[Art Deco]

April 7: Placed P Tyler Glasnow (tired arm) on the 15-day IL, recalled P Drew Strotman from AAA Durham.

Strotman gets the call for now, although as mentioned earlier Schmidt will probably start in Chicago.

Game 1: It was a date in San Francisco with our old friend Ryan Yarbrough, who hasn't had that much success with the Giants but pitched very well in his opening start this year. And pitch well did Yarbrough for the first 6 innings, holding the Rays to 1 hit and 1 walk while the Giants scored twice against Chris Paddack, who was looking like a tough-luck loser after a good 6 5 2 2 2 6 outing. But the Rays exploded in the 7th off Yarbrough. Devers singled, and after a Meadows fielder's choice, Keibert singled, Bohm singled to load the bases, and Yarbrough then walked Yusniel Diaz forcing a run. Brandon Marsh then ripped a 2-run double to put the Rays ahead, and pinch-hitter Rylan Bannon followed with his first Rays hit, a 2-run double to make it 5-2 and Devers, batting for the second time in the inning, had a sac fly to make it 6-2. Alvarado and Barlow threw scoreless innings while a Meadows (now 1 for 27) ground out made it 7-2 in the 9th. With a 5-run lead Dany Jimenez came in and crapped the bed, loading the bases with nobody out. With lefties due up, closer Will Smith came in and promptly gave up two hits, allowing all of Jimenez's runners to score, but he got the final 3 outs for another shaky save, #3, as the Rays go to 7-1 with the 7-5 win. Paddack hung around long enough for the win to resume his winning Rays ways. The Yankees were idle so the lead is up to 2 1/2.

Game 2: The Rays are obviously still on Eastern Time as they sleepwalked through another 5 innings and just like yesterday they were down 2-0. Wander doubled in Brandon Marsh in the 6th to get the Rays on the board and they broke through for good in the 8th when Ronaldo Hernandez led off with a single, Marsh singled, a Keibert Ruiz fly ball sent pinch-runner Yusniel Diaz to 3rd, and then Brujan singled in Diaz, Wander singled to load the bases, and Austin Meadows (moved back into the 3rd spot to try and get him going) delivered a sac fly to put the Rays ahead 3-2. In his second appearance of the season, Nick Anderson had a perfect 8th with a K, and then Will Smith delivered another shaky but less shaky than previous appearances save as he worked around a Mikie Mahtook double to get #4 in 4 tries and the Rays won their sixth straight to go to 8-1. Aaron Ashby picked up his first Rays win as he had finished the 7th in relief of Austin Franklin who was impressive again, striking out 3 in 1 1/3 scoreless. Max Fried started and had another bend-but-don't-break line of 5 5 2 2 3 2. Yankees won so the lead is still 2 1/2.

Game 3: Well today it only took them until the fourth to score, when Alex Kirilloff got his first MLB hit, an RBI single, and Vidal Brujan walked with the bases loaded to give the Rays an early 2-0 lead. Javy Baez got one right back with a HR off Joe Ryan but through 6 innings that was the only baserunner Ryan had allowed as he took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 7th. But Luis Guillorme (7 HR all of last year) took Ryan deep leading off the inning to tie it, and although he got the next out, he gave up a single and double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Enter Jose Alvarado, and for once Jose didn't have it, giving up a pair of hits to allow the two runners to score and put the Giants up 4-2. From there the offense could get nothing going, only managing a single hit over the last 3 1/3 against the San Francisco pen, and their six-game winning streak came to an abrupt end at 4-2 as the offense managed only 5 hits on the day. Ryan of course took the loss and ended up with 4 runs against his ledger on 4 hits with 0 walks and 8 Ks. Shane McClanahan pitched a nice 8th inning fanning a pair, while Kirilloff had a nice day with 2 walks in addition to that RBI single. The Orioles pounded the Yankees and Corey Kluber 8-1 so the lead remains 2 1/2.

Team record: 8-2.