[Art Deco]

July 9: Placed OF Jhon Diaz on the 10-day IL with back stiffness, recalled OF Dayle Jenkins from AAA Durham.

Jenkins is back, and he was raking at Durham (334/409/531). He's a legit MLB player right now and will share time with Spencer Torkelson filling in for Diaz, who'll be out for 3 weeks.

Game 1: Shane McClanahan was in his 2027 Cy Young form as the Rays won a pitchers' duel 2-0 over Minnesota. Mac was hardly in trouble in a dominant 7 3 0 0 1 8 performance, evening his record at 6-6. Daniel Espino got through the 8th and with two lefties leading off the 9th Jose Alvarado came in and got a 1-2-3 9th for save #5. Alvarado's having one of his best seasons, with a 1.91 ERA and a 5/34 BB/K ratio in 33 innings, impressive considering control has been his one historical weak link. Spencer Torkelson's 8th HR of the year off Jordan Wicks leading off the 5th turned out to be the only run they'd need, but Bobby Witt Jr. added an RBI single in the 6th to give them a little insurance. Those two hits were half of their total on the night as each team only managed 4.

Game 2: For 6 innings it looked a lot like last night with the Rays clinging to a 2-1 lead. Then Jordan Diaz took it upon himself to blow the lead in the 7th and let Minnesota go ahead 3-2. But then the Rays hitters took it upon themselves to score 7 runs over the next two innings in a 9-3 win. Keibert Ruiz had himself a game, including a 2-run HR (#10) off Kodi Whitley to give the Rays the lead back at 4-3, and then an RBI double in a 4-run 8th as he continues to have a great season at 333/367/575. Mack Anglin started for the Rays and was excellent through 6, avoiding his usual meltdown inning on the way to going 6 5 1 1 1 7. Unfortunately Diaz vultured his win with the a rough 7th. Jose Alvarado got a 1-2-3 8th while it was still 5-3, and Mike Mooney mopped up in the 9th. Dayle Jenkins saw his first action after being called up again and was in the middle of everything, getting on base via error, hit by pitch and a single and scoring 3 times with a pair of stolen bases. Judson Fabian drove in a pair and so did Joe Barker with a bases-loaded single in the 8th. Ricky Widmar also was on base twice with a walk and a single and had a steal and an RBI.

Game 3: The Rays jumped on Minnesota ace Jon Hayes for 9 runs in the 2nd inning on their way to a 10-6 win that saw Alec Sachais and Andy Aparicio apparently pitch to the score. Dayle Jenkins' 1-out RBI single put the Rays on the board in the 2nd, but Minnesota should have been out of the inning when Keibert Ruiz hit an easy double play ball to Minnesota 3B Yairo Munoz. Munoz booted it, though, loading the bases for Ricky Widmar who took a Hayes offering into the LF stands to make it 5-0, his 7th HR of the year. And then the bases became turnstiles as Jud Fabian doubled and then Joe Barker, Jasson Dominguez and Bobby Witt Jr had RBI singles and Spencer Torkelson an RBI groundout (he later added an RBI single for the 10th run) and it was 9-0. Sachais cruised through the first 3, then gave up a couple of homers for 3 runs in the 4th, gave up another homer in the 6th, and ended up 6 7 4 4 0 8 while going to 10-1. Aparicio came in for the final 3, gave up a 2-run HR in the 8th but hung on to pick up his first MLB save. Witt had a 3-hit night and Jenkins was 2-4, starting at 2B and giving Connor Kirkley a night off. He turned a double play to end the game.

Game 4: The Rays stunk in all phases of the game as they dropped the series finale 7-2 to the Twins. Jack Leiter was way too hittable, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits including a homer in his 102 pitches over 4 innings, although he did strike out 8. The defense wasn't very good either as Ricky Widmar made a key error in a 3-run 3rd for Minnesota and then he later misplayed a pop up into short left to give the Twins another unearned run later in the game. And the offense, although key regulars were rested for this day game after a night game (Witt, Fabian, Ruiz, Dominguez), couldn't manage to rub two sticks together, scratching out a couple of a late runs to avoid being shut out on an RBI double from Dane Ayers and an RBI groundout from Spencer Torkelson.

Team record: 64-28. Next up: The Rays will look for some revenge against Houston, who beat them 3 out of 4 last week, when they come to town for the final 3 games before the All-Star break.