[Art Deco]

Game 1: It's not going to bring back their 2031 playoff hopes but tonight's hard-fought 4-3 walk-off win over Detroit brought satisfaction to the Rays and their fans. The Rays lost a 3-1 lead in the 7th but Jaiden Hardaway had an infield single to lead off the bottom of the 9th, stole second, and scored on Luis Corpus' single to CF. The run made a winner of Jordan Diaz for the first time this year and he looked much better than he did last time out in Baltimore, striking out the side in a 1-2-3 9th. The Rays built that 3-1 lead off Detroit ace Kumar Rocker thanks to solo homers from Nate Clark (an AL-best #24) and Jasson Dominguez (#16) along with an RBI double from Bo Angeac against his old organization. Lately this has been enough run support for Christian Little, who mowed through the Tigers during the first 5 innings but ran into trouble in the 6th, walking the bases loaded and giving up a run on an infield hit for the first Detroit run. He then gave up a single and double to start the 7th, and Tim Siqueiros nearly got him out of it but gave up a 2-run single to Sam Huff to tie it. Jose Alvarado pitched a scoreless 8th, and the Rays have now won 19 of their last 21 games.

Game 2: Alec Sachais pitched the team's second complete-game shutout in four games as he and the Rays blanked Detroit 3-0. Sachais was in command most of the way and kept his pitch count reasonable to go 9 7 0 0 1 12 on 108 pitches. He did put two men on in the 9th but we kept the faith in him and he got Daz Cameron to fly out to end the game, improving to 9-1, 3.30. Sachais was aided in the early innings by Jasson Dominguez and Dayle Jenkins throwing out runners at the plate, and Jenkins also supported him with the bat by homering yet again (#13) in the 3rd to break the stalemate. Bo Angeac blasted his 4th homer in 5 games in the 7th (#12) to give Sachais some breathing room as the team only managed 6 hits for the night. The Yankees lost in San Diego so the lead is now a healthy 7 games.

Game 3: Detroit jumped all over Jon Soranno for 5 runs in the first 4 innings, but it didn't matter as the Rays clubbed the Tigers 15-7 to make it 7 wins in a row and 21 of their last 23. Soranno made it through the 5th and picked up a fortunate win to go 7-2 with his ERA up to 3.55. The Rays had multi-HR games from two players: Jasson Dominguez hit #s 17 and 18, driving in 4 and Jaiden Hardway hit #s 7 and 8, driving in 5. Victor de Jesus added a grand slam (#20) in the 8th as those three drove in 13 of the 15 runs on the day. Nate Thompson went a couple of innings allowing a run in relief, Tim Siqueiros had one scoreless and Bob Sirna gave up a run in the 9th pitching with the big lead. Dayle Jenkins was 3-4 and is now hitting .343.

Game 4: Holy crap, Danny Medina! Making a spot start because of the doubleheader earlier in the week, the rookie righty dominated the Tigers to the tune of a complete-game, 3-hit shutout in a 6-0 Rays win, walking one and striking out 10 on 105 pitches. He nearly had a Maddux at 92 pitches with one out in the 9th but ended up throwing a few extra to strike out the final two batters. I mentioned him a few days back as an option for the rotation next season and to the extent today was an audition I'd say he passed it. Meanwhile Victor de Jesus continues on a tear, homering twice today to bookend the scoring as he went deep for a solo shot in the 2nd to put the Rays on the board and then hit a 2-run job (#22) in the 5th to conclude it. In between they scored 3 times in the 4th including an RBI double from Francisco Alvarez and an RBI single from Dane Ayers. The news wasn't all good, though, as Alvarez fractured a finger sliding into 2nd on his double and will be out 6-7 weeks. Expect to see Will Quintana finally make his long-awaited MLB debut as Luis Corpus's backup very soon.

Team record: 54-27. Next up: The Angels come to town for 4 games, but as this marks the halfway point of the year the next post will be the midseason report card.