[Art Deco]

Game 1: Almost every time he takes the mound, Christian Little seems like he has no-hit stuff (the game has him at 80) and tonight he was no-hitting the Angels through 5 2/3 with a 6-0 lead. But Alex Verdugo singled and it seemed to rattle him, as Mike Trout (having an renaissance year at age 35) then drilled a 2-run HR (#35) off him and former Rays flop Lewin Diaz followed suit to halve the lead. Little then hit Anthony Rendon, and another former Rays disappointment Max Kepler hit a ball to deep RF - and it was caught at the fence and Little escaped. He stayed on until the 7th and went 6.2 4 3 3 1 7 to go to 12-7, 3.26 and the Rays tacked on 4 late runs to win comfortably 10-4. Jack Filby relieved him and pitched in the 8th, giving up a double that Jose Alvarado allowed to score to make it 6-4 and marking the first run charged to Filby in 15 appearances. Once the Rays went up 6, JDLC sat down and Cole Patten pitched a scoreless 9th. The offensive star was Judson Fabian, who had a monster game: homering in the 3rd, singling in the 5th and homering again in the 9th with two aboard to give him 15 now as he slowly rounds into 2025-2026 form. Brandon Marsh continues to make like Mark McGwire in the 2nd half with yet another homer, a 2-run shot in the 3rd (#12) and Andrew Knizner added a solo blast in the 9th (#5). Keston Hiura led off the game with a single to extend his hitting streak to 20, and Wander Franco had to leave with a mild hamstring strain that will keep him out for the final two games of this series. The Yankees won tonight but lost last night while the Rays were idle so the lead is 7 1/2 and the magic # is down to 27.

Game 2: It was kind of a tortoise and the hare game tonight, with the Angels in the role of the hare as they raced out to a 2-0 lead behind Ryan Helsley, who set down the first 12 Rays he faced. But slow and steady wins the race, and the Rays scored single runs in the 5th, 6th and 7th to take a 3-2 win. The win was costly, though, as our injury bug continues - this time it's Brandon Marsh who went down and he'll be out 4 weeks with chronic back soreness. I'll get into what we might do about his CF spot at the end of this recap. As for the game, Mack Anglin got the start and got into a little trouble, mainly with Angel rookie 3B Jose Bonilla. Bonilla took him deep in the 2nd inning to make it 1-0, and his sac fly in the 4th doubled the Angels' advantage. But that was all Anglin would give up as he mowed down LA in the middle innings and left with a 7 6 2 2 0 5 line and his 11th win of the season. Daniel Espino came on for the 8th and walked a pair after getting the leadoff man, so Jose Alvarado had to clean up his mess. Jasseel De La Cruz made his first appearance in 9 days with either no save available in the 9th or multiple lefties due up, and didn't show any rust by getting through the 9th with only a 2-out single allowed to - you guessed it - Bonilla, for save #17. Judson Fabian walked to lead off the 5th to break up Helsley's perfect game, Hunter Bishop singled him to 3rd to end the no-hitter, and Triston Casas's sac fly ended the shutout. Then Cole Tucker made his first substantial contributions as a Ray, filling in for the mildly-injured Wander Franco. First in the 6th he singled and scored on Nate Clark's double for the tying run, and in the 7th he got the game-winner, singling in Casas. Keston Hiura singled in his final at-bat of the game to extend his hitting streak to 21. The Yankees won so the magic # drops to 26. As for replacing Marsh, Jhon Diaz and Hunter Bishop are options but I'm not thrilled about going a month with 40/45 play in CF even if the division is largely in hand. So it might be time to get a glimpse of 2028 and bring up Julio Cedillo to play the position. We'd lose a year of control but hey, these aren't the penny-pinching Rays of the 2010s. I'll need a few minutes.

August 22: Placed OF Brandon Marsh on the 10-day IL with chronic back soreness, optioned C Carlos Perez to AAA Durham; recalled OF Julio Cedillo from AAA Durham, activated C Keibert Ruiz from the 10-day IL.

Let the (preview of the) Julio Cedillo era begin! We'll see how he does in his 4-week trial which might inform how we approach things in the offseason. Meanwhile, Ruiz is welcomed back, Andrew Knizner's performance over the last several weeks has meant we've barely missed him but it's great to have him back.

Game 3: Keston Hiura led off the game with HR #9 off Logan Allen and extended his hitting streak to 22 games. And that was about as good as it got for the Rays as Shane McClanahan had a rare off-day and the Rays had to settle for Meat Loafing another series as they fell 7-4 to the Angels. Things turned sour quickly for Mac as he yielded a 2-run HR to Shohei Ohtani in the 1st inning and after surviving two on in the 2nd things fell apart in the 3rd. Mike Trout homered to make it 3-1, then a string of mostly singles off him punctuated by a Lewin Diaz double and a Cole Tucker error which didn't help and Mac was forced to leave at 2.2 8 6 4 2 2 to drop to 15-5, 3.02. Blake Money took over and rolled until he gave up Ohtani's 2nd HR of the game in the 7th. Cole Patten had a scoreless 8th. Hiura's homer was the only hit they had until the 5th but they did rally for 3 runs in the 6th to make things interesting at 6-4, capped by Yordan Alvarez's 27th of the year, a mammoth 2-run shot that landed well up on the rock sculpture in LCF. Still despite the loss they lowered their magic # to 25 as the Yankees fell at home to Toronto.

Team record: 83-47. Next up: We head north up the west coast to Seattle for a 3-game series and the MLB debut of Julio Cedillo.