[Art Deco]

Game 1: So Jon Hayes gave up four early runs and the bullpen coughed up four more in the 8th and 9th. Sounds like a recipe for a bad loss, right? Well somehow the Rays managed to hold on and beat the Yankees 9-8 thanks to the best efforts of Dane Ayers at the plate and despite the best efforts of the pen to blow it. Yankee rookie sensation Mario Aguilar led the game off with a homer and then current AL WAR leader Ivan Vega doubled in two more in a 3-run 3rd and the Rays were down 4-0 as Yankee starter Forrest Whitley retired them in the order the first 3 innings. But they started chipping away, starting with Nate Clark's 2-run HR (#9) in the 4th, then Jasson Dominguez added a solo shot (#7) in the 5th and with Ricky Widmar's RBI single tied up the game. Hayes settled down and at one point struck out 6 straight Yankees, ending 6.1 9 4 4 0 9. Hayes left with a man on 3rd and one out, and with two lefties due Brad Ballmann came in. He proceeded to walk the two lefties to load the bases for Vlad Guerrero Jr but managed to get him to hit into a double play to end the inning. And then Ayers went to work. He blasted a solo HR in the bottom of the 7th to give the Rays the lead, and Joe Barker broke it open with a 3-run shot (#4) to make it 8-4. Nevertheless, Ballmann couldn't stand prosperity in the 8th and gave up 2 runs to cut the lead to 8-6 before Jose Alvarado got the final out of the inning. Ayers then homered again in the 8th (#5) to make it 9-6 and with Alvarado to close it out, things looked under control. Nope. Alvarado suddenly couldn't get anyone out, two runs were in with nobody out and men were on 1st and 2nd. Then Joe Allen lined a shot to center which Dominguez made a diving catch on, and J-Dom gunned out Vlad Jr at 3rd trying to tag up and advance for a double play. Alvarado then got the final out on a grounder and the Rays miraculously hung on in their wildest game of the year. Despite their struggles Ballmann picked up win #2 and Alvarado save #6.

Game 2: I'm beginning to run out of ways to describe the Rays winning games they have no business winning and today it happened again as they bested the Yankees 8-5 in 13 innings. The Yankees pummeled Rays starter Marc Wagner and built a 5-0 lead in the 5th. Wagner left 5 7 5 5 4 4 and was lucky it wasn't worse. Of course once it was 5-0 it was like a switch came on and they decided to start hitting as for the second day in a row they went down in order over the first 3 innings. Victor de Jesus hit a solo shot in the bottom of the 5th to make it 5-1 and Dayle Jenkins hit HR #2 to make it 5-2 after 6. Then the Yankees started putting all kinds of baserunners on against Nate Thompson and Mike Mooney. They got 5 hits off Thompson in 1 2/3 innings, and after Connor Kirkley cut the lead to 5-4 in the 7th with a 2-run shot (#8), they got 4 more hits off Mike Mooney. But despite 9 hits in 4 innings off those two pitchers, both of them got big strikeouts with multiple men on and sometimes with the bases loaded. In fact the Yankees finished with 18 LOB, and Mario Aguilar had 10 LOB himself and they outhit the Rays 18-10. This kept the came close until the 9th when the Rays mounted an improbable 2-out rally. Veteran Yankee closer Joe Jimenez struck out the first two before walking Kirkley and giving up a single to Bobby Witt Jr. This brought Luis Corpus up, and the rookie catcher lined a single up the middle scoring Kirkley and tying the game. Jordan Diaz pitched the 10th and 11th, giving up a couple of hits but no runs, and Evan Godwin came on for the 12th and came through with two scoreless innings of his own. This bought time for Jasson Dominguez to haunt his old club by blasting a 3-run HR off Japanese import Kichizo Matsumoto, his 8th of the season in the bottom of the 13th to win it. Godwin ends up with his 4th relief win of the young season and the Rays roll to 28-6 and 8 games up on New York.

Game 3: After two high-scoring, back-and-forth games, one of which went to extra innings, the Rays bullpen was in need of a breather today. And they got one courtesy of Andy Aparicio who twirled his second shutout of the season, a 5-hitter with 0 walks and 4 strikeouts on 112 pitches, to beat the Yankees 2-0. AA had his sinker working as the Yankees hit into 14 ground outs, including one double play as he improved to 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA and 1.9 WAR, the latter two numbers the best in the AL. He did survive a scare in the 9th when Ivan Vega tripled with two out to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of slugger Joe Allen, and Rays fans feared the worst when Allen sent one deep to right but fortunately it fell just short of the fence into the waiting glove of Victor de Jesus. Meanwhile it turned out Aparicio would get all the offense he needed when Ricky Widmar led off the game with his 7th homer of the season off Yankee starter Brennan Malone, but that would be all the offense he'd get until the 6th inning when Joe Barker hit HR #5 off Roansy Contreras to make it 2-0. Rays batters only managed 5 hits on the night, with Widmar and Barker combining for four of them (Dane Ayers' double was the other).

Game 4: I don't know, maybe this team is incapable of losing. Maybe the Yankees are incapable of beating them any longer, even though they've dealt the Rays half of their six losses this season. But right now it doesn't seem to matter what kind of lead the Yankees have and when they have it, the Rays will overcome it. Today the Yankees led the Rays 4-2 going into the bottom of the 8th and two Yankee errors ignited a 3-run Rays rally to enable Tampa Bay to take it 5-4. Nate Clark struck out to start the inning and Joe Barker walked. Then Yankee 3B Vlad Guerrero Jr booted Victor de Jesus's grounder and 2B Ivan Vega muffed Jasson Dominguez's ground ball. Connor Kirkley then singled to score Barker and reload the bases, and Dane Ayers, who had homered earlier (#6, more on him in a bit) drilled a 2-run single to give the Rays the lead. Jordan Diaz then worked around hitting Vlad Jr with a pitch in the 9th to get save #7. For a while it looked like the Yankees would take a page from the Rays by coming back for a change; after the Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Ayers' homer and Ricky Widmar's RBI single New York hit Christian Little for a pair of homers in the 6th, a 2-run blast from Guerrero to tie it and a Joe Allen solo shot, to take a 3-2 lead. And after Tim Siqueiros got the Yanks 1-2-3 in the 7th he gave up a leadoff double to Vlad in the 8th who Brad Ballmann allowed to score. As a result of the subsequent Rays rally, Ballmann got the win in his third consecutive appearance. Little was rolling until the 6th and ended 6 8 3 3 0 9 while Ayers continues his insane hitting in part-time play, now up to 400/451/738 with 6 HR and 16 RBI in 65 AB over 16 games. He's earned some more consistent playing time which is going to mean a lot more rotation of the lineup.

Team record: 30-6. Next up: Road trip begins in Minnesota for 3 over the weekend.