[Art Deco]

Game 1: Blake Money won his 11th straight start to go 12-0, and the Rays broke open a close game late to thump Oakland 10-2. Money was solid, going 6 7 2 2 2 8 as his league-leading ERA sits now at 2.23. It was 2-2 going into the 6th on Jhon Diaz's RBI groundout and Yordan Alvarez's 17th HR of the year before the Rays got 3 in the inning and never looked back. Nate Clark had an RBI single and Bobby Witt Jr had a 2-RBI knock. A Gavin Lux groundout in the 7th made it 6-2, and then they blew it open wide in the 8th with 4 runs. Alvarez led off the inning with his 2nd HR of the game (#18), Luis Berdin hit his first MLB round-tripper with a man on, and Lux singled in a run to complete the scoring. Meanwhile, Jeremy Bowers made an impressive debut in the 7th. After giving up a leadoff single, he struck out the next 3 batters including former Rays (or Rays properties) Billy Benedetto and Seth Beer. Jack Filby pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th to finish it out.

Game 2: Drama at the Oakland Coliseum as the Rays got HRs from Yordan Alvarez and Bobby Witt Jr. in the 9th inning off two-time former Ray Ryne Stanek to pull out a 5-4 come-from-behind win. Trailing 4-3, Alvarez led off the 9th with #19 (and his 3rd in 2 days) to tie it, and two batters later Witt hit #10 to win it. Stanek is an interesting case, he's the A's closer and leads MLB with 25 saves but he's really not been that good as he has 5 losses and now 3 blown saves to go with it, and a 5.52 ERA. Shane McClanahan started and was looking like the loser even though he pitched well most of the game but was victimized by some bad sequencing. He put two men on in the 3rd and gave up a 3-run HR, and loaded the bases before leaving in the 7th only for Evan Godwin to allow a sac fly for Oakland to take the lead as he went 6.1 5 4 4 2 7. Godwin pitched an inning, Daniel Espino got the final 2 outs in the 8th (and the win), and in the 9th with a lefty leading off I brought in Jeremy Bowers as I had a brain fart and forgot about the 3-batter rule (after managing about 1500+ games in this save), intending to bring in Jasseel De La Cruz next. Thankfully Bowers got two out and only gave up a single, and then JDLC did get the final out for save #14. Before all this, the Rays got RBI singles from Keibert Ruiz and Gavin Lux in the 3rd to briefly go up 2-0, and got the tying run in the 7th on a wild pitch.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Oakland behind Mack Anglin's best outing since coming off the IL and a pair of HRs from Gavin Lux in a 5-1 win. Anglin was scattering the hits, getting a couple of double plays and picking up key strikeouts in a 6.1 7 1 1 1 7 performance to even his record at 3-3. Before Lux hit HRs 17 and 18 in the 7th and 9th the big hit came from Luis Berdin, who had a 2-run shot in the 4th, his 2nd and his 6th extra-base hit in as many games (he's slugging a cool .818). The other run came on a Bobby Witt Jr double-play grounder. The bullpen was sharp again, with Evan Godwin retiring both men he faced, Jose Alvarado with a perfect 2K 8th and Jasseel De La Cruz whiffing a pair around a hit in the 9th. No save with the 4-run lead after Lux's 2nd HR, though. Lux is now 293/363/560 after a slow start and is 2nd in the AL in WAR at 3.4.

Team record: 56-23. Next up: An off-day followed by 5(!) games with Kansas City at home. The first of these will be a rainout makeup doubleheader where the Rays will be the road team at the Trop in Game 1, and the series wraps around through Monday.

Also since we're essentially halfway through the season, the next post will be a midseason report card and a look at all of our recently departed Rays to see how they're faring with their new clubs this year.