Charlie Morton started strong on Opening Day, yet Toronto Buffalo took advantage of the right-hander in a pair of tough innings en route to a 6-4 Blue Jays’ victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Morton started the night strong, pounding the zone and throwing 22 of his first 28 pitches for strikes across three scoreless frames. Yet Toronto Buffalo was able to breakthrough in the fourth inning when things unraveled for the right-hander.
Cavan Biggio led things off with a first-pitch drag bunt single wide of first, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a base hit to the right of second on the very next pitch, putting a runner in scoring position with none out. Travis Shaw worked the count full before he walked on a borderline full-count curveball that appeared to be on the black to everyone by Joe West, the home plate umpire. With the bases loaded, Randall Grichuk lined an RBI single to left to put the Jays up by one. Rowdy Tellez and Teoscar Hernandez followed with back-to-back sacrifice flies to center and left, capping the rally.
The Rays were able to answer for a run in the bottom of the frame after Yoshi Tsutsugo was hit by a curveball to start the inning. Manuel Margot beat out a potential inning-ending double play on a ground ball to third which was important because Mike Brosseau drove him in on a double into the right-center gap a batter later — Tampa Bay’s first run of the abbreviated season.
However, Toronto Buffalo chased Morton in the top of the fifth inning and consequently the game out of reach. Danny Jansen and Scott Stapp lookalike, Bo Bichette, hit back-to-back base hits to right-field and right-center (respectively) to put two on and none out. Morton appeared to be laboring through his at-bat against Biggio and quickly fell behind 3-1. He attempted to get back into the count, yet the right-hander left a mistake fastball over the plate which Biggio pounced on — lining a homer into the right-field seats and putting the Blue Jays up by five.
You gotta credit the Blue Jays’ lineup. They put themselves in some pretty good counts. And once they got the counts to their advantage, they had good at-bats. And then obviously Biggio there with the dagger.
I thought Charlie looked pretty good coming out of the gate, but we just had two back-to-back innings kind of unfold on us and ultimately ended up being the ballgame.
— Kevin Cash
Following the ball game, Morton said that he didn’t feel particularly sharp with his pitches and mostly stuck to a fastball-curveball combo over the course of his 80 pitch outing. Per StatCast, he threw 28 fastballs (21.1% whiff rate) and curveballs (8.3% whiff rate), 19 sinkers (25% whiff rate), and five cutters.
While 54 of Morton’s 80 pitches were strikes (including 15 in play strikes, 68% strike rate), he was only able to throw 11-of-20 first-pitch strikes and coax just 10 whiffs.
I didn’t feel the stuff coming out of my hand was great. I didn’t feel like my fastball was very threatening. It could be a few things. I’ll get with (Kyle Snyder) and see what those pitches are actually doing.
— Charlie Morton
Faced with a five-run deficit, yet five innings left to play, Tampa bay answered in the bottom of the fifth, subsequently knocking Ryu out of the game. With none on and two out, Hunter Renfroe walked before Yoshi homered to left-center, his first big-league hit. Then Jose Martinez doubled to left, chasing Ryu, and Jordan Romano walked Margot, bringing pinch hitter Brandon Lowe to the plate. Yet the left-handed-hitting Lowe struck out, ending the threat.
Then down by three, the Rays put themselves into another fantastic scoring opportunity in the eighth inning against Rafael Dolis. Margot reached on a Bichette error, and Lowe walked, bringing Willy Adames to the plate. Adames lined a single to left on a payoff pitch, scoring Margot and cutting the lead to two. Yet, Kevin Kiermaier flew to center, and after Ji-Man Choi (pinch-hitting for Mike Zunino) walked to load the bases, Yandy Diaz just missed the barrel of his bat on a hanging slider, popping out to shallow right, before Renfroe went down looking to end the threat.
At the end of the day, Morton’s outing was just one part of the story; after all, aside from two poor innings, Tampa Bay’s pitching staff stymied Toronto. But, the offense just wasn’t able to get the big hit when it was needed it, going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11 men on base.
Turn the page.
The New What Next
The Rays look to even their score against Toronto Buffalo in the second game of the Opening Series this afternoon. Tampa Bay will turn to Ryan Yarbrough, who will pitch opposite of Matt Shoemaker.
Ryan Yarbrough threw 87 pitches during Monday’s intrasquad start, his final tuneup before Opening Weekend. The left-hander did run into some trouble, however, allowing five earned runs across 4-1/3 innings. At any rate, Yarbrough looked good in previous simulated game/scrimmage opportunities during Summer Camp and put together a solid 11-6 record, 4.13 ERA/3.55 FIP across 28 outings (14 starts) a season ago. He went 3-1 with a 2.18 ERA in five outings against the Blue Jays in 2019.
Matt Shoemaker was able to stay in shape while the season was suspended and after an abbreviated 2019 campaign. Given his work during Summer Camp, he shouldn’t have any pitch count limitations to begin the season. The right-hander posted a 1.57 ERA and 0.87 WHIP over 28-2/3 innings across five starts before suffering a torn ACL in April 2019 which forced him to miss the balance of the season. Shoemaker is 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA in four starts against the Rays, and 3-0 with a 2.04 ERA in three Tropicana Field starts. Last season, he relied primarily on a whiffy 85 mph splitter with arm side fade and a 91 mph sinker with some run, while also mixing in a whiffy 91 mph four-seam fastball and an 82 mph worm killer slider with 12-6 movement. Key Matchups: Kevin Kiermaier (10-10), Kevan Smith (5-5, 2B), Mike Zunino (19-24, 2B)
You can read about the series in our preview, while the starting lineup and Noteworthiness.
Rays 7/25/20 Starting Lineup
- Choi 1B
- B. Lowe LF
- Diaz 3B
- Tsutsugo DH
- Wendle 2B
- Margot RF
- Kiermaier CF
- Adames SS
- Perez C
Noteworthiness
— Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio), Tampa Bay drew eight walks in yesterday’s opener. That’s the first team an AL team has done so and lost in an opener since the Yankees fell in 2002 to Baltimore.
— Ryan Thompson (2 IP), Jalen Beeks (2 IP), and Jose Alvarado (1 IP) combined for five scoreless frames on Friday, walking two, allowing a pair of hits, and fanning seven. Beeks struck out five of the seven hitters he faced.