[Art Deco]

Game 1: It's tough to win when you only manage 3 hits, and that lack of offense doomed the Rays tonight in a 3-1 loss. They actually took the lead in the 3rd on a Wander Franco sac fly to score Nick Gonzales, who had one of those three hits, but that was the sum total of the offense tonight as Antoine Kelly held them to 2 hits and 1 walk over 7 1/3. And therefore Christian Little had no margin for error but he made two of them: a solo HR to Aaron Judge in the 4th and a two-run shot by Gleyber Torres in the 5th. Little ended up a decent 6.2 7 3 3 1 9 but dropped to 6-4, 2.92. Steven Casey got him out of a tough spot in the 7th with a whiff of Torres and Evan Godwin struck out 2 in a scoreless 8th to keep it close. They did bring the tying run to the plate in the 9th when Yordan Alvarez (who had the other 2 hits) singled with one out off Yankee closer Nick Paciorek, but Judson Fabian grounded into a double play to end the game. The Yankees now pull with 6 1/2.

Game 2: This was a sloppy game in which neither team played well, but the Rays will take the 4-2 victory and ask no questions. The Rays were team TOOTBLAN in this game as they had four runners thrown out on the bases, with Hunter Bishop caught stealing twice and Vidal Brujan twice thrown out at home plate by Aaron Judge. The Yankees, meanwhile, saw their 2B Tommy Edman make two critical errors which led to Rays runs, and when they tried to mount a rally in the 8th off Jose Alvarado after Sammy Siani led off with a double, Chase Davis put down a bad bunt that allowed Alvarado to throw Siani out at 3rd and pretty much end that comeback bid. While all this bad baseball was going on, Shane McClanahan was doing his usual thing, going 7 7 2 2 2 5 to become the first 10-game winner in MLB this year and keep his ERA at 2.22. His only bad moments were a Skyler Messinger homer in the 2nd and a wild pitch that sent a runner to third with 1 out where he then scored on a sac fly in the 5th. When they weren't making outs on the basepaths, the offense was opportunistic today with Edman booting a Wander Franco double play ball that would have ended the inning allowing their first run in the 3rd. Then in the 6th another Edman error enabled them to load the bases whereupon Keibert Ruiz walked to force in a run and then Jhon Diaz hit a sac fly to put them up 3-2. They picked up a big insurance run in the 9th when Diaz singled, stole second and scored on a Wander single. Alvarado got through the 8th with that bad bunt and Jasseel De La Cruz got save #5 by striking out Judge and Anthony Rizzo and getting a groundout in a 1-2-3 inning. The win restores the lead to 7 1/2 games.

Asa Lacy made his Padres debut today in relief, and vultured a win after he gave up the game-tying HR in the 8th.

Also in his professional debut with our DSL team, last year's big July 2 signing Omar Rodriguez went 2-4 with a double and an RBI. O-Rod, as I've taken to calling him, is the #21 prospect in baseball per BNN.

Game 3: The Rays rode a 5-run 3rd inning and beat the Yankees and Gerrit Cole soundly by the score of 8-2. Yordan Alvarez got the offense going in the 1st with a 2-run homer (#9) off Cole, just over the short RF fence for a Yankee Stadium special, and then the dam burst in the 3rd when Wander Franco led off with a single, stole second, scored on a Judson Fabian single, and after they loaded the bases Keibert Ruiz cleared them with a double, with Ruiz scoring on a Jhon Diaz groundout. Hunter Bishop added HR #10 in the 7th to round out the scoring. On the mound, Matt Manning picked up where he left off shutting out Minnesota with more shutout ball but had to leave after 5 1/3 with a blister which won't keep him from making his next start. He was 5.1 2 0 0 2 5 to go to 7-3, 3.50. Hayden Johns took over and was immediately greeted by a Gleyber Torres homer and he gave up an RBI double to Torres in the 8th but Evan Godwin got him out of that inning with 2 strikeouts. Cole Patten pitched a 1-2-3 2K 9th to finish off the game as the Rays are now in front by a season-high 8 1/2 games while Boston is 9 back.

Team record: 44-23. Next up: Another off-day followed by 3 at home against the Red Sox.