Game 1: 1-5 L. LP-Acosta (5-2). Starter-Sears (5 4 1 1 1 4). HR-Rivera (10). Another pathetic performance at the plate and the bullpen was lousy with Acosta giving up the winner in the 6th on a homer and then Okuda reverting to early season form by allowing 3 more.
Game 2: 5-3 W. WP-Khattak (4-4, 5 5 3 3 1 4). S-Diaz (17). HR-Caminero (14), Rivera (11), Franco (15), Arakawa (3). Four solo homers paced the offense as the Rays picked up a rare win of late but the news wasn't all good as Nelson Haro strained his back on a double and will be out a little over two weeks.
Transaction: Haro goes on the IL and Robby Castillo is called up from Durham. Castillo was up at the start of the season and was terrible, but has hit at Durham (307/382/554) and will DH against righties.
Game 3: 8-7 W. WP-Dodson (3-3). S-Riley (5). Starter-Eldridge (3 8 6 6 1 3). HR-DeLoach (17). Rays overcame a horrible start from Eldridge, overturning deficits of 3-0 and 6-4 to pull this one out. Robby Castillo's 2-run double in the 5th tied it up and DeLoach's 2-run homer in the 6th was the difference as he drove in 3 on the day. Wander was 3-5 with an RBI double.
Team record: 55-51, 1 back of Oakland for the third wild card. Next up: An off-day then the Yankees come to the Trop for 3 games.
We also made a trade:
Just saved us $11.9M. That was our share of Rodriguez's contract for one more season in 2030 and with his ratings downgraded to 55/45/40 after all the injuries I really didn't want him anymore but the Angels were glad to take him off my hands. Santos was just a makeweight and will likely be released once his DFA time is up.
MLB News: Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit career homer #400.