[Art Deco]

September 27: Optioned C Mike McKee to AAA Durham, activated SS Ricky Widmar from his rehab assignment at AAA Durham.

Game 1: A game that was 3-2 in the 7th inning ended up a wild 8-6, 11-inning affair with the Rays prevailing by scoring the first runs of the game that didn't come on homers in the top of the 11th. The homer barrage started in the 3rd inning when Ricky Widmar, seeing his first MLB action in over 4 months and hitting in the unaccustomed 8-hole, drilled a homer to LF in his first at-bat back, #6 to make it 1-0 Rays. The Yanks hit back-to-back jacks off Andy Aparicio in the 4th but Nate Clark's 51st with a man on made it 3-2 Rays in the 6th. Things looked to be in hand when Rodolfo Rivas hit a 2-run shot off former Ray Asa Lacy in the 8th to make it 5-2, his 40th of the year and the 5th Ray to reach the mark this season. The 5 Rays with 40+ homers is an MLB record. But after Aparicio left going 6.1 5 2 2 2 6 to complete his regular season at 21-5, 2.98 with 244 Ks in 205.1 innings, Tim Siquerios took over and got the next three outs but Mike Wherry gave up a Mario Aguilar homer to make it 5-3. And in the bottom of the 9th Kikuo Kawase's struggles continued when he gave up a 2-run homer to Ryan McMahon to tie the game, blowing his sixth save and fifth in the last month. Bo Angeac hit HR #44 in the top of the 10 to restore the Rays lead, but Jordan Diaz was touched for Aguilar's second of the game in the bottom of the inning to re-tie it. Finally in the 11th Jaiden Hardaway doubled, a couple of walks loaded the bases, and Vlad Guerrero Jr's sac fly gave the Rays the lead again, and Angeac followed with an RBI single to make it 8-6. Diaz stayed on and got the Yankees 1-2-3 to mercifully end the game.

Game 2: A strange game for Nate Thompson and the Rays as they fell behind the Yankees 7-0 and were no-hit into the 6th inning yet almost came all the way back before losing 7-6. Thompson had his strikeout pitch going (8 in 4 innings) but unfortunately had his gopher ball pitch going (3 Yankee homers for 7 runs). His 4 8 7 7 1 8 meant a .667 BABIP tonight. Meanwhile the Yankees' Pedro Avila wasn't dominating them so much (1 whiff) but got an .067 BABIP as he allowed just one hit, a Nate Clark single, through 5 1/3. He did walk 4 and came out with the bases loaded in the 6th thanks to Clark's single, a walk and a Yankee error. Vlad Guerrero's grounder scored a run and then Bo Angeac hit #45 with two on and it was 7-4. And in the 8th Vlad went deep (#16/#35) after Victor de Jesus doubled to cut it to 7-6, but they stranded Dayle Jenkins in the 9th and couldn't quite complete the comeback. Holding the Yankees at 7 after Thompson departed were David Sanchez (2 innings), Bob Sirna (1) and Jim Connors (1). The Rays now have to win 3 of their final 4 to break their own wins record of 127.

Playoff Race Update: With four days left in the season, most everything is settled. In the AL, the usual suspects have won or should win their divisions: the Rays and Rangers have clinched, while Detroit is 2 up on Minnesota. The Angels have clinched a wild card and the Twins are 3 up on Kansas City, which picked a bad time to go on a bad stretch, for the second wild card. In the NL, Columbus, St. Louis and the Dodgers have won their divisions, Washington has clinched a wild card and the Padres are 2 up on Arizona for the other wild card.

Retirements! Get your retirements!: A whole slew of players hung up the cleats today. Some former Rays: Walker Buehler (that 2024 season) who spent the last 6-7 years battling injuries, Abraham Toro (that 2022 season) who brought us back Rafael Devers and our first title in 2023, Ronaldo Hernandez (who had a great couple of years as the backup catcher before he was dealt to bring us Jack Leiter) and longtime farmhand who had a few cups of coffee in the bigs Nick Loftin. Other notables: Pete Alonso, Austin Hays, Luis Robert, Kyle Tucker, Joey Bart, Bobby Dalbec. All these guys are young stars or up-and-comers IRL right now in 2021 which tells you how time flies.

Game 3: Rays pitchers will be glad to see Yankee Stadium in their rear-view mirror as they gave up 5 more homers tonight, making it 13 in the 3 games in this series. But the Rays had a big homer of their own, Victor de Jesus's 52nd of the year in the 9th, and it gave them a 7-6 win. It was similar to Tuesday's game in that the lead went back and forth and Tampa Bay blew another lead late. At the beginning though it was more similar to last night's game as Leo Ortega was giving up homers by the bushel, three in the first three innings to put New York up 4-0. But Rodolfo Rivas' 3-run homer (#41) in the 4th cut it to 4-3, and Bo Angeac's 2-run single in the 5th made it 5-4 Rays. Ortega, though, wasn't done giving up homers and he surrendered one more in the 6th to Yankee rookie slugger Mike Long to tie it up again at 5. Ortega finished 6 9 5 5 0 4 and ends his regular season at 17-5, 3.49 with an impressive 18/197 BB/K ratio in 193.1 innings. He was in line for the win, though, when Angeac hit an RBI triple in the 7th to restore the Tampa Bay lead, and Tim Siqueiros had a 1-2-3 7th. But Jordan Diaz blew it again, giving up a homer to Long to tie the game once again in the 8th, before de Jesus came through in the 9th to finally put the Rays ahead for good. Kikuo Kawase got the ball in the 9th, and although he hit a batter with 2 out, he whiffed a pair and looked much better than his other recent outings, picking up save #20 while Diaz vultured his 6th win.

Team record: 126-33. Next up: The final 3 games of the regular season are at Publix Park against Baltimore; take at least 2 of them and the Rays make regular season history.

Playoff Race Update: The Twins are in as they won and Detroit beat Kansas City, the only crumb of suspense is whether the Twins can sweep Detroit in their final regular-season series to steal the division as Minnesota is 2 games behind the Tigers. Over in the NL, San Diego leads Arizona by 2 games for the second wild card with 3 games left; alas they do not play each other.