[Art Deco]

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

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

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

July 16-18 vs Minnesota (3)

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

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

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

Team record: 63-37

July 19-21 vs Boston (3)

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

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

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

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

Team record: 65-38.

Tampa Bay Rays, Tradepalooza edition:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 23-25 at Texas (3)

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

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

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

Team record: 66-40.

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

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

July 26-28 at Houston (3).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Team record: 67-42

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

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

July 30-August 1 vs Toronto (3)

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

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

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

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

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

Team record: 68-44.