[Art Deco]

Game 1: The eyes of the baseball world were upon Busch Stadium in St. Louis tonight as the Rays brought their 20-game win streak with them to take on the NL's best team in what pundits were calling a World Series preview. And to further add to the drama Leo Ortega, who won the NL Cy Young last year for the Cardinals, returned for the first time to the mound where he had so much success the last several years. Early on it looked like the Cards would have the better of things as Ortega gave up solo homers in the 2nd and 3rd and St. Louis was up 2-0. Meanwhile Cardinal starter Nick Lodolo didn't allow the Rays a hit until the 5th when Omar Rodriguez doubled. But in the 6th Tampa Bay came out swinging against him. The light-hitting Melvin Gutierrez led off with a single, and with one out, Vlad Guerrero Jr. singled. Nate Clark walked to load the bases and Victor de Jesus (once a prized Cardinals prospect) singled to get the Rays on the board. Then the big play of the game occurred when Rodolfo Rivas's fly ball to center was dropped by none other than former Rays star Jasson Dominguez (traded for Ortega) and two runs scored instead of one as J-Dom was too quick to try to catch it and throw the runner out at the plate. That made it 3-2, a Bo Angeac single made it 4-2, and a Rodriguez fielder's choice upped the lead to 5-2 as the Rays batted around. Jaiden Hardaway and Guerrero hit back-to-back doubles in the 7th to make it 6-2. Meanwhile Ortega was locked in after the homers and went 6.1 6 2 2 0 5. He left with two on in the 7th and Jim Connors came in and immediately got a line drive to Rivas at 1st who stepped on the bag for a double play. Connors cruised through the final 2 innings to get his 6th save while Ortega is now 14-3 as the 6-2 victory made it 21 straight for Tampa Bay.

Minor League News: Gil Wayne, last seen 5 days ago getting hit hard in a doubleheader start for us, unfortunately tore his rotator cuff tonight with Durham and will miss almost a year, taking him out of the picture for our 2034 staff.

Game 2: Unlike yesterday there was little suspense today as the Rays put up a touchdown and extra point in the second inning on their way to a 9-1 thrashing of St. Louis to make it 22 straight wins. The pitching matchup looked great on paper with Andy Aparicio up against St. Louis's Kevin Alexander, 13-2, 2.76 coming in. Coming out Alexander saw his ERA rise by about a half a run as the Rays bombed him for 7 in the 2nd. He loaded the bases for Will Quintana, who cleared them with a triple before Melvin Guiterrez singled Quintana home. Vlad Guerrero added an RBI groundout and Nate Clark put the exclamation point on the inning with a 2-run homer. Clark later hit a solo homer in the 7th to give him 47 and Victor de Jesus added an RBI single in the 9th. Aparicio meanwhile held up his end of the bargain, continuing his hot streak by going 7 2 0 0 3 8 and improving to 19-4, 2.79. Since the All-Star break Aparicio has allowed only 5 runs in 8 starts covering 60 innings for a nifty 0.75 ERA in that stretch and he's lowered his ERA by more than a run, no mean feat this late in the season. Kevin Kerstetter went the final 2 innings and lost the team shutout in the 8th.

Game 3: It took an epic back-and-forth game, but the Rays' win streak is over at 20 after the Cardinals took a 7-6, 10-inning decision. The Rays were let down in large part by their bullpen today, which along with starter Danny Medina had trouble consistently throwing strikes as Tampa Bay pitching issued 10 walks in the 10 innings. And the bottom of the 10th was no exception as after Mike Wherry gave up a single and a sac bunt and the next man was intentionally walked, Jim Connors came in and walked Josh Stowers to load the bases. Connors got a shallow fly ball from Jasson Dominguez but gave up a Royce Lewis single and the win streak was over. But before we got there the problems started in the 5th. The Rays had built a 3-1 lead in part on RBI doubles from Alex Buitrago and Jaiden Hardaway, and Medina had been relatively comfortable through 4. But as in his last start Medina started losing the plate in the 5th, walking 3 in the inning and together with an Erik Batchelder error led to 3 runs and St. Louis taking the lead. A Bo Angeac double tied it back up in the 6th, and a Vlad Jr RBI double restored the Rays lead in the 7th at 5-4. But Bob Sirna, who breezed through the first 4 men he faced in relief of Medina, gave up a leadoff triple. With a man on 3rd and nobody out it seemed like a good time to bring in the strikeout artist known as Kikuo Kawase, but not only did he allow a single to the first man he faced to tie the game, he walked 3 more men to force in a run and give the Cardinals the lead back. But Buitrago made sure the Rays wouldn't go quietly as he hit HR #20 off former Ray Daniel Espino in the 8th to tie the game at 6. Tim Siqueiros pitched himself into and out of a jam in the 8th and Wherry got him out of one in the 9th but it finally caught up to them in the 10th.

Team record: 104-25. Next up: We head west on I-70 to play the 3 against the Royals in Kansas City, which is looking good in the wild card race and only a game behind Detroit for the Central lead.