First off, some weekly honors:
Game 1: The offensive funk continues as this time even Meadows couldn't get the offense going as they fell 2-0 at Miami. Chris Paddack and Braxton Garrett were hooked up in a duel, and Paddack blinked first in the 8th inning when he gave up a 2-run HR to Cedric Mullins. The Rays had a few opportunities with multiple baserunners but couldn't get the big hit when they needed it; of course they only had 5 for the night, 2 of them from Alec Bohm. Paddack had a complete game, going 8 4 2 2 3 8, but unlike where that would normally be enough to win, given his 16-1 all-time record as a Ray (well now 16-2) today it wasn't. Baltimore won yesterday while the Rays were off but lost today, so the lead is 6 1/2.
Game 2: Another pathetic performance in South Florida as the Rays were thumped by the Marlins 7-1. They actually took a 1-0 in the 3rd on a Kepler triple and a Marsh double leading off the inning, but after Max Fried bunted Marsh over the inability to get him home should have been an omen, and in the bottom of the inning Fried served up a 2-run HR to lefty hitter Dominic Smith. 2-1 is where we stayed until the bottom of the 6th when former Ray Travis d'Arnaud hit his own 2-run HR to make it 4-1, and then Scott Barlow shat the bed in the 7th putting three on with one scoring and Shane McClanahan gave up a double allowing the other two Barlow runners to score and the game was out of hand. The offense that couldn't be stopped now only has 3 runs in its last 3 games combined and the team is now 5-9 since starting 25-4. Fortunately the Yankees, our next opponent in a trip to the Bronx, handled Baltimore so we're still up 6 1/2.
Team record: 30-13.