[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Rays followed their familiar recent script of breaking open a low-scoring tie game in the bottom of the 7th as a pair of homers gave them a 5-3 win over Chicago. Victor de Jesus's 50th of the year (joining Nate Clark as the only other Ray to ever hit that mark) broke a 2-2 deadlock in the 7th and Rodolfo Rivas followed later in the inning a 2-run shot (#38). Danny Medina got the start and was much better today, cutting back on the walks and going 6 5 2 2 2 3. He stayed even with the Cubs' Raul Robles, one of the best young pitchers in the game today. Robles gave up another Dayle Jenkins HR (#12) and a Luis Corpus RBI double in his 5 1/3 innings of work, whiffing 6. Mike Wherry (who picked up his 3rd win) and Tim Siqueiros got them through the 7th and 8th, but Kikuo Kawase struggled mightily in the 9th, giving up a run on 2 hits and 2 walks and loading the bases before getting a groundout to end it and pick up save #18. Lefty hitters continue to give him trouble and Chicago sent up several of them against him in that inning.

Charlotte Playoff Update 1: Like Durham, the Stone Crabs couldn't complete the sweep and dropped a 4-2 decision to Dayton to force a Game 4.

Durham Playoff Update: Mike Champagne was masterful and the Bulls took the decisive Game 5 over Charlotte 4-1 to advance to the IL Finals against either Toledo or Buffalo. Champagne went 8.1 4 1 1 2 9 and left after giving up a one-out single in the 9th. Eric Carter came in and got an immediate double play to end the game. Trailing 1-0 in the 2nd, elite catching prospect Mike McKee drilled a 3-run homer to give the Bulls the lead to stay, and Stan Melton added a sac fly. Nate Boesel was named series MVP for hitting .417 with 1 HR and 5 RBI but it should have been Champagne, who also won Game 1. Ricky Widmar continues to look for his first hit on rehab, going 0-4 although 3 of them were line drive outs. He'll now get at least 3 more games to iron things out.

Charlotte Playoff Update 2: A 2nd-inning 6-2 lead evaporated and the Stone Crabs were thrashed 14-8 to even the series at 2 games, forcing a deciding Game 5 in Port Charlotte in two days. 3 Stone Crab errors led to 5 unearned runs in a sloppy game. Ricky Loya drove in 4 with a 2-run homer and 2-run double to lead Charlotte.

Game 2: The Rays outlasted the Cubs 8-6 to sweep their 2-game series at Publix Park. Chicago was mainly in it due to some shoddy fielding by the Rays which led to three unearned runs. They jumped out to an early 6-1 lead on homers from Victor de Jesus (#51, a 2-run shot) and Dayle Jenkins (#13, also a 2-run shot and his 6th in his last 7 games) and a 2-run double from Jaiden Hardaway. The Cubs crept back within 6-4 in the 6th against Andy Aparicio with the last run unearned as AA went 6 5 4 3 0 5 and notched his 21st win of the year, one shy of his career high during his Cy/MVP season of 2031. Rodolfo Rivas hit #39 to make it 7-4 in the bottom of the 6th but then Chicago got 2 more unearned runs off Jim Connors in the 7th thanks to a dropped fly ball from Omar Rodriguez and a throwing error from Vlad Guerrero Jr. Vlad got one of the runs back with an RBI single in the bottom of the 7th and Connors had a 1-2-3 8th before Jordan Diaz struck out 3 Cubs around a double in the 9th for save #14.

Team record: 121-31. Next up: 4 games in Baltimore.

MLB News: A couple of retirements of note: longtime Oakland 3B Matt Chapman who bounced around the league the last few years, has retired as has former Rays prospect and 4th OF type Josh Lowe.