[Art Deco]

Game 1: In a rematch of last year's ALDS, where Seattle nearly stopped the Rays' World Series before it started as they had to come back from dropping the first two games at home, tonight was another epic battle between these teams. Given how the Rays often struggle with crafty lefty pitchers, the ALDS might have gone another way had the Mariners' ace Marco Gonzales not been out injured. Gonzales is healthy now and he was matched up tonight against Matt Manning, and the two turned in quite the pitchers' duel. The Rays broke through first in the 5th on a Spencer Torkelson homer just instead the LF foul pole, but the Mariners tied it at 1 in the 7th on a Kyle Lewis infield single off Jose Alvarado, who had inherited a couple of runners from Manning, who went 6 4 1 1 2 7 on 108 pitches. Gonzales left in the seventh as well and it became a battle of the bullpens in which the Rays finally prevailed in the 11th inning on a 2-run blast off Chris Bassitt by Alec Bohm, his 9th HR of the season. Jasseel De La Cruz picked up save #8 in the bottom off the 11th, and the surprise winner was Asa Lacy, who pitched the 10th and was chosen over the erratic Will Smith with two of the three batters due being lefties. Alvarado, Nick Anderson and Ian Hamilton had scoreless innings of their own as the bullpen was excellent tonight in a tough win. Boston won Thursday night against Baltimore but were beaten by them tonight so the lead has grown to 9 games.

Game 2: I could just cut and paste the Game 1 recap above and change a few names to describe this game since it was another 3-1 Rays victory in 11 innings. It was Tyler Glasnow vs George Kirby this time instead of Matt Manning vs Marco Gonzalez, and Glasnow went 7 4 1 1 4 8. Yesterday it was a Spencer Torkelson HR for the Rays' run in regulation, today it was Austin Meadows with one. Once again Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson had scoreless innings in relief, but there was a twist in the 10th. Will Smith did come in this time with the lefties up instead of Asa Lacy, and he nearly cost the Rays the game. He got the first out but then Marcus Wilson singled and Evan White doubled him to 3rd. Smith was pulled in favor of Ian Hamilton and both the infield and outfield were drawn in, which paid off when Julio Rodriguez's fly ball was too shallow to score Wilson, and then Hamilton got the very tough Jarred Kelenic to ground out to end the threat. This set the stage for the top of the 11th when Meadows, Rafael Devers and Alec Bohm all singled to load the bases with nobody out off Joey Gerber and then Nick Schnell and Keibert Ruiz delivered sac flies to make it 3-1. Jasseel De La Cruz came in once again for the save and got it, but not without a little drama as he put a couple of runners on. Hamilton got the much-deserved win given his Houdini act in the 10th.

Game 3: For the first five innings it looked like we might be in for a replay of games 1 and 2 of this series as a HR from the ludicrously hot Austin Meadows was the only run on the board for either team as Daniel Lynch dueled with Touki Toussaint. But in the 6th the Rays broke through for 3 runs as Meadows clobbered a 3-0 Toussaint pitch into the RF stands and on the next pitch Rafael Devers followed suit, and the Rays put more runners on and Seth Beer had an RBI single. That was more than enough for Lynch, who repeated his excellent Game 4 outing in last year's ALDS in the same ballpark with a 7 3 0 0 1 7 line on 109 pitches to improve to 7-2, 2.60 on the season. Devers singled Wander home in the 7th, and Wander put the cherry on top with a solo HR in the 9th and the Rays had a 6-0 win, series sweep and concluded a tough road trip 7-2. Meadows (whom I would be shocked if he wasn't player of the week in the AL) and Devers each had 3 hits and Nick Schnell had a pair of doubles to lead a 13-hit attack. Absent from the hit parade was Vidal Brujan, 0-5 again and in a deep 7-for-61 slump, yet they've been winning without his normal on-base contributions. Asa Lacy pitched the final 2 innings with the bullpen exhausted from the previous two nights' extra-inning affairs and allowed only a base hit. After sweeping the Red Sox Baltimore has moved into 2nd, 10 1/2 behind the Rays.

Team record: 40-19. Next up: An off-day tomorrow to further rest the pen and then a homestand begins with 3 against the White Sox.