Nick Franklin follows through as he hits a two-run home run during the second inning. (Photo courtesy of Brian Blanco/Getty Images)
Nick Franklin follows through as he hits a two-run home run during the second inning. (Photo courtesy of Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

As this disappointing season winds to a close, it certainly is an odd feeling to be watching the Rays play irrelevant baseball. Hell, even in their last season of irrelevant baseball (2012), Tampa Bay was playing for something up until the very end. Still, if you subscribe to the idea that a fair number of those on the roster are making their case for 2015, these final games are pretty interesting. And while the infield of the future looked all but settled a few days back, Nick Franklin entered the picture and is making a pretty good case for himself. More on that in a minute.

With an emphasis on pitching to contact, Chris Archer struck out three, walked two and allowed only two hits through six plus innings — blanking the White Sox in the process. But Archer spiraled out of control in the seventh after he allowed a pair of free passes to Conor Gillaspie and Avisail Garcia to start the inning. Archer’s night ended after Dayan Viciedo advanced Gillaspie to third on a deeply bit fly ball out. With runners on the corners, Joel Peralta came on in relief and allowed Tampa Bay to escape the jam unscathed.

Peralta, Jeff Beliveau and Grant Balfour handled the eighth inning, with each pitcher facing only one batter to great effect — they were able to notch another zero on the board. The ninth was Jake McGee’s, and did he ever make things interesting.

McGee quickly offered a leadoff walk to Jose Abreu, then allowed him to move to second on defensive indifference. With a runner in scoring position and no outs, Marcus Semien plated Chicago’s only run of the night on an RBI single to center. After another free pass, this time to Avisail Garcia, McGee locked it down and retired the next three batters in a row.

Offensively, the Rays offense did just enough against Hector Noesi. Nick Franklin put Tampa Bay on the board on a second inning blast to right, after a James Loney hit a double to lead off the inning. While the towering homer seemed destined to be a fly ball out, the ball ended up making contact with one of the home run catwalks, and landing just fair. While the umpire crew reviewed the home run upon Robin Ventura’s request, the ruling was upheld.

Since joining the Rays, Franklin has gone 5-16 (.313 BA) with a homer, double, two runs, and three runs batted in. He’s also been involved in a pair of double plays. While four games is an incredibly small sample size, the Rays still have seven games left in the season. Franklin is hungry for an opportunity at the major league level, and he’s going to make the battle for the utility man spot on the bench very interesting. The onus is now on Sean Rodriguez to prove his value to the team if he’s going to find a spot on the 2015 roster.

The Rays plated their third run in the fifth after Yunel Escobar led off the inning with a single to left. Ryan Hanigan allowed with a walk, and Ben Zobrist plated the insurance run on an RBI single to right.

The New What Next

The 3-1 victory put the Rays at 75-80 on the season. They are out of mulligans at this point; the Rays can’t lose another game if they are going to finish the season with a plus .500 record. Nate Karns will make his second start with the Rays against John Danks. The Rays only faced Danks (9-11, 4.88 ERA), once this season in the above mentioned game. Tampa Bay was able to knock the RHP out of the game after 5-2/3 innings, after Danks yielded four runs on seven hits and four walks. Danks hasn’t gotten a win in his last eight starts, though three of his last four starts were hard luck losses of two runs or fewer. While he was predicted to be a potential strikeout surger by Fangraphs, his K% is down slightly over his previous year and his BB% has doubled, screaming command issues. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.

Rays 9/21/14 Starting Lineup

Zobrist CF
Guyer LF
Longoria 3B
Myers RF
Forsythe 2B
Escobar SS
Loney 1B
Rodriguez DH
Casali C
Nate Karns RHP

Noteworthiness

  • Marc Topkin writes, “The biggest question on the infield. First the Rays have to decide if they bring back Ben Zobrist, who has a reasonable $7.5 million option. (They will.) Then they have to decide if they would be better off trading him. (They likely won’t.) And then they have to decide whether to make him the everyday second baseman, or the everyday leftfielder, or the guy who plays every day at a variety of positions. If Zobrist — who turns 34 in May — isn’t at second, Nick Franklin probably has the best chance to be, maybe in a platoon with Logan Forsythe. Sean Rodriguez’s salary, which will exceed $2 million, might surpass his value as a part-timer,” lending credence to what I said above.

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