[Art Deco]

August 10: Placed C Mike Zunino on the 10-day IL with a hand contusion, purchased the contract of C Brett Sullivan from AAA Durham.

Zunino was going to be completely unavailable for 4 more days, so I figured I'd better call up another catcher. Kevan Smith would have been the choice but he broke his arm so we turn to Sullivan, a 27-year-old minor league vet who's been in our system since 2015 and finally gets his cup of coffee.

Game 1: Yandy Diaz drove in 5 runs and Michael Wacha continued his great run of pitching as the Rays easily handled Boston 9-2. Diaz's grand slam in the 5th (#11) made a 3-0 game a 7-0 affair and he later singled in a run as well. Francisco Mejia was responsible for 2 of the first 3 runs with a pair of RBI doubles while Austin Meadows and Randy Arozarena each supplied a sac fly. Wacha meanwhile was in control, going 6 4 2 0 0 7 with a pair of unearned runs against thanks to two Rays errors in the 5th. Rafael Dolis, Cody Reed and Chaz Roe each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game out. Toronto and the Yankees lose again as the magic # dwindles to 36.

Game 2: A wild affair at Fenway saw the Rays come out on top 10-7 for their 5th straight win and 28th in their last 33 as they continue to roll. Francisco Mejia, who had a couple of big RBI doubles last night, had the big hit tonight with a 2-run single to break a 5-5 tie in the 8th and then Austin Meadows hit a 3-run shot (#26) to make it 10-5. They needed those extra runs as the bullpen struggled tonight and Andrew Kittredge allowed solo homers to Hunter Renfroe and Christian Arroyo in the bottom of the 8th and put a man on ahead of JD Martinez, whom Diego Castillo came in to face and whiffed. Nick Anderson got the save despite putting a couple on and bringing the tying run to the plate, his 24th of the season. The Rays built an early 5-3 lead on a couple of RBI knocks from Randy Arozarena and a long homer over The Monster from Brendan McKay, who got the start at DH and hit his 1st of the year as everything seems to come up Rays these days. Ryan Yarbrough met the bare definition of a quality start, going 6 6 3 3 3 3 and leaving with the lead, but for the second straight outing Pete Fairbanks melted down and gave up a 2-run homer to Rafael Devers to tie it in the 7th. Fairbanks vultured the win when they scored the 5 in the 8th, his 4th of the season.

Game 3: The Rays completed the sweep of Boston with a 9-5 win in 11 innings, a game which saw them bang out 21 hits and which should have been won in regulation if not for 16 men left on base. It also should have been won in regulation had the bullpen not imploded again, a disturbing trend of late despite the wins piling up. Shane McClanahan pitched his best game yet, going 6 3 1 1 2 6 and leaving with a 5-1 lead. But Cody Reed loaded the bases with nobody out in the 7th and Diego Castillo served up a grand slam to Jeter Downs to tie the game. Rich Hill got through the 8th but predictably had to leave the game in the 9th, this time with a dead arm which will sideline him 5 days. Nick Anderson got through the rest of the inning and pitched the 10th for his 5th win, and with the bullpen completely depleted of fresh arms, tomorrow's projected starter Brendan McKay had to come on to pitch the 11th and he got a quick 1-2-3 inning. Chris Archer will still be able to go on full rest tomorrow at Minnesota, though. The hitting star today was Yandy Diaz, who rapped out 5 hits but only scored once thanks to the team's LOB problems. Wander Franco (#7) had a 2-run shot in the 7th and Willy Adames went back-to-back with him for #8 to make it 5-1, and in the 11th Franco's RBI single broke the tie, Kevin Kiermaier had an RBI and Brett Sullivan, who earlier had his first MLB hit, got his first MLB RBI with a sac fly (I had to play Sullivan at Fenway considered there were probably a few hundred Sullivans in the stands).

Team record: 78-37, magic number is 32. Next up: A weekend in Minnesota.