The 2022 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 1-2 L. LP-Kluber (3-4, 5 7 2 2 2 4). Wander was 3-4 with an RBI double for the full extent of the offensive offense.

Game 2: 1-4 L. LP-Springs (3-3). Starter-Patino (5 2 1 1 2 10). The Rays wasted the best start from Luis Patino for a while as they still can't rub two sticks (or two bats) together to generate any offense. It was 1-1 until the 8th when Jeffrey Springs imploded.

Game 3: 2-5 L. LP-McClanahan (4-4, 6 5 2 2 2 6). HR-Arozarena (7). All due respect to the Pirates who are now 37-36 thanks to the sweep, but losing 3 at home to Pittsburgh and scoring 4 runs in the process is really a nadir. This team was 26-17 when the Yankees came to town and swept a 4-game series; they're 8-21 since. Josh Bell is hitting 140/213/209 in 11 games since joining the team in case you were wondering how that deal has gone.

Team record: 34-38. As you can see below thanks to the generous new playoff system, we're far from out of it. Next up: A day off, then Milwaukee (and Willy Adames) visits for 2 games.

Transaction: Our waiver claim of Adolis Garcia has gone through and Vidal Brujan was optioned to Durham. Manuel Margot is about to come off the IL as well; the obvious choice to demote is Lars Nootbaar but he's one of the few guys who's hit lately (279/347/500). Also Michael Conforto has been a bust (190/331/340).

MLB News: Some wheeling and dealing around the majors as the Angels made a trio of deals, acquiring SS Jose Iglesias and Ps Brad Hand and Heath Hembree as they shipped out minor leaguers, while we had a surprising intradivisional deal between the Yankees and the Jays with Gleyber Torres heading to Toronto for Julian Merryweather and a 17-year-old catching prospect. The Dodgers also sent a couple of minor leaguers to the Reds for reliever Lucas Sims.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 0-1 L. Not just another loss:



After scoring 4 runs in 3 games over the weekend, the offense hit a new low tonight, wasting a great game from Drew Rasmussen.

Game 2: 5-3 W (10). WP-Feyereisen (4-2). Starter-Baz (7 3 3 1 1 13). HR-A.Garcia (1), Bell (1). They got hits! and runs! and won! Hard to believe, I know. All the runs came on homers, with Adolis Garcia's 3-run inside-the-park job in the 2nd getting them on the board and Josh Bell's 2-run walk-off winner in the 10th, the first for both since joining the club. Would have been a shame to lose the dominant start Baz had.

Transaction: Before the second game we activated Manuel Margot from the IL and DFA'd Harold Ramirez, who actually did hit for us (283/309/405) but we no longer needed him as a platoon 1B with the Bell pickup and no longer needed him as a RH OF bat with the claim of Garcia, who's a much superior defensive OF and can play center.

Team record: 35-39, still 1 game out of the wild card in the messy AL.

[Art Deco]

A rare 5-game series as the originally scheduled 4-gamer is expanded with a Saturday doubleheader to make up one of the games lost to the lockout.

Game 1: 1-7 L. LP-Kluber (3-5, 5 7 4 4 2 5). Kluber really didn't pitch all that badly but the two men he put on to start the 6th were allowed to score. The offense was pitiful again with 3 hits.

Game 2: 3-4 L. LP-Feyereisen (4-3). Starter-Patino (7 3 1 1 0 9). A heartbreaker as Feyereisen put two on in the 9th up 3-1, whiffed Bo Bichette and Vlad Jr, but then gave up a 3-run HR to Gleyber Torres to blow the game and waste Patino's best start of the season. Wander was 2-4 with an RBI.

Game 3: 4-2 W. WP-Wisler (2-2). S-Kittredge (11). Starter-McClanahan (4.2 5 2 2 1 5). HR-W.Franco (10). Finally a win in the first game of the doubleheader. The big hit was a 2-run triple from Lars Nootbaar, while Wander was 3-3 with the homer.

