Game 1: The Rays made it 9 out of 10 this year against the Yankees with a 4-3 win in the first of their 4-game series at Yankee Stadium. Gavin Lux hit HR #24 off Antoine Kelly in the 7th to break a 3-3 tie and give Christian Little his 9th win of the season. It was an unusual game for Little, who wasn't getting his normal quota of strikeouts but still pitched well, going 7 4 3 3 1 5. The Rays had taken an early 3-0 lead off Forrest Whitley on a Jud Fabian RBI single and a 2-run single from Lux, but old friend Vidal Brujan doubled with 2 out in the 3rd bringing up Victor Robles, who took Little deep and the Yanks added a run in the 4th. Daniel Espino had a quick 1-2-3 8th on 9 pitches and stayed in to face Vlad Jr., but gave up a single to him. Jose Alvarado came in, gave up an infield single of his own to put men on 1st and 2 with nobody out, but he got the next 3 Yankees to close it out for save #7.
Game 2: Never count this team out. Down 8-3 going into the top of the 9th, the Rays scored 6 times to pull out an improbable 9-8 win over the Yankees. The rally was primarily due to the wildness of Yankee relievers. Roansy Contreras loaded the bases with nobody out on two walks and a single, walked pinch-hitter Joe Barker to force in a run, Mike Tudor came in for New York and walked Ricky Widmar to force in another, Gavin Lux singled to make it 8-6, and Judson Fabian walked to make it 8-7. Tudor recovered to whiff Yordan Alvarez and get Bobby Witt Jr to hit into a force at the plate, but just when it looked like he might get out of it Jhon Diaz delivered a 2-run single to give the Rays the lead, which Jasseel De La Cruz preserved with a 1-2-3 9th for save #19. Before the comeback it looked like the big story of the game would be Blake Money suffering his first loss of the season as he was battered by the Yankees. He was given a 3-0 lead on homers from Witt (#13, a solo shot in the 2nd) and Lux (#25, a 2-run blast in the 3rd) but let the Yankees score 6 times in the bottom of the 4th, including HRs from Victor Robles and Juan Mendez, the latter a grand slam. And he stayed in to give up two more in the 5th before Jack Leiter came on, and finished with an ugly 4.2 7 8 8 3 0 line with the lack of strikeouts notable. Leiter was brilliant in long relief, going 3.1 1 0 0 1 6 on only 40 pitches and earned his 9th win of the season. So it's now 10 of 11 this year against New York and a gargantuan 22 1/2 game lead.
Speaking of Blake Money, I Googled him and IRL he's about to start pitching at LSU. But he was part of an internet meme I somehow missed in 2013 when he pitched in the Little League World Series. It turns out he has a brother named Cash - yes, Cash Money - and well, here's Cash at that 2013 LLWS:
Game 3: The Rays keep winning, making it 8 straight with a 7-5 triumph over the Yankees. Ricky Widmar's 8th-inning grand slam (#10) broke a 3-3 tie, and as is often the case the bullpen made it interesting but hung on. Shane McClanahan started and while he didn't have his best stuff he was the prototypical crafty lefty today, hanging around long enough to get the win (now 10-2) by going 7 5 3 3 2 2. Jack Filby took over for him in the 8th and loaded the bases with nobody out, and Evan Godwin allowed two of those runners to score on a groundout and wild pitch. Jose Alvarado started the 9th, got two quick strikeouts, but walked the next two batters ahead of Vlad Jr (who hit #31 earlier in the game off Mac). So it was Jasseel De La Cruz time, and JDLC got Vlad to fly to left to end the game for save #20. Earlier the Rays had put runs on the board with Nate Clark's 24th HR of the year and his sac fly, along with Yordan Alvarez's 21st round-tripper. Widmar also stole his 32nd base in the game as he's proved to be a more than able replacement for Wander Franco as an all-around force and he's on pace for 6.2 WAR this season.
Game 4: A rare loss for the Rays as the Yankees scored 5 times in the first inning on their way to a 6-2 win over Tampa Bay. Mack Anglin regressed somewhat to being very hittable again, although a Connor Kirkley error meant that first inning was a 5-run inning instead of a 2-run inning (although Anglin is to blame for the subsequent 2-run Alfonso Rivas homer). Anglin went 5 10 6 3 2 5 and dropped to 4-4. With Jack Leiter's impressive long relief outing the other day, it's really Anglin vs Leiter for the 5th spot right now. Of course the offense didn't exactly distinguish itself either, only managing 6 hits with both runs coming on Isaac DeLeon's 7th HR of the year. Still the loss was only their 13th in the last 71 games.
Team record: 69-26. Next up: The All-Star break, then Boston comes to town for a weekend series.