[Art Deco]

July 26: Optioned OF Hunter Bishop to AAA Durham, recalled P Shane McClanahan from Durham; sent OF Brandon Marsh to AAA Durham for a rehab assignment.

I sent Bishop down instead of Wil Myers as Texas is throwing 2 lefties at us this weekend and Nick Schnell remains suspended until Sunday, and also Kjerstad being a switch hitter gives us a RH bat. When Marsh comes back, Myers will go although I'm still not sure whether I'm going with Kjerstad or Bishop in the last OF spot.

Game 1: Now that was a comeback. Down 4-0 going to the bottom of the 9th the Rays rallied for 5 runs, capped by an Austin Meadows walk-off RBI single, to beat the Rangers 5-4. Juan Pablo Lopez was the latest lefty to bedevil the Rays' bats, shutting them out for 7 innings as the only threat the Rays had was loading the bases in the 5th with 0 out, only to hit a shallow fly ball, strike out and hit a grounder. Shane McClanahan got the start and matched Lopez 0 for 0 through 6, but started running out of gas in the 7th and left with one out and men on 1st and 3rd. Jose Alvarado came on and got Adam Frazier to hit one right at the drawn-in infield, but then gave up a 2-run double to Stephen Wrenn. And after Mitchell Verburg allowed 2 more runs in the 8th and Buck Farmer shut them out in the bottom of the inning, the Rays looked cooked. But Texas brought on closer Ricky Vanasco and the Rays went to work. Keibert Ruiz led off with a double, Alec Bohm walked, Keston Hiura singled to load the bases, pinch-hitter Triston Casas was hit by a pitch to force in a run, and then Heston Kjerstad delivered a double to score two and make it 4-3. Vidal Brujan then grounded out to score Casas and tie the game, and Wander Franco grounded out to send Kjerstad to 3rd, setting the stage for Meadows' 2-out RBI single that dropped just in front of Texas RF Danny Santana and set off pandemonium at the Trop. Will Smith had gotten Verburg out of the 8th and pitched the 9th to pick up his first win of the season. McClanahan, who will be in the rotation through early September at least, went 6.1 4 2 2 2 4 as he's pitched to a 2.86 ERA in his 5 starts with the big club this year. Baltimore keeps winning (they come to town next) to improve to 51-45, are 10 1/2 back after winning the night before and are holding down the 2nd wild card at the moment.

Game 2: Asa Lacy won his first Rays start and Wander Franco had a monster game to lead the Rays to a 6-3 win over Texas. Lacy got off to a rough start, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits in the first inning but settled down after that, going 6 7 3 3 2 7 to improve to 4-1 overall. Meanwhile Franco went 4-5 with 2 doubles and a 2-run HR in the 5th which put the Rays ahead to stay at 4-3. And Vidal Brujan snapped out of his mini-slump (0-5 each of the last 2 games) with 2 hits including a 2-run HR in the 8th to give the Rays some insurance. Rafael Devers also added 3 hits and a pair of RBI as the Rays banged out 12 hits. The back end of the bullpen was lights out, as Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 7th striking out a pair, Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 8th, and Jasseel De La Cruz pitched a scoreless 9th for save #19 as Rays pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts. Baltimore lost so the lead is up to 11 1/2. Also with tonight's win, the team's 9th in 10 games, we now have the best record in baseball at 63-35, surpassing Atlanta.

Game 3: The Rays wasted an excellent outing from Walker Buehler and an excellent chance to win again with a rally in the bottom of the 9th as they fell 3-1 to the Rangers. Buehler had a dominating game, going 8 6 2 2 1 10, and was nursing a 1-0 lead into the 8th when with two out he allowed a 2-run HR to Texas rookie SS Jacob Gonzalez, playing in only his 6th MLB game. But the loss was really on the offense, which (repeat with me) was shut down by another lefty, Kolby Allard. Allard went 8 4 1 1 0 3 with the only Rays run coming in the 6th when Vidal Brujan was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on an Austin Meadows single. For a moment it looked like they might repeat Friday night's miracle comeback when Texas once again brought in closer Ricky Vanasco, and they loaded the bases with nobody out on a Wander infield single and a couple of walks. But Keibert Ruiz hit an infield popup, and Alec Bohm grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, and that was that. Sandy Gaston gave up a leadoff triple in the 9th and looked like he might hold him there with a strikeout and a popup but had to leave with back tightness (a today-only injury) and Mitch Keller served up a single to Josh Jung to make it 3-1 but it didn't make a difference in the end.

Team record: 63-36. Next up: 3 games at home vs Baltimore, who won today to pull within 10 1/2.