[Art Deco]

Ack! that should read at Baltimore (3), wish there was a way to edit the header.

May 5: Placed Alex Kirilloff on the 60-day IL with a ruptured finger tendon, recalled P Drew Strotman from AAA Durham.

Strotman comes up now as we need a fresh arm. I have 2 40-man roster spots open now with Gallegos also on the 60-day, so I'm going to mull over who to bring up as the 13th bat over the next few days, it's possible it could be a free agent infielder, or perhaps someone from Durham.

Game 1: Well this was not what we expected from a game at Camden Yards: a pitchers' duel. Grayson Rodriguez, the typically wild but hard throwing Orioles starter, somehow managed to go 8 innings and only walk 2 and strike out 2, while Max Fried held the Orioles largely in check and we went 2-2 to the bottom of the 8th. With Fried at 107 pitches, Nick Anderson came on and promptly gave up a Renato Nunez single and an Austin Hays HR and Baltimore took a 4-2 win to pull within 8 games. The Rays got 2 men on against Orioles closer Jairo Diaz in the 9th with one out but Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh each hit line drives right at Nunez at 1B to end the game. The offense continues in its mini-slump, only managing 5 hits on the night and two were of the infield variety. Seth Beer hit HR #5 to tie it in the 7th after Brujan's RBI single had tied it at 1 in the 5th. Fried, who went 7 7 2 2 3 6, gave up a pair of Adley Rutschman RBI singles for Baltimore's first 2 runs.

Game 2: Now this was the Camden Yards slugfest I was promised. Unfortunately the Rays came out on the short end of it, 11-8, as Joe Ryan served up 3 HRs, Shane McClanahan a pair and Dany Jimenez one. It was a back-and-forth game with the Rays taking 5-2 and 8-6 leads thanks to 2 HRs from Austin Meadows, one from Wander and one from Marsh, but Rays pitchers kept giving 'em back. Austin Hays, who homered to win last night's game in the 8th, homered in his first two plate appearances to get the Oriole offense going early, Anthony Santander hit a pair including the winner against McClanahan, and Rio Ruiz didn't care about the lefty-on-lefty matchup with McClanahan either as his 2-run HR tied it at 8 in the 7th. Shane has really struggled lately with his ERA up to 8.79, so he'll be used in low-leverage situations for a while. Vidal Brujan was 3-4 with a steal. The fourth loss in five games sees their lead cut to 7 as the O's appear to be for real this year, at least with the bats. Here's hoping Noah Syndergaard puts an end to the nonsense tomorrow.

Game 3: The final was 6-0 with Noah Syndergaard on the mound so it sounds like a Rays win, right? Nope. Caleb Smith, who has given us fits in the past, did it again going 7.2 6 0 0 0 6 (albeit against a makeshift lineup, more on that in a moment), while Thor uncharacteristically walked 2 in the 2nd leading to 2 Orioles runs, and then served up 3 HRs in the middle innings as his ERA balloons to 4.20 after his second straight subpar performance. Injury was added to insult when Rafael Devers tweaked a hamstring and had to leave after doubling in the 2nd, he'll have to miss a couple of days. Also Austin Meadows and Vidal Brujan had to sit as they were tired (so was Devers, but I was down a hitter so he played and got hurt), which meant lefties like Beer and Kepler had to end up playing when they wouldn't have. The only positive from Syndergaard's outing was that he went 7 and Drew Strotman (on the express back to Durham) pitched the 8th so the bullpen got some rest for the next series. But suddenly Baltimore is now only 6 back and the Rays have hit their first extended patch of adversity, with only an extra-inning win in KC keeping them from having lost 6 straight. I'm sorry I said anything about boredom a week ago when they swept Boston.

Team record: 26-9.