In May I wrote about just wanting to see the Tampa Bay Rays play consistent baseball, back when it seemed like a postseason berth was both improbable and impossible. Yet toward the beginning of June, the Rays started playing uber consistent, .700 ball, and the impossible almost seemed within reach — the odds of Tampa Bay making the postseason jumped from a sub 1% chance to a 15% chance over the course of a month and a half. But after dropping four of their last five, including last night’s disappointing 3-o loss to the Athletics, the Rays have dropped back down to a 3.9% chance of making the playoffs (per Fan Graphs).
Amidst their recent woes, the recently acquired Drew Smyly made his debut in a Rays jersey Tuesday night, squaring off against former Ray Jason Hammel.
Initial Thoughts on Drew Smyly
Smyly wasted no time between pitches and he quickly set the pace for the game — forcing batters to step out of the box in order to catch up. The control on his slider was somewhat erratic (a pitch in the dirt several times) but his two-seam fastball, breaking cutter, and curve ball were on point. Smyly used the two-seamer to strike out Sam Fuld and Jonny Gomes in the first frame — both arm side.
Smyly’s overall line and array of pitches: 5.1 IP/7 H/3 ER/2 BB/6 K 107 pitches (70 strikes) fastball (both four-seam and two-seam, 67% K%, 5 Whiffs), cutter (83% K%, 2 Whiffs), change up (83% K%, 2 Whiffs), slider (61% K%, 5 Whiffs) and a curveball (stats not listed at Brooks Baseball).
Of note, Curt Casali employed hand touches around his body to call the game, as opposed to the standard finger pointing method — a rare process to say the least. I cannot recall ever seeing a catcher employ this style of game calling, and neither could the broadcast team. BA hypothesized that perhaps Drew Smyly requested hand signs after the Athletics learned his traditional signs, referencing his last start against Oakland which turned into a four home run fiasco.
Game Recap
The Rays challenged Hammel in the second in the second inning. With two outs, Yunel Escobar sped from first to third with a dramatic slide on back-to-back singles by he and Cole Figueroa. Curt Casali followed with a walk, but Kevin Kiermaier hit a chopper to end the. Tampa Bay tried to put together an inning in the third, starting with a leadoff walk, a Ben Zobrist fielder’s choice, and a Matt Joyce single, but Longoria grounded into a double play (surprise, surprise) with two men on.
Meanwhile, Smyly was dealing in the second. He coaxed a one-hopper out of Derek Norris to Cole Figueroa at second, and followed with a strikeout of Nate Freiman. He was able to pickoff Josh Reddick after he reached on a single to center. Then in the third, Smyly induced a pair of fly-ball out to Alberto Callaspo and Eric Sogard, then caught Coco Crisp looking at a two-seam, arm side fastball.
The Rays grounded into another double play in the fourth inning, after James Loney reached on an 0-2 single. Escobar hit a grounder to Josh Donaldson who quickly wiped the lead runner away. Both Figueroa and Curt Casali threatened by hitting opposite field singles, but Kevin Kiermaier popped out to Sam Fuld in center to end the inning.
Fuld led off the bottom of the fourth with a hard luck numbber up the left side, then advanced to second on a slider in the dirt to Josh Donaldson — who Smyly ultimately walked, putting two on with no outs. Smyly got the next batter (Norris) to chase a nasty 84 MPH cutter that the bottom just fell out of. The A’s responded with a 1-2 double steal, putting both runners into scoring position. After squaring the count to rookie Nate Freiman, Joe Maddon called for an intentional walk in order for Smyly to face LHH Josh Reddick. The call was controversial, yet effective in the end — Reddick popped out on a slider below the zone.
Desmond Jennings led off the fifth with a walk, then advanced on an ugly breaking pitch in the dirt. However, Jennings was tagged out when he tried to advance on another Zobrist fielder’s choice. After Matt Joyce struck out, Longoria reached on a misplay of a fly ball lofted to shallow right field. Josh Reddick sped in from deep right field and dove, initially making a snow cone catch. But the ball rattled out of his mitt to put runners on the corners. Just when things were looking up, Loney fouled out in the stadium’s cavernous territory.
