but hung on to win 7-6 in another game that got the blood pressure rising. With LA starting a lefty (as they will the next 2 nights also), Whit Merrifield got a start over Brendan Marsh in LF and made his statement with a 3-run HR in the 2nd inning. Keibert Ruiz had a 2-run double in the 4th, and Abe Toro went deep for a pair in the 5th and it was 7-0 behind Tyler Glasnow, who was rolling. But Glasnow got into some trouble with one out in the 6th, yielding a couple runs and with his pitch count at the century mark Trevor Gott came on and got him out of the inning. But Gott yielded an Anthony Rendon HR to make it 7-3 and then after a man got on, the immortal Connor Justus went deep to make it 7-5. Shane McClanahan got Gott out of the 7th. And the virtually untouchable Jose Alvarado got touched in the 8th, losing the lefty-lefty matchup to Ohtani, who went yard to make it 7-6. Like yesterday an insurance run or two would have been nice but they did nothing in the late innings so it was up to Brad Hand to save the day and he did, getting #21 with a 1-2-3 9th as brows were wiped across Tampa Bay. Glasnow got the win going 5.1 4 2 2 1 7 to go to 7-2, and Yusniel Diaz was 2-3 with a walk and 3 runs scored in a rare start. Toronto won, and also won the night before while the Rays were idle, so the lead is down to 5 1/2, 5 in the loss column. The win was costly for the Jays though as their ace and reigning AL Cy Young winner Nate Pearson suffered a torn labrum and is done for the year.

Game 2: Well that was ugly. Ohtani hit a 2-run HR and Mike Trout a solo shot off Joe Ryan in the top of the first, and that was all LA would need as they went on to an 8-0 win. Trout's HR was his 400th. Ryan was Mr. Three True Outcomes today, also giving up a HR to Tom Murphy and putting up a 5 4 5 5 1 10 line. In other words, he was dominant when he wasn't giving up HRs. Meanwhile the offense could only muster 5 hits all day against Andrew Heaney (who left in the 5th injured), Shelby Miller and Patrick Sandoval. We got the bad Joey Gallo today in his return from knee soreness, 0-4 with 3 strikeouts, but days like that are part of the bargain. Elsewhere, the Rays aren't the only team who can build a big lead and blow out as the Jays squandered an 8-3 lead in the 7th inning to lose 10-8 at Oakland so no damage done in the standings today.

August 4: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, added P Chris Paddack to the active roster.

Paddack makes his debut today vs the Angels (as does McKay for the Padres at Wrigley Field).

Game 3: Now that's Rays baseball. Solid starting pitching, timely hitting and fine bullpen work. These type of games have been few and far between but that's what we had today as Chris Paddack won his Rays debut 6-2. It almost looked like he'd end up a hard luck loser as he finished the 6th (and the game with 99 pitches) down 2-1 but Ronaldo Hernandez hit a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-2 and Nelson Cruz added #28 in the 8th for the final margin of victory. Paddack was an excellent 6 5 2 2 1 9, only running into trouble in the 4th inning when he loaded the bases with one out. He got a popup for the second out, but former Ray farmhand Nick Solak hit a 2-run single up the middle to score LA's runs. Giovanny Gallegos threw a perfect 7th with a pair of Ks, Jose Alvarado got the Angels 1-2-3 in the 8th, and after Cruz's HR took away the save situation, Will Harris got three groundballs to finish the game. Also of note, Vidal Brujan had another fine day at the play, going 2-4 with an RBI double for the Rays' first run and is hitting 310/384/422 with a real shot at AL rookie of the year. Seattle, with the best record in the AL thanks to the Rays' two-month run of mediocrity, knocked off Toronto 2-0 so the lead increases to 6 1/2. The Mariners' winning hit came from former Ray Mike Brosseau, his 17th HR of the year and having a great season as Seattle's starting 2B. He was sent with Colin Poche for Austin Adams and Mitch Haniger last year, and that deal has worked out well for the Mariners. But at least Adams brought Gallegos and Haniger brought Seth Beer, who's raking at Durham and is line to be next year's DH unless I go and do something like sign Nelson Cruz again.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how McKay's debut with San Diego went, he was used as a follower and came on in the 2nd inning and went 3.1 6 5 5 1 3, allowing 2 HRs as the Cubs pasted the Padres 17-5. Also getting tagged were Resly Linares, who pitched for Durham last year and has done well until today when he gave up 5 runs, and old friend Oliver Drake allowed 4 runs in an inning for San Diego. Speaking of former Rays, with all the deals I've made with the Cubs over the past couple of years, it was fitting that Jose Martinez and Yandy Diaz had HRs for Chicago today.

Team record: 67-42.

Art Deco · 07-06-2020, 05:11 PM

Before we get into the games, here's a look at the standings and leaders through games of Thursday, August 4:

Right now there's only one tight division race and that's in the NL Central with the Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers all in it. The Mets with baseball's best record is a bit of a surprise and they added Dinelson Lamet from San Diego to bolster their already-good starting rotation. As we saw when playing them, they're tough. Not shown here is the wild card race, where the Yankees have slipped past Houston by 1/2 game to move into the 2nd spot behind Toronto, who's 2 1/2 up on them. Oakland's on an 8-2 run to get within 2 1/2 of a wild card themselves. The NL wild card race is 2 of the 3 teams in the Central plus Atlanta, next closest is Arizona who's 6 behind. And who'd ever thought we'd see Boston this bad? They've had some last-place finishes in the last 10 years but they've never been within 1/2 game of having the worst record in MLB.

Game 1: A stroll at the old ballpark today for the Rays as Blake Snell and Vidal Brujan teamed up to lead a 10-0 thrashing of the defending champion White Sox. Snell was brilliant, going 6 2 0 0 3 11, leaving after 95 pitches with a 10-run lead to improve to 7-5. Brujan, meanwhile, continued his assault on AL pitching, going 3-4, scoring 3 runs and delivering the game's key hit, a 3-run HR off former Gator Dane Dunning with 2 out in the 2nd. He put the Rays on the board in the 1st by singling, stealing second and coming around to score when Nick Madrigal muffed Joey Gallo's grounder. Keibert Ruiz made the rubble bounce with a fourth-inning grand slam (HR #18) and Max Kepler added #20 with a solo shot later in the inning. And Brandon Marsh was on base 3 more times in 4 appearances with 2 singles and a walk and two runs scored. Interestingly, the two new big boppers (Gallo and Bell) were a combined 0-7, and Ji-Man was 3-5 with 2 doubles and a 2-run walk-off HR for Pittsburgh today. Toronto won so the lead stays at 6 1/2 and the magic # drops to 47.

Game 2: High drama at the Trop tonight as the Rays went to the bottom of the ninth down 5-4. The White Sox brought in closer Ian Hamilton, and Keibert Ruiz led off with a HR to tie the game, and Joey Gallo followed with one of his own to win it 6-5. I had been grumbling the last 7-10 days about how neither Bell nor Gallo had a big hit and Joey G came through. His quote in the game recap said it all: "This wasn't a good win. It was a great win." The Rays found themselves behind in a back-and-forth game primarily due to a key error by recent hero Vidal Brujan, which opened the door for Michael Chavis to hit a 2-out, 2-run double off Giovanny Gallegos to give the White Sox their 5-4 lead in the 7th. But Will Harris and Trevor Gott (who Gott the win) pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings to keep it close. Max Fried started and had the barest definition of a quality start, going 6 7 3 3 3 4 but left with a 4-3 lead. The Rays went up 1-0 against Lucas Giolito on a Wander HR, his 20th, only for the White Sox to tie in the 2nd, then for the Rays to regain the lead in the 4th on a Marsh RBI single and a Brujan RBI double. But Luis Robert had a 2-run double off Fried to equalize in the top of the 5th, and then the Rays jumped back ahead with a Kepler RBI single. Seattle took care of Toronto 6-3 (another Brosseau HR) and the lead expands to 7 1/2, with the magic # at 45.

Game 3: A slow start for the Rays was no problem today as behind Tyler Glasnow they ended up cruising to a 7-2 win. The unlikely tandem of Javy Guerra and Jorge Lopez retired the first 11 Rays hitters before Joey Gallo broke the ice with another HR to put them up 1-0. But Nick Madrigal tripled to lead off the 5th and scored on a groundout, and then Eloy Jimenez took Glasnow deep into the rays tank to put the White Sox up 2-1. But the Rays wasted no time erasing the Chicago advantage when Marsh walked, Ronaldo Hernandez singled, and after a ground out and a fly out, Brujan came through once again with one of his patented 2-out doubles up the gap, although it only scored one run. No problem though, as Wander followed with a triple to score Hernandez and Brujan to put the Rays in front to stay. In the 6th Marsh tripled in Kepler and scored on a Kiermaier single and Whit Merrifield, in his first start at 3B, doubled in Marsh in the 8th to complete the scoring. Glasnow was dominant again, going 6 4 2 2 1 10 to improve to 8-2, Nick Anderson struck out the side in his first appearance since the meltdown in Baltimore, and Will Harris and Brad Hand shut it down in the 8th and 9th. Gotta give it up for Harris, who's been great since joining the Rays even though he's pitched in lower-leverage situations than he's used to. In 19.1 innings over 16 appearances he's walked 2 and struck out 25 with a 2.33 ERA. Toronto lost again to Seattle as the lead balloons to 8 1/2 and the magic number drops to 43.

Around MLB, history was made when we had the first double no-hitter in MLB history won by Milwaukee 1-0 over Colorado. Brandon Woodruff of Milwaukee pitched the winning 9-inning no-hitter (in Milwaukee, not in Coors), striking out 15 and only walking 1. Meanwhile opener Yency Almonte pitched 2 no-hit innings ahead of Jerald Eickhoff throwing 6 more, but allowed a run when Lorenzo Cain walked and came around to score on a Keston Hiura groundout in the 4th. According to my research, there has never been an MLB game where neither team got a hit.

Team record: 70-42.

06-28-2020, 08:21 AM	#41
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 3-5, 2022: at Seattle (3) Game 1: Well I think it's finally time to call the Zack Greinke signing a huge mistake. After loading the bases in the first and getting out of it and getting a 1-2-3 second, I thought momentarily that he might settle down. Nope, a 2-run HR to Tommy Pham was followed shortly by a 3-run HR from Evan White and that was it, a 2.1 6 5 5 2 0 line. He's out of the rotation now, and it's a question of whether he even stays on the roster. The $15 million is a sunk cost. Things weren't better on the other side of things either with the hitters unable to touch Nick Margeivicius through his 5.1 innings, as the final was 9-2 Mariners. Former Ray Mike Brosseau, having a nice year as the Mariners' 2B, had a bases-clearing double off Yonny to add insult to injury. The ice-cold Wander Franco had to sit due to fatigue. The Tigers did us a favor though by beating Toronto. Game 2: There are all kinds of ways to win games, and then there's a game that's literally given to you, gift-wrapped. And that's what the Mariners did for the Rays today. Joe Ryan and Justus Sheffield were both great and the game went 1-1 to the 8th. Enter Nick Anderson, who served up a HR to Jared Kelenic on a 3-0 pitch and Seattle went into the 9th up 2-1 and brought on closer Wyatt Mills. Mills struck out Alec Bohm to open the inning, then walked Toro. Ronaldo Hernandez hit a ground ball to the SS which should have been a game-ending double play, but JP Crawford booted it, putting runners on first and second. Mills then walked Brandon Marsh to load the bases, but Vidal Brujan popped out to Crawford. But Wander Franco, 0-4 today and down to .244, drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game and then Mills walked Yusniel Diaz to give the Rays the 3-2 lead. Jose Alvarado came in to close with Brad Hand still recovering from his 2-inning outing the other day, and he worked around a leadoff single to close out the game and give the Rays a most improbable win in which they came from behind without getting a single hit in doing so. They had to go with a makeshift lineup tonight as Merrifield, Kepler, and Keibert Ruiz were all showing as fatigued, so Nelson Cruz played LF tonight and fortunately did so without incident. The Jays snapped their 3-game losing streak so the lead stays at 5 1/2. June 5: Traded 38-year-old starting pitcher Zack Greinke, retaining 15% to the Washington Nationals, getting 37-year-old reliever Will Harris in return. Greinke had to go with everyone healthy, there was no justifying his spot to stay with a 6-man rotation. And we turned lemons into lemonade by getting Will Harris in return to further bolster a deep bullpen. Harris had fallen out of favor in Washington as their closer although I'm not sure why since his numbers are still pretty good. He's a FA at year's end as well and even with the 15% retention we still come out about $3M ahead in salary. Ironically Harris will join the team in DC for a 2-game set with the Nats; theoretically, Greinke could pitch Wednesday's game. Also expect a move dropping Stanek and bringing up a hitter as we've been going with 14 pitchers. Game 3: Yesterday the Mariners gifted the Rays a game, today the Rays returned the favor but in much more excruciating fashion. With a 9-3 lead going into the bottom of the 8th and one of the best bullpens in the game, somehow the Rays conspired to throw it all away. With the 6-run lead Stanek came in, figuring I'd get a chance to rest Alvarado and/or Anderson. After getting the first out, Stanek loaded the bases, then walked in a run and that was it for him. Nick Anderson then came in and proceeded to give up a grand slam to Eugenio Suarez to make it 9-8. Then came the bottom of the 9th, Anderson walked the leadoff man and Alvarado came on, gave up a double and a walk to load the bases, and then wild-pitched a run home after getting a force out at the plate. He struck out Kelenic with the game tied for the second out, but then gave up an infield single to Suarez to score the winner for Seattle. The sad part of it is that it wasted a great performance by the offense, getting 16 hits to go with its 9 runs including the welcome sight of Wander Franco breaking out of his slump, going 4-6 with a HR and 4 RBI. Blake Snell snapped his 3-game quality start streak with a not-so-great 4.1 8 3 3 3 4 line but Dany Jimenez and Austin Adams got the team through the 7th, but be assured the next three letters in Stanek's future will be "DFA". Toronto won, so for the first time in quite a while the Jays cut into the lead which is now 4 1/2. Team record: 42-16. Last edited by Art Deco; 06-28-2020 at 03:31 PM.

