[Art Deco]

(It's actually 4 games against Minnesota but I can't edit the header)

Game 1: The Rays league-leading offense failed to show up tonight, but until the 7th inning the one run they scored was enough behind Joe Ryan, who after getting the first out in the inning was 6.1 2 0 0 0 11. But he gave up a single to Jorge Polanco and then the inevitable HR to Mitch Garver and Minnesota was up 2-1. Ryan allowed another hit which Will Harris allowed to score on a Hunter Renfroe (remember him?) double, and then Harris put a man on in the 8th that Alvarado allowed to score and the final was 4-1 Twins. The Rays could only manage five hits for the game and of course their one run was courtesy of Brandon Marsh, who walked, stole second and scored on a Wander (who was hitless again) sac fly. Marsh also doubled. Kiermaier also took the collar again as the team has now lost 6 of 7. Toronto finally cut into the lead with a win as it's down to 7 1/2. We still have 12 games to play with against them.

Game 2: When a team is going poorly they find new ways to lose and tonight was an example. Tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the 9th, Brad Hand came on and walked the leadoff hitter Nick Gordon but then Keibert Ruiz threw away Byron Buxton's sacrifice attempt into left field, putting runners and 2nd and 3rd and Andrew Benintendi delivered the game-winning single. In some respects they were fortunate to get to the 9th at 3-3 since the offense was largely quiet with only 4 hits on the night. Brujan doubled to lead off the game and came around to score on a Ruiz groundout and then in the 4th, a pair of walks and a Kepler single loaded the bases for Abraham Toro, who doubled in 2 with Kepler thrown out at the plate by his counterpart Hunter Renfroe. And that was it for the offense. In fact Tyler Duffey, who came on to pitch the final 2 2/3, struck out 6 consecutive Rays at one point and the team fanned 13 times for the night. Blake Snell started and was OK (6 8 3 3 1 5) but yielded HRs to Benintendi and Addison Russell. And Toronto won again so they've cut 2 1/2 games off the lead to get it down to 6 1/2 now.

July 16: Traded 27-year-old minor league starting pitcher A.J. Puk and 24-year-old minor league second baseman Nick Sogard to the Texas Rangers, getting 28-year-old right fielder Joey Gallo, retaining 80% in return. Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with a back bruise.

Just grabbed the biggest prize on the rental market for a fairly modest cost. Don't need to reiterate my feelings on Puk although with his stuff he could still repeat his 2021 and be a pretty good pitcher. Sogard is a C+ prospect at a position that's way overcovered in the organization (Brujan/Edwards/G.Jones), and it's only costing us about $1.1M in salary since Texas retained 80%. So basically an offer I couldn't refuse. Gallo of course is kind of the antithesis of the offense as currently constructed (low average, strikes out, big power) but still gets on base at a .350-.370 clip and provides a massive infusion of power. Ultimately he's taking over for Ji-Man at 1B down the stretch but for now I kick that can down the road by putting Marsh on the IL. Although I probably didn't have to put him on the IL, I'll err on the side of caution and with the all-star break coming up he'll only miss 6 games instead of 10 so Gallo will play LF for now. Going to see how the trade market develops over these last two weeks but Ji-Man will likely be moved.

Game 3: The rot continues as they drop their eighth in nine games, this time 6-3. McKay was terrible again, walking two and giving up a 3-run HR to Mitch Garver in the first and then allowing a 2-run HR to Royce Lewis in the 2nd. He settled down from there, pitching 3 2/3 scoreless but the damage was done, and 3 guesses as to who goes fifth in the rotation after the break. Meanwhile the offense stunk again although Joey Gallo in his Rays debut wasn't to blame as he had an RBI single in the 1st and drew a walk in his 4 plate appearances. No, it was the usual suspects like Wander (0-4 again, I've never seen anyone with such a rollercoaster season and I've been managing Ji-Man Choi), Ji-Man (0-3), Kiermaier and Nelson Cruz. As for those latter two, Kiermaier did actually get a base hit in the 7th, and Cruz hit a 2-run HR in the 9th to make the final margin what it was but they all have snowflakes next to their names. Any team that lets the immortal Jaime Barria 3-hit them over 7 innings is slumping. Boston did us a favor and beat the Jays so things could have been worse, although Seattle won today giving them the best record in the AL (60-36 vs the Rays' 59-36) meaning if the season ended today the Rays would play these same Twins in the first round.

Game 4: This game had all the hallmarks of another Rays loss. Early HR allowed by starting pitcher? Check. Defensive mistake leads to unearned run? Check. Offense can't hit its way out of a paper bag? Check. All of this was true through 5 innings at Target Field after Max Fried allowed a 2-run first inning HR to Miguel Sano (you didn't think we'd get out of a 4-game series with Minnesota without him hitting one, did you?) and a solo shot to Jorge Polanco to go with a run scoring after an Alec Bohm error at 3B as he filled in for the slumping Toro. So it was 4-1 Twins after 5 and it was going to be 9 losses in 10 games. But (the) sixth happened. Joey Gallo led off with a double, Nelson Cruz singled him to 3rd, Ji-Man doubled Gallo home sending Cruz to 3rd, Bohm walked, Yusniel Diaz (playing for Kepler) singled to score Cruz to make it 4-3, but then Ronaldo flied to shallow left and the runners had to hold, and Kiermaier hit into a force at the plate. But just when it looked like the Rays would squander the opportunity to take the lead, Vidal Brujan doubled into the RCF gap to clear the bases and give the Rays a 6-4 lead. With Fried having to leave after five having thrown 106 pitches, the question was to how to get the bullpen big 3 through 4 innings. With two lefties due up in the 6th, Alvarado got the first call and despite allowing a couple of hits, made it through. With three straight righties looming in the 7th, Nick Anderson came on and got the job done, and with 4 days off looming Nick pitched a second inning and was perfect there too (he only threw 25 pitches total) so that left it to Hand, who if he allowed a baserunner would face Sano as at least the tying run at the plate. Well sure enough he walked Royce Lewis on 4 pitches to lead off the inning, but then he struck out a pair of tough hitters in Benintendi and Polanco, setting up the confrontation with Sano with the game on the line. Hand proceeded to strike Sano out to strike out the side and get his 20th save. Fried hung in there through 5 to earn his 10th win with a Dyatlov-esque ("not great, not terrible") 5 7 4 3 2 6 line. The win was critical because Toronto prevailed as well (as did the Yankees who are now only 9 back).

Jesus Luzardo of the A's pitched the best game of the season so far with a 9 1 0 0 0 16 shutout of the Giants for a Game Score of 101. Granted the Giants are one of the worst offenses in MLB, but still quite a performance.

Team record: 60-36.