[Art Deco]

You'd think the Rays could take advantage of a home series against a 49-65 team but instead they dropped two of three for the fourth straight series with the only win coming thanks to a herculean comeback . They drifted farther behind the Yankees at 5 1/2 games and truly appear to be wild card-bound now.

The opener saw the big comeback and the Rays overcame a 5-0 deficit to pull out a 6-5 win. Joe Marlette was neither effective nor efficient, taking 94 pitches to go 4 6 4 4 2 5 and Slade Cecconi allowed another run to put them in a big hole in the 6th inning. But in the bottom of the 6th they loaded the bases and Orlando Tosado brought everyone home including himself with a grand slam (#12/14) and in the 7th Chris Gutierrez launched a 2-run no-doubter (#11) that the Houston CF didn't even turn around for. The win went to Nathan Dettmer (4-6) who struck out the side in the 7th, and Raymells Rosa earned his 3rd Rays save and 21st overall.

After falling behind 3-1 in the 6th the Rays immediately rallied to tie it in the second game, only for their shaky bullpen to lose another game, giving up 5 runs over the final innings to doom them to an 8-3 loss. In fact the roots of the defeat go back to the bottom of the 6th when they tied it, as a bases-loaded walk to Kelly Crumpton brought in the equalizer and there was still nobody out. But a couple of whiffs and a groundout meant the game stayed tied, and then Nathan Dettmer (4-7) allowed a 7th inning run to put Houston ahead to stay before Mason Feole and Mike Moore combined to give up 4 more in the 8th. Kevin DiCostanzo started and pitched quite well at 4.2 3 1 1 2 3 but had to leave with a minor hamstring tweak.

Another bullpen disaster enabled Houston to take the rubber game of the series as the Rays were one out away from taking a 3-2 win before Raymells Rosa (0-3) allowed a game-tying single from former Ray Victor Robles and then Gavin Bruni relieved him and immediately served up a 3-run homer to let the Astros take a 6-3 win. Kelly Crumpton had hit what appeared to be a big solo homer in the bottom of the 8th (#33) to put them up 3-2 off another former Ray, Kendall Williams, and before that Chris Gutierrez continued his recent power binge with HR #12 in the 5th to tie it off still another one-time Ray, Blake Snell. Wes Mendes turned in his best Rays start for naught at 5 5 2 2 1 4 after giving up 2 runs in the 1st and settling down.

Team record: 63-55. Next up: A critical road trip with 3 games in Oakland followed by 3 games in Baltimore, the two teams just outside the third wild card spot who could really cut into the Rays' 4 1/2-game lead on both of them.

MLB News: James Hays continues to have a miserable start to his Dodgers career. After losing his first two starts he didn't last past the 4th in his third as he was ejected for hitting a batter and igniting a brawl after giving up a homer. Also the Rangers' Josh Koskovich no-hit the Angels, walking 1 and fanning 10 in a 116-pitch masterpiece.