[Art Deco]

Game 1: It was an instant rematch of the epic pitchers' duel between Jon Hayes and Shane McClanahan from five days ago, and while Hayes held up his end of the bargain again, McClanahan most certainly didn't as he didn't make it out of the 2nd inning as the Rays put up 5 against him on their way to a ridiculous 17-0 rout of Houston. Ricky Widmar's 2-run single and Dayle Jenkins' 2-run homer were the big hits that chased Mac early and the rest is just tallying up the big days here. Widmar seems well and truly out of his slump as he went 4-5, Jenkins added another homer to give him 12 as he drove in 5, Connor Kirkley was 3 for 5 with 2 HR and 5 RBI to give him 12, Jasson Dominguez was 4-5 with a HR (#15) and 3 RBI, and Nate Clark hit #27. Bobby Witt Jr didn't get the invite, and was the only Rays starter hitless today. Meanwhile Hayes was dominant yet again in winning his 10th straight decision, going 7 1 0 0 3 6 and lowering his ERA to 2.30, with Mike Mooney going the final 2 innings allowing a hit to complete the combined 2-hit shutout.

Game 2: It looked like another laugher until it wasn't, but the Rays still hung on for a 6-5 win. Jack Leiter got the start and if I told you a 6-1 lead was cut to 6-5 you'd probably think Leiter melted down in the 6th inning again. But that wasn't the case as not only did he make it through the 6th, he struck out the side before leaving with 101 pitches through that inning, and went 6 5 1 0 0 10 with the only run scoring after Gabriel Moreno misplayed a strikeout and let the runner reach. No, it was the bullpen that let them down today. Corbin Martin got through the 7th but gave up three hits and a run in the 8th and left with two men on and the score 6-2. Enter Jose Alvarado, who was shockingly greeted by Jeremiah Jackson with a 3-run HR to make it 6-5, the first homer Alvarado has allowed this year and only the second in the last two seasons. If you were able to lay a prop bet on Alvarado allowing more HRs than Leiter today, you'd have cleaned up big. Alvarado did bounce back from the shock homer and whiffed the next two to end the inning and retired the side 1-2-3 in the 9th for save #12 while Leiter goes to 6-4. The offense did its thing with 5 runs in the first two innings, starting with a Dayle Jenkins RBI single, a Dane Ayers RBI single, a Ricky Widmar 2-run double and another Jenkins RBI single. Jasson Dominguez singled in a run in the 5th, which didn't look important at the time but turned out to be.

Game 3: In a bit of a shocker the bats fell completely silent as the Rays lost 5-0 to Houston. Andre Roberts, who came into the game with a 5.22 ERA but had only allowed a total of 2 runs over 13 innings in his last 2 starts (one of which was against the Rays in Houston), pitched 8 innings of 5-hit ball to stifle MLB's top offense. Ricky Widmar had 2 of the team's 5 hits and the only one through the first 5 innings. Marc Wagner started for the Rays and wasn't as sharp as he was in his first two Tampa Bay outings but still had great stuff. He was done in by a former Ray (and a lefty hitter to boot) in Bramdon Perez, who hit a 2-run triple with 2 out in the 3rd off of him and then homered in the 6th to make it 3-0. Alex Bregman then went back-to-back with him and Wagner finished 6 6 4 4 3 11. Steve Givens gave up a run in his 2 innings of work and then the 9th inning saw the MLB pitching debut of Rodolfo Rivas. This wasn't the normal "position player pitching" thing, either - Rivas is a legit pitcher and is rated for 50 stuff, 60 movement and 65 control and is considered a 2-way player. He had only thrown 12 innings in the minors, primarily because his bat is too important. And he acquitted himself well, getting the Astros 1-2-3 on 6 pitches with a couple of groundballs. I had been waiting for a situation to use him where a) he wasn't already in the lineup and b) the game situation called for it (the team isn't losing by several runs that often), and today was that day. Meanwhile, while Wagner was getting hit to some extent today Blake Money threw 9 shutout innings of 2-hit ball for the A's, walking 6 and whiffing 8 as the AI let him go 127 pitches in a game Oakland won in 11 innings 1-0. He has a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings over 3 starts since the trade.

Game 4: After yesterday's Houston win evened the season series between the teams at 3, today was the deciding game and the Rays weren't about to let a team get the better of them in 2030. Christian Little made sure of that as the Rays took advantage of sloppy Houston play, which included 3 errors and a key balk to take an 8-1 win. Little was outstanding in his best start of the season, no-hitting the Astros into the 5th inning and finishing 7 2 0 0 1 11 to improve to 7-1, 3.67. Corbin Martin pitched the final two innings, allowing a homer by Eloy Jimenez to spoil the shutout as just when I thought we'd hold the annual Ray-killer off the HR board for once he goes deep in his final at-bat of the season against them. The game was won in a 6-run 3rd inning in which all the runs were unearned thanks to two Houston errors, with one run coming in on a balk. The big hits were RBI singles from Dayle Jenkins and Rodolfo Rivas and a 2-run double from Victor de Jesus. Isaac DeLeon added HR #10 later on to pad the lead. Starting today in RF for the Astros was Stan Collier, our first-round pick in 2024. He's developed 70-rated HR power but he's a mediocre defensive OF and not much of a contact guy so with no future for him with the big club I dealt him a month ago for a couple of mid-level pitching prospects, the better of whom (Mike Fields, a power reliever) already tore his UCL and will be out almost a year.

Team record: 59-18. Next up: Now that we've already had the Lightning visit, it's time for the Bucs as Pittsburgh comes to town for 3.