The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays - Page 4

Art Deco · 07-07-2020, 08:29 AM

First of all, no-hitters seem to be contagious now as Garrett Williams of the Angels threw one last night (a Maddux no less with 93 pitches), walking 1 and striking out 6 in the Angels' 17-0 win over Detroit.

Game 1: Unlike the series in Baltimore a week and a half ago, today's game was drama-free as the pitching of Joe Ryan (and the bullpen) and the hitting of Nelson Cruz gave the Rays a comfortable 6-1 win. Ryan rolled to a 5.1 3 1 1 1 8 line (giving up his obligatory HR, to recent Rays-killer Pat Valaika) but got into some trouble in the 6th which Gio Gallegos bailed him out of. Gallegos pitched a scoreless 7th, and Trevor Gott added a scoreless 8th and 9th for a combined team 3-hitter. The Rays had no trouble this time with John Means, who stifled them in Baltimore about 10 days ago, getting to him for 5 runs and 12 hits in 4.1 innings. Abe Toro drove in a run with the first of his three hits and Brujan followed with an RBI single to put them up 2-0 in the 2nd, and then Joey Gallo and Cruz went back-to-back in the 3rd to make it 4-0. In the 5th, Cruz and Max Kepler both doubled to produce a run, and then in the 7th Cruz hit his 2nd of the day and 30th of the year to provide the final run in the Rays' fifth straight win. The skunk at the picnic was Josh Bell, 0-5 today and .233 with 1 HR and 3 RBI in 11 games with the Rays so far, while Ji-Man is .450-3-10 over the same period for Pittsburgh. Jays won, magic # 42.

Game 2: Another fairly routine win for the Rays as Chris Paddack goes 2-0 in his first two starts for the team in a 6-3 decision making it 6 straight wins. Paddack was solid throughout, except for a bit of a rough 3rd inning where he gave up a few hits around a Keibert Ruiz fielding error that made the two runs unearned. He ended 6.2 7 3 1 1 6 for the day, with the third run coming when he started running out of gas in the 7th and Will Harris allowed one of his runners to score with a base hit. The offense got going with a Vidal Brujan manufactured run in the 1st. He singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Wander sac fly. After the O's made it 2-1 in the top of the 3rd, Keibert singled in Abe Toro to tie it, and then the Rays broke it open with 4 runs in the 6th, highlighted by a 2-run Nelson Cruz double and a Kepler sac fly. The Josh Bell watch continues as he was 0-3 today with a walk and run scored in that 6th inning while Ji-Man hit another 3-run HR today (at Coors). Alvarado and Hand closed it out in the 8th and 9th with Hand getting save #22. Toronto did win again (they're playing Boston), so the magic # is down to 41.

Game 3: Now this was a more typical Baltimore-Tampa Bay game. It was high-scoring and the Rays came out on top. Blake Snell got the start and while his stuff was good (8 Ks in 5 IP), he was victimized by some bad sequencing, putting two runners on in the 2nd ahead of Pat-Freaking-Valaika who took him deep (and later had an RBI double off Snell), and giving up a 3-run shot to Renato Nunez in the 5th. His final line was a schizophrenic 5 9 7 7 2 8. But as is often the case the Rays offense was up to bailing him out and after the Valaika HR in the 2nd, Wander hit a grand slam in the bottom of the frame. However the Rays were still down 7-5 when Snell exited after the top of the 5th. Josh Bell doubled to lead off the bottom of the inning, Max Kepler drove him home, and Wander had a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. And then after Gallo walked to lead off the 6th, Bell said "Ji-Man who?" taking Grayson Rodriguez deep to put the Rays in front to stay. Nelson Cruz added an RBI double in the 7th to round out the scoring. Trevor Gott had a nice 2-K perfect inning in the sixth to pick up the win, Gio Gallegos gave up a leadoff triple but stranded Rutschman at 3rd with a couple of shallow fly balls, and Nick Anderson had an uneventful 8th. But Brad Hand had a shaky 9th, giving up 2 hits to lead off the inning, then wild-pitching one home, allowing another hit, and with the tying runs in scoring position whiffed Rio Ruiz and got Cedric Mullins on a fly ball to end the game and get save #23 as the Rays made it 7 in a row with the 10-8 win. Toronto completed the sweep of Boston to stay within 8 1/2 ahead of their three-game series at the Rogers Centre coming up this weekend, a series Toronto probably has to sweep to get back in it as the magic number for the division drops to 40.

Team record: 73-42.

Art Deco · 07-07-2020, 02:50 PM

Game 1: The first game of the series that might just be Toronto's last stand in the division race looked like it was going to be another of those 19-17 or 20-12 games especially with these two powerful offenses. Max Fried had a rough start to the game, going double, single, double, walk then a GIDP to bring in the 2nd run, and then he allowed a single to score the 3rd. The Rays answered right back with a Gallo blast followed by Josh Bell doubling and scoring on a Kepler ground out and then Abe Toro launching a 2-run shot of his own to make it 4-3. Randall Grichuk took Fried deep in the bottom of the 2nd to tie it at 4, and then after Gallo walked Bell hit his 2nd HR in as many days to make it 6-4 Rays top 3rd. But Bo Bichette homered in the bottom of the 3rd and it was 6-5 and here we go. We actually went the 4th without either team scoring before Gallo homered again to make it 7-5 in the top of the 5th and of course Bichette followed suit with his 2nd to make it 7-6 after 5. Fried hung in there as he was pitching well around the homers, and he made it through 6 still up 7-6. Alvarado came on in the bottom of the 7th with a 1-2-3 inning with a pair of whiffs and the Rays broke it open with 5 runs in the 8th on a patented 2-run double up the gap by Brujan and a 3-run dinger from Keibert Ruiz. Dany Jimenez finished the final two innings and struck out Vlad Jr with the bases loaded in the 9th to end the game and the Rays make it 8 straight with a 12-6 win. They're now up 9 1/2, the magic number is 38 and even if they lose the next two to Toronto they're still in good shape. This was the kind of game that Gallo and Bell were acquired for as their 3 HRs combined were huge in this big game.

Game 2: The Rays won today by a similar score to yesterday (12-5 vs 12-6), but the trajectory of the game was quite different. While yesterday's game was a back-and-forth nail-biter until the 8th, today the Rays jumped out to a big early lead behind Tyler Glasnow and didn't look back. After Vidal Brujan scored on a Sean Reid-Foley wild pitch, Josh Bell continued to get into his groove with a 2-run shot to deep right to put the Rays up 3-0 in the 1st. Rowdy Tellez got the first of his two HRs to get the Jays a run back in the 2nd, but Max Kepler's inside-the-park homer leading off the 4th restored the 3-run lead. Later in the inning, Keibert knocked in Toro to make it 5-1, and then Toro drove himself in with a solo shot in the 5th to make it 6-1. Tellez got his 2nd HR with a man on off Glasnow in the sixth to briefly make it interesting at 6-3, but the Rays had one of their famous break-it-open innings in the 7th, scoring 6 times on a 2-run double by Toro, a 2-run HR by Marsh and a 2-run HR from Keibert. Tried to get Yonny to pitch the final 3 after Glasnow's solid 6 6 3 3 1 6 outing (he's now 9-2) but after allowing 2 runs and 5 hits over the 7th and 8th and running out of gas, Will Harris finished it off with a perfect inning. The lead is now 10 1/2, the magic number is 36, and it's probably time to start thinking about the order of the playoff rotation and who's gonna sit when Meadows comes back in mid-late September.

Game 3: If I told you Joe Ryan beat the Blue Jays you wouldn't be surprised. If I told you he went 6.2 9 7 7 3 8 with 3 HRs allowed, you might be. But as has become the mantra for Rays starting pitching, "pitch around the home runs while the offense picks you up". And pick Ryan up the offense did, although after an early outburst it took until the 7th before it kicked in again to erase a 7-5 Toronto lead on the way to a 14-8 win to send Ryan to 12-5. Whit Merrifield, Yusniel Diaz, Kevin Kiermaier and Ronaldo Hernandez all got starts today as the Rays emptied their bench, and a double steal from Merrifield and Wander led to the Rays' first run in the top of the 1st when Josh Bell's sac fly scored Whit. But Ryan yielded a 3-run HR to Ryan Noda (surprise entrant in the "guys who have 32 HR this year" club), and although the Rays got 4 in the 2nd to chase Aaron Nola and go up 5-3 (2-run Wander double the highlight there), the Jays tied it in the 3rd and then in the 6th Ryan yielded solo HRs to Lourdes Gurriel and Bo Bichette to make it 7-5. Meanwhile, rookie Sean Wymer in his MLB debut was stifling the Rays through the middle innings with a stretch of 3 2/3 innings where he faced the minimum # of batters. But he ran out of gas big time in the 7th as Kiermaier and Merrifield singled, and then Wander launched #22 to put the Rays in front to stay (his 5-RBI day gives him 98), followed by Gallo's 9th Rays HR in 70 AB (he had 4 hits on the day as well). Bell, Cruz and Yusniel Diaz followed with singles for another run before Wymer was pulled, and then Kiermaier hit a 2-run double and it was 12-7. Kiermaier added a 2-run shot in the 9th to make it 14-7 as he went 4-5 with a HR and 4 RBI in a rare start these days. Trevor Gott allowed a Grichuk HR in the 9th and a couple of baserunners before Will Harris got the final out. The lead is now 11 1/2, the magic number is 34 and the Rays just scored 38 runs in 3 games. Granted, Toronto's pitching is poor, especially with Nate Pearson out, but as long as the starting pitching stays within a run or two they're never out of it. And the winning streak is now at 10, a season-best.

Team record: 76-42.

Art Deco · 07-08-2020, 09:18 AM

First of all, we had an off day on the 15th and then on the 16th the game was rained out so there's a doubleheader on the 17th. Over those two days of inaction, the Jays split a pair of games with KC.

Game 1: With the ball flying out of Yankee Stadium, the Yankees out-homered the Rays 6-5 but the Rays outscored them 14-6 to make it 11 wins in a row. It was effectively over in an 8-run first for the Rays which saw Gallo hit a 3-run shot, Kepler with a 2-run homer, and Vidal Brujan in his second at-bat of the inning went deep for 3 more. From there on out, it was basically a matter of accounting: Gallo (now with 11 HR in 75 AB as a Ray) and Wander also went deep and Wander also had a 3-run double to now give him 102 RBI on the season. All of this run support was given to Chris Paddack, who allowed 4 HR in 6 innings but as you can tell from the final score, they were all solo shots and he ended with a not-bad 6 6 4 4 2 7 line to go 3-0 in 3 starts as a Ray. Gary Sanchez had 3 of those 6 Yankee solo HRs with Judge, Urshela and Stanton bashing the others. Brujan ended up 4-5 with 4 RBI and a walk in an outstanding day (or half-day, there's another game to be played).

August 17: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham. Reverse move made after Game 2.

Since OOTP does not allow for the extra player in a doubleheader I sent Jimenez, who pitched the 9th in Game 1, down and not wanting to get the rotation out of whack I called up Gray to start Game 2 in what should be a baptism by fire given the ballpark and the opponent. He was up briefly earlier this year and pitched 1/3 of an inning in a game and is having a fine season at Durham (which by the way is 77-44 themselves, with a 10-game lead in the IL).

Game 2: Once again the Yankees hit 6 HRs and once again the Rays won, sweeping the doubleheader and extending the win streak to 12 games with an 11-8 win. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no MLB team has ever hit 12 HRs in a doubleheader and was still swept. Josiah Gray got his first MLB win, but man it was ugly. He was up 7-3 going into the bottom of the 5th, and trying to get him through the inning he allowed 3 homers and ended with a 5 7 7 7 3 3 line on 94 pitches as the Yankees tied it up. But of course the Rays got 3 more in the 6th to go back in front to stay, so Gray got the win. Wander was 4-5 with 2 RBI, giving him 6 RBI for the day, Gallo had a 2-run HR in that decisive 6th inning, Josh Bell had a 2-run HR in the 5th, and Whit Merrifield, starting at DH for the first time this year, had a solo shot for the Rays' final run. Will Harris gave up a HR in his 2 innings to make it 11-8, so Alvarado pitched a scoreless 8th with 2 Ks, and with all righties due up in the 9th I tried to get Gio Gallegos his first Rays save but with 2 out and 2 on, he hurt his ankle (DtD for 2 days) and Brad Hand came on to whiff Miguel Andujar for save #24. Regression is coming for Ronaldo Hernandez as predicted - he was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts today. This game also marked the sixth straight in which the Rays scored at least 10 runs. Magic # down to 31, and they only need to go 22-20 the rest of the way to win 100 games for the first time in franchise history.

Game 3: The winning streak reached a baker's dozen today with a 9-2 drubbing of the Yankees. Blake Snell was brilliant, going 7 3 2 2 2 10, his only blemish a Stanton 2-run HR in the 6th as he improved to 8-5. For quite a while this resembled an old-time baseball game with the score only 2-0 Rays after 5 innings. The first run came when Brujan reached on an error, stole second and then scored on two wild pitches and in the 5th Wander doubled in Abe Toro. But the Rays had a big inning in the 6th as Brandon Marsh took over. He had a 2-run double following a Kepler RBI double and then scored himself on a Wander single (RBI #106) and then in the 7th he drilled a 3-run shot over the short porch in right off Trevor Bauer, demoted to relief with a 7.42 ERA. Marsh's 304/407/588 has turned to be a pretty good facsimile of Meadows these last couple of months. It's a testament to the depth of this offense that Gallo and Bell each had 0-fers today and they still scored 9, although the 10+ run streak is over. The Jays won (more important to their wild card hopes) so the magic # is 30, and in other big MLB news Minnesota's ace Jose Berrios tore his rotator cuff and is done for the year, a significant development as the Rays may play the Twins in the playoffs although for the moment they have regained the #1 seed and would be matched up against the wild card game winner.

Team record: 79-42.

Art Deco · 07-08-2020, 02:38 PM

Game 1: This one isn't going to be hung in the Louvre but the Rays did enough to extend their winning streak to 14 in a 5-4 win over the Red Sox. Max Fried got the start and although he didn't have his best stuff (only 2 Ks on the night and the first one wasn't until 2 out in the 5th), he did well limiting the damage and got 3 double plays turned behind him on his way to win #12 and a 6.2 6 2 2 3 2 line. The offense was primarily supplied by Wander, who went 4-4 and raised his average to .300 for the first time in a long time. His sac fly got the Rays on the board in the 1st after Brujan led off the game with a triple, and in the 3rd he doubled and scored when Keibert Ruiz followed with a double, and Gallo singled Ruiz home to make it 3-0. They got a run in the 6th to make it 4-1 when Yusniel Diaz doubled off Chris Sale and scored on Rafael Devers' throwing error and then in the 7th Wander got what proved to be the winning run, by singling, stealing second, going to third on the throw into centerfield and then scoring on a Ruiz single. With the game going bottom 8 with a 5-2 lead, Jose Alvarado came on and had a rare bad inning, walking the leadoff man, giving up a pair of singles to make it 5-3, and then after getting a double play, wild pitching another run home as his ERA went over 1 for the first time possibly all season. But he got Willians Astudillo to fly out to end it, and Brad Hand got the 5th double play of the game to end it for save #25. It was also a rare game these days in which neither team hit a HR. Elsewhere, Giancarlo Stanton's walk-off 2-run HR in the 10th gave the Yankees a win over Toronto to expand the division lead to 13 and reduce the magic # to 28.

Game 2: When Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Joey Gallo single in the first, it felt like "here we go again" with the offense with another big day in store. But the Rays could only manage one more run, a bases-loaded walk to Nelson Cruz in the 5th inning, despite having 9 hits and drawing 9 walks as they just couldn't get the big hit when they needed it, leaving 12 men on base. But those two runs were enough to make it 15 wins in a row, thanks to a dominant performance from Tyler Glasnow (10-2), who has established himself as the ace of the staff, in a 2-1 win. Glasnow went 8 5 1 1 1 7 and was really only in trouble in the 6th when with one out he walked Ender Inciarte and gave up a double to Alex Verdugo to put runners at 2nd and 3rd. But he whiffed Rafael Devers and Yairo Munoz to get out of the inning and was in command the next two innings. Brad Hand had an impressive save #26, striking out Devers and Munoz himself in a perfect 9th. We've now gone two games without either team hitting a HR, but expect that to change tomorrow with Joe Ryan on the mound. Meanwhile, the Jays got a 3-0 win over the Yankees behind a surprise 8 shutout innings from Anthony Kay so the magic # is 27.

Quick Durham update: They lost today but are still 79-46, up 9 in their division. Alec Bohm has raked since being sent down in late July, he had 2 more HR tonight to give him 9 in 84 AB since the demotion, slugging .702, so good on him for going down and not pouting. As I mentioned earlier, he's the frontrunner at 1B for next season. Seth Beer has the inside track for DH also as mentioned before, with 25 HR, 77 RBI, 291/379/533, but he'll be pushed by Alex Kirilloff, who missed almost the whole first half of the season with a hamstring strain but is back now and is hitting 341/403/622 with 11 HR and 39 RBI in 185 AB. Cal Stevenson is an on-base machine at 306/398/418 but the LF will probably be trade bait this offseason given all the top prospect OFs in the system. Speaking of getting on base, born DH Andrew Vaughn is getting on at a .399 clip but is only slugging .427 so he's looking at another year in Durham or a deal. And Xavier Edwards, who at one time last year looked to be surpassing Vidal Brujan as our top 2B prospect, has had an injury-plagued year but has produced while healthy, hitting .297 with a .390 OBP and 29 steals. With Brujan's ROTY-caliber season and Wander at SS, Edwards' path is blocked and with Greg Jones and Nick Gonzales behind him he might be trade bait as well (and he always shows up when I click "made this trade work" so he should fetch something really good if I go that route). Pitching-wise, Josiah Gray and Clarke Schmidt are the starters most likely to make an impact (although the current 5 is slated to return) and of course McClanahan as well who will definitely be up in at least a relief role next season. There are three very intriguing bullpen options: Austin Franklin (10-1 in relief!) with a 2.57 ERA and a 25/91 K/BB ratio in 70 innings, Drew Strotman (who recently joined the rotation) with a 2.44 ERA and 27/73 K/BB ratio in 70 innings, and Tommy Romero (the team's closer), who has a 2.53 ERA with a 15/53 BB/K ratio in 45 innings. One or two of these guys could be part of next season's bullpen with Hand and Harris FAs and Gott estimated to make almost $4M in arbitration (we'll see).

Game 3: For a moment there it looked like the Rays' win streak might be in jeopardy. For a moment. Leading 3-1 going into the bottom of the 6th, Joe Ryan was rolling but he gave up his obligatory HR to Adam Eaton with two out to make it 3-2 but he just couldn't get the third out, giving up a walk, an RBI double and an RBI single and Boston was ahead 4-3 going to the 7th, with Will Harris having to get him out of the inning. Fear not, because here comes the Rays offense. They loaded the bases with none out, and then Gallo walked to force in the tying run, Nelson Cruz singled to put them ahead, and then Yusniel Diaz walked to make it 6-4. Then after Ronaldo struck out, Whit Merrifield doubled in a pair to make it 8-4 and the Rays were on their way to consecutive win #16 with an 12-6 triumph. In the 8th Josh Bell, who had earlier hit a 2-run HR, added a 2-run double and Ronaldo Hernandez couldn't leave Fenway Park without an over-the-monster shot, which he got in the 9th. Harris got the win in relief, Trevor Gott struggled allowing 2 runs and 4 hits in 2/3 of an inning in the 8th, and Gio Gallegos had to finish up the rest of the way. Jays eged the Yankees so the magic number is 26. Oh, and remember those Ji-Man vs Bell comparisons about a week ago that were unflattering to Josh? Well, Choi is now 287/361/563 with 6 HR and 18 RBI as a Pirate, and Bell's numbers with the Rays are 281/367/562 with 6 HR and 17 RBI, so a week later they're as identical as can be. And of course one would prefer Bell going forward.

Art Deco · 07-08-2020, 10:11 PM

Game 1: After going on a road trip and sweeping the Beasts of the East* as part of a 16-game win streak, surely they'd have no problem extending it at home against the mediocre Kansas City Royals. But they found themselves behind early when Chris Paddack walked old friend Brandon Lowe who came around to score on an Anthony Alford single. However in the bottom of the 2nd after another old friend, Lucas Sims, departed as the opener after walking Josh Bell, Nelson Cruz deposited Jacob Junis's first pitch into the LF stands for HR #31 and a 2-1 lead. Junis was hurt on the pitch and had to come out, leading to a parade of Royals relievers. But guess what? That parade of relievers held the Rays to 0 runs and 3 hits over the next 6 2/3 innings. This would be problematic except that Mr. Paddack was doing some dealing of his own, settling down after that 2nd inning and striking out a team season-high 13 Royals over 6 innings, allowing the one run and five hits (to go with 3 walks). Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson got through the 7th and 8th with the Rays still clinging to the one-run lead and it was time for Mr. Perfect, Brad Hand, to nail down the save. Except this time he wasn't perfect and blew his first save of the season as Julio Pablo Martinez singled in Todd Frazier with the tying run. But in the bottom of the 9th another KC reliever was greeted rudely as closer Scott Barlow entered to face Joey Gallo leading off. The big slugger took him the opposite way into the left-field stands for a walk-off win, extending the win streak to 17. It was a fortunate win in a game where the high-flying offense only managed 5 hits, spread amongst 3 players (Gallo and Cruz of course, and Wander Franco singled). For Gallo, the walk-off HR was his 41st of the year and 13th since joining the Rays in only 98 AB, and ties him with Vlad Jr. and Gleyber Torres for the AL lead. Elsewhere the Jays won again so the magic # is 25.

*description may not apply to the Boston Red Sox

Game 2: The train keeps on a-rollin' and Blake Snell was the conductor for consecutive win #18. In far and away his best performance of the year, or by any other Rays pitcher, Snell threw a complete-game 3-hitter with 0 walks and 15 strikeouts in a 4-1 win and it only took him 103 pitches. The only flaw in the diamond was Greyson Jenista's 34th HR of the year in the 8th inning as the most impressive aspect of Snell's performance had to be the lack of walks. Snell got all the offense he needed early when Whit Merrifield led off the Rays 1st with a single and scored on Wander's 24th HR of the season. And in the 2nd, Max Kepler led off with HR #23 and Wander singled in Yusniel Diaz, who had walked. Once again the offense only mustered 5 hits as they took off the rest of the night to watch Snell do his thing; the only hit not mentioned here was Josh Bell's infield single. Snell goes to 9-5 with the win and after a nightmarish first half of the season he finally has his ERA under 5 at 4.80 and has 44 Ks in his last 4 starts, and Wander's 3 RBI give him 111, 2 behind Francisco Lindor for the AL lead. The Jays blasted Baltimore so the magic # is 24.

Game 3: It's Groundhog Day in a good way for the Rays as the winning streak reaches 19 games with an easy 8-1 win over the Royals. Max Fried took the hill today and while he wasn't as dominating as Paddack and Snell the nights before, his 7 6 1 1 3 7 line will do quite nicely as he goes to 13-6. Keibert Ruiz supplied all the offense needed with a 2-run shot in the first, and some wildness from KC starter DJ Myers did the rest in the first as he wild-pitched in a run, walked Marsh with the bases loaded, and allowed Brujan to reach on an RBI infield single. They added 3 more in the 7th on a 2-run single by Max Kepler and a Marsh sac fly. The only KC run came on a Todd Frazier homer in the 2nd, otherwise Fried had some baserunners here and there but no great threats. Dany Jimenez and Trevor Gott had scoreless innings in relief. The Blue Jays continue to win and enhance their Wild Card chances, so the magic number is 23.

