[Art Deco]

First of all, we had an off day on the 15th and then on the 16th the game was rained out so there's a doubleheader on the 17th. Over those two days of inaction, the Jays split a pair of games with KC.

Game 1: With the ball flying out of Yankee Stadium, the Yankees out-homered the Rays 6-5 but the Rays outscored them 14-6 to make it 11 wins in a row. It was effectively over in an 8-run first for the Rays which saw Gallo hit a 3-run shot, Kepler with a 2-run homer, and Vidal Brujan in his second at-bat of the inning went deep for 3 more. From there on out, it was basically a matter of accounting: Gallo (now with 11 HR in 75 AB as a Ray) and Wander also went deep and Wander also had a 3-run double to now give him 102 RBI on the season. All of this run support was given to Chris Paddack, who allowed 4 HR in 6 innings but as you can tell from the final score, they were all solo shots and he ended with a not-bad 6 6 4 4 2 7 line to go 3-0 in 3 starts as a Ray. Gary Sanchez had 3 of those 6 Yankee solo HRs with Judge, Urshela and Stanton bashing the others. Brujan ended up 4-5 with 4 RBI and a walk in an outstanding day (or half-day, there's another game to be played).

August 17: Optioned P Dany Jimenez to AAA Durham, recalled P Josiah Gray from AAA Durham. Reverse move made after Game 2.

Since OOTP does not allow for the extra player in a doubleheader I sent Jimenez, who pitched the 9th in Game 1, down and not wanting to get the rotation out of whack I called up Gray to start Game 2 in what should be a baptism by fire given the ballpark and the opponent. He was up briefly earlier this year and pitched 1/3 of an inning in a game and is having a fine season at Durham (which by the way is 77-44 themselves, with a 10-game lead in the IL).

Game 2: Once again the Yankees hit 6 HRs and once again the Rays won, sweeping the doubleheader and extending the win streak to 12 games with an 11-8 win. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no MLB team has ever hit 12 HRs in a doubleheader and was still swept. Josiah Gray got his first MLB win, but man it was ugly. He was up 7-3 going into the bottom of the 5th, and trying to get him through the inning he allowed 3 homers and ended with a 5 7 7 7 3 3 line on 94 pitches as the Yankees tied it up. But of course the Rays got 3 more in the 6th to go back in front to stay, so Gray got the win. Wander was 4-5 with 2 RBI, giving him 6 RBI for the day, Gallo had a 2-run HR in that decisive 6th inning, Josh Bell had a 2-run HR in the 5th, and Whit Merrifield, starting at DH for the first time this year, had a solo shot for the Rays' final run. Will Harris gave up a HR in his 2 innings to make it 11-8, so Alvarado pitched a scoreless 8th with 2 Ks, and with all righties due up in the 9th I tried to get Gio Gallegos his first Rays save but with 2 out and 2 on, he hurt his ankle (DtD for 2 days) and Brad Hand came on to whiff Miguel Andujar for save #24. Regression is coming for Ronaldo Hernandez as predicted - he was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts today. This game also marked the sixth straight in which the Rays scored at least 10 runs. Magic # down to 31, and they only need to go 22-20 the rest of the way to win 100 games for the first time in franchise history.

Game 3: The winning streak reached a baker's dozen today with a 9-2 drubbing of the Yankees. Blake Snell was brilliant, going 7 3 2 2 2 10, his only blemish a Stanton 2-run HR in the 6th as he improved to 8-5. For quite a while this resembled an old-time baseball game with the score only 2-0 Rays after 5 innings. The first run came when Brujan reached on an error, stole second and then scored on two wild pitches and in the 5th Wander doubled in Abe Toro. But the Rays had a big inning in the 6th as Brandon Marsh took over. He had a 2-run double following a Kepler RBI double and then scored himself on a Wander single (RBI #106) and then in the 7th he drilled a 3-run shot over the short porch in right off Trevor Bauer, demoted to relief with a 7.42 ERA. Marsh's 304/407/588 has turned to be a pretty good facsimile of Meadows these last couple of months. It's a testament to the depth of this offense that Gallo and Bell each had 0-fers today and they still scored 9, although the 10+ run streak is over. The Jays won (more important to their wild card hopes) so the magic # is 30, and in other big MLB news Minnesota's ace Jose Berrios tore his rotator cuff and is done for the year, a significant development as the Rays may play the Twins in the playoffs although for the moment they have regained the #1 seed and would be matched up against the wild card game winner.

Team record: 79-42.