[Art Deco]

Game 1: What. A. Game. Jack Flaherty and Matt Manning hooked up in the pitchers' duel of the year. Manning allowed doubles to the first two batters of the game to put St. Louis up 1-0 but only allowed 2 hits over the next 7 innings, while Flaherty shut the Rays out through 8 on 3 hits and 0 walks. Flaherty departed in favor of Cardinal closer Seranthony Dominguez in the 9th, and the Rays had to feel like they were done a favor. Sure enough Vidal Brujan led off the 9th with a single, stole 2nd, went to third on a Wander Franco groundout, and scored on Yordan Alvarez's sac fly to tie the game. And off to extras we went before Triston Casas drilled a Roberto Bautista pitch deep into the RF stands in the bottom of the 12th for HR #14 and a walk-off 2-1 win to snap the Rays' 4-game losing streak. Manning was 7 4 1 1 1 8 in his own brilliant outing, and the bullpen came up with 5 shutout innings, allowing only 3 hits and 0 walks. 2 of those hits came off Liam Hendriks, the first of the relievers, but Evan Godwin got him out of the inning. Jack Filby had 2 scoreless innings, Jose Alvarado 1 and Jasseel De La Cruz pitched the 12th and got his 3rd win. The Yankees won in walk-off fashion themselves on a 2-run Joe Allen HR to beat Texas, so the lead remains 8.

Game 2: It was almost a carbon copy of yesterday, except for the extra innings part and with Shane McClanahan in the role of Jack Flaherty as he shut down the Cardinals and the Rays came away with a 2-0 win. In a season of great starts, this might have been Mac's best as he went 8 4 0 0 2 10 and closed with a flourish by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 8th. He's now 13-3, 2.77. Jasseel De La Cruz had a 1-2-3 9th to get save #13. All four hits McClanahan allowed were singles, but two of them came in the 6th along with a walk and the bases were loaded with nobody out. But he got a strikeout, and then a fly ball double play when Hunter Bishop gunned down Joey Gallo at home trying to score. The Rays meanwhile were kept in check by Josh Hader, who's been a starter the last couple of years for St. Louis since being acquired in the famous Hader-for-Bader deal. But they did get to him in the 4th when Yordan Alvarez doubled and scored on Judson Fabian's single. They added a big insurance run in the 8th when Nate Clark took Corey Knebel deep for HR #4. The Yankees keep rolling so it's a good thing they've managed to win the epic struggles of the last two nights.

July 11: Activated P Mack Anglin from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham, optioned IF Nick Loftin to AAA Durham.

There were no obvious choices to send down from the staff, so Loftin goes and we're going with 14 pitchers. Loftin has barely played over the last month and a half so we can probably go with 3 on the bench, especially now that we played those series in the NL parks earlier this week.

Game 3: So after a grand total of 5 runs were scored by both teams combined the previous two games of this series, all hell broke loose in one of the wildest games in Trop history. Unfortunately the Rays came out on the losing end of a 12-9 game after the bullpen imploded and allowed 5 St. Louis runs in the 9th inning, with the winning 3 runs coming on an inside-the-park homer. And even in the bottom of the 9th the Rays had a chance to win or tie when with two out and nobody on, Keibert Ruiz (his 4th hit of the game, now hitting .336), Nate Clark and Jhon Diaz all singled to load the bases before Vidal Brujan's sinking liner, which looked it would score a run or two, was caught by a diving Josh Stowers. And it was in a strange way we got to that point. Early it looked just like the two games that preceded it, with Mack Anglin in his return from injury holding a 1-0 lead through 4 innings. And after getting the first out of the 5th, Anglin lost the plot. He gave up a single and a homer to Trejyn Fletcher to put St. Louis in front. And once he lost the lead, he lost it, going walk, HBP, walk, HBP to score another, wild-pitched in a run and then gave up an RBI single to make it 6-1. He stayed in through the 6th and pitched well after that, going 6 4 6 6 2 5. And for a long time it looked like he'd get the win as the Rays answered with their own 6-run inning in the bottom of the 6th on an RBI single from Judson Fabian, an RBI double from Hunter Bishop and a grand slam from Ruiz (HR #7). Yordan Alvarez added HR #16 in the 8th to make it 8-6, and then Jose Alvarado got into big trouble in the 8th, giving up 3 hits to 3 batters, allowing a run and leaving with men on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out. But Jack Filby came in, got a popup, strikeout, and fly out to keep the game at 8-7. And when Alvarez drew a bases-loaded walk in the 8th to make it 9-7, it looked the Rays were on their way with a big insurance run. But then came the 9th. Filby only threw 7 pitches in the 8th so he started the 9th with JDLC unavailable after pitching the previous two nights. He gave up a leadoff double, and with two lefties due up in next 3, Evan Godwin came in and just couldn't get anyone out, giving up 4 hits to score 2 runs to let the Cards tie it, got one out when Stowers tried to go to 3rd on his 2-run double and was thrown out, and then got a second out via strikeout. With 2nd and 3rd and a righty due up and Godwin already at 21 pitches, Steven Casey came on and was greeted by Fletcher's inside-the-park homer, his 2nd HR of the game and it was 12-9 St. Louis. Fortunately the Yankees' 7-game winning streak was snapped by Texas so the Rays go into the break up by 8.

Team record: 63-34. Next up: The All-Star break of course, with several Rays going to the ASG, and after that we open the "traditional second half" at Baltimore for 3.