[Art Deco]

Game 1: Asa Lacy and the Rays were pounded by the Jays 11-3 today as their first bid for win #100 was denied. Lacy lived dangerously in the first 2 innings but got out of them but it wasn't to be the case in the 3rd when Toronto put 7 on the board against him and Austin Vernon. Lacy yielded a 3-run HR to Gabriel Moreno and then after giving up another run and putting two more on, Vernon came in and let Ryan McKenna take him deep as Lacy ended an ugly 2.2 9 6 6 1 3. Vernon proceeded to give up 2 more solo HRs in his 2.1 innings (he did whiff 4), and Hayden Johns gave up a 2-run HR to Jorge Polanco over his 3 innings. The Rays runs came on RBI doubles from Judson Fabian and Alec Bohm, and a Wander Franco RBI single. Baltimore won in Boston so the magic # remains 9.

Durham Playoff Update: Well we're headed to a Game 5 as Gwinnett beat Durham 4-3 in 12 innings on a Garrett Whitley homer off Tommy Mace with 2 out in the 12th. The Bulls were done in by Gwinnett's Christian Rodriguez, who retired all 15 batters he faced over the final 5 innings with 6 whiffs. Noah Cardenas had given Durham a 3-2 lead with a 2-run HR in the 5th, but Gwinnett tied it in the 6th off Madison Bumgarner and on to extras we went. Evan Godwin pitched another scoreless inning as he's just about ready to be activated. Jimmy Lewis will go in two nights' time as the Bulls try to avoid blowing a 2-0 series lead.

Game 2: It was a strange game but the Rays won 7-6 in 10 innings with all 7 of their runs scoring on 6(!) HRs. Keibert Ruiz's 2-run shot (#19) in the 10th proved to be the winner, the first of their HRs that wasn't a solo shot. That bested a Victor Reyes HR off Jasseel De La Cruz in the bottom of the 10th. De La Cruz made it very interesting on the way to save #28 by giving up a hit with one out and Vlad Jr coming to the plate, but Jasseel got him to ground into a 4-6-3 DP to end the game. Earlier, the Rays hit 5 solo shots off the notoriously homer-prone Griffin Canning who started off by no-hitting them through the first 3 innings. But once Wander hit #35 to kick things off, they just kept going. And in the 5th, they went back-to-back-to-back with Triston Casas (#10, into the upper deck), Brandon Marsh (#13) and Nick Gonzales (#9). This gave the Rays a 4-2 lead but Matt Manning was struggling all night, especially with his control, and was charged with 2 runs in the bottom of the inning and ended up 4.1 5 4 4 5 4. Christian Chamberlain came in and gave up the double that scored the last run off Manning, but then Mitchell White took over in the 6th with 2 1/3 shutout innings featuring 5 whiffs and Gonzales hit his 2nd of the game (#10) in the 7th to put them up 5-4. Liam Hendriks pitched the 8th and stayed in to face the leadoff man in the 9th but gave up a hit, and Jose Alvarado allowed the runner to come around and score to send us to extras. Nevertheless Alvarado picked up win #5 when they won it in the 10th. The win was the team's 100th of the season, marking the 4th time in the last 5 years they've reached that total. Baltimore lost so the magic number drops to 7. Random notes: Alvarado is now 5-7, and his 7 losses actually lead the team, one ahead of Manning's 6, a pretty remarkable stat that we're in mid-September and no starter has more than 6 losses. With Casas and Gonzales hitting double digits, the Rays now 10 players with at least 10 HRs, and could be joined by Vidal Brujan and Bramdon Perez with 8 each.

September 16: Activated P Evan Godwin from his rehab assignment AAA Durham, optioned P Christian Chamberlain to AAA Durham.

Game 3: Shane McClanahan was brilliant in a tough place to pitch as the Rays ended up taking 2 out of 3 in this series with a 4-1 win. Mac went 7 4 1 1 1 8 but it didn't look like he'd end up with a line like that in the first few innings. He gave up a double and a walk in the first inning for the lone Jays run, and in the 3rd he allowed a double and a single to put runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out but got a Vlad Jr grounder at a drawn-in infield and a couple of whiffs to get out of it and was never troubled the rest of the way. The win moves him to 17-5, 3.65 with 211 Ks in 187 innings and keeps his hopes of winning 20 alive. The offense wasn't overpowering today but did enough. They got some help from Jays pitcher Lyon Richardson in the 2nd when he balked runners to 2nd and 3rd, then threw a wild pitch which was followed by a Brandon Marsh RBI double. And then Triston Casas continued to torment the Jays with his 6th HR against them (out of 11 total) leading off the 7th, immediately followed by Patrick Bailey's 8th shot of the year. Steven Casey pitched a perfect 8th, and with lefties due up Ben Bowden was given a save chance but had to leave after striking out the first man he faced with bicep tendinitis which will keep him out 1-2 weeks so look for an IL stint. Speaking of injured pitchers, Evan Godwin replaced him and got the final two outs to end the game (but didn't qualify for a save since the lead was 3 and nobody was on base). Baltimore lost in 16 innings at Boston, tiring their pen ahead of our game with them tomorrow and reducing the magic # to 5. If the Rays can take 3 of the 4 games in Charm City they'll clinch the division there.

Team record: 101-44. Next up: As I just mentioned, 4 games in Baltimore.

Durham Playoff Update: The Bulls weren't about to let Gwinnett complete the 0-2 comeback as they beat the Stripers in the decisive 5th game of their first round International League playoff series 6-2. As in Game 1, they got to Gwinnett ace Trey Riley early, scoring three times in the first 2 innings. It was a team effort on offense with six different players driving in a run. Noah Cardenas was 3-4 with an RBI, Christian Knapczyk was 1-2 with two walks, an RBI and a steal, and catcher Juan Mendez was 2-3 with an RBI to lead the way. Jimmy Lewis got the start and was dealing, going 4.1 4 1 1 1 8 before having to leave with a sore ankle. Tommy Mace took over and got the win despite allowing a run in his 1 2/3 innings, Cole Patten had 2 scoreless, and Nick Anderson closed it out with three groundballs in the 9th. The Bulls will take on Indianapolis in the championship round as they swept Lehigh Valley in 3.