[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays came into the friendly confines and came away with a 7-4 win. Shane McClanahan was not at his best, pinch-hit for in the 6th, but still picked up his MLB-leading 12th win despite being quite hittable in a 5 9 3 3 1 4 performance. After getting a 1st inning run thanks to the wildness of Cubs starter Sam Thoresen (two walks and a wild pitch to score one), the Rays had two big hits. The first was a 3-run HR by the red-hot Wander Franco (#16) in the 5th to put them up 4-2, and the second was a 2-run double by Yordan Alvarez (his 3rd hit of the day) in the 8th that turned a 4-3 game into a 6-3 one. Nick Gonzales added a pinch-hit RBI single in the 9th to allow JDLC to sit down in favor of Steven Casey, who did give up a run in the 9th. Before that, Liam Hendriks bounced back from yesterday's struggles to whiff 3 Cubs in 1/1/3 innings and Evan Godwin and Jack Filby got through the other 1 2/3.

July 3: Activated P Aaron Ashby from the 60-day IL, optioned P Mike Bayley to AAA Durham, designated P Collin Bosley-Smith for assignment and placed him on waivers.

Time to bring back Ashby, who hopefully will be a more reliable lefty in the pen than Bayley. He showed his stuff at Durham (12 Ks in 7 IP) and his rust (5 BB). Hopefully he's over the latter. Bosley-Smith has a great arm but was way down the pecking order, he'll be a MiLB free agent this winter if a big league club doesn't claim him.

Game 2: The Rays lost a wild one in 12 innings to the Cubs 10-7 when Kyle Tucker hit a 3-run walk-off HR off Jasseel De La Cruz. We ended up in extras when Judson Fabian hit a 2-out, 2-HR (#9) in the top of the 9th to tie it at 7 after the Rays had earlier blown a 4-0 lead and found themselves down 7-5. Matt Manning couldn't stand prosperity and although he no-hit the Cubs through the first 3 innings they jumped on him in the 4th for 3 runs (including a 2-run double from Tucker who had a 5-RBI day), and nicked him for single runs in the 5th and the 6th. He then gave up a leadoff single in the 7th and Hayden Johns came on, struck out the next two batters but yielded a 2-run HR to Brian Reynolds after the Rays had come back to tie it on a Nate Clark sac fly. Earlier Triston Casas had a 2-run double and Fabian and Yordan Alvarez had RBI singles to stake the Rays to a 4-0 lead. There were only 4 non-tired relievers in the pen and after Johns pitched his rough inning, Steven Casey and Aaron Ashby each pitched 2 scoreless innings to prolong the game. Ashby looked good in his return, whiffing 4 and being pushed a bit harder than I had hoped with 33 pitches. That set up the fateful 12th when a Nick Gonzales error with 1 out put a man on, JDLC wild-pitched him to 2nd, Reynolds was intentionally walked, and then Tucker delivered his game-winning bomb.

Game 3: The Rays blew another early lead and ended up on the wrong end of a 9-6 decision to the Cubs. Chicago batters battered Rays hurlers for 18 hits to go with the 9 runs as they couldn't hold an early 4-1 lead. Jack Leiter started and was giving up a fair # of hits but getting out of it, and made it through 5 innings up 4-2. His spot came up in the 6th and with only 3 non-tired relievers I decided to let him try to move over Andrew Knizner from 1st instead of pinch-hitting for him. Not only did he bunt into a double play but he then couldn't get anyone out in the 6th, giving up a walk and three straight hits before I went to Evan Godwin, who gave up a hit, a HBP with the bases loaded, a sac fly and another RBI single as the Cubs scored 5 times to go up 7-4. The Rays got back within 7-6 in the top of the 8th, but Jasseel De La Cruz gave those two runs right back to the Cubs and the Rays ended up with an unhappy July 4th. Early it looked liked it might be their day as Vidal Brujan led off the game with a homer (#5) onto Waveland Avenue and Nate Clark had an RBI single in a 2-run 1st, Nick Gonzales had an RBI single in the 2nd and Hunter Bishop led off the 3rd with a triple and scored on Triston Casas's sac fly. Casas and Jhon Diaz singled in the runs in the 8th. Leiter, outside of the protected confines of Tropicana Field, ended up an ugly 5 11 6 6 1 4 in his first MLB road start. I'll also single out Yordan Alvarez for my ire: he was 0-5 today and left 5 men on base as he continues to be a major disappointment.

Team record: 61-31. Next up: An off-day followed by two games in Milwaukee.

Mack Anglin rehab update: He went 5 6 2 2 3 7 on 98 pitches in start #2, better than the first, a bit wild though. I've seen enough and he'll be back next weekend before the break.