Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves played a back and forth affair, with Atlanta ultimately taking the victory and snapping the Rays eight game winning streak.

Tampa Bay took an early lead thanks to a couple of sac flies, but Atlanta thundered back in the 5th and took a 5-2 lead, thanks to some sloppy defense from the Rays and some timely hitting.

In the 8th, the Rays rallied to tie the game at 5, but bullpen imploded in the bottom half of the frame, allowing four runs. However, there still was no quit in the Rays, as they loaded the bases in the 9th, but unfortunately Willy Adames grounded out to end the game.

On the bright side of things, Tommy Pham remained hot as he collected three more hits. Joey Wendle, Matt Duffy, and Kevin Kiermaier all had two hit days, and Brandon Lowe connected for his first big league home run.

The Rays and Braves will be back at it tonight with Diego Castillo opening against Sean Newcomb at 7:35.

Rays News

• Praise for Kevin Cash from the Tampa Bay Times and the Rays brass, as the Rays manager has handled an off-season of massive change to somehow leading this team to being well over .500
• More people are starting to notice Joey Wendle, who has been tremendous for the Rays this season
• The Rays winning ways as of late has them believing they’re contenders

Around the League

• The Atlanta Braves and Tyler Flowers agreed to a contract extension prior to last night’s game. He then entered as a pinch hitter and blasted a home run.
• Aaron Judge won’t be returning from his injury anytime soon
• More pitching woes for the Oakland Athletics, as they have placed Brett Anderson on the disabled list
• The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Jose Bautista from the New York Mets
• Greg Byrd made an error yesterday...the ball was in his glove, but decided to hop out on a very routine play

Trivia

Name the person based off an excerpt from Baseball America

[Player] was an early candidate for the top pick in the 1999 draft but battled tendinitis all spring and saw his stock drop somewhat due to the health questions. As a result, the Royals put him on a strict 60-pitch limit during his seven starts for Spokane, but that was enough to showcase his tools. He was consistently at 93-94 mph with his fastball, topping out at 96. [Player] is a good athlete with extra long arms and legs, but he does more than just blow hitters off the plate with heat. He already throws an above-average changeup at times and showed a sharp curveball to Northwest League hitters. Unlike many tall young pitchers, [Player] has not shown a problem throwing strikes and keeping the ball down in the strike zone.

Hint: Once a top 100 prospect in baseball and mainstay in the Royals top ten