Game 4: 2-8 L. LP-Yarbrough (1-5, 4 4 5 5 1 2). HR-J.Bell (2/20). Ryan Yarbrough was brought up to start the nightcap and he was just as bad as we remembered him when he was up. Brooks Raley left the game with elbow inflammation and will be out the 15 days on the IL.

Game 5: 6-0 W. WP-Rasmussen (7-2, 7 4 0 0 1 9). HR-B.Lowe (14), W.Franco (11). Needed a big game and length from Rasmussen and got it, while Wander capped a huge extended weekend by going 4-5 with the homer, raising his average from .269 to .286 in the series.

Transactions: Aside from bringing Yarbrough up as the 27th man for the doubleheader and sending him back down, we put Raley on the IL as mentioned and optioned Lars Nootbaar back to Durham so we could have a couple of fresh arms for the finale with Ryan Thompson and Calvin Faucher called up. Also we sent Pete Fairbanks to Durham on a rehab assignment, he's been missed in the pen.

Team record: 37-42. Normally I'd be ready to blow this team up right now with that kind of record at almost the midway point, but thanks to the mediocrity of the AL and the third wild card, we're still in the thick of it. Still without some progress over the next week or two I still will likely deal the impending free agents (Bell, Kluber, Zunino, Margot, Conforto, Wisler) although I wonder how much I'll get since they're all underachieving.

Some great news for the future, as we signed this beast-in-the-making in the July 2 international window:



Wander 2.0? He's an OF (and a mediocre one at that), so probably no, but man oh man can we dream on that hitting potential. I almost want to sim 5 years ahead just to see what he becomes. This is some heady stuff from my scout:



Elsewhere around MLB there was plenty of wheelin' and dealin' over the holiday weekend with the Yankees getting their shortstop in Nick Ahmed from Arizona for Deivi Garcia and a prospect; the Giants sent Darin Ruf to the Nationals in a 4-player deal; the Cubs dealt former Ray and their current closer David Robertson to the A's for a prospect; and Oakland picked up Jean Segura from the 26-55 Phillies for a prospect as they are trying to make a run at the wild card themselves. Also, Minnesota claimed 1B Rowdy Tellez off waivers from Milwaukee.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 7-1 W. WP-Baz (2-2, 7.1 5 1 1 1 8). HR-J.Bell (3), Arozarena (8). Baz was dazzling and Arozarena put the game away with a grand slam in the 9th. Bell had a rare 2-hit game since joining the club including a homer.

Game 2: 15-1 W. WP-Kluber (4-5, 6 4 1 1 1 3). HR-Arozarena 2 (10), Zunino (14). The moribund offense has suddenly scored 28 runs in its last 3 games as Arozarena drove in 6 on a pair of 3-run shots and Zunino was 3-6 with a double, homer and 3 RBI.

Game 3: 3-5 L. LP-Wisler (2-3). Starter-Patino (5 8 3 3 3 8). HR-Margot (2). Matt Wisler gave up another critical homer, a 2-run shot to Trevor Story in the 6th which broke a 3-3 tie and sent them to defeat. That's 9 dingers allowed by him in 40 IP this year.

Team record: 39-43, still 1 game out of the wild card in the 10-car pileup that is the AL WC race, which you can see in detail in the next post.

[Art Deco]

Well it's been a frustrating year so far with a good start (26-17) giving way to a terrible late May and June and a losing record. There are a few green shoots of late with the offense starting to get going but we'll see how real it is. The next couple of weeks will determine whether we stay in the race or dump our numerous free agents-to-be. I'm already shopping Michael Conforto since Lars Nootbaar is ready to do his job somewhat better. Here are the MLB standings and leaders:



The wild card races:



Yes, with the new playoff format each league would be sending a sub .500-team to the postseason. Our team stats:



Talk about a June swoon. And man that's some brutal hitting. The pitching hasn't even been all that special, at least by Rays standards. And here are those "hitters":



Yeah it's basically Wander and the Seven Dwarfs or something like that. These numbers are coyote ugly and there's no other way to put it. The pitching:



