[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays' renaissance (Raynaissance?) continued tonight with a 5-2 win over Detroit, making it 4 straight, 5 of 6 and 13 of their last 18. Tyler Glasnow did not have his best stuff (only 3 whiffs!) but managed a 6-hit complete game, going 9 6 2 2 2 3 on 112 pitches for his MLB-best 6th win. All the offense came in the first two innings off Kumar Rocker, with an RBI single from Austin Meadows and a 2-run double from Alec Bohm in the first, and a 2-run double by Keibert Ruiz in the 2nd. Also Vidal Brujan continued to shows signs of getting going by reaching base 3 times in 5 trips on a hit and 2 walks. The Tigers did all their damage against Glasnow in the first 3 innings and it looked like he might be lucky to go 5 but he settled down after that, allowing only 2 hits and 0 walks over the final 6 innings. And yes, Boston won again.

May 14: Activated P Jose Alvarado from the 15-day IL, optioned P Sandy Gaston to AAA Durham.

Needless to say, it's great to get Alvarado back as his absence may have cost the team a couple of games at least. Gaston was the surprise choice to go down but he didn't seem to be as overpowering so far this year and he'll get more regular work at Durham instead of the mop-up appearances he had been getting.

Game 2: The wins keep on comin' as Matt Manning had an fine start against his old team and the Rays took a 5-1 win over Detroit. Manning continues his campaign to repeat as AL Cy Young winner with a 6 2 1 1 1 8 outing lowering his ERA to 1.84, but the Rays didn't strike for the lead until after he left. Detroit eked out a run in the 5th, but Alec Bohm went Bohms away once again with #15 in the bottom of the frame to tie it up. Manning came out after 98 pitches through 6 and gave way to Mitch Keller in the 7th, and then the Rays went to work in the bottom of that inning with some help from the Detroit defense. Bohm reached on a Sandy Alcantara error to lead it off, Spencer Torkelson doubled him to 3rd, and then Bohm scored when Jonathan India booted Nick Schnell's grounder. Triston Casas then hit a sac fly to score Tork, and Brandon Marsh homered scoring Schnell, his 2nd of the year. With the lead 4, Keller stayed in and pitched so well he finished the game going 3 2 0 0 0 4 and picked up his 2nd win in the process. Boston lost to Washington so the Rays pull to within 1 1/2 games.

Game 3: The Rays only managed 4 hits but thanks to the pitching of Dustin May and some opportunism in the 7th the Rays managed a 3-1 win to sweep the series and make it 6 on the trot, as the English would say. May was fabulous, taking a shutout into the 8th before giving up a 2-out hit. Jose Alvarado came on in his first appearance since coming off the DL and showed a little rust, allowing 2 hits to score the runner but getting a break when Brandon Marsh threw out Gavin Sheets trying to go to 2nd on his single to end the inning. Alvarado stayed on for the 9th and got a whiff before walking former Ray Alex Kirilloff, and Jasseel De La Cruz came on to strike out Jonathan India and pinch-hitter Kody Clemens to end the game and grab save #11. May's ERA is still an unsightly 5.53 largely due to the 7 runs allowed in 1/3 of an inning at Minnesota but he's reeled off 4 fine starts since then, only allowing 6 runs in his last 25 2/3. Vidal Brujan got the offense off to a great start when he led off the 1st with a HR into the RF seats against old friend Shane Baz, but Baz shut down the Rays after that until things went haywire for him in the 7th. It looked like he had struck out Austin Meadows to start the inning but catcher's interference was called and it rattled him as he hit Alec Bohm with a pitch. The two runners moved up on a groundout and Jake Rogers' nightmare inning continued when he committed a passed ball allowing Meadows to score and Spencer Torkelson hit a sac fly to score Bohm as the Rays managed 2 runs without a hit or a walk. Boston was idle so the Rays creep within 1 game of them ahead of their 3-game series at the Trop.

Team record: 24-15. Next up: As I just said, 3 games at home vs Boston.