[Art Deco]

Game 1: The streak is over. Coming into the game my fear was that Joe Ryan would get beat with HRs, and sure enough that's what happened. He really pitched well, except for two pitches to onetime Rays farmhand Derek Dietrich, and that's what did in him and the Rays in a 5-4 loss. The Rays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first off Kantaro Yokoyama as Brujan walked, went to 2nd on a wild pitch, to 3rd on a Wander single and scored on a Keibert sac fly. Ryan was striking guys out as usual, but in the bottom of the 2nd he walked Nolan Jones ahead of Dietrich, who took him into LF stands for a 2-1 Cleveland lead. The Rays regained the lead in the 4th on a 2-run blast from Nelson Cruz, his 34th of the season, but in the bottom of the fourth Jose Ramirez doubled, Jones walked again, and with two out Dietrich took Ryan deep once again to make it 5-3. The two Dietrich homers and Ramirez's double were the only hits Cleveland had all night (and the 2 walks to Jones were the only ones Ryan allowed), and Ryan struck out 10 in his 5 innings but the sequencing did him in. The Rays got a run back in the 6th when Wander and Bell singled and with two out Cruz singled home Wander, but that was all they would get against Yokoyama, who pitched a pretty good game against them all things considered, going 8 8 4 4 2 6. In the 9th, pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh singled after Cleveland closer James Karinchak struck out the first two but then Toro whiffed to end the game and the streak. The Rays will just have to console themselves with the all-time AL streak instead of the all-time MLB streak. Joey Gallo was back in the lineup after missing five days with knee soreness and went 1-4. Toronto won so for the first time in nearly a month on a day the Rays played they didn't reduce their magic number.

Game 2: Normal service resumed at Progressive Field tonight with a 6-3 Rays win. Josh Bell was the star, hitting 2-run HRs in the 1st and 3rd innings off Logan Allen to back a shakier-than-usual Chris Paddack, who still went to 5-0 as a Ray and 15-6 overall. Paddack was in trouble throughout, bailed out in the 1st when Yusniel Diaz threw out Oscar Mercado at the plate, and getting a caught stealing from Ronaldo Hernandez. His line was 6 8 3 3 3 4 which gives you an idea of how many baserunners he had to deal with. Still it was enough, Gallo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 7th for the 5th run, and old pal Diego Castillo wild-pitched in a run in the 9th. The troika did their jobs, Alvarado going 1 1/3 with a lefty leading off the 8th (whom he struck out) and Anderson getting the last two outs after hitting the first batter he saw with a pitch (after three straight walks to end his last appearance). Hand wasn't that sharp in the ninth, allowing a Jonah Heim double, a walk to Jose Ramirez with two out and then getting a diving catch from Brandon Marsh in center off a liner from Francisco Lindor to end the game and get save #30. The Jays won so the magic # drops to 13.

MLB note: The Washington Nationals tied the MLB record for most HRs in a game by one team by hitting 10 tonight in a 15-4 win over Milwaukee. This tied the record set by the Toronto Blue Jays on September 14, 1987. Trea Turner, DJ LeMahieu, and rookie callup in his 2nd game Drew Mendoza each had a pair.

Game 3: All the elements were there for a win until they weren't, and the Rays had an ugly eighth inning to give Cleveland a 5-4 win. Keibert got things off to a great start after Brujan and Wander singled by hitting a 3-run HR the opposite way in the 1st off Shane Bieber. Blake Snell was dealing again and although he gave up an RBI double to Lindor in the 4th he was up 3-1 going to the bottom of the 6th. After getting the first two outs he gave a double to Jose Ramirez, and then Lindor singled him home to make it 3-2. After a Nolan Jones single, Dany Jimenez came on (the troika was in need of rest tonight), and gave up a double to Christian Arroyo to tie it. But no matter, Wander led off the top of the 7th with a HR, his third hit of the day, and the Rays were back in front 4-3. Will Harris pitched a 1-2-3 7th, and then the wheels came off in the eighth. Harris started the inning, and gave up an infield hit to Ramirez, Franco booted a Lindor grounder that could have been a DP, and then Jones managed an infield single to load the bases with nobody out. Gio Gallegos came on and got Bobby Bradley to ground to Toro at 3B but he too booted the ball, allowing the tying run to score. After a forceout at the plate, Travis D'Arnaud hit a sac fly to score the winning run, and the Rays couldn't touch James Karinchak again in the 9th despite his 6 ERA and they lost a series for the first time since July. Brujan also had 3 hits for the Rays but the big two of Gallo and Bell were 0-9 while Cleveland's big 2 of Ramirez and Lindor reached 5 times in 8 plate appearances. The HRs for Wander and Keibert were each their 25th of the season. Toronto completed a sweep of Miami so the magic # stays at 13. The Rays head north of the border to play the Jays in a 3-game series starting tomorrow so we'll see if they can cut into that number.

Team record: 95-44.

MLB note: In that Toronto win, Vlad Jr. had 2 HR and 5 RBI, currently giving him the AL Triple Crown. He's running away with BA, at an amazing .386, 54 points higher than Lindor. He has 46 HR which is tied with Gleyber Torres, and his 122 RBI are 3 more than Lindor (and 7 more than Wander, who's 3rd in the league). His 9.0 WAR also leads MLB at the moment.