Some bright spots here including 4/5 of the rotation and a great year in relief from Jalen Beeks but the rest of the bullpen has been terribly homer-prone, and there have been at least 4-5 late-inning meltdowns which cost us wins. Some good news on that front, though, as Pete Fairbanks is rehabbing at Durham and will be back any day, and we're moving Luis Patino to the pen and giving Yonny Chirinos a crack at the rotation since his rehab time is up. He had mixed results at Durham but he should do about as well as Patino has while moving Patino to the pen will give us a true long reliever in a pen full of 25-35 stamina guys.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 7-3 W. WP-Beeks (1-0). Starter-McClanahan (4 4 3 3 4 4, 95P). HR-B.Lowe (15). Lowe had a big game, 3-4 with the homer and 3 RBI and Beeks threw 3 one-hit innings in relief of Mac. The news wasn't all good though as Josh Bell sprained an ankle after doubling and will be out a month, complicating our efforts to either get into the playoffs or have a fire sale at the end of the month.

Game 2: 2-3 L. LP-Feyereisen (4-4). Starter-Rasmussen (3 4 2 2 2 5, had to leave after a 69-minute rain delay). Cincinnati got a run off Feyereisen in the 8th to break a 2-2 tie in a tough loss.

Game 3: 9-3 W. WP-Wisler (3-3). Starter-Baz (6.2 4 2 2 1 9, 2 solo homers allowed). HR-Arozarena (11), W.Franco (12). Turnabout today as the Rays scored 7 in the 9th to break a 2-2 tie, capped by Wander's grand slam. He also had a pair of doubles in a big day.

Team record: 41-44. Next up: Back home for 4 vs Boston and we have the amateur draft on Monday.

Transactions: We placed Josh Bell on the IL and brought up Lars Nootbaar, and also optioned Calvin Faucher and promoted Vidal Brujan as I only became aware today that MLB required a 13/13 hitter/pitcher breakdown as of June 1 and we had been going 12/14 recently.

MLB News: The extremely fragile former Ray Alex Cobb is done for the year with the Giants. Also we had a slew of trades, almost as if it were July 31:




The Ryu-Kieboom deal and Jose Abreu to Milwaukee seemed the most interesting.

[Art Deco]

We'll start with the trade, which germinated from an offer we received from the out-of-it Padres. They wanted a better prospect than we were willing to part with and it turned out they were willing to take two 1/2-star minor leaguers for free-agent-to-be closer Taylor Rogers:



We got them to eat 50% of Rogers' remaining salary as well. Rogers has a sterling 4/33 BB/K ratio in 28 innings with 15 saves but has a bloated 6.43 ERA thanks to a .429 BABIP and 4 homers allowed which belies his 70 movement rating. With Jeffrey Springs struggling in the late-inning lefty role and Andrew Kittredge having his own BABIP issues, Rogers will be a co-closer at the least. To make room for him we optioned Jason Adam to AAA Durham and DFA'd Chris Mazza to open up a 40-man spot.

Now, the draft. Here's how Round 1 went around MLB in case you're wondering where the big names landed:



As for our picks:





Round 1 - Austin:



Nothing not to like here. We'll let him play SS in the minors but long-term we're looking at him for 2B or 3B with Wander under contract forever.

Round 2 - Clifford:



A bat-first OF prospect committed to Vanderbilt just like Austin, he looks like the part with potential power and patience, although contact could be an issue. We'll take a .250 BA if he adds 70-80 walks and 30 HR to that.

Round 2 - Hylton:



Hylton (pronounced "Hilton" I guess) is a hulking 6'5" 1B who was committed to in-state Stetson and has tremendous power potential.

Round 2 - Jordan:



We continue to clean up in the 2nd round with Dakota "Kota" Jordan, a tremendous athlete who's a two-sport commit to Mississippi State for baseball and football. We'll try to get him to concentrate on baseball as he has all the tools except perhaps for contact (OSA's a bit more optimistic at 50 potential).

Round 3 - Messick:



This was not a great draft for pitching, but my scout Rob Metzler likes Messick a lot better than OSA so we're trusting his instincts here. Messick's no ace, but looks to be a very deceptive kind of guy who could move quickly.

Round 4 - Hanson:



Not sure why an infielder with his hitting potential lasted until the late 4th round, but we're not going to argue with it as he could be a steal.