06-28-2020, 03:33 PM	#42
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 7-8, 2022: at Washington (2) June 6: Designated P Ryan Stanek for assigment and placed him on waivers, recalled OF Josh Lowe from AAA Durham. Stanek gone as promised, Lowe up for now although with Seattle throwing 4 lefties at us in the next series, I may bring Khris Davis up from Durham. Game 1: Well when your starting pitching stinks, it's a hard thing to overcome. First you have to score tons of runs, your bullpen has to hold them the rest of the way, and of course said bullpen gets burned out. Well Brendan McKay faceplanted again tonight and it was ugly. He retired the first two batters he faced, then issued two walks and gave up a 3-run shot to JT Realmuto. Then after he struck out the side in the second and the Rays rallied for four runs against a tough customer in Patrick Corbin, he got himself in even more trouble in the 3rd, giving up 2 runs and leaving two more on when he was pulled for Yonny Chirinos, who let those two runners score to make it 7-4 Nats. Then Chirinos gave up 4 of his own in the 4th including a 3-run Juan Soto shot and the rout was truly on, with the final 14-5 Washington. Meadows has been missed the last month but even moreso has been any kind of consistent starting pitching as McKay's ERA is now near 6 and Snell's is over that. Really Fried and especially Ryan have been the ones to count on. Anyway another starting pitcher that let them down is their opponent tomorrow night as Greinke is in fact scheduled to start for Washington. Silver linings: Wander is truly out of his slump, 2 for 4 with a 2-run double, and the Jays lost to the Yankees so the lead is still 4 1/2. But perhaps it's the Yankees we should ultimately worry about - after their 0-6 start, they've gone 33-22 and while they're still 10 back they've only played the Rays twice so far. Game 2: It's Groundhog Day for the Rays as once again the offense does its job but the starting pitching undoes it. Today it was Max Fried who squandered a 3-0 first inning lead off a 2-run HR from Ji-Man and solo shot by Cruz. Fried loaded the bases for JT Realmuto and like yesterday the Nats catcher killed the Rays, this time with a grand slam. Fried then loaded the bases again in the inning but got out of that. It turned out the Rays faced Artie Lewicki instead of Greinke, and after the 3-run first Lewicki settled down while the Nats expanded their lead with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh. Two of those were attributable to newest Ray and former Nat Will Harris, who gave up an RBI double to score one of Fried's runs and then served another homer to Realmuto. But the Rays got back within 7-6 when pinch hitter Whit Merrifield smacked a 2-run homer off Keone Kela, and they put two on in the ninth against Washington closer Tanner Scott but couldn't get the tying run in as they lost 3 in a row for the first time this season. Fried's final line was a butt-ugly 5.2 7 6 6 6 4 (the walks!), offsetting 3 more hits from Wander (who's raised his BA 25 points in 3 games) and a 13-hit overall performance by the offense. The Yankees beat the Jays again which is good in the short term but possibly not in the long term. Team record: 42-18. Last edited by Art Deco; 06-28-2020 at 06:41 PM.

06-28-2020, 09:02 PM	#43
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 9-12, 2022: vs Seattle (4) June 9: Optioned OF Josh Lowe to AAA Durham, purchased the contract of OF Khris Davis from AAA Durham. Khrush is up to hit .247 and to hit some homers with Seattle throwing 4 lefties at us in this 4-game set. Game 1: It happened again. After getting the first out of the game, Tyler Glasnow puts the next two on and gives up a 3-run HR. Then he gives up 2 more in the 2nd. And 3 more in the 5th. And for good measure, another run in the 6th when I finally had to pull him because his pitch count was up to 112. With only Alvarado, Anderson and Hand not tired I didn't want to burn these guys in a blowout. But the offense kept doing its thing. Abraham Toro hit a 3-run shot in the 2nd to get it back within 5-3, they got two more on a Vidal Brujan double in the 5th to get within 8-5, and in the bottom of the 7th, Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam off Colin Poche to tie the game at 9. By this point I had to bring in Anderson to get out of the top of the 7th in relief of a tired Zack Britton, so 9-9 with my best relievers available, what could go wrong? Well, Anderson put the first two on and with lefty Kelenic due I brought in Alvarado. He promptly walked Kelenic to load the bases with nobody out, but he got a popup and a strikeout. But he couldn't get the third out, giving up a 2-run single to Kyle Lewis, and then I had to use Hand in the 9th which he got through unscathed but the Rays couldn't score again and they fell 11-9 for their fourth straight loss. I'm at a loss as to why the top starting rotation in the league last year can't get anybody out currently. Tonight Glasnow had 7 Ks (in a 5.2 9 9 9 2 7 line), but I swear the team BABIP against lately is about .750. The team has now given up 7, 10, 8, 9, 2, 10, 14, 7 and 11 runs in its last 9 games. The bullpen is burned out right now so I don't know what will happen tomorrow if Joe Ryan can't go 6-7. Luckily, Baltimore beat Toronto so the lead isn't shaved but the past couple of weeks is not a sustainable model for winning the division. June 10: Optioned P Dany Jimenez and OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan and P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham. Chirinos and Hand are the only non-tired pitchers in the bullpen so here come a couple of fresh arms from Durham. McClanahan needs no introduction, but Gray, who came over in the deal with LA that brought Keibert Ruiz, has had an outstanding year at Durham (19 BBs, 71 Ks in 71 IP, 2.66 ERA). The idea is for Gray to pitch long relief if needed and McClanahan to go in the late innings. Jimenez and/or Marsh (who wasn't going to play much this weekend with all the lefties) will be back in the next day or two. Game 2: What a strange game. Strange in that the Rays starter wasn't bombed early, and strange in how it played out. Joe Ryan was pretty good today, only yielding a 2-run HR to Kyle Lewis in the 4th and finishing with a 7 6 2 2 2 5 line. But the offense couldn't get much going, only managing 2 hits off Justus Sheffield through 8 innings. Sheffield walked 6, and one of them was ahead of one of the two hits, an Alec Bohm 2-run HR. So 2-2 we went into the 8th, and Shane McClanahan had a shutout inning in relief of Ryan and he came out to pitch the 9th, and proceeded to walk the bases loaded, and in a bit of managerial malpractice, I left him still and he walked Tommy Pham to force in the go-ahead run. I then brought Yonny Chirinos in, and he got Mike Brosseau to fly out to end the inning but the damage was done. Taylor Guilbeau came on to close for Seattle and after getting the first out, walked Nelson Cruz. Khris Davis then doubled to put runners at 2nd and 3rd and Alec Bohm then singled through the drawn-in infield to score both of them and the Rays had an improbable 4-3 walk-off win to snap the 4-game losing streak. Yonny gets his fifth win after throwing two pitches and the usual bullpen pieces got a night off. The Jays won so the lead is still 4 1/2. Game 3: Well the good starts seem to be exclusive to Joe Ryan these days as Snell struggled out of the gate again, giving up 3 runs in the 2nd and a 4th in the 3rd. But as so often the early hole doesn't deter the offense and in the bottom of the 4th last night's hero Alec Bohm hit a bases-clearing double to pull the Rays within one. And after Wander Franco tripled in the 6th, Nelson Cruz singled him home to tie the game. Snell settled down after his early struggles and made it to 2 outs in the 6th, going 5.2 6 4 4 5 6 as his ERA rises to 6.26. Josiah Gray made his Rays debut and got the final out in the top of the 6th, and then with the game tied, the Alvarado-Anderson-Hand trio returned to form and shut the Mariners out. Unfortunately the Rays couldn't get another across in regulation and we went to the 10th. After Hand whiffed the leadoff lefty Sam Hilliard, Yonny came in for the long haul if needed, and he had to do some hauling through the 12th but kept the game at 4-4. And in the bottom of the frame Yusniel Diaz took Taylor Guilbeau deep leading off the inning to give the Rays their second straight walk-off win. Vidal Brujan was 3-3 but strained his quadriceps legging out his second infield hit of the game and is DTD for 5 days. Might be wise to put him on the 10-day DL but we'll see. Toronto lost, so despite going through by far their roughest patch of the season the Rays extend their division lead to 5 1/2. June 12: Optioned Ps Shane McClanahan and Josiah Gray to AAA Durham, recalled P Dany Jimenez and OF Brandon Marsh. Game 4: Not sure why the AI just doesn't start the game at 3-0 Seattle, because the first inning woes continued as Brendan McKay served up a 3-run shot to Eugenio Suarez before most were in their seats. He settled down pretty good after that and I shouldn't have brought him out for the 7th as he gave up HRs to Sam Hilliard and Wilmer Difo of all people to make it 5-2 at that point. Dany Jimenez and Austin Adams each gave up 2 more runs in relief, sandwiched around a pretty good Will Harris outing where he got all 4 outs on strikeouts and didn't allow a run. Meanwhile the offense couldn't do much against Nestor Cortes and the final was 9-3 Seattle. Fortunately the Jays lost again (and the Yankees were swept by the Mets this weekend) so the lead remains 5 1/2 ahead of the 3-game series with Toronto starting tomorrow. Team record: 44-19. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-27-2020 at 06:29 PM.

06-29-2020, 04:42 PM	#44
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 13-15, 2022 vs Toronto (3) Game 1: The big series with the Jays commences and for once we had a starting pitcher get through the early innings unscathed. It wasn't easy as Fried was battling baserunners throughout but he held Toronto off the board until the 6th, ending with a 5.2 6 2 2 3 5 line on 119 pitches. By then the offense had put up 5 runs with the highlight being Nelson Cruz's 20th HR of the season, a 2-run shot. Zack Britton and Jose Alvarado were the only rested relievers and they got the Rays through the final 3.1 innings with Alvarado getting a 2-inning hitless save, #4 on the season. The final was 6-2, Fried goes to 6-4 and the lead expands to 6 1/2 games. June 14: Optioned OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Game 2: It's been so long I forgot what a dominant outing from a starting pitcher looked like but Tyler Glasnow reminded me, mowing down the Blue Jays over 6 innings. He only went 6 because he struck out so many (12) that his pitch count was approaching 110, allowing only 4 hits and one walk. The offense didn't do a lot against lefty Anthony Kay, but they didn't have to as Glasnow's performance and some fine bullpen work gave the Rays a 3-1 win. In fact between Glasnow, Shane McClanahan, Will Harris and Nick Anderson the Rays staff had 18 strikeouts tonight. The only trouble came in the 7th when McClanahan gave up a 2-out hit, wild-pitched the runner to 2nd, and Teoscar Hernandez singled the man in. But Harris came on to whiff Bo Bichette, as well as the two of the three men he faced in the 8th including Vlad Jr. Nick Anderson then got a pair of Ks in a perfect ninth for save #2 with Hand still recovering from that 2-inning outing a few days back and what was impressive is that all 3 hitters were lefties. On the offensive side of things, in the 1st Wander walked and came around to score on Khris Davis' sac fly, his first Rays RBI. In the 5th Merrifield singled, stole second and scored on Nelson Cruz's RBI single and then they added an insurance run in the 7th when Kepler and Wander doubled. The lead is now a gaudy 7 1/2 games. June 15: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled OF Brandon Marsh from AAA Durham. Game 3: After holding the explosive Jays offense to 3 runs in 2 games, the dam burst today as erstwhile Jays-killer Joe Ryan had the tables turned on him as his main bugaboo, the longball, came back to haunt him as the Jays took him deep 4 times in a 9-5 loss. They had a brief 2-1 lead through 3 as Ronaldo Hernandez's 2-run double put them in front and Ryan was getting his strikeouts, but in the 4th Lourdes Gurriel Jr homered to tie it and a couple batters later Ryan Noda had a 2-run shot to put the Jays in front to stay. Cavan Biggio added a solo shot in the 6th and Yonny Chirinos let 2 more runners Ryan put on score and that was that. Ji-Man had a solo homer (#7) and Wander had 2 sac flies to account for the Rays' other runs. Still we're happy with what former Rays manager Joe Madden called "Meat Loafing" them, as in two out of three ain't bad, and they're still up 6 1/2. Team record: 46-20. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-27-2020 at 06:30 PM.

