[Art Deco]

Game 1: Some sloppy play cost the Rays in a 5-4 loss in Texas, a loss which wasted a great performance from Austin Meadows. The Rays RF hit two solo homers and tripled, but some shaky infield defense and a mediocre start from Daniel Lynch contributed to their downfall. It started in the second when Lynch got the first two out but Wander Franco booted a grounder, and then Danny Santana took Lynch deep to make it 2-0. After Lynch gave up another run in the 3rd the Rays came back to tie it on Meadows' first HR in the 4th and a Spencer Torkelson triple in the 5th which drove in Keston Hiura and then Torkelson scored on a Brandon Marsh double. This all happened with nobody out but they couldn't get Marsh in from 2nd. Then Lynch was tagged in the sixth for a run after giving up 3 hits and leaving with runners on first and third with one out. Mitch Keller came on with the idea of getting the strikeout, which he did, but in the pitch sequence leading up to it he threw a wild pitch, making it 5-3. Meadows homered again to cut it to 5-4 but the Rays couldn't push across a run in the 8th or 9th and fell to defeat. Lynch went 5.1 8 5 3 2 1 in his first slack performance in a while. The White Sox beat Boston so the 6 1/2 game lead remains intact.

Game 2: The Rays did just enough to eke out a 4-3 win behind the strong pitching of Dustin May. After giving up a Lewin Diaz RBI double in the first, May shut it down from there, going 7 6 1 1 1 7 to improve to 6-2, 2.93. Meanwhile the offense scraped out enough runs. Nick Schnell's RBI double in the 2nd tied the game, Wander's 3rd inning double put them in front, and Alec Bohm drilled HR #8 with Rafael Devers aboard to make it 4-1. With a couple of lefties up in the 8th and Alvarado still tired, Will Smith was entrusted to a high-leverage situation and failed, giving up a single to Josh Jung and then a HR to lefty-hitting Matt Thaiss which cut the lead to 4-3. Smith had to stay in for one more batter, the tough lefty Diaz, but got him out. Nick Anderson took over and after a walk he struck out a pair, and Jasseel De La Cruz had another 1-2-3 ninth to get save #7. Elsewhere the Red Sox were destroyed 13-0 by the White Sox, including a pair of HRs from Jason Heyward who was playing for Durham in April before wisely opting out of his minor league deal. As a result the lead now grows to 7 1/2.

Game 3: The Rays won another road series with a 9-1 thrashing of the Rangers behind a dominant Walker Buehler performance and a 4-hit day from Spencer Torkelson. Buehler was never in trouble, save for the 7th inning when he gave up a run on a couple of hits, going 8 4 1 1 0 8. Meanwhile the offense jumped all over Nick Neidert, getting 2 in the first, 2 in the second and 3 in the fourth and never looked back. Vidal Brujan, Austin Meadows and Brandon Marsh were all shown as fatigued, so it was an interesting lineup as while Keston Hiura simply plugged in for Brujan, the outfield was quite makeshift with Nick Schnell moving to center, Torkelson in right and Seth Beer of all people in left with Triston Casas DHing. It didn't matter as they banged out 18 hits. Hiura got things rolling in the first by singling, stealing second, going to third on a Wander single and scoring on a Schnell fielder's choice, and then Alec Bohm had an RBI double. In the 2nd, Keibert Ruiz (dropped to 8th in the lineup) got the first of his three hits ahead of Torkelson who's probably never hit 9th before but didn't care as he belted one into the LF seats to make it 4-0. Wander had a 2-RBI double and Devers had the first of his 3 doubles for an RBI to make it 7-0 in the 4th and Hiura had a 2-run single in the 7th. Boston was swept by the White Sox so the lead grows to a healthy 8 1/2 games.

Team record: 37-19. Next up: an off-day, followed by an ALDS rematch weekend series in Seattle.