[Art Deco]

The Rays returned to winning ways by taking 2 of 3 from the Twins and coupled with a Yankee loss their magic number to clinch the AL East is down to 6.

The bad pitching (and by extension, the losing) continued in the opener as Joe Marlette was knocked around again the Rays lost their sixth straight game, 8-4 to the Twins. Marlette (11-7) started the year as one of the top pitchers in baseball and the Rays' clear ace, only for the 35-year-old to rapidly lose his stuff and even worse of late, his control. Today he gave up 3 runs in the first on his way to going 4 8 4 4 3 2 and I almost have to wonder if he'll even be in the playoff rotation. Meanwhile the Rays got solo shots from Justin Blackwell (#12), Tony Fisher (#45) and Luis Berumen (#28) in a losing effort.

The Rays finally got a well-pitched game from the staff's unsung hero since coming over from Cincinnati in an early July deal and that would be Chris Ericson as they snapped the losing skid with a 5-1 win over Minnesota. Ericson doesn't have the stamina of a typical starter and therefore didn't qualify for the win after going 4.1 2 1 1 3 6 but he lowered his Rays ERA to 2.47 and Jamie Arnold (4-1) got him out of a 5th-inning mini-jam to pick up the win. On offense the big blow came in the bottom of that inning when Tony Fisher stepped up and belted a grand slam to break a 1-1 tie, his 46th longball of the year which also put him over the 100-RBI mark, joining Jeremy Begley who was the first Ray to reach that milestone this season. Interestingly Begley and Fisher normally hit 1-2 in the lineup.

Danny Morales bounced back from perhaps the worst start of his career to pick up his 19th win of the season as the Rays bested the Twins again 5-2. Morales (19-5) was immaculate at 6 4 0 0 2 6 although it did take him 102 pitches. Branden Gammage gave up a 2-run homer in the 8th to let Minnesota within 3-2 but Danny Arroyave restored the 3-run lead with a 2-run shot of his own (#28) in the bottom of the inning, and also bouncing back from a disastrous outing in his last appearance was Tony Alicea, who struck out the side in the 9th for his 36th save. Earlier the Rays got a pair of solo homers from their biggest 2038 disappointment, Danny Rivera, who is poised to finally get over the Mendoza Line (he's up to .197) after longballs #17 & 18. Rivera was a 5+ WAR player for Seattle last year and we're still holding out hope he gets it going down the stretch here and in the postseason.

Team record: 94-52. Next up: 3 at home against the White Sox.

Archundia Watch: If a watched pot never boils perhaps a watched Archundia never homers as after regularly starting this feature he's been stuck on 69 homers in his pursuit of history.

Durham Update: The Bulls are on the brink after dropping Game 3 of their best-of-5 first-round series with Nashville, falling behind 2 games to 1. The 6-5 loss was a tough one as they gave up runs in the 7th and 8th to lose a 5-4 lead. Danny Arevalo, up for a while earlier this year, homered for Durham.