[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays had the unenviable task of facing the AL's top pitcher in 2027, Minnesota's Jon Hayes who came in with a 17-3 record although they did account for one of the 3 in his loss column about six weeks ago when Matt Manning outdueled him in a 3-0 win. However when Mack Anglin couldn't replicate Manning's feat and put the Rays in their own 3-0 hole tonight, things weren't looking that great. But a funny thing happened in the 5th: the Rays got to Hayes and kept getting to him. He started off by walking Nick Gonzales and Jhon Diaz, and Julio Cedillo in his Tropicana Field debut ripped a double down the RF line to score Diaz, putting the Rays on the board. Keston Hiura followed with a double to the gap to tie the game and Wander Franco one-upped Hiura by hitting HR #21 into the RF stands and in the space of three batters it went from 3-0 Twins to 5-3 Rays and Hayes was sent to the showers. Hiura went deep off Dakota Chalmers to make it 6-3 (our final score) in the 7th for his 10th of the year while Anglin settled in and shut down the Twins after some early hiccups going 7 7 3 3 0 9 to improve to 12-4, 3.51. Jose Alvarado was solid in his 1 1/3 innings and Jasseel De La Cruz got the final two outs (but not a save since he didn't start the inning). The Yankees won so the magic # drops to 22.

Game 2: Shane McClanahan was masterful, and the offense did just enough as the Rays beat the Twins 2-0. After last night Mac gained some ground on Jon Hayes in the Cy Young race and then really made the case for himself by 1-hitting the Twins over 7 innings. He did walk 4 which boosted his pitch count to 113 over those 7 innings, and he struck out 4. Daniel Espino and Jasseel De La Cruz each made it interesting in the 8th and 9th respectively by putting two men on in their innings but got the crucial third out both times. Mac ups his record to 16-5, 2.90 and now has a better ERA than Hayes while JDLC grabbed save #18. The two runs were truly eked out. Judson Fabian doubled to lead off the 2nd, advanced to 3rd on a passed ball and scored on Keibert Ruiz's grounder, and in the 8th they got a much-needed insurance run when Nick Gonzales was hit by a pitch, went to 2nd on a wild pitch, to 3rd on Julio Cedillo's grounder and scored on a Keston Hiura sac fly. There were 6 hits total between the teams, and the Rays managed 4 of them against Lewis Thorpe, who was tough and went the 8-inning distance on 94 pitches. The Yankees won again so they're only reducing the magic # one at a time, now 21.

Game 3: It was a matchup of gerunds today as Dane Dunning faced Matt Manning, and the Rays kept on winning by sweeping the series with a 5-2 win today. Manning was nowhere near as sharp as he was in his shutout in Minnesota earlier this season but thanks to some double plays and key pitches he made it through 5 innings and picked up win #12, going 5 6 2 1 5 5, being pulled in the 6th after walking the first two batters of the inning. Aaron Ashby came in and retired the next 3, Liam Hendriks had a perfect inning in his first action in 3 weeks, Jose Alvarado gave up 3 hits, with 2 of them in the 8th and one to lead off the 9th but didn't give up a run and Jack Filby closed it out against his teammates from last season for his 4th Rays save and 7th overall. Wander Franco, whose error led to the first Twins run, made amends with a bases-clearing triple in the 2nd, and they added 2 more runs in the 3rd on a Keibert Ruiz single and a Julio Cedillo groundout. Judson Fabian was 3-3 with a walk and a run scored. The Yankees fell in Cleveland so the magic # now drops to 19 as we still have a couple of days left in August.

Team record: 87-49. Next up: 4 games at home vs the White Sox, who thanks to the Rays' sweep of Minnesota find themselves only 3 1/2 back in the AL Central despite being at .500.