[Art Deco]

Game 1: Tropicana Field turned into Coors Field for 6 innings today as the Yankees led the Rays 9-8 going into the 7th, and unfortunately for the Rays the stadium reverted to the Trop over the final 3 as no further runs were scored. The 9-8 win for the Yankees continues the New Yorkers' success against the Rays this year, as they're probably the only team that can make this claim as they took an 8-6 lead in the season series. Blake Money was horrible today, going 3.1 6 7 7 3 5 and allowing a couple of homers. Andy Aparicio wasn't much better, coming on for Money in the 4th with 2 men on and promptly giving up a 3-run HR to Ivan Vega and then watching the next batter Joe Allen hit his 2nd of the game. Evan Godwin did pitch 2 scoreless innings and Romulo Canelon one to keep them close, but they couldn't make the late-inning breakthrough. The Rays got homers from Ricky Widmar (#16) leading off the game, Jasson Dominguez (#33), a 3-run shot tying the game at 5, and Connor Kirkley (#15), another 3-run shot which got them within 9-8. It was a big win for the Yankees in the wide-open AL wild card race, and it might behoove the Rays to beat them the next couple of days to reduce their chances of having to face them in the ALDS.

Game 2: Beating the Yankees hasn't been easy for the Rays this year, and even when it looks like it might be easy it often isn't. Case in point today as the Rays led 5-0 after 6 innings and had to end up holding on to win 7-5. Jack Leiter gave them another great start going 6 4 0 0 2 6 on 99 pitches and he still ended up with win, improving to 9-3, 3.87 as he finally got his ERA below 4. Leiter's allowed only 2 runs over his last 4 starts, covering 26 innings. But Romulo Canelon had a rare bad outing as he immediately gave up a homer to Sam Hunt and then another to Derek Crum. Daniel Espino got out of the inning, but put 2 more on in the 8th and then gave up Hunt's 2nd HR of the game to make it 6-5. Joe Barker capped his big day with an insurance RBI single in the 8th as he was 3-4 with 2 RBI and 2 steals. Jose Alvarado had gotten Espino out of the 8th and with lefties due up stayed on for the 9th which he navigated successfully for save #6. The Rays had built their 5-0 lead on a Barker single in the 1st, two runs on wild pitches around a Bobby Witt sac fly in the 3rd to make it 4-0, and a Nate Clark RBI single in the 6th. Connor Kirkley's RBI groundout in the 7th produced another run.

Game 3: The Rays' struggles with the Yankees continued as they dropped an 8-5 decision today to give the Yankees a 9-7 edge in the season series to date. And the score flattered them as Carlos Perez's grand slam (#4) in the bottom of the 9th turned an 8-1 game into an 8-5 one. Mack Anglin started and - stop me if you've heard this before - had one bad inning out of the 6 he pitched, really a 5-batter sequence in the 4th which saw the Yankees score 4 times. Overall he was 6 5 4 4 1 6 in one of his typical outings, although what was atypical was taking the loss as he's now 15-4. Jordan Diaz got through the 7th but gave up 4 more in the 8th as he's now on a run of 3 bad outings in 4 in which he's allowed 9 runs in his last 4 2/3 innings. JDLC got some work in with a scoreless 9th. Before Perez's 11th-hour slam the offense didn't do its part either, with Nate Clark's solo HR in the 4th (#31 and their first hit of the day) all they could generate.

Team record: 90-38. Next up: a quick jaunt to Kansas City for a makeup game before returning home to play the Angels.