Game 4: Well they left it late this time, but a 3-run 8th inning broke a 2-2 tie and the Rays made it 20 straight wins with a 5-2 decision. Tyler Glasnow got the start, and after a first-inning hiccup with two walks that led to a KC run, settled down and struck out 11 Royals over 6 2/3 innings. Unfortunately for him after KC had 1st and 3rd with nobody out in the 7th and he then got two strikeouts, Glasnow allowed a single by Khalil Lee to tie the game, costing him a shot at the win as Nick Anderson had to finish the inning. With it still 2-2 in the 8th Jose Alvarado got into a similar predicament with men on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, but struck his way out of the inning. This set the stage for the bottom of the 8th after Wander flied out to start the inning. Gallo walked, Josh Bell singled sending him to 3rd, and Nelson Cruz hit a groundball to SS which might have been a double play but former Ray Brandon Lowe dropped the toss, allowing Gallo to score. After Max Kepler flied out, Abraham Toro drilled a double down the LF line scoring Bell and Cruz and giving the Rays a 5-2 lead. Brad Hand decided to start a new save streak with a 2-K perfect inning for #27, and Alvarado picked up win #6. Blue Jays were idle, so the magic # drops to 22.

Team record: 86-42.

Art Deco · 07-09-2020, 03:51 PM

Game 1: The streak lives on at 21 as the Rays pounded Boston today 9-3. Joe Ryan got the start and as usual was serving up HRs, back-to-back jacks by Yairo Munoz and Eric Thames in the 2nd offset a 2-run job from Keibert Ruiz in the 1st, and Alex Verdugo hit one off Ryan in the 3rd to make it 3-2. But as so often the successful formula of "give up some HRs but make sure they're solo shots and don't give up anything else" came into play as Ryan ended up 6 7 3 3 1 5 in going to 13-5. Yonny Chirinos, last seen on milk cartons around Tampa Bay as the starters have been on an excellent roll during this streak, pitched 3 1-hit innings to get a save. After that Verdugo homer made it 3-2 Boston in the top of the 3rd, that was the cue for the offense to explode and explode they did for 5 runs in the bottom of the frame. Marsh started it when Xander Bogaerts dropped his pop-up, Brujan doubled, Wander hit yet another sac fly, Keibert singled in Brujan and then after Joey Gallo singled, Josh Bell hit a 3-run blast into the RF stands to make it 7-3. Abe Toro added a 2-run single in the 5th for the final margin of victory. Toronto made it 6 in a row and 9 out of 10 so the magic # is only dropping 1 at a time lately but drop it does to 21.

Brendan McKay update: It's no coincidence this win streak started with Chris Paddack's first start as a Ray as his consistency in replacing McKay in the rotation has been a big boost to the team. But McKay had a nice night for the Padres today even if his overall performance for them since the trade has been as inconsistent as it was with the Rays this year; tonight he got the win over the Dodgers (the Padres have been using him as a "follower") with a 6 5 2 2 5 4 line and he hit a home run! Of course in the NL he'll get to bat when he pitches and show off some of his 2-way ability. Still even with tonight's outing his ERA as a Padre is 6.23, not much better than the 6.99 he had with the Rays.

Game 2: Chris Paddack had his shakiest inning as a Ray in the first, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, a walk and a wild pitch, but of course that's water off a duck's back for the 2022 Tampa Bay Rays as they made it 22 in 22 in 22 with a 12-6 win over Boston. Brujan went deep in the bottom of the first to halve the Red Sox lead, in the 2nd Abe Toro tripled in Josh Bell, who had reached on a dropped fly ball by Alex Verdugo, to tie it, and then in the 4th Bell hit the first of his two 2-run HRs to put the Rays in the lead to stay. The second of those came after a Yairo Munoz solo shot brought Boston within 4-3 in the top of the 6th and then in the bottom of the 7th they really broke it open with a 3-run HR from Nelson Cruz immediately followed by a Brandon Marsh blast. Paddack settled down nicely after the rocky first to go 7 4 3 3 2 7 to go to 4-0 with Tampa Bay while Trevor Gott had another not-so-great outing allowing 2 runs in the 8th while Dany Jimenez allowed one in the 9th. Aside from the mediocre relief pitching the other down note was that Gallo had to leave with knee soreness again and is expected to be out 5 days. With one game tomorrow, an off day, then 2 days in an NL park, we'll just play down a man instead of putting him on the IL for 10 days. Toronto keeps their own streak going so the magic # is now 20. Also with the Mets losing today the Rays now have the best record in MLB at 88-42.

Game 3: The Rays made history today with their 23rd straight win, breaking the AL record of 22 set by Cleveland in 2017. Blake Snell continues his renaissance and the offense scored early and often on the way to an 8-0 decision. Snell went 7 5 0 0 3 9 to improve to 10-5, and Josh Bell rapped out 4 hits and 2 RBI to pace the offense. Brandon Marsh (who started the scoring) and Ronaldo Hernandez each had 2 hits and an RBI, and Nelson Cruz hit #33, a 2-run shot, to finish the scoring in the 8th. So now it's on to Atlanta after an off-day tomorrow and chasing history as they now have the longest winning streak in MLB history this side of the 1916 New York Giants, who won 26 in a row. The Braves will offer a higher level of competition than the likes of Baltimore, Boston and Kansas City have recently and the Rays are a poor 7-11 vs NL teams with 4 of those 7 wins coming against the Marlins. Atlanta took both games from the Rays earlier this season at the Trop. Max Fried will start Tuesday against his former teammates.

Hey, lookie here:

Art Deco · 07-10-2020, 10:56 AM

The Rays continue to chase history as they put their 23-game win streak on the line for a pair of games at Truist Park. They have some circumstances going against them: no DH, which means Nelson Cruz is limited to pinch-hitting duty, and the Braves are throwing a pair of lefties at them in the two games and the Rays have not done that well against portsiders relative to their overall record. Atlanta, meanwhile, is fighting for its playoff life being only 2 games up on Milwaukee for the second wild card in the NL; they have no chance of catching the Mets for the division.

Game 1: See below

Max Fried pitched well against his old team to help the Rays extend their AL-record winning streak as they move to within 2 of tying the MLB record. He was aided by his defense, as Yusniel Diaz gunned down former Ray Willy Adames at home plate, and Keibert Ruiz threw out a runner trying to steal as Fried went 6 6 2 2 2 3 to go to 14-6. Anderson, Alvarado and Hand did their thing in the seventh, eighth and ninth, allowing only one baserunner between them as Hand nabbed save #28. The Rays got out to an early lead; in the first inning, Josh Bell tripled homed Vidal Brujan who had walked to lead off the game; in the second, Brujan doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman fielding error, and Toro homered in the top of the 4th to make it 4-0. Mookie Betts answered with a 2-run homer of his own off a get-me-over 3-0 pitch from Fried, but that was the end of the scoring. Toronto lost last night and again tonight so the magic # is down to 16.

Game 2:

Very similar game to yesterday's as the Rays jumped out to a big lead early, Atlanta made it interesting, but then the Rays prevailed in the end. A case could be made either way to pitch to 8-hitter Kiermaier with Glasnow on deck with two out and two on in the 2nd. The men on base were at 1st and 2nd so the open base was 3rd, which I guess was enough for the AI to go ahead and pitch to him (later in the game, Kiermaier was up with a man on 2nd and he was intentionally walked). Anyway the decision was costly for Atlanta as Kiermaier went deep off Bryse Wilson (lefty Sean Newcomb was originally tabbed to start but the Braves changed their minds) to make it 3-0, Keibert Ruiz added a 2-run shot of his own (#24) in the 5th, and then after pinch hitter Nelson Cruz walked and was pinch-run for by Whit Merrifield, who stole second, Wander doubled him home for a big insurance run. Things got very dicey in the seventh. Glasnow, who was a fine 6.2 5 3 2 2 7, got the first two out and then struck out pinch hitter Eddie Rosario but the ball was in the dirt and Josh Bell dropped Ruiz's throw to allow Rosario to reach. Nick Anderson then came on and proceeded to walk three straight batters to force in a run. He was then yanked for Gio Gallegos, who struck out Mookie Betts to end the threat and leave the game at 5-3. Gallegos got through the 8th and Hand came on again, working around a single for save #29. Glasnow goes to 11-2 (the only damage done against him was a Ronald Acuna 2-run HR in the 6th) and lowers his ERA to 3.89. The Rays have an off-day tomorrow before they head to Cleveland (the only team they've yet to play this year) to try and make MLB history by tying the win streak record Friday night and possibly breaking it Saturday. By my calculations, a 71-game win streak will ensure a World Series victory, so a long way to go. Meanwhile, the once-hot Blue Jays were swept by Baltimore, so the magic number is now 14.

Stand by now for a bunch of monthly awards:

Well-deserved for Glasnow as the hallmark of this winning streak has been the complete turnaround of the starting pitching from wildly inconsistent over the first half of the season to lights out in the second half.

Keibert is the presumptive AL Rookie of the Year, his closest competition appears to be Brujan.

About a week ago I mentioned how well Bohm was doing since his demotion, and he hasn't let up. If he could do 75% of this next year as the everyday 1B, I'll be thrilled.

Durham keeps winning almost as much as the Rays (they're 88-47 as well), thanks to an elite offense led by guys like Bohm, Seth Beer, Xavier Edwards, Josh Lowe and Alex Kirilloff (even Andrew Vaughn has gotten red-hot lately) but the pitching has been decent too if not as solid. But vets like Pineda have done the job too. One blow for Durham, though, top-of-the-order and .400 OBP guy Cal Stevenson is done for the year with a torn quadriceps.

Tanner Witt was our first-round pick in 2020 and he's been raking in the GCL. The caveat here is that it's time for him to move on from the GCL so it'll be interesting to see how he does next year at Princeton or Hudson Valley.

Art Deco · 07-10-2020, 04:17 PM

Game 1: The streak is over. Coming into the game my fear was that Joe Ryan would get beat with HRs, and sure enough that's what happened. He really pitched well, except for two pitches to onetime Rays farmhand Derek Dietrich, and that's what did in him and the Rays in a 5-4 loss. The Rays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first off Kantaro Yokoyama as Brujan walked, went to 2nd on a wild pitch, to 3rd on a Wander single and scored on a Keibert sac fly. Ryan was striking guys out as usual, but in the bottom of the 2nd he walked Nolan Jones ahead of Dietrich, who took him into LF stands for a 2-1 Cleveland lead. The Rays regained the lead in the 4th on a 2-run blast from Nelson Cruz, his 34th of the season, but in the bottom of the fourth Jose Ramirez doubled, Jones walked again, and with two out Dietrich took Ryan deep once again to make it 5-3. The two Dietrich homers and Ramirez's double were the only hits Cleveland had all night (and the 2 walks to Jones were the only ones Ryan allowed), and Ryan struck out 10 in his 5 innings but the sequencing did him in. The Rays got a run back in the 6th when Wander and Bell singled and with two out Cruz singled home Wander, but that was all they would get against Yokoyama, who pitched a pretty good game against them all things considered, going 8 8 4 4 2 6. In the 9th, pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh singled after Cleveland closer James Karinchak struck out the first two but then Toro whiffed to end the game and the streak. The Rays will just have to console themselves with the all-time AL streak instead of the all-time MLB streak. Joey Gallo was back in the lineup after missing five days with knee soreness and went 1-4. Toronto won so for the first time in nearly a month on a day the Rays played they didn't reduce their magic number.

Game 2: Normal service resumed at Progressive Field tonight with a 6-3 Rays win. Josh Bell was the star, hitting 2-run HRs in the 1st and 3rd innings off Logan Allen to back a shakier-than-usual Chris Paddack, who still went to 5-0 as a Ray and 15-6 overall. Paddack was in trouble throughout, bailed out in the 1st when Yusniel Diaz threw out Oscar Mercado at the plate, and getting a caught stealing from Ronaldo Hernandez. His line was 6 8 3 3 3 4 which gives you an idea of how many baserunners he had to deal with. Still it was enough, Gallo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th for the 5th run, and old pal Diego Castillo wild-pitched in a run in the 9th. The troika did their jobs, Alvarado going 1 1/3 with a lefty leading off the 8th (whom he struck out) and Anderson getting the last two outs after hitting the first batter he saw with a pitch (after three straight walks to end his last appearance). Hand wasn't that sharp in the ninth, allowing a Jonah Heim double, a walk to Jose Ramirez with two out and then getting a diving catch from Brandon Marsh in center off a liner from Francisco Lindor to end the game and get save #30. The Jays won so the magic # drops to 13.

MLB note: The Washington Nationals tied the MLB record for most HRs in a game by one team by hitting 10 tonight in a 15-4 win over Milwaukee. This tied the record set by the Toronto Blue Jays on September 14, 1987. Trea Turner, DJ LeMahieu, and rookie callup in his 2nd game Drew Mendoza each had a pair.

Game 3: All the elements were there for a win until they weren't, and the Rays had an ugly eighth inning to give Cleveland a 5-4 win. Keibert got things off to a great start after Brujan and Wander singled by hitting a 3-run HR the opposite way in the 1st off Shane Bieber. Blake Snell was dealing again and although he gave up an RBI double to Lindor in the 4th he was up 3-1 going to the bottom of the 6th. After getting the first two outs he gave a double to Jose Ramirez, and then Lindor singled him home to make it 3-2. After a Nolan Jones single, Dany Jimenez came on (the troika was in need of rest tonight), and gave up a double to Christian Arroyo to tie it. But no matter, Wander led off the top of the 7th with a HR, his third hit of the day, and the Rays were back in front 4-3. Will Harris pitched a 1-2-3 7th, and then the wheels came off in the eighth. Harris started the inning, and gave up an infield hit to Ramirez, Franco booted a Lindor grounder that could have been a DP, and then Jones managed an infield single to load the bases with nobody out. Gio Gallegos came on and got Bobby Bradley to ground to Toro at 3B but he too booted the ball, allowing the tying run to score. After a forceout at the plate, Travis D'Arnaud hit a sac fly to score the winning run, and the Rays couldn't touch James Karinchak again in the 9th despite his 6 ERA and they lost a series for the first time since July. Brujan also had 3 hits for the Rays but the big two of Gallo and Bell were 0-9 while Cleveland's big 2 of Ramirez and Lindor reached 5 times in 8 plate appearances. The HRs for Wander and Keibert were each their 25th of the season. Toronto completed a sweep of Miami so the magic # stays at 13. The Rays head north of the border to play the Jays in a 3-game series starting tomorrow so we'll see if they can cut into that number.

Team record: 95-44.

MLB note: In that Toronto win, Vlad Jr. had 2 HR and 5 RBI, currently giving him the AL Triple Crown. He's running away with BA, at an amazing .386, 54 points higher than Lindor. He has 46 HR which is tied with Gleyber Torres, and his 122 RBI are 3 more than Lindor (and 7 more than Wander, who's 3rd in the league). His 9.0 WAR also leads MLB at the moment.

Art Deco · 07-10-2020, 09:39 PM

Game 1: The Rays still have three series left with Toronto but today they showed the formula that's won them 8 out of 10 against their closest pursuer: Let Vlad get his hits, shut down everyone else and score a bunch of runs against the mediocre Blue Jays staff. Today they did so to the tune of a 10-4 win, with Vlad going 2-3 with a walk, a HR and 3 RBI to bolster his Triple Crown chances but aside from that and a Bo Bichette solo shot off Max Fried, the staff held Toronto in check. And of course the offense feasted as usual on Jays pitching. Brandon Marsh started a 5-run 2nd inning with a 3-run HR, Wander doubled in Brujan and Keibert doubled in Wander. A Wander RBI triple tacked on another in the 4th before he scored, and Joey Gallo launched a 2-run blast in the 8th to round out the scoring. Fried was a solid 6 4 2 2 3 6 to get his 15th win, with Dany Jimenez giving up the 2-run HR to Vlad in his 2 innings and Trevor Gott with a scoreless 9th. The magic number now drops to 11.

Game 2: This was kind of an odd game in which each team scored all its runs it one inning. Unfortunately for the Rays their 3-spot in the 5th inning was trumped by Bo Bichette's grand slam in the 6th as they fell 4-3. Trevor Glasnow got the start, and although he didn't give up any runs until after he had left the game in the 6th, was struggling with full counts and baserunners and after putting the first two on in the sixth and approaching 110 pitches, he was pulled for Gio Gallegos. Gio gave up a hit to Gurriel to load the bases, and then after Shogo Akiyama to pop out to the catcher, gave up the slam to Bichette. This was after the Rays got 3 in the top of the 5th on a 2-run double from Merrifield and one of Wander's famous sac flies. Anthony Kay was tough on the Rays outside of that inning, and got the win with a 6.1 5 3 3 3 6 line while long-lost Ray Wade Davis and Keith Ginkel only allowed one hit over the final 2 2/3. Vidal Brujan had to leave the game legging out an infield hit in the 4th, he has a hip flexor strain and is DtD for a week. I hadn't brought anyone up with Durham with roster expansion since neither the bullpen was taxed nor was there a need on the offense but I might have to now, even with Durham about to start their playoffs.

September 7: Recalled IF Nolan Gorman from AAA Durham.

The definition of a "live body", Gorman just gives us someone on the bench. I could have called up Bohm but I'm going to let him rake for Durham in the playoffs while Gorman finds himself mostly on Durham's bench these days. Once a prized power-hitting prospect (36 in 2020 in AA), he dropped off to about 20 last season and this year in about 250 AB at Durham only has 2. He's going to lose his 40-man spot possibly as soon as later this month when Meadows comes off the 60-day DL but right now the fact he has one has him up for a week or so while Brujan recovers.

Game 3: This was one of the sorriest efforts of the season as the Rays dropped their second series in a row after the 25-game win streak. Joe Ryan didn't have it and the Jays made him pay to the tune of a 7-1 win. After a Nelson Cruz sac fly put the Rays up in the top of the second, Ryan allowed a HR to Shogo Akiyama to tie it in the bottom of the inning and then in the 3rd he gave up a 3-run shot to Vlad Jr, who's almost impossible to get out these days. Meanwhile the offense couldn't get anything done against Elvis Luciano, who went 6.1 4 1 1 1 6 against them. The only Ray who can hold his head high today is Yonny Chirinos, who threw 4 innings of 2-hit, 1-run relief, walking 0 and striking out 5 including Vlad Jr. Off-day tomorrow before Baltimore comes to town.

Team record: 93-46.

MLB note: Lucas Giolito, the frontrunner for this year's AL Cy Young, combined with 2 relievers on a no-hitter as the White Sox beat Detroit 3-0. Giolito went 7.2 innings and 95 pitches but had to leave with a strained forearm that will keep him out the rest of the season, so Jose Alvarez and Ian Hamilton finished up for him. Giolito ends the year 13-5, 3.06 with 224 Ks in 185 IP.

Minor League Update: Durham opened its best-of-5 first round series at home with Gwinnett and it did not go well at all as the Bulls lost 5-1. They couldn't solve Pedro Avila, who held their high-powered offense in check with a 7.2 6 1 1 0 3 line while Durham's Clarke Schmidt was shaky allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4.2 innings. Tomorrow's Game 2 will be a must win for them.

Minor League Update 2: Montgomery fell 4-3 to Pensacola at home in Game 1 of their opening round series, so here's hoping these losses aren't portents of what's going to happen to the big club come playoff time. The Biscuits went up 3-1 after 5, but starter Jimmy Lewis ran out of gas in the 6th and allowed 3 runs. The winning pitcher for Pensacola was Franklin Dacosta, although he wasn't very good (the Biscuits had lots of opportunities but couldn't capitalize) with a 5.1 11 3 3 2 2 line. I mention Dacosta because he was traded by the Rays along with Lucius Fox (who was 1-5 tonight for Pensacola) in a deal for Trevor Larnach in the 20-21 offseason.

Art Deco · 07-11-2020, 02:11 PM

First off, some news around the league and minor league playoff recaps from September 8, an off-day for the Rays.

Toronto lost to Cleveland so the magic # is down to 10. Vlad Jr. kept hitting, including HR #49 so he's 2 HR and 8 RBI ahead of the competition in his bid for a Triple Crown (his .391 BA is another stratosphere). Also former Ray Trevor Richards tore his UCL pitching today for the Cubs and is out for this year and next, while promising Cardinals pitching prospect Reid Detmers did likewise after being just called up to the big club. Injuries (especially to the starting rotation) are what concern me between now and playoff time.

Minor League Playoff Update 1: Durham's bats were quiet again, but Gwinnett's were even more quiet thanks to Josiah Gray, who pitched a gem tonight going 8 3 0 0 3 5. The Bulls got the two runs they needed to win the game when in the 7th Trevor Larnach doubled in Orlando Arcia, and Josh Lowe singled in Larnach. Gwinnett loaded the bases in the ninth but Tommy Romero got the big strikeout to end the game and even the best-of-5 series at a game apiece with the 2-0 win. Game 3 is at Gwinnett in two days.

Minor League Playoff Update 2: A strong outing from Tanner Dodson led the Montgomery Biscuits to a 5-2 win to even their best-of-5 series with Pensacola at 1. Dodson went 6 3 2 2 3 7 and was backed by Greg Jones, who homered to lead off the game and later had a sac fly, and Hunter Bishop, whose 2-run single made it 3-0 in the 2nd. Danny Hultzen, AJ Cole and Andrew Abbott pitched 3 shutout innings of 1-hit ball in relief to preserve the win and send the series back to Pensacola even, with Game 3 in two days.

Game 1: A good time was had by all except for the Baltimore Orioles and their fans as the Rays stomped the birds 12-1. Chris Paddack got through a shaky first inning in which he allowed the lone Baltimore run to settle down and pitch a gem, going 7 4 2 2 1 10. He's now 6-0 as Ray with a 3.02 ERA in his 7 starts with a 14/56 BB/K ratio in 44.2 innings and has 16 wins overall. He's been everything hoped for and more since the trade deadline deal. The offense got a quick start after the early deficit with Keibert Ruiz delivering HR #26 in the first with Wander on board, and the next batter Joey Gallo followed suit with #15 as a Ray in only 138 at-bats and #43 for the season. They kept tacking on runs after that, with Josh Bell hitting #12 as a Ray and #35 overall, a 2-run shot in the 6th and in the 8th Nelson Cruz went deep for a pair and Max Kepler followed him with one for the second back-to-back jacks of the night. Cruz's HR gives him 35 on the season to go with 99 RBI as everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. Trevor Gott finished off the game with 2 scoreless innings. Toronto won so the magic # is down to 9, and Vlad Jr had 3 more hits to raise his BA to .394. Forget the Triple Crown, maybe he can hit .400.

Game 2: The news of the game is that Wander Franco hit a 2-run walk-off HR in the 11th to give the Rays a 7-5 win, but the big news is bad news with Brad Hand suffering a partially torn labrum while pitching in the 10th inning and he's out for the season. I was just musing the other day about hoping to avoid injuries and this was a big one. Fortunately the bullpen is quite deep and any one of Alvarado, Anderson, Gallegos or Will Harris could close; even Trevor Gott had 34 saves for San Francisco a couple of years ago. But Hand was outstanding in his role, and will be missed. Shane McClanahan is the likely replacement for him on the roster although he'll stay at Durham for a bit and was their starting pitcher tonight in the playoffs. Hand will go on the 60-day DL which will open up a spot for Meadows on the 40-man when he comes back in a couple of weeks. As for the game, Blake Snell struggled quite a bit but made it through a 6 8 5 4 2 3 performance and the bullpen picked him up with 5 innings of 1-hit shutout ball, with Harris getting the win after coming on for Hand in the 10th. Wander's HR was the only one of the game for the Rays as Whit Merrifield had rapped out the third of his 3 hits on the night ahead of Franco's blast. Speaking of Merrifield, he's in the lineup for Vidal Brujan and my trainer advised Brujan's hip flexor strain is not healing as quickly as anticipated so he'll have to stay out of the lineup for another week or two. Can it please be October tomorrow? In the meantime, this probably marks the end of Hand's Tampa Bay career (although you never know). Here's what he did as a Ray; he was quite impressive in the closer role and will be missed:

Toronto won so the magic # is down to 8. Vlad was 2-4 but his average is still .394 so that tells you how tough it will be to get it to .400 this late in the season.

Minor League Playoff Update 1: Durham won a wild 10-7 game in 10 innings when Alex Kirilloff hit his 2nd HR of the game, a 3-run shot to win it. Earlier the Bulls had gotten HRs from Christian Vazquez, Xavier Edwards, Alec Bohm and Kirilloff, and they took a 7-4 lead into the eighth inning when Ryne Stanek immediately gave up a Shea Langeliers HR (his 2nd of the game) a couple of more hits, and Gwinnett tied it at 7. And Austin Franklin had to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 9th to get it to extras where Tommy Romero had an uneventful tenth, allowing a hit and striking out a pair. Shane McClahanan started and was pretty good going 6 5 4 1 3 8 with those three unearned runs resulting from an Alec Bohm error at 3B (sound familiar?). The Bulls can wrap up the series tomorrow with a win.

