[Art Deco]

Game 1: Shane McClanahan was brilliant today and the Rays broke open a 2-2 tie with 5 runs in the 9th to win at Houston 7-2. McClanahan retired the first 13 Astros and had a no-hitter through 5 before George Springer led off the 6th with a HR to deep center. Mac left up 2-1 after walking the leadoff man in the 7th (finishing with a 6 1 1 1 3 7 line) and Nick Anderson had a pair of Ks to get through the inning. In the 8th, with righties due up at the bottom of the order and lefties like Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker likely to bat in the 9th, I went with Jasseel De La Cruz figuring Jose Alvarado could pitch the 9th. De La Cruz whiffed the first two he faced, but of all people former Ray Taylor Walls took him deep to tie the game. Alvarado ended up pitching to those lefties after Jose Altuve singled off De La Cruz and he got the job done. Then the Rays went to work on Matt Barnes in the 9th. Alec Bohm walked and Nick Schnell singled, but Barnes struck out Seth Beer and Brandon Marsh. The runners moved up on a wild pitch and Vidal Brujan walked to load the bases for Wander Franco, who ripped a double to the LF corner to clear them. Then Austin Meadows stepped up and hit HR #25 to the Crawford boxes in left and it was 7-2. Mitch Keller loaded the bases on singles in the 9th but got a double play to end the game. The Rays' earlier 2 runs came in the 2nd on a Schnell RBI single and a Marsh RBI groundout. McClanahan continues to excel in the rotation as in 7 starts he has a 2.68 ERA in 40 innings with an equal # of Ks.

Game 2: The Rays came back from a 6-0 deficit to tie the Astros, but couldn't come back a second time as they dropped a 9-6 decision. Asa Lacy breezed through the first and looked like he'd continue where he left off against the Yankees, but things unraveled quickly in the 2nd and the Astros scored 6 times against him, as he lasted only 1 2/3 innings. DL Hall made his Rays debut and bought them some time to come back with 2 scoreless innings before he had to leave with a finger blister. Rafael Devers hit HR #13 with a man on to make it 6-2 in the 3rd, and then the Rays loaded the bases off Jose Urquidy in the 4th and Wander Franco went deep for a slam to tie things up. Mitchell Verburg came on for Hall and struggled in the 5th but would have been out of it if not for an Alec Bohm fielding error as Jose Altuve's sac fly would have been the third out of the inning but instead it gave Houston the lead and Yordan Alvarez followed with a 2-run double. The scoring stopped there as Sandy Gaston threw a couple of scoreless innings with his typical 2 walks and 3 strikeouts and Will Smith pitched a scoreless 8th.

August 6: Sent Ps Tyler Glasnow and Ian Hamilton to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment.

Glasnow needs only one rehab start since he was only out about 3-4 weeks, and he went 6 2 2 2 0 8 on 81 pitches, allowing a couple of homers but otherwise untouched, so he should be back within a week to start. Hamilton's only missed a couple of weeks but I want him to get one or two outings at Durham just to be safe.

Game 3: The Rays clubbed 5 solo HRs off Jimmy Nelson (making his first Astros start) and got 7 shutout innings from Walker Buehler to dump the Astros 6-1. Keibert Ruiz went deep twice, putting them on the board in the 2nd with his 7th of the year and adding the third of a back-to-back-to-back with Austin Meadows (#26) and Rafael Devers (#14) in the fifth. Alec Bohm had the other homer (#19) in the 4th, and their only non-HR score came when Brandon Marsh had an RBI single in the 8th. Meanwhile Buehler had one of his better games as a Ray, keeping the hits and HRs in check by going 7 4 0 0 1 5. Mitch Keller pitched the final two innings and lost the team shutout in the 9th when Kyle Tucker drove in Jose Altuve with a sac fly.

Game 4: The Rays exploded for 7 runs in the final 3 innings to come from behind and take 3 of 4 at Minute Maid Park with a 10-5 win. Trailing 5-3 going into the 7th, the Rays put runners on and Wander Franco's sac fly made it 5-4 before Austin Meadows ripped a 2-run double to put the Rays in the lead 6-5. Rafael Devers doubled in Meadows to add a run, and then the Rays added 3 in the 9th on a Keibert Ruiz sac fly, a Seth Beer RBI single and a Vidal Brujan RBI single. Brujan was 3-5 with 2 steals, giving him an MLB-leading 43. Alec Bohm provided the early offense with a solo HR (#20) and an RBI double. Daniel Lynch got the start, and was nursing a 3-2 lead in the 6th before giving up a 3-run shot to George Springer, and Mitch Keller had to finish the inning for him. That was enough for Keller to pick up the win, as Jose Alvarado and Nick Anderson pitched scoreless innings with it 7-5. After the Rays took away the save situation in the 9th, DL Hall came on and whiffed all 3 Astros he faced to finish it off.

Team record: 71-39. Next up: Keston Hiura welcomes his old teammates as Milwaukee visits the Trop for the weekend.