[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays used a 5-run 8th inning to beat the Yankees 10-5 today, but there was a little disappointment sprinkled in as Shane McClanahan has likely missed out on a shot at winning 20 games. Coming in 17-5, Mac was a mixed bag today, giving up a 2-run HR to Gleyber Torres (#50) in the first but settling down after with a 4-2 lead until the 6th, when a sequence of hits saw the Yankees tie it and he ended 6 6 4 4 4 8. Still when Spencer Torkelson hit #45 in the bottom of the 6th to re-establish the lead, it looked like he'd still be on track for the win. But while Evan Godwin got through a 1-2-3 7th, Liam Hendriks gave up Torres' 2nd HR of the game to tie it in the 8th. The Rays then loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning and a walk to Keston Hiura forced in a run before the unconscious Triston Casas went deep again (#15) for a grand slam. Luke Little loaded the bases with one out in the 9th and a 5-run lead, and with Torres and Aaron Judge due up, Jasseel De La Cruz came in and got them both for save #29 while Hendriks vultured the win, his 6th. Earlier Judson Fabian hit a 3-run shot in the 1st for HR #35.

Durham Playoff Update: We're going back to Durham! And not just to clean out lockers either, as the Bulls downed Indianapolis 9-4 to even their best-of-5 IL Championship Series at 2 games and force a deciding 5th game in Durham in two days. It was a back-and-forth affair through 6 until the Bulls scored 3 times in the 7th to break a 3-3 tie. Juan Mendez's 2-run double was key, and Nick Loftin broke the game open in the 8th with a 3-run HR. Domingo German started and went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs and Nick Anderson ended up picking up the win in relief. Fightin' Jack Leiter will be on the mound for Game 5.

Game 2: The Rays wasted a great performance from Mack Anglin and saw Jose Alvarado blow it again as they fell 5-3 to the Yankees in 13 innings. Anglin was the story, no-hitting the Yankees through 5 innings and ending up 8 4 1 1 0 10. It looked like he wouldn't have a shot at the win, though, as the Rays struggled with Deivi Garcia, who allowed nothing but Alec Bohm's 7th HR of the year going into the bottom of the 8th. But with 2 out Judson Fabian beat out an infield single and the Yankees went to Luis Severino, who served up a 2-run HR to Bramdon Perez, his 9th of the year. With two lefties leading off the 9th, Alvarado got the call but once again he failed. After retiring the leadoff man, he gave up a double to Joe Allen, which meant he had to face Gleyber Torres with a man on, and the Yankee slugger took him deep for #52 to tie the game. The Rays had glorious chances to win in extras, but Perez was stranded at 3rd in the 11th after a one-out triple, and they loaded the bases with one out in the 12th only for Judson Fabian to ground into a 4-2-3 double play. Hayden Johns couldn't get it done in his 2nd inning of relief, and gave up a 2-run double to Wilmer Flores for the winning runs. The main takeaway from the otherwise-meaningless game is that Alvarado has truly become unreliable, now with 5 blown saves to go with his 8 losses on the season, and a 4.81 ERA with 26 walks in 48.2 innings and 8 HRs allowed, something I'm not sure is possible for someone who is rated 75 for movement. He had only allowed 3 HR in 95 innings over the last 2 seasons combined and while the ball is definitely juicier this year this is kind of ridiculous.

Game 3: After missing out on getting win #20 in his last start, Tyler Glasnow was going to leave nothing to chance today by turning in his most dominant performance in a season of dominant performances in an 8-0 win over the Yankees. Glasnow struck out the first 5 Yankees, 8 through 3 innings and 10 in 4 on his way to a 7 2 0 0 0 14 outing on only 98 pitches. He's now 20-5, 2.58 with a 51/235 BB/K ratio in 202.2 innings, good for 6.1 WAR. He'll have one more start next week in Chicago before he toes the rubber for Game 1 of the ALDS. Gerrit Cole was the opposition and the Rays batters had their way with him today, hitting 3 longballs off him. Brandon Marsh took him deep for #14 in the 3rd to kick off the scoring, Judson Fabian hit #36 in the 4th to make it 2-0, and after a Triston Casas double Bramdon Perez joined the double-digit club on the team with HR #10, a 2-run blast as he seems to own Cole (I need to look up their head-to-head #s). Patrick Bailey later hit #9 off the Yankee bullpen as he and Vidal Brujan could make it 13 Rays with 10 or more HRs if they each hit one more. Austin Vernon finished up the shutout with 2 scoreless innings, whiffing 3 including Gleyber Torres to end the game, giving them a 17-strikeout team game.

Team record: 105-47. Next up: The final 3 regular season home games, vs. Boston.