Minor League Playoff Update 2: Somebody named Cole Sands pitched the game of his life for Pensacola, and Montgomery is on the brink of elimination after a 1-0 loss in Game 3 of their Southern League first round series. Sands was 9 4 0 0 1 9 in twirling the gem and he was matched pitch for pitch through the first six innings by Rays prize prospect Shane Baz, outstanding himself at 6 4 0 0 0 7 but had thrown 95 pitches. AJ Cole got into trouble in the 8th, and a Lucius Fox sac fly off Danny Hultzen was the game's only run in a tough loss for the Biscuits.

September 11: Placed P Brad Hand on the 60-day IL with a partially torn labrum; purchased the contract of IF Ehire Adrianza from AAA Durham.

Hand goes on the 60-day IL as expected, and this afforded me an opportunity to bring up Adrianza, this year's insurance policy in the middle infield, as a true backup for Merrifield and Franco (unlike Gorman, who's a 3B who can fake it at SS). Fortunately I didn't have to cash in this year's policy like I did last year with Freddy Galvis when Wander was out for 6 weeks, but Adrianza will spell some of the infielders on a regular basis over the next couple of weeks. Speaking of Galvis, he ended up signing with Colorado this year and took over the SS job with Trevor Story going to the Cubs in free agency. As a result of playing everyday at Coors, Galvis has 17 HR and 70 RBI for the Rox with a .240 BA. Every once in a while he teams up on the middle infield with Joey Wendle, who the Rockies grabbed from us in the Rule 5 draft. Wendle is only playing as a backup though.

Game 3: It was the Max Fried show as the starting pitching continues its second-half renaissance in a 4-2 win today over the Orioles. Fried went 7.1 5 2 1 1 6 to take the AL lead in wins with 16 and Keibert Ruiz (a 2-run shot) and Josh Bell went back-to-back in a 4-run first inning to pace the win. With Hand out Nick Anderson was the closer du jour, taking over for Fried in the 8th with 2 on and 1 out and striking out the next two, and then striking out the side in the 9th for save #3. Toronto won, so the magic # drops to 7.

Team record: 96-46.

Minor League Playoff Update 1: The Durham Bulls are on their way to the IL Championship Round as they dispatched Gwinnett 3-0 to win their first round series 3-1. Joey Lucchesi and Drew Strotman combined on a 3-hit shutout and Trevor Larnach drove in all 3 runs with a sac fly and 2-run homer to lead the way. Xavier Edwards, who was 8-17 in the 4 games, was named Series MVP. Their opponent in the championship round has yet to be determined as Louisville and Scranton will play a decisive Game 5 in two nights.

Minor League Playoff Update 2: The Biscuits are still cookin' in the SL first round as they beat Pensacola 6-2 to even their best-of-5 series at 2. Nick Schnell had a 3-run HR to lead the offense and while Derrick Adams wasn't that dominating in his 5 innings, Arodys Vizcaino and Grant Gambrell threw 4 shutout inning combined to seal the win. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Montgomery.

Art Deco · 07-11-2020, 09:21 PM

Game 1: Another of those games where the outcome was secondary to possible injury news, although this time it didn't turn out to be as catastrophic as the Hand injury. The scare came courtesy of Jose Alvarado, who had to leave in the 8th after striking out the two batters he faced. It was one of those "injured, diagnosis pending" situations but I've since learned I can end the suspense by going into the editor section of his player page. But I couldn't do that until the game ended. It did end well for the Rays, with a 7-5 win, and it turned out Alvarado just has back spasms and is out 3 days. I'll give him a week's rest for good measure. The Rays got their revenge on Kontaro Yokoyama, who ended their 25-game winning streak 10 days earlier, with 5 runs off him in 3 2/3 innings. The big hits came courtesy of Yusniel Diaz, who had a 2-RBI double in the first and an RBI double in the 5th. Nelson Cruz had a bases-loaded walk to reach the 100 RBI mark, Whit Merrifield and Wander Franco were each 3-4 with an RBI and Keibert had a sac fly to round out the scoring. Tyler Glasnow got the start and he was effective but not efficient, needing 107 pitches to get through a 5 5 2 2 2 9 outing to improve to 12-2. Dany Jimenez put a couple of men on in the 7th and was relieved by Trevor Gott, who allowed the first runner to score on a groundout and then gave up a 2-run HR to Francisco Lindor to get it close. Enter and exit Alvarado, and then Will Harris came on and got the final four outs for his first Rays save, 3 of them via strikeout. His numbers with the Rays have been incredible: a 1.72 ERA in 31 1/3 innings with a 2/37 BB/K ratio. With the win the Rays clinched a playoff spot, with the magic # for the division down to 6 as the Jays were idle, and they tied the 2008 team for most wins (97) in a regular season.

September 13: Recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham.

Didn't want to have to do this with Schmidt slated to pitch Game 1 of the IL Championship Series later this week, but I was down to Chirinos and Gallegos being the only available relievers with a Joe Ryan start that usually lasts 5-6 innings on tap for tonight. McClanahan threw 95 pitches for Durham 3 days ago so he wasn't available. Schmidt becomes the 28th man on the roster with September expansion.

Game 2: An improbable win for the Rays in a game they were fighting from behind almost the entire way. Joe Ryan was his usual HR-happy self, allowing 3 more in 5 innings (to give him 43 in 155 IP!). He also walked 5, but they were generally after the HRs and not in front of them, so Cleveland only scored 3 on the solo shots. The offense got off to a slow start against Logan Allen, only managing 2 hits through the first five innings but that changed in the 6th. Whit Merrifield, who continues to hit in place of Brujan, homered to lead off the inning and later in the frame Yusniel Diaz singled in a run and Max Kepler doubled in another to tie the game. But Yonny Chirinos allowed single runs in the seventh and eighth and it was 5-3 Cleveland. Diaz doubled in another run to get the Rays back within 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th but Gio Gallegos gave that run right back in the top of the 9th to make it 6-4 Cleveland. Enter James Karinchak, the Cleveland closer who's been up-and-down all year but up in his two appearances against the Rays, including the streak-stopper. Well tonight he was down as he gave up a Toro double, walked Merrifield, and then served a 3-run homer to Wander to give the Rays a walk-off win in a game they never led until it ended and to set the franchise win record for a season with 98. The HR gives Wander 27 on the season with 124 RBI, behind only Francisco Lindor and Vlad Jr. Gallegos got the win, which he really didn't deserve. And we didn't need to use Clarke Schmidt, so he should back to Durham to pitch Game 1 of their championship series. This latest poor performance from Ryan has me thinking about going back to Yonny in his place next turn, but it really doesn't matter much given neither should figure into the playoff rotation (he says quite sure there won't be an injury to the top 4 between now and then). Jays lost so the magic number is reduced to 4.

Minor League Playoff Update: The Biscuits are cooked as they fell 11-5 to Pensacola in the decisive Game 5 of their first round Southern League series. Homers by Nick Schnell and Osmy Gregorio staked them to an early 4-2 lead but starter Jimmy Lewis didn't have it, and Danny Hultzen threw gasoline on the fire in the fifth when Pensacola went up 8-5 to stay and that was that.

Game 3: The Rays made it 6 in a row and got win #99 on the season with a closer-than-it-should-have-been 5-4 win over Cleveland. Chris Paddack was brilliant as usual, going 7 6 0 0 2 7 to go 7-0 as a Ray and get win #17 overall, while Shane Bieber did his best Joe Ryan impersonation, allowing HRs to Brandon Marsh, Joey Gallo and a 2-run shot to Kevin Kiermaier as the Rays built a 5-0 lead. But the bullpen did its best to squander it, primarily in the person of Trevor Gott. After getting the first two out in the 8th, he allowed four hits, a walk and a hit batter and Nick Anderson had to clean up for him. Anderson was greeted by a Travis d'Arnaud single to score two but he got Jake Lamb to pop out. In the 9th he made it interesting putting two men on but getting out of it on a Nolan Jones fly ball for save #4. Nolan Gorman got the start at 3B today and struck out all 3 times up. Day off tomorrow, which the bullpen needs, then they'll seek win #100 against Oakland who comes to town and has fallen out of the wild card race. Gott, meanwhile, continues to be the weak link the pen with all 4 runs charged against him and his Rays ERA ballooning to 5.91 as he's no lock to make the playoff roster at this point. The Jays lost so the magic # is 2, meaning they could clinch the division in as soon as two days.

Ex-Ray note: Brendan McKay went 7.2 3 0 0 0 3 to beat Seattle today and lower his Padres ERA to 4.70. He's been up-and-down since the trade but one thing he's improved on is the walks, only 11 in 46 IP for San Diego after 53 in 103 IP for the Rays this season.

Team record: 99-46.

Art Deco · 07-12-2020, 11:29 AM

September 15: Optioned P Clarke Schmidt to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham.

Schmidt goes back to start Game 2 of Durham's championship series while McClanahan comes back up to get re-accustomed to the bullpen where he'll be used in the multi-inning, mid-innings role he's thrived in with the big club.

Minor League Playoff Update (Sep. 15): Durham dropped Game 1 of the IL Championship Series to Louisville 8-4. Josiah Gray put the first two men on in the top of the 1st and served up a 3-run HR to Oneil Cruz and he left the first with a 4-0 deficit from which the Bulls never recovered. HRs from Christian Vazquez and Seth Beer helped get Durham within 5-4, but Cruz homered again (and Bren Spillane had a pair of his own) and the Bulls now need to win 3 of 4.

Game 1: It took 12 innings, but the Rays ended up prevailing against Oakland 5-4 for win #100 of the season and their 4th AL East title in their history as Toronto had lost last night while the Rays were idle. Wander Franco, who had homered twice earlier in the game off Jesus Luzardo, had a two-out double in the bottom of the 12th and scored on Keibert Ruiz's single. Ruiz had also homered in the first off Luzardo as Wander and he went back-to-back. The three homers the two hit staked the Rays to a 4-1 lead but Blake Snell couldn't hold it, allowing a 2-run HR to Mark Payton in the 4th and a solo shot by Franklin Barreto in the 7th which tied it. He ended 7 6 4 4 2 9. It was a battle of bullpens after that, and Oakland's ended up blinking first. Gio Gallegos struck out the side in a perfect 8th, Alvarado showed no ill effect from his back spasms pitching a scoreless 9th and lowering his ERA back below 1 at 0.98, Dany Jimenez had two scoreless, and even the much-maligned Trevor Gott worked around a leadoff double to stave off Oakland in the 12th and pick up his 3rd Rays win. The win was the team's 7th straight and 38th in their past 42 games. Franco and Ruiz were the entire offense tonight, accounting for all 5 RBI and 5 of the team's 8 hits.

Minor League Playoff Update: In a thrilling back-and-forth affair, Durham rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat Louisville 7-6 and even their best of 5 series at a game apiece. Josh Lowe singled to lead off the ninth and Xavier Edwards walked. After Trevor Larnach struck out, Lowe and Edwards pulled off a daring double steal to put men on 2nd and 3rd. Alec Bohm's single scored Lowe to tie it, and then Seth Beer singled to left to score Edwards with the winner. The Bulls survived another 2-HR game from Louisville's Oneil Cruz and had longballs of their own earlier in the game from Alex Kirilloff and Andrew Vaughn, back-to-back in the 2nd inning. Tommy Romero pitched out of a jam in the ninth to pick up the win as the series heads to Louisville in two days for the pivotal Game 3.

Game 2: Max Fried started off slowly, putting the Rays in a 4-0 hole, the Rays came back and tied with 4 runs in the 6th, but then Fried gave up 3 more in the 7th (he entered the inning at 83 pitches so it wasn't me channeling Grady Little again) and Oakland beat the Rays 7-4 to snap their 7-game win streak. Fried's start was reminiscent of June/July starts from this staff when they'd have a disaster inning early as to start the game he allowed a leadoff single, got a double play, and then saw 2 more reach before Matt Olson drilled a 3-run HR. Old friend Sal Perez hit one in the 3rd to make it 4-0 and the Rays looked cooked, struggling against Sean Manaea. But they rallied in the 6th and got a pair of two-out, two-run singles from Josh Bell and Joey Gallo to equalize, but then Fried gave up a 2-run HR to David Fletcher then an RBI double to Daniel Johnson and he was done. Shane McClanahan came on for the first time since August 3 (which was the final game the Rays lost before the 25-game win streak) and was brilliant, pitching 2 1-hit innings, walking 0 and striking out 4. Wander continues red-hot with 3 more hits (2 of the infield variety) to raise his average to .320, Whit Merrifield banged out 2 more of his own, and Abe Toro had 3 hits as well after a recent quiet spell. Seems weird not to have to look up the Jays score, but it doesn't matter anymore.

Game 3: The Rays took the series and the season series from Oakland with a 5-3 win behind Tyler Glasnow, who improved to 13-2. The right-hander was 7 6 3 3 0 10 today, although he lost a 3-0 lead before the Rays recovered in the bottom of the seventh on a Merrifield RBI single to re-take the lead. Josh Bell gave them some insurance with solo shot in the 8th after Will Harris pitched a scoreless top of the inning, and Jose Alvarado got save #5 despite walking a pair of A's in the 9th. It was empty-the-bench day as Wander, Nelson Cruz and Joey Gallo all got the day off but the offense did enough without them. Max Kepler had a 2-run double and Kiermaier had HR #14 to put the Rays up 3-0 but Glasnow gave up a 2-run double to Sheldon Neuse and solo blast to Matt Chapman (#40 for him) to tie the game up before the late-inning heroics.

Team record: 101-47.

Minor League Playoff Update: An ugly night for the Bulls as Louisville crushed Durham 9-1. Joey Lucchesi was knocked around for 5 runs in 2 innings and Louisville's Min Yo-Hang struck out 10 in 7 shutout innings as the Bulls are on the brink of elimination.

Art Deco · 07-12-2020, 07:30 PM

Game 1: The last thing you want trying to play out the string to get to the playoffs is a long, extra-inning game. The last thing you really want is a 21-inning game, but that's how long the Rays and Rangers played tonight. Given the circumstances it really didn't matter who won the game but if you're playing that long you might as well win, and it appeared the Rays might have just done so in the top of the 20th when Josh Bell doubled in a run to make it 5-4. But in the bottom of the inning Texas tied it up off Gio Gallegos in his second inning of work, and after the Rays didn't score in the top of the 21st, it was time for a position player to pitch and Nolan Gorman came on. He actually got the first two hitters to pop out, but Tim Locastro tripled and then Devin Marrero singled him home to mercifully end this game. Of course the bullpen is now burned out, having to cover 14 innings (Jimenez only threw 11 pitches in the 8th so he's probably available tomorrow), otherwise McClanahan threw 2 dominant innings, whiffing 4, Nick Anderson threw 2, Yonny came on and threw 5 but had to leave in the red, then 2 more from Will Harris and Gallegos's 2. The reason why we were in extras is that Wander hit HR #30 to tie the game at 4 in the 8th after Texas got 4 off Joe Ryan through 6 innings (but no HRs!). This was after the Rays put up a 3-spot in the 2nd. Chris Paddack is going to need to get 7 innings in tomorrow, while Alvarado was the only reliever not to pitch as he was tired from Sunday so hopefully he's good to go. A Durham callup is possible but Gray and Schmidt are tired from starting and they're the only ones there on the 40-man and I'd hate to burn the service time on Shane Baz. Should have brought Gorman in earlier!

Minor League Playoff Update: Durham hung on for a 2-1 win at Louisville to bring the series back to Durham for a decisive Game 5. Tony Gonsolin was brilliant for the Bulls, going 6.2 4 1 1 0 8, while reliever Austin Franklin was bailed out when the potential tying run was thrown out at the plate by Josh Lowe in the 8th. Tommy Romero got the save, and Lowe got the 2-run rally in the 5th going with a leadoff double and was doubled home by Orlando Arcia, who came around to score on a Christian Vazquez single. Josiah Gray will start Game 5 in two nights.

Game 2: After last night's marathon, Chris Paddack gave them the innings they needed. He went 6.2 6 3 3 1 4 to go to 8-0 as a Ray and 18-6 overall in a 7-3 win over Texas. After 21 innings last night, Wander, Keibert Ruiz, Gallo and Brujan (who came back from his 2-week injury) all got a rest but it didn't slow down the offense as they struck for 5 in the first inning, beginning with a Josh Bell 3-run homer and ending with an RBI single from last night's losing pitcher, Nolan Gorman. Ronaldo Hernandez added a 2-run double later just when his average was in danger of falling below .300. Paddack got into a bit of a jam in the 7th but Alvarado came on the final out, and Dany Jimenez pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th to wrap it up.

Game 3: This was your classic getaway day, meaningless game, regulars rested situation and the Rays in the lineup decided to swing at everything and anything in a 3-1 loss. Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell got the day off and the hardest team to strike out in the league whiffed 16 times, including 11 in 7 innings on only 87 pitches against reliever-turned-starter Matt Magill, who's on his third MLB team of the season. They had only 4 hits with Keibert getting 3 of them, including an RBI double in the first that scored Wander, who had the other hit. The one run was good enough for Blake Snell through 6, but going into the 7th despite only throwing 83 pitches he ran out of gas, giving up a 2-run HR to Ronald Guzman and a solo shot to Tim Locastro. It's now on to Toronto for 4 games as the march to the season's end continues.

Team record: 102-49.

Minor League Playoff Update: THE DURHAM BULLS ARE THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS! Josiah Gray was brilliant, setting the tone right away by striking out the side in the 1st inning on his way to a 7 5 0 0 1 8 line as Durham shut out Louisville 5-0 to take their best of 5 series 3-2. Unlike last season when Durham was up 2-1 and leading Game 4 in the 9th only to blow it and lose, this time Durham was the comeback team after being down 2-1 in the series. The Bulls got all the offense they needed with 3 runs in the 2nd when Josh Lowe doubled in Andrew Vaughn, Orlando Arcia doubled in Lowe, and Xavier Edwards singled in Arcia. Austin Franklin pitched the final 2 innings to secure the win. Louisville's Oneil Cruz, who hit .444 with 4 HR and 7 RBI in the 5 games, was named Series MVP despite being on the losing side. Luckily for the Bulls he did all his damage in the first two games which they managed to split.

Art Deco · 07-13-2020, 11:18 AM

Game 1: It's time for 4 games in Toronto, and the schedule finishes out with 4 games at home vs the Yankees, and then 3 more at home vs Toronto. And then the Rays will likely be playing one of those teams in a best-of-5 series right afterwards because Toronto looks close to a lock for one of the wild cards and the Yankees are a game up on Houston for the second. Anyway, for today's game we went to extra innings again, but this time it was 12 instead of 21 and this time the Rays prevailed, 4-3. Today's rested players were Keibert, Gallo and Toro. The Rays had quite a few baserunners on against Aaron Nola and Toronto relievers, but frustratingly hit into 5 double plays so they had to do all their scoring via the home run. Brandon Marsh hit #16 in the 5th to put the Rays on the board, and Ronaldo Hernandez hit #14 in the 7th to tie the game. And so we went until the 12th when Nolan Gorman (in likely his last game as a Ray as Meadows comes off the 60-day DL tomorrow) walked, and Marsh followed with another blast to put the Rays up 4-2. Gio Gallegos came on for the save and was shaky, immediately surrendering a HR to Reese McGuire and giving up a single to Cavan Biggio which Kepler overran in RF to put him on 2nd. Biggio went to third on a deep fly ball but Gallegos got Ryan Noda to ground to 1st with the infield in and struck out Bo Bichette to end the game. Nick Anderson picked up the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief and Max Fried had a fine start, going 8 6 2 2 2 5 with his only hiccups being back-to-back HRs surrendered to Rowdy Tellez and Lourdes Guirriel in the 3rd. Rays pitchers somehow held Vlad Jr. to 0-4 with a walk, ending his 31-game hitting streak.

Retirement news: Fresh off their IL championship at Durham, Brett Gardner, Pablo Sandoval and Michael Pineda have retired. Gardner and Sandoval played little role with Durham although the Panda did start a couple of playoff games. Pineda had a decent season in middle relief for the Bulls but was injured during the playoffs. Adam Ottavino, who I've had on various Rays minor league teams the last couple of years, also retired.

September 23: Activated OF Austin Meadows from the 60-day IL, designated IF Nolan Gorman for assignment.

Yay, Meadows is back! Since there are no minor leagues playing to send him on rehab, I'll start him off slow with some pinch-hitting appearances this weekend and get him into games next week at home. My guess is Gorman clears waivers so he'll go back to Durham.

Game 2: The Rays lost 9-4 but the big news was another injury. Shane McClanahan had to leave after the second batter he faced and it turns out he has a herniated disc and is out 5 weeks so that effectively ends his season. This leaves us with only one lefty (Alvarado) in the pen after the Hand injury, not an ideal situation, and suddenly a very deep bullpen has become a somewhat thin one. The only good news is that at least it wasn't an arm injury and McClanahan should be fine for 2023. As for the game, after Joey Gallo gave the Rays a first-inning lead with a 3-run HR, Tyler Glasnow squandered it. Glasnow really didn't have anything resembling his best stuff, eventually allowing 5 runs on 11 hits in 5 innings and only striking out 3, snapping his personal 10-game win streak. It was a still a close game (down 5-4) when McClanahan came on to start the 7th with 4 straight lefties due up, but after he left Trevor Gott allowed McClanahan's runner to score and gave up a 3-run HR to Lourdes Gurriel to put the game out of reach. In good injury news, Austin Meadows pinch-hit in the 9th and singled in his first action since May 15. The game was costly for the Jays as well, as they lost starter Elvis Luciano to a partially torn labrum ending his season. He was 14-4 for them despite a high-4s ERA and this is on top of losing their ace Nate Pearson earlier. They're looking good to make the wild card game but if they win it they're going to have a tougher time keeping the Rays off the board in the ALCS.

September 24: Placed P Shane McClanahan on the 60-day IL with a herniated disc, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham.

Probably going to have Schmidt start a game or two and give the regulars some rest as I don't want to see another injury.

More retirements from around the league: Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Jake Arrieta, Pedro Alvarez, Chris Davis, Austin Jackson, Jeremy Jeffress, Andrew Miller, Sergio Romo, Justin Smoak, Neil Walker, Brandon Morrow, Eduardo Nunez.

Game 3: Nobody got hurt today, which was the main thing. The Rays fell 4-3 to the Jays with Joe Ryan having the typical Joe Ryan start: 6 7 3 3 1 8 with all 3 runs coming on solo HRs. It turned out though that the winning run was allowed by Yonny Chirinos in the 7th on a Rowdy Tellez single but at that point it was 4-2. Joey Gallo homered in the 8th cut it to 4-3 but the Rays could get no closer and they've still yet to solve Jays closer Keith Ginkel the past couple of years. Good news earlier though as Austin Meadows got the start at DH and hit a solo homer of his own, #15. Keibert doubled in Brandon Marsh (who reached 3 times in 4 PAs) for the other Rays run.

September 25: Optioned P Yonny Chirinos to AAA Durham, purchased the contract of P Aaron Loup from AAA Durham.

With McClanahan on the 60-day DL, I had a 40-man spot open and figured I'd add a lefty for the time being to the pen.