06-30-2020, 09:13 AM	#45
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 16-19, 2022 at New York Yankees (4) A few news items from the previous week I'd neglected to mention. First, Kevin Kiermaier is not recovering as expected from his hamstring strain and has an uncertain return date. Second, the draft took place a little over a week ago and here were our top 5 picks: Round 1: P Mack Anglin. Power pitcher from Clemson, struck out 172 in 120 innings his senior year, potential #2-#3 starter. Round 2: P Tyler Gough. High school pitcher with 3 pitches potentially 70 or better. Round 3: C Luke Heyman. Power-hitting HS catcher with decent defense. Round 4: P Erick Figueroa. 20-year-old pitcher out of a JuCo, more of a finesse guy with good command. Round 5: 3B CJ Neese Jr. NC State product with some decent power. On to the Yankees series: Game 1: This was a tough one to lose, as the Rays fell to the Yankees 3-2 with New York walking it off in the ninth. The primary culprit here was the offense being held in check by Luis Severino and the Yankee bullpen as they only managed 6 hits for the night and struck out 13 times, unusual for a team that strikes out the least in the AL. Brandon Marsh's RBI double tied it in the 6th after they had been down 2-0, and it was the Rays bullpen which blinked in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Anderson allowed a leadoff single after getting through the 8th, and Alvarado came on to wild pitch him to second and although he got the next two batters out, Giancarlo Stanton singled pinch-runner Tyler Wade home to end the game. Blake Snell pitched reasonably well with a 6 8 2 1 2 9 line, battling baserunners throughout but making big pitches. Toronto was off so the lead shrinks to 6. Game 2: Rained out, doubleheader tomorrow. This will mess up the rotation a bit as we don't have an off day until Thursday, meaning either Yonny or someone from Durham (maybe Josiah Gray) would get the start on Wednesday at Houston. Elsewhere, Toronto came from behind to beat Washington 8-7 in the 9th so we're back down to 5 1/2. Zack Greinke still can't help us as he gave up 6 runs in 6 innings for the Nats, only striking out 2. June 17: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher Conner Menez and 25-year-old minor league center fielder Michael Smith to the Oakland Athletics, getting 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 22-year-old minor league shortstop Brandon Dieter in return. So while we were sitting out that lengthy rain delay that tuned into a postponement, I got on the phone with the A's and swung a deal for Puk, who has fallen out of favor in Oakland but we're talking a guy who was 14-9, 3.22 with 191 Ks in 164 IP and worth 3.3 WAR last season in MLB. Control of course is the problem with him, as he walked 4.0/9 last year and that was up to 6.1/9 at AAA Las Vegas but I'm going to chalk that up to a small sample and frustration. Anyway he's a far better version of Menez, and Michael Smith was stuck at A+ Charlotte for a few years now and is 25, plus we have a boatload of outfielders in the system so he was expendable. Plus we get Dieter, Oakland's 1st round pick last year, in the deal and while his pro career has been mixed so far, he's worth a shot. Thanks to OOTP's powers of teleportation, I'm going to have Puk pitch tonight for Durham so he's lined up as a possibility on Wednesday in Houston. Game 2 (first of doubleheader): This one started off like so many others recently as Brendan McKay couldn't retire the first five batters on his way to allowing 4 runs in the first inning. Add in a Gleyber Torres solo homer in the 3rd and the Rays were in a 5-0 hole after 3. But even without Meadows this offense can be relentless and they got 3 back in the 4th on a 2-run triple by Marsh and a sac fly from Brujan. Meanwhile McKay held in there continuing to shut down the Yanks and in the top of the 6th Nelson Cruz led off with a majestic homer to dead center off Corey Kluber, making his first start of the year, to make it 5-4. The homer rattled Kluber and with men on 2nd and 3rd, Brujan singled them both home to put the Rays ahead and Keibert Ruiz brought Brujan home. In the 7th Cruz hit another homer, a solo blast to LF, and in the 8th Ruiz knocked in Wander, who had singled and stole second, to make it 9-5. With the 4-run lead the troika got the 1st game off and although Dany Jimenez allowed a Miguel Andujar shot in the 9th, Zack Britton got Aaron Judge to ground out for his first Rays save against his former Yankee teammates in a 9-6 win. Game 3 (second of doubleheader): How sweep it is! The Rays beat the Yankees in another football-score game 13-7 to take both ends. And both games were eerily similar in that a Rays starter blew up in the first inning and settled down. This time it was Max Fried, who after the Rays put 3 on the board against Trevor Bauer with a Wander 2-run shot and Khris Davis' first Rays homer, gave up 5 runs in the 1st on a 2-run homer from Aaron Judge and a 3-run blast by Miguel Andujar. But of course the Rays fought back and Davis homered again with a man on to put the Rays up 6-5 in the 5th. The funny thing was that I almost went with Nelson Cruz in the second game since he had hit 2 in the first game, but going with Davis made me look good. The Rays tacked another couple on, and after Gleyber Torres' HR off Austin Adams got the Yanks back with 8-7 they blew it open in the 8th with 5 runs. The only negative (aside from the disastrous first inning) was that Adams had to come out with biceps tendinitis and will be out 1-2 weeks so an IL trip is coming. With everyone in the pen used at some point today, another arm or two or three will be needed for tomorrow's game. And thanks to Toronto's loss mentioned earlier, the division lead is up to a season-high 7. Random notes: Wander gets a Slurpee for going 7-11 today, and Ronaldo banged out 3 more hits in the nightcap to raise his average to .377. June 19: Placed P Austin Adams on the 15-day IL with biceps tendinitis, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham. Schmidt had a decent year in the rotation for Durham in 2021 after being acquired from the Yankees in a 2020 deal, and had been mostly pitching in relief for some reason thanks to the AI, although I was ready to force him into the rotation there. Game 4: The Bucs put two touchdowns on the board against the Giants today..wait, I'm being told the Rays scored 14 against the Yankees and beat them 14-4. It looked like a great pitching matchup on paper with Tyler Glasnow against Gerrit Cole but Cole didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Another move I was close to making but didn't was putting Alec Bohm in at 1B in place of Ji-Man, who was 0-5 in the first game of the doubleheader yesterday and has been slumping. But I decided I liked Ji-Man's lefty bat against Cole and it paid off with a solo homer in the 2nd and an RBI single in the 3rd ahead of another slumper, Max Kepler, who took Cole deep for a 3-run shot and the Rays would have all the runs they'd need. Glasnow was dealing again, striking out 5 in the first two innings and aside from a brief interlude where it looked like he was pitching to the score, ended up 6 5 2 2 1 8 to go to 3-0. By the time he left it was 14-2 Rays after a 6-run sixth and Clarke Schmidt took over in his MLB debut against his original organization. He was a bit shaky, allowing 2 runs in 2 innings with 1 walk and 1 K, but it didn't matter. Wander had 3 more hits and is back up to .288 after bottoming out at .244 a couple of weeks back. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and everyone except Brujan drove in a run and everyone except Marsh scored one as the Rays have enjoyed hitting in Yankee Stadium this season and have taken 5 of 6 from the Bombers, all in New York. Toronto won big so the lead stays at 7. Team record: 49-22. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-07-2020 at 05:22 PM.

06-30-2020, 04:11 PM	#46
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 20-22, 2022 at Houston (3) Game 1: Joe Ryan was on the hill today and with his penchant for giving up HRs and all the power in the Houston lineup, things stood a chance of being ugly. Well he did give up 2 solo HRs (to former Rays prospect Jesus Sanchez and Yordan Alvarez) but it was a series of singles that did him in, including a sequence in the 5th where he got two tough hitters out but gave up singles to Francisco Cervelli and Taylor Walls of all people ahead of Jose Altuve, who drove in a run. He got his strikeouts but ended up with a 5.1 8 4 4 1 6 line with Zack Britton wild-pitching in what proved to be the winning run in a 4-3 loss. The Rays jumped out quickly in the first on a Brujan single & SB and a Wander double but after that they couldn't get anything going against Jairo Solis, who had an ERA near 6 coming in. They loaded the bases with 0 outs against Raisel Iglesias in the 8th but could only get one run and Wander hit one into the Crawford boxes in the 9th off another former Ray, Taylor Rogers, but it wasn't enough. Toronto was idle so the lead is 6 1/2. Game 2: It was Home Run Derby time at Minute Maid Park with the Rays hitting 5 and the Astros 4, and the Rays came out on top 7-5. It's not often you can say a pitcher gave up four HRs and pitched a pretty good game, but Blake Snell did so with a 7 5 5 5 1 8 line - outside of the homers, he was practically unhittable. Of course that would have been a problem if the Rays weren't teeing off themselves, but tee off they did, with Max Kepler opening the scoring with a 3-run first inning shot, Keibert Ruiz with a pair of solo homers, Ji-Man coming through again, and Abraham Toro going deep against his old mates. Nick Anderson and Brad Hand shut it down in the 8th and 9th with Hand getting save #17 in his first action in a while. The Jays won their own HR derby against the Braves 10-9 (Atlanta had 6 and they had 4) so the lead remains 6 1/2. HRs were flying everywhere tonight - the White Sox hit 8 in a 13-12 extra-inning loss and there were a total of 73 hit in all games which shattered the MLB record of 62 on July 2, 2002. June 22: Optioned P Clarke Schmidt to AAA Durham, recalled P A.J. Puk from AAA Durham. Puk gets the start tonight in Houston, with Yonny ready to go long if things don't go well. Game 3: Well AJ Puk was great until he wasn't and the end result was an 8-4 Astros win. Puk held the Astros hitless through the first 3 innings as the Rays built a 2-0 lead on Max Kepler's solo HR and RBI single, but the wheels came off in the 4th when Alex Bregman took him deep to tie the game, and then a dropped fly ball by Brandon Marsh opened the gates for the Astros to add 2 more. Then in the 5th Bregman took Puk deep again with a man on and that was that. He did only walk one and struck out 5 in his 5 innings but obviously the longball killed him. Kepler homered again for his third in two days and Ji-Man added one for the second straight day as well in the 8th, but that only gave us the final score. The Jays won big against Atlanta so the lead is down to 5 1/2. Team record: 50-24. Last edited by Art Deco; 06-30-2020 at 07:54 PM.

07-01-2020, 08:59 AM	#47
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 24-26, 2022 vs New York Yankees (3) June 24: Sent Kevin Kiermaier to AAA Durham for injury rehab. Gonna be interesting when Kiermaier comes back as to who 1) loses his roster spot, there haven't been that many at-bats for Khris Davis but he would have to go on waivers, and 2) who comes out of the lineup, Brujan was the beneficiary of the injury with Merrifield sliding to LF, that arrangement could stay with Marsh going to the bench or some rotation of those 3 for the LF/2B spot could happen as well. Game 1: The Rays took advantage of some early Yankees miscues and a strong outing for Brendan McKay to beat the Yankees 10-5 in the first game of their weekend series. With two out and two on in the bottom of the first, Aaron Hicks dropped a fly ball, allowing a run to score and Nelson Cruz followed with a 2-run single to give the Rays an early 3-1 lead after Gleyber Torres homered in the top of the inning. And then in the 2nd, Torres' error was the key play leading to a Wander RBI double and Ruiz sac fly and it was 5-1. Meanwhile, McKay was looking good, ending with 10 Ks over 6 innings. He would have allowed 2 runs instead of 3 had I not let him pitch to one batter in the 7th who scored when Dany Jimenez served up a Gary Sanchez HR. Wander drove in two more with a triple in the 6th and Brandon Marsh was 3-3 with a walk and an RBI triple of his own in his bid to stay in the lineup. Toronto won so the lead remains 6, but we're another day closer to the end. June 25: Optioned P AJ Puk to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Time to bring McClanahan back to the role he was successful in, middle/long relief. Game 2: Tonight's game can be summed up pretty simply: Gerrit Cole had it and Max Fried didn't. The Rays had gotten to the Yankee ace in the past (in fact as recently as last weekend) but he was on tonight going 7.2 5 2 0 2 9. Fried meanwhile, although striking out 7 in 3.1, walked 3 and allowed 6 hits to give up 5 runs. Only a Gio Urshela in error in the 8th allowed the Rays to get 2 runs on singles from Nelson Cruz (a team-leading 59 RBI) and Abraham Toro. Mike Trout went deep twice in a 7-6 Angels win over Toronto so at least the lead stays at 6. Game 3: What started out as a pitcher's duel between Tyler Glasnow and Deivi Garcia ended up a 7-5 game, but one in which the Rays came out on top. Glasnow was down 2-0 three batters into the game after a walk and a Gleyber Torres HR but that would turn out to be the only hit he allowed in his 6 innings, walking 3 and striking out 8. He left down 2-1 as Ronaldo Hernandez once again homered in his backup role to provide the Rays run, which brought us to the bottom of the 7th. The Rays exploded for 6 runs bookended by a 2-run shot by Yusniel Diaz to put them in front and a 3-run blast from Max Kepler. This made it 7-2 going into the 9th, and after getting the last two outs of the eighth, Zack Britton put the first two men on (one via walk, giving him 16 in 15 2/3 innings with the Rays, not good, but he still has a 2.30 ERA after today), so Nick Anderson had to come on and after whiffing the first two he faced he yielded a 3-run homer to Aaron Hicks that gave us the final margin. Will Harris, who came on in the 7th, got the win but had to leave after getting the first out in the 8th (he came back out because he only threw 9 pitches in the 7th) with shoulder tendinitis that's a 1-2 week DtD injury which will probably necessitate an IL stint for him. Justin Upton led the Angels to win over Toronto so the lead is back up to 7. Team record: 52-25. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-01-2020 at 02:54 PM.

