June 25-27, 2027: at St. Louis (3)
Game 1: 6-7 L (11). LP-Dohy (1-1). Starter-Gonzalez (5 4 2 2 2 5). HR-Pinto (4). A tough one for the Rays as Charlie Ruegger blew a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th with Fairbanks unavailable after going 2 the night before. Kyle Dohy put a man on to start the 11th and then had to leave with turned out to be a stretched elbow ligament, so his season is over, and Sandy Gaston gave up 3 hits to let Dohy's man score.
With Dohy headed to the 60-day IL, we needed another lefty reliever:
Andrews is a decent lefty reliever (65/55/45 with a 1.50 ERA in 18 IP) Milwaukee had on the block and cost us practically nothing as Bara is organizational filler with a slight chance of being something.
Game 2: 5-4 W (11). WP-Fairbanks (2-3). Starter-McClanahan (6.1 6 4 4 3 4). HR-Torkelson (21). Rays turned the tables on St. Louis as after the Cards scored 3 in the 7th against Mac to go up 4-3, Caminero tied it with a double and Luciano's 2nd RBI double in the 11th won it. Fairbanks had another 2-inning outing, saving his own win.
Game 3: 8-4 W. WP-German (1-1). Starter-Castillo (5 9 4 4 2 8). HR-Cartaya (14), Mears (5). Another back-and-forth game as after St. Louis BABIPed Castillo to death with infield hits and took a 4-2 lead in the 4th the Rays tied it up in the 5th and went ahead for good on Cartaya's homer. Luis German earned the win with 3 scoreless with 6 Ks in relief.
Team record: 50-27. Yankees took 2 of 3 as well but then lost on our Monday off-day so the lead is 6 1/2 games. Next up: That off-day followed by return home to face the mighty Arizona Diamondbacks, holders of MLB's best record at 53-25 in a showdown of 1998 expansion teams.
MLB News: Milestone news as one-time Red Sox teammates Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts recorded their 300th homer and 2000th hit respectively