Game 4: Chris Paddack had 18 wins and two starts left this season coming into today so to get a shot at 20 wins he'd have to win today. Therefore, he was left in a bit longer (but not too long) than he should have been, going 101 pitches and 7 innings but allowing 5 runs (mainly on 3 HR as he did his best Joe Ryan impression) and left trailing 5-2 after giving up a HR in the 7th. Outside the HRs he pitched well as he allowed 7 hits, walked 0 and struck out 8 for an impressive 17/75 BB/K ratio in 65 innings as a Ray. And leaving him in through the 7th paid off as the Rays rallied for 5 runs in top of the 8th off a Josh Bell RBI double and a Brandon Marsh grand slam. Anderson and Alvarado did their thing in the 8th and 9th with Jose getting save #6 and lowering his ERA to 0.92 and Paddack still has a shot at 20 (10 with the Padres, 9 with the Rays so far) against these Jays again on Friday. Otherwise it was looking like another loss where the offense was too dependent on the long ball to score, something they hadn't been most of the season until recently, with the 2 runs coming on solo shots by Gallo (again) and Ronaldo (again). Special mention to Brandon Marsh, who just keeps on keepin' on, hitting 303/396/585 with 18 HR and 67 RBI in only 83 games (284 AB). Meadows DH'd again, going 1-5 and still looking a bit rusty but he'll have the ABs he needs come playoff time. Right now the question is who goes to the bench for him and right now I'd say the leading candidate is Max Kepler, who has a gaudy 98 RBI but mostly as the product of playing in this offense; his 241/326/446 is not terribly impressive. Looks like Meadows would play LF with Gallo sliding over to RF and Marsh will play CF. The way Paddack is going I'd almost like to start him in Game 1 even though he's the nominal #4 starter right now. Glasnow probably deserves the honor but Paddack has been more consistent than Snell or Fried. We'll see.

Team record: 104-51.

More retirements of note: Carlos Gonzalez, Brandon Crawford, Jon Jay, Yuli Gurriel, Denard Span, Phil Hughes (again), Jed Lowrie, Daniel Hudson, Shun Yamaguchi (who beat the Rays in the Wild Card Game last year).

Art Deco · 07-13-2020, 09:36 PM

Game 1: This is a huge series for the Yankees as they come in 1 game ahead of Houston for the second wild card with Toronto having the first pretty much sewn up (although Houston is playing Toronto in a 3-game set and if the Astros swept....). The Yankees have been boosted lately by rookie Estevan Florial, who was AL Player of the Week this past week and has hit 8 HR in 65 AB since being recalled at the start of the month. Well, Florial went 0-4 but it didn't slow down the Yankees as they beat the Rays 10-5. Blake Snell was dominant until he wasn't, after a great first 3 innings he gave up a 2-run HR to Gary Sanchez in the 4th and then was tagged for 4 more in the 5th and ended 5 6 4 4 4 9. The Rays, as is their M.O. lately, scored all their runs on homers: Wander in the 1st to give them an early lead; Bell in the 4th to tie the game up, and then Gallo in the bottom of the 5th with a 3-run shot to make it 6-5. That was Gallo's 20th in barely two months with the Rays in fewer than 200 AB, and the 4th straight game with a HR for him. 6-5 is where it stood until the 9th as the Rays got 3 scoreless innings between Aaron Loup in his first MLB action in a few years with a clean 6th, and Dany Jimenez who was electric with 2 perfect innings and 5 Ks. But the wheels came off in the 9th as the team committed three errors and Gio Gallegos struggled big-time allowing 4 hits and 4 runs (2 earned), including a 2-run blast by Aaron Judge.

Game 2: Thinking about just forfeiting the rest of the games this week if tonight's going to be any indication. Not only did the Rays lose 13-3 but they suffered two more injuries. Wander doubled in the first and then had to leave with a bruised shoulder, he's DtD for 6 days so his regular season is over, ending 320/365/557 with 31 HR and 129 RBI, so no sophomore jinx there. The other injury was to Trevor Gott, who strained a hamstring after facing one batter and is out 5 weeks or basically the season. He wasn't a key guy but he's the third pitcher from the pen to go down for the season. As for the game, the less said the better. Max Fried didn't have it and was tattooed for 7 runs and 10 hits in 4.1 innings and after Gott got hurt, Clarke Schmidt came on and was terrible too, allowing 6 runs and 7 hits in 3.1 as the Yankees had 19 hits in total including a 5-5 day from Miguel Andjuar, who homered. The Rays runs came on an early 2-run Josh Bell double, and a 9th inning bases-loaded walk to Austin Meadows. The Yankees are a quite possible (if not likely) first round opponent so they're going to have to pitch a lot better than the last two nights (and hit as well).

In the AL wild card race, Jesus Sanchez hit a 3-run 9th inning HR off Toronto's Keith Ginkel to give Houston a 5-3 come-from-behind win over the Jays, suddenly giving Toronto a little heartburn. The Jays' magic # is still 3 to clinch and they play the Rays this weekend but if Houston wins again tomorrow things get really interesting.

And Sandy Alcantara and the Mets beat Atlanta 4-2 tonight, improving Alcantara to 20-5 and giving the Mets three 20-game winners as deGrom and Syndergaard already accomplished the feat. My research indicates that this is the first time a team has had 3 20-game winners since the 1973 Oakland A's (Hunter, Holtzman, Blue) and quite an accomplishment in this day and age.

September 28: Placed P Trevor Gott on the 15-day IL, recalled P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham.

Gray's on the 40-man so he gets the nod. With Gott going down there's now a non-zero chance I call up Shane Baz to do a McClanahan middle-relief thing and put him on the playoff roster, although Baz is a righty. Joey Lucchesi's also a possibility, being on the 40-man and a lefty.

Game 3: Although these games are meaningless for the Rays, it'd be nice if they actually won a couple of them. Today it was Tyler Glasnow's turn to get knocked around by the Yankees in a 7-5 loss. Glasnow went 6 8 6 6 3 7, allowing a pair of HRs to Gleyber Torres (#52 and #53 for Torres) among 4 total longballs yielded. The Rays actually had a 3-1 lead after 2 innings when Ehire Adrianza of all people, filling in for Wander at SS, hit a 2-run HR off Gerrit Cole. But that lead was short-lived as Torres and the Yankees went to work. Gallo had another HR, a solo shot off Cole in the 6th, his 21st as a Ray and 49th overall. Meadows was 0-5, still looking rusty but hopefully will have that shaken off by playoff time. At least nobody got hurt tonight.

Playoff race update: Toronto beat Houston 4-3, which all but clinches the Wild Card for them (magic # is 1) and all but puts the Yankees in as their opponents as New York now has a 2-game lead on Houston with 4 games left. I'm sure the Astros and their fans are thrilled with the fight the Rays have been putting up against the Yankees.

Game 4: 6 more HRs from the Yankees (4 off Joe Ryan, no surprise) including 3 from Aaron Judge as the Yankees sweep the Rays with a 9-5 win and boy I hope Toronto beats the Yankees in the wild card game because this staff can't handle them right now. Ryan was 5 9 4 4 0 6 and then Yonny, after a clean 6th, gave up a 3-run shot to Stanton and a solo homer to Luke Voit to blow the game open. And they found a new way to give up runs when Josiah Gray balked in one in the 8th. Max Kepler hit #25 to reach 100 RBI so good for him, while Meadows had an infield hit and an RBI triple as he may be coming around. The 3 Judge HRs gave the Yanks a trio with 50: Torres 53, Stanton 51, and Judge 50 and probably half of them have been against the Rays. Ryan ends his season with 44 BBs and 212 Ks, but a 5.17 ERA thanks to 50 (!) HRs alllowed in 172.1 innings. His HR/9 ballooned from 1.5 last season to 2.6 this year. If (when) I institute a deader ball next season he might be valuable again.

Team record: 104-55.

While the Jays and the Yankees (unless they completely collapse again Boston this weekend) look to have the AL Wild Card spots wrapped up, check out the NL Wild Card race going into the final weekend:

And Arizona and San Diego play each other this weekend, which is probably good for the Cubs and Braves.

Art Deco · 07-14-2020, 04:36 PM

Game 1: The big story tonight was Chris Paddack going for his 20th win (10th with the Rays) as Toronto came to town after our miserable 4-game series against the Yankees. And unlike his last game where he had to hang around through 7 innings hoping the Rays would come back (which they did) Paddack was staked to an early 6-0 lead and held it through 6 as the Rays won 11-3 and Paddack joined the Mets trio of Syndergaard, deGrom and Alcantara, and Arizona's Corbin Martin as 2022 MLB 20-game winners. His final numbers: with the Rays he was 10-0 in 11 starts with a 3.15 ERA in 71.1 innings and a 17/85 K/BB ratio, and overall 20-6 with a 3.63 ERA in 216 innings and a 44/217 K/BB ratio and 4.5 WAR. Paddack, who walked 0 and struck out 10 tonight, has to go down as one of the top pitching trade deadline acquisitions this side of Doyle Alexander, Rick Sutcliffe and Randy Johnson. He nearly didn't get the big early offensive support as the Rays had to stage a 2-out rally in 1st with a 2-RBI single from Kepler, a Marsh RBI double, and a Toro RBI single. Josh Bell added a 2-run HR in the third (#17 for the Rays, #40 overall) to make it 6-0, and although Paddack gave up a 2-run shot to Ryan Noda they added 2 more in the 6th on a Keibert double and then Toro had a 3-run blast in the 7th. It was good to see Toro have a big night as he's been pretty quiet the last couple of months. Will Harris gave up a Vlad Jr HR, but Aaron Loup closed it out with a perfect 9th and it was nice to win for a change. In the wild card race, Toronto didn't clinch since Houston beat Baltimore 8-2, and the Yankees fell to Boston 5-2 (why can they pitch well against them?) so Houston climbs to within 1 game of the Yankees with 2 games left.

In the NL, the Cubs lost to the Cardinals 11-7 (old friend Anthony Banda was torched for 7 runs in 3.1 innings), Atlanta won behind Mike Soroka, and Williams Perez pitched a 3-hitter for San Diego as they beat Arizona 7-1, so here's where things stand over there with 2 days left:

The Braves are essentially in but wow, 3 teams tied for the second wild card. It could stay a 3-way tie if Arizona and San Diego split, and the Cubs split their remaining 2 games. I'm rooting for San Diego because Arizona has been extraordinarily lucky this year, 9 games over their Pythagorean record.

Just in case I hadn't made it clear as far as the division races go in each league, in the AL Seattle and Minnesota won their divisions and will play each other while of course the Rays face the wild card winner. In the NL, the Mets will face the wild card winner while St. Louis will play the Dodgers. All of the division races had been over for quite a while.

And this just in: Paddack is AL pitcher of the month for September (not sure why the text references May):

Also I have decided on the playoff rotation, which will be in this order: Glasnow, Snell, Paddack, Fried. I want Paddack pitching the pivotal Game 3 to either stave off elimination or make it 2-1 (yeah he could also pitching to clinch but I'm not going to be that presumptuous).

Game 2: The Blue Jays clinched a wild card with a 5-2 win over the Rays. 2/3 of the regular lineup sat; in addition to the DtD Franco, Keibert, Gallo, Brujan, Kepler and Marsh were all on the bench. Nevertheless they had a 2-1 lead after 5 on a Toro RBI double and an Adrianza sac fly and Snell was 2-hitting the Jays. But he gave up three straight singles to start the 6th and let Toronto tie, and then he served up a 3-run HR to lefty hitter Ryan Noda and that was that. The offense could only manage a walk over the final 4 2/3 against the Toronto bullpen and of course Ginkel had a 1-2-3 9th against them.

AL Wild Card Update: The Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-1 behind rookie Miguel Yajure's 5 shutout innings and a pair of Luke Voit HRs to drop their magic number to 1. The Astros stayed alive with an 8-4 win over Baltimore that saw Kyle Tucker hit 3 solo HRs and Yordan Alvarez launch a pair as well. It'll take a Yankees loss and an Astros win to force a 1-game playoff between these two teams, otherwise the Yankees will go to Toronto.

NL Wild Card Update: The Braves officially clinched a spot with a 10-6 win over the Phillies which saw Freddie Freeman get his 2000th career hit and Rays oldboy Willy Adames hit a bases-clearing triple and a 2-run HR, setting career highs in HR and RBI with 23/88, although his 252/324/428 triple slash is almost identical to his final season with the Rays in 2020. The Cubs beat the Cardinals 3-1 with Ian Happ and Jordan Luplow going back-to-back to lead off the game, and Kwang-hyun Kim pitched around 6 walks to get the win and stay tied for the second wild card. They're tied with Arizona, who beat San Diego 11-6 thanks to 8 walks from Luis Patino, including 2 with the bases loaded in the 1st and 2 more ahead of a 3-run Nick Ahmed HR. So it's Chicago and Arizona tied for the 2nd wild card, with San Diego one game behind. A Padres win tomorrow and a Cubs loss would give us a 3-way tie. We've got a great chance of at least one tiebreaker game.

The International League was handing out awards, and here's one close to home. Franklin was a great multi-inning guy and has a shot at reprising that role with the big club next season.

Game 3: The Jays won 4-3 in 10 innings but the main thing is that nobody got hurt. Clarke Schmidt got the start as Max Fried was rested to stay healthy and he did quite well, going 5 4 2 2 1 5. Josiah Gray relieved him, and threw 3 hitless innings, walking 1 and striking out 2. It was a 2-2 game going to the 9th and with three lefties up Alvarado came in and let Ryan Noda double off him and then gave up an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel, which denied him an ERA under 1 for the season (it ballooned to 1.05). But the Rays finally got to Keith Ginkel, with two out Brujan singled, stole second and went to third on Reese McGuire's throwing error, and Wander (back and healthy) tripled him home. Unfortunately Meadows (who just isn't hitting much at all since coming back and was 0-4 today with a walk) couldn't bring him home so we went to extras. With more lefties due up Aaron Loup pitched the 10th, loaded the bases and then hit Rowdy Tellez to force in the winning run. The Rays put two on against Gerson Bautista in the bottom of the 10th but Kevin Kiermaier, in possibly his last regular-season AB at the Trop as a Ray, struck out to end the game. In the milestones department, Brujan was 2-3 to push his BA back over .300 to .301 but Ronaldo needed something like 3 hits tonight to get back over .300 and only got 1, ending at .295. With 2 more RBI today, Wander ended up with 131; he had broken Carlos Pena's team record of 121 awhile back but I never thought to look it up until now. Also with 2 hits he wound up with 201. By the way the guy in the other dugout, Vlad Jr., had a season for the ages. He was .391-53-143, slugging .709 and his lone base hit today was his 254th of the season, tying him for 3rd all-time with Lefty O'Doul and Bill Terry and behind Ichiro and George Sisler. He should be a unanimous MVP, despite his defensive shortcomings he still put up a 10.7 WAR season.

Final Regular Season Record: 105-57.

AL Wild Card Update: The Yankees turned around 4-2 deficit in the 7th to get 4 runs capped by a Gary Sanchez 3-run HR and beat the Red Sox 6-4 to clinch the second wild card and they will travel to the Rogers Centre to play the Jays for the right to play the Rays.

NL Wild Card Update: The Cubs could have at least forced a tiebreaker game but lost 3-1 to St. Louis after being up 1-0 with 2 out in the 7th before former Ray Mallex Smith walked, stole a base and started a 2-run Cardinal rally. This loss meant that if San Diego beat Arizona we'd have a 3-day tie, and they had young ace Mackenzie Gore on the mound. Unfortunately Gore was gored for 5 runs in the first inning capped by a Wyatt Mathisen 3-run homer and the Diamondbacks went on to win 8-5, putting them in the wild card game and traveling to Atlanta, so no tiebreakers needed.

Art Deco · 07-14-2020, 09:00 PM

The AL Standings:

The NL Standings (had to be galling to the Padres to be 11 games better than Arizona in their Pythagorean records, but they shouldn't have lost the last two games of the season to them):

Final Rays team stats. The offense was the league's best, the bullpen really good, the starters OK, the defense mediocre:

Individual hitting stats, sorted by WAR. Kepler and Diaz were the big disappointments, but if you pro-rate Marsh to a full season he's just behind Wander pushing 6 WAR:

Individual pitching stats, sorted by ERA (2.8 WAR for a reliever is damn impressive; meanwhile not sure how McKay accumulated positive WAR):

MLB Batting Leaders (Vlad Jr just missed a Triple Crown in the AL):

Not shown here: Wander led the AL in sac flies with 17.

MLB pitching leaders:

Art Deco · 07-15-2020, 09:19 AM

The playoff bracket:

The AL Wild Card Game:

So the Rays will be facing the Jays after a shockingly good performance from Aaron Nola, holding the Yankees to one hit over seven innings (although he walked 5). I was expecting an 8-5 game or something here. Vlad Jr had a 2-run shot in the first inning off Gerrit Cole, and after a couple of walks, Gurriel knocked in the 3rd run and we stayed at 3-0 until Luke Voit homered with 2 out in the 9th off Keith Ginkel. Toronto gets revenge for the Yankees knocking them off in last year's ALDS.

The NL Wild Card Game:

A 2-2 pitchers' duel between 21-game winner Corbin Martin for Arizona and perennial Atlanta ace Mike Soroka was broken open in the 8th inning after D-backs 1B Pavin Smith booted a grounder and Ozzie Albies doubled the man home, and then was wild pitched home. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman then followed with HRs off Connor Grammes to put it out of reach for Arizona, although Eduardo Escobar did homer off Atlanta closer and winning pitcher Will Smith. Earlier, Ray-for-a-month-last-year Mitch Haniger had a HR for the D-backs. Atlanta will now face the mighty Mets and their trio of 20-game winners.

And in other news, congrats to Seth Beer for being named the International League MVP. I swear he's going to get first crack at being our DH next year. Really.

Art Deco · 07-15-2020, 10:03 AM

First of all, based on the AI's projected Jays rotation, here are the pitching matchups for the Jays-Rays series (Games 1,2 & 5 in St. Pete, Games 3 & 4 in Toronto):

Game 1 (tonight): Jordan Romano (6-2, 5.23) vs Tyler Glasnow (13-4, 4.27)
Game 2 (tomorrow): Trent Thornton (2-1, 6.20) vs Blake Snell (10-8, 4.89)
Game 3 (Oct. 9): Chris Paddack (20-6, 3.63) vs Anthony Kay (12-13, 4.86)
Game 4 (Oct. 10): Max Fried (16-8, 4.48) vs Aaron Nola (10-15, 5.34)
Game 5 (Oct. 12): Jordan Romano (6-2, 5.23) vs Tyler Glasnow (13-4, 4.27)

Nola could come back on regular rest for Game 3 so it wouldn't surprise me to see him go then. Actually any changes to the AI rotation don't surprise me as I've seen them often in the past in the playoffs. On paper the pitching matchups appear to heavily favor the Rays but I'm not buying it after seeing them lose 4 of 6 to Toronto the past couple of weeks even though I was rotating players in and out of the lineup for rest and injury-avoidance purposes. Also as a Tampa Bay sports fan the memory of the dominant regular season Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 falling on their collective faces and being swept by Columbus is fresh in my mind, and after watching 2021's upset-filled playoffs that saw an 83-79 team win it all I'm taking nothing for granted.

Welp:

You can construct the top offense in the league, but you can't make it hit or something like that. The runs looked like they would flow when Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Meadows double in the first off Jordan Romano, and then the Rays had two more on in the second but couldn't score. And that was about it for the offense against Romano and a pair of Jays relievers. Keibert Ruiz doubled with two out in the 9th to bring the tying run to the plate but Nelson Cruz hit a lazy fly ball to left to end the game and a decent start from Tyler Glasnow was wasted. Glasnow went 7 7 3 3 1 11 but a 2-run HR to Reese McGuire in the 6th was the difference after earlier giving up a Bo Bichette triple and Randall Grichuk sac fly to tie it. Alvarado and Anderson pitched the 8th and 9th with the latter getting out of a 2nd and 3rd with 1 out jam after a hit and a walk. The Rays couldn't even take advantage of Vlad Jr. being ejected from the game in the 3rd after disputing a called third strike. Meanwhile, the big acquisitions Gallo and Bell were a combined 0-7 and each grounded into a double play. Tomorrow is obviously a must win with Snell on the mound against Trent Thornton. Can Thornton be the third straight nondescript Jays pitcher to shut down a high-powered offense? Stay tuned.

In the other ALDS game today:

Touki Toussaint was utterly dominant for Seattle today, which managed to do what the Rays couldn't, taking Game 1 at home. Toussaint went 7 4 1 1 2 11 and that was after starting the game off by letting Royce Lewis double and Luis Arraez single him home after 2 batters. Evan White's 3-run HR off Matt Wisler in the 4th was all the offense the Mariners needed.

Art Deco · 07-15-2020, 01:50 PM

Well, the real Tampa Bay Rays offense showed up today:

Unlike last night when they were one run and done, the offense scored early and often against the Jays and survived a Blake Snell meltdown to win 9-4 and even the best-of-5 ALDS at 1. Toronto started lefty Anthony Kay instead of previously announced starter Trent Thornton, so Yusniel Diaz was inserted into the lineup in place of Brandon Marsh in CF. And the Rays jumped right out of the gate for 3 runs as Joey Gallo, who heard some criticism from the Tampa Bay media after Game 1, ripped a 2-run double over the head of Randall Grichuk and then came home himself on a Nelson Cruz RBI single. And then Austin Meadows and Cruz blasted solo HRs in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 5-0. But Snell nearly threw it all away in the 4th. As is his wont lately, Snell was totally dominant until becoming suddenly ineffective. Giving up a 1-out double to Vlad Jr isn't alarming, and even allowing Rowdy Tellez to double him home wasn't, but then giving up a 2-run triple to Grichuk and an RBI single to Cavan Biggio was. That was it for Snell at 3.2 innings and in came Dany Jimenez, who just might have saved the Rays' season. Jimenez got Bo Bichette to fly out to end the 4th, and then proceeded to throw 3 more perfect innings, striking out 5 and picking up his first career postseason win. And the offense kept tacking on runs, at first off a dropped fly ball by Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and later with Cruz's 2nd HR of the game, a solo shot by Wander, and a Keibert Ruiz HBP with the bases loaded. Joe Ryan, who has had his successes against the Jays, closed the game out with 2 perfect innings and 4 Ks, allowing the top bullpen guys to rest. We go to Toronto in two days for Game 3 with our hottest pitcher, Chris Paddack, starting against Trent Thornton I guess, although I'm betting it's Aaron Nola who should be on his normal rest.

Game 2 of Seattle-Minnesota:

A matchup of the #2 and #4 pitchers in ERA in the AL went about as expected with the Mariners getting their second straight 3-1 win over Minnesota to head back to the Twin Cities with a commanding 2-0 series lead. The Twins' fine rookie pitcher Greg Elizondo blinked first, allowing a Jarred Kelenic HR in the 4th and then his throwing error allowed another Mariner run to score. A JP Crawford error led to the lone Minnesota run on a Josh Donaldson sac fly but Kyle Lewis restored the 2-run lead with a solo homer in the 7th. Before Seattle and their fans get too giddy, recall that the Twins were in the same situation 2 seasons ago and won the next 3 against Cleveland to advance to the ALCS.

The two NLDS series get underway:

Good matchup between Robbie Ray and Jacob deGrom goes to Atlanta as deGrom wasn't has usual sharp self. Willy Adames (remember him?) took him deep for a 1-0 lead then a bad sequence in the 5th that included Ray getting a hit off deGrom and a pair of walks to load the bases for Freddie Freeman, who made him pay with a 2-run double. JD Davis and Joey Bart homered to get the Mets close, but not close enough and Atlanta deals the 111-win Mets a Game 1 loss.

OOTP's AI makes some head-scratching decisions from time-to-time but everyone once in a while it does something you'd never think of and it turns out to be genius. Case in point tonight with the decision to start Cardinal closer Connor Jones in Game 1 of the NLDS. Jones did not start a single game and had 37 saves but something in the AI knew he could be stretched out and be effective, and he certainly was in the Cardinals' easy win over the Dodgers. Jones went 5.1 2 1 1 3 8 on 85 pitches and Nick Senzel's pair of HRs (and a later 3-run blast by Willson Contreras) were more than enough offense against Dodger ace Walker Buehler who was hammered for 11 hits and 4 runs in 5 innings. This gives us 3 surprise winners out of 4 in Game 1 of the LDSs.

