[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was mostly a laugher for the Rays as they took a 9-0 lead on Seattle while Max Fried had a perfect game through 6 1/3 innings. But former Ray turned All-Star Mike Brosseau broke it up with a single up the middle, and the next batter Jarred Kelenic ended the shutout bid with a 2-run HR. Fried came out with a 7 2 2 2 0 9 line on 104 pitches, and then the back half of the bullpen as always made things dicey. Scott Barlow allowed his obligatory run pitching the 8th inning, and then Ty Buttrey, who until now had been great as a Ray, got into all kinds of trouble in the 9th, nearly bringing the tying run to the plate as he escaped allowing 2 runs and the Rays held on 9-5. Alec Bohm had a huge game, as his double in the 2nd off Justus Sheffield got Rafael Devers to 3rd where he scored on a Yusniel Diaz groundout, and then in the 4th after Meadows and Devers singled and Keibert walked, Bohm unloaded a grand slam into the LF bleachers to make it 5-0, his team-leading 29th HR. That chased Sheffield, then the Rays added 4 more in the 5th on a Meadows sac fly, a Keibert RBI double, Bohm's groundout and then a Yusniel RBI single. Fried was masterful tonight as he improves to 11-4, 3.52.

Game 2: The Seattle Mariners learned a valuable lesson tonight: don't disrespect Alec Bohm. With the game tied at 3 in the top of the 8th, Austin Meadows singled and went to second on a Devers groundout. With first base open, Seattle chose to intentionally walk Keibert Ruiz and pitch to Bohm, who made them pay with a 3-run HR for #30 of the season. You'd think the grand slam he hit the night before and the game-winning HR he hit earlier in the week would have registered with them, but no (incidentally, Bohm is looking like the frontrunner for AL player of the week). That 3-run shot was the difference in a 6-3 Rays win, one that saw Daniel Lynch make his best start in weeks. He was cruising along with a 3-hit shutout up 3-0 into the 7th, but walked Evan White, and then Bohm made a bad throw to Lynch covering first on Daulton Varsho's ground ball. Up stepped Eugenio Suarez, who then took Lynch deep to tie the game. Still, he ended with a nice 6.2 5 3 2 1 7 line and Nick Anderson got him out of the inning. Anderson stayed on and got through the 8th and picked up his 3rd win of the season thanks to the Bohm bomb, and Will Smith went 1-2-3 in the 9th to go 25-for-25 in saves. The Rays had gotten out to their 3-0 lead on Brandon Marsh's 20th HR of the season in the 3rd, a Schnell sac fly in the 4th, and a Devers RBI double in the 5th.

Game 3: It was one of those days for the Rays as they fell 12-5 to Seattle, and it wasn't even that close as they scored 4 times with 2 out in the 9th. Tyler Glasnow wasn't his best, although TJ McFarland made his 5.2 10 7 7 1 5 line uglier than it should have been, allowing a pair of inherited runners to score. Jarred Kelenic was a one-man wrecking crew today, going 4-4 with a walk, a HR and 4 RBI, and Mike Brosseau blasted a 3-run HR off the struggling Shane McClanahan in the 8th to make the rubble bounce. Only Ty Buttrey, with a perfect 7th, could hold his head up among Rays pitchers today. The offense was moribund against Seattle follower Marcos Diplan, who came into the game with an 8.64 ERA, going 6 5 1 1 2 6 against him. An Alec Bohm sac fly in the third briefly got the Rays within 2-1, but they did nothing until Mike Montgomery gave up back-to-back HRs to Brujan (#9, a 3-run shot), and Wander (#28), who broke out of a mini-slump with 3 hits today. Nick Schnell continues to get on base (.443 OBP) with a double and a hit-by-pitch today and scored twice.

Team record: 86-33. Magic number: 21.