[Art Deco]

Game 1: Camden Yards is a tough place to pitch for an opponent, given the ballpark and Baltimore's power-laden lineup. But Shane McClanahan rose to the challenge, and although he did allow a couple of homers, he limited the damage to those alone and went 7 5 3 3 3 5 to lead the Rays to their 100th win of the season 8-3. Wander Franco had an RBI groundout and an RBI double around a 2-run Adley Rustchman HR in the 3rd which put us at 2-2 going into the 6th when the Rays erupted for 3 runs to take command of the game. Brandon Marsh had a 2-run single and Wander had a sac fly for his 3rd RBI of the day to make it 5-2. Jo Adell homered off McClanahan (now 6-2) in the 7th to make it 5-3 but Seth Beer got that run right back in the 8th with HR #10 of the season. Wander then doubled in the 9th and was driven in by an Austin Meadows single and then Keibert Ruiz drove home Meadows to cap the scoring. Nick Anderson pitched a scoreless 8th in a hold situation, and then with the 5-run lead Asa Lacy came on and had a 1-2-3 2K 9th to finish it off.

Game 2: A typical Coors...er Camden Yards game with HRs galore, and Jo Adell's 2-run walkoff blast won it in the bottom of the 9th for the Orioles 7-5. Entering up 5-4, Jasseel De La Cruz blew his second straight save attempt, walking Mitch Haniger and giving up a single to Nick Williams to put runners at 1st and 3rd with nobody out. With the infield in he got CJ Chatman to ground out right at Wander Franco to keep the runner at 3rd but Williams moved up to 2nd. Bryan Stott singled to score Gunnar Henderson who had run for Haniger, but Greg Jones nailed Williams at the plate to keep the game tied. But Adell took De La Cruz's next pitch into the LF stands to win it. The Rays had built a 5-3 lead on solo HRs from Keston Hiura leading off the game (#11), Austin Meadows in the 1st (#32), Seth Beer (#11) in the 2nd, and Rafael Devers (#21) in the 6th along with a Mebrys Violria RBI single. Tyler Glasnow started and pitched well going 7 5 3 3 3 6 with the only damage a 3-run HR by Ray-for-a-little-while-in-2021 Haniger. Nick Anderson pitched the 8th and gave up a solo HR to Austin Hays to draw the O's within a run, and then of course they went to work on Jasseel in the bottom of the 9th. Vidal Brujan, Alec Bohm, Keibert Ruiz and Brandon Marsh were all rested tonight.

With the AAA season ending, some notable vets who played at that level this year retired today: Chris Sale, Trevor Plouffe, Masahiro Tanaka, Danny Duffy, Kole Calhoun, Jose Abreu, and Shane Greene. Sale and Abreu played for Durham this year, the former very briefly and the latter we traded at midseason for Bramdon Perez. Plouffe and Greene were once Rays for a very short time.

Game 3: With Wander and Austin Meadows already over 100 RBI, I was wondering whether Rafael Devers would get there as he needed 8 with 8 games left coming into tonight. Well he's 62.5% of the way there after tonight's 2-HR, 5-RBI night leading the Rays to a 7-4 win over the Orioles. He broke a 1-1 tie in the 3rd with a 2-run shot, and then after an Austin Meadows single put the Rays up 4-3 in the ninth he blasted a 3-run shot off Sam Delaplane for #23 and it turned out to be important as Baltimore scored a run in the 9th. Walker Buehler got the start for the Rays and while he wasn't as dominant as recent outings, he still turned in a decent 7 9 3 2 2 9 line. But he left the game 3-3 and after Sandy Gaston got through the 8th (on 8 pitches!) the Rays went to work in the 9th as Seth Beer led off with a single (with Greg Jones pinch-running for him). It didn't look good as Brandon Marsh and Vidal Brujan hit fly ball outs but Wander beat out an infield single, bringing up Meadows who singled to put them ahead and then Devers hit his 2nd HR. With only the 8 pitches in the 8th and a 4-run lead, Gaston came back for the 9th but loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk, single, and HBP so Jose Alvarado came on with a lefty due up. The Orioles instead pinch-hit Adley Rutschman but Alvarado got him to ground into a DP, scoring a run but neutralizing the threat, and then he got a fly ball for the final out and picked up save #4. Gaston still got the win, his 5th.

Game 4: The Rays pounded Baltimore today 12-0 behind 7 shutout innings from Matt Manning and a 4-5 day from Spencer Torkelson. Manning was brilliant as usual, going 7 6 0 0 0 9 to improve to 11-6, 2.79 and Brandon Marsh had the big hit in the game, a bases-clearing double in the 2nd that put the Rays up 3-0. The first of Vidal Brujan's 3 hits on the day was an RBI single to drive in Marsh to make it 4-0, and he later stole base #59 and led off a 7-run 9th with his 7th HR of the season. Torkelson had 2 doubles and a triple among his four hits, driving in a pair, and Greg Jones went 3-5 with a steal and 2 RBI, which included his first MLB homer in the 9th. Mebrys Viloria had 3 hits too, as the Rays gave numerous starters a rest again today yet still banged out 19 hits. Only Nick Schnell at 0-5 didn't get in on the fun. One starter who didn't rest (since Triston Casas is nursing a sore back) was Rafael Devers and he crept closer to 100 RBI with his 98th today. Will Smith and Mitchell Verburg pitched scoreless innings to finish out the game.

Team record: 102-54. Next up: our final off-day of the season before a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium to close out the road portion of the schedule.