07-07-2020, 08:29 AM	#61
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 9-11, 2022 vs Baltimore (3) First of all, no-hitters seem to be contagious now as Garrett Williams of the Angels threw one last night (a Maddux no less with 93 pitches), walking 1 and striking out 6 in the Angels' 17-0 win over Detroit. Game 1: Unlike the series in Baltimore a week and a half ago, today's game was drama-free as the pitching of Joe Ryan (and the bullpen) and the hitting of Nelson Cruz gave the Rays a comfortable 6-1 win. Ryan rolled to a 5.1 3 1 1 1 8 line (giving up his obligatory HR, to recent Rays-killer Pat Valaika) but got into some trouble in the 6th which Gio Gallegos bailed him out of. Gallegos pitched a scoreless 7th, and Trevor Gott added a scoreless 8th and 9th for a combined team 3-hitter. The Rays had no trouble this time with John Means, who stifled them in Baltimore about 10 days ago, getting to him for 5 runs and 12 hits in 4.1 innings. Abe Toro drove in a run with the first of his three hits and Brujan followed with an RBI single to put them up 2-0 in the 2nd, and then Joey Gallo and Cruz went back-to-back in the 3rd to make it 4-0. In the 5th, Cruz and Max Kepler both doubled to produce a run, and then in the 7th Cruz hit his 2nd of the day and 30th of the year to provide the final run in the Rays' fifth straight win. The skunk at the picnic was Josh Bell, 0-5 today and .233 with 1 HR and 3 RBI in 11 games with the Rays so far, while Ji-Man is .450-3-10 over the same period for Pittsburgh. Jays won, magic # 42. Game 2: Another fairly routine win for the Rays as Chris Paddack goes 2-0 in his first two starts for the team in a 6-3 decision making it 6 straight wins. Paddack was solid throughout, except for a bit of a rough 3rd inning where he gave up a few hits around a Keibert Ruiz fielding error that made the two runs unearned. He ended 6.2 7 3 1 1 6 for the day, with the third run coming when he started running out of gas in the 7th and Will Harris allowed one of his runners to score with a base hit. The offense got going with a Vidal Brujan manufactured run in the 1st. He singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Wander sac fly. After the O's made it 2-1 in the top of the 3rd, Keibert singled in Abe Toro to tie it, and then the Rays broke it open with 4 runs in the 6th, highlighted by a 2-run Nelson Cruz double and a Kepler sac fly. The Josh Bell watch continues as he was 0-3 today with a walk and run scored in that 6th inning while Ji-Man hit another 3-run HR today (at Coors). Alvarado and Hand closed it out in the 8th and 9th with Hand getting save #22. Toronto did win again (they're playing Boston), so the magic # is down to 41. Game 3: Now this was a more typical Baltimore-Tampa Bay game. It was high-scoring and the Rays came out on top. Blake Snell got the start and while his stuff was good (8 Ks in 5 IP), he was victimized by some bad sequencing, putting two runners on in the 2nd ahead of Pat-Freaking-Valaika who took him deep (and later had an RBI double off Snell), and giving up a 3-run shot to Renato Nunez in the 5th. His final line was a schizophrenic 5 9 7 7 2 8. But as is often the case the Rays offense was up to bailing him out and after the Valaika HR in the 2nd, Wander hit a grand slam in the bottom of the frame. However the Rays were still down 7-5 when Snell exited after the top of the 5th. Josh Bell doubled to lead off the bottom of the inning, Max Kepler drove him home, and Wander had a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. And then after Gallo walked to lead off the 6th, Bell said "Ji-Man who?" taking Grayson Rodriguez deep to put the Rays in front to stay. Nelson Cruz added an RBI double in the 7th to round out the scoring. Trevor Gott had a nice 2-K perfect inning in the sixth to pick up the win, Gio Gallegos gave up a leadoff triple but stranded Rutschman at 3rd with a couple of shallow fly balls, and Nick Anderson had an uneventful 8th. But Brad Hand had a shaky 9th, giving up 2 hits to lead off the inning, then wild-pitching one home, allowing another hit, and with the tying runs in scoring position whiffed Rio Ruiz and got Cedric Mullins on a fly ball to end the game and get save #23 as the Rays made it 7 in a row with the 10-8 win. Toronto completed the sweep of Boston to stay within 8 1/2 ahead of their three-game series at the Rogers Centre coming up this weekend, a series Toronto probably has to sweep to get back in it as the magic number for the division drops to 40. Team record: 73-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-07-2020 at 02:40 PM.

07-07-2020, 02:50 PM	#62
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 12-14, 2022 at Toronto (3) Game 1: The first game of the series that might just be Toronto's last stand in the division race looked like it was going to be another of those 19-17 or 20-12 games especially with these two powerful offenses. Max Fried had a rough start to the game, going double, single, double, walk then a GIDP to bring in the 2nd run, and then he allowed a single to score the 3rd. The Rays answered right back with a Gallo blast followed by Josh Bell doubling and scoring on a Kepler ground out and then Abe Toro launching a 2-run shot of his own to make it 4-3. Randall Grichuk took Fried deep in the bottom of the 2nd to tie it at 4, and then after Gallo walked Bell hit his 2nd HR in as many days to make it 6-4 Rays top 3rd. But Bo Bichette homered in the bottom of the 3rd and it was 6-5 and here we go. We actually went the 4th without either team scoring before Gallo homered again to make it 7-5 in the top of the 5th and of course Bichette followed suit with his 2nd to make it 7-6 after 5. Fried hung in there as he was pitching well around the homers, and he made it through 6 still up 7-6. Alvarado came on in the bottom of the 7th with a 1-2-3 inning with a pair of whiffs and the Rays broke it open with 5 runs in the 8th on a patented 2-run double up the gap by Brujan and a 3-run dinger from Keibert Ruiz. Dany Jimenez finished the final two innings and struck out Vlad Jr with the bases loaded in the 9th to end the game and the Rays make it 8 straight with a 12-6 win. They're now up 9 1/2, the magic number is 38 and even if they lose the next two to Toronto they're still in good shape. This was the kind of game that Gallo and Bell were acquired for as their 3 HRs combined were huge in this big game. Game 2: The Rays won today by a similar score to yesterday (12-5 vs 12-6), but the trajectory of the game was quite different. While yesterday's game was a back-and-forth nail-biter until the 8th, today the Rays jumped out to a big early lead behind Tyler Glasnow and didn't look back. After Vidal Brujan scored on a Sean Reid-Foley wild pitch, Josh Bell continued to get into his groove with a 2-run shot to deep right to put the Rays up 3-0 in the 1st. Rowdy Tellez got the first of his two HRs to get the Jays a run back in the 2nd, but Max Kepler's inside-the-park homer leading off the 4th restored the 3-run lead. Later in the inning, Keibert knocked in Toro to make it 5-1, and then Toro drove himself in with a solo shot in the 5th to make it 6-1. Tellez got his 2nd HR with a man on off Glasnow in the sixth to briefly make it interesting at 6-3, but the Rays had one of their famous break-it-open innings in the 7th, scoring 6 times on a 2-run double by Toro, a 2-run HR by Marsh and a 2-run HR from Keibert. Tried to get Yonny to pitch the final 3 after Glasnow's solid 6 6 3 3 1 6 outing (he's now 9-2) but after allowing 2 runs and 5 hits over the 7th and 8th and running out of gas, Will Harris finished it off with a perfect inning. The lead is now 10 1/2, the magic number is 36, and it's probably time to start thinking about the order of the playoff rotation and who's gonna sit when Meadows comes back in mid-late September. Game 3: If I told you Joe Ryan beat the Blue Jays you wouldn't be surprised. If I told you he went 6.2 9 7 7 3 8 with 3 HRs allowed, you might be. But as has become the mantra for Rays starting pitching, "pitch around the home runs while the offense picks you up". And pick Ryan up the offense did, although after an early outburst it took until the 7th before it kicked in again to erase a 7-5 Toronto lead on the way to a 14-8 win to send Ryan to 12-5. Whit Merrifield, Yusniel Diaz, Kevin Kiermaier and Ronaldo Hernandez all got starts today as the Rays emptied their bench, and a double steal from Merrifield and Wander led to the Rays' first run in the top of the 1st when Josh Bell's sac fly scored Whit. But Ryan yielded a 3-run HR to Ryan Noda (surprise entrant in the "guys who have 32 HR this year" club), and although the Rays got 4 in the 2nd to chase Aaron Nola and go up 5-3 (2-run Wander double the highlight there), the Jays tied it in the 3rd and then in the 6th Ryan yielded solo HRs to Lourdes Gurriel and Bo Bichette to make it 7-5. Meanwhile, rookie Sean Wymer in his MLB debut was stifling the Rays through the middle innings with a stretch of 3 2/3 innings where he faced the minimum # of batters. But he ran out of gas big time in the 7th as Kiermaier and Merrifield singled, and then Wander launched #22 to put the Rays in front to stay (his 5-RBI day gives him 98), followed by Gallo's 9th Rays HR in 70 AB (he had 4 hits on the day as well). Bell, Cruz and Yusniel Diaz followed with singles for another run before Wymer was pulled, and then Kiermaier hit a 2-run double and it was 12-7. Kiermaier added a 2-run shot in the 9th to make it 14-7 as he went 4-5 with a HR and 4 RBI in a rare start these days. Trevor Gott allowed a Grichuk HR in the 9th and a couple of baserunners before Will Harris got the final out. The lead is now 11 1/2, the magic number is 34 and the Rays just scored 38 runs in 3 games. Granted, Toronto's pitching is poor, especially with Nate Pearson out, but as long as the starting pitching stays within a run or two they're never out of it. And the winning streak is now at 10, a season-best. Team record: 76-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-07-2020 at 07:43 PM.

07-08-2020, 09:18 AM	#63
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 16-18, 2022 at New York Yankees (3) First of all, we had an off day on the 15th and then on the 16th the game was rained out so there's a doubleheader on the 17th. Over those two days of inaction, the Jays split a pair of games with KC. Game 1: With the ball flying out of Yankee Stadium, the Yankees out-homered the Rays 6-5 but the Rays outscored them 14-6 to make it 11 wins in a row. It was effectively over in an 8-run first for the Rays which saw Gallo hit a 3-run shot, Kepler with a 2-run homer, and Vidal Brujan in his second at-bat of the inning went deep for 3 more. From there on out, it was basically a matter of accounting: Gallo (now with 11 HR in 75 AB as a Ray) and Wander also went deep and Wander also had a 3-run double to now give him 102 RBI on the season. All of this run support was given to Chris Paddack, who allowed 4 HR in 6 innings but as you can tell from the final score, they were all solo shots and he ended with a not-bad 6 6 4 4 2 7 line to go 3-0 in 3 starts as a Ray. Gary Sanchez had 3 of those 6 Yankee solo HRs with Judge, Urshela and Stanton bashing the others. Brujan ended up 4-5 with 4 RBI and a walk in an outstanding day (or half-day, there's another game to be played). August 17: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham. Reverse move made after Game 2. Since OOTP does not allow for the extra player in a doubleheader I sent Jimenez, who pitched the 9th in Game 1, down and not wanting to get the rotation out of whack I called up Gray to start Game 2 in what should be a baptism by fire given the ballpark and the opponent. He was up briefly earlier this year and pitched 1/3 of an inning in a game and is having a fine season at Durham (which by the way is 77-44 themselves, with a 10-game lead in the IL). Game 2: Once again the Yankees hit 6 HRs and once again the Rays won, sweeping the doubleheader and extending the win streak to 12 games with an 11-8 win. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no MLB team has ever hit 12 HRs in a doubleheader and was still swept. Josiah Gray got his first MLB win, but man it was ugly. He was up 7-3 going into the bottom of the 5th, and trying to get him through the inning he allowed 3 homers and ended with a 5 7 7 7 3 3 line on 94 pitches as the Yankees tied it up. But of course the Rays got 3 more in the 6th to go back in front to stay, so Gray got the win. Wander was 4-5 with 2 RBI, giving him 6 RBI for the day, Gallo had a 2-run HR in that decisive 6th inning, Josh Bell had a 2-run HR in the 5th, and Whit Merrifield, starting at DH for the first time this year, had a solo shot for the Rays' final run. Will Harris gave up a HR in his 2 innings to make it 11-8, so Alvarado pitched a scoreless 8th with 2 Ks, and with all righties due up in the 9th I tried to get Gio Gallegos his first Rays save but with 2 out and 2 on, he hurt his ankle (DtD for 2 days) and Brad Hand came on to whiff Miguel Andujar for save #24. Regression is coming for Ronaldo Hernandez as predicted - he was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts today. This game also marked the sixth straight in which the Rays scored at least 10 runs. Magic # down to 31, and they only need to go 22-20 the rest of the way to win 100 games for the first time in franchise history. Game 3: The winning streak reached a baker's dozen today with a 9-2 drubbing of the Yankees. Blake Snell was brilliant, going 7 3 2 2 2 10, his only blemish a Stanton 2-run HR in the 6th as he improved to 8-5. For quite a while this resembled an old-time baseball game with the score only 2-0 Rays after 5 innings. The first run came when Brujan reached on an error, stole second and then scored on two wild pitches and in the 5th Wander doubled in Abe Toro. But the Rays had a big inning in the 6th as Brandon Marsh took over. He had a 2-run double following a Kepler RBI double and then scored himself on a Wander single (RBI #106) and then in the 7th he drilled a 3-run shot over the short porch in right off Trevor Bauer, demoted to relief with a 7.42 ERA. Marsh's 304/407/588 has turned to be a pretty good facsimile of Meadows these last couple of months. It's a testament to the depth of this offense that Gallo and Bell each had 0-fers today and they still scored 9, although the 10+ run streak is over. The Jays won (more important to their wild card hopes) so the magic # is 30, and in other big MLB news Minnesota's ace Jose Berrios tore his rotator cuff and is done for the year, a significant development as the Rays may play the Twins in the playoffs although for the moment they have regained the #1 seed and would be matched up against the wild card game winner. Team record: 79-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-08-2020 at 01:00 PM.

07-08-2020, 02:38 PM	#64
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 19-21, 2022: at Boston (3) Game 1: This one isn't going to be hung in the Louvre but the Rays did enough to extend their winning streak to 14 in a 5-4 win over the Red Sox. Max Fried got the start and although he didn't have his best stuff (only 2 Ks on the night and the first one wasn't until 2 out in the 5th), he did well limiting the damage and got 3 double plays turned behind him on his way to win #12 and a 6.2 6 2 2 3 2 line. The offense was primarily supplied by Wander, who went 4-4 and raised his average to .300 for the first time in a long time. His sac fly got the Rays on the board in the 1st after Brujan led off the game with a triple, and in the 3rd he doubled and scored when Keibert Ruiz followed with a double, and Gallo singled Ruiz home to make it 3-0. They got a run in the 6th to make it 4-1 when Yusniel Diaz doubled off Chris Sale and scored on Rafael Devers' throwing error and then in the 7th Wander got what proved to be the winning run, by singling, stealing second, going to third on the throw into centerfield and then scoring on a Ruiz single. With the game going bottom 8 with a 5-2 lead, Jose Alvarado came on and had a rare bad inning, walking the leadoff man, giving up a pair of singles to make it 5-3, and then after getting a double play, wild pitching another run home as his ERA went over 1 for the first time possibly all season. But he got Willians Astudillo to fly out to end it, and Brad Hand got the 5th double play of the game to end it for save #25. It was also a rare game these days in which neither team hit a HR. Elsewhere, Giancarlo Stanton's walk-off 2-run HR in the 10th gave the Yankees a win over Toronto to expand the division lead to 13 and reduce the magic # to 28. Game 2: When Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Joey Gallo single in the first, it felt like "here we go again" with the offense with another big day in store. But the Rays could only manage one more run, a bases-loaded walk to Nelson Cruz in the 5th inning, despite having 9 hits and drawing 9 walks as they just couldn't get the big hit when they needed it, leaving 12 men on base. But those two runs were enough to make it 15 wins in a row, thanks to a dominant performance from Tyler Glasnow (10-2), who has established himself as the ace of the staff, in a 2-1 win. Glasnow went 8 5 1 1 1 7 and was really only in trouble in the 6th when with one out he walked Ender Inciarte and gave up a double to Alex Verdugo to put runners at 2nd and 3rd. But he whiffed Rafael Devers and Yairo Munoz to get out of the inning and was in command the next two innings. Brad Hand had an impressive save #26, striking out Devers and Munoz himself in a perfect 9th. We've now gone two games without either team hitting a HR, but expect that to change tomorrow with Joe Ryan on the mound. Meanwhile, the Jays got a 3-0 win over the Yankees behind a surprise 8 shutout innings from Anthony Kay so the magic # is 27. Quick Durham update: They lost today but are still 79-46, up 9 in their division. Alec Bohm has raked since being sent down in late July, he had 2 more HR tonight to give him 9 in 84 AB since the demotion, slugging .702, so good on him for going down and not pouting. As I mentioned earlier, he's the frontrunner at 1B for next season. Seth Beer has the inside track for DH also as mentioned before, with 25 HR, 77 RBI, 291/379/533, but he'll be pushed by Alex Kirilloff, who missed almost the whole first half of the season with a hamstring strain but is back now and is hitting 341/403/622 with 11 HR and 39 RBI in 185 AB. Cal Stevenson is an on-base machine at 306/398/418 but the LF will probably be trade bait this offseason given all the top prospect OFs in the system. Speaking of getting on base, born DH Andrew Vaughn is getting on at a .399 clip but is only slugging .427 so he's looking at another year in Durham or a deal. And Xavier Edwards, who at one time last year looked to be surpassing Vidal Brujan as our top 2B prospect, has had an injury-plagued year but has produced while healthy, hitting .297 with a .390 OBP and 29 steals. With Brujan's ROTY-caliber season and Wander at SS, Edwards' path is blocked and with Greg Jones and Nick Gonzales behind him he might be trade bait as well (and he always shows up when I click "made this trade work" so he should fetch something really good if I go that route). Pitching-wise, Josiah Gray and Clarke Schmidt are the starters most likely to make an impact (although the current 5 is slated to return) and of course McClanahan as well who will definitely be up in at least a relief role next season. There are three very intriguing bullpen options: Austin Franklin (10-1 in relief!) with a 2.57 ERA and a 25/91 K/BB ratio in 70 innings, Drew Strotman (who recently joined the rotation) with a 2.44 ERA and 27/73 K/BB ratio in 70 innings, and Tommy Romero (the team's closer), who has a 2.53 ERA with a 15/53 BB/K ratio in 45 innings. One or two of these guys could be part of next season's bullpen with Hand and Harris FAs and Gott estimated to make almost $4M in arbitration (we'll see). Game 3: For a moment there it looked like the Rays' win streak might be in jeopardy. For a moment. Leading 3-1 going into the bottom of the 6th, Joe Ryan was rolling but he gave up his obligatory HR to Adam Eaton with two out to make it 3-2 but he just couldn't get the third out, giving up a walk, an RBI double and an RBI single and Boston was ahead 4-3 going to the 7th, with Will Harris having to get him out of the inning. Fear not, because here comes the Rays offense. They loaded the bases with none out, and then Gallo walked to force in the tying run, Nelson Cruz singled to put them ahead, and then Yusniel Diaz walked to make it 6-4. Then after Ronaldo struck out, Whit Merrifield doubled in a pair to make it 8-4 and the Rays were on their way to consecutive win #16 with an 12-6 triumph. In the 8th Josh Bell, who had earlier hit a 2-run HR, added a 2-run double and Ronaldo Hernandez couldn't leave Fenway Park without an over-the-monster shot, which he got in the 9th. Harris got the win in relief, Trevor Gott struggled allowing 2 runs and 4 hits in 2/3 of an inning in the 8th, and Gio Gallegos had to finish up the rest of the way. Jays eged the Yankees so the magic number is 26. Oh, and remember those Ji-Man vs Bell comparisons about a week ago that were unflattering to Josh? Well, Choi is now 287/361/563 with 6 HR and 18 RBI as a Pirate, and Bell's numbers with the Rays are 281/367/562 with 6 HR and 17 RBI, so a week later they're as identical as can be. And of course one would prefer Bell going forward. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-08-2020 at 08:41 PM.

07-08-2020, 10:11 PM	#65
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 22-25, 2022 vs Kansas City (4) Game 1: After going on a road trip and sweeping the Beasts of the East* as part of a 16-game win streak, surely they'd have no problem extending it at home against the mediocre Kansas City Royals. But they found themselves behind early when Chris Paddack walked old friend Brandon Lowe who came around to score on an Anthony Alford single. However in the bottom of the 2nd after another old friend, Lucas Sims, departed as the opener after walking Josh Bell, Nelson Cruz deposited Jacob Junis's first pitch into the LF stands for HR #31 and a 2-1 lead. Junis was hurt on the pitch and had to come out, leading to a parade of Royals relievers. But guess what? That parade of relievers held the Rays to 0 runs and 3 hits over the next 6 2/3 innings. This would be problematic except that Mr. Paddack was doing some dealing of his own, settling down after that 2nd inning and striking out a team season-high 13 Royals over 6 innings, allowing the one run and five hits (to go with 3 walks). Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson got through the 7th and 8th with the Rays still clinging to the one-run lead and it was time for Mr. Perfect, Brad Hand, to nail down the save. Except this time he wasn't perfect and blew his first save of the season as Julio Pablo Martinez singled in Todd Frazier with the tying run. But in the bottom of the 9th another KC reliever was greeted rudely as closer Scott Barlow entered to face Joey Gallo leading off. The big slugger took him the opposite way into the left-field stands for a walk-off win, extending the win streak to 17. It was a fortunate win in a game where the high-flying offense only managed 5 hits, spread amongst 3 players (Gallo and Cruz of course, and Wander Franco singled). For Gallo, the walk-off HR was his 41st of the year and 13th since joining the Rays in only 98 AB, and ties him with Vlad Jr. and Gleyber Torres for the AL lead. Elsewhere the Jays won again so the magic # is 25. description may not apply to the Boston Red Sox Game 2: The train keeps on a-rollin' and Blake Snell was the conductor for consecutive win #18. In far and away his best performance of the year, or by any other Rays pitcher, Snell threw a complete-game 3-hitter with 0 walks and 15 strikeouts in a 4-1 win and it only took him 103 pitches. The only flaw in the diamond was Greyson Jenista's 34th HR of the year in the 8th inning as the most impressive aspect of Snell's performance had to be the lack of walks. Snell got all the offense he needed early when Whit Merrifield led off the Rays 1st with a single and scored on Wander's 24th HR of the season. And in the 2nd, Max Kepler led off with HR #23 and Wander singled in Yusniel Diaz, who had walked. Once again the offense only mustered 5 hits as they took off the rest of the night to watch Snell do his thing; the only hit not mentioned here was Josh Bell's infield single. Snell goes to 9-5 with the win and after a nightmarish first half of the season he finally has his ERA under 5 at 4.80 and has 44 Ks in his last 4 starts, and Wander's 3 RBI give him 111, 2 behind Francisco Lindor for the AL lead. The Jays blasted Baltimore so the magic # is 24. Game 3: It's Groundhog Day in a good way for the Rays as the winning streak reaches 19 games with an easy 8-1 win over the Royals. Max Fried took the hill today and while he wasn't as dominating as Paddack and Snell the nights before, his 7 6 1 1 3 7 line will do quite nicely as he goes to 13-6. Keibert Ruiz supplied all the offense needed with a 2-run shot in the first, and some wildness from KC starter DJ Myers did the rest in the first as he wild-pitched in a run, walked Marsh with the bases loaded, and allowed Brujan to reach on an RBI infield single. They added 3 more in the 7th on a 2-run single by Max Kepler and a Marsh sac fly. The only KC run came on a Todd Frazier homer in the 2nd, otherwise Fried had some baserunners here and there but no great threats. Dany Jimenez and Trevor Gott had scoreless innings in relief. The Blue Jays continue to win and enhance their Wild Card chances, so the magic number is 23. Game 4: Well they left it late this time, but a 3-run 8th inning broke a 2-2 tie and the Rays made it 20 straight wins with a 5-2 decision. Tyler Glasnow got the start, and after a first-inning hiccup with two walks that led to a KC run, settled down and struck out 11 Royals over 6 2/3 innings. Unfortunately for him after KC had 1st and 3rd with nobody out in the 7th and he then got two strikeouts, Glasnow allowed a single by Khalil Lee to tie the game, costing him a shot at the win as Nick Anderson had to finish the inning. With it still 2-2 in the 8th Jose Alvarado got into a similar predicament with men on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, but struck his way out of the inning. This set the stage for the bottom of the 8th after Wander flied out to start the inning. Gallo walked, Josh Bell singled sending him to 3rd, and Nelson Cruz hit a groundball to SS which might have been a double play but former Ray Brandon Lowe dropped the toss, allowing Gallo to score. After Max Kepler flied out, Abraham Toro drilled a double down the LF line scoring Bell and Cruz and giving the Rays a 5-2 lead. Brad Hand decided to start a new save streak with a 2-K perfect inning for #27, and Alvarado picked up win #6. Blue Jays were idle, so the magic # drops to 22. Team record: 86-42. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-09-2020 at 12:59 PM.*

