Tuesday night was chock full of excellent pitching and awkward circumstances. The Royals had the bases loaded not once, not twice, but three times — yet they had nothing to show for their efforts. Chris Archer successfully picked off Norichika Aoki at first, and there was a questionable call at second which was reviewed, yet not overturned. Then there was the whole “score knotted at 0-0 until the ninth inning,” thing. In the end, both Chris Archer and Yordan Ventura put together a pair of great outings, the Rays are able to hang their hats on their first victory in Kauffman Stadium in eight attempts, and the Rays beat the Royals by a score of 1-0. Game peripherals are below.
Game Peripherals
- Sure, Chris Archer only struck out five, and induced a meager seven whiffs. And sure, he gave up nine hits and loaded the bases twice. But make no mistake, Archer was good Tuesday night — lasting seven innings and blanking the Royals along the way. Archer was in pitch to contact mode Tuesday might, inducing 11 ground-outs — including two big 6-4-3 double plays. Better yet, he was efficient — averaging just under 13 pitches per inning. Archer got into his fair share of jams, yet he was able to make that all important big pitch to get out of those sticky situations unscathed. Case in point: the sixth inning. With 57 pitches under his belt, the sixth started off innocently enough when the Rays mini ace struck out Aoki (swinging), bringing Eric Hosmer to the plate. In an unfortunate lapse of command, Archer walked Hosmer. Salvador Perez followed the walk by reaching out over the plate and flipping an outside fastball into right field. Billy Butler, who grounded into an inning ending double play in his previous at bat, pulled a low and inside pitch into left field, loading the bases with only one out. That’s when good fortune started swinging Archer’s way. Alex Gordon swung hard, and hit a high infield popper for the second out of the inning. Danny Valencia was next, hitting the ball hard, but right at Longoria. Though Longo couldn’t field it cleanly, he kept his body in front of the hard grounder and knocked it down with his chest — calmly taking the out at second base.
- In the bottom of the third, Jarrod Dyson hit a grounder to short. Yunel Escobar fielded the play, under-handing it to Ben Zobrist who stepped on the bag. But Zobrist couldn’t manage the transfer from mitt to throwing hand, and the ball fell to the ground. The umpire called the runner safe, yet Zobrist was adamant that he had lost it on the transfer. Joe Maddon came out and placed a challenge, however — after a review — the ump crew announced that the safe call would stand. You can see the play below. In my opinion, the runner was out at second BUT a fielder must now show control with the throwing hand in order to be credited with the catch in that situation.
- Wil Myers lead off the ninth inning, facing closer Greg Holland, and quickly hit a grounder toward the left side of the infield. In a bout of confusion, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar tried to make the play. Moustakas got to the ball first, but he — clearly distracted by the near-collision — wasn’t able to get the ball out of his glove to make a throw. After both Zobrist and Longoria were retired, Holland threw a costly wild pitch, with James Loney at the plate, which allowed Myers to advance to second. Loney hit a 3-2 pitch past a diving Danny Valencia, scoring Myers from second.
- Grant Balfour put the Royals to bed in the ninth, tallying his second save (in as many opportunities) of the season. His command was pretty spot on, and his velocity was up. I like where this is going.
The New What Next
Jake Odorizzi and the Rays will attempt to walk away from Kansas City with two consecutive wins, and the series win, Wednesday, when they face Jeremy Guthrie and the Royals. Jeremy Guthrie has posted a 3-4 record, with a 4.06 ERA, and just a 37/19 K/BB over 51 innings, and his last three seasons, of work against the Rays. You can read about the match-up here, in our series preview.
Rays 4/9/14 Starting Lineup
DeJesus LF
Zobrist 2B
Joyce DH
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Jennings CF
Myers RF
Hanigan C
Escobar SS
Odorizzi RHP
Noteworthiness
- Tuesday was the third time in Rays history they scored in the ninth inning or later, to win a 1-0 game. They are 19-19 overall in 1-0 games.
- A lot has happened to/with Matt Moore this week, including the initial diagnosis of a UCL Injury, and the subsequent news that he’s seeking a second opinion. We’ve covered most of it! You can read our poignant, in depth discussion of all things Matt Moore here.