[Art Deco]

May 16: P Ryne Stanek cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA Durham.

Game 1: So should I start with the good news, the bad news or (potentially) the very bad news? The good news is that Blake Snell had a great start, leading the Rays to an 8-2 win over the Royals. He went 7 3 2 2 3 5 and after a shaky first inning where he walked the leadoff batter who went around to score, he settled down after that in an encouraging sign. The bad news? Max Kepler was hurt and is day-to-day for 5 days with a hyperextended knee. The (potentially) very bad news? Austin Meadows was injured going into 2nd base on a first inning double and has the dreaded "diagnosis pending" tag. Needless to say losing the guy leading MLB in WAR and OPS would be a horrendous blow. Keeping our fingers crossed but some roster moves are in the offing with 2 starting OFs down. That Brandon Marsh trade is looking real good right about now. Speaking of Marsh, his bases-clearing double in the 6th broke the game open, making it 5-1. Before being injured Kepler knocked in a couple as did Nelson Cruz, who might need to get his outfielder's glove out of mothballs. The Blue Jays were off so the lead is up to 3 (the Rays still have two games in hand on Toronto).

MEADOWS UPDATE: Torn meniscus, out 4 months. FML, I hate OOTP. This would put him back mid-September so he would be available for the playoffs barring a complete collapse, but with the way Toronto's going there's a chance that could be one game instead of a guaranteed series. Might be time to trade some of this minor league depth I've built up for a major middle-of-the-order bat. For now I can put Brujan in at 2B and play Merrifield in LF. When Kiermaier comes back, Marsh or Yusniel Diaz can play left. Alex Kirilloff would have been a natural replacement but he's still out 6-7 weeks. At least I get 40-man flexibility with Meadows going on the 60-day IL.

May 17: Placed OF Austin Meadows on the 60-day IL with a torn meniscus, recalled OF Josh Lowe from AAA Durham.

For the moment, especially with Kepler out 5 days (he's not going on the IL), I need a decent fielding OF on the team. My internal longer-term options are play Nelson Cruz and his 30 defense in LF and call up Seth Beer (317/386/634 at Durham), purchase the contract of Khris Davis with the 40-man spot open and get .247 with some decent power, or call up Trevor Larnach who's on the 40-man and hitting doubles and for average at Durham but is still looking for his first homer of the year. When Kiermaier comes back in 3 weeks, I can play him and Marsh together as well.

Game 2: The first game in the A.M. (After Meadows) era found the Rays playing a different kind of ballgame than they were used to: having to win with pitching and defense. Well, mostly pitching as Brendan McKay went 6 shutout innings but had to leave due to a high pitch count brought on in part by 4 walks and 7 strikeouts (a Keibert Ruiz dropped foul popup cost him about 15 pitches). No problem though as the Alvarado-Anderson-Hand troika completed the shutout and the Rays won 2-0. Alvarado nearly gave up his first run, allowing a one-out triple, but got a popup and strikeout to get out of it. Hand is now 13-for-13 and McKay goes to 4-1. The Rays had a tough time with former Florida Gator Jackson Kowar but got to him for their two runs in the 2nd. Choi was hit by a pitch and then doubled home by Nelson Cruz, and Cruz came around to score on Yusniel Diaz's groundout. They only had 7 hits in a new-look lineup which saw Wander bat 3rd for the first time and Brujan lead off. They're now 32-8 and with Jays finally losing (to the Mets), the division lead expands to 4 games.

Game 3: Well without Meadows and Kepler in the lineup, it's going to be harder to score runs. That was apparent last night, but the shutout glossed that over. Today, 1 run wasn't going to win it as Yonny Chrinos pitched well but wasn't perfect and the Rays fell 3-1. Things got off to a good start against Lance Lynn in the first when Ji-Man doubled in Merrifield, but that was it for the day. Yonny gave up a 3rd inning HR to Kevin Cron, a run in the 6th, and then old friend Brandon Lowe took him deep to dead center to give us the final score. Zack Britton had 2 perfect innings in relief. The Rays only managed 6 hits and 2 of those came from Ronaldo Hernandez, now hitting a cool .432. Wander continues in his slump, going 0-4 to drop his average to .278. The Mets did us a favor though by smoking the Jays 10-1 to keep the lead at 4 games, and now it's on to LA to play the Angels for 4 games.

Team record: 32-9.