[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays picked up where they left off in last year's ALCS and continued their winning ways (6 of their last 7) by beating the Houston Astros 8-3 at Tropicana Field tonight. Brandon Lowe continued to rake, hitting a 2-run shot (#7) in the first to put them up 2-0 as part of a 3-5 night, and Yandy Diaz was 4-4 with an RBI. After Houston pulled within 2-1, Austin Meadows led off the 6th with HR #5 and they tacked on two more on a Randy Arozarena double and Willy Adames' RBI single, and added 3 more in the 8th to blow it open. Michael Wacha started, and although it seemed he was constantly in trouble he got the big outs and stranded Astro baserunners, going 6 7 1 1 2 5 to improve to 4-0, 3.67. Chaz Roe whiffed a pair in the 7th, Peter Fairbanks gave up an unearned run in the 8th, and Trevor Richards got into some trouble, allowing a run before Cody Reed got the final two outs. The Yankees rolled on, so the Rays remain 2 1/2 back.

Game 2: The Astros and Yuri Gurriel in particular battered Tampa Bay pitching today, and although they made a late comeback after trailing 8-2, the Rays fell short by an 8-6 score today. Gurriel was 4-4 with 3 doubles, a homer and 4 RBI with most of the damage coming against Ryan Yarbrough, who went 6.1 9 5 5 0 4. Diego Castillo took over for him and was hit hard as well, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits in only an inning of work with Trevor Richards pitching the final 1 2/3. Early on the only Rays offense came from Brandon Lowe, who stayed hot with HR #8, but later they chipped away with Willy Adames going 3-5 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, Kevin Kiermaier driving in a pair with a single, and Manuel Margot 2-5 with 2 doubles and an RBI. All of that added up to them loading the bases after scoring 2 runs in the 9th, but Houston closer Ryan Pressly wriggled out of it, whiffing Margot and getting Kiermaier to ground out to end the game.

Game 3: The Rays were in bad shape today after Rich Hill's run of excellent starts came to a crashing halt against Houston today. The Astros kept adding runs throughout, and by the time Hill left in the 5th it was 5-0 Astros. Hill ended up 4.1 7 5 5 3 2 and saw his ERA double to 2.64, with Andrew Kittredge taking over for him. Meanwhile the offense was being shut down by Jose Urquidy, who allowed them only two hits over the first 4 innings. Then something strange happened. The Rays started hitting, and pretty much didn't stop. The first 7 batters in the bottom of the 5th, and 8 of the first 9, all hit safely and a 5-0 deficit became a 6-5 lead. It started with a Joey Wendle single before Francisco Mejia hit HR #2 to make it 5-2. Austin Meadows then went back-to-back with Mejia and it was 5-3, then a Randy Arozarena RBI single and a Yoshi Tsutsugo RBI double tied it and Kevin Kiermaier's RBI single gave them the lead. They didn't stop there either. In the 6th, Meadows went deep again for #7 and Yandy Diaz went back-to-back with him (#1), Mejia added a sac fly in the 7th and in the 8th Tsutsugo hit his first homer of the year with a man on and the Rays went on to win 11-6. Kittredge picked up the win, Chaz Roe got a couple of outs, Cody Reed gave up a run in his 1 1/3 and then Nick Anderson got the final four outs for save #5 in what will have to go down as the biggest 180-degree turnaround of the season. The Yankees won't stop winning so they stay 3 1/2 back, but they're now tied with Seattle for the second wild card.

Team record: 17-12. Next up: A west coast road trip starts with 4 in Anaheim.