07-01-2020, 04:49 PM	#48
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 27-28, 2022 vs Washington (2) Game 1: What should have been a laugher turned out to be a nail-biter as the Rays nearly completely squandered an 8-2 lead and hung on to beat Washington 8-7. Joe Ryan got the start and gave up his obligatory HR, a first-inning solo shot by Carter Kieboom. But against Patrick Corbin in the bottom of the inning the first three Rays reached to load the bases for Khris Davis, spelling Nelson Cruz at DH, and Khrush khrushed one into the left-field stands for a grand slam. They added one in the second, two more in the 4th including a Wander homer, and then another one in the fifth. Ryan had also given up a solo HR to Juan Soto, but ran out of gas in the 6th as he and Shane McClanahan combined to allow 2 runs around a Toro error. McClanahan gave up one of his own in the 7th, but Alvarado bailed him out and pitched a perfect 8th. With the score 8-5, Hand came on but was shaky, walking Soto, giving up a double to Robles and seeing them both score on a sac fly and a single, but he got the final two outs to stay a perfect 18-for-18 in saves. Ryan goes to 7-2, and the Jays won in Houston to keep the lead at 7. June 28: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, activated OF Kevin Kiermaier from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham. I put off the reckoning of which position player to drop from the active roster with Kiermaier's return by sending down McClanahan, who wouldn't have been available tonight and also with a rare Wednesday off coming up. Khris Davis's grand slam last night earned him a reprieve and eventually either he or Brandon Marsh will be the one to go. Davis, of course, would have to pass through waivers. Game 2: Washington rolled out Zack Greinke to pitch, and it was almost inevitable he'd pitch well against the Rays despite being pounded by everyone else. He uncharacteristically walked 2 Rays in the first but both were caught stealing (Brujan and Franco) by JT Realmuto, who was a thorn in the Rays' side throughout the 4 games they've played against Washington this season. And sure enough it was Realmuto who took Blake Snell deep in the fourth inning when Snell was on a roll, striking out 8 at that point, and put Washington up to stay 2-0. Meanwhile, Greinke got past that wild first inning and set the Rays down until the 6th, when Kiermaier homered, Brujan doubled and came around to score on Wander's AL-leading 9th sac fly of the season. But by then Washington had added two more runs against Snell in the 6th, who was tiring and put two men on that AJ Puk allowed to score. And 4-2 was the final as Greinke got the win with an 8 7 2 2 2 3 line, his best outing since shutting out Boston early in the season for the Rays. Toronto was pounded by Houston 13-5 so they gained no ground. Team record: 53-26. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-01-2020 at 07:43 PM.

07-01-2020, 10:06 PM	#49
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	June 30-July 3, 2022: vs Houston (4) Game 1: Offense is completely out of control in this year's version of my save, I think next year I'm going to set the offensive environment to 1988 just to keep my sanity. Tonight was a great example as what was a 4-2 game in the 6th inning ended 14-10. Fortunately it was the Rays with two touchdowns again but I can't say that I enjoy these games that much. Anyway, McKay was largely terrible again and bailed out by 4 double plays (they turned a 5th after he left, has to be a season high), although he hung in there after a 4-run second and kept it that way until the Rays could come back. And come back they did. Cristian Javier had kept them pretty much in check through 5 with a Kepler HR being one of the two runs, but the wheels came off for him in the 6th when he issued a single and four walks consecutively, another run scored on a passed ball and then Kiermaier hit a grand slam, his second homer in as many games since coming back (he's slugging .711, folks!) to cap a 7-run inning to make it 9-4. With a huge lead (not really that huge these days) McKay stayed in and of course gave up a couple of runs, but the Rays added 4 more in the 7th and Wander homered in the 8th (he had a double, triple and HR but no single) to make it 14-6 and surely I could leave Zack Britton in with an 8-run lead. Nope, he got into trouble, brought in AJ Puk and he didn't do much better and suddenly it was 14-10 and I finally had to bring in Alvarado to stop the nonsense, which he did with a pair of Ks. Toronto had lost the night before but was idle today, so the lead is up to a season-high 8. Game 2: Ah it was nice to have a game that wasn't arena baseball for a change as Max Fried dominated an extremely dangerous Astros lineup to the tune of 8 5 0 0 1 8 in his best outing in several games as the Rays took their second straight over Houston by a 7-3 score. You'll notice the "3" in there for the Astros; as the saying goes "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and with a 7-0 lead in the 9th I brought in Zack Britton once again, and once again he crapped the bed and this time Nick Anderson had to clean it up. Austin Adams is due back in a couple of days and I was going to send out a position player but I may just drop Britton if he can't be trusted with 7 and 8-run leads. This was a 3-0 game for most of its duration with runs off a wild pitch, a Kepler sac fly and a Nelson Cruz RBI single by the 3rd inning. The Rays finally busted it open in the 8th with 4 more runs including a Cruz solo shot (his team-high 23rd) to get things going. Elsewhere, Keibert Ruiz and Ji-Man each had 4 hits tonight with Choi driving in a pair in the 8th. The win takes the team to the halfway point of the season at 55-26 and a 110-win pace will always play. The Jays won so they stay 8 behind. July 2: Designated P Zack Britton for assignment and placed on waivers, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Signed P James Paxton to a minor league contract. As mentioned above, I've had it with Britton and would rather go with McClanahan in the role of middle-inning lefty. Paxton's a long shot to contribute to the Rays but he will bolster the Durham rotation. The Angels let him go in the second year of a big contract they gave him but he cost me nothing now. Game 3: Tyler Glasnow just didn't have it tonight, and against a team like Houston they will make you pay and they did to the tune of an 11-6 win over the Rays. Glasnow went 5 9 7 6 2 3 and although the Rays took a 3-2 lead after 1 on a 2-run Kepler double and RBI single by Cruz, he let Houston tie it up in the 2nd and gave up 3 more in the 4th. Meanwhile after that first inning the offense couldn't get anything going against Cuban free agent signee David Villegas and a 7-4 game was broken open with 4 Houston runs in the 9th against Shane McClanahan, doing his best Zack Britton impression. Toronto lost so the lead remains 8. Game 4: It was the Joe Ryan show at the Trop on a Sunday afternoon as the Rays righty pitched one of the best games of his career, going 7 4 1 1 0 12 against a very good offensive team (one that admittedly was without Bregman and Springer who had to rest due to fatigue). He received plenty of backing from the offensive in a 10-2 win, with his only blemish a homer allowed to former Ray Randy Arozarena as he goes to a team best 8-2. The offense scored early and often against Bryan Abreu and the star of the game with the bat was Brandon Marsh, who's on the bubble to go to Durham when Austin Adams comes back tomorrow (we've been only going with 12 pitchers since Kiermaier came back). Marsh was 4 for 5 with a HR, 3 RBI and a stolen base spelling Kiermaier. Khris Davis, the other hitter in jeopardy, got the start and went 1-4 with an RBI infield single. As it was Sunday other benchwarmers got to play and Alec Bohm took advantage also, spelling Ji-Man and going 3-5 with a HR and 3 RBI. Abe Toro had 3 hits too as the Rays banged out 17 on the day. In Toronto, reigning Cy Young winner Nate Pearson led the Jays past Detroit to keep the lead at 8 games. Pearson had been struggling and his 6 2/3 shutout innings lowered his ERA to 5.08. So it's not just the Rays "aces" who are struggling with tennis balls this season. Team record: 56-27. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-02-2020 at 04:27 PM.

07-02-2020, 05:21 PM	#50
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	Midseason Report Card At 56-27 and tied with the Dodgers for the best record in baseball, it's certainly been a successful first half. Here's a look at the team's stats: First of all, there's really nothing bad to say about the offense. Averaging 6.63 runs/game and leading the AL there can be no complaints, especially since the last 55 games or so have been played without Austin Meadows who at the time of his injury was the best player in MLB, amassing 3.6 WAR in early May. This is not a big HR-hitting team but that's fine because they can get on base and make contact, and in this day and age of the strikeout to average only 6.6 whiffs per game as a team is extraordinary. This is why they're never out of games this year and can easily come back from 3 and 4-run early deficits without blinking an eye. The team speed is excellent and they're not a bunch of singles hitters either. The pitching, on the other hand, has been a disappointment. With the exception of the back end of the pen (Anderson/Alvarado/Hand) and Joe Ryan, it's been brutal at times and is the reason why they've had come back from a lot of 3 and 4-run deficits. The problems here are twofold: wildness (the big 4 are all up about a walk per 9 innings) and balls in play (they've allowed more of them than last year, and the defense hasn't been turning them into outs). They're still getting their strikeouts (and that ranking will probably go to #1 with more Glasnow starts in the mix after he missed the first two months), but any non-strikeout is a problem. This is not a very good defensive team as you can see from the stats and while Toro has been a defensive upgrade on Bohm at 3B, there are no elite defensive players here except for Kiermaier, and he missed a month and a half. Kepler for Renfroe has been a slight downgrade, and everyone else is average at best. Not sure how much to blame Keibert Ruiz for the staff's slump as he's a 60 defender. Perhaps the 6-man rotation with the days off got them out of whack but I haven't noticed that much improvement since they've been back in a regimented 5-man. Anyway, here are my grades with a few comments. C: Keibert Ruiz (A-) 319/371/520 makes him an all-star, and Ronaldo Hernandez (A) (361/430/723) has been ridiculous when he's gotten to play. It's hard to believe this was the same team that had the likes of Mike Zunino and Jason Castro at or below the Mendoza line the last couple of years. 1B: Ji-Man Choi (C+) 268/359/434 is really not the production of an upper-division 1B these days and I don't know if OOTP has this built in or not but I swear he's the streakiest player I've ever managed. Alec Bohm has struggled in intermittent play but might start getting more at-bats (he would have already if we ever faced any lefties, only 20 in 83 starts). Barring a huge second half I'm having a hard time seeing Ji-Man back next year as his salary approaches eight digits. 2B: Vidal Brujan (A-) 310/387/394 makes him the prototypical leadoff man. Yes, it'd be nice if he had a bit more power but for a rookie I can't complain. He was in danger of being overtaken by Xavier Edwards in the grand scheme of things after a disappointing 2021 in the minors but with Edwards missing April, he grabbed the opportunity and (literally) ran with it and then kept it up as a true regular after Meadows got hurt and Merrifield moved to LF. My only qualm is that he's been caught 9 times in 23 steal attempts which is a net negative sabermetrically. SS: Wander Franco (B+) This grade is by Wander standards after a brutal May that saw him drop to .244. He's back up to 294/337/531 after a red-hot June and he should be just fine. 3B: Abraham Toro (B+). He was who we thought he was, his 278/384/440 slash is virtually identical to what he did in two extended periods with Houston the last two seasons filling in for Bregman and he's soldified the Spinal Tap drummer of a position 3B had been the last few years. LF: Whit Merrifield (B)/Austin Meadows (A+). It would have been nice to see what Meadows could have done this year after he appeared to be bringing it up a notch after he brought it up a notch last year. An MVP wouldn't have been out of the question. Merrifield has filled in well, though, and as long as he's hitting over .300 he's useful and he's hitting .312 right now. CF: Kevin Kiermaier (A-)/Brandon Marsh (B-). Kiermaier got off to a red-hot start at the plate this year just as he did last year, except this time he got hurt in mid-May and missed about 6 weeks so regression hasn't had a chance to kick in as he's still slugging about .700. I've been wary of exercising the $12M team option for him next season with Marsh and Josh Lowe as heirs apparent, but if he keeps this up, I'm going to have to. Marsh has been pretty good but with less power than hoped for - perhaps yesterday's game is a start in that direction and if so he can get some ABs playing LF as well. RF: Max Kepler (B-). Kepler's drawing walks and hitting for power but his average of .227 is even worse than Renfroe's (although he still has a higher OBP than Hunter did the last 2 seasons). His RBI total is misleadingly high with all the baserunners the team puts in front of him. I'm hoping for positive regression the second half but have to say I'm disappointed so far. DH: Nelson Cruz (A). Nellie keeps going and at age 42 he's still slugging .561. He's been pretty consistent as well. At some point I have to go with Seth Beer and/or Kirilloff here so I doubt he gets re-signed, but at $7M he's been a bargain so far. SP: Blake Snell, Brendan McKay (C-). I'm lumping these two together as they've been the biggest disappointments. I expect some wildness from Snell but a 5.99 ERA is bad and it isn't all bad luck either as his FIP is far and away a career-worst 4.96. I can only hope for better. With only one year left on his contract, he could be moved in the offseason. McKay's 6.15 ERA is also supported by his bad 5.35 FIP and the alarming thing with him is that his BB/9 has gone from 2.1 to 3.9, almost doubling. His stuff isn't that overpowering to be walking that many hitters. SP: Tyler Glasnow, Max Fried (B-). Glasnow's a bit of an incomplete. Since coming back in late May he's shown flashes of his normal brilliance but has had some real clunkers in there too. In his case though it's been bad luck and bad defense as his 4.84 ERA belies his 2.62 FIP. After a slow first 4-6 weeks last year Fried was one of the most consistent pitchers in the league the rest of the way but this year has been consistently inconsistent. His BB/9 has also spiked, from 2.5 to 4.1 and that's been the big killer here. His FIP each season has been in a narrow 3.69-4.05 range but with the walks up it's 4.41. SP: Joe Ryan (B+). He was a B until that brilliant outing against Houston yesterday. He's been the one starter who's followed up what he did last year with more of the same, although with his K's down about 1 per 9 and HR allowed slightly up he's the one starter outpitching his FIP. RP: Nick Anderson (B-), Jose Alvarado (A), Brad Hand (B+). Anderson's yet another of the Rays whose control has deserted him this year - in years past he's been between 2.0 and 3.3 BB/9 but it's up to 4.3 this season and there's been a slight erosion in his K/9 from around 15 in years past to 13 this season. Alvarado on the other hand has been money, and while his 0.56 ERA isn't sustainable, his 1.74 FIP says it's not that far off. Hand has been pretty reliable (yet to blow a save) so no complaints there. Overall team grade: A. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-02-2020 at 06:08 PM.