07-09-2020, 03:51 PM	#66
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 26-28, 2022: vs Boston (3) Game 1: The streak lives on at 21 as the Rays pounded Boston today 9-3. Joe Ryan got the start and as usual was serving up HRs, back-to-back jacks by Yairo Munoz and Eric Thames in the 2nd offset a 2-run job from Keibert Ruiz in the 1st, and Alex Verdugo hit one off Ryan in the 3rd to make it 3-2. But as so often the successful formula of "give up some HRs but make sure they're solo shots and don't give up anything else" came into play as Ryan ended up 6 7 3 3 1 5 in going to 13-5. Yonny Chirinos, last seen on milk cartons around Tampa Bay as the starters have been on an excellent roll during this streak, pitched 3 1-hit innings to get a save. After that Verdugo homer made it 3-2 Boston in the top of the 3rd, that was the cue for the offense to explode and explode they did for 5 runs in the bottom of the frame. Marsh started it when Xander Bogaerts dropped his pop-up, Brujan doubled, Wander hit yet another sac fly, Keibert singled in Brujan and then after Joey Gallo singled, Josh Bell hit a 3-run blast into the RF stands to make it 7-3. Abe Toro added a 2-run single in the 5th for the final margin of victory. Toronto made it 6 in a row and 9 out of 10 so the magic # is only dropping 1 at a time lately but drop it does to 21. Brendan McKay update: It's no coincidence this win streak started with Chris Paddack's first start as a Ray as his consistency in replacing McKay in the rotation has been a big boost to the team. But McKay had a nice night for the Padres today even if his overall performance for them since the trade has been as inconsistent as it was with the Rays this year; tonight he got the win over the Dodgers (the Padres have been using him as a "follower") with a 6 5 2 2 5 4 line and he hit a home run! Of course in the NL he'll get to bat when he pitches and show off some of his 2-way ability. Still even with tonight's outing his ERA as a Padre is 6.23, not much better than the 6.99 he had with the Rays. Game 2: Chris Paddack had his shakiest inning as a Ray in the first, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, a walk and a wild pitch, but of course that's water off a duck's back for the 2022 Tampa Bay Rays as they made it 22 in 22 in 22 with a 12-6 win over Boston. Brujan went deep in the bottom of the first to halve the Red Sox lead, in the 2nd Abe Toro tripled in Josh Bell, who had reached on a dropped fly ball by Alex Verdugo, to tie it, and then in the 4th Bell hit the first of his two 2-run HRs to put the Rays in the lead to stay. The second of those came after a Yairo Munoz solo shot brought Boston within 4-3 in the top of the 6th and then in the bottom of the 7th they really broke it open with a 3-run HR from Nelson Cruz immediately followed by a Brandon Marsh blast. Paddack settled down nicely after the rocky first to go 7 4 3 3 2 7 to go to 4-0 with Tampa Bay while Trevor Gott had another not-so-great outing allowing 2 runs in the 8th while Dany Jimenez allowed one in the 9th. Aside from the mediocre relief pitching the other down note was that Gallo had to leave with knee soreness again and is expected to be out 5 days. With one game tomorrow, an off day, then 2 days in an NL park, we'll just play down a man instead of putting him on the IL for 10 days. Toronto keeps their own streak going so the magic # is now 20. Also with the Mets losing today the Rays now have the best record in MLB at 88-42. Game 3: The Rays made history today with their 23rd straight win, breaking the AL record of 22 set by Cleveland in 2017. Blake Snell continues his renaissance and the offense scored early and often on the way to an 8-0 decision. Snell went 7 5 0 0 3 9 to improve to 10-5, and Josh Bell rapped out 4 hits and 2 RBI to pace the offense. Brandon Marsh (who started the scoring) and Ronaldo Hernandez each had 2 hits and an RBI, and Nelson Cruz hit #33, a 2-run shot, to finish the scoring in the 8th. So now it's on to Atlanta after an off-day tomorrow and chasing history as they now have the longest winning streak in MLB history this side of the 1916 New York Giants, who won 26 in a row. The Braves will offer a higher level of competition than the likes of Baltimore, Boston and Kansas City have recently and the Rays are a poor 7-11 vs NL teams with 4 of those 7 wins coming against the Marlins. Atlanta took both games from the Rays earlier this season at the Trop. Max Fried will start Tuesday against his former teammates. Hey, lookie here: Last edited by Art Deco; 07-09-2020 at 10:50 PM.

07-10-2020, 10:56 AM	#67
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	August 30-31, 2022: at Atlanta (2) The Rays continue to chase history as they put their 23-game win streak on the line for a pair of games at Truist Park. They have some circumstances going against them: no DH, which means Nelson Cruz is limited to pinch-hitting duty, and the Braves are throwing a pair of lefties at them in the two games and the Rays have not done that well against portsiders relative to their overall record. Atlanta, meanwhile, is fighting for its playoff life being only 2 games up on Milwaukee for the second wild card in the NL; they have no chance of catching the Mets for the division. Game 1: See below Max Fried pitched well against his old team to help the Rays extend their AL-record winning streak as they move to within 2 of tying the MLB record. He was aided by his defense, as Yusniel Diaz gunned down former Ray Willy Adames at home plate, and Keibert Ruiz threw out a runner trying to steal as Fried went 6 6 2 2 2 3 to go to 14-6. Anderson, Alvarado and Hand did their thing in the seventh, eighth and ninth, allowing only one baserunner between them as Hand nabbed save #28. The Rays got out to an early lead; in the first inning, Josh Bell tripled homed Vidal Brujan who had walked to lead off the game; in the second, Brujan doubled and scored on a Freddie Freeman fielding error, and Toro homered in the top of the 4th to make it 4-0. Mookie Betts answered with a 2-run homer of his own off a get-me-over 3-0 pitch from Fried, but that was the end of the scoring. Toronto lost last night and again tonight so the magic # is down to 16. Game 2: Very similar game to yesterday's as the Rays jumped out to a big lead early, Atlanta made it interesting, but then the Rays prevailed in the end. A case could be made either way to pitch to 8-hitter Kiermaier with Glasnow on deck with two out and two on in the 2nd. The men on base were at 1st and 2nd so the open base was 3rd, which I guess was enough for the AI to go ahead and pitch to him (later in the game, Kiermaier was up with a man on 2nd and he was intentionally walked). Anyway the decision was costly for Atlanta as Kiermaier went deep off Bryse Wilson (lefty Sean Newcomb was originally tabbed to start but the Braves changed their minds) to make it 3-0, Keibert Ruiz added a 2-run shot of his own (#24) in the 5th, and then after pinch hitter Nelson Cruz walked and was pinch-run for by Whit Merrifield, who stole second, Wander doubled him home for a big insurance run. Things got very dicey in the seventh. Glasnow, who was a fine 6.2 5 3 2 2 7, got the first two out and then struck out pinch hitter Eddie Rosario but the ball was in the dirt and Josh Bell dropped Ruiz's throw to allow Rosario to reach. Nick Anderson then came on and proceeded to walk three straight batters to force in a run. He was then yanked for Gio Gallegos, who struck out Mookie Betts to end the threat and leave the game at 5-3. Gallegos got through the 8th and Hand came on again, working around a single for save #29. Glasnow goes to 11-2 (the only damage done against him was a Ronald Acuna 2-run HR in the 6th) and lowers his ERA to 3.89. The Rays have an off-day tomorrow before they head to Cleveland (the only team they've yet to play this year) to try and make MLB history by tying the win streak record Friday night and possibly breaking it Saturday. By my calculations, a 71-game win streak will ensure a World Series victory, so a long way to go. Meanwhile, the once-hot Blue Jays were swept by Baltimore, so the magic number is now 14. Stand by now for a bunch of monthly awards: Well-deserved for Glasnow as the hallmark of this winning streak has been the complete turnaround of the starting pitching from wildly inconsistent over the first half of the season to lights out in the second half. Keibert is the presumptive AL Rookie of the Year, his closest competition appears to be Brujan. About a week ago I mentioned how well Bohm was doing since his demotion, and he hasn't let up. If he could do 75% of this next year as the everyday 1B, I'll be thrilled. Durham keeps winning almost as much as the Rays (they're 88-47 as well), thanks to an elite offense led by guys like Bohm, Seth Beer, Xavier Edwards, Josh Lowe and Alex Kirilloff (even Andrew Vaughn has gotten red-hot lately) but the pitching has been decent too if not as solid. But vets like Pineda have done the job too. One blow for Durham, though, top-of-the-order and .400 OBP guy Cal Stevenson is done for the year with a torn quadriceps. Tanner Witt was our first-round pick in 2020 and he's been raking in the GCL. The caveat here is that it's time for him to move on from the GCL so it'll be interesting to see how he does next year at Princeton or Hudson Valley. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-10-2020 at 01:27 PM.

07-10-2020, 04:17 PM	#68
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 2-4, 2022: at Cleveland (3) Game 1: The streak is over. Coming into the game my fear was that Joe Ryan would get beat with HRs, and sure enough that's what happened. He really pitched well, except for two pitches to onetime Rays farmhand Derek Dietrich, and that's what did in him and the Rays in a 5-4 loss. The Rays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first off Kantaro Yokoyama as Brujan walked, went to 2nd on a wild pitch, to 3rd on a Wander single and scored on a Keibert sac fly. Ryan was striking guys out as usual, but in the bottom of the 2nd he walked Nolan Jones ahead of Dietrich, who took him into LF stands for a 2-1 Cleveland lead. The Rays regained the lead in the 4th on a 2-run blast from Nelson Cruz, his 34th of the season, but in the bottom of the fourth Jose Ramirez doubled, Jones walked again, and with two out Dietrich took Ryan deep once again to make it 5-3. The two Dietrich homers and Ramirez's double were the only hits Cleveland had all night (and the 2 walks to Jones were the only ones Ryan allowed), and Ryan struck out 10 in his 5 innings but the sequencing did him in. The Rays got a run back in the 6th when Wander and Bell singled and with two out Cruz singled home Wander, but that was all they would get against Yokoyama, who pitched a pretty good game against them all things considered, going 8 8 4 4 2 6. In the 9th, pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh singled after Cleveland closer James Karinchak struck out the first two but then Toro whiffed to end the game and the streak. The Rays will just have to console themselves with the all-time AL streak instead of the all-time MLB streak. Joey Gallo was back in the lineup after missing five days with knee soreness and went 1-4. Toronto won so for the first time in nearly a month on a day the Rays played they didn't reduce their magic number. Game 2: Normal service resumed at Progressive Field tonight with a 6-3 Rays win. Josh Bell was the star, hitting 2-run HRs in the 1st and 3rd innings off Logan Allen to back a shakier-than-usual Chris Paddack, who still went to 5-0 as a Ray and 15-6 overall. Paddack was in trouble throughout, bailed out in the 1st when Yusniel Diaz threw out Oscar Mercado at the plate, and getting a caught stealing from Ronaldo Hernandez. His line was 6 8 3 3 3 4 which gives you an idea of how many baserunners he had to deal with. Still it was enough, Gallo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th for the 5th run, and old pal Diego Castillo wild-pitched in a run in the 9th. The troika did their jobs, Alvarado going 1 1/3 with a lefty leading off the 8th (whom he struck out) and Anderson getting the last two outs after hitting the first batter he saw with a pitch (after three straight walks to end his last appearance). Hand wasn't that sharp in the ninth, allowing a Jonah Heim double, a walk to Jose Ramirez with two out and then getting a diving catch from Brandon Marsh in center off a liner from Francisco Lindor to end the game and get save #30. The Jays won so the magic # drops to 13. MLB note: The Washington Nationals tied the MLB record for most HRs in a game by one team by hitting 10 tonight in a 15-4 win over Milwaukee. This tied the record set by the Toronto Blue Jays on September 14, 1987. Trea Turner, DJ LeMahieu, and rookie callup in his 2nd game Drew Mendoza each had a pair. Game 3: All the elements were there for a win until they weren't, and the Rays had an ugly eighth inning to give Cleveland a 5-4 win. Keibert got things off to a great start after Brujan and Wander singled by hitting a 3-run HR the opposite way in the 1st off Shane Bieber. Blake Snell was dealing again and although he gave up an RBI double to Lindor in the 4th he was up 3-1 going to the bottom of the 6th. After getting the first two outs he gave a double to Jose Ramirez, and then Lindor singled him home to make it 3-2. After a Nolan Jones single, Dany Jimenez came on (the troika was in need of rest tonight), and gave up a double to Christian Arroyo to tie it. But no matter, Wander led off the top of the 7th with a HR, his third hit of the day, and the Rays were back in front 4-3. Will Harris pitched a 1-2-3 7th, and then the wheels came off in the eighth. Harris started the inning, and gave up an infield hit to Ramirez, Franco booted a Lindor grounder that could have been a DP, and then Jones managed an infield single to load the bases with nobody out. Gio Gallegos came on and got Bobby Bradley to ground to Toro at 3B but he too booted the ball, allowing the tying run to score. After a forceout at the plate, Travis D'Arnaud hit a sac fly to score the winning run, and the Rays couldn't touch James Karinchak again in the 9th despite his 6 ERA and they lost a series for the first time since July. Brujan also had 3 hits for the Rays but the big two of Gallo and Bell were 0-9 while Cleveland's big 2 of Ramirez and Lindor reached 5 times in 8 plate appearances. The HRs for Wander and Keibert were each their 25th of the season. Toronto completed a sweep of Miami so the magic # stays at 13. The Rays head north of the border to play the Jays in a 3-game series starting tomorrow so we'll see if they can cut into that number. Team record: 95-44. MLB note: In that Toronto win, Vlad Jr. had 2 HR and 5 RBI, currently giving him the AL Triple Crown. He's running away with BA, at an amazing .386, 54 points higher than Lindor. He has 46 HR which is tied with Gleyber Torres, and his 122 RBI are 3 more than Lindor (and 7 more than Wander, who's 3rd in the league). His 9.0 WAR also leads MLB at the moment. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:25 AM.

07-10-2020, 09:39 PM	#69
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 5-7, 2022: at Toronto (3) Game 1: The Rays still have three series left with Toronto but today they showed the formula that's won them 8 out of 10 against their closest pursuer: Let Vlad get his hits, shut down everyone else and score a bunch of runs against the mediocre Blue Jays staff. Today they did so to the tune of a 10-4 win, with Vlad going 2-3 with a walk, a HR and 3 RBI to bolster his Triple Crown chances but aside from that and a Bo Bichette solo shot off Max Fried, the staff held Toronto in check. And of course the offense feasted as usual on Jays pitching. Brandon Marsh started a 5-run 2nd inning with a 3-run HR, Wander doubled in Brujan and Keibert doubled in Wander. A Wander RBI triple tacked on another in the 4th before he scored, and Joey Gallo launched a 2-run blast in the 8th to round out the scoring. Fried was a solid 6 4 2 2 3 6 to get his 15th win, with Dany Jimenez giving up the 2-run HR to Vlad in his 2 innings and Trevor Gott with a scoreless 9th. The magic number now drops to 11. Game 2: This was kind of an odd game in which each team scored all its runs it one inning. Unfortunately for the Rays their 3-spot in the 5th inning was trumped by Bo Bichette's grand slam in the 6th as they fell 4-3. Trevor Glasnow got the start, and although he didn't give up any runs until after he had left the game in the 6th, was struggling with full counts and baserunners and after putting the first two on in the sixth and approaching 110 pitches, he was pulled for Gio Gallegos. Gio gave up a hit to Gurriel to load the bases, and then after Shogo Akiyama to pop out to the catcher, gave up the slam to Bichette. This was after the Rays got 3 in the top of the 5th on a 2-run double from Merrifield and one of Wander's famous sac flies. Anthony Kay was tough on the Rays outside of that inning, and got the win with a 6.1 5 3 3 3 6 line while long-lost Ray Wade Davis and Keith Ginkel only allowed one hit over the final 2 2/3. Vidal Brujan had to leave the game legging out an infield hit in the 4th, he has a hip flexor strain and is DtD for a week. I hadn't brought anyone up with Durham with roster expansion since neither the bullpen was taxed nor was there a need on the offense but I might have to now, even with Durham about to start their playoffs. September 7: Recalled IF Nolan Gorman from AAA Durham. The definition of a "live body", Gorman just gives us someone on the bench. I could have called up Bohm but I'm going to let him rake for Durham in the playoffs while Gorman finds himself mostly on Durham's bench these days. Once a prized power-hitting prospect (36 in 2020 in AA), he dropped off to about 20 last season and this year in about 250 AB at Durham only has 2. He's going to lose his 40-man spot possibly as soon as later this month when Meadows comes off the 60-day DL but right now the fact he has one has him up for a week or so while Brujan recovers. Game 3: This was one of the sorriest efforts of the season as the Rays dropped their second series in a row after the 25-game win streak. Joe Ryan didn't have it and the Jays made him pay to the tune of a 7-1 win. After a Nelson Cruz sac fly put the Rays up in the top of the second, Ryan allowed a HR to Shogo Akiyama to tie it in the bottom of the inning and then in the 3rd he gave up a 3-run shot to Vlad Jr, who's almost impossible to get out these days. Meanwhile the offense couldn't get anything done against Elvis Luciano, who went 6.1 4 1 1 1 6 against them. The only Ray who can hold his head high today is Yonny Chirinos, who threw 4 innings of 2-hit, 1-run relief, walking 0 and striking out 5 including Vlad Jr. Off-day tomorrow before Baltimore comes to town. Team record: 93-46. MLB note: Lucas Giolito, the frontrunner for this year's AL Cy Young, combined with 2 relievers on a no-hitter as the White Sox beat Detroit 3-0. Giolito went 7.2 innings and 95 pitches but had to leave with a strained forearm that will keep him out the rest of the season, so Jose Alvarez and Ian Hamilton finished up for him. Giolito ends the year 13-5, 3.06 with 224 Ks in 185 IP. Minor League Update: Durham opened its best-of-5 first round series at home with Gwinnett and it did not go well at all as the Bulls lost 5-1. They couldn't solve Pedro Avila, who held their high-powered offense in check with a 7.2 6 1 1 0 3 line while Durham's Clarke Schmidt was shaky allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4.2 innings. Tomorrow's Game 2 will be a must win for them. Minor League Update 2: Montgomery fell 4-3 to Pensacola at home in Game 1 of their opening round series, so here's hoping these losses aren't portents of what's going to happen to the big club come playoff time. The Biscuits went up 3-1 after 5, but starter Jimmy Lewis ran out of gas in the 6th and allowed 3 runs. The winning pitcher for Pensacola was Franklin Dacosta, although he wasn't very good (the Biscuits had lots of opportunities but couldn't capitalize) with a 5.1 11 3 3 2 2 line. I mention Dacosta because he was traded by the Rays along with Lucius Fox (who was 1-5 tonight for Pensacola) in a deal for Trevor Larnach in the 20-21 offseason. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:24 AM.

07-11-2020, 02:11 PM	#70
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 9-11, 2022 vs Baltimore (3) First off, some news around the league and minor league playoff recaps from September 8, an off-day for the Rays. Toronto lost to Cleveland so the magic # is down to 10. Vlad Jr. kept hitting, including HR #49 so he's 2 HR and 8 RBI ahead of the competition in his bid for a Triple Crown (his .391 BA is another stratosphere). Also former Ray Trevor Richards tore his UCL pitching today for the Cubs and is out for this year and next, while promising Cardinals pitching prospect Reid Detmers did likewise after being just called up to the big club. Injuries (especially to the starting rotation) are what concern me between now and playoff time. Minor League Playoff Update 1: Durham's bats were quiet again, but Gwinnett's were even more quiet thanks to Josiah Gray, who pitched a gem tonight going 8 3 0 0 3 5. The Bulls got the two runs they needed to win the game when in the 7th Trevor Larnach doubled in Orlando Arcia, and Josh Lowe singled in Larnach. Gwinnett loaded the bases in the ninth but Tommy Romero got the big strikeout to end the game and even the best-of-5 series at a game apiece with the 2-0 win. Game 3 is at Gwinnett in two days. Minor League Playoff Update 2: A strong outing from Tanner Dodson led the Montgomery Biscuits to a 5-2 win to even their best-of-5 series with Pensacola at 1. Dodson went 6 3 2 2 3 7 and was backed by Greg Jones, who homered to lead off the game and later had a sac fly, and Hunter Bishop, whose 2-run single made it 3-0 in the 2nd. Danny Hultzen, AJ Cole and Andrew Abbott pitched 3 shutout innings of 1-hit ball in relief to preserve the win and send the series back to Pensacola even, with Game 3 in two days. Game 1: A good time was had by all except for the Baltimore Orioles and their fans as the Rays stomped the birds 12-1. Chris Paddack got through a shaky first inning in which he allowed the lone Baltimore run to settle down and pitch a gem, going 7 4 2 2 1 10. He's now 6-0 as Ray with a 3.02 ERA in his 7 starts with a 14/56 BB/K ratio in 44.2 innings and has 16 wins overall. He's been everything hoped for and more since the trade deadline deal. The offense got a quick start after the early deficit with Keibert Ruiz delivering HR #26 in the first with Wander on board, and the next batter Joey Gallo followed suit with #15 as a Ray in only 138 at-bats and #43 for the season. They kept tacking on runs after that, with Josh Bell hitting #12 as a Ray and #35 overall, a 2-run shot in the 6th and in the 8th Nelson Cruz went deep for a pair and Max Kepler followed him with one for the second back-to-back jacks of the night. Cruz's HR gives him 35 on the season to go with 99 RBI as everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. Trevor Gott finished off the game with 2 scoreless innings. Toronto won so the magic # is down to 9, and Vlad Jr had 3 more hits to raise his BA to .394. Forget the Triple Crown, maybe he can hit .400. Game 2: The news of the game is that Wander Franco hit a 2-run walk-off HR in the 11th to give the Rays a 7-5 win, but the big news is bad news with Brad Hand suffering a partially torn labrum while pitching in the 10th inning and he's out for the season. I was just musing the other day about hoping to avoid injuries and this was a big one. Fortunately the bullpen is quite deep and any one of Alvarado, Anderson, Gallegos or Will Harris could close; even Trevor Gott had 34 saves for San Francisco a couple of years ago. But Hand was outstanding in his role, and will be missed. Shane McClanahan is the likely replacement for him on the roster although he'll stay at Durham for a bit and was their starting pitcher tonight in the playoffs. Hand will go on the 60-day DL which will open up a spot for Meadows on the 40-man when he comes back in a couple of weeks. As for the game, Blake Snell struggled quite a bit but made it through a 6 8 5 4 2 3 performance and the bullpen picked him up with 5 innings of 1-hit shutout ball, with Harris getting the win after coming on for Hand in the 10th. Wander's HR was the only one of the game for the Rays as Whit Merrifield had rapped out the third of his 3 hits on the night ahead of Franco's blast. Speaking of Merrifield, he's in the lineup for Vidal Brujan and my trainer advised Brujan's hip flexor strain is not healing as quickly as anticipated so he'll have to stay out of the lineup for another week or two. Can it please be October tomorrow? In the meantime, this probably marks the end of Hand's Tampa Bay career (although you never know). Here's what he did as a Ray; he was quite impressive in the closer role and will be missed: Toronto won so the magic # is down to 8. Vlad was 2-4 but his average is still .394 so that tells you how tough it will be to get it to .400 this late in the season. Minor League Playoff Update 1: Durham won a wild 10-7 game in 10 innings when Alex Kirilloff hit his 2nd HR of the game, a 3-run shot to win it. Earlier the Bulls had gotten HRs from Christian Vazquez, Xavier Edwards, Alec Bohm and Kirilloff, and they took a 7-4 lead into the eighth inning when Ryne Stanek immediately gave up a Shea Langeliers HR (his 2nd of the game) a couple of more hits, and Gwinnett tied it at 7. And Austin Franklin had to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 9th to get it to extras where Tommy Romero had an uneventful tenth, allowing a hit and striking out a pair. Shane McClahanan started and was pretty good going 6 5 4 1 3 8 with those three unearned runs resulting from an Alec Bohm error at 3B (sound familiar?). The Bulls can wrap up the series tomorrow with a win. Minor League Playoff Update 2: Somebody named Cole Sands pitched the game of his life for Pensacola, and Montgomery is on the brink of elimination after a 1-0 loss in Game 3 of their Southern League first round series. Sands was 9 4 0 0 1 9 in twirling the gem and he was matched pitch for pitch through the first six innings by Rays prize prospect Shane Baz, outstanding himself at 6 4 0 0 0 7 but had thrown 95 pitches. AJ Cole got into trouble in the 8th, and a Lucius Fox sac fly off Danny Hultzen was the game's only run in a tough loss for the Biscuits. September 11: Placed P Brad Hand on the 60-day IL with a partially torn labrum; purchased the contract of IF Ehire Adrianza from AAA Durham. Hand goes on the 60-day IL as expected, and this afforded me an opportunity to bring up Adrianza, this year's insurance policy in the middle infield, as a true backup for Merrifield and Franco (unlike Gorman, who's a 3B who can fake it at SS). Fortunately I didn't have to cash in this year's policy like I did last year with Freddy Galvis when Wander was out for 6 weeks, but Adrianza will spell some of the infielders on a regular basis over the next couple of weeks. Speaking of Galvis, he ended up signing with Colorado this year and took over the SS job with Trevor Story going to the Cubs in free agency. As a result of playing everyday at Coors, Galvis has 17 HR and 70 RBI for the Rox with a .240 BA. Every once in a while he teams up on the middle infield with Joey Wendle, who the Rockies grabbed from us in the Rule 5 draft. Wendle is only playing as a backup though. Game 3: It was the Max Fried show as the starting pitching continues its second-half renaissance in a 4-2 win today over the Orioles. Fried went 7.1 5 2 1 1 6 to take the AL lead in wins with 16 and Keibert Ruiz (a 2-run shot) and Josh Bell went back-to-back in a 4-run first inning to pace the win. With Hand out Nick Anderson was the closer du jour, taking over for Fried in the 8th with 2 on and 1 out and striking out the next two, and then striking out the side in the 9th for save #3. Toronto won, so the magic # drops to 7. Team record: 96-46. Minor League Playoff Update 1: The Durham Bulls are on their way to the IL Championship Round as they dispatched Gwinnett 3-0 to win their first round series 3-1. Joey Lucchesi and Drew Strotman combined on a 3-hit shutout and Trevor Larnach drove in all 3 runs with a sac fly and 2-run homer to lead the way. Xavier Edwards, who was 8-17 in the 4 games, was named Series MVP. Their opponent in the championship round has yet to be determined as Louisville and Scranton will play a decisive Game 5 in two nights. Minor League Playoff Update 2: The Biscuits are still cookin' in the SL first round as they beat Pensacola 6-2 to even their best-of-5 series at 2. Nick Schnell had a 3-run HR to lead the offense and while Derrick Adams wasn't that dominating in his 5 innings, Arodys Vizcaino and Grant Gambrell threw 4 shutout inning combined to seal the win. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Montgomery. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:23 AM.

