On a cool and windy day on the north side of Chicago, the Tampa Bay Rays walked away from the friendly confines of Wrigley Field with their second consecutive win — a combined 4-0 shutout of the Chicago Cubs. Jake Odorizzi, Kirby Yates, and Jake McGee were dominant, limiting the Cubs to five hits, while posting a staggering 15 strikeouts. I, one of X-Rays Spex’s field documentarians, took in the sights and sound of the game from the left hand side of Wrigley. You can read a realtime account* of Saturday’s contest at out Tumblr page. Otherwise, what follows is a recap from Michael Nazarro, and a few game peripherals from yours truly.
Michael writes,
I am, and have been all season, confused about how I feel in regard to Jake Odorizzi. He’s shown he can clearly miss bats, spending July by compiling a 4-1 record with a 2.90 ERA while racking up 32 strikeouts in 31 innings. However good that strikeout rate might look, it may lose its luster once you realize that Odorizzi only pitched 31 innings in his five July starts. That’s an average of about six innings in each start which isn’t terrible, but you’d hope for a little more from a guy who came to the Rays for “Complete Game” James. But I’m straying off the path.
What I should be saying is, “What a day Odorizzi had!” And he did have a day. He pitched so well that the Rays’ offense only needed four runs on six hits to take the game and the series. And it seemed like the names that kept popping up on my phone whenever the Rays scored were always the same: Zobrist, Longoria, and Escobar. Zobrist and Longoria each scored twice, while Escobar went 2-for-4 with three runs batted in.
Although a 4-0 win isn’t the blowout one would expect against a 6-11 pitcher with a 5.66 ERA, Jackson has had a history of baffling the Rays (cough…cough, Arizona in 2010) since he left. I’ll go ahead and call this an all around good day.
Game Peripherals
- Jake Odorizzi rebounded nicely from his last outing (the five run, three inning disaster) to blank the Cubs and help the Rays to their third consecutive victory. Odorizzi lasted six innings and allowed just three hits, while striking out nine and walking none. Per Brooks Baseball, his split-change was on point. He threw it 28 times and recorded 20 strikes (six whiffs). His four-seam fastball, which he threw for a strike 80 percent of the time, was also excellent. Six of his nine punch-outs came via the four-seamer. Only one Cub was able to reach second base, and that came in the sixth inning with two outs.
- The Rays were able to jump out front to a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning thanks to a ground-rule double off the bat of Ben Zobrist. Evan Longoria followed with a double of his own, and Yunel Escobar drove the Rays third baseman home on an RBI base hit. Escobar who would come up big again in the sixth inning. Tampa Bay loaded the bases with one out against Edwin Jackson, and Yuni responded with a two RBI base hit through the middle, giving the Rays a four run advantage.
- Ivy vs Catwalks: Ivy wins… I guess. Maybe the Rays would benefit from putting some ivy on the catwalks? After all, that might just be enough to stop out-of-town, and national, baseball announcers (Editor’s note: I’m looking at you Kruk and Sutcliffe) from ragging on the Trop’s quirks. When Justin Ruggiano reached for the ball off Ben’s bat, it skipped off of the top his glove and landed in the ivy wall. Ruggiano spun around in perfect ballerina-like form and threw his hands in the air. Meanwhile, Zobrist hustled around the bases and came home “to score” what could be described as a Little League home run. He, however, was called back to second and awarded a ground rule double instead of a home run
- In the fifth inning, former Ray Justin Ruggiano attempted to get into scoring position by swiping second. Jose Molina fired a bullet to Escobar who laid down a well executed swipe tag. In spite of the fact that Ruggiano was clearly tagged out well in front of the bag, the Cubs skipper Rick Renteria asked for the play to be reviewed. In the end, the call was upheld. In my opinion, it seemed like a four-minute and 10 second attempt to throw Jake Odorizzi out of whack.
- Kirby Yates pitched the seventh and eighth innings, and put away all six batters her faced. Yates has been excellent thus far, sporting a 2.31 ERA and a 10.80 K/9 in 23-1/3 innings of work.
The New What Next
Alex Cobb will take the mound Sunday against Travis Wood. Wood (7-9, 5.08 ERA) has been pretty hittable over the span of his 23 starts this season, yielding 84 runs (75 earned) on 147 hits including 13 home runs. The fastball/cutter pitcher has had a hard time with stranding runners on the bags, and if the Rays can force mistakes, there could be some offensive fireworks on the part of the Rays in Sunday’s finale. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/10/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist RF
Longoria 3B
Rodriguez LF
Escobar SS
Loney 1B
Casali C
Cobb RHP
Forsythe 2B
Noteworthiness
- The Rays start Sunday within two games of .500
- The Rays on Saturday, for the second time in 18 days, threw a shutout 15+ strikeouts and no walks. That’s fourth time in MLB this year, but only 19th time in 100 years.
- With nine strikeouts Saturday, Jake Odorizzi now leads all major league rookie pitchers with 139 strikeouts.
- Per Marc Topkin, C Chris Gimenez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Rangers and can sign with any team. There is mutual interest between him and the Rays, a pairing that would provide the Rays a more experienced option than rookie Curt Casali to share time with Jose Molina. Ryan Hanigan remains idled by an oblique strain.”
*As realtime as you can get hours after the game.