07-02-2020, 06:30 PM	#51
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 4-6, 2022: at Miami (3) Game 1: It may have been July 4 but there really weren't many fireworks as traveling to Marlins Park seemed more like time travel to an era where pitching and defense reigned supreme. It was a duel between Blake Snell and follower Pablo Lopez, and after the Rays scored against opener Jonathan Holder in the 1st on a Ji-Man RBI single, Bryson Brigman came around to score on a Dom Smith sac fly after doubling in the 6th and 1-1 was where we stood through 8 innings. Snell went 7 5 1 1 1 3 on only 76 pitches and would have gone longer except he was pinch-hit for in the top of the 8th, while Lopez had shut the Rays out for 7 innings. Finally in the 9th (after a scoreless 8th from Alvarado) the Rays broke through. After Alec Bohm (who came in for Ji-Man after he was ejected for arguing a called third strike) grounded into a DP they staged a 2-out rally. Max Kepler singled, Abe Toro walked, and then Brandon Marsh stayed hot by ripping a 2-run double to the gap in left-center and the Rays were up 3-1. Hand had a 1-2-3 9th for save #19 and the Rays go to 57-27. To make the holiday even more festive for the Rays and their fans, Detroit clubbed the boys from Canada 12-6 to make the lead a season-high 9 games. Going to have to start talking magic numbers before long. Game 2: It's not too often the bullpen blows a game, but tonight it happened as the Rays fell 5-4 to Miami after leading 4-2 most of the game. Brendan McKay wasn't sharp but he got a couple of double plays and was 6 8 2 2 3 4 through 6 and I should have taken that and run. Instead my personal managerial bugaboo of leaving guys in one batter too long backfired as he gave up a double to a leadoff lefty who came around to score in the 7th to make it 4-3. Still with Anderson and Hand to follow it shouldn't be a problem but Nick was greeted by a Nomar Mazara HR and then Hand came on in the 9th and gave up a 1-out walk-off solo blast to Dominic Smith and the Rays let one slip away. Keibert Ruiz was the offense, with a first-inning solo HR and an RBI single in a 3-run 3rd, but they couldn't get anything going after that and it cost them. Brandon Marsh had 3 more hits and a steal given an opportunity to lead off and is going to be tough to get out of the lineup. The Jays beat Jacob deGrom and the Mets to pull back within 8. Game 3: It was all Max Fried and Brandon Marsh today as the Rays routed the Marlins 8-1 to take the first all-Florida series this year. Fried ended up one out away from a shutout but lost it on Wander Franco's error after Monte Harrison had tripled with 2 out in the 9th. His final line was 9 8 1 0 1 9 on 116 pitches and early on a shutout or a complete game looked unlikely after he had several baserunners to deal with in the first four innings, including a bases loaded, one-out situation in the 4th which he escaped with a strikeout and getting the pitcher Sixto Sanchez to ground out. At that point it was only 1-0 on Marsh's solo shot in the 1st, but the Rays broke it open in the 4th when after Ronaldo and Kiermaier singled, Fried bunted them over (the first sac bunt of the season, making the Rays the last team in MLB to get one) and then Brujan, Marsh and Wander hit consecutive run-scoring singles to make it 4-0. And then they further opened things up in the 6th when they added 3 more including Marsh's 2nd HR of the game, a 2-run round-tripper. Kepler added #16 for the final Rays run in the 7th. Marsh, who was thisclose to being demoted to Durham 5 days ago, suddenly has gone 11 for 19 with 3 HR and 9 RBI over his last 4 games. The only dark cloud from the game was that Ji-Man had to leave with a bruised wrist after being hit by a pitch, and is DTD for 7 days, so Alec Bohm will get a run at 1B for a little while. Fried's win is a team-high 9th. North of the border, Pete Alonso hit 3 HRs to give him an MLB-leading 33 as the Mets trounced the Jays 13-3 to put the division lead back at 9 games. Unfortunately it's those first-place Mets the Rays will face next for 3 games this weekend at CitiField after tomorrow's off-day. Team record: 58-28. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-02-2020 at 09:26 PM.

07-03-2020, 11:54 AM	#52
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 8-10, 2022 at New York Mets (3) Game 1: The Rays were Thor'd as Noah Syndergaard shut them down allowing only 1 run and 4 hits over 8 innings and fanning 8 in a 3-1 loss to the Mets. The lone run Rays run came off the bat of - you guessed it - Brandon Marsh with a HR to right in the 2nd. Tyler Glasnow got the start for the Rays and wasn't that bad except for two pitches - HRs allowed to Michael Conforto (solo) and Pete Alonso (a 2-run shot, his MLB-high 34th of the season) and that was that, his final line 5 4 3 3 2 7. Shane McClanahan had two shutout innings in relief and Austin Adams saw his first game action in eons, pitching a scoreless inning around 2 walks. Also, Keibert Ruiz extended his hitting streak to 16 games so that's a thing to mention now. The Yankees beat the Jays so the lead remains 9. Game 2: This was a game to forget as the Mets bludgeoned the Rays 15-6. Joe Ryan started off the game single, HBP, 3-run homer to Pete Alonso, solo HR to Joey Bart, and then gave up another HR to Bart in the 2nd to make it 6-2. The Rays actually pulled to within 6-5 in the 3rd thanks to some Mets errors, but Yonny Chirinos came on and stunk as well, giving up 5 runs in the 3rd which included a sequence where he balked in a run and then threw a pair of wild pitches allowing runners to score. AJ Puk came on and gave up 4 more runs on 2 HRs in his 2 innings with only Dany Jimenez able to walk off the mound with some pride as he threw a pair of scoreless frames. I knew as soon as I mentioned Keibert Ruiz's hit streak it would end, and it did. Abe Toro had a pair of RBI singles to pace the offense and red-hot Brandon Marsh drove in one as well. Ryan actually had an RBI single of his own but that was offset when Yonny allowed Hector Rondon to do likewise. The other New York team won as well, which means the lead stays at 9 despite losing two straight. July 10: Optioned P AJ Puk to AAA Durham, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham. Puk's stats for the Rays can best be described by adding an "e" to the end of his name: 9.1 innings, 12 hits, 10 walks, 10 ER, 4 HR allowed. I've noticed from some of my trade shopping that Puk still is in demand, and he is better than this, but I don't think I'll hesitate trading him if he's the key piece in a deal I might want to make. He's part of a bad LHP trade tree that started with Ryan Yarbrough dealt for Conner Menez (Yarbrough has a 5.00 ERA with the Giants) and then Menez dealt for Puk. Schmidt, meanwhile, who made his MLB debut in New York a few weeks back gets to visit the Big Apple again but hopefully he's not needed today. He's keeping the roster spot warm for Will Harris who will be back in a couple of days. Game 3: This one's going to hurt. The Rays and Mets went scoreless through 11 innings before Alec Bohm singled home Yusniel Diaz, who had pinch-doubled, to give the Rays a 1-0 lead in the 12th. With Brad Hand having pitched the previous 2 innings (which will probably put him out for 4-5 days) Austin Adams came on, allowed the leadoff guy to get on but got a double play, then hit Andres Gimenez with a pitch and then let Brandon Nimmo double him home to send us to the 13th, and then Adams again got two out, but walked Joey Bart and then gave up another RBI double, this time to Michael Conforto for a Mets win. So not only did they lose but they burned through the pen with Alvarado (28), Anderson (23), Hand (36) and Adams (36) all throwing quite a few pitches. This also marks the first time they've been swept in a 3-game series this year. Obviously the pitching outside of Adams was a bright spot, with Blake Snell going 6 1-hit innings, walking 4 and striking out 4. The offense struggled with the big culprit being Wander, who was 0-5 today with several key RBI situations on top of being 0-5 yesterday. The Jays were swept also, so the lead remains 9 but it was the Yankees doing the sweeping so they've crept to 11 back. Team record: 58-31. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-03-2020 at 02:46 PM.

07-03-2020, 06:54 PM	#53
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 11-13, 2022: vs Detroit (3) Game 1: Brendan McKay started off rolling, pitching two scoreless innings and striking out 4. Then he couldn't get anyone out and a 2-0 Rays lead became a 9-2 deficit by the time the middle of the third rolled around. Now if you've been following this team all season you won't be surprised the Rays came back and made a game of it, but unfortunately they fell just short at 10-9 for their first 4-game losing streak of the season. They had a couple of good chances to tie or win - in the eighth they got the first two on but couldn't get them around, and then Tigers closer Joe Jimenez walked two with two out but Abraham Toro flew to right. McKay's line ended an abysmal 2.1 3 8 8 5 4 as Clarke Schmidt allowed the last couple of his runners to score but settled down to go 3 2/3 allowing only one run. Unfortunately it turned out to be the decisive 10th run but it was unearned due to a Wander error. Wander's new slump continues on as well as he was 0-4. But Brandon Marsh stayed boiling lava hot, going 3-5 with a HR and 4 RBI while Vidal Brujan was 3-5 with a HR and 3 RBI although he was caught stealing for the 10th time. Somehow they scored 9 runs despite the Franco/Ruiz/Cruz/Kepler 2-5 spots going a combined 0-17. Toronto finally gained ground, but that was because they were idle so the lead is 8 1/2. Game 2: The painful losses continue, with this one another game the Rays were one out away from winning and ultimately lost. It was an unlikely pitcher's duel between Max Fried and Zac Godley for 6 innings (the Godley part was unlikely) until Detroit broke through for 2 runs in the top of the 7th off Fried, who ended with a still-good 7 6 2 2 2 6 line. But the Rays answered right back in the bottom of the frame on a solo shot by Kepler into the rays tank and then a 2-run shot from you know who, Mr. Marsh. The Rays took the 3-2 lead into the 9th after Nick Anderson had a 1-2-3 8th and with Brad Hand still tired from his long outing Sunday, Jose Alvarado came on for the save. Alvarado, who has been almost untouchable this year, gave up a 1-out double to Kennys Vargas and after getting the second out, yielded a game-tying single to Cesar Puello. On to extras we went, and in the top of the 10th Will Harris served up a 2-out HR to Daz Cameron to make it 4-3. But in the bottom of the 10th, the Rays rallied with Whit Merrifield driving in the tying run. With only Yonny left in the pen, Harris came out for the 11th, immediately got into trouble with runners at 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, and Yonny came in and allowed Jakson Reetz an RBI single to make it 5-4. Marsh got on with a walk in the bottom of the 11th, but the slumping Kiermaier hit into a double play to end the game and cap an 0-5 day, and the losing streak now stands at 5. But behind a big game from our old buddy Willy Adames, Atlanta beat Toronto, who seems determined not to get back in the race as we still sit with an 8 1/2 game lead. Game 3: The Rays snapped their losing streak in emphatic fashion with a 11-4 drubbing of the Tigers and the star of the game was Ronaldo Hernandez, whom I keep waiting for to regress but doesn't. All he did today was hit a bases-clearing triple to give the Rays a 6-3 third inning lead that put them in front to stay, and then followed that with a pair of HRs on his way to a 6-RBI game. His triple slash numbers are now 358/419/758 with 11 HR and 27 RBI and maybe he isn't regressing because he only has 95 ABs and plays every third or fourth day. Regression is still going to happen but I'm enjoying the ride. Also regression hasn't caught up with Brandon Marsh either, as he hit yet another HR to tie the game at 3 after Tyler Glasnow gave up a 3-run HR in the 3rd to Willie Calhoun. That was all Glasnow allowed as he went 7 4 3 3 4 7 for his 4th win of the season. Max Kepler homered again as well, a 2-run shot in the 1st to put the Rays on top early as part of a 3-hit, 3-RBI day for him. 2021 2nd overall pick Kumar Rocker made his MLB debut in relief for Detroit and showed good (4 Ks in 1 1/3 IP) and bad (2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs, one earned). Speaking of high draft picks, #1 overall 2020 pick Austin Martin has been up for about a month and was on base 3 of 4 times today for the Tigers with 1 hit and 2 walks and is 277/312/465 so far. Toronto snapped their own 5-game losing streak today, so the lead still sits at 8 1/2. Team record: 59-33. Bonus graphic: Brandon Marsh's game log over the past 10 games (18-48, 7 HR, 18 RBI, 4 SB, 4 BB) Also, speaking of football scores showing up this year (from today): And finally, those same Nats just DFA'd Zack Greinke after he put up a 6.82 ERA in 34 innings for them as well. Sad to say, it looks like his career could be done. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-03-2020 at 10:48 PM.

