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Old 06-26-2024, 02:59 PM   #1392
Art Deco
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Join Date: May 2020
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July 7-9, 2037: vs San Antonio (3)

Another series of frustration for the Rays as they dropped 2 of 3 at home to a direct wild card rival, one of them in typically excruciating fashion for this squad. Changes may be afoot soon.

And it was the opener that epitomized the 2037 Rays as a seemingly-unassailable 8-1 lead turned into a 10-8 loss to the Alamos. They built that lead by the 3rd on a pair of 2-run singles by Wander Franco and a Luis Berumen grand slam (#23) but Leo Gutierrez, in his first start of the season, couldn't handle prosperity. Gutierrez gave up 4 runs in the 4th to let San Antonio within 8-5 and although he made it through the 5th to finish 5 8 5 5 1 7 the lousy bullpen took it from there with Jon Coggin and Jamie Arnold (3-1) combining to allow the Alamos to tie in the 6th and then Arnold and Danny Mauricio teaming up to allow the winning runs in the 7th. And although you can't blame the offense after putting 8 on the board, they did go completely silent over the final six innings.

They did bounce back to take a 6-1 win in the middle game thanks to a 2-homer game from Joe Stack and a solid outing from Joe Marlette. Stack was involved in both 3-run innings thanks to a 2-run homer in the 2nd and a solo shot (#12) in the 6th which followed a 2-run Danny Charlton (#9) dinger. Marlette (7-6) was dominant at times but not efficient so it took him 102 pitches to go 5 4 1 1 4 10. In a twist the bullpen was effective with four different relievers going a scoreless inning apiece.

But it was back to losing ways in the finale as they fell 5-2 to San Antonio. Mario Urizar (5-9) had his struggles at 5.2 8 4 4 4 2 and a Tony Fisher solo homer (#25) was one of the few highlights on offense.

Team record: 44-42. They're 3 1/2 back of Baltimore in 3rd in the division and in 6th place in the wild card race, 2 games out of third. Next up: The Yankees come in for 3 over the weekend before we hit the All-Star break.
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