The Rays won just their second extra inning 1-0 victory in franchise history on Monday. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

Tampa Bay rallied with two outs in the 13th inning for the game’s only run, as the Rays defeated the Athletics 1-0 on Memorial Day. It was their first shutout of the season, just the second 1-0 extra-innings victory in franchise history, and the third straight win as the Rays got back to .500 for the third time this season.

Chris Archer got the start for Tampa Bay, and threw six innings of shutout baseball. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out seven. Even though his slider was inconsistent all day — at times it showed good tilt and finish, while at other times it stayed up in the zone and looked flat — his fastball was more on point, which made his rolling sliders effective as off speed pitches. Even so, his fastball command was erratic as well, as Archer threw just 18 of 35 heaters for strikes, and just 10 of 22 first pitch strikes over his six innings of work.

Home plate umpire Paul Nauert did no favors for Tampa Bay — pinching Archer (and those who followed) on more than a few on the black strikes, and calling them for balls, yet giving Trevor Cahill the benefit of the doubt on pitches in the same location. While the strikeszone map below is incomplete, it effectively shows a smattering of pitches from Rays hurlers that should have been called strikes, but weren’t. In spite of that, Archer pitched effectively and didn’t get into trouble until the fourth and sixth innings.

Evan the incomplete strike zone map shows that Tampa Bay got pinched on more than a few calls by home plate umpire, Paul Nauert, yesterday afternoon. (Credit: Brooks Baseball)

Marcus Semien led off the fourth by lashing a sharp single to left, and Jed Lowrie followed and worked the count full. With Semien running, Archer rolled a slider at the top of zone that Lowrie swung through for strike three. The pitch was handled perfectly by Jesus Sucre, who fired a laser down to second, where Joey Wendle slapped a quick tag on Semien, well ahead of the bag, to complete a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play.

The timing of the double play was fortuitous, as Matt Olson shot a 1-0 fastball into the right-center gap for a double. It would have plated the go ahead run had Semien reached second safely, but with the bases empty before the hit, Archer was able to instead make a good pitch and coax a tapper out of Chad Pinder to end the frame unscathed.

Then Jonathan Lucroy led off the sixth with an infield single before Archer fell behind Matt Joyce 3-0. He, however, battled back to a full count and got the former Ray to pop out to Matt Duffy. However, Archer walked Semien and Lowrie to load the bases, eliciting a mound visit by Kyle Snyder with starter Sergio Romo warming in the ‘pen — giving the right-hander a chance  to collect himself.

Archer threw a first pitch slider to Olson, who chopped into the shift for an odd looking, yet effective, 6-4-3 double play.

Oakland also had another great opportunity to win the game in the ninth, yet Matt Andriese entered with two on (Lowrie double off the wall, Olson walk against Jose Alvarado) and none out, and got the next three batters in order to send the game to extra innings. Sucre helped in the inning, pouncing on a sacrifice bunt that took a fortunate hop to get the force at third. The play was reviewed, but the call was confirmed.

Sucre also prevented a pair of wild pitches in that inning.

Andriese went on to pitch three perfect innings ahead of Ryne Stanek, who pitched a scoreless 12th.

Meanwhile, two outs into the top of the 13th, Johnny Field started the go ahead rally by grounding an infield hit into the hole at short. Semien fielded the play, but couldn’t come up with it. Sucre followed by driving a single into center, pushing Field up to second. Mallex Smith then got ahead of Chris Hatcher 2-0 before he lined a fastball over the head of Lowrie and into right-center for another single. The throw home from Stephen Piscotty was too late to beat the head-first slide of Field, who scored from second.

Stanek came back out in the bottom of the frame and got the first two outs sandwiched around a Semien walk. Cash called on Venters to face Olson, and after a seven pitch battle — including a 71 mph curveball at the top of the zone — Oakland’s first baseman went down on a foul tip strikeout to end the game, earning Venters his first save since August 22, 2011.

The New What Next

The Rays can get over .500 for the first time since Opening Day on Tuesday with Blake Snell (6-3, 2.78 ERA) starting opposite Daniel Gossett (0-2, 6.28 ERA).

Blake Snell blanked the Red Sox on three hits over six strong innings on Thursday, fanning eight and walking two. By shutting down a tough Boston lineup, the southpaw kept his strong start to the season rolling — collecting his sixth victory of the campaign and lowering his ERA to 2.78. Despite averaging a 3.79 ERA over his 218-1/3 career big-league innings coming into the season, Snell’s 1.02 WHIP and 3.21 K/BB over 58-2/3 innings this season certainly look like the real deal in the early goings of the 2018 campaign.

Daniel Gossett allowed just one unearned run on four hits and a walk with five punch-outs over seven innings in a hard luck loss Wednesday against the Mariners. That was the best start of the season for the 25 year-old right-hander, who previously allowed five and four runs (respectively) over 7-1/3 innings of his first two outings this season. So far he has relied primarily on his 94 mph four-seam fastball that is bereft of movement, and a hard 89 mph worm killer slider, while also mixing in a 93 mph sinker with little arm-side run and sink, a firm 86 mph changeup with slight cut action, and a whiffy 81 mph curveball. Gossett is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in one career start against the Rays (totaling seven innings). Key Matchup: CJ Cron (1-3)

You can read more about the series in our preview.

The New What Next: Rays vs Athletics — a series preview

Rays 5/29/18 Starting Lineup

Miller 1B
Cron DH
Wendle 2B
Ramos C
Duffy 3B
Smith CF
Robertson SS
Gomez RF
Field LF
Snell LHP

Leave a comment