Round 5 - Isaac:



Since power hitters are the most expensive guys on the open market and we don't have the budget to spend big on them, we have to develop them ourselves and Isaac is a guy with some potential power, even if he may be a marginal 1B and likely DH.

Round 6 - Birdsell:



Birdsell is kind of a WYSIWYG pitcher, pretty fully developed out of college. He could be a useful 5th starter or long guy within a couple of years and with our defense and ballpark he could thrive.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 5-3 W. WP-Kluber (5-5, 6 3 3 3 1 4). S-Rogers (1). Alec Bohm and Lars Nootbaar each drove in a pair and Taylor Rogers converted the save in his Rays debut.

Game 2: 5-1 W. WP-Chirinos (1-0, 7 4 1 1 0 3). HR-Nootbaar (5). Yonny Chrinos pitched for the first time in the bigs since August 2020 and was brilliant, while another long-term injury guy Pete Fairbanks had a scoreless inning in his return. All 5 runs came in the third on a 2-run Wander single and Nootbaar's 3-run homer.

Game 3: 6-3 W. WP-McClanahan (5-4, 6 3 0 0 2 6). The Rays finally got back to .500 with their 4th straight win. Alec Bohm and Taylor Walls had 2-run singles to lead the offense.

Game 4: 3-2 W. WP-Springs (4-4). S-Rogers (2). Starter-Rasmussen (6 6 2 2 0 3). HR-Arozarena (12). The Rays are back above .500 and in the first wild card spot after a come-from-behind win which saw Arozarena lead off the 8th with the equalizer and then Yandy Diaz's sac fly brought home Lars Nootbaar, who had tripled for the second time today.

Team record: 45-44. Next up: 3 at home vs Baltimore before we hit the All-Star break. Happy times in Tampa Bay again after the 4-game sweep with Lars Nootbaar turning into the impact bat we thought Josh Bell would be as he was instrumental in 3 of the wins.

We also made a trade as we need to both free up a roster spot and a 40-man spot for the return of Peter Fairbanks:



Chargois is a decent reliever but Fairbanks is better, and we could use some catching depth in the system. Morales is more of a hitter than a catcher (35 defense) but can also play the OF and could be a useful utility guy with his 55 pop.

Speaking of trades there were another slew of them in the bigs, including Nate Eovaldi getting dealt by Boston right after he pitched well against us in the series finale:



Guess a 60-28 record isn't good enough for the Dodgers as they went out and dealt prospect Michael Busch to the Padres for Sean Manaea who gets flipped again, the Yankees added catcher Austin Nola and the Nats interestingly traded for Joe Musgrove, Joc Pederson and Paul Dejong as they're 1 1/2 back in the wild card race in the NL.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 5-3 W. WP-Kittredge (3-3). S-Rogers (3). Starter-Baz (5.2 6 3 3 2 8). HR-Bohm (4), Zunino (15). Alec Bohm led off the 8th with a homer to break a 3-3 tie and Mike Zunino provide insurance as the Rays made it 6 straight wins.

Game 2: 1-5 L. LP-Kluber (5-6, 4 6 4 2 3 6). HR-Walls (5).

Game 3: 1-5 L. LP-Chirinos (1-1, 4.1 5 3 3 1 7). Consecutive 5-1 losses drop the Rays back to .500 as they head to the All-Star Break.

Team record: 46-46. Next up: After the break we'll play 3 games in Kansas City.

Standings as we hit the break:



Wild card races, which are more interesting:



Rays team stats:



Batting stats:



Pitching stats:

[Art Deco]

The rosters with 3 Rays making it, all first-timers (Wander, Beeks, Rasmussen):





The Home Run Derby:



The game itself:



Have an All-Star week, Spencer Torkelson! After winning the Derby, the rookie hit a grand slam off hometown favorite Edwin Diaz at CitiField to give the AL a come-from-behind win. Drew Rasmussen got the surprise call to start the game, and although he allowed a hit and a walk he escaped unscathed. Jalen Beeks had a sharp 1-2-3 6th inning and Wander Franco drew a walk to start the AL's 8th-inning rally.

