[Art Deco]

Game 1: With only 3 relievers fresh after a couple of games with heavy bullpen usage, we were going to need Shane McClanahan to go deep tonight. Mission accomplished, as Mac pitched into the 8th and a 2-run double by Keibert Ruiz in the 9th gave the Rays a 4-3 win in the first game of the road trip. Mac went 7.1 7 2 2 2 4 on 102 pitches and gave way to Evan Godwin, who got the final two outs of the 8th as it went 2-2 to the 9th. Jhon Diaz walked, Luis Berdin reached on an error, and Ruiz ripped a double to the RF corner scoring them both. Jose Alvarado came in for the save, and although he gave up a 2-out HR to the same-handed Alex Verdugo, he still picked save #6 while Godwin notched win #3. The Rays' earlier runs came in the 3rd on a Gavin Lux RBI double, and in the 4th when Berdin had his first MLB extra-base hit and first MLB RBI with a run-scoring double.

Game 2: Kind of a sad effort tonight as the Rays fell 7-3 to the Angels. Mack Anglin started, and it looked like he'd build on his fine start last time out after he shut the Angels out on 40 pitches through 4 innings. But after the Rays gave him a 3-0 lead in the top of the 5th, he gave it right back with 3 in the bottom of the inning, allowed another run in the 6th, and put a man on with out in the 7th. Aaron Ashby then poured gasoline on the fire, giving up an RBI double then a 2-run HR to make it 7-3 and the offense did nothing outside that 5th inning, ending with only 4 hits on the night. 3 of those hits came from Luis Berdin, who hit a pair of doubles including a run-scoring with in the 5th with the other two scored on an Isaac DeLeon double. Anglin ended up 6.1 7 5 5 1 5, while not great wasn't completely terrible either. The bullpen continues to confound, though. They have a 4.29 ERA which is 11th in the AL. Pretty bad, right? Yet we have a 13-7 record in 1-run games and are 3 games better than our Pythagorean record. The thing I've noticed is that on any given night, they're either really bad or really good. Espino has been lights-out (with a couple of recent exceptions) but everyone else has had their meltdowns yet have been effective overall. Godwin has a 5.20 ERA yet has 0.8 WAR and 40 K in 27 IP, JDLC's ERA is 4.43 but he has 0.7 WAR (28 K in 20), and Alvarado has a 5.11 ERA despite 37 Ks in 24.2 innings. Ashby has -0.2 WAR and 5 HR allowed in 29.2 innings, though, so he's been bad all the way through and could be a candidate for trade/release (release more likely as he seems have zero trade value) with the Bowers acquisition.

June 24: Designated P Aaron Ashby for assignment and placed him on waivers, recalled P Jeremy Bowers from AAA Durham.

As stated above, Ashby wasn't getting it done anymore, and was going to be a FA at year's end anyway so it's time to take a look at Bowers who pitched very well in his rookie season this year in Arizona. We bid Ashby a fond farewell, and he'll always have those three rings.

Game 3: The Rays had a 3-run 1st inning without hitting the ball out of the infield and Christian Little pitched six strong innings again before having to leave with a blister as they bested the Angels 5-2. LA starter Keider Montero walked the bases loaded, gave up an infield single to Bobby Witt Jr to score the first run, walked Jhon Diaz to force in the 2nd and gave up another infield single to Joe Barker to make it 3-0. Witt drove in another run in the 3rd with a groundout to make it 4-0, and Barker hit one considerably farther his next time up, into the RF stands for #6 to make it 5-0 in the 4th. Little was pitching well as usual, although he had a brief hiccup in the 5th when he gave up a 2-run HR to Chance Sisco. Still he was more pitch-efficient than usual today, going 6 5 2 2 1 8 on only 85 pitches and was set to take a rare foray into the 7th inning when he developed a blister problem and had to leave after 6. It's a one-week injury so we'll probably skip his start, either through an off-day or putting Leiter back into the rotation (I have to check the schedule). The mercurial bullpen was excellent tonight, with Jack Filby, Jose Alvarado and Jasseel De La Cruz each pitching scoreless innings. JDLC grabbed save #13 while Little goes to 7-3, 2.31.

Game 4: It was the Alec Sachais show again as the rookie righty shut down the Angels to the tune of 7 6 1 0 0 6 in a 4-1 Rays win over the Angels to take 3 of 4 in the series (and 6 of 7 in the season series after the Angels beat them in last year's ALCS). Sachais was never in any serious trouble, and kept his pitch count low enough to start the 8th, but a 2-base Bobby Witt Jr error and an RBI double from Luis Renfigo meant he gave way to Jose Alvarado with lefties Anthony Rizzo and Eric Herman due up. Alvarado got the job done, retiring those two and two more on a grand total of 12 pitches, and Daniel Espino got the final 2 outs on 5 pitches to wrap up the win. No save for Espino since he didn't start the 9th while Sachais goes to 6-0, 2.19 with a 10/87 BB/K ratio in 74 innings. The bulk of the offense came in a 3rd inning rally that saw Isaac DeLeon and Jhon Diaz single, Ricky Widmar single in DeLeon, Connor Kirkley walk to load the bases and Nate Clark single in Diaz and Widmar. Kirkley added his 2nd MLB homer in the 8th.

Team record: 53-23. Next up: 3 games in Oakland.