07-04-2020, 08:31 AM	#54
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 14-17, 2022: at Minnesota (3) (It's actually 4 games against Minnesota but I can't edit the header) Game 1: The Rays league-leading offense failed to show up tonight, but until the 7th inning the one run they scored was enough behind Joe Ryan, who after getting the first out in the inning was 6.1 2 0 0 0 11. But he gave up a single to Jorge Polanco and then the inevitable HR to Mitch Garver and Minnesota was up 2-1. Ryan allowed another hit which Will Harris allowed to score on a Hunter Renfroe (remember him?) double, and then Harris put a man on in the 8th that Alvarado allowed to score and the final was 4-1 Twins. The Rays could only manage five hits for the game and of course their one run was courtesy of Brandon Marsh, who walked, stole second and scored on a Wander (who was hitless again) sac fly. Marsh also doubled. Kiermaier also took the collar again as the team has now lost 6 of 7. Toronto finally cut into the lead with a win as it's down to 7 1/2. We still have 12 games to play with against them. Game 2: When a team is going poorly they find new ways to lose and tonight was an example. Tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the 9th, Brad Hand came on and walked the leadoff hitter Nick Gordon but then Keibert Ruiz threw away Byron Buxton's sacrifice attempt into left field, putting runners and 2nd and 3rd and Andrew Benintendi delivered the game-winning single. In some respects they were fortunate to get to the 9th at 3-3 since the offense was largely quiet with only 4 hits on the night. Brujan doubled to lead off the game and came around to score on a Ruiz groundout and then in the 4th, a pair of walks and a Kepler single loaded the bases for Abraham Toro, who doubled in 2 with Kepler thrown out at the plate by his counterpart Hunter Renfroe. And that was it for the offense. In fact Tyler Duffey, who came on to pitch the final 2 2/3, struck out 6 consecutive Rays at one point and the team fanned 13 times for the night. Blake Snell started and was OK (6 8 3 3 1 5) but yielded HRs to Benintendi and Addison Russell. And Toronto won again so they've cut 2 1/2 games off the lead to get it down to 6 1/2 now. July 16: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 24-year-old minor league second baseman Nick Sogard to the Texas Rangers, getting 28-year-old right fielder Joey Gallo, retaining 80% in return. Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with a back bruise. Just grabbed the biggest prize on the rental market for a fairly modest cost. Don't need to reiterate my feelings on Puk although with his stuff he could still repeat his 2021 and be a pretty good pitcher. Sogard is a C+ prospect at a position that's way overcovered in the organization (Brujan/Edwards/G.Jones), and it's only costing us about $1.1M in salary since Texas retained 80%. So basically an offer I couldn't refuse. Gallo of course is kind of the antithesis of the offense as currently constructed (low average, strikes out, big power) but still gets on base at a .350-.370 clip and provides a massive infusion of power. Ultimately he's taking over for Ji-Man at 1B down the stretch but for now I kick that can down the road by putting Marsh on the IL. Although I probably didn't have to put him on the IL, I'll err on the side of caution and with the all-star break coming up he'll only miss 6 games instead of 10 so Gallo will play LF for now. Going to see how the trade market develops over these last two weeks but Ji-Man will likely be moved. Game 3: The rot continues as they drop their eighth in nine games, this time 6-3. McKay was terrible again, walking two and giving up a 3-run HR to Mitch Garver in the first and then allowing a 2-run HR to Royce Lewis in the 2nd. He settled down from there, pitching 3 2/3 scoreless but the damage was done, and 3 guesses as to who goes fifth in the rotation after the break. Meanwhile the offense stunk again although Joey Gallo in his Rays debut wasn't to blame as he had an RBI single in the 1st and drew a walk in his 4 plate appearances. No, it was the usual suspects like Wander (0-4 again, I've never seen anyone with such a rollercoaster season and I've been managing Ji-Man Choi), Ji-Man (0-3), Kiermaier and Nelson Cruz. As for those latter two, Kiermaier did actually get a base hit in the 7th, and Cruz hit a 2-run HR in the 9th to make the final margin what it was but they all have snowflakes next to their names. Any team that lets the immortal Jaime Barria 3-hit them over 7 innings is slumping. Boston did us a favor and beat the Jays so things could have been worse, although Seattle won today giving them the best record in the AL (60-36 vs the Rays' 59-36) meaning if the season ended today the Rays would play these same Twins in the first round. Game 4: This game had all the hallmarks of another Rays loss. Early HR allowed by starting pitcher? Check. Defensive mistake leads to unearned run? Check. Offense can't hit its way out of a paper bag? Check. All of this was true through 5 innings at Target Field after Max Fried allowed a 2-run first inning HR to Miguel Sano (you didn't think we'd get out of a 4-game series with Minnesota without him hitting one, did you?) and a solo shot to Jorge Polanco to go with a run scoring after an Alec Bohm error at 3B as he filled in for the slumping Toro. So it was 4-1 Twins after 5 and it was going to be 9 losses in 10 games. But (the) sixth happened. Joey Gallo led off with a double, Nelson Cruz singled him to 3rd, Ji-Man doubled Gallo home sending Cruz to 3rd, Bohm walked, Yusniel Diaz (playing for Kepler) singled to score Cruz to make it 4-3, but then Ronaldo flied to shallow left and the runners had to hold, and Kiermaier hit into a force at the plate. But just when it looked like the Rays would squander the opportunity to take the lead, Vidal Brujan doubled into the RCF gap to clear the bases and give the Rays a 6-4 lead. With Fried having to leave after five having thrown 106 pitches, the question was to how to get the bullpen big 3 through 4 innings. With two lefties due up in the 6th, Alvarado got the first call and despite allowing a couple of hits, made it through. With three straight righties looming in the 7th, Nick Anderson came on and got the job done, and with 4 days off looming Nick pitched a second inning and was perfect there too (he only threw 25 pitches total) so that left it to Hand, who if he allowed a baserunner would face Sano as at least the tying run at the plate. Well sure enough he walked Royce Lewis on 4 pitches to lead off the inning, but then he struck out a pair of tough hitters in Benintendi and Polanco, setting up the confrontation with Sano with the game on the line. Hand proceeded to strike Sano out to strike out the side and get his 20th save. Fried hung in there through 5 to earn his 10th win with a Dyatlov-esque ("not great, not terrible") 5 7 4 3 2 6 line. The win was critical because Toronto prevailed as well (as did the Yankees who are now only 9 back). Jesus Luzardo of the A's pitched the best game of the season so far with a 9 1 0 0 0 16 shutout of the Giants for a Game Score of 101. Granted the Giants are one of the worst offenses in MLB, but still quite a performance. Team record: 60-36. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-04-2020 at 05:07 PM.

07-04-2020, 05:11 PM	#55
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	All-Star Break 2022 Here are the AL All-Stars. Unsurprisingly the Rays made a good showing with 6 representatives although one is injured (Meadows) and the other was just acquired the other day (Gallo). Those with asterisks won the voting at their position (Cruz was at DH). Will update with how the game went when I play it shortly. Meadows' numbers bring a tear to my eye. And here's the game: As far as the participating Rays go, Gallo was 0-3 with a walk and a run scored (3 Ks otherwise), Keibert Ruiz had a pinch-hit single, Nelson Cruz was 0-2, and Jose Alvarado pitched a scoreless 9th, striking out Christian Yelich to end the game. Hand was not used. The AL's rout was led by Vlad Jr. who had a bases-clearing double and a 2-run HR and Alex Bregman who had a pair of 2-run HRs. And for those wondering, Miguel Sano beat Pete Alonso in the finals of the HR Derby. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-04-2020 at 08:08 PM.

07-04-2020, 09:45 PM	#56
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 22-24, 2022: vs Miami (3) Game 1: Tyler Glasnow was brilliant in the Rays' first game after the All-Star break, twirling 6 shutout innings with 2 walks and 10 Ks in a 7-1 win over Miami. Wander homered in the first to give the Rays a 1-0 lead and for a while that was all Glasnow had to work with. But they broke it open in the 5th when Wander walked, stole second and scored on a Keibert Ruiz single and then Joey Gallo followed with his first Rays HR to make it 4-0. Nelson Cruz made it 7-0 in the 7th with a 3-run shot, his 25th. Will Harris pitched a scoreless 7th but with a 7-run lead Austin Adams shat the bed with four consecutive walks before Dany Jimenez bailed him out with a pair of strikeouts and finished off the game. The Blue Jays continued their habit of shadowing the Rays result with a win of their own, so the lead remains 6 1/2. Game 2: Joe Ryan was in command as was the Rays offense as they once again took it to the Marlins to the tune of 10-3. Ryan went 7 5 3 3 0 11 which would have been 7 3 1 1 0 11 had I not done my usual thing of bringing starters out one inning too long with a big lead. Wander has decided to get hot again, reaching base all 5 times up, going 3-3 with 2 walks, a HR for the second straight night and 2 RBI. Joey Gallo continues to have at least one big hit a night since joining the Rays, tonight it was a bases-clearing triple in the 2nd that put the team up 5-0 and chased Sixto Sanchez. Vidal Brujan was also 2-5 with a pair of RBI, the job-endangered Ji-Man had a solo shot, and Shane McClanahan whiffed 5 Marlins in his 2 scoreless innings in relief of Ryan, who is now 9-4. The Rays winning of course meant the Jays won, lead stays 6 1/2. July 24: Traded 22-year-old minor league reliever Rodolfo Sanchez and 31-year-old reliever Austin Adams to the Cincinnati Reds, getting 30-year-old closer Giovanny Gallegos in return. Adams has been a huge disappointment this season after he looked like the real deal last year, but he dropped from a 4.5-star guy to a 3.0 star guy this year and his control has been atrocious (23 BB in 26 IP). In return I get Gallegos, the Reds' closer this year who has a 10/45 BB/K ratio in 39 innings and has 60 control. Also, he's projected to only make about $3.4M next year in arbitration and he could serve as the team's closer next season if I don't bring Hand back yet again. The price of the upgrade was Sanchez, a potential 2-star middling prospect pitching at High-A Port Charlotte who hasn't distinguished himself so far. Game 3: Today was a case of the offense not showing up, as they only managed 4 hits on the day in a 6-2 loss. Brendan McKay got the start because I preferred to save Fried and Snell for the Yankees and he had his usual disaster inning, this time in the third when he walked a pair and gave up three singles in a 3-run inning. His final line was 6 4 3 3 3 3, medicore consider the opposition This put the Rays behind 3-0 but Gallo hit his 2nd Rays HR to make it 3-1, and a Nelson Cruz sac fly cut it to 3-2 in a situation the Rays should have scored more runs. It stayed this way until the 9th (Giovanny Gallegos had a 1-2-3 8th in his Rays debut) when the recently-reliable Dany Jimenez got into trouble of his own making with a throwing error on a comebacker and then he yielded a 2-run HR to Jorge Alfaro and then put a couple of more on, one of which who went on to score. Vidal Brujan had 2 of the Rays' 4 hits today. The Jays gained ground with a sweep of Baltimore, so the lead is trimmed to 5 1/2 with the Yankees coming to town for 3. Team record: 62-37. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-05-2020 at 10:08 AM.

