[Art Deco]

Game 1: Christian Little bounced back from one of the worst starts of his career to turn in one of his best as the Rays handled Milwaukee 5-1. He went 7 5 0 0 1 10 and got better as the game went on, striking out the side in his 7th and final inning despite being over 100 pitches. The performance brings him to 6-3, 2.82 and gives him 106 whiffs in 73.1 innings. Jose Alvarado gave up a run in the 8th to make it a 3-1 game at that point, but 2 runs in the 8th meant JDLC sat down and Jack Filby came on instead with a 1-2-3 9th. The offense had chances galore early with Brewers starter Cionel Perez walking 6 in his 5 1/3 and giving up 5 hits, but despite having the bases loaded and runners in scoring position with fewer than 2 out, they could only score early on a couple of sac flies from Wander Franco and Keibert Ruiz. Brandon Marsh added an RBI double in the 6th to make it 3-0 and then they broke through in the 8th on RBI singles from Ruiz and Vidal Brujan (who was 3-4 today with a steal). Keston Hiura had a nice game against his old team, going 2-3 with a double, a walk and 2 runs scored. Yordan Alvarez was back in the lineup for the first time in a couple of weeks and the rust showed as he went 0-4. The Yankees had won the night before but lost tonight, so the lead is now 7 1/2 games.

Game 2: Some terrible offense and a couple of defensive mistakes wasted a brilliant effort by Shane McClanahan in a 3-1 loss to Milwaukee. Mac threw a lot of pitches and only made it through 6, but he was dominant going 6 5 1 0 3 12. The only run scored against was in the 2nd when Brandon Marsh dropped a fly ball allowing Nolan Arenado to score. Triston Casas doubled in Judson Fabian in the bottom of the 2nd to tie the game and that's where we went until the 7th when Liam Hendriks came on. Hendriks had Bo Bichette struck out but Keibert Ruiz was called for catcher's interference and with two out Parks Harber doubled to score Bichette with what proved to be the winning run. Evan Godwin didn't get the job done in the 9th when he came in to face lefty Christian Yelich with a man on 2nd and two out, giving up an RBI single that made it 3-1 and cost Steven Casey a run. But it was all for naught as the bats could only muster 5 hits, although they did draw 6 walks. This meant there were several situations with multiple runners on base but Ruiz and Jhon Diaz in particular couldn't get hits when needed with each leaving 5 men on base. They had a shot in the 9th when Brandon Marsh doubled and Vidal Brujan reached on an error with one out, but Wander Franco (who had 2 of the 5 hits) grounded into a double play to end the game. Fortunately their mediocre play of late hasn't cost them in the standings as the Yankees dropped another one, keeping the lead at 7 1/2. Boston has been hot lately and is only 1/2 game behind New York so perhaps they will be the team to watch going forward.

Team record: 40-21. Next up: 3 tough games in Minnesota where the Twins now have the best record in baseball at 40-20 and the Rays get to face 9-0 Jon Hayes in the first game.