[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays treated their former teammate Leo Ortega rudely in a 6-3 win over New York at Publix Park. Jaiden Hardaway greeted him with a double to start the game, scored on a Jon Jimenez sac fly and then Bo Angeac drilled a 2-run homer (#6) off Ortega to make it 3-0. They added 3 more in the 4th to chase him with the key hit a Daniel Vasquez double. Josh Hanna had the 6-0 lead but let it go to 6-3 when he ran out of gas in the 6th, finishing 5.2 7 3 3 1 5 but still improving to 3-0, 2.84. Like yesterday Danny Medina rescued a fading Rays starter in the 6th and Mike Wherry rescued him when Medina put a couple on in the 7th. Wherry pitched through the 8th and Kikuo Kawase did his thing again in the 9th with two whiffs for save #6.

Game 2: Never count this team out, especially at Publix Park, and the Yankees found that out today as the Rays came back from a 7-3 deficit in the 5th to take a 10-7 walk-off win in the bottom of the 9th on Omar Rodriguez's 6th HR of the year. The Rays jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on Dayle Jenkins' 3rd HR, an RBI double from Daniel Vasquez and a Jeff Baez RBI single. But Nate Thompson, who sailed through the first 4 innings, lost it big-time in the 5th allowing 7 runs including a 3-run Sal Mota homer to cap the inning and saw his ERA rise from 0.83 to 3.08. Jose Espinoza came in and was impressive, going 1 1/3 with 3 whiffs while the Rays started chipping away. First Jon Jimenez hit HR #2 with a man on in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-5 and in the 6th Vasquez (#2) and Will Quintana (#1) homered to tie it up. That's where we stayed until the 9th when Eric Titcombe hit a one-out pinch-hit triple. Danny Ayala whiffed for out #2 but Bo Angeac walked to set O-Rod up for his game-winning 3-run blast. Billy Hoyte went 2 perfect innings to keep it close and Tim Siqueiros picked up his first win of the year thanks to a 1-2-3 9th (and O-Rod).

Game 3: They did it again. The Rays scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to take a 6-5 win over the Yankees for their second straight walk-off win and 9th consecutive overall. After Jim Gebers hit a game-tying double off former Ray Tyler Jefferson, Mike McKee followed with a double of his own to give the Rays the victory. Like yesterday, a rough start put the Rays in the hole as Vinny Willard struggled mightily in the early innings in his first MLB start, giving up 5 runs over the first two. But maybe once he got past the nervousness, or whatever, he settled down admirably by pitching 4 shutout innings to end his start a still-bad but not that bad 6 7 5 5 2 4. Willie Bertone pitched the 7th and got two out in the 8th before putting a couple on when Jose Espinoza bailed him out. And Mike Wherry got the nod in the 9th and picked up his 3rd win already of the young season when the comeback happened in the bottom of the inning. Danny Ayala had gotten the Rays on the board in the 1st with a 2-run shot (#5) and they added two more in the 7th on RBI singles from Jeff Baez and McKee. One minor injury: Omar Rodriguez had to leave with an intercostal strain and will be out 3 days.

Game 4: There would be no comeback today as the Yankees scored 7 times in the 5th and waxed the Rays 8-2. Ron Adams got through the first 4 innings allowing only a run although he was in trouble most of the way, and there was no escaping it in the 5th when the Yankees added 3 more off him. He left with two on and Bob Sirna, who has struggled this young season, gave up a grand slam to the immortal Joe Hanek, a light-hitting rookie backup catcher and that was that. Adams finished a brutal 4.1 8 6 6 3 3 and saw his ERA rise to 7.64 as he now owns 2 of the team's 4 losses this year. Sirna hung around for 2 2/3 with the 2 runs allowed and Billy Hoyte pitched the final 2 scoreless. There were few offensive highlights but Jaiden Hardaway did hit a solo HR, his 2nd, and Jeff Hayes hit two triples (tying a team record held by many) and a double and somehow never scored.

Team record: 16-4. That isn't the best in baseball as the Astros continue their amazing start at 17-2. Next up: An off-day then Minnesota comes to town for 3 games.