[Art Deco]

"Minor" is in quotes because it involved all minor leaguers but it's a potentially impactful trade for the big club. We dealt here from a position of excess as we have Vidal Brujan and Greg Jones as middle infield prospects and Wander Franco and Brandon Lowe locked up for years to come at the MLB level. So we sent Xavier Edwards back to whence he came:



And picked up a couple of very interesting prospects in return in Mears and Ruiz. Mears is the more talented prospect with upside - he could be a big-time power hitter:



Mears was San Diego's 2nd round pick 2019 and is projected to be a big-time power hitter with good patience at the plate, along with being an average to above-average outfielder with average speed. He's not perfect though, and contact and whiffs could be his undoing but as I've said before power is the most expensive thing to buy on the open market and lower-revenue teams like us have to develop it.

Meanwhile Ruiz is no slouch either:



He's a fine outfielder who can play some center, a speed demon, and a solid hitter. He's versatile with the ability to play the infield as we like, and the only negative I can find with him is that he has to go on the 40-man since the Padres brought him up for 3 days without playing him. As a result we had to DFA Ford Proctor, whom we hopefully don't lose.

[Art Deco]

Welcome to Tampa Bay, Michael Brantley!





The Astros put him on the block, and when I saw they'd take Conforto, I jumped on it. I included Tyler Frank as he's a marginal prospect and Houston was willing to take 60% of Brantley's $16M salary so with the pro-rations it only ended up costing us about $1.1M. There's way too much swing-and-miss in our lineup (we're dead last in batting average in MLB) so Brantley should be able to keep innings alive. Like Conforto, he's a free agent at year's end. Randy Arozarena will move to RF and Brantley will play LF.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 3-2 W (11). WP-Rogers (1-0). Starter-McClanahan (5 8 2 2 1 6). HR-Conforto (8), B.Lowe (16). The Rays trailed 2-1 going into the 9th when Randy Arozarena reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a fly ball and scored on a wild pitch, and then Brandon Lowe homered in the 11th to win it.

Game 2: 3-4 L. LP-Baz (2-3, 6 9 4 4 1 5). HR-Nootbaar (6). Baz was hit harder than normal and a 2-run Nootbaar homer in the 9th was too little, too late.

Game 3: 4-1 W. WP-Kluber (6-6, 6 3 1 1 3 3). S-Rogers (4). Michael Brantley's Rays debut was a smash success as his first-inning single with two out and nobody on led to a 2-run rally, he singled and scored again later, and threw out a runner at home plate. Lars Nootbaar singled him home twice.

Team record: 48-47, good enough for the second wild card at the moment. Next up: 4 games in Baltimore.

The latest log of MLB trades, with names such as Enrique Hernandez, Eddie Rosario, former Ray Jose Alvarado, and Dinelson Lamet finding new homes:

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 4-1 W. WP-Beeks (2-0). S-Springs (2). Starter-Rasmussen (6 2 1 1 1 7). HR-Arozarena (13). Arozarena's homer broke a 1-1 tie in the 8th and gave the Rays another win.

Game 2: 6-4 W. WP-Chirinos (2-1, 6.2 6 4 4 1 5). S-Rogers (5). HR-B.Lowe (17), Mejia (3). Alec Bohm's RBI single in the 6th broke a 3-3 tie and Francisco Mejia launched a 2-run homer to send the Rays to victory.

Game 3: 2-4 L. LP-McClanahan (5-5, 6.1 6 4 4 0 7). HR-Brantley (1) (3). McClanahan done in again by the longball, allowing a pair including a 3-run Trey Mancini shot.

Game 4: 2-4 L. LP-Baz (2-4, 4.2 7 4 4 3 4). One oddity in this game: Randy Arozarena hit by a pitch 3 times, which has to tie some kind of record.

Team record: 50-49. The two wins got them slightly comfortable in the wild card and actually within 5 1/2 of the Yankees, but the two losses now have them 1/2 game up in the second wild card and only one game up on Detroit, the 4th team in the wild card race as well as 7 1/2 back of the Yanks. Next up: Back to the Trop for 3 against Cleveland, struggling at 45-54.

