[Art Deco]

Game 1: The offense continued to look listless until they finally woke up in the late innings, coming back from 2-1 down to win 7-3 and take the first game of the series against their closest pursuer. Dustin May got the start and was OK, a bit hittable but mostly got out of it, going 6 8 2 2 1 6. But the offense struggled against rookie Bryar Johnson at first, only manufacturing a run in the 1st when Vidal Brujan walked, stole second and went to third on a bad throw, and scored on an Austin Meadows double. They tied it in the bottom of the 6th when Keibert Ruiz doubled in Meadows. Nick Anderson pitched the 7th and looked very good, striking out the side, and in the bottom of the 7th they finally wore Johnson down. A Hunter Bishop walk and a Brujan double put men on 2nd and 3rd, and Bishop scored on a wild pitch before Meadows delivered an RBI single to make it 4-2. Anderson stayed on to face Renato Nunez and struck him out too, and then Jose Alvarado got the last two outs of the 8th. And the Rays put it away for good with 3 more in the 8th on a Brujan single, a passed ball, and a Keibert infield single. Alvarado got the lefty leading off the 9th and Scott Barlow gave up a triple that scored but got the final two outs. Brujan reached 4 times on 2 hits and 2 walks and his OBP is up to .398, and Meadows was 3-4 with his 2 RBI as he continues to lead MLB in the category. The lead climbs back to 10 1/2.

Game 2: Walker Buehler, ladies and gentlemen. The big righthander had pitched decently for the Rays but hadn't shown the true dominance he's capable of - until tonight. Buehler went 8 2/3 innings striking out 15 Orioles, allowing only 5 hits, a walk and a run in a tense and exciting 2-1 win. Buehler was perfect through the first 4 innings before Austin Hays led off the 5th with a double and was singled home by Anthony Santander. This gave Baltimore a short-lived 1-0 lead before the Rays got their two runs in the bottom of the inning on Wander Franco's RBI infield single and a Rafael Devers sac fly. 2-1 is where it stood as we got to the 9th. Buehler struck out Ryan McKenna for K #15 but then walked Bryson Stott, his first and only walk of the game. He got the tough Adley Rutschman to fly out but Hays singled sending Stott to 3rd on his 115th pitch. Against the wishes of the Tropicana Field crowd, I brought in Jasseel De La Cruz to face Santander and De La Cruz made me look good with a strikeout to end the game and pick up save #11. Buehler improves to 5-1, 3.50 with the Rays and 8-3, 2.72 overall. One bit of bad news, though: Our Spinal Tap drummer position of CF claimed another victim as Hunter Bishop had to leave with back tightness. Although it's officially a DtD injury, it's 2 weeks and described as "moderate" so he'll probably go on the IL. With Spencer Torkelson DHing tonight and not wanting to lose it, we had to put Seth Beer in LF but with Buehler striking out everyone it didn't matter. Heston Kjerstad is next man up for center (although he's better in the corners, he's a 55 in CF) so look for him tomorrow.

June 30: Placed OF Hunter Bishop on the 10-day IL with back tightness, recalled OF Heston Kjerstad from AAA Durham.

Stockpiling all those high-end OF prospects suddenly doesn't look so foolish, does it? Kjerstad was 274/327/490 at Durham after being the Southern League MVP last season. He did get off to a slow start (613 OPS in April) but has come around. He's got 60 power and 60 gap power but his eye is 45 and he will strike out, a similar profile to Bishop.

Game 3: Another day, another win, another injury to an outfielder. The Rays took a 6-3 decision over Baltimore behind the strong pitching of Matt Manning and some actual clutch 2-out RBI hits, but lost Spencer Torkelson to a sprained ACL which will put him out seven weeks. Manning was rolling with 6 shutout innings until he ran into some trouble in the 7th, some of it his own doing and some of it due to Wander Franco dropping a popup, allowing the Orioles to score three times with the key hit a 2-run double by ex-Ray (and ex-everyone else the way the AI keeps trading him around the league) Mitch Haniger that brought Baltimore within 5-3. All 3 runs were unearned so Manning ended up 6.2 6 3 0 1 9, and improves to 4-3. Nick Anderson got him out of the 7th and then stayed and pitched the 8th getting a pair of Ks. Jasseel De La Cruz got three groundball outs on 5 pitches in the 9th to nail down save #12. On offense they got out to a first-inning lead on a 2-out 2-run RBI double from Keibert Ruiz, added 1 in the 3rd when Vidal Brujan tripled and scored when Wander struck out on a wild pitch, 1 more in the 5th on Austin Meadows' 21st HR, 1 more in the 6th on Tork's RBI double on which he sprained his ACL going into 2nd, and then 1 more in the 7th on a 2-out RBI double from Rafael Devers who ended up a HR short of the cycle. Gonna have to think about who comes up for Torkelson. It may be someone like Greg Jones, our 2019 first-round pick who's toiled away at Durham the last couple of seasons but can play the middle infield. I was also thisclose to trading Seth Beer a few days ago (had a deal lined up with the Dodgers, who just lost Josh Bell for the year, for some pitching) but now he's needed, and he, Keston Hiura and Triston Casas should be seeing more ABs. I may also investigate trading for a RH bat although with the sweep increasing the division lead to 12 1/2 games there isn't a lot of short-term urgency here.

Team record: 50-28. Next up: Another off-day (we had fewer of those early in the season than anyone) then a trip to Pittsburgh for 3 where Tyler Glasnow gets to start against his old team and Austin Meadows says hello, too (also Mitch Keller).