[Art Deco]

Game 1: A bad loss against a bad team as the Rays fell to Cincinnati 8-4 at the Trop, making it 6 losses in the last 8 games at home. Matt Manning didn't have it tonight, going 5.1 10 5 4 0 3 and putting the team in an early hole. Not that it would have made a difference as the Rays couldn't get much going against Jared Solomon and his 5.89 ERA coming into the game. They only managed 2 runs and 5 hits off him in 6 2/3 innings, with a couple of sac flies bringing home the runs. Asa Lacy came on in relief of Manning and wasn't as sharp as his last 2 appearances, allowing 3 runs before Sandy Gaston had to get through the rest of the game, striking out 3 in 1 2/3 innings and lowering his ERA to 0.92 although he's 0-2 in high-leverage situations. Wander (#13) and Nick Schnell (#8) had late solo HRs for the Rays in the too little, too late department. Really not sure what to make of this year's team, it seems the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Luckily for them they're in a lousy division as Baltimore lost and Boston won so both are 3 games below .500 and 11 behind.

Game 2: This was more like what we expected with Cincinnati in town, an 8-2 win. Tyler Glasnow put in his day at the office, going 7 6 2 2 2 8 and only really in trouble in the 5th when he gave up a pair of RBI doubles to allow the Reds to tie it at 2 after Nick Schnell had hit a 2-run HR in the 2nd off Matt Shoemaker. But the Rays answered right back in the bottom of the 5th on doubles by Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco, and then Rafael Devers singled in Wander. And they added 2 more in the 6th on Schnell's 2nd HR of the game (#10) and 3rd in 2 days and a Wander RBI single, and then 2 more in the 7th on Rafael Devers' 8th HR of the season and a Spencer Torkelson RBI single. Scott Barlow pitched a scoreless 8th and Will Smith struck out the side in the 9th. Glasnow goes to 8-2, 3.49 with 120 Ks in 95 1/3 innings, which leads the AL as does his pitcher WAR of 2.7.

Special Wander update: Tonight Wander had yet another 3-hit game. On May 26 he went 0-4 to drop his average to .278. Since then he's gone 44-111 (.396) with 7 HR & 22 RBI to raise his average to .329. He's also had at least 2 hits in 10 of his last 11 games with the lone exception being an anomalous 4-strikeout 0-4 game the other day in Detroit when Shane Baz got him 3 times. Outside of that game, he's only struck out *5* times in that 111-AB stretch.

Game 3: Another series lost at home as the Rays put up a listless performance in a 6-0 loss to Cincinnati. Nick Lodolo, a good young pitcher but one who was off to a terrible start this year with an 8.08 ERA coming in, held them to 3 hits over 8 2/3 innings as the team's problems with lefties continue. Daniel Lynch was the starter for the Rays and technically met the definition of a quality start with 3 runs allowed in 6 innings but walked 6 as well and just wasn't sharp. Of course with the offense taking the night off it really didn't matter. Mitch Keller pitched a couple of scoreless innings but Sandy Gaston loaded the bases in the 9th and then gave up a bases-clearing double to new Reds signee Josh Donaldson to turn a 3-0 game into a 6-0 game. Baltimore won so the lead is down to 10 and they can cut into it in the next series when they come to St. Pete.

Team record: 47-28. Next up: an off-day followed by 3 games at home vs Baltimore.