[Art Deco]

July 22: Placed P Dustin May on the 15-day IL with a herniated disc, recalled OF Hunter Bishop from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Game 1: Another poor outing from Walker Buehler and a not much better performance from the offense led to a 9-2 drubbing at the hands of the Oakland A's tonight. The game was 2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th after Alec Bohm had hit HR #15 in top of the inning off Huscar Ynoa but Matt Chapman, the first man Buehler faced, homered off the left-field foul pole to put Oakland up 3-2, and in the 7th Buehler yielded a 3-run HR to Franklin Barreto and the game was effectively over. His 7 8 6 6 2 7 line drops him to 5-4, 4.42 as a Ray, which was not what I was expecting after acquiring him from the Dodgers. The only other offense the Rays mustered was a Wander RBI single in the 3rd bringing in Meibrys Viloria, who had doubled in his first Rays at-bat. Ian Hamilton, off his rehab in Durham, pitched the 8th and was terrible (he didn't look too good in his Durham appearances either), allowing 3 runs before having to leave with a sore ankle which will have him DtD for 8 days so I might need to summon yet another pitcher. Baltimore won to cut the lead to 11.

July 23: Placed P Ian Hamilton on the 15-day IL with a sore ankle, recalled P Nick Frasso from AAA Durham.

Here's a new name for these pages. Frasso was last heard from when he was acquired during the 21-22 offseason from Cleveland in the trade which sent Diego Castillo the other way. He's worked his way up to become Durham's closer and has done quite well, with a 12/45 BB/K ratio in 33 2/3 innings, only 19 hits allowed and a 2.94 ERA with 18 saves. He has 70 stuff, 50 movement and 45 control and his best pitch is the curveball, which gets the max 80. He was already on the 40-man.

Game 2: I'll start by saying that for the first time in four games we did not have a pitcher leave injured. So that was Job 1. Job 2 was getting the win, and the Rays did just that in eking out a 4-3 win over Oakland. It looked like it would be an easy day at the park after the Rays scored their 4 runs in the first 2 innings, but they were shut down the rest of the way. Vidal Brujan led off the game, stole second, and scored on a Wander single, two more singles loaded the bases, and then Alec Bohm delivered a 2-run single to make it 3-0. Rafael Devers, who had 4 hits on the night, singled home Brujan in the 2nd for the fourth run off Kyle Freeland. Daniel Lynch got the start and allowed Oakland to cut the lead in half in the 4th, and then allowed a Sean Murphy HR in the 6th to make it 4-3. He left with his typical bare minimum quality start, going 6 7 3 3 2 7 and then the troika took over and did its job. Nick Anderson got a clean 7th and went one batter into the 8th with a pair of Ks, Jose Alvarado got the last two in the 8th and then the leadoff lefty in the 9th, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on and whiffed Murphy but gave up a hit to David Fletcher. Anderson Tejada then lined one into the RF gap but Austin Meadows made a game-saving diving catch (his 3rd great catch of the game) and the win was secure. Lynch becomes the first starter to 10 wins, and De La Cruz nabbed save #18. Baltimore won so the lead remains 11.

Game 3: The Rays got some early runs and some fine pitching from Matt Manning to beat Oakland 7-3 and go 5-1 on this brief west coast road swing. Alec Bohm homered off Jose Quintana, his 2nd in 3 days, to start the scoring in the 2nd, and Keston Hiura and Wil Myers had consecutive RBI doubles in the 4th to make it 3-0. After Oakland got one back in the 4th, Rafael Devers and Keibert Ruiz hit back-to-back doubles to make it 4-1, and with the score 4-2 in the 7th they busted it open when Wander singled, stole second and scored on an Austin Meadows RBI single and later Hiura ripped a 2-run triple. This was all more than enough for Manning, who went 7 6 2 2 1 8 to go to 6-4, 3.19 on the season. Mitch Keller whiffed 4 over the final 2 innings, allowing only an unearned run after a stolen base, a throwing error and a sac fly. It was impressive that they managed the 7 runs without any help from their offensive catalyst Vidal Brujan, who went an uncharacteristic 0-5. Baltimore continues to win (it helps they've been playing the Cubs and Texas lately) so we're still up 11.

Team record: 61-35. Next up: Another off-day followed by a homestand beginning with 3 vs Texas.