[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays drop another one with Meadows out but this one can be blamed on the pitching, not the offense, as they fell 9-8 in 10 innings. The Rays got 3 in the first, but Max Fried gave those 3 back in the 2nd only for the Rays to re-take the lead 5-3 in the 4th, including Josh Lowe's first major league HR, and chase Shoei Ohtani. But Fried couldn't stand prosperity again and let the Angels get 3 in the 5th, and then even Shane McClanahan proved he was human by allowing 2 more in the 6th and the Rays were down 8-5. Daniel Norris had come in for Ohtani and did the usual "lefty bedeviling the Rays offense" thing but the Rays put on a huge rally in the 9th off Norris to start and then Ty Buttrey, with Wander delivering a 2-run double and Ji-Man's sac fly tying the game. Nick Anderson got the Angels in the 9th and with three lefties due up bottom 10 and Alvarado tired, Brad Hand came in for the first time this year in a non-save situation, allowed a leadoff single and wild pitched him to second and then allowed a single by lefty Austin Allen (4-5 facing lefties all night) to score the game-winner. Brandon Marsh and Keibert Ruiz each had 3 hits to lead the Rays offense. Jays won to cut the lead to 3.

Game 2: This game started as a carbon copy of last night's as the Rays took a 4-0 lead in the top of the 3rd keyed by a 3-run Nelson Cruz homer, only for Zack Greinke to give it right back in the bottom of the inning with 5 runs against. The Rays tied it in the 5th when Merrifield (who had 3 hits for the night) led off with a double and came around to score on a Wander sac fly. But in the bottom of the 6th Greinke ran into trouble again, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Austin Adams came on and got a big strikeout and then a ground out, and in the top of the 7th Keibert Ruiz singled in a run to put the Rays up 6-5. Alvarado got through the 7th despite allowing a leadoff double, and in the 8th the Rays broke it open on a Brujan RBI double and a 2-run blast by Brandon Marsh against his old team. And in the 9th they broke it open even further with a 2-run HR by Wander and Cruz's 2nd of the game, a solo shot, to make the final score 12-5. Adams got the deserved win after cleaning up Greinke's mess. It's encouraging to see the offense put up 20 runs the last two nights without Meadows, but the starting pitching remains frustratingly inconsistent. Tyler Glasnow will get his shot tomorrow. Meanwhile yes the Jays won again, still a 3-game lead.

May 21: Activated P Tyler Glasnow from his rehab assignment, optioned P Shane McClanahan to AAA Durham.

Someone had to go down, and McClanahan was the choice despite showing he can pitch at the major league level. The addition of Britton gave me a third lefty in the pen and Yonny will become (probably along with Ryan) the long man.

Game 3: Welcome back, Tyler Glasnow! In his first MLB appearance this season, the power righty shut out the Angels over 7 innings, going 7 6 0 0 1 8. He was really only in trouble in the second when he loaded the bases, but got out of it. On any other night the big talk of tonight's game would be Ronaldo Hernandez, who just keeps producing every time he gets a start. Tonight he smacked a pair of 2-run homers (giving him 8 in 48 AB and a cool .958 slugging %), the first to put the Rays on the board in the 3rd and the second part of a 3-run 4th inning as the Rays cruised to a 10-0 win. And on a night when Glasnow and Hernandez hadn't stood out the big news would be the return of Max Kepler to the lineup who doubled and had a 3-run HR, both off lefties, giving him 43 RBI in 38 games. Vidal Brujan had 3 hits, Yusniel Diaz was 2-3 with an RBI and a walk, and even Alec Bohm, the forgotten man on the bench, had 2 hits and an RBI spelling Ji-Man against a lefty. And the Jays were pounded 10-3 at home by Oakland (with a HR from old buddy Kyle Schwarber) so the lead is back to 4.

Game 4: There are ways to lose, and there are ways to lose like the Rays did today, on a walk-off wild pitch. The game was a pretty good pitcher's duel between Joe Ryan and Griffin Canning with Ohtani homering off Ryan in the 4th to give LA a 1-0 lead which was immediately erased in the top of the 5th on an Alec Bohm RBI double. We stayed that way until the 7th when Ji-Man took Canning deep for his 5th of the year to give the Rays a lead, but Jake Cave homered off Ryan in the bottom of the inning to tie it at 2. In a fine outing overall, Ryan ended 7 4 2 2 0 7, Austin Adams got two outs in the eighth but put a man on, Alvarado put another one then got out of the inning and in the bottom of the 9th Alvarado walked Jo Adell with one out, and after Zack Britton came on Adell stole second. He intentionally walked Justin Upton to put men on 1st and 2nd and then got the ground ball he was looking for but the Rays could not turn two and Adell advanced to third where Britton wild-pitched him home and they ended up with a split of this series. The run was charged to Alvarado, the first he's allowed all season. Wander was 0-4 as his slump continues and his BA drops to .267. Toronto blasted Oakland to pull back within 3.

Team record: 34-11.