Game 1: The Rays faced off to the closest thing they have to a peer as the Astros came in 83-44 and they took the first game of the series 11-5, although that final is a bit misleading. It was a 5-4 game going into the 9th before the Rays broke it open with 6 runs on a 3-run Danny Ayala homer (#34), a 2-run blast by Jimmy Leonard against his old team (#7) and a Jeff Baez solo shot back-to-back with Leonard (#10). Before that the offense was led by (who else?) Jaiden Hardaway, 4-4 with 3 doubles and Bo Angeac, who had a 2-run homer (#19) in the 3rd. Damani Cotton started and pitched pretty well, improving to 4-2 with a 6 5 3 3 1 4 line which was marred by his allowing a leadoff single in the 7th before leaving which came around to score. The multi-hit game for Hardaway was his 5th straight and 8th in his last 9 games; he's an absurd 25 for his last 40 and has raised his BA from .352 to .379. He now sits at 8.9 WAR and is on pace for 11.4, just shy of his save-best 11.7 set in 2033.
Game 2: Tampa Bay took another hard-fought game from Houston, this time 4-3 in 11 innings. The Rays were up against longtime former teammate Danny Medina, now in the Astros rotation after toiling in the Tampa Bay bullpen for 5 years. He's pitched well (3.19 ERA coming in) but his old friends treated him rudely, scoring 3 runs on 10 hits off him in 4 innings. Given that ratio the Rays should have had more runs but they didn't and the game went 3-3 into extras before Daniel Vasquez, who had homered earlier off Medina (#23), doubled in Daniel Malone with the winner in the 11th to cap a 4-hit day. Kikuo Kawase got the final out in the 9th and the Astros in order in the tenth, all on a grand total of 9 pitches, so he saved his own 4th win of the season with a scoreless 11th as well. Ron Adams started and went 6 8 3 3 1 5, settling in after some early troubles, and Jimmy Leonard had a nice game against his old team going 3-3 with 2 walks and 3 steals.
Game 3: The Rays survived a bullpen meltdown to sweep the series from Houston, taking a 10-9 win at Minute Maid Park behind a couple of former Astros. The Rays took a 9-2 lead into the bottom of the 7th but Billy Hoyte and Ken Burgess couldn't get anyone out and Houston came all the way back to tie. But in the top of the 9th former Astro Jimmy Leonard delivered an RBI double to score Bo Angeac and provide the winning margin. Earlier another former Astro Jim Gebers drilled a pair of homers to help the Rays to that 9-2 lead, driving in 4 and giving him 24 longballs on the year. Kevin Morley (#8) and Danny Ayala (#34) also went deep. Josh Carsello got the start and put up still another fine start (6 4 2 2 0 5) but was deprived of the win thanks to the bullpen failures. One reliever who didn't fail though was Joe Trader. With Kikuo Kawase tired, Trader ended up going the final 2 1/3, getting out of the 7th-inning mess and staying on to whiff 5 and pick up his first win as a Ray in his finest hour with the team.
Team record: 96-33. Next up: 3 games in Boston.
Jaiden Hardaway, never not ridiculous:
