The New York Yankees put the Tampa Bay Rays’ meager three-game winning streak to rest, behind a 3-2 victory Saturday afternoon. Drew Smyly and Shane Greene went toe-to-toe, and while Greene racked up 10 strikeouts, Smyly was able to hold the Yankees to only four hits. The Rays, once again, are one game under .500, though they can turn the tide this afternoon.
For Smyly, the difference makers came in the second inning. The Rays lefty walked Chase Headly, and Martin Prado followed with an 0-2 homer on a good elevated fastball above the zone that, apparently, was not elevated enough (see below).
Despite lacking swing and miss stuff — forcing eight whiffs on 106 total pitches (69 strikes) — Smyly was able to coax his fair share of weak ground ball (six) and fly ball (10) outs. It makes you wonder if pitching to contact was in the game plan all along, or did Smyly make an adjustment somewhere along the way when he wasn’t consistently ringing up batters as he had in his previous two starts? Whatever the case, his non-decision had more to do with a lack of run support than a poor showing on the mound.
Speaking of a lack of run support/production, the Rays found themselves in multiple scoring opportunities throughout the course of the game, yet they went 1-9 wRISP and stranded seven men on the bags. The big boppers in the lineup certainly didn’t help the cause — Ben Zobrist, Evan Longoria, and Matt Joyce combined to go 0-5 with runners in scoring position, while Longo struck out twice. Simply put, Greene exploited the fact that the Rays hitters couldn’t lay off pitches in the dirt. Of Greene’s 10 strikeouts, eight were of the swing-and-miss variety — the 25 year-old righty was able to force 18 whiffs overall against the Rays swing happy hitters. And while Greene found himself in RISP jams in four of his six innings, he was able to make the all important big pitch to come out almost unscathed, save for the two runs Tampa Bay tagged him with in the fifth and sixth innings.
I’m not even going to go into entertain the notion that the loss should somehow rest solely on the shoulders of Jake McGee. Sure, he struggled in the 32 pitch/three hit/one run ninth inning. Yet, there were too many moving parts (a throwing error, a grounder that just snuck out of the range of the dive of Logan Forsythe) in that inning alone, to pin the proprietary ownership of the loss on McGee. Instead, I offer you this hypothetical: Had the Rays pounced on a few of those scoring opportunities, I’d be recapping a 4-3 win, not a 3-2 loss.
The New What Next
Meatloaf said it best, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” While I’m no fan of The Loaf, I am a fan of the concept he espoused — winning two out of three. Tampa Bay has an excellent opportunity to walk away its third consecutive series win against Hiroki Kuroda this afternoon, in the rubber match of the series. The Rays have had a lot of success against Kuroda the last few years. They’ve tagged Kuroda for a 2-4 record and a 6.06 ERA since 2010. To be fair, the 39 year-old righty was able to hold Tampa Bay to just two runs in July, however, the Rays won both of Kuroda’s starts this season. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/17/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Joyce LF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Escobar SS
Belnome DH
Molina C
Kiermaier RF
Hellickson RHP
Noteworthiness
- Per Marc Topkin, the Rays talked to Chris Gimenez last week, but offered only a slot at Triple-A and no promise of a September call-up (unless there was an injury), so he stayed with the Rangers’ Triple-A team, though with an out clause.
- Countdown 5-4-3-2-1 — just five more days left until our next watch party. See y’all at Green Bench, and spread the word!
