[Art Deco]

Game 1: All it took for the Rays to break out of their offensive doldrums was an escape from Tropicana Field, as they bashed 4 homers in drubbing the Yankees 8-1 in the opener of a 4-game set at Yankee Stadium. Austin Meadows led the attack by going deep twice, including a solo shot off Miguel Yajure to start the attack, Vidal Brujan had a 2-run single in the 2nd to make it 3-0, Nick Schnell hit #12 in the 4th to make it 4-1, and Seth Beer rediscovered his power stroke with HR #6 in the 6th, a 2-run blast, before Meadows went deep again in the 7th. Enjoying all this run support and pitching his best game as a big leaguer was Asa Lacy, who went 8 4 1 1 1 7 on 101 pitches and improves to 5-1. Will Smith struck out the side around 2 hits in the 9th.

Game 2: A wild back-and-forth game saw the Rays prevail again at Yankee Stadium, 8-6. Rafael Devers' single off David Bednar with the bases loaded brought home 2 runs and broke a 6-6 tie in the top of the 9th. It capped a big game for the Rays' 3B, who launched a 2-run HR in the 6th which put them up 4-2 at that point. But until the 9th every time the Rays grabbed the lead the Yankees tied it or took it back, as Walker Buehler allowed 2 more HRs (both to Aaron Judge), giving him 16 allowed in 101 innings with the Rays. He got the first two out in the bottom of the 7th before allowing a hit, leaving the game up 5-3. Nick Anderson came on and walked Gleyber Torres and then served up a 3-run HR to Giancarlo Stanton to make it 6-5 Yankees. But Alec Bohm tied it in the 8th with HR #17 off Antoine Kelly, setting the stage for Devers' game-winning hit. Jose Alvarado picked up the win by pitching a scoreless 8th and striking out the side again although he allowed a hit and a walk. Jasseel De La Cruz gave up a single with one out in the 9th ahead of Stanton and Judge, but he whiffed both of them to end the game and grab save #20. The Rays' other runs scored on Seth Beer's second HR in as many nights (#7), a bases-loaded walk to Vidal Brujan and a sac fly from Wander.

Game 3: A costly error and the inability of the offense to get key hits with runners on base doomed the Rays to a 3-1 loss, only their second in 12 games this season to the Yankees. With a man on and two out in the bottom of the 1st, Wander Franco made a bad throw to first on Giancarlo Stanton's grounder allowing him to reach, and Aaron Judge made the Rays pay with a 3-run homer off Daniel Lynch. That would be all the scoring for the Yankees but it was enough for the win as newly acquired Antonio Senzatela scattered 10 hits over 7 1/3 innings but allowed only one run. That run came in the 8th when Wander led off with a triple and scored on Rafael Devers' single but they could do no more for the night. Lynch pitched well, going 6 5 3 0 3 3, and the lack of earned runs dropped his ERA to 3.10. Will Smith had a scoreless 7th and Sandy Gaston came on and blew the 3 Yankees he faced in the 8th away on strikes. Seth Beer continued to snap out of his season-long slump with 3 hits tonight, while Vidal Brujan seems to be in one of his own, going 0-5.

Game 4: The Rays broke it open with 4 two-out runs in the 5th on the way to an easy-in-the-end 9-2 win over the Yankees behind the strong pitching of Matt Manning. The righty was nearly unhittable, going 8 3 1 0 1 7 with the only run scoring when a Keston Hiura error allowed Skyler Messinger to score in the 2nd and Manning improved to 8-4, 2.73. The offense took awhile to come alive against Deivi Garcia but come alive they did in the 5th when with two out Seth Beer and Heston Kjerstad singled, Brandon Marsh doubled them both home, Wander Franco singled home Marsh and went to second on the throw, and Hiura singled Wander home. They added a run on a double play grounder in the 6th and then Alec Bohm (#18) and Marsh (#3) hit 2-run HRs in the 8th and 9th respectively. Nick Frasso pitched the 9th and gave up a HR to Giancarlo Stanton around a pair of strikeouts as he's headed back to Durham to make way for DL Hall.

Team record: 68-38. Next up: 4 games in Houston.