07-11-2020, 09:21 PM	#71
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 12-14, 2022: vs Cleveland (3) Game 1: Another of those games where the outcome was secondary to possible injury news, although this time it didn't turn out to be as catastrophic as the Hand injury. The scare came courtesy of Jose Alvarado, who had to leave in the 8th after striking out the two batters he faced. It was one of those "injured, diagnosis pending" situations but I've since learned I can end the suspense by going into the editor section of his player page. But I couldn't do that until the game ended. It did end well for the Rays, with a 7-5 win, and it turned out Alvarado just has back spasms and is out 3 days. I'll give him a week's rest for good measure. The Rays got their revenge on Kontaro Yokoyama, who ended their 25-game winning streak 10 days earlier, with 5 runs off him in 3 2/3 innings. The big hits came courtesy of Yusniel Diaz, who had a 2-RBI double in the first and an RBI double in the 5th. Nelson Cruz had a bases-loaded walk to reach the 100 RBI mark, Whit Merrifield and Wander Franco were each 3-4 with an RBI and Keibert had a sac fly to round out the scoring. Tyler Glasnow got the start and he was effective but not efficient, needing 107 pitches to get through a 5 5 2 2 2 9 outing to improve to 12-2. Dany Jimenez put a couple of men on in the 7th and was relieved by Trevor Gott, who allowed the first runner to score on a groundout and then gave up a 2-run HR to Francisco Lindor to get it close. Enter and exit Alvarado, and then Will Harris came on and got the final four outs for his first Rays save, 3 of them via strikeout. His numbers with the Rays have been incredible: a 1.72 ERA in 31 1/3 innings with a 2/37 BB/K ratio. With the win the Rays clinched a playoff spot, with the magic # for the division down to 6 as the Jays were idle, and they tied the 2008 team for most wins (97) in a regular season. September 13: Recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham. Didn't want to have to do this with Schmidt slated to pitch Game 1 of the IL Championship Series later this week, but I was down to Chirinos and Gallegos being the only available relievers with a Joe Ryan start that usually lasts 5-6 innings on tap for tonight. McClanahan threw 95 pitches for Durham 3 days ago so he wasn't available. Schmidt becomes the 28th man on the roster with September expansion. Game 2: An improbable win for the Rays in a game they were fighting from behind almost the entire way. Joe Ryan was his usual HR-happy self, allowing 3 more in 5 innings (to give him 43 in 155 IP!). He also walked 5, but they were generally after the HRs and not in front of them, so Cleveland only scored 3 on the solo shots. The offense got off to a slow start against Logan Allen, only managing 2 hits through the first five innings but that changed in the 6th. Whit Merrifield, who continues to hit in place of Brujan, homered to lead off the inning and later in the frame Yusniel Diaz singled in a run and Max Kepler doubled in another to tie the game. But Yonny Chirinos allowed single runs in the seventh and eighth and it was 5-3 Cleveland. Diaz doubled in another run to get the Rays back within 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th but Gio Gallegos gave that run right back in the top of the 9th to make it 6-4 Cleveland. Enter James Karinchak, the Cleveland closer who's been up-and-down all year but up in his two appearances against the Rays, including the streak-stopper. Well tonight he was down as he gave up a Toro double, walked Merrifield, and then served a 3-run homer to Wander to give the Rays a walk-off win in a game they never led until it ended and to set the franchise win record for a season with 98. The HR gives Wander 27 on the season with 124 RBI, behind only Francisco Lindor and Vlad Jr. Gallegos got the win, which he really didn't deserve. And we didn't need to use Clarke Schmidt, so he should back to Durham to pitch Game 1 of their championship series. This latest poor performance from Ryan has me thinking about going back to Yonny in his place next turn, but it really doesn't matter much given neither should figure into the playoff rotation (he says quite sure there won't be an injury to the top 4 between now and then). Jays lost so the magic number is reduced to 4. Minor League Playoff Update: The Biscuits are cooked as they fell 11-5 to Pensacola in the decisive Game 5 of their first round Southern League series. Homers by Nick Schnell and Osmy Gregorio staked them to an early 4-2 lead but starter Jimmy Lewis didn't have it, and Danny Hultzen threw gasoline on the fire in the fifth when Pensacola went up 8-5 to stay and that was that. Game 3: The Rays made it 6 in a row and got win #99 on the season with a closer-than-it-should-have-been 5-4 win over Cleveland. Chris Paddack was brilliant as usual, going 7 6 0 0 2 7 to go 7-0 as a Ray and get win #17 overall, while Shane Bieber did his best Joe Ryan impersonation, allowing HRs to Brandon Marsh, Joey Gallo and a 2-run shot to Kevin Kiermaier as the Rays built a 5-0 lead. But the bullpen did its best to squander it, primarily in the person of Trevor Gott. After getting the first two out in the 8th, he allowed four hits, a walk and a hit batter and Nick Anderson had to clean up for him. Anderson was greeted by a Travis d'Arnaud single to score two but he got Jake Lamb to pop out. In the 9th he made it interesting putting two men on but getting out of it on a Nolan Jones fly ball for save #4. Nolan Gorman got the start at 3B today and struck out all 3 times up. Day off tomorrow, which the bullpen needs, then they'll seek win #100 against Oakland who comes to town and has fallen out of the wild card race. Gott, meanwhile, continues to be the weak link the pen with all 4 runs charged against him and his Rays ERA ballooning to 5.91 as he's no lock to make the playoff roster at this point. The Jays lost so the magic # is 2, meaning they could clinch the division in as soon as two days. Ex-Ray note: Brendan McKay went 7.2 3 0 0 0 3 to beat Seattle today and lower his Padres ERA to 4.70. He's been up-and-down since the trade but one thing he's improved on is the walks, only 11 in 46 IP for San Diego after 53 in 103 IP for the Rays this season. Team record: 99-46. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:23 AM.

07-12-2020, 11:29 AM	#72
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 16-18, 2022 vs Oakland (3) September 15: Optioned P Clarke Schmidt to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from AAA Durham. Schmidt goes back to start Game 2 of Durham's championship series while McClanahan comes back up to get re-accustomed to the bullpen where he'll be used in the multi-inning, mid-innings role he's thrived in with the big club. Minor League Playoff Update (Sep. 15): Durham dropped Game 1 of the IL Championship Series to Louisville 8-4. Josiah Gray put the first two men on in the top of the 1st and served up a 3-run HR to Oneil Cruz and he left the first with a 4-0 deficit from which the Bulls never recovered. HRs from Christian Vazquez and Seth Beer helped get Durham within 5-4, but Cruz homered again (and Bren Spillane had a pair of his own) and the Bulls now need to win 3 of 4. Game 1: It took 12 innings, but the Rays ended up prevailing against Oakland 5-4 for win #100 of the season and their 4th AL East title in their history as Toronto had lost last night while the Rays were idle. Wander Franco, who had homered twice earlier in the game off Jesus Luzardo, had a two-out double in the bottom of the 12th and scored on Keibert Ruiz's single. Ruiz had also homered in the first off Luzardo as Wander and he went back-to-back. The three homers the two hit staked the Rays to a 4-1 lead but Blake Snell couldn't hold it, allowing a 2-run HR to Mark Payton in the 4th and a solo shot by Franklin Barreto in the 7th which tied it. He ended 7 6 4 4 2 9. It was a battle of bullpens after that, and Oakland's ended up blinking first. Gio Gallegos struck out the side in a perfect 8th, Alvarado showed no ill effect from his back spasms pitching a scoreless 9th and lowering his ERA back below 1 at 0.98, Dany Jimenez had two scoreless, and even the much-maligned Trevor Gott worked around a leadoff double to stave off Oakland in the 12th and pick up his 3rd Rays win. The win was the team's 7th straight and 38th in their past 42 games. Franco and Ruiz were the entire offense tonight, accounting for all 5 RBI and 5 of the team's 8 hits. Minor League Playoff Update: In a thrilling back-and-forth affair, Durham rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to beat Louisville 7-6 and even their best of 5 series at a game apiece. Josh Lowe singled to lead off the ninth and Xavier Edwards walked. After Trevor Larnach struck out, Lowe and Edwards pulled off a daring double steal to put men on 2nd and 3rd. Alec Bohm's single scored Lowe to tie it, and then Seth Beer singled to left to score Edwards with the winner. The Bulls survived another 2-HR game from Louisville's Oneil Cruz and had longballs of their own earlier in the game from Alex Kirilloff and Andrew Vaughn, back-to-back in the 2nd inning. Tommy Romero pitched out of a jam in the ninth to pick up the win as the series heads to Louisville in two days for the pivotal Game 3. Game 2: Max Fried started off slowly, putting the Rays in a 4-0 hole, the Rays came back and tied with 4 runs in the 6th, but then Fried gave up 3 more in the 7th (he entered the inning at 83 pitches so it wasn't me channeling Grady Little again) and Oakland beat the Rays 7-4 to snap their 7-game win streak. Fried's start was reminiscent of June/July starts from this staff when they'd have a disaster inning early as to start the game he allowed a leadoff single, got a double play, and then saw 2 more reach before Matt Olson drilled a 3-run HR. Old friend Sal Perez hit one in the 3rd to make it 4-0 and the Rays looked cooked, struggling against Sean Manaea. But they rallied in the 6th and got a pair of two-out, two-run singles from Josh Bell and Joey Gallo to equalize, but then Fried gave up a 2-run HR to David Fletcher then an RBI double to Daniel Johnson and he was done. Shane McClanahan came on for the first time since August 3 (which was the final game the Rays lost before the 25-game win streak) and was brilliant, pitching 2 1-hit innings, walking 0 and striking out 4. Wander continues red-hot with 3 more hits (2 of the infield variety) to raise his average to .320, Whit Merrifield banged out 2 more of his own, and Abe Toro had 3 hits as well after a recent quiet spell. Seems weird not to have to look up the Jays score, but it doesn't matter anymore. Game 3: The Rays took the series and the season series from Oakland with a 5-3 win behind Tyler Glasnow, who improved to 13-2. The right-hander was 7 6 3 3 0 10 today, although he lost a 3-0 lead before the Rays recovered in the bottom of the seventh on a Merrifield RBI single to re-take the lead. Josh Bell gave them some insurance with solo shot in the 8th after Will Harris pitched a scoreless top of the inning, and Jose Alvarado got save #5 despite walking a pair of A's in the 9th. It was empty-the-bench day as Wander, Nelson Cruz and Joey Gallo all got the day off but the offense did enough without them. Max Kepler had a 2-run double and Kiermaier had HR #14 to put the Rays up 3-0 but Glasnow gave up a 2-run double to Sheldon Neuse and solo blast to Matt Chapman (#40 for him) to tie the game up before the late-inning heroics. Team record: 101-47. Minor League Playoff Update: An ugly night for the Bulls as Louisville crushed Durham 9-1. Joey Lucchesi was knocked around for 5 runs in 2 innings and Louisville's Min Yo-Hang struck out 10 in 7 shutout innings as the Bulls are on the brink of elimination. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:22 AM.

07-12-2020, 07:30 PM	#73
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 19-21, 2022: at Texas (3) Game 1: The last thing you want trying to play out the string to get to the playoffs is a long, extra-inning game. The last thing you really want is a 21-inning game, but that's how long the Rays and Rangers played tonight. Given the circumstances it really didn't matter who won the game but if you're playing that long you might as well win, and it appeared the Rays might have just done so in the top of the 20th when Josh Bell doubled in a run to make it 5-4. But in the bottom of the inning Texas tied it up off Gio Gallegos in his second inning of work, and after the Rays didn't score in the top of the 21st, it was time for a position player to pitch and Nolan Gorman came on. He actually got the first two hitters to pop out, but Tim Locastro tripled and then Devin Marrero singled him home to mercifully end this game. Of course the bullpen is now burned out, having to cover 14 innings (Jimenez only threw 11 pitches in the 8th so he's probably available tomorrow), otherwise McClanahan threw 2 dominant innings, whiffing 4, Nick Anderson threw 2, Yonny came on and threw 5 but had to leave in the red, then 2 more from Will Harris and Gallegos's 2. The reason why we were in extras is that Wander hit HR #30 to tie the game at 4 in the 8th after Texas got 4 off Joe Ryan through 6 innings (but no HRs!). This was after the Rays put up a 3-spot in the 2nd. Chris Paddack is going to need to get 7 innings in tomorrow, while Alvarado was the only reliever not to pitch as he was tired from Sunday so hopefully he's good to go. A Durham callup is possible but Gray and Schmidt are tired from starting and they're the only ones there on the 40-man and I'd hate to burn the service time on Shane Baz. Should have brought Gorman in earlier! Minor League Playoff Update: Durham hung on for a 2-1 win at Louisville to bring the series back to Durham for a decisive Game 5. Tony Gonsolin was brilliant for the Bulls, going 6.2 4 1 1 0 8, while reliever Austin Franklin was bailed out when the potential tying run was thrown out at the plate by Josh Lowe in the 8th. Tommy Romero got the save, and Lowe got the 2-run rally in the 5th going with a leadoff double and was doubled home by Orlando Arcia, who came around to score on a Christian Vazquez single. Josiah Gray will start Game 5 in two nights. Game 2: After last night's marathon, Chris Paddack gave them the innings they needed. He went 6.2 6 3 3 1 4 to go to 8-0 as a Ray and 18-6 overall in a 7-3 win over Texas. After 21 innings last night, Wander, Keibert Ruiz, Gallo and Brujan (who came back from his 2-week injury) all got a rest but it didn't slow down the offense as they struck for 5 in the first inning, beginning with a Josh Bell 3-run homer and ending with an RBI single from last night's losing pitcher, Nolan Gorman. Ronaldo Hernandez added a 2-run double later just when his average was in danger of falling below .300. Paddack got into a bit of a jam in the 7th but Alvarado came on the final out, and Dany Jimenez pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th to wrap it up. Game 3: This was your classic getaway day, meaningless game, regulars rested situation and the Rays in the lineup decided to swing at everything and anything in a 3-1 loss. Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell got the day off and the hardest team to strike out in the league whiffed 16 times, including 11 in 7 innings on only 87 pitches against reliever-turned-starter Matt Magill, who's on his third MLB team of the season. They had only 4 hits with Keibert getting 3 of them, including an RBI double in the first that scored Wander, who had the other hit. The one run was good enough for Blake Snell through 6, but going into the 7th despite only throwing 83 pitches he ran out of gas, giving up a 2-run HR to Ronald Guzman and a solo shot to Tim Locastro. It's now on to Toronto for 4 games as the march to the season's end continues. Team record: 102-49. Minor League Playoff Update: THE DURHAM BULLS ARE THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS! Josiah Gray was brilliant, setting the tone right away by striking out the side in the 1st inning on his way to a 7 5 0 0 1 8 line as Durham shut out Louisville 5-0 to take their best of 5 series 3-2. Unlike last season when Durham was up 2-1 and leading Game 4 in the 9th only to blow it and lose, this time Durham was the comeback team after being down 2-1 in the series. The Bulls got all the offense they needed with 3 runs in the 2nd when Josh Lowe doubled in Andrew Vaughn, Orlando Arcia doubled in Lowe, and Xavier Edwards singled in Arcia. Austin Franklin pitched the final 2 innings to secure the win. Louisville's Oneil Cruz, who hit .444 with 4 HR and 7 RBI in the 5 games, was named Series MVP despite being on the losing side. Luckily for the Bulls he did all his damage in the first two games which they managed to split. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 11:21 AM.

07-13-2020, 11:18 AM	#74
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 22-25, 2022: at Toronto (4) Game 1: It's time for 4 games in Toronto, and the schedule finishes out with 4 games at home vs the Yankees, and then 3 more at home vs Toronto. And then the Rays will likely be playing one of those teams in a best-of-5 series right afterwards because Toronto looks close to a lock for one of the wild cards and the Yankees are a game up on Houston for the second. Anyway, for today's game we went to extra innings again, but this time it was 12 instead of 21 and this time the Rays prevailed, 4-3. Today's rested players were Keibert, Gallo and Toro. The Rays had quite a few baserunners on against Aaron Nola and Toronto relievers, but frustratingly hit into 5 double plays so they had to do all their scoring via the home run. Brandon Marsh hit #16 in the 5th to put the Rays on the board, and Ronaldo Hernandez hit #14 in the 7th to tie the game. And so we went until the 12th when Nolan Gorman (in likely his last game as a Ray as Meadows comes off the 60-day DL tomorrow) walked, and Marsh followed with another blast to put the Rays up 4-2. Gio Gallegos came on for the save and was shaky, immediately surrendering a HR to Reese McGuire and giving up a single to Cavan Biggio which Kepler overran in RF to put him on 2nd. Biggio went to third on a deep fly ball but Gallegos got Ryan Noda to ground to 1st with the infield in and struck out Bo Bichette to end the game. Nick Anderson picked up the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief and Max Fried had a fine start, going 8 6 2 2 2 5 with his only hiccups being back-to-back HRs surrendered to Rowdy Tellez and Lourdes Guirriel in the 3rd. Rays pitchers somehow held Vlad Jr. to 0-4 with a walk, ending his 31-game hitting streak. Retirement news: Fresh off their IL championship at Durham, Brett Gardner, Pablo Sandoval and Michael Pineda have retired. Gardner and Sandoval played little role with Durham although the Panda did start a couple of playoff games. Pineda had a decent season in middle relief for the Bulls but was injured during the playoffs. Adam Ottavino, who I've had on various Rays minor league teams the last couple of years, also retired. September 23: Activated OF Austin Meadows from the 60-day IL, designated IF Nolan Gorman for assignment. Yay, Meadows is back! Since there are no minor leagues playing to send him on rehab, I'll start him off slow with some pinch-hitting appearances this weekend and get him into games next week at home. My guess is Gorman clears waivers so he'll go back to Durham. Game 2: The Rays lost 9-4 but the big news was another injury. Shane McClanahan had to leave after the second batter he faced and it turns out he has a herniated disc and is out 5 weeks so that effectively ends his season. This leaves us with only one lefty (Alvarado) in the pen after the Hand injury, not an ideal situation, and suddenly a very deep bullpen has become a somewhat thin one. The only good news is that at least it wasn't an arm injury and McClanahan should be fine for 2023. As for the game, after Joey Gallo gave the Rays a first-inning lead with a 3-run HR, Tyler Glasnow squandered it. Glasnow really didn't have anything resembling his best stuff, eventually allowing 5 runs on 11 hits in 5 innings and only striking out 3, snapping his personal 10-game win streak. It was a still a close game (down 5-4) when McClanahan came on to start the 7th with 4 straight lefties due up, but after he left Trevor Gott allowed McClanahan's runner to score and gave up a 3-run HR to Lourdes Gurriel to put the game out of reach. In good injury news, Austin Meadows pinch-hit in the 9th and singled in his first action since May 15. The game was costly for the Jays as well, as they lost starter Elvis Luciano to a partially torn labrum ending his season. He was 14-4 for them despite a high-4s ERA and this is on top of losing their ace Nate Pearson earlier. They're looking good to make the wild card game but if they win it they're going to have a tougher time keeping the Rays off the board in the ALCS. September 24: Placed P Shane McClanahan on the 60-day IL with a herniated disc, recalled P Clarke Schmidt from AAA Durham. Probably going to have Schmidt start a game or two and give the regulars some rest as I don't want to see another injury. More retirements from around the league: Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Jake Arrieta, Pedro Alvarez, Chris Davis, Austin Jackson, Jeremy Jeffress, Andrew Miller, Sergio Romo, Justin Smoak, Neil Walker, Brandon Morrow, Eduardo Nunez. Game 3: Nobody got hurt today, which was the main thing. The Rays fell 4-3 to the Jays with Joe Ryan having the typical Joe Ryan start: 6 7 3 3 1 8 with all 3 runs coming on solo HRs. It turned out though that the winning run was allowed by Yonny Chirinos in the 7th on a Rowdy Tellez single but at that point it was 4-2. Joey Gallo homered in the 8th cut it to 4-3 but the Rays could get no closer and they've still yet to solve Jays closer Keith Ginkel the past couple of years. Good news earlier though as Austin Meadows got the start at DH and hit a solo homer of his own, #15. Keibert doubled in Brandon Marsh (who reached 3 times in 4 PAs) for the other Rays run. September 25: Optioned P Yonny Chirinos to AAA Durham, purchased the contract of P Aaron Loup from AAA Durham. With McClanahan on the 60-day DL, I had a 40-man spot open and figured I'd add a lefty for the time being to the pen. Game 4: Chris Paddack had 18 wins and two starts left this season coming into today so to get a shot at 20 wins he'd have to win today. Therefore, he was left in a bit longer (but not too long) than he should have been, going 101 pitches and 7 innings but allowing 5 runs (mainly on 3 HR as he did his best Joe Ryan impression) and left trailing 5-2 after giving up a HR in the 7th. Outside the HRs he pitched well as he allowed 7 hits, walked 0 and struck out 8 for an impressive 17/75 BB/K ratio in 65 innings as a Ray. And leaving him in through the 7th paid off as the Rays rallied for 5 runs in top of the 8th off a Josh Bell RBI double and a Brandon Marsh grand slam. Anderson and Alvarado did their thing in the 8th and 9th with Jose getting save #6 and lowering his ERA to 0.92 and Paddack still has a shot at 20 (10 with the Padres, 9 with the Rays so far) against these Jays again on Friday. Otherwise it was looking like another loss where the offense was too dependent on the long ball to score, something they hadn't been most of the season until recently, with the 2 runs coming on solo shots by Gallo (again) and Ronaldo (again). Special mention to Brandon Marsh, who just keeps on keepin' on, hitting 303/396/585 with 18 HR and 67 RBI in only 83 games (284 AB). Meadows DH'd again, going 1-5 and still looking a bit rusty but he'll have the ABs he needs come playoff time. Right now the question is who goes to the bench for him and right now I'd say the leading candidate is Max Kepler, who has a gaudy 98 RBI but mostly as the product of playing in this offense; his 241/326/446 is not terribly impressive. Looks like Meadows would play LF with Gallo sliding over to RF and Marsh will play CF. The way Paddack is going I'd almost like to start him in Game 1 even though he's the nominal #4 starter right now. Glasnow probably deserves the honor but Paddack has been more consistent than Snell or Fried. We'll see. Team record: 104-51. More retirements of note: Carlos Gonzalez, Brandon Crawford, Jon Jay, Yuli Gurriel, Denard Span, Phil Hughes (again), Jed Lowrie, Daniel Hudson, Shun Yamaguchi (who beat the Rays in the Wild Card Game last year). Last edited by Art Deco; 07-13-2020 at 10:55 PM.