Make that eight men LOB in four innings.
Smyly began his half of the fifth with a single to Callaspo. He followed by fielding an excellent Sogard sacrifice bunt in the next at bat, firing the ball to Loney for the bang-bang out. However, the A’s got on the board after a Coco Crisp single to right. Kiermaier dramatically sailed a throw to home plate, but well past Casali — scoring the runner. And since Smyly wasn’t lined up behind Casali on the overthrow, the hustling Crisp was able to make it to third easily. Smyly broke out the low-80’s cutter to strike out Fuld for the second out. With the Atheltics still threatening, Smyly changed pace with a slider to Josh Donaldson, coaxing a sharply hit grounder right to Longoria, who fielded the ball and fired over to Loney to end the inning.
Hammel led off the next inning with a four pitch walk to Yunel Escobar. A pair of fly balls to the outfield then infield logged the first two outs, while Escobar was nearly doubled up on the latter. Donaldson (who fielded the infield fly) threw back to first, but his throw was well wide of the bag. Freiman saved the errant throw from skipping past, and Yunel was able to casually walk back to first. After posting a 5.2 IP/7 H/0 R/4 BB/2 K line, Hammel was replaced by O’Flaherty who got Kiermaier swinging.
Smyly returned in the sixth and coaxed a line drive out to center field from Jonny Gomes. But the Rays hurler gave up a seeing eye single to Norris in left, bringing Freiman to the plate. The tall first baseman crushed a triple past Zobrist in left, scoring the second run. Escobar fielded the cut off on Zobrist’s decent throw and seemed surprised that Norris would try for home. His embarrassing attempt to gun down the A’s catcher at the plate ended up nearly a third of the way down the right field line.
Smyly’s day was done after with 5-1/3 IP to his name. Despite a relatively deceiving line, Smyly seemed like the better starting pitcher. Jeff Beliveau came on in relief and gave up an RBI base hit to Reddick (charged to Smyly) before allowing two other base runners to reach.
Sogard walked on five pitches, turning the order back over with two on and two out. Beliveau threw a passed ball that Casali couldn’t corral into his mitt, which allowed the runners to advance. With an open base at first, Maddon called for another intentional walk to load the bases. Beliveau came back with a curveball away to Fuld, inducing an easy ground ball out of the former Ray.
You know the rest by now. The Athletics A+ bullpen retired the next nine Rays in order. The Athletics won the game 3-0, the fourteenth shut out on the season for Tampa Bay.
The New What Next
Jeremy Hellickson will attempt to help the Rays salvage the series this afternoon against Sonny Gray. Gray (12-4, 2.59 ERA) has been flat out great this year — his record and numbers (above) speak to that. Hell, he’s even been great in games where the A’s have lost. Let me put it this way all but two of his 22 starts have been sub-quality starts. It’s safe to assume Wednesday’s game will not be a walk in the park, especially when you consider that only four Rays have put up good numbers against Gray in his previous two starts against Tampa Bay. You can read about the pitching matchup in the series preview.
Rays 8/6/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist LF
Joyce DH
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Escobar SS
Figueroa 2B
Molina C
Kiermaier RF
Hellickson RHP
Noteworthiness
- The Rays broke a major league record, becoming the first team in MLB history to reach 1,000 strikeouts in only 113 games (previously set by the Detroit Tigers on their 114th game in 2013).
- Zobrist said it wasn’t a matter of not hustling in the fifth inning, but that he didn’t think had a chance to score. That, and third base coach Tom Foley wasn’t waving him home.
- They ended the night 0-5 wRISP, and 1-16 in the series so far.
- Following last night’s loss, the Rays are 3-13 in California since the 2012 four-game sweep of the Angels, in Anaheim.
- In first two games of this series with the A’s, Rays are 1-for-16 with RISP (as mentioned above) and have one hit after the fifth inning. They are 1-for-22 vs Athletics ‘pen. What’s more, they have made four errors in first two games of the series after making only one in the previous 11 games. The good news though, Tampa Bay has held Oakland to one run in eight at-bats with the bases loaded… but that one run was the game-winner Monday night, so maybe not.