July 2: vs Texas 5-6 L (10). LP-McMillon (5-3). Starter-Bradley (5.2 5 1 1 1 8). HR-Kjerstad (9), Montes (18). Rays took a 3-1 lead into the 9th before Klein blew the save, with all the runs unearned on an Irish passed ball on strike three. Montes tied it in the bottom of the 9th with a solo shot to send it to extras, but the pen continued to struggle from there.
July 3: vs Texas 9-3 W. WP-McGee (9-3, 7 5 2 2 0 10). HR-Irish (9). Irish made up for his critical passed ball last night going 2-3 with 3 RBI including a 2-run homer and McGee was dominant in an easy Tampa Bay win.
July 4: vs Texas 2-3 L (12). LP-Klein (1-3). Starter-Sheehan (7 2 0 0 2 9). Nobody scored in this game until the 11th when both teams put a pair on the board and Texas got the edge in the 12th as Klein had another rough outing and Sheehan's best start of the season went for naught.
July 5: vs Texas 5-2 W. WP-H.Smith (8-3, 6 4 0 0 2 8). S-Yan (1). Rays picked up a split of the series thanks to another dominating outing from Smith They were up 5-0 going into the 9th before the pen made a mess and Yan had to get the final out, picking up his first Rays save.
July 6: at Oakland. This was one strange game so I'm going to give you the box:
First off as you can Mis took a no-hitter into the 7th before having to depart. But Yan continued the no-no until the 9th when with two out he gave up a Creed Willems double, spoiling the combined no-hitter. Meanwhile on offense the Rays only had two hits themselves but scored seven runs, which has to be some kind of record for fewest hits to score that number of runs. Oakland pitching was wild with 7 walks and 2 hit batsmen, and the Rays made their two hits count with Isaac's RBI double and Doughty's 3-run homer. The other runs came on a sac fly and a wild pitch.
July 7: at Oakland 1-3 L. LP-Bradley (8-5, 7 7 2 2 0 7). The Rays tripled their hit total from the previous night but scored one-seventh of the runs as they took the loss.
July 8: at Oakland 2-1 W. WP-McGee (10-3, 7 5 0 0 0 7). S-Klein (23). HR-Caminero 2 (16). McGee remains on a roll and Caminero, who had a miserable first half, continued his resurgence with a pair of solo homers to supply the necessary offense for Tampa Bay to take the win and the series.
Team record: 58-34, 7 up on the Orioles who have regained second place. Next week: We stay out west with 3 in San Diego after a day off and then head north to LA to play 3 against the Dodgers before the All-Star break. We also have the amateur draft mid-week so there will be a post on that first.
Players of the Week:
AL: Loidel Chappeli (CHI), 10-23, 2 HR, 12 RBI
NL: Jacob Berry (MIA), 12-27, 3 HR, 8 RBI