[Art Deco]

A decent series overall for the Rays as they took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox at Tropicana Field but they lost another regular for the season to injury. Toronto dropped 2 of 3 to Oakland so the Rays pulled within one in the division while the Yankees took 2 of 3 to leapfrog the fading Royals (who were swept) into the second wild card spot. Therefore, the Rays are 3 ahead of the Royals for a WC.

Matt Chapman made his biggest contribution yet since joining the Rays before the trade deadline and Drew Rasmussen was great again in a 7-3 win. But it was a costly win as Vidal Brujan broke his kneecap and is done for the season. With all the other recent injuries Brujan had taken over as the everyday LF against righties and CF against lefties and now gives us another absence to cover. As for the game, Chapman homered in the 2nd to get the Rays on the board and then drilled a 2-run homer in a 3-run 4th (#5/#28) to put them ahead comfortably. Kody Hoese also went deep twice with a 2-run homer in the 1st and a solo shot in the 8th to give him 4. Rasmussen meanwhile went 6 3 1 1 3 6 to improve to 8-2, 2.88 as a Ray while Tyler Rogers notched save #14.

Transaction: Brujan was put on the 60-day IL and we purchased the contract of OF Matt Higgins from Durham. All Higgins has done since we drafted him in the 10th round in 2022 is rake at every level with a career minor league slash line of 317/364/530. He doesn't walk a lot and is a mediocre defensive OF but the bat is very good. He'll get some PT in LF against righties as he's a lefty swinger.

The Rays came back from being down 3-1 early to beat Boston 6-4 for their third straight win. Matt Chapman's third homer in two days (#6/#29) broke a 4-4 tie in the 7th and made a winner of JT Ginn in relief, his 5th. Aaron Fletcher took care of the 9th for save #6. Dustin May started and was adequate (5.2 8 3 3 1 3) while Cody Collins hit HR #4 and Jarren Duran was 3-5 with a double and RBI. Matt Higgins singled in his first MLB plate appearance and was 1-4.

Transactions: Guillermo Zuniga (mainly because there wasn't a spot for him on the staff right now) and Heliot Ramos (because he's been out a month) were sent to Durham on rehab assignments. Ramos will be gladly welcomed back with our recent spate of OF injuries.

Despite coming back twice from deficits, the Rays still fell in the finale 7-5 to Boston. Dennis Santana was terrible again in his 2nd Rays start (maybe Atlanta knew something we didn't when they waived him despite being 17-4) going 2.1 5 5 5 3 1 and allowing another homer. Tarik Skubal has looked mediocre in a couple of relief outings but he may get his starter's job back anyway. Wander Franco was 3-4 with an RBI and Nick Schnell had a 2-run HR (#7) but Christian Chamberlain gave up a run in the 7th to break a 5-5 tie and no comeback was in the cards.

Team record: 83-64. Next up: An off-day then the schedule maker does us a favor by sending us to lowly San Antonio for 3 games. Now the team just needs to get it done.