Transaction: Adolis Garcia had to go on the IL with an oblique strain so Estuery Ruiz, just acquired from San Diego, was called up. Ruiz went 0-4 with 2 whiffs in the third game in his MLB debut.

MLB News: More trades with the two biggest seeing Philly deal Aaron Nola to Atlanta for 4 prospects and the White Sox sending Yasmani Grandal to the Mets for prospect Matt Allan and a minor leaguer.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 2-4 L. LP-Kluber (6-7, 5 7 4 4 3 6). We were single-handedly done in by Jose Ramirez, who drove in all 4 Cleveland runs including a 3-run homer off Kluber in the 5th.

Game 2: 5-3 W. WP-Rasmussen (8-2, 6 4 2 2 0 9). S-Rogers (6). Lars Nootbaar was 3-3 with an RBI and Wander was 2-4 with a steal and 2 runs scored.

Game 3: 6-1 W. WP-Chirinos (3-1, 5.1 4 1 1 1 7). HR-Nootbaar (7) Yonny Chirinos continues to impress since returning and Lars Nootbar stayed hot with a monster game: 2-4 with a 2-run double and a 3-run homer. Gonna be tough to keep him out of the lineup when Josh Bell comes back. Michael Brantley was 4-5 with 3 runs scored as well.

Team record: 52-50, now in the 2nd wild card. Next up: An off-day then Toronto comes to town for a pair.

[Art Deco]

I also couldn't help myself and made one more deal before the trading deadline:



Merrifield gives us another high-contact guy (70 rated) to try and boost our league-low batting average. He doesn't walk much, but again we needed a guy who puts the ball in play as not only do we not hit for average but we also strike out a lot. He'll be a super-utility guy for us, filling in for Brandon Lowe at 2B against tough lefties and playing the outfield quite a bit. The price was not terribly high in Jayden Murray, who looks at best a 5th starter and more likely a long reliever with average stuff. Merrifield has a team option at $6.5M next year - I don't see us exercising it but somebody else might want to so he'll be offered up after the season is over.

As a result Vidal Brujan has been optioned back to Durham and we DFA'd P Ryan Thompson to make room on the 40-man.

Elsewhere in MLB there were a few more deals completed before the deadline:



Also a couple of big-name starters who were recently traded signed extensions with their new teams as Sean Manaea committed to the Dodgers for 4/61 and Nate Eovaldi extended his deal with the Brewers at 5/113.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 1-0 W. WP-McClanahan (6-5, 7 3 0 0 0 12). S-Rogers (7). Shane McClanahan pitched by far his best game of the year, and in his final inning he allowed a leadoff triple to Bo Bichette before whiffing Vlad Jr. and Springer to get out of the inning. Taylor Rogers got a 4-out save when Feyereisen made a mess in the 8th.

Game 2: 2-5 L. LP-Baz (2-5, 3.2 6 4 4 3 4). HR-B.Lowe (18). Meanwhile Baz pitched one of his worst games and the offense struggled again.

Team record: 53-51, still in 2nd wild card spot. Next up: A big 4-game series in Detroit, where the Tigers are just on the outside looking in for a wild card and rookie Spencer Torkelson has taken the league by storm with 34 homers already.

Transaction: Adolis Garcia came off the IL and Esteury Ruiz was optioned to AAA Durham. Ruiz was just upgraded to 70 defense in LF by OSA.

[Art Deco]

Transaction: Activated P Brooks Raley from the IL, optioned P Luis Patino to AAA Durham. Patino was doing OK in middle relief, but Raley was due back from his rehab and someone had to go. Patino will get to start at Durham.

Game 1: 4-3 W. WP-Beeks (3-0). S-Rogers (8). Starter-Kluber (4 9 3 3 1 5). HR-Franco (13). Manuel Margot was 2-3 with a 2-run double for the Rays' big hit of the game.

Game 2: 8-3 W. WP-Rasmussen (9-2, 5.1 6 3 3 4 8). HR-Arozarena (14), Margot (3). Arozarena's slam in the first put the Rays ahead to stay, and Margot's 3-run shot in the 8th salted it away. Michael Brantley was on base all 5 times with 3 hits and 2 walks to go with an RBI double.

