[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays continue to circle the drain as they dropped their third straight and fifth in their last seven 5-4 to the Mariners. There was a distinct air of "here we go again" when Julio Rodriguez took an Asa Lacy pitch deep for a three-run HR in the first, and it was definitely "here we go again" as the offense could only manage 1 run and 3 hits off Nick Margevicius through 7 as they struck out 9 times. It took a 3-run rally in the 8th to make a game of it as Wander had a 2-run single to go with his earlier RBI hit (giving him an AL-leading 93) and Alec Bohm singled in another run, but with men on 1st and 2nd and 1 out Spencer Torkelson grounded into a double play to end the uprising and they went 1-2-3 in the 9th. Earning my ire again is Austin Meadows, 0-4 tonight and down to 277/353/431 as he seems these days more concerned with his next contract (he's a FA at year's end). Lacy settled down nicely after his rough 1st inning before giving up a run on a pair of hits in the 6th and ending 5.1 6 4 4 0 7. Lacy has a great 5/44 BB/K ratio in 40 1/3 innings but has allowed a whopping 52 hits. Some of that is the lousy defense behind him (we're now last in zone rating in the AL, possibly all of MLB) but he has (although not really tonight) given up too many hits. Mitchell Verburg gave up another run in the 7th which proved to be costly, and Liam Hendriks had a scoreless 8th. But in the small miracles department, the Yankees actually beat Baltimore (holding them to 1 hit, no less!) so the lead remains a precarious 3.

Game 2: The Rays stopped the rot with a tight 4-3 win over the Mariners, despite striking out 15 times against Seattle pitching. Hunter Bishop's 2-run HR (#10) in the 4th gave the Rays a 2-0 lead which Matt Manning gave right back in the bottom of the inning, but the slumping Austin Meadows had a big 2-run bases-loaded single in the 7th to make it 4-2. Manning pitched pretty well although he ran a lot of deep counts which is why it took him 103 pitches to go 6 7 2 2 0 5. He still improved to 12-6 and got some fine relief help from Nick Anderson and Jose Alvarado, each with 1-2-3 innings. In a statistical quirk, each of them have now pitched 28.1 innings with 42 strikeouts. The relief wasn't so fine from Jasseel De La Cruz, who gave up a HR to the leadoff man in the 9th, Evan White, and then proceeded to walk two men with two out before getting Grae Kessinger to fly out to deep RF to end the game. Still it was enough for save #25. And amazingly they gained ground on Baltimore when the Yankees hit 7(!) HRs in an 11-6 win to beat the Orioles for the second straight night and are now back up 4 games.

Game 3: The Rays continued to break out of their funk tonight with a 13-3 thrashing of the Mariners. They put 4 on the board in the first against the newly-signed Sonny Gray, who was wild (5 walks) and hittable, on a Keston Hiura sac fly, a wild pitch, and RBI singles from Hunter Bishop and Spencer Torkelson. They added 5 more in the 4th to truly blow it open with an RBI triple from Wander, an RBI single from Alec Bohm, a 2-run double from Torkelson and an RBI single from Patrick Bailey, giving Keibert Ruiz a night off. In the 5th, the hopefully-snapping-out-of-it Austin Meadows hit a 2-run HR (#15) and Bailey went deep as well with a 2-run HR (#2) in the 8th. As in his last start, Tyler Glasnow was well-supported and went 6.2 6 2 2 3 10 to go 13-5, 3.85 and Mitch Keller pitched the final 2.1 allowing a run. They had 16 hits and drew 7 walks on the night with Wander and Bailey each having 3-hit, 1-walk nights. Only Brandon Marsh (0-5) didn't get the invite to the party. Baltimore wasn't going to lose a third straight game to the Yankees and didn't, so the lead remains 4.

Game 4: A really rough loss for the Rays as the broke a 0-0 tie in the 8th with 3 runs in the top of the inning, only for Nick Anderson to give up a 3-run HR to none other than Michael Brosseau, and Seattle won in the bottom of the 9th off Liam Hendriks. Shane McClanahan and Zach Davies were hooked up in a scoreless duel but the Rays finally got to Davies in the 8th as Brandon Marsh scored on a Wander sac fly, Keibert Ruiz knocked in Vidal Brujan and a third run scored on a Seattle fielding error. McClanahan, having gone 7 4 0 0 1 4 on 101 pitches, was pulled for Anderson with 3 of the 4 hitters due up righties. Ironically it was only the lefty Anderson retired as he put the first two on ahead of Brosseau, who took him deep to LCF to tie the game. Wander hit a 2-out triple in the top of the 9th but Keibert flew out, and then Liam Hendriks gave up a leadoff triple to Evan White who scored on a Miguel Andujar single to give Seattle the walk-off win. And a tough loss got tougher with Baltimore beating the Yankees and moving back within 3 games.

Team record: 67-47. Next up: An off-day followed by 3 tough games at Fenway Park.