07-13-2020, 09:36 PM	#75
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 26-29, 2022: vs NY Yankees (4) Game 1: This is a huge series for the Yankees as they come in 1 game ahead of Houston for the second wild card with Toronto having the first pretty much sewn up (although Houston is playing Toronto in a 3-game set and if the Astros swept....). The Yankees have been boosted lately by rookie Estevan Florial, who was AL Player of the Week this past week and has hit 8 HR in 65 AB since being recalled at the start of the month. Well, Florial went 0-4 but it didn't slow down the Yankees as they beat the Rays 10-5. Blake Snell was dominant until he wasn't, after a great first 3 innings he gave up a 2-run HR to Gary Sanchez in the 4th and then was tagged for 4 more in the 5th and ended 5 6 4 4 4 9. The Rays, as is their M.O. lately, scored all their runs on homers: Wander in the 1st to give them an early lead; Bell in the 4th to tie the game up, and then Gallo in the bottom of the 5th with a 3-run shot to make it 6-5. That was Gallo's 20th in barely two months with the Rays in fewer than 200 AB, and the 4th straight game with a HR for him. 6-5 is where it stood until the 9th as the Rays got 3 scoreless innings between Aaron Loup in his first MLB action in a few years with a clean 6th, and Dany Jimenez who was electric with 2 perfect innings and 5 Ks. But the wheels came off in the 9th as the team committed three errors and Gio Gallegos struggled big-time allowing 4 hits and 4 runs (2 earned), including a 2-run blast by Aaron Judge. Game 2: Thinking about just forfeiting the rest of the games this week if tonight's going to be any indication. Not only did the Rays lose 13-3 but they suffered two more injuries. Wander doubled in the first and then had to leave with a bruised shoulder, he's DtD for 6 days so his regular season is over, ending 320/365/557 with 31 HR and 129 RBI, so no sophomore jinx there. The other injury was to Trevor Gott, who strained a hamstring after facing one batter and is out 5 weeks or basically the season. He wasn't a key guy but he's the third pitcher from the pen to go down for the season. As for the game, the less said the better. Max Fried didn't have it and was tattooed for 7 runs and 10 hits in 4.1 innings and after Gott got hurt, Clarke Schmidt came on and was terrible too, allowing 6 runs and 7 hits in 3.1 as the Yankees had 19 hits in total including a 5-5 day from Miguel Andjuar, who homered. The Rays runs came on an early 2-run Josh Bell double, and a 9th inning bases-loaded walk to Austin Meadows. The Yankees are a quite possible (if not likely) first round opponent so they're going to have to pitch a lot better than the last two nights (and hit as well). In the AL wild card race, Jesus Sanchez hit a 3-run 9th inning HR off Toronto's Keith Ginkel to give Houston a 5-3 come-from-behind win over the Jays, suddenly giving Toronto a little heartburn. The Jays' magic # is still 3 to clinch and they play the Rays this weekend but if Houston wins again tomorrow things get really interesting. And Sandy Alcantara and the Mets beat Atlanta 4-2 tonight, improving Alcantara to 20-5 and giving the Mets three 20-game winners as deGrom and Syndergaard already accomplished the feat. My research indicates that this is the first time a team has had 3 20-game winners since the 1973 Oakland A's (Hunter, Holtzman, Blue) and quite an accomplishment in this day and age. September 28: Placed P Trevor Gott on the 15-day IL, recalled P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham. Gray's on the 40-man so he gets the nod. With Gott going down there's now a non-zero chance I call up Shane Baz to do a McClanahan middle-relief thing and put him on the playoff roster, although Baz is a righty. Joey Lucchesi's also a possibility, being on the 40-man and a lefty. Game 3: Although these games are meaningless for the Rays, it'd be nice if they actually won a couple of them. Today it was Tyler Glasnow's turn to get knocked around by the Yankees in a 7-5 loss. Glasnow went 6 8 6 6 3 7, allowing a pair of HRs to Gleyber Torres (#52 and #53 for Torres) among 4 total longballs yielded. The Rays actually had a 3-1 lead after 2 innings when Ehire Adrianza of all people, filling in for Wander at SS, hit a 2-run HR off Gerrit Cole. But that lead was short-lived as Torres and the Yankees went to work. Gallo had another HR, a solo shot off Cole in the 6th, his 21st as a Ray and 49th overall. Meadows was 0-5, still looking rusty but hopefully will have that shaken off by playoff time. At least nobody got hurt tonight. Playoff race update: Toronto beat Houston 4-3, which all but clinches the Wild Card for them (magic # is 1) and all but puts the Yankees in as their opponents as New York now has a 2-game lead on Houston with 4 games left. I'm sure the Astros and their fans are thrilled with the fight the Rays have been putting up against the Yankees. Game 4: 6 more HRs from the Yankees (4 off Joe Ryan, no surprise) including 3 from Aaron Judge as the Yankees sweep the Rays with a 9-5 win and boy I hope Toronto beats the Yankees in the wild card game because this staff can't handle them right now. Ryan was 5 9 4 4 0 6 and then Yonny, after a clean 6th, gave up a 3-run shot to Stanton and a solo homer to Luke Voit to blow the game open. And they found a new way to give up runs when Josiah Gray balked in one in the 8th. Max Kepler hit #25 to reach 100 RBI so good for him, while Meadows had an infield hit and an RBI triple as he may be coming around. The 3 Judge HRs gave the Yanks a trio with 50: Torres 53, Stanton 51, and Judge 50 and probably half of them have been against the Rays. Ryan ends his season with 44 BBs and 212 Ks, but a 5.17 ERA thanks to 50 (!) HRs alllowed in 172.1 innings. His HR/9 ballooned from 1.5 last season to 2.6 this year. If (when) I institute a deader ball next season he might be valuable again. Team record: 104-55. While the Jays and the Yankees (unless they completely collapse again Boston this weekend) look to have the AL Wild Card spots wrapped up, check out the NL Wild Card race going into the final weekend: And Arizona and San Diego play each other this weekend, which is probably good for the Cubs and Braves. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-14-2020 at 02:48 PM.

07-14-2020, 04:36 PM	#76
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	September 30-October 2, 2022: vs Toronto (3) Game 1: The big story tonight was Chris Paddack going for his 20th win (10th with the Rays) as Toronto came to town after our miserable 4-game series against the Yankees. And unlike his last game where he had to hang around through 7 innings hoping the Rays would come back (which they did) Paddack was staked to an early 6-0 lead and held it through 6 as the Rays won 11-3 and Paddack joined the Mets trio of Syndergaard, deGrom and Alcantara, and Arizona's Corbin Martin as 2022 MLB 20-game winners. His final numbers: with the Rays he was 10-0 in 11 starts with a 3.15 ERA in 71.1 innings and a 17/85 K/BB ratio, and overall 20-6 with a 3.63 ERA in 216 innings and a 44/217 K/BB ratio and 4.5 WAR. Paddack, who walked 0 and struck out 10 tonight, has to go down as one of the top pitching trade deadline acquisitions this side of Doyle Alexander, Rick Sutcliffe and Randy Johnson. He nearly didn't get the big early offensive support as the Rays had to stage a 2-out rally in 1st with a 2-RBI single from Kepler, a Marsh RBI double, and a Toro RBI single. Josh Bell added a 2-run HR in the third (#17 for the Rays, #40 overall) to make it 6-0, and although Paddack gave up a 2-run shot to Ryan Noda they added 2 more in the 6th on a Keibert double and then Toro had a 3-run blast in the 7th. It was good to see Toro have a big night as he's been pretty quiet the last couple of months. Will Harris gave up a Vlad Jr HR, but Aaron Loup closed it out with a perfect 9th and it was nice to win for a change. In the wild card race, Toronto didn't clinch since Houston beat Baltimore 8-2, and the Yankees fell to Boston 5-2 (why can they pitch well against them?) so Houston climbs to within 1 game of the Yankees with 2 games left. In the NL, the Cubs lost to the Cardinals 11-7 (old friend Anthony Banda was torched for 7 runs in 3.1 innings), Atlanta won behind Mike Soroka, and Williams Perez pitched a 3-hitter for San Diego as they beat Arizona 7-1, so here's where things stand over there with 2 days left: The Braves are essentially in but wow, 3 teams tied for the second wild card. It could stay a 3-way tie if Arizona and San Diego split, and the Cubs split their remaining 2 games. I'm rooting for San Diego because Arizona has been extraordinarily lucky this year, 9 games over their Pythagorean record. Just in case I hadn't made it clear as far as the division races go in each league, in the AL Seattle and Minnesota won their divisions and will play each other while of course the Rays face the wild card winner. In the NL, the Mets will face the wild card winner while St. Louis will play the Dodgers. All of the division races had been over for quite a while. And this just in: Paddack is AL pitcher of the month for September (not sure why the text references May): Also I have decided on the playoff rotation, which will be in this order: Glasnow, Snell, Paddack, Fried. I want Paddack pitching the pivotal Game 3 to either stave off elimination or make it 2-1 (yeah he could also pitching to clinch but I'm not going to be that presumptuous). Game 2: The Blue Jays clinched a wild card with a 5-2 win over the Rays. 2/3 of the regular lineup sat; in addition to the DtD Franco, Keibert, Gallo, Brujan, Kepler and Marsh were all on the bench. Nevertheless they had a 2-1 lead after 5 on a Toro RBI double and an Adrianza sac fly and Snell was 2-hitting the Jays. But he gave up three straight singles to start the 6th and let Toronto tie, and then he served up a 3-run HR to lefty hitter Ryan Noda and that was that. The offense could only manage a walk over the final 4 2/3 against the Toronto bullpen and of course Ginkel had a 1-2-3 9th against them. AL Wild Card Update: The Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-1 behind rookie Miguel Yajure's 5 shutout innings and a pair of Luke Voit HRs to drop their magic number to 1. The Astros stayed alive with an 8-4 win over Baltimore that saw Kyle Tucker hit 3 solo HRs and Yordan Alvarez launch a pair as well. It'll take a Yankees loss and an Astros win to force a 1-game playoff between these two teams, otherwise the Yankees will go to Toronto. NL Wild Card Update: The Braves officially clinched a spot with a 10-6 win over the Phillies which saw Freddie Freeman get his 2000th career hit and Rays oldboy Willy Adames hit a bases-clearing triple and a 2-run HR, setting career highs in HR and RBI with 23/88, although his 252/324/428 triple slash is almost identical to his final season with the Rays in 2020. The Cubs beat the Cardinals 3-1 with Ian Happ and Jordan Luplow going back-to-back to lead off the game, and Kwang-hyun Kim pitched around 6 walks to get the win and stay tied for the second wild card. They're tied with Arizona, who beat San Diego 11-6 thanks to 8 walks from Luis Patino, including 2 with the bases loaded in the 1st and 2 more ahead of a 3-run Nick Ahmed HR. So it's Chicago and Arizona tied for the 2nd wild card, with San Diego one game behind. A Padres win tomorrow and a Cubs loss would give us a 3-way tie. We've got a great chance of at least one tiebreaker game. The International League was handing out awards, and here's one close to home. Franklin was a great multi-inning guy and has a shot at reprising that role with the big club next season. Game 3: The Jays won 4-3 in 10 innings but the main thing is that nobody got hurt. Clarke Schmidt got the start as Max Fried was rested to stay healthy and he did quite well, going 5 4 2 2 1 5. Josiah Gray relieved him, and threw 3 hitless innings, walking 1 and striking out 2. It was a 2-2 game going to the 9th and with three lefties up Alvarado came in and let Ryan Noda double off him and then gave up an RBI single to Lourdes Gurriel, which denied him an ERA under 1 for the season (it ballooned to 1.05). But the Rays finally got to Keith Ginkel, with two out Brujan singled, stole second and went to third on Reese McGuire's throwing error, and Wander (back and healthy) tripled him home. Unfortunately Meadows (who just isn't hitting much at all since coming back and was 0-4 today with a walk) couldn't bring him home so we went to extras. With more lefties due up Aaron Loup pitched the 10th, loaded the bases and then hit Rowdy Tellez to force in the winning run. The Rays put two on against Gerson Bautista in the bottom of the 10th but Kevin Kiermaier, in possibly his last regular-season AB at the Trop as a Ray, struck out to end the game. In the milestones department, Brujan was 2-3 to push his BA back over .300 to .301 but Ronaldo needed something like 3 hits tonight to get back over .300 and only got 1, ending at .295. With 2 more RBI today, Wander ended up with 131; he had broken Carlos Pena's team record of 121 awhile back but I never thought to look it up until now. Also with 2 hits he wound up with 201. By the way the guy in the other dugout, Vlad Jr., had a season for the ages. He was .391-53-143, slugging .709 and his lone base hit today was his 254th of the season, tying him for 3rd all-time with Lefty O'Doul and Bill Terry and behind Ichiro and George Sisler. He should be a unanimous MVP, despite his defensive shortcomings he still put up a 10.7 WAR season. Final Regular Season Record: 105-57. AL Wild Card Update: The Yankees turned around 4-2 deficit in the 7th to get 4 runs capped by a Gary Sanchez 3-run HR and beat the Red Sox 6-4 to clinch the second wild card and they will travel to the Rogers Centre to play the Jays for the right to play the Rays. NL Wild Card Update: The Cubs could have at least forced a tiebreaker game but lost 3-1 to St. Louis after being up 1-0 with 2 out in the 7th before former Ray Mallex Smith walked, stole a base and started a 2-run Cardinal rally. This loss meant that if San Diego beat Arizona we'd have a 3-day tie, and they had young ace Mackenzie Gore on the mound. Unfortunately Gore was gored for 5 runs in the first inning capped by a Wyatt Mathisen 3-run homer and the Diamondbacks went on to win 8-5, putting them in the wild card game and traveling to Atlanta, so no tiebreakers needed. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-14-2020 at 09:19 PM.

07-14-2020, 09:00 PM	#77
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	2022 Final Standings, Stats The AL Standings: The NL Standings (had to be galling to the Padres to be 11 games better than Arizona in their Pythagorean records, but they shouldn't have lost the last two games of the season to them): Final Rays team stats. The offense was the league's best, the bullpen really good, the starters OK, the defense mediocre: Individual hitting stats, sorted by WAR. Kepler and Diaz were the big disappointments, but if you pro-rate Marsh to a full season he's just behind Wander pushing 6 WAR: Individual pitching stats, sorted by ERA (2.8 WAR for a reliever is damn impressive; meanwhile not sure how McKay accumulated positive WAR): MLB Batting Leaders (Vlad Jr just missed a Triple Crown in the AL): Not shown here: Wander led the AL in sac flies with 17. MLB pitching leaders: Last edited by Art Deco; 07-14-2020 at 09:34 PM.

07-15-2020, 09:19 AM	#78
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	October 4-5, 2022: Wild Card Round The playoff bracket: The AL Wild Card Game: So the Rays will be facing the Jays after a shockingly good performance from Aaron Nola, holding the Yankees to one hit over seven innings (although he walked 5). I was expecting an 8-5 game or something here. Vlad Jr had a 2-run shot in the first inning off Gerrit Cole, and after a couple of walks, Gurriel knocked in the 3rd run and we stayed at 3-0 until Luke Voit homered with 2 out in the 9th off Keith Ginkel. Toronto gets revenge for the Yankees knocking them off in last year's ALDS. The NL Wild Card Game: A 2-2 pitchers' duel between 21-game winner Corbin Martin for Arizona and perennial Atlanta ace Mike Soroka was broken open in the 8th inning after D-backs 1B Pavin Smith booted a grounder and Ozzie Albies doubled the man home, and then was wild pitched home. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman then followed with HRs off Connor Grammes to put it out of reach for Arizona, although Eduardo Escobar did homer off Atlanta closer and winning pitcher Will Smith. Earlier, Ray-for-a-month-last-year Mitch Haniger had a HR for the D-backs. Atlanta will now face the mighty Mets and their trio of 20-game winners. And in other news, congrats to Seth Beer for being named the International League MVP. I swear he's going to get first crack at being our DH next year. Really. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-15-2020 at 09:57 AM.

07-15-2020, 10:03 AM	#79
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	October 6, 2022: Division Series Round First of all, based on the AI's projected Jays rotation, here are the pitching matchups for the Jays-Rays series (Games 1,2 & 5 in St. Pete, Games 3 & 4 in Toronto): Game 1 (tonight): Jordan Romano (6-2, 5.23) vs Tyler Glasnow (13-4, 4.27) Game 2 (tomorrow): Trent Thornton (2-1, 6.20) vs Blake Snell (10-8, 4.89) Game 3 (Oct. 9): Chris Paddack (20-6, 3.63) vs Anthony Kay (12-13, 4.86) Game 4 (Oct. 10): Max Fried (16-8, 4.48) vs Aaron Nola (10-15, 5.34) Game 5 (Oct. 12): Jordan Romano (6-2, 5.23) vs Tyler Glasnow (13-4, 4.27) Nola could come back on regular rest for Game 3 so it wouldn't surprise me to see him go then. Actually any changes to the AI rotation don't surprise me as I've seen them often in the past in the playoffs. On paper the pitching matchups appear to heavily favor the Rays but I'm not buying it after seeing them lose 4 of 6 to Toronto the past couple of weeks even though I was rotating players in and out of the lineup for rest and injury-avoidance purposes. Also as a Tampa Bay sports fan the memory of the dominant regular season Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 falling on their collective faces and being swept by Columbus is fresh in my mind, and after watching 2021's upset-filled playoffs that saw an 83-79 team win it all I'm taking nothing for granted. Welp: You can construct the top offense in the league, but you can't make it hit or something like that. The runs looked like they would flow when Brujan walked, stole second and scored on a Meadows double in the first off Jordan Romano, and then the Rays had two more on in the second but couldn't score. And that was about it for the offense against Romano and a pair of Jays relievers. Keibert Ruiz doubled with two out in the 9th to bring the tying run to the plate but Nelson Cruz hit a lazy fly ball to left to end the game and a decent start from Tyler Glasnow was wasted. Glasnow went 7 7 3 3 1 11 but a 2-run HR to Reese McGuire in the 6th was the difference after earlier giving up a Bo Bichette triple and Randall Grichuk sac fly to tie it. Alvarado and Anderson pitched the 8th and 9th with the latter getting out of a 2nd and 3rd with 1 out jam after a hit and a walk. The Rays couldn't even take advantage of Vlad Jr. being ejected from the game in the 3rd after disputing a called third strike. Meanwhile, the big acquisitions Gallo and Bell were a combined 0-7 and each grounded into a double play. Tomorrow is obviously a must win with Snell on the mound against Trent Thornton. Can Thornton be the third straight nondescript Jays pitcher to shut down a high-powered offense? Stay tuned. In the other ALDS game today: Touki Toussaint was utterly dominant for Seattle today, which managed to do what the Rays couldn't, taking Game 1 at home. Toussaint went 7 4 1 1 2 11 and that was after starting the game off by letting Royce Lewis double and Luis Arraez single him home after 2 batters. Evan White's 3-run HR off Matt Wisler in the 4th was all the offense the Mariners needed. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-15-2020 at 01:21 PM.

07-15-2020, 01:50 PM	#80
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 6,047	October 7, 2022: Division Series Round Well, the real Tampa Bay Rays offense showed up today: Unlike last night when they were one run and done, the offense scored early and often against the Jays and survived a Blake Snell meltdown to win 9-4 and even the best-of-5 ALDS at 1. Toronto started lefty Anthony Kay instead of previously announced starter Trent Thornton, so Yusniel Diaz was inserted into the lineup in place of Brandon Marsh in CF. And the Rays jumped right out of the gate for 3 runs as Joey Gallo, who heard some criticism from the Tampa Bay media after Game 1, ripped a 2-run double over the head of Randall Grichuk and then came home himself on a Nelson Cruz RBI single. And then Austin Meadows and Cruz blasted solo HRs in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 5-0. But Snell nearly threw it all away in the 4th. As is his wont lately, Snell was totally dominant until becoming suddenly ineffective. Giving up a 1-out double to Vlad Jr isn't alarming, and even allowing Rowdy Tellez to double him home wasn't, but then giving up a 2-run triple to Grichuk and an RBI single to Cavan Biggio was. That was it for Snell at 3.2 innings and in came Dany Jimenez, who just might have saved the Rays' season. Jimenez got Bo Bichette to fly out to end the 4th, and then proceeded to throw 3 more perfect innings, striking out 5 and picking up his first career postseason win. And the offense kept tacking on runs, at first off a dropped fly ball by Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and later with Cruz's 2nd HR of the game, a solo shot by Wander, and a Keibert Ruiz HBP with the bases loaded. Joe Ryan, who has had his successes against the Jays, closed the game out with 2 perfect innings and 4 Ks, allowing the top bullpen guys to rest. We go to Toronto in two days for Game 3 with our hottest pitcher, Chris Paddack, starting against Trent Thornton I guess, although I'm betting it's Aaron Nola who should be on his normal rest. Game 2 of Seattle-Minnesota: A matchup of the #2 and #4 pitchers in ERA in the AL went about as expected with the Mariners getting their second straight 3-1 win over Minnesota to head back to the Twin Cities with a commanding 2-0 series lead. The Twins' fine rookie pitcher Greg Elizondo blinked first, allowing a Jarred Kelenic HR in the 4th and then his throwing error allowed another Mariner run to score. A JP Crawford error led to the lone Minnesota run on a Josh Donaldson sac fly but Kyle Lewis restored the 2-run lead with a solo homer in the 7th. Before Seattle and their fans get too giddy, recall that the Twins were in the same situation 2 seasons ago and won the next 3 against Cleveland to advance to the ALCS. The two NLDS series get underway: Good matchup between Robbie Ray and Jacob deGrom goes to Atlanta as deGrom wasn't has usual sharp self. Willy Adames (remember him?) took him deep for a 1-0 lead then a bad sequence in the 5th that included Ray getting a hit off deGrom and a pair of walks to load the bases for Freddie Freeman, who made him pay with a 2-run double. JD Davis and Joey Bart homered to get the Mets close, but not close enough and Atlanta deals the 111-win Mets a Game 1 loss. OOTP's AI makes some head-scratching decisions from time-to-time but everyone once in a while it does something you'd never think of and it turns out to be genius. Case in point tonight with the decision to start Cardinal closer Connor Jones in Game 1 of the NLDS. Jones did not start a single game and had 37 saves but something in the AI knew he could be stretched out and be effective, and he certainly was in the Cardinals' easy win over the Dodgers. Jones went 5.1 2 1 1 3 8 on 85 pitches and Nick Senzel's pair of HRs (and a later 3-run blast by Willson Contreras) were more than enough offense against Dodger ace Walker Buehler who was hammered for 11 hits and 4 runs in 5 innings. This gives us 3 surprise winners out of 4 in Game 1 of the LDSs. Last edited by Art Deco; 07-15-2020 at 04:15 PM.