Game 3: 0-5 L. LP-Chirinos (3-2, 6 4 3 3 0 4). Tarik Skubal and 2 relievers shut out the Rays on 5 hits, and Brooks Raley let things get out of hand in the 7th.

Game 4: 4-10 L. LP-McClanahan (6-6, 3 5 6 4 5 4). HR-Zunino (16). Mac picked a bad time to have his worst start of the year, giving up 3 homers including a pair to Javy Baez after he was handed leads of 2-0 and 4-3.

Team record: 55-53. The wheel-spinning continues as the Rays have dropped to the third wild card after Seattle won 5 straight to move past them. They're 2 games up on Baltimore and Oakland. Next up: An off-day then 2 games in Milwaukee against the tough Brewers as we reunite with Willy Adames.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 2-3 L. LP-Baz (2-6, 5.1 6 3 3 4 8). HR-Y.Diaz (4). It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for the Rays as not only did they drop the game to Milwaukee they lost two of their best players to injury. Wander Franco has a herniated disc and will miss the 10 days he'll spend on the IL and Mike Zunino has biceps tendinitis which will shelve him for 6 weeks or almost right to the end of the season.

Transaction: Placed Franco and Zunino on the 10-day IL, recalled IF/OF Vidal Brujan and C Rene Pinto from Durham.

Game 2: 13-4 W. WP-Kluber (7-7, 5 7 4 4 1 2, 3 HR). HR-Brujan (1). Who knew the Rays would bounce back from losing 2 of their top offensive players and score a season-high # of runs? And it was their two fill-ins who got it done as Francisco Mejia was 3-6 with 3 RBI including a 2-run single to put them ahead to stay in the 3rd, and that single was followed by an unlikely grand slam from Brujan, filling in for Wander.

Team record: 56-54, still 1 game up on Oakland for the final wild card spot. Next up: 3 games at home vs Baltimore, which is 2 back so it will be a big series.

[Art Deco]

Game 1: 9-8 W. WP-Fairbanks (1-0). Starter-Rasmussen (3.2 5 7 7 3 5). HR-Mejia (4). What a remarkable comeback as the Rays trailed 7-0 in the 6th before Mejia's 3-run homer got them going and Yandy Diaz's 2-run double in the 8th got them within 8-7. Michael Brantley tied it up in the bottom of the 9th with an RBI double and then later in the inning Mejia singled in the walk-off winner.

Game 2: 6-5 W (10). WP-Fairbanks (2-0). Starter-McClanahan (6 4 2 2 1 6). Another amazing game as the Rays were up 4-0 at one point before a Michael Brantley throwing error in the 9th allowing the tying run to score, and a dropped fly ball from Brantley allowed to go-ahead run to score in the 10th. But Brantley redeemed himself with an RBI single to tie it in the bottom of the inning, and Alec Bohm came off the bench to deliver an RBI single to win it. Brantley had 3 hits as did Whit Merrifield, who drove in a pair.

Transaction: Josh Bell was activated after missing over a month and despite his heroics the night before, Alec Bohm was optioned to Durham as he was only hitting 227/303/337.

Game 3: 6-7 L (13). LP-Wisler (3-4). Starter-Chirinos (6 8 6 0 2 3). The Rays nearly (and should have) pulled off another miracle comeback after falling behind 6-0 when a Yandy Diaz error opened the door for a 6-run 3rd for Baltimore. Diaz atoned with a pair of RBI doubles, one in a 5-run 6th that got them right back in it, and one in the 7th to tie the game. And they loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 9th but couldn't score, and then Wisler allowed his 10th homer in 52 IP this year to lose it. Also Michael Brantley strained his oblique in the game and will go on the IL as he'll be out about 2 weeks.

Team record: 58-55. Next up: 3 tough games at Yankee Stadium, where they trail New York by 7 games. They're currently in the 2nd wild card spot, 1/2 game up on third spot Seattle and 2 up on Detroit.