Drew Smyly threw eight innings of one-hit, shutout ball on Tuesday en route to a 3-0 combined one-hitter against Boston. The Tampa Bay Rays now are 6-7 after three consecutive wins.
Highlights and low-lights follow.
― Smyly was incredible. The lefty worked all quadrants of the zone, and kept Boston’s hitters off balance by relying upon his 92 mph fastball (53 thrown/35 strikes/6 whiffs), 78 mph slider (19 thrown/13 strikes/6 whiffs), 86 mph cutter (22 thrown/18 strikes/7 whiffs) and 81 mph changeup (9 thrown/4 strikes).
Smyly only got into trouble in the third against the bottom of the order, walking Chris Young and Ryan Hanigan before Jackie Bradley Jr. singled to center to load the bases with no outs. Yet Smyly wiggled out of trouble by coaxing a Mookie Betts 5-2 fielder’s choice before Dustin Pedroia grounded into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.
Betts’ groundout started a streak of 17 retired batters in a row, including eight by strikeout. The three baserunners against Smyly were the only ones for Boston in the contest.
Smyly tied his career high for a second straight start, fanning 11. The southpaw walked two and allowed just the one hit on 105 pitches (70 strikes; 67% K%).
― As documented by Ian Browne and Bill Chastain (MLB.com),
When Chris Young popped up in foul territory on the first-base side of the field with one out in the eighth, first baseman Logan Morrison and catcher Curt Casalicharged after the ball. The surprise came when Smyly entered the race and ended up making the catch with Morrison taking out his legs near the Red Sox’s dugout. Once the dust cleared, everybody was fine and Smyly had recorded the second out of the inning the hard way.
― After throwing 66 pitches and 5-2/3 innings on Saturday, Erasmo Ramirez entered the game and worked a perfect ninth, inducing a pair of ground outs and a strikeout. All nine pitches thrown by Erasmo crossed the plate as strikes. I’d imagine he would be good to go Friday should Kevin Cash choose to start him against the Yankees.
― Alex Colome followed Ramirez with a 1-2-3 tenth for his second save.
― From the third inning on, Tampa Bay’s hurlers retired 23 batters in a row.
― Rays pitching racked up 14 K’s (11 by Smyly).
― Mired in a 1-25 stretch, Kevin Kiermaier drove in the go-ahead run on a no-doubter to right field off Matt Barnes in the 10th, the sixth Boston pitcher of the night. It was The Outlaw’s first homer of the year, and the second time in as many years that he led the Rays to victory via the extra inning long-ball.
Extra-inning blast. Clutch, @KKiermaier39. #RaysUp
WATCH: https://t.co/j0k1xqwEhT pic.twitter.com/ZmSLtjCKJO
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 20, 2016
― Later in the tenth, Logan Forsythe ― who reached base four times ― doubled off the Monstah with one out, yet Logan Morrison flew out to center to put Tampa Bay behind the eight-ball. After Evan Longoria was walked intentionally, Tommy Layne entered the game in relief. Faced with the decision to bat Corey Dickerson vs. a tough lefty, or a right-handed pinch hitter, Cash opted to go with the red-hot Brandon Guyer.
Guyer hit a bullet to third, but right at Travis Shaw. The third baseman, however, booted the ball allowing the Rays to load the bases. Desmond Jennings followed with a ground-rule double to right, scoring two more for a three-run lead.
― The Rays did have an early opportunity to plate runs, yet they couldn’t push any runs across the plate. Joe Kelly, who left the game after just 2/3 of an inning with a right shoulder impingement, walked a pair of batters in the first inning before collecting the first two outs of the game. Kelly’s fastball, which normally sits in the mid to upper 90s, sat in the low 90s, and because of it Boston’s skipper opted to go with RHP Heath Hembree, who was just recalled from Pawtucket. With two on and two outs, Hembree struck out Jennings to end the inning. The reliever threw 3-1/3 scoreless innings, striking out four while allowing only two hits.
― The Rays had the leadoff hitter aboard in both of the first two innings, but couldn’t get a runner beyond second base until the tenth inning. Hembree, Robbie Ross Jr., Junichi Tazawa and Craig Kimbrel combined to allow just three hits and three walks over the first nine frames.
― LoMo went 0-5 on the night and is now 2-37 overall. Ouch! Not that he has anything to show for his effort, but Morrison’s two fly-ball outs were well struck. Hopefully that’s a sign he’s getting closer. Conversely, a part of me is convinced that Smyly intentionally tried to hurt him in the collision, thus allowing Steve Pearce to take over at first.
― Prior to Tuesday night, Boston hadn’t been shut out at home in 63 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors. Ahem, consider that streak snapped!
The New What Next
Tampa Bay and Boston play game two of three on Wednesday night at Fenway Park. Chris Archer will take the mound opposite of Rick Porcello. Archer has lost his last six starts dating back to August 2015. Porcello allowed three earned runs on two hits over 6-1/3 innings against Toronto in his last start. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 4/20/16 Starting Lineup
Forsythe 2B
Morrison 1B
Longoria 3B
Dickerson DH
Jennings LF
Miller SS
Souza RF
Kiermaier CF
Conger C
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
― C Hank Conger is expected to be back behind the plate Wednesday in his first start in nearly a week. Conger allowed five stolen bases last Thursday in the Rays’ loss against Cleveland.
― Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rays are the fourth AL team ever to win a shutout on one hit or fewer in extra innings (’11 Twins, ’76 Rangers, 1903 White Sox). They also join the ’73 Angels and ’66 Indians as the only teams since 1913 to have five games with 10-plus strikeouts by starters in their first 13 games.