07-05-2020, 11:34 AM	#57
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 25-27, 2022 vs New York Yankees (3) Game 1: Blake Snell got the start, and it didn't start off too well as he walked Kolten Wong and Aaron Judge to lead off the game. But he bounced back to get the next 3, and rolled the rest of the way as the Rays pounded the Yankees 9-1. Snell ended with an excellent 6 4 1 1 3 7 line as he looked his old dominant self, the only blemish a 6th inning solo HR by Gleyber Torres. Meanwhile the offense got to work right away with (who else?) Joey Gallo clubbing a 2-run first inning HR off Deivi Garcia, Wander doubling and scoring on a wild pitch in the 3rd, and Nelson Cruz hitting #26 for 2 more in the 4th. Later on, Vidal Brujan had a 2-run double and Keibert Ruiz hit a solo shot, his 15th HR of the year, and everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. The Twins, who killed us right before the break, did us a favor by beating the Jays and bringing the lead back up to 6 1/2. July 26: Activated OF Brandon Marsh from the 10-day IL, optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham. I continue to kick the can down the road with respect to Ji-Man, as McClanahan pitched two innings yesterday and was an easy choice to send down. Game 2: Max Fried pitched well, but it wasn't enough as the Yankees eked out a 3-2 win over the Rays. He was staked to a 2-0 lead after Toro walked, was doubled to 3rd by Marsh, then scored on a wild pitch and Marsh came home on Brujan's sac fly. Aaron Hicks homered to cut the lead in half in the 5th, and then Luke Voit hit a 2-run shot off Fried in the 6th to put the Yankees ahead to stay. The Rays had a chance to tie or win in the bottom of the 9th off Aroldis Chapman when with two out, pinch-hitter Alec Bohm and Toro singled, and pinch-hitter Whit Merrifield walked to load the bases, but Brujan struck out to end the game. Joey Gallo had his first unproductive day as a Ray with an 0-4. And Toronto beat Minnesota to cut the lead back to 5 1/2 games. July 27: Claimed P Trevor Gott on waivers from the Chicago Cubs, optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham. Gott has been an excellent reliever for the past 2 1/2 years now, and I'm not sure why the Cubs waived him (and the Mets waived him at the start of the season and the Cubs beat me out for the claim back then). He saved 29 games for SF in 2020 with a 2.85 ERA and then after a rough start in 2021 in SF, he was traded to the Mets and had a 1.52 ERA in 41 IP with a 13/41 BB/K ratio. And this year with the Cubs he had a 1.45 ERA in 18 innings with a 3/20 BB/K ratio. So no I'm not going to turn down a free pitcher of this caliber, and I had a 40-man roster spot open. Jimenez has been great this year but only went down because he was tired, he'll be back up very soon. Game 3: Tyler Glasnow was not sharp to start this game, to say the least. With one out and a man on first to start the game, Glasnow walked Torres, struck out Stanton, but then walked Luke Voit and Aaron Hicks to force in a run and followed that with a walk to Gary Sanchez, forcing in another run. Then in the 2nd he allowed two singles for first and third to lead off the inning and a Judge sac fly made it 3-0. Max Kepler hit a 459-ft HR to make it 3-1 in bottom of the inning but Glasnow gave it right back with Aaron Hicks going to deep top 3 to make it 4-1. It was going to be one of those nights. Wander singled in Toro who had doubled to cut it back it 4-2 after 3, and Glasnow finally got through an inning unscathed in the 4th, setting the stage for a 6-run sixth inning that amusingly enough started and ended with a Joey Gallo strikeout. In between Kepler tripled, Cruz singled him home, Ji-Man walked, Toro singled in Cruz to tie the game, Marsh singled to load the bases and then Vidal Brujan stepped up with his specialty, the bases-clearing double. Wander singled him home, and it was 8-4. And that was the final score as Glasnow made it through 6 to get the win with a semi-ugly 6 5 4 4 5 4 line, and Trevor Gott (in his Rays debut), Alvarado and Nick Anderson all pitched scoreless innings to finish it out. Unlike last season, when the Rays struggled to beat the Yankees after an early season sweep at Yankee Stadium, the win makes the Rays 9-3 so far this year against the boys from the Bronx. And the good news continued in Toronto, where the Twins knocked off Toronto 3-2 to put the lead back up to 6 1/2. Odd note: In a game between Washington and Milwaukee that went 7-7 to the 15th inning, the Brewers won on a grand slam from pitcher Sean Doolittle with two outs after they had exhausted their bench. The blast came off former Rays closer Emilio Pagan, who was known to give up a HR or two in his time. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-05-2020 at 04:39 PM.

07-05-2020, 05:52 PM	#58
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	July 28-31, 2022 at Baltimore (4) July 28: Traded 31-year-old first baseman Ji-man Choi, 24-year-old minor league left fielder Matthew Barefoot, 24-year-old minor league reliever Graeme Stinson and 21-year-old minor league second baseman Curtis Mead to the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting 29-year-old first baseman Josh Bell and 23-year-old minor league second baseman Nick Gonzales in return. Whoa Nelly, this is the big one. I was originally going to trade Ji-Man for a prospect but after playing him in the lineup the last few days I realized the team is probably better with Kiermaier on the bench and Marsh in CF with Gallo in LF since Choi is a better overall hitter than Kiermaier and the dropoff in defense with Marsh is not that much. So I circled back to the Pirates since Bell was the other big rental along with Gallo and while the Pirates are out of it too, they had not been as reasonable as Texas was w/r/t Gallo. Well with a few days until the deadline they got reasonable. Choi of course is still arbiration-eligible so they get their 1B for next season, Barefoot could hit 25 HR right now in the big leagues but I have an excess of OF prospects. Mead hasn't shown the ability to hit higher than single-A two years running now but still has some offensive potential. Stinson was the one I reluctantly parted with, but like the other two prospects he's Rule 5 eligible this year and that's always a concern with this franchise. Meanwhile I'm not selling out completely by getting 2020 #1 pick Gonzales in the deal. Don't really need another 2B prospect but he's a good one, doesn't have to be put on the 40-man and he will always make good trade bait in the future. So I get another massive middle-of-the-order bat who's a clear upgrade on Choi and the Pirates get some pieces for a guy they probably don't re-sign. All-in but not really mortgaging the future. July 28: Optioned 1B/3B Alec Bohm to AAA Durham, recalled P Dany Jimenez from AAA Durham. This was the other shoe to drop from the deal. With Bell being a RHB, Bohm's primary role as Ji-Man's platoon partner evaporated. At the moment I'm still looking to make Bohm my 1B next season but for now at least he'll get to play every day even if he won't be too happy about it. The irony is that back in the 20-21 offseason I traded Nate Lowe to the Phillies for Bohm, thinking he'd be my new 3B. Well this was one deal that backfired on me as Lowe over the last two seasons has become of the premier power hitters in the NL, hitting 37 HR last year and already with 30 this season. Had I known he'd pan out this well I would have kept him and dealt Choi for a 3B back then but at the time I didn't see PT for Lowe as Choi was coming off a (unbeknownst to me anomalous) 4-WAR season and Jose Martinez was the DH and just won the batting title. I still have two OFs riding the bench (assuming I stick with Marsh in CF that puts Kiermaier and Yusniel on the pine) so if Toro needs a breather at 3B I'll just have to have Merrifield fake it there. Game 1: Well I knew the addition of Bell would further boost an already elite offense, but I didn't think it would have this kind of effect. Of course the horrible Orioles pitching staff had a lot to do with it too but the Rays pounded out a 26-5 win, scoring at least one run in every inning (and at least 2 in every inning except the 2nd and 6th). Wander had 3 HR and 9 RBI among his 5 hits to lead the way (he even stole a base too, when it was briefly semi-close), Bell was 3-6 with 2 RBI in his debut, and hell, I'll just post the screencap of the Rays hitters portion of the box score right here: What I want to know is how Keibert Ruiz managed to go 0-7 among all this. I was planning on starting Ronaldo tomorrow anyway. Joe Ryan was the beneficiary of all this run support to go 10-4, he went 6.1 6 3 3 1 8 giving up a pair of obligatory HRs, and Yonny finished the game out allowing a pair of runs himself. Of course this all means they probably lose 4-3 tomorrow. Toronto was idle so the Rays are now up 7 games. Game 2: Well they didn't lose 4-3 as predicted. That would have been respectable. Instead, Brendan McKay melted down yet again and has made his last start for the time being as Baltimore got their revenge for last night with a 16-6 drubbing. McKay was wild again, walking four in the 1 1/3 innings he lasted as he gave up four hits as well and six runs total. Had to burn through Jimenez, Gott and Gallegos just to get through the game, having used Yonny for 2 2/3 last night. And I ended up going to Yonny again in the 8th when Gallegos couldn't make it through a third inning and the tired Chirinos gave up four more runs. The O's were up 10-0 after 3. Of course the Rays still got their runs, although they all came late in garbage time - Toro had a 3-run HR and Josh Bell hit his first Rays HR in the 9th and Marsh followed with one of his own. Oh, and I left out the best news: Joey Gallo had to leave in the 4th legging out an infield single, he's DtD for 5 days with knee soreness so Kiermaier will be back in the lineup. As for McKay's spot in the rotation, Monday is an off day so he can be skipped next time through. He may be sent to Durham in the interim so I can get a long man up. At least the White Sox kept the night from being worse by beating Toronto 5-4 so the lead remains 7. July 30: Traded 26-year-old minor league starting pitcher Brendan McKay and 24-year-old minor league right fielder JJ Bleday to the San Diego Padres, getting 26-year-old starting pitcher Chris Paddack, 23-year-old minor league left fielder Reese Albert and 23-year-old minor league right fielder Tim Tawa in return. Recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. It was easy and it wasn't easy trading McKay. The easy part is not dealing with the frustration of his 2022 poor performance any longer and a look under the hood convinced me to deal him. His ratings are down across the board (45 in control for example), giving me little hope of a quick turnaround. The hard part was the fact that he was good for 8 WAR the previous two seasons and I've traded away another link to Rays reality circa 2020. Bleday is an excellent prospect as well and will be a good player for San Diego (or wherever he ends up as the AI likes to trade him too) but is more of a doubles guy than a pure power hitter and we have so much OF prospect depth I could afford to part with him. Of course the big news is Paddack coming in return, a guy with 60 stuff and 70 control and who sports a 5:1 K/BB ratio over his career. The drawback is that he's somewhat homer-prone, not Joe Ryan level but close and his numbers should drop a bit coming over to the DH league. Also he's a year ahead of McKay in service time so he'll cost a few million more next season. But he looks like an improvement, on his way to a 4 WAR season this year. Albert and Tawa were throw-ins, B-/C+ OF prospects but you never know. Before the deal I had sent McKay to Durham, and brought up McClanahan. I'll leave McClanahan up until Paddack is ready for his next start which would be have been on the same schedule as McKay. July 30: Traded 21-year-old minor league reliever Rafael Garcia, 19-year-old minor league shortstop Odalys Peguero and 24-year-old minor league first baseman Dante Biasi to the San Francisco Giants, getting 23-year-old minor league catcher Patrick Bailey, 24-year-old minor league left fielder Hunter Bishop and 25-year-old minor league starting pitcher Kyle Wilson in return. And one of the reasons I had no problem trading Bleday is that I had this deal lined up, getting Bishop, the Giants' #1 pick in 2019 and who has some serious power. He his 29 in A+ ball last year and already has 28 in AA. He's a fine defensive LF and the "editor" thinks he could hit 30-35 HR in the majors right now. His flaw is that as a power hitter, he will strike out and he's more of a 55-60 walk guy. Bailey was the Giants' #1 pick in 2020 and more of a bat than a glove catcher (although he's a 55, so there's some glove) but the bat really plays and he immediately becomes the organization's top catching prospect even though I have a couple of good young ones at the MLB level. Wilson was a throw-in, a finesse righty putting up OK numbers. The key for the Giants was Peguero, who should be a defensive wiz at SS but the question remains how much he'll hit, Garcia has a live arm, and Biasi has some power potential of his own and was hitting quite well at AA Montgomery but he's a 1B at best, DH at worst. Game 3: My powers of prognostication were one game off. After the 26-5 win in the first game, I mused they'd lose 4-3 the next night and it turned out to be 16-6. Well tonight the Orioles won 4-3 after a poor start from Blake Snell and an almost as poor performance by the offense. Gallo was out, but c'mon you've got to do better than 3 runs in 8 innings off Kohl Stewart and his 6.64 ERA coming in. Snell was 4 9 4 4 2 3, giving up a pair of HRs in his first bad outing in about 5 starts. Shane McClanahan came on and finished with 4 perfect innings, striking out 5 and preserving the rest of the bullpen. Maybe he should be in the rotation. As for what passed for the offense, Kiermaier had a big game in Gallo's place, doubling in their first run and hitting a solo homer in the 7th. Keibert Ruiz, who was 0-7 in the 26-5 win, homered for the other Rays run. Oh, and while Josh Bell was 0-3 with a walk tonight, Ji-Man went 4-4 with a HR and 4 RBI for Pittsburgh. The Jays got by Chicago 2-1 so the lead is back down to 6. Game 4: Well this turned out to be probably the worst game of the season as the Rays blew a 9-0 third-inning lead and lost 12-10. It was looking like Thursday night when they jumped out to the big lead buoyed by a 3-run HR from Brujan and a solo shot from Keibert Ruiz. But Max Fried couldn't stand prosperity. He gave up a run in the 3rd which seemed like no big deal but he coughed up 6 runs in the 4th including a 3-run HR from Manuel Margot and a 2-run HR from Rio Ruiz to cut it to 9-7. Fried ended up leaving with a horrible 4 10 7 7 4 6 line after being staked 9 runs. Brandon Marsh added a solo HR in the 5th to make it 10-7 and Will Harris pitched very well in relief, going 2 2/3 to get them to 2 outs in the 7th and let the big boys of the bullpen take over. But Nick Anderson had nothing today despite being well-rested as after Harris put a man on he gave up a HR to Pat Valaika to make it 10-9, gave up a triple to Margot, wild-pitched him home to tie it, gave up a hit to Gavin Sheets and then a 2-run HR to Austin Hays and 12-10 it was. It's hard to criticize the offense for putting up 10 runs but it would have helped if they scored more than once over the final 6 innings but the blame for this one is squarely on Fried and Anderson. On a day they didn't deserve to be bailed out, though, the White Sox did them a favor to keep the Jays from gaining ground. But losing 3 of 4 to Baltimore is inexcusable and this team has been treading water for 2 months now since the great start, a similar trajectory to last season. Fortunately they're not behind a runaway juggernaut like last year's Yankees were but until and unless the starting pitching achieves some semblance of consistency, the rest of the season is going to be like this. Team record: 65-41. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-06-2020 at 11:46 AM.

