[Art Deco]

Game 1: Losing teams keep finding new ways to lose, and the Rays right now are a losing team, unable to beat the 50-70 Royals and thanks to Baltimore's win tonight over Toronto now find themselves tied for first place after being up 7 about a month ago. We'll start in the first inning. After a Brandon Marsh RBI double gave the Rays a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning, Shane McClanahan got the first two outs, struck out the next batter but allowed him to reach on a wild pitch, then saw Triston Casas make an error at first and of course Mac then gave up a hit to score the runner. Same thing in the 2nd, he got the first 2 out, then gave up a single, walk and a double. He ended an OK 5 3 2 1 4 5 and the Rays took a 3-2 lead in the 6th when Spencer Torkelson had an RBI triple and scored on Alec Bohm's single. Liam Hendriks gave up a couple of hits with two out, but Evan Godwin came on and got out of it and pitched a perfect 7th of his own (Godwin now in 8 appearances has yet to allow an earned run in 9 innings and has 15 Ks). But Nick Anderson blew it in the 8th, giving up a leadoff triple, getting a whiff, but then giving up another single to score the run, and yet another single to move the next guy to 3rd where he scores on a sac fly. That's the 5th blown save of the season for Nick and the second game he's blown in his last four outings making me wonder if he can still rely on him in the 7th and 8th. And to add insult to injury, former Ray Drew Strotman got them 1-2-3 in the 9th to end the game. Of course it would have been nice if they could have generated more than 3 runs against Brady Singer and his 6+ ERA coming in. Tomorrow's starter is TBD, it could be Lynch, I could roll the dice on Christian Little again too.

August 23: Optioned P Daniel Lynch to AAA Durham, recalled P Jimmy Lewis from AAA Durham.

Gonna roll the dice here and bring Lewis back, who pitched decently in a couple of starts earlier this season, including one in Washington. I've lost all faith in Lynch. Lewis is a little safer pick than Christian Little, who if I bring back up would like to do so in a home game.

Game 2: And the losing goes on. Jimmy Lewis turned out not to be a good option as he went 2.1 5 3 3 3 1, yet still left the game ahead 4-3 after Austin Meadows hit a grand slam (#17) in the top of the 3rd. The Rays even added to the lead in the 4th on a Brandon Marsh RBI single, but every reliever that came in for the Rays allowed a run, from Mitch Keller to Aaron Ashby to Mitchell Verburg to Evan Godwin. The only one not charged with a run was Liam Hendriks, but he gave up the hit that scored Godwin's as Kansas City came back to win 7-5. Once again the offense took the second half of the game off, and although 5 runs should usually be enough to win it wasn't enough. And now the Rays find themselves in 2nd place for the first time since 2021 as Baltimore beat Toronto again. In case you're wondering, they're now 2 games up on Cleveland for the first wild card and 5 1/2 up on Texas for the second.

August 24: Sent P Mitchell White to AAA Durham on a rehab assignment. Optioned P Jimmy Lewis to AAA Durham, recalled P Christian Little from AAA Durham.

Well here's someone who we can't wait to get back. It's no coincidence the team's tailspin has occurred with White on the shelf, and right now it seems we can only win games that Manning and Glasnow pitch so it'll be good to get him back after a rehab start or two. As for the other move, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Little. Right now I'm giving Lacy the start tomorrow and may use him in long relief if necessary (or short relief if necessary too).

Game 3: Of course the Rays took the lead. Of course they blew the lead. Of course they rallied but came up short. Of course Baltimore won again. Were you expecting any different? It's Groundhog Day again for the Rays as they lost their 4th straight and 11th in 17 games 5-4 to Kansas City. We had the obligatory false dawn when they went up 2-0 in the 5th on a Nick Gonzales RBI triple and a Vidal Brujan RBI single. Asa Lacy was rolling with a 4-hit, 0-walk shutout through 5 innings. But of course Lacy was greeted with an Andrew McCutchen HR to lead off the 6th, and then he promptly gave up 3 straight singles to load the bases. So it was time to bring on Christian Little for some strikeouts. Well he got the first batter to whiff, but then gave up a 2-run double to Adalberto Mondesi and a sac fly and it was 4-2 Royals. Then he gave up a Rowdy Tellez HR in the 7th to make it 5-2. This of course led to the typical too-little, too-late rally where Keston Hiura had a 2-run double to make it 5-4 with one out in the 8th, was balked to third but Alec Bohm and Triston Casas both struck out, and Drew Strotman got them once again 1-2-3 in the 9th to end it. So now they're 2 games back and the team I'm looking at now is Texas who's next behind the wild cards, and at least they lost today. Sadly a team that easily cleared 100 wins the past 3 seasons would now have to go 29-8 the rest of the way to get there again. Ain't happening as right now 8-29 feels more likely.

Team record: 71-54. Next up: 3 games in Toronto, so at least we'll score some runs. I think.