07-06-2020, 01:56 PM	#59
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	August 2-4, 2022 vs LA Angels (3) Game 1: After blowing a 9-0 lead yesterday and losing, the Rays nearly blew a 7-0 lead but hung on to win 7-6 in another game that got the blood pressure rising. With LA starting a lefty (as they will the next 2 nights also), Whit Merrifield got a start over Brendan Marsh in LF and made his statement with a 3-run HR in the 2nd inning. Keibert Ruiz had a 2-run double in the 4th, and Abe Toro went deep for a pair in the 5th and it was 7-0 behind Tyler Glasnow, who was rolling. But Glasnow got into some trouble with one out in the 6th, yielding a couple runs and with his pitch count at the century mark Trevor Gott came on and got him out of the inning. But Gott yielded an Anthony Rendon HR to make it 7-3 and then after a man got on, the immortal Connor Justus went deep to make it 7-5. Shane McClanahan got Gott out of the 7th. And the virtually untouchable Jose Alvarado got touched in the 8th, losing the lefty-lefty matchup to Ohtani, who went yard to make it 7-6. Like yesterday an insurance run or two would have been nice but they did nothing in the late innings so it was up to Brad Hand to save the day and he did, getting #21 with a 1-2-3 9th as brows were wiped across Tampa Bay. Glasnow got the win going 5.1 4 2 2 1 7 to go to 7-2, and Yusniel Diaz was 2-3 with a walk and 3 runs scored in a rare start. Toronto won, and also won the night before while the Rays were idle, so the lead is down to 5 1/2, 5 in the loss column. The win was costly for the Jays though as their ace and reigning AL Cy Young winner Nate Pearson suffered a torn labrum and is done for the year. Game 2: Well that was ugly. Ohtani hit a 2-run HR and Mike Trout a solo shot off Joe Ryan in the top of the first, and that was all LA would need as they went on to an 8-0 win. Trout's HR was his 400th. Ryan was Mr. Three True Outcomes today, also giving up a HR to Tom Murphy and putting up a 5 4 5 5 1 10 line. In other words, he was dominant when he wasn't giving up HRs. Meanwhile the offense could only muster 5 hits all day against Andrew Heaney (who left in the 5th injured), Shelby Miller and Patrick Sandoval. We got the bad Joey Gallo today in his return from knee soreness, 0-4 with 3 strikeouts, but days like that are part of the bargain. Elsewhere, the Rays aren't the only team who can build a big lead and blow out as the Jays squandered an 8-3 lead in the 7th inning to lose 10-8 at Oakland so no damage done in the standings today. August 4: Optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham, added P Chris Paddack to the active roster. Paddack makes his debut today vs the Angels (as does McKay for the Padres at Wrigley Field). Game 3: Now that's Rays baseball. Solid starting pitching, timely hitting and fine bullpen work. These type of games have been few and far between but that's what we had today as Chris Paddack won his Rays debut 6-2. It almost looked like he'd end up a hard luck loser as he finished the 6th (and the game with 99 pitches) down 2-1 but Ronaldo Hernandez hit a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-2 and Nelson Cruz added #28 in the 8th for the final margin of victory. Paddack was an excellent 6 5 2 2 1 9, only running into trouble in the 4th inning when he loaded the bases with one out. He got a popup for the second out, but former Ray farmhand Nick Solak hit a 2-run single up the middle to score LA's runs. Giovanny Gallegos threw a perfect 7th with a pair of Ks, Jose Alvarado got the Angels 1-2-3 in the 8th, and after Cruz's HR took away the save situation, Will Harris got three groundballs to finish the game. Also of note, Vidal Brujan had another fine day at the play, going 2-4 with an RBI double for the Rays' first run and is hitting 310/384/422 with a real shot at AL rookie of the year. Seattle, with the best record in the AL thanks to the Rays' two-month run of mediocrity, knocked off Toronto 2-0 so the lead increases to 6 1/2. The Mariners' winning hit came from former Ray Mike Brosseau, his 17th HR of the year and having a great season as Seattle's starting 2B. He was sent with Colin Poche for Austin Adams and Mitch Haniger last year, and that deal has worked out well for the Mariners. But at least Adams brought Gallegos and Haniger brought Seth Beer, who's raking at Durham and is line to be next year's DH unless I go and do something like sign Nelson Cruz again. Oh, and in case you were wondering how McKay's debut with San Diego went, he was used as a follower and came on in the 2nd inning and went 3.1 6 5 5 1 3, allowing 2 HRs as the Cubs pasted the Padres 17-5. Also getting tagged were Resly Linares, who pitched for Durham last year and has done well until today when he gave up 5 runs, and old friend Oliver Drake allowed 4 runs in an inning for San Diego. Speaking of former Rays, with all the deals I've made with the Cubs over the past couple of years, it was fitting that Jose Martinez and Yandy Diaz had HRs for Chicago today. Team record: 67-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-06-2020 at 05:01 PM.

07-06-2020, 05:11 PM	#60
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,077	August 5-7, 2022: vs Chicago White Sox (3) Before we get into the games, here's a look at the standings and leaders through games of Thursday, August 4: Right now there's only one tight division race and that's in the NL Central with the Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers all in it. The Mets with baseball's best record is a bit of a surprise and they added Dinelson Lamet from San Diego to bolster their already-good starting rotation. As we saw when playing them, they're tough. Not shown here is the wild card race, where the Yankees have slipped past Houston by 1/2 game to move into the 2nd spot behind Toronto, who's 2 1/2 up on them. Oakland's on an 8-2 run to get within 2 1/2 of a wild card themselves. The NL wild card race is 2 of the 3 teams in the Central plus Atlanta, next closest is Arizona who's 6 behind. And who'd ever thought we'd see Boston this bad? They've had some last-place finishes in the last 10 years but they've never been within 1/2 game of having the worst record in MLB. Game 1: A stroll at the old ballpark today for the Rays as Blake Snell and Vidal Brujan teamed up to lead a 10-0 thrashing of the defending champion White Sox. Snell was brilliant, going 6 2 0 0 3 11, leaving after 95 pitches with a 10-run lead to improve to 7-5. Brujan, meanwhile, continued his assault on AL pitching, going 3-4, scoring 3 runs and delivering the game's key hit, a 3-run HR off former Gator Dane Dunning with 2 out in the 2nd. He put the Rays on the board in the 1st by singling, stealing second and coming around to score when Nick Madrigal muffed Joey Gallo's grounder. Keibert Ruiz made the rubble bounce with a fourth-inning grand slam (HR #18) and Max Kepler added #20 with a solo shot later in the inning. And Brandon Marsh was on base 3 more times in 4 appearances with 2 singles and a walk and two runs scored. Interestingly, the two new big boppers (Gallo and Bell) were a combined 0-7, and Ji-Man was 3-5 with 2 doubles and a 2-run walk-off HR for Pittsburgh today. Toronto won so the lead stays at 6 1/2 and the magic # drops to 47. Game 2: High drama at the Trop tonight as the Rays went to the bottom of the ninth down 5-4. The White Sox brought in closer Ian Hamilton, and Keibert Ruiz led off with a HR to tie the game, and Joey Gallo followed with one of his own to win it 6-5. I had been grumbling the last 7-10 days about how neither Bell nor Gallo had a big hit and Joey G came through. His quote in the game recap said it all: "This wasn't a good win. It was a great win." The Rays found themselves behind in a back-and-forth game primarily due to a key error by recent hero Vidal Brujan, which opened the door for Michael Chavis to hit a 2-out, 2-run double off Giovanny Gallegos to give the White Sox their 5-4 lead in the 7th. But Will Harris and Trevor Gott (who Gott the win) pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings to keep it close. Max Fried started and had the barest definition of a quality start, going 6 7 3 3 3 4 but left with a 4-3 lead. The Rays went up 1-0 against Lucas Giolito on a Wander HR, his 20th, only for the White Sox to tie in the 2nd, then for the Rays to regain the lead in the 4th on a Marsh RBI single and a Brujan RBI double. But Luis Robert had a 2-run double off Fried to equalize in the top of the 5th, and then the Rays jumped back ahead with a Kepler RBI single. Seattle took care of Toronto 6-3 (another Brosseau HR) and the lead expands to 7 1/2, with the magic # at 45. Game 3: A slow start for the Rays was no problem today as behind Tyler Glasnow they ended up cruising to a 7-2 win. The unlikely tandem of Javy Guerra and Jorge Lopez retired the first 11 Rays hitters before Joey Gallo broke the ice with another HR to put them up 1-0. But Nick Madrigal tripled to lead off the 5th and scored on a groundout, and then Eloy Jimenez took Glasnow deep into the rays tank to put the White Sox up 2-1. But the Rays wasted no time erasing the Chicago advantage when Marsh walked, Ronaldo Hernandez singled, and after a ground out and a fly out, Brujan came through once again with one of his patented 2-out doubles up the gap, although it only scored one run. No problem though, as Wander followed with a triple to score Hernandez and Brujan to put the Rays in front to stay. In the 6th Marsh tripled in Kepler and scored on a Kiermaier single and Whit Merrifield, in his first start at 3B, doubled in Marsh in the 8th to complete the scoring. Glasnow was dominant again, going 6 4 2 2 1 10 to improve to 8-2, Nick Anderson struck out the side in his first appearance since the meltdown in Baltimore, and Will Harris and Brad Hand shut it down in the 8th and 9th. Gotta give it up for Harris, who's been great since joining the Rays even though he's pitched in lower-leverage situations than he's used to. In 19.1 innings over 16 appearances he's walked 2 and struck out 25 with a 2.33 ERA. Toronto lost again to Seattle as the lead balloons to 8 1/2 and the magic number drops to 43. Around MLB, history was made when we had the first double no-hitter in MLB history won by Milwaukee 1-0 over Colorado. Brandon Woodruff of Milwaukee pitched the winning 9-inning no-hitter (in Milwaukee, not in Coors), striking out 15 and only walking 1. Meanwhile opener Yency Almonte pitched 2 no-hit innings ahead of Jerald Eickhoff throwing 6 more, but allowed a run when Lorenzo Cain walked and came around to score on a Keston Hiura groundout in the 4th. According to my research, there has never been an MLB game where neither team got a hit. Team record: 70